I had a lovely dinner at the Basil Leaf last night, and ordered one of their specials for the evening — some kind of shirimp and scallop dish with coconut, served in a hollowed out coconut. It was rather hot, though delicious, and I had to really take it slow eating it for a while. When the waitress came to take our plates I commented on both the taste and the temperature, at which point she informed me that I should probably have dumped the coconut and its contents into the dish they were sitting in.

*sigh*

Apparently this had been pointed out to me earlier in the evening, but I missed it. Guess why I got a hearing check yesterday!

So much to do before 9:30 AM. Chat atcha later.

Here’s a handy little tutorial on how to convert your Windows machine to a Linux machine. You’ll probably only find it interesting if you have ever used a UNIX system.

I’m not responsible for what happens if you actually follow these instructions. Thanks to my favorite Microsoftie Robert Scoble for the link.

Thanks to Liz H. for this quote from her away message. I hadn’t seen it before:

“You will make all sorts of mistakes; but as long as you are generous and true and also fierce, you cannot hurt the world or even seriously distress her. – Winston Churchill

I don’t know that this is totally true, but I can hope. Maybe I’m not fierce enough — rawr.

I came across this article today via Digg somewhere, where a guy signs his credit card receipts with everything but his name.

This has been a concern of mine for some time — I write CHECK ID with a red sharpie next to my name on any card I have to sign. Rarely is the back looked at, and when it is, even more rarely do they actually check my ID. WTF? Apparently in Europe everyplace now uses PINs for credit cards. Bravo. I called my bank to get them to turn off the Visa capability of my card (i.e. no pin required). Apparently this is no longer possible. Bah, they just want the overcharge fees when my card is stolen and my account drained. Fuckers.

Anyway, so this is an interesting idea. I think I’m going to start signing my credit card receipts “Hannibal Lecter” in an homage to the Silence of the Lambs trilogy. This should be particularly amusing at restaurants. “A census taker tried to test me once — I ate his liver, with a side of fava beans, and a nice Chianti.”

Will anyone notice? Hell, if this guy can sign with a stick figure person, I’m guessing not.

“No activity is entirely without risk, but that does not mean that we should wrap ourselves in some protective cocoon. That is not living. That is premature death.” — H. Gunaratana Mahathera