Week of 2007-03-24 17:00 to 2007-03-31 16:59

Well, almost.

Cooking with Phasers! hero and “Good Eats” host Alton Brown had the chance earlier this month to have a special video chat.

At 1730 UTC Monday the 12th, I entered a small studio in Atlanta and had a video chat (via NASA Mission Control in Houston) with International Space Station Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria who was about 175 nautical miles over my head at the time.

Besides holding the record for American EVAs (that’s space walks dontcha know) turns out Commander Lopez-Alegria, is quite a Good Eats fan not to mention an accomplished cook.

Doesn’t get much geekier, not to mention cooler, than that.

A commercial came on a few days ago that was very confusing.

You probably have heard of the I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter butteresque products. Apparently they’re jumping on the Mediterranean Diet bandwagon with a new line:

Olive oil is a key part of the Mediterranean Diet. Now you can enjoy I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter!® Mediterranean Blend, made with olive oil, for the same delicious butter taste you’ll feel great about eating. It’s an excellent source of Omega 3 ALA, is naturally cholesterol free, and contains 70% less saturated fat than butter.

They also have a “Light” version.

Now, I have no idea how particularly healthy these products are, but at what point do you think it’s a good idea to just, you know, use actual olive oil instead of fake butter?

On a related topic my new favorite way to have a baked potato is drizzling it with olive oil and red wine vinegar, then a dash or two of garlic and basil, salt and pepper. Some red pepper flakes for bite. Good Lord, that’s good stuff.

• Cubicle Farm, 1917 Office boy | Shorpy A boy “past 16 years” working for J.J. O’Brien and Sons on East 23 Street in New York City in January 1917. (tags: photography history office desk indexcards)
• Astronaut Trains for Marathon in Space Talk about your overachievers! ;) (tags: productivity exercise space)
• The Top 10 Nutrition Myths Busted (tags: health nutrition myths tag)
• Commuting 101: Choosing a bike at Commute by Bike (tags: cycling commuting)
• Computing Division | Shorpy “Primarily female employees are hard at work in the Computing Division of the Treasury Department. The women are figuring the bonus amounts veterans are entitled to. The photo was taken between 1909 and 1932.” (tags: photography history)

The original Star Wars was released on 1977-05-25 — the 30th anniversary is coming up this May.

I am declaring this Star Wars Day, which I think should be an annual event, with marathon viewings of the hexology, as well as John Williams soundtrack music and themed food and drink. Costumes and impressions are optional but encouraged.

I expect that in a century or less, different splinter sects will develop, based around which of the one hundred and sixty-five different versions of the films are to be watched, but for now — nerdy bliss!

I wouldn’t be surprised if this has already been declared by some other Star Wars geek, but I wanted to make my own declaration. ;D

That is all.

Oh, and check out 30 Years Ago This Month — January to March at starwars.com

Welcome to a new monthly series which celebrates 30 years of Star Wars by highlighting some of the relevant events that occurred in the months leading up to and immediately following Star Wars’ release in 1977.

• Shell stuff: job control and screen - Basically Tech (tags: shell linux unix mac screen geek cli)
• Illuminati Home Page It’s only a game. Really. Fnord. (tags: games fnord illuminati stevejackson entertainment slack)
• Minimizing Mail | Celsius1414 (tags: geek gtd mac productivity tiger mail)
• TIP Using screen - Gentoo Linux Wiki (tags: cli linux mac productivity screen shell unix howto tips tutorial program)
• Jules Verne Adventures Film Festival “Jules Verne Adventures proudly celebrates 15 years of Exploration, Conservation and Education. Let’s keep experiencing Extraordinary Voyages in the tradition of Jules Verne - where Science meets Fiction, where Documentaries meet Movies.” (tags: julesverne film movies festival literature adventure exploration conservation education voyages sf imagination)
• How to stop workday interruptions? - Lifehacker High-powered weaponry? Defense droids? (tags: work interruption gtd productivity)
• Hotmail offers - (37signals) “Want a MSN hotmail account? Be prepared to run this gauntlet…” (tags: msn hotmail offers scroll insanity)