Month: May 2009

Posted on
by

Jay Rosen is a journalism professor at NYU who has been watching and thinking about the Web and its impact on the press for years now. He blogs actively at PressThink (among other places), and is a champion of the growing citizen journalism movement. I’ve been following his blog for a while now, but I recently subscribed to his FriendFeed, and the interaction has become that much easier, and much more participatory.

Jay deeply groks the Web; reading his articles on the challenges of journalism, or listening to him speak, provides a look into the growth of collaborative journalism, the art of participatory newsgathering, and future of media itself. He also practices what he preaches; he uses Twitter and FriendFeed not only as webs of potential contacts for stories, but also as a place to develop an insight that may eventually become a blog post (he refers to the process as mindcasting).

One of his recent FriendFeed posts prompted this writeup: as his network on FriendFeed and Twitter continues to grow out from his original niche (news, media and Web geeks like myself), he thought it worthwhile to point out a Rosen primer of sorts. This short (10-minute) panel talk that he gave recently (Feb. 2009) really distills a lot of his Web philosophy down. It’s fantastic! It also reminds me of the themes of Clay Shirky’s “Here Comes Everybody”; it’s a worthwhile cribsheet for either. We’re in the middle of a sea change, and it’s rare to get such a quick but thorough overview. Recommended.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/eDeaAOqagww" width="425" height="344" allowfullscreen="true" fvars="fs=1" /]

Posted on
by

In one of those weird twists, I somehow got on the topic of talking about my hot food addiction earlier today on Facebook. I like VERY hot food; habaneros, capsaicin extract sauces, the works. Flavor plus heat is great, but OTOH, sometimes you’re just looking for the 100,000+ Scoville unit hit. Today turned out to be one of those days. *grin*

Dinner was casual tonight, so I ended up at (irk!) McDonald’s (but hey, it’s been awhile). I ordered McNuggets and fries and brought them home, along with honey mustard sauce. But as I sat down at the kitchen table I remembered the conversation from earlier, and realized I simply HAD to toss these down with some fire.

Luckily, I received some high-quality goods (Dave’s Insanity Sauces; several flavors) as a gift this past Christmas…I have a fresh supply. (Extract sauces are so hot that even I take some time to get through a full-sized bottle, and often it’s kind of stale before I’m finished.) I started with the Dave’s Total Insanity, which I hadn’t tasted before. It’s not top of the line, heat-wise, but it has a bit more flavor than the strongest sauces, which tend to taste like dirt (fiery hell-dirt, but dirt) to me.

Total Insanity has a nice hint of garlic to it, and I made quick work of about half a dozen McNuggets, with a generous dollop of sauce smeared on each. There’s no WEAK Dave’s sauce, so the heat quickly kicked in, and I sat back for a moment to enjoy it. The sweat, the eye-watering buzz, the tongue-searing heat. Ah.

But Total Insanity is definitely the light end of the Dave’s Gourmet line, so I switched to a bottle of regular ol’ Dave’s Insanity Sauce to finish off the nuggets. I then proceeded to dip my fries down the neck of the bottle, coating them in the powerful gunk. Yowza! THAT kicked it in…the brain stepped up another level as a rush of endorphins hit to try and save what was left of my mouth, lips, and tongue. I’m on fire!! LOL

I’d gotten out of the habit of eating hot sauces regularly; I handle our pet hairless rats daily, and they have both sensitive skin and a habit of licking the tips of your fingers, which wouldn’t be a good idea tonight. I need to remember that, and be a bit more careful…use a BBQ brush or something, I guess. But I’ve still got my tolerance, which is good, and I definitely enjoyed the meal. I finished things off with a crisp Granny Smith apple; the tart fruit was a wonderful change, as I let the remnants of the pepper ebb away.

Thanks to Barry for reminding me what a great idea McNuggets and habaneros can be!

Posted on
by

Been quiet around here, but among other things, we were on vacation last week in Florida (Mouse, et al.). Back now, and I have work in the pipe; both a vacation review, and some posts that have been in draft form for awhile. So more soon! I was also quite pleased with the results and established workflow from my last KAZ podcast episode, and more of that is definitely coming as well.