DEBRIS.COMgood for a laugh, or possibly an aneurysm

Here’s a tip for all you budding cabinetmakers. If you’re going to go to the trouble to custom-build cherry kitchen drawers, do not design them with an inset panel on the drawer face. These things are like magnets for crud. This pictured unit is especially bad because there’s an eighth-inch gap between the panel and the frame. You can’t imagine the amount of stuff that collects in there if, say, you accidentally spill a can of vegetable soup down the face of the drawer.

I admit it — I lost my grip on the can opener and flipped a can of soup off the counter. The entire contents ran down the fronts of four drawers. I spent 15 minutes digging out all the onions, leeks, tiny bits of bell pepper, tomato, etc. I dug out a lot of bits I didn’t recognize, too, implying that probably I wasn’t the first one to spill soup. I was just the first one to clean it up.

In June, I’ll be joining a group of 6 friends for a 25-mile roundtrip hike in Colorado. It’s a brutal plan: start at ~7000 feet at 2:00 AM and climb to the peak (at 14110 feet), quickly snap the obligatory summit picture and then turn around and hike back down. If we’re lucky we’ll finish by 6:00 PM. If we’re really lucky we won’t get caught above the treeline when the afternoon electrical storms come. (Read more about Barr Trail.)

Most of the guys in the group have already started preparing. One joined a gym, two others have increased their workout regimen. Several have changed their diets. Several have committed to taking local hikes regularly to stay fit.

So I was pleased when I was invited today to hike with some friends in Annadel State Park. It was a great opportunity to put feet to dirt, expand my lungs, refresh the callouses that keep my hiking boots comfortable, etc. But I stayed home instead and finished my taxes.

I’m not in complete denial — I have begun preparing for the trip:

• I’ve started to grow my hair out. I think it will be easier to tie together if it’s all one length.
• I have identified the portable air deodorizer I want to buy for the bathroom in our lodge.
• After much analysis, I have decided to use a butt-pack rather than a backpack to haul my clothes and water up the mountain.
• I’ve worked to increase my weekly beer intake. (Alcohol is an important part of a well-balanced diet.)

That should carry me through 12.5 miles of 11% grade, no?

I went shopping for a new DVD monitor recently. The LCDs and plasma screens are so nice, it’s hard to consider purchasing a tube. But the flat-panel prices are obscene…

• $4200 for a 29'' Samsung (LTM295W)
• $5000 for a 32'' Sony (KE-32TS2)
• $4300 for a 37'' Panasonic (PT-37PD4-P)

(I took these prices from goodguys.com. Better prices are probably available elsewhere, but unless they’re significantly lower, like 50% lower, I’m not interested.)

The salesman at Magnolia Hi-Fi assured me that LCD and plasma prices would not be coming down any time soon. I’ll admit that asking a commissioned salesman for a reason to postpone spending money was a pointless exercise, but I’ll record his comments here for future entertainment value. We’ll come back in a few months to see how he fared.

If you take a look back to March of 2002, Dell’s new 19-inch LCD display (the 1900FP) sold for about $1300. I picked one up on sale for $1050. Today, the same unit sells for $719. (And if you can live with a screen that’s nine-tenths of an inch smaller, you can buy the 1800FP for $539.) From $1300 to $719 represents a price drop of 45%.

The guy at Magnolia also said that the reject rate on the production line for big plasma screens is 90%. I haven’t attempted to verify this, but if it’s true that the factories have to junk nine of ten units produced, then we’ll absolutely see huge price reductions over the next 12 months as those assembly kinks are worked out.

The new Porcupine Tree album, In Absentia, features one of the strongest drum performances I’ve heard in months. Gavin Harrison’s playing is fresh, innovative, and beautifully recorded. Check out the groove from The Sound of Muzak:

        1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 +
7  HH   x   x   x   x   x   x   o
-  SD        o      o      o      o 
4  KD   o  o   o  o   o  o   o  o   

Patronize these links, man:

• Virtual Drummer loop
• MIDI
• MP3
• Sound of Muzak excerpt

Did you know that some canned tomatoes are processed with lye? Did you know that the famed italian plum tomatoes, San Marzanos, aren’t really available any more? Have you ever used canned tomatoes and then had to fish rock-hard lumps of canned-tomato flesh out of the pot? Did you know that those lumps result from a chemical additive that can be avoided by careful shopping?

Read all about canned tomatoes: how they’re picked, how they’re processed, and which taste the best: Tomatoes by the Tin