Kristine’s Neighborhood

1. While walking down the street a man (a not so cute; sort of gave me the creeps looking man) said to me... in a mix of spanish and english "hey lady, do you want company?"

AND

2. I've heard the sad news that Jessica Simpson and Tony Romo have split. Say it isn't so! I'm kidding, who gives two shits?

I wish I had more to report to you Vox, but that's all I've got.

Zune vs. iPod
Disneyninja compares her new Zune to her old iPods. Find out which she prefers.

The Search for the Perfect Phone Harith is on the hunt for a smart phone. Can you help him decide which one he should buy?

Doodle for Google
SinCityBlonde reminds you to vote in Google's competition that asked students to reinvent the Google logo.

Suggestions? If you have suggestions for posts, photos, audio, video or Voxers to spotlight on the Technology page, send me a message.

What do you daydream about? Is it something far-fetched, or something that might actually happen?
Submitted by lost_in_eternity2207.

My daydream is always to move to Mexico, live on the beach and make jewelry.  Problem is I don't know how to "make" anything so I am looking for suggestions on a job that could replace my jewelry making business.  Suggestions are welcome.   That might make my daydream more likely!

It's been officially confirmed -- Moonlight has been canceled.

Let the hysterics begin.

Look, I know what one likes or doesn't like is purely subjective, but it makes me snicker when I read some of the comments on Kristin's announcement saying how Moonlight is the best-written show they've ever seen, better than Angel, etc. Um...yeah, not so much.

I watched the show and enjoyed it for the most part, but I'm not particularly heartbroken about its cancellation.

I will, however, miss seeing Alex O'Loughlin on a weekly basis.

To my surprise, yesterday I came home to find a package from my online friend/pen pal Crap Artist who's over in Berlin, Germany. We last sent each other packages in the fall, so I suppose this is the new round of springtime exchanges. Mr. Artist contained his goodies in a lovely envelope with a map printed on the inside and lined with beautiful German postage stamps:

everything awesome

• [Fist Polaroid] Piotr Uklanski - Untitled (Fist), 2008 from 5th berlin biennial for contemporary art
• [Supermarket Polaroid] Urrr, a supermarket aisle.
• [Stickers] Korean stickers a friend gave me.
• [Muscle Men] Got these in NYC a couple of years ago.
• [Green Sticker] From a conference on Micronations in Berlin.
• [Caderno] Caderno from Portugal (but bought in Berlin, http://www.serrote.com/)
• [Thank You Card] Thank You card for the awesome package I got from .tiff a while ago.
  Bought in the Regional Assembly of Text, Vancouver
• [Paper Bag] A nice paper bag from a German pharmacy.
• [Super Illustration in 3-D] Stereoscopig viewer, made by my brother-in-law.

This is a dish that I love, love, love. It's very traditional Filipino food and since it is, it's one of those dishes that has a lot of variation. It's basically a dish that has an equal amount of meat and vegetables in a "bath" of sour broth. Lots and lots of sour broth. That's the best part!

I was craving it the other day and managed to find a recipe that doesn't have tamarind (sampaloc in Filipino) in it. I wasn't sure I could find it at the local grocery store. I substituted lemon juice and distilled vinegar instead and ended up with a perfectly acceptable, American-grocery friendly version that my hubby really loved. This is how I made it:

2 lbs. pork stew meat (they were ribs I think)
6 cups of water, more if you like it soupier, broth if you like it richer
1 large japanese eggplant, cut in chunks
1 daikon radish, cut in chunks
1 bok choy or similar green veggie
1 medium onion, cut into strips
Half a bunch of string beans, also called long beans (not green beans) cut into 3 inch lengths
juice of 2 lemons
1/4 c. distilled white vinegar or coconut vinegar if you can get it
salt

Boil the pork in the water until the meat is tender. Add the daikon and onions which, next to the egg plant, is the best veggie in this stew. Cook for about 10 minutes. Add the beans* and eggplant. Cook for about 5 minutes then add the bok choy. Cook until the bok choy turns bright green. The daikon should be easy to pierce with a knife and will have soaked up a lot of the sour taste of the broth. YUM. Serve over hot rice. Make the rice swim in the broth!

Traditionally, this dish has patis (or called nam pla in other south Asian countries) which is a fermented fish sauce. It imparts a strong pungent taste. Since we can't have that on our diet (Feingold.org), I eliminated it. All I wanted was the sour and I got just as much as I wanted :) You can also use other veggies with this, of course, even okra (I like okra, but I am an odd one out I think). My grandma made it very simply and that's how I like this humble dish.

* I have no idea how long it takes to cook the beans. I couldn't find any at the store but my grandma always made it with string beans for me. I was sad that I didn't have any this time around but that's ok.

There is a new kiosk right by my office that serves Blue Bottle!  Best! Day! Ever!

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A while ago I posted an essay Sage wrote about Pluto.  Apparently Sage is still very concerned about poor Pluto.  The school year is wrapping up, so all the work that they've done throughout the year is coming home a little bit every day.  Today I got an essay about me, with a very interesting picture.

Story

"I love mommy.  Mommy brings me everywhere.  She brought me to her wedding.  I love her because she loves me.  She makes really good stuff.  As you can see, I love mommy."

Rocket ship

Weak!

Awwwww

The front page of the Drudge website has a picture of a half buried kid and the stories describe entire schools that have fallen apart. Just can't even imagine the pain happening over there right now. Sad stuff.