It’s truly that good.

This week I was working in Fort Lauderdale. It’s been over 4 years since I was last in the area, and I’ve always wanted to visit Miami – at least once.

As I am wont to do, I checked-out OpenTable to see what interesting food places were available. One of them was 1401 Argentinean Bistro. It’s a fusion restaurant selling Argentinian food with Italian influences (the owner/chef’s dual heritages).

I went with a coworker and the customer contact with whom we were working. We all ordered the skirt steak, and LOVED it!

Our waiter was the chef, Fabio Pizelman: he enjoys tending tables 2-3 nights a week to get a better feel for what his customers like, don’t like, want, etc. We arrived late enough Tuesday that we were [effectively] the only customers. So I do realize that our service was perhaps slightly more attentive than it may be when the place is packed, but it was still a phenomenal place to eat.

Due to circumstances beyond our control, we ended up leaving work late, and had to move our reservation a couple times – but that worked to our advantage in that we had the place to ourselves.

The outdoor seating was excellent on the balmy fall evening, and we decided by the end of the rolls that we had to go back.

While waiting on our entrees to arrive, I rebooked us for Wednesday – when we planned to sample the non-steak portions of Chef Fabio’s menu.

Due to some more unforeseen (and unavoidable delays), we had to no-show Wednesday – but Thursday was our night.

Alas! Senor Pizelman must think we’re flakes! Last night we didn’t get to leave the office until it was almost today

And with my return home imminent, it also means that I won’t have a chance to eat at the Bistro again for some time – a true shame. Chef Fabio’s food, service, and personality couldn’t be better.

And so, with this, I must wait to return to 1401 Bistro until my next trip to south Florida.

I wish Mssr Pizelman all success until (and after) then.

It’s a “novel” in the same sense that One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest or Where the Heart Is are novels – it’s a story. The story unfolds in a rambling fashion as a the memoirs of Hans van den Broek.

It’s a story of one man’s life in New York, his wife, his son, and their ultimate return to London taking place over several years after the attacks on the World Trade Center. It’s a story of lost purpose, betrayal, uncaringness, and, ultimately, the refound and rekindled love Hans has for his wife Rachel.

Mostly told as a flashback from finding out that his friend (in loose airquotes) Chuck Ramkisson has been found dead, Hans’ story is one that I’m sure far too many people can relate to – not because of the intricacies of cricket, or the exoticity of various locales visited and mentioned, nor due to the propensity of the author to use words most of us haven’t thought about since we took the SATs. But it’s simply the story of a man who has lost his way, nearly lost his family, and found himself again through focusing on an artifact of his childhood self: cricket.

I don’t know if I recommend this book or not – it’s not a genre I typically read or like, but I didn’t not enjoy it.

We are both big fans of The Melting Pot. Tuesday she popped out to Kroger and bought a small package of potatoes, some various broths, and an absolutely AMAZING meat rub spice mix. Also she found some strawberries (on sale – how cool), and “melting chocolate” (no idea how this is different from “normal” chocolate, but whatever).

Unbeknownst to me while I was finishing work for the day, she was busy in the kitchen mixing-up a broth to boil the veggies in, and eventually cook some filet we had in the freezer (which she had also been thawing – again on the sly in the kitchen while I was working).

Her approximate recipe for the main course:

• 1 small chicken broth
• 3 small vegetable broths
• veggies per preference (ours were carrots, mushrooms, and potatoes)
• small can of pineapple chunks – including the juice
• spice-rubbed filet

Green goddess (Melting Pot’s ‘signature’ spread):

• 1/2 C sour cream
• >1/2 C cream cheese
• chopped chives

Dessert:

• ~1 C melting chocolate
• splash of Southern Comfort (flambeed to remove alcohol content, but leave flavor)
• fresh strawberries

Cooking method:

• heat broth to near-boiling (I think this is “simmering” – but I’m not positive on the technical term)
• add veggies
• after veggies are between ‘hot’ and ‘tender’, add rubbed filet chunks (15-25 minutes, depending on heat and preference)
• remove from heat 2-3 minutes later and serve

Dessert method:

• melt chocolate in microwave- and flame-safe container
• add splash of SoCo
• flambe
• dip strawberries

This was an awesome dinner – not to mention less expensive than Melting Pot by, oh, 70% – and I was very sad I got too full to finish all of it

Thanks, babe!

BTW – LivingSocial had a Melting Pot special this week (which we have taken advantage of). Not sure if it’s still available, but check it out – it’s half off

*UPDATE@201107071203* the LivingSocial special has been sold out.

Hosted by Mel Bartholomew, a retired civil engineer, SFG was a program whose aim was to enable gardening by the masses in confined spaces (though, naturally, if can be implemented in larger settings as well). Mr Bartholomew’s aim was to take his years of experience as an engineer, and turn gardening on its head: too much focus was (and still is, though less prominently now) given to gardening as miniaturized farming, rather than as a practice in its own right. It also promoted organic gardening and growing years before the current organic marketing wave.

The basic premise of SFG is to plant cooperatively, intensively, rotatively, and sequentially (see the wikipedia, SFG.com, and SFG.org sites for even more information).

• Cooperatively: plant different types of flowers and vegetables together to reduce the likelihood for disease transmission, to ward-off predators, and to give a dynamic look to the garden.
• Intensively: carrots only needs a few cubic inches of good soil in which to grow – plant them 4×4 in a 1′x1′ square.
• Rotatively: once a given crop has finished, reuse the plot, but for a different plant type to not overly wear-out the soil.
• Sequentially: if you want to go with a more homogeneous garden, plant in a cyclic fashion to spread the harvest over a period of time throughout the year

Soil preparation takes a bit of practice, but once you have a garden going, continually supplying compost should become easier (take all garden waste and add it to the pile). The only ingredient you should need to buy on a semi-frequent basis is peat moss, and that only once every 2-3 years per box. Vermiculite refresh is needed less often – closer to every 4-5 years per box.

The program and book had enough of a lasting impact on me that I used it as the basis for a paper in college – Eating Off the Grid (full PDF^*` and appendix).

A second book referenced in the television series, CA$H from Square Foot Gardening (of which I also own a copy), goes into further detail of expanding the SFG approach into a source for local users to enjoy the fruits (and vegetables!) of your labors, in exchange for compensation. In particular, Mel highlights supplying local restaurants and/or farmer’s markets with your produce.

If you are interested in growing even some of your own food, I strongly recommend Square Foot Gardening as the place to start.

• Quality of writing: 4/5
• Accessibility: 5/5
• Understandability: 4/5
• Ease of implementation: 4/5
• Overall: 4.5/5

^{^_{Prices accurate as of Jan 2006}
*_{Yes – I know about the typo at the end of page 3 (“there” vs “their”) and on page 5 (“them” vs “the”)}
`_{See also PYOP review for information on windbreaks}}

In “World War Z – An Oral History of the Zombie War”, he tackles the issue of reporting on what happened by interviews with those who survived. From first-hand accounts from a variety of sources – early spotters, military members, religious leaders – from around the world, Mr Brooks presents a thrilling, chilling, engaging narrative of “The Crisis”: both as it happened, and what we need to do to continue to avert any further repercussions.

I have yet to find another report as balanced and in-depth as Mr Brooks with regards to this horrific chapter in human (and zombie) history.

• Quality of writing: 5/5
• Entertainment value: 5/5
• Historicity: 5/5
• Viscerality: 5/5
• Overall: 5/5

The only other history I have read in the past 5 years I can recall reading so fast was Gideon’s Spies.

Gavin makes a compelling presentation, interpretation, application, and conclusion of a host of evidence that seems to indicate that the title is what really happened ~600 years ago, and that it was due to a freak storm and fire in The Forbidden City that the records of the great expedition were destroyed by the emperor’s counterparts in society, the mandarins.

Mr Menzies spent his career as a submariner in the British Navy – a fact which comes up several times during the book, and helps to explain many of the connections he was able to draw when reviewing the historical maps, journals, reports, etc.

1421 is a veritable cornucopia of names and places – European and Chinese explorers, exotic locales (many of which are referenced by the names the various countries used for them), foreign potentates, trade routes, etc. It might behoove one to keep notes when reading this book – or at the very least get used to flipping back and forth to keep track of everyone’s names

When I bought 1421, I also bought Mr Menzies’ second book, “1434 – The Year a Magnificent Chinese Fleet Sailed to Italy and Ignited the Renaissance”. I can’t wait to read that one to see where his research has led.

• Quality of writing: 5/5
• Quality of content: at least 4/5
• Entertainment value: 4/5
• Plausibility: 5/5
• Historicity: likely 5/5
• Overall: 4.5/5

There are a host of now-humorous segments of the text:

“The US government estimates that by 1980 1 percent of our country’s land will be covered with utility companies’ equipment” {viii}. The contiguous US takes up approximately 1.9 billion acres of land. Do utility companies use 19 million acres? That claim is completely preposterous.

“If all mineable fossil resources were made available to us, we would still have energy problems. In a few centuries these would also be exhausted” {ix}. Does the author (Carol Hupping Stoner) of the introduction really believe that in the next few centuries we won’t develop better technologies like we have been for the past thousands of years?

“The average six-room, older house probably costs about $400 to $500 per winter to heat” {282}. Based on current heating and cooling costs, how could anyone have afforded to heat their homes 35 years ago? $500 per winter is half what people I know in NY plan to spend every winter now – with a median income of about $60k; 20 years ago, the median was just above $30k (infoplease.com shows slightly different numbers). So 35 years ago folks were spending >5% of their annual income on heating for the winter? That doesn’t grok well.

Other similar claims are made throughout the book with no direct referential backing – merely stating something that the author of that segment wants you to believe. They may have been true. Or not – without references there is no way of knowing where the data came from in the first place. There is a bibliography, but it is only tagged for each segment – there are not direct footnotes/references in the text itself to the original sources.

From having reread this book recently, I think it’s safe to say that the best part of the book is section 3 – Wood Power {pp103-135}. While many improvements have been made in the intervening decades with wood stoves and fireplaces, the information in this chapter on those two heating techniques is still – overall – solid (one of the recommended designs for a fireplace has a tendency to put an unusual amount of smoke into the room if the fire is not kept roaring-hot, but that’s a discussion for another day). Starting on p127 and continuing for 9 pages to p135 is a good discussion on woodlot management, windbreaks, and calculating wood needs for heating purposes.

Personally, I’d alter the suggested woodlot and windbreak designs to include food-producing trees and shrubs in addition to “merely” windbreaking and fuel-producing varieties. If you have the land to grow it – the overriding presumption of most of this book is that you have land – why not make use of the decorative and functional aspects of, say, apple trees? They can provide some privacy, act as a windbreak, and also supply food: just about can’t beat that three-for-one deal!

• Quality of writing: 2.5/5
• Quality of content:  2/5
• Readability: 4/5
• Overall: 2.5/5

I received my now-signed copy of Applied Cryptography (2d ed) for my 16th birthday – about a year after it was published.

Of all the “odd” books I asked-for when I was younger, this single volume had to take the cake for being both the most expensive, and the least-likely-to-be-read of any.

Bruce Schneier is a world-renowned cryptographer, researcher, and generally Smart Guy™. He has written several other books (many of which I have read (Beyond Fear, Practical Cryptography, Secrets and Lies), and several I own). I also follow on an intermittent basis his blog: schneier.com.

A warning before I go any further – since this book has not been updated in 15+ years, many of the technologies outlined now look incredibly dated or quaint (a 100Mhz processor being “top of the line”, for example). Likewise, measuring computational feasibilities in MIPS-years seems bizarre to me… then again, I’ve never used a MIPS processor.

Back to the book. A lot of time and space is spent on the mathematics and theory behind crypto systems: which is quite cool… except when you don’t understand any of it (as I didn’t a dozen+ years ago [and still don't to some extent now]). Protocols for a variety of “interesting” activities are discussed: key exchange, digital cash, contract signing, digital signatures, etc.

The most interesting part of the book is the appendix containing C code for several of the algorithms in the book.

Schneier’s writing mixes the highly technical with the amusing (eg p157):

Another biological approach is to use genetically engineered cryptanalytic algae that are capable of performing brute-force attacks against cryptographic algorithms. These organisms would make it possible to construct a distributed machine with more processors because they could cover a larger area. The plaintext/ciphertext pair could be broadcast by satellite. If an organism found the result, it could induce the nearby cells to change color to communicate the solution back to the satellite.

Assume the typical algae cell is the size of a cube 10 microns on a side (this is probably a large estimate), then 10¹⁵ of them can fill a cubic meter. Pump them into the ocean and cover 200 square miles (518 square kilometers) of water to a meter deep (you figure out how to do it – I’m just the idea man).

In the intervening time, AES has been adopted as a national standard, replacing DES. We all rely on encryption in daily life on the web (https) when banking, making purchases, or even reading our facebook and twitter accounts. Cryptography has become ubiquitous and invisible to most of us. The product I work most heavily with relies on certificate-based https for all of its internal communication.

In my opinion, this book is still of immense value – though in a different way than it was in the mid 90s: now it’s to serve as a warning about relying on technology and not considering the source, rather than upon how to implement and promulgate that technology.

• Quality of writing: 4/5
• Quality of content:  5/5
• Readability: 3/5 (if you’re unfamiliar with the terminology)
• Historicity: 5/5
• Overall: 4/5

I was very pleasantly surprised to fine that R E Bartlett’s book, ((The Personifid Project}} was not like that. It’s even a great example of science fiction, in my opinion (wherein my definition of “science fiction” requires the “science” to be plausible inside the world the story creates).

Imagine a world centuries from now where the oceans have evaporated, Man lives in artificially-contained and -supported cities, transportation is automated, and Man has developed the technology to transfer a soul from its original body and place it into an artificial one. That is the world Ms Bartlett creates.

The cover asks an intriguing question, which indeed is why I bought a copy: “when souls reside in artificial bodies.. do they still have free will?”

A huge corporation, Sevig Empire, has created and markets personifids – artificial bodies wherein your soul can reside after discontinuation of your physical body so that humankind can finally escape the eventuality of death. The prime engineering point of the entire technology was a woman named Lavinia (“Lev”), and a man named Ryan. But after a failed transfer of Ryan’s wife, Lev gives-up on the whole enterprise, preferring to die than to be responsible for another failed transfer.

Jump forward 4 years. We meet Aphra who works at Sevig Empire. She has become attached to Ryan in the intervening time since his wife’s discontinuation, but is then unwittingly exposed to a nefarious plot by Sevig (the founder/owner of Sevig Empire) regarding the personifids. In her attempt to escape, she is found and helped by Lev and her husband Birn – Followers of the “Triune Soul” (the future world term for Christians).

Ms Bartlett does a great job of not being preachy about her characters’ faith – but also outlines the basic tenets of Christianity in a way that informs, but does not (or, at least should not) alienate.

In comparison to other science fiction stories I have read, The Personifid Project is similar to Minority Report, I, Robot (the Will Smith film version), Michael Crichton’s Next, and Surrogates – with a little Wall-E thrown-in for the environmental aspects.

• Quality of writing: 4/5
• Entertainment value: 5/5
• Plausibility: 4/5
• Consistency: 5/5
• Overall: 4.5/5

I can’t wait to read her second book, The Personifid Invasion.

Several years ago I borrowed a copy of his “Pensées” from a friend, and skimmed it. At the time, I was impressed more with the randomness of the collection than with anything specific he wrote.

A few days ago, I began re-reading the book from the free Kindle edition on my phone.

There are far too many awesome quotes to repost them all here, but I have been heavily highlighting my digital edition for future reference, using in conversation, etc.

Pensées looks like a weird cross between 17th century twittering and a diary – but it’s well-worth the $0.00 investment to have a copy.

• Writing style: 3/5 – not something you “read” so much as “process”
• Concision: 5/5
• Overall: 4.5/5