On Imminent Domain, Proper iPad Usage, and the Original Mai Tai Recipe

No more than one year ago the concept of thinking about a consolidated online communication strategy for me would be as you would imagine, unimaginable.

Over the past year I have shed my inhibitions of writing online and derision of the format and have fully embraced the blog¹. The unwitting realization I have come to realize in the past ten months is that there is a discernable difference between writing in a series of moleskine notebooks and what I blog about. With the transaction cost of posting on a blog being virtually zero it would be rational to expect that any and all musings would make it to the blog. Contrary to what occurs in my series of notebooks, bar napkins², and regular napkins I have developed a strong sense of self-editing in the blog.

It is my firm belief that an implicit social contract exists between the writer and the reader. It is the writer’s duty to provide the best available content and to publish all the posts that are fit to blog. For every post that appears on the blog exist a series of musings, undeveloped concepts, and long lost ideas As a result the way I am as a writer³ comes very much out of what I want as a reader.

I’ve decided to consolidate my communications in a series of outlets that will be unified by a soon to be determined online domain⁴.

My newly acquired iPad will often be the center-point of my digital communication series. Over the past two weeks I have set-up my iPad to be a unified media manager of music, videos, documents, and nearly any time of digital file you can think of.

I have conveniently linked my iPad to a QNap Raid6 server and to a cloud service allowing me over 10TB of available storage space with multiple drive failure protection with data-duplication to save space⁸. This virtualized setup connects all of my points of contact including my stereo. This very morning I finished the setup uploading a substantial library worth of books, subscriptions to magazines, all of my newspapers, and nearly every piece of media one could want. It was at that moment I packed a small bag complete with a moleskine notebook, my copy of Rimbaud’s Une Saison en Enfer⁹, and the Sunday times and walked no more than twenty-seven blocks to my typical bench at East-River Park where I unpacked and continued to sit for several hours¹⁰.

Footnotes:

¹www.capt-renault.blogspot.com

²My bar napkin musings are often quite informative, include diagrams, and often have a distinct gin aroma

³What really interest me about writing is this exchange between consciousness and this relationship to talk to each other when we otherwise wouldn’t.

⁴ Blog: www.capt-renault.blogspot.com

The blog will continue to contain long form post with a focus on economics and drink recipes

Twitter:

The goal of the twitter will be to document short ideas⁵, musings, jokes, and pictures. I will also use it to communicate with a select number of people I will follow

4Square:

Selectively document where I am and to best geo-locate with my close friends

Website⁶:

The website will provide the host to all the forms of communication and will also feature appendix information, diagrams, and details of any ongoing art projects

⁵Ideas and thoughts are really the greatest thing going

⁶My initial thought was to register www.jasonme.ad⁷

⁷Registering a webpage with an “ad” extension proves to be an issue as I am not an Andorran citizen and would have to register a limited liability corporation within Andorra. While this can all be done online and I enjoy the frivolity of having a holding company in Andorra I don’t believe I want to spend the requested $188 per year for that privilege against my ability to think of something equally clever.

⁸A large motivating factor was just knowing that I could do this

⁹I have yet to find another copy that has the English translation on the left page and the original French on the right page as is this copy that was misappropriate from The George Washington University library

¹⁰As we are beginning to feel the onset of spring I thought it would be appropriate to share a summer cocktail. Under the right setting I rather like summer cocktails. Mai Tai is a Tahitian word for “good” which appropriately describes the drink called the “Mai Tai.” The now-chain restaurant Trader Vic’s claims to have invented the Mai Tai, I am quite suspect of the claim “invented” but I do maintain that they popularized the drink in the United States. The below is the traditional Trader Vic’s recipe:

• 2 ounces of 17-year old J. Wray & Nephew Rum over shaved ice
• Juice from one very fresh lime
• 1/2 ounce Holland DeKuyper Orange Curacao
• 1/4 ounce Trader Vic's Rock Candy Syrup
• 1/2 ounce French Garier Orgeat Syrup
• Shake for no more than 10 seconds
• Pour into an old fashioned glass and garnish with a spring of mint

On New Year’s Resolutions, Thinking about blogging, and the Weather in Kent

By all accounts we are 10.4% into 2011¹, a point where over half of New Year’s resolutions have already been broken. I had three resolutions this year and by my account I have been successful.

Resolution #1: Curse less and more at the same time

I habitually curse. I easily surpass my cursing quota every quarter. The majority of my cursing is usually ironic and for the sake of comedy. Work presents a problem as it is the place I am compelled to curse the most, but at the same time a well timed fuck this noise doesn’t always play well in the office. Problem.

Sometime between the hours of 2am and 3am eastern standard time during the penultimate week of 2010 I found my answer:

Shazbot

As you of course know shazbot is the curse word used by Mork².

By utilizing shazbot my cursing has taken a logarithmic path. It has tapered to an average of 7 shazbots per hour per work day. I think I can mark this as success thus far. I am about a log base 1,9.




Resolution #2: Utilize schematics more

It makes much more sense than utilizing napkins, I have an abundance of t-squares, and I’ll get more done³. I could store the schematics in the warehouse.

Resolution #3: Find ways to use the phrase “a day late and a dollar short”

No more than 11 days ago I was leaving work when my colleague⁸ was carrying his umbrella the day after it rained and he had been drenched. I pounced on the opportunity but I did not verify if he was in fact a dollar short.



footnotes:


¹ at that point I instinctually typed fiscal year 2011 but corrected myself.

² Of Mork and Mindy fame

³ Although I consider myself to be hyper-productive, my overall production output is hindered by the fact that I am interested in everything all the time and feel the need to constantly begin new projects. In addition to this I am fascinated by design and the environment in which you create in. Often times when I begin conceptualizing⁴ an endeavor I spend an inordinate amount of time conceptualizing the environment I want to create in. What would be the best type of typewriter, where do I get one of those six foot candles, how many warm grey Copic markers is too many, perhaps this would be better done at the park in front of that fountain on that one bench that I like but not the other ones. What this adds up too is by the time I have decided that I am ready I may have already moved onto the next project⁷ leaving the original ideas to live only on the pages of an archived moleskine notebook that no doubt won’t be discovered because I never followed through on that time capsule project.

⁴ The other day I was sitting around drinking a blood and sand⁵ cocktail and was thinking about blogging. I did not blog. I simply thought about the idea of thinking about blogging. I really like blogging but I like thinking about it more. Often I conceptualize the post in my head or a sketch and feel like “I got it” and then there is not point to put it down. I know editing defeats some of the nature of blogging as I am internally editing myself but I think as the co-writer of this blog I have a duty to my reader(s) to provide all the content that is fit to blog and nothing more. My blog post to ideas about blog posts is 1 : 3, my blog posts to times I think about thinking about blog post is 1: 7.

⁵ Blood and Sand is a classic scotch based cocktail. It’s great because it’s suitable for breakfast⁶, a pre dinner drink, or after 2am. Very versatile. This recipe is more on the bitter side than the classic recipe by substituting punt et mes for ross vermouth and using less luxardo maraschino liquor or cherry brandy. I also am using a peated scotch that gives it a smokey flavor and aroma that plays well with the orange juice and cherry.

1 oz Laphroaig
Freshly squeeze juice of one large Valencia orange (approximately 1 oz)
.75 oz of Punt et Mes
.75 oz of Cherry brandy or luxardo maraschino liquor
Dash of orange bitters

Stir with ice in a glass cocktail shaker and strain once or twice through a chinoise or a tea strainer commensurate on your proclivity for orange juice pulp. Pour into a chilled coupe glass or serve with one large ice cube in a rocks glass.


⁶ It has orange juice!


⁷ I have this business idea for a work related fantasy camp. Unlike those rock and roll fantasy camps the job choices would be everyday jobs that we want to do for a week but passed on in our lives for financial and other reasons. One week as a mailman, cop, crooked cop, bakery owner, proprietor of a bed and breakfast, high school math teacher who teaches kids that math is fun. So like that. To be detailed in a post to be named later


⁸This particular work colleague grew up in Kent and now resides in London. It’s predictable but we enjoy discussing the weather. The BBC has tremendously good weather forecast. All of their meteorologist discuss the intricacies of barometric pressure with a sense of ease knowing the connoisseurship of the audience. I brought that up with my co-worker who informed me everyone in England loves talking about the weather and is so well versed in it partially because of weather forecasting being part of the National Curriculum. He described that during your studies a significant amount of time is devoted to forecasting the weather as this fun and informative assignment. Combined with the detail being provided it seems to stick. The BBC news provides me less relevant weather advice but I’m always well prepared for the rain.

On Architectural Oversight and Aperitifs

In New York City, and I imagine part of the eastern seaboard, it had been snowing continuously for what seems to be no less than fifty-two hours. From what I saw out of window and from what the sushi delivery man relayed to me about the conditions, it is quite bad.

Despite Hector’s diatribe on city’s handling of the snow and the apparent conditions I decided to trek to the office today. After exiting the subway and walking down 53rd street past Park I was thankful to only almost fall no more than four times. Chelsea boots, although quite conducive to my normal assassin down the avenue, are not ideal for snowy pavement. Not really paying attention to anything as I was walking I approached my office building and stepped over a makeshift barrier of yellow caution tape as if that was normal and incredibly appropriate. I then looked around and I was surrounded by this tape and started to think why.

Conventional circumstances would probably cause someone to exit the area and examine the situation but I thought of it as prudent to observe from the inside out, not quite gonzo journalism but I think pretty close. It was then a large clump of snow came hurdling down and struck within the taped in area and exploded like an apache missile sending snow shrapnel in my direction.

I looked up and it was apparent what was happening. The architect clearly did not plan for the snow. Foolish and irresponsible, really. Everything is all in the details.

Let me explain.

My office building on Madison Avenue has a generous curve leading up to a 14th floor deck. From the 14th floor on the building straightens out and is perpendicular with the road. As the snow falls off the 14th floor deck it then hurdles down the ramp that is the curvature of the building and shuttles out into the splash zone.
I spent to long standing acting as a target for the snow. They don’t deserve that chance.

Anyway after finally arriving today it was apparent that I am the only person in the office. I turned on the lights, hung up my coat, and made myself a coffee. Sitting in my office sorting through emails, responding where appropriate, and turning on a copy of Rain Dogs by Tom Waits.

After a light lunch I turned to my bar and contemplated what I would make to drink. My home bar is meticulous arranged and plentiful. A cornucopia of vermouths, bitters, gins, scotch, rums, absinthes, velvet falernum, and most anything you could want. For late nights my bar in the office is appropriately stocked with miniature bottle versions of what I have at home.

Campari is an Italian vermouth with a deep, ruby red color and an appropriate amount of bitterness. The herbs in Campari and many types of vermouth are perfect for the aperitif. The aperitif is the first drink of the evening. It is how you should start not only a meal, but the night.

The aperitif is elegant. The aperitif is infinitely contemporary in its classicalness. The pre-dinner drink stimulates the appetite and conversations, what could be better. There is an implicit grace and civility in drinking with diligence and purpose. A traditional aperitif such as the Negroni is perfect. One drink is more than enough as you then venture on for a meal and have your pre dinner martini, followed by wine, followed by a glass of champagne with dessert, and a digestif.

The Negroni
• 2oz Plymouth Gin
• Slightly less than 2oz of Campari
• Slightly less than 2oz of Italian Vermouth (I enjoy Punt e Mes¹ or a Rosso)

In a cocktail shaker pour all of the ingredients with a few ice cubes and stir gently. This melts a small part of the ice without diluting the drink. In a rocks glass chisel one large ice cube. Traditionally the Negroni is served with an orange but I prefer a lemon twist. Twist the lemon over the ice to release the natural oils and run along the rim of the glass. Pour the stirred ingredients over and serve. The large ice cube is perfect for the purpose of the aperitif as it does not dilute the drink but over the course of conversation where a drink may be neglected it will appropriately soften the drink.


Oh and here is some more of my novel/screenplay

I was not looking forward to going to India but I was surprised when I got there. Just the idea of how many shots you need and the malaria pills really upset me.

-I didn’t take any shots

You didn’t? And then you have to take Malaria pills too.

-Oh, I didn’t take mine

Well I didn’t take mine either but I at least had them with me. Michael took his the entire time and they gave him horrible nightmares.

- To be fair we did buy the pills on the street and the gentleman did inform us that the cheaper pills would give us nightmares.

And then at first you think that monkeys are so incredible and you see them up close, and then you start feeling competitive with the monkeys and you realize they don’t really have your best interest at heart.



¹ Punt e Mes translates to "Point and a half," being about a point of sweetness and a half a point of bitterness. Halfway between Campari and Sweet Vermouth it is preferred for Negroni's adding a plesant savory bitterness

On Exponential Art, the number 59, Vermillion,

One month ago to the day four days from now I started an artistic endeavor having stationary markers soak through a stack of paper. I stood a set of Copic markers inside drinking glasses and waited. The neatly arranged set lived under a travertine coffee table in the auxiliary living room of my apartment. No more than 6 times did I accidentally disturb the glasses while I was sitting at the table drinking a bottle of wine.

Last night I revealed the sheets.

59.

The ink soaked through 59, 80gsm sheets of paper in one month. I was enjoying a bottle of Bordeaux last night and revealing each sheet one at a time. It told a story that I did not expect. As you moved the pages there would be a pint where one color would just disappear. Other colors expanded out, seemingly annexing other space and absorbing weaker colors. From page 12 to page 13 a half inch band of ice blue disappeared out of existence. I don’t know where it.

Vermillion.

Vermillion soaked through 59 sheets. I don’t know what gives Vermillion such persistence. It was quite the unexpected character trait. I expected Special Black 100 or Royal Blue 29 to penetrate the most. Or perhaps an intense purple. Sheet 59 had a pin dot of color in the upper left quadrant of the paper. On Sheet 1, vermillion did not soak and expand to the entire glass, the pigment focused into a dollop the size of a quarter.

Tomorrow I am going to take pictures and document all of the pieces with a proper camera. I’m also going to setup some triptychs and collections for those who are interested. Potential collections to include Prime Numbers, Even Numbers, my favorite numbers, your favorite numbers.

Bored-eaux, Scarf events

I love Bordeaux. I would even venture to say that I subsist on Bordeaux¹. However, the ever increasing prices are deeply troubling me. The finite number of barrels combined with the ever peaking demand is not working in my favor. I have thought about purchasing Bordeaux futures lately. By all accounts it could very well be a good investment and I could preemptively purchase the Bordeaux I no doubt want to consume. Conceivably I could even by enough Bordeaux to satisfy my personal demand and sell the remainder.

The pricing of Bordeaux all begins during the en primeur season of France, occurring annually in early April. The en primeur season is quite the event² for oenophiles. Wine merchants and renowned experts taste young Bordeaux that have yet to be bottled, and in many cases have just finished fermenting⁵. The marks and criticism bestowed by Robert Parker and the like of the wine community regarding a wine that will undoubtedly change complexion and fortitude during the remaining time in the barrel of course has sweeping changes in the financial markets.

The volume of Bordeaux being exported to China has increased nearly 400% over the last decade with the prices following suit. Last year, China passed the U.S. to become Bordeaux's largest non-European export market. The demand for red wine in China, Bordeaux in particular, has transcended the perfunctory bottle with dinner and is an irrefutable symbol of status.



So, thanks China.

Really, thank you for this demand-pull inflation. Collateralized Bordeaux Obligations (CBO) are going through the proverbial chateaux roof and a metaphorical and literal bubble seems to be developing. While many wines are increasing in value nearly 40% have decreased in value from their en primeur pricing. While the speculation is not only with the quality of that year’s harvest, the speculation is also on the quality of the harvest for the next few years. New superior vintages of the substitute good could appear and dramatically drive down the prices. Besides Bordeaux as wines from other regions develop and sell at a lower price the value over the replacement option decreases and pushes down the price of Bordeaux to a rational equilibrium.

And now here are some lines from my upcoming novel:

Have you seen Steven lately?

--Not recently, how is his export business?

I can’t believe how ostentatious he is. He always unbuttons the last button on the cuff of his suit jacket. I can’t stand it.

--I don’t care for that one bit.

It’s quite troubling really.



¹ I subsist on Bordeaux.
² When Tom Baker, the fourth incarnation of Dr. Who³, was cast costume designer “James Acheson picked up a load of wool and asked a knitter called Begonia Pope to knit a scarf for Tom. She inadvertently used all the wool Acheson had given her, resulting in a scarf that was some twenty feet long.” While enjoying the internet I came upon a website⁴ that details the history of Baker’s signature scarf as well as detailed instructions on how to create your own. The website lists the notable scarf events to knit the scarf. I desperately hope scarf event is the proper term for a set of scarf instructions. I do not have the faculty to create such scarf.
³ The producer who had the idea that the Doctor suddenly had to change forms just every so often, or when there was probably a contract dispute, was brilliant. I think we can all agree that David Tennant was an awesome Doctor.
⁴ http://www.doctorwhoscarf.com/index.php
⁵ I made a barrel of wine with two of my friends one summer. We did it in my basement, which ultimately led to our downfall as we did not account for the effect the decreased temperature has on the time it takes proper fermentation to occur. We also kept dropping things into the barrel and had to fish them out with our hands.

Chaucer

Today, as you are undoubtedly aware, is the 610th anniversary of Geoffrey Chaucer's death. Let us take this time to commemorate the fact that you probably Cliffs Notes-ed "The Canterbury Tales" in high school.

Chaucer is best remembered as the drunk, poor, slovenly character played by Paul Bettany in 2001's A Knight's Tale. In reality, however, he was a bureaucratic, well-kempt drunk who was given a gallon of wine per day by King Edward III for doing something apparently awesome in 1374^1,2

So consider that in the United Kingdom, "Where's Waldo" is known as "Where's Wally" and as it turns out, Bert (of Sesame Street fame) finally came out on Twitter³.


Footnotes:
¹http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/index.php?date=2003/10/25
²Lost in Translation: 1 Imperial Gallon = 1.2 US Gallons
³http://gawker.com/5672328/did-bert-from-sesame-street-come-out-as-gay-on-twitter

Help Me Wolf Blitzer, You're My Only Hope...

Were you watching CNN last night? Well, you see, there was this whole election thing, and I think they covered it. Regardless!

What's one way to get a roomful of drunk Obama supporters instantly quiet? A hologram.I would just like to know who's idea it was to try this, and more importantly who green-lighted it?

Astrology is not Astronomy / Great Business Plans

I was perusing NME.com today and came across an article (http://www.nme.com/news/various-artists/39944) with the headline "NASA commissions rap about Astrobiology." Jonathan Chase, the English born rapper, was selected for this momentous opportunity to accomplish NASA's goal of making "astrobiology easy to understand."

Jonathan Chase had this to say: "Being commissioned by NASA to produce the 'Astrology Rap' was a great compliment."

1) Astrology is not Astronomy. You are now confusing people, making it hard to understand

2) Astrobiology is hard to understand!! Yes, because it is astrobiology.

Dear NASA,

I hope you come to terms that Astrobiology just might be hard for some people to understand. It's ok to be who you are and you should be comfortable with that.

p.s thanks for paying for this video; I particularly liked the dancing green alien and the clip art

Newsflash: Chinese Gymnasts not 16

It would appear that the International Olympic Committee has finally started paying attention to what everyone is saying about the Chinese Women's Gymnastics team at this year's Olympic Games. They've ordered an investigation into the ages of the girls, some of whom might be as young as 14.

Nobody's really sure why the I.O.C. has suddenly begun investigating now, after the gymnastics competition is over. Perhaps it was Nastia Liukin's dad, who was mad that she didn't win gold medals. Or maybe an Olympic official was listening to Bela Karolyi when he semi-coherently stated his opnion on NBC that the Chinese team was entirely too young. You can find the video here. Please watch it, it's hilarious.

Oh? But the Chinese government provided passports to prove that the girls were of age, you say? Isn't this the same government who put some pretty girl out to lip-sync the national anthem, because the singer was too ugly? I think they could whip up a passport or two in their spare time.

But honestly, who cares? Even if the I.O.C. finds wrong-doing--which they probably will, and then subsequently not publicize--nothing will happen. We're going to continue begging China to invest in the dollar and they're going to continue doing whatever the hell they want. Because there's really no point into launching an investigation that will cost time, and money, and will end with no net change.

Source: The New York Times