thanks

last night i had the privilege of getting to see leh wi tok, an incredible movie made in part by jonathan beller and kate kelley, two awesome photographers (and even more awesome people). it was amazing. i'm not gonna say much about the movie because you really need to see it, but after watching it and getting a little time to think about it, i couldn't help but think about all of the junk i have and how i don't really need it. there's just so much superfluous, unnecessary, inconsequential garbage that you deal with every day that suddenly it takes over your life, and it's pretty easy to let it define you. a few dollars of radio parts can ultimately save thousands of people but sometimes i get pissed when the dunkin donuts person puts too much milk in my coffee. dumb dumb dumb.

when i got home, i found my apartment had been broken into, and some of those superfluous, unnecessary, inconsequential things were taken, and others were broken or damaged. after the initial shock of feeling like my "safe place" was no longer safe, i surveyed everything, the police got involved, statements were given, things were fingerprinted, etc. and i went through pretty much everything that happens in the boring first two minutes of an episode of CSI. throughout this whole process, i was getting text messages, facebook messages, phone calls and emails from friends and family, asking if i needed anything, how i was doing. my first few responses were kind of teenagey and super annoying, with a bit of "i can't believe this is happening to me" and a little "i have no idea what i'm going to do" mixed in. gross. but as the morning progressed i realized that if i have all of these people i love and care for so much, why am i being such a whiney shitbag over some stolen electronics and some broken stuff? i still have what's important to me, and the things that were taken didn't define me as a person, so how would my life be different tomorrow than it was yesterday? you know what.... it may even be better.

a little after midnight this morning i started the day off on an unexpected, admittedly terrible note that i thought would define my days and weeks to come for a sustained period of time. what happened, because of the great people who i value more than any thing, is that this has been one of the best days of my life. it's amazing how having something as random (and ultimately inconsequential) as your apartment being broken into can totally shake you back into common sense. it'll be tough for a while but the best part of challenges is the opportunity you get to rise to the occasion and exceed expectations. i'm definitely looking forward to this one and i know it'll bring a whole lot more lessons and challenges with it. this is what makes life interesting and worth living, and if there's one thing i'm good at, it's facing a challenge head on and kicking it's ass.

anyway... the whole reason i'm writing this is because it's easy to get caught up in "things", but at the end of the day, these things that we sometimes associate with so strongly that they "become us" are just, things. in the arc of life a computer will not be the key to my success, and the lack of one will not be the cause of my failure unless i allow that to happen. so, fuck the shit you took from my apartment. i'm better off without it. the computers you took? tools that help me be great, but not the reason for my greatness (also, so much less ugly tangly wire clutter clusterfucks. i hate all of those wires, ugh). all of the work you took that i can't get back? an invitation to do it even better next time, and work harder than ever before. and the broken things from people and times that were important to me? a reason to grab life by the balls and live it up to make new memories.

it'll be a minute before i get to thank each of you personally for the kind messages of support throughout this weird day, but i did want to say this to all of you- having a few less "things" has freed up a whole lot of room in my head and my heart to realize, even in the few hours that have passed since all of this happened, that you're what matters to me, and that no one can ever take that away. i'm pretty okay with letting go of all of that other stuff, but you're all worth holding on to, and i'm sending you a big-ass bear hug tonight from the person just getting to know you makes me want to be, for being the good, kind, and generous people you are.

in a single word... thanks

your friend, zach

lego heart

heart made of lego.

Cranberry Banana Bread

I've recently come to realize that in the same way that photography is the perfect mix of science, math and art, so is baking. It's so cool to mix things together and have them turn into something new. In a weird way I feel like a mad scientist in a lab. Sometimes things work out, sometimes don't, but it's always fun and I always learn a whole bunch.

It's also a really easy way to do something nice for someone. For a few bucks you can make a whole bunch of people happy. Nowadays I think it's easy to get lost in the gadgets and wrapping paper and all of that kinda stuff. Coordinating the whole holiday thing has never been easy for me either, and timing it so everyone's presents arrive when they need to is ridiculously confusing (my brain just doesn't work i this way). Anyway, making cookies or a cake for someone isn't just giving them something delicious, it's giving them the gift of your time and that's a pretty special thing.

Here's an easy banana bread recipe that's really good. It's perfect for "simple" [a.k.a. cranially challenged] people like me who don't have any fancy equipment or lots of time to sift things or be picky. It also has fresh cranberries so it's great for all my New England friends who can get cranberries inexpensively now. You can basically just dump everything in a bowl, mix it up, stick it in an oven and an hour later have something super good to give to someone or enjoy yourself.

Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving. You are all awesome.

(image from edibleportland.com)

(adapted from simply recipes)

Cranberry Banana Bread

3 or 4 super-ripe bananas, mashed up
1/3 cup butter (melted [microwave for 25 or 30 seconds])
3/4 cup plus a few tablepoons brown sugar
1 egg
2.5 tsp vanilla (homemade if you have it [if not I can give you some!!!!])
1 tbsp good, solid bourbon (you can really use any kind of liquor you want though, just make sure it's not cheap tasting. it'll make the whole thing taste weird.)
1 tsp baking soda
a little salt (whatever you can lift between your pointer and your thumb)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
a little bit of ground cloves
a little bit of ground allspice

1.5 cups of flour
1 cup fresh cranberries (make sure to pick deep red ones with no stems and ones that aren't nasty or mushy)

Raw sugar for sprinkling on top (optional)

(you can use about 2tsp of pumpkin pie spice instead of the cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and allspice if you want. it's a cheap and easy way of getting the same taste out of one jar of stuff).



(a) Preheat the oven to 350°F. Put the rack right smack in the middle of the oven. 

(b) Mix the butter with the bananas. It's cool if there's some lumps of banana. It all works out in the end.

(c) Stir in everything but the flour and cranberries. (make sure all of the spices get mixed in evenly, there's nothing crappier than hitting a big lump of spices in a cake. ugh.) 

(d) Mix the flour in until everything is smooth. Then mix in the cranberries.

(e) Butter a 8x4 loaf pan (if you're giving this away, they sell really good, cheap disposable ones in the supermarket that work really well with this recipe) and dump your batter in there. Sprinkle a little raw sugar on top if you want. 

(f) Bake for an hour (check between 50-55 minutes depending on your oven, mine's kinda wonky and needs some babysitting. A thin knife or toothpick should come out clean). 

(g) Let it cool (I use a kitchen towel on a cutting board but you can use a rack if you're all fancy and stuff) for like an hour or so? This bread's better eaten at room temperature, so letting it cool completely is the way to go. 

(h) Pull it out of the pan (run a knife around it if it's being tricky) and enjoy the numminess 

(this bread is also super good toasted for breakfast!!!)

ROBO HORSE

After watching this 40 times and a good night's rest, I have decided that this is the best thing that has ever been put on the internet, ever.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMenQ7PJJVY

Etching from Gerrit de Veer's diary, while on an expedition with Willem Barrentsz (1596)

Magic Man - Real Life Color

This album is SO GOOD. These two guys are from Boston, they produced by sending things back and forth on the internet, AND THEY HAVE A SONG CALLED POLYGONS. Truly awesome and so worth downloading.

I am going to give them some money for this once I figure out how to use the internet and do so. You should too if you're into it. These guys obviously put a lot of hard work and time into this album and it definitely should be rewarded.

Free download here.

In other awesome news, my iPhone got fried somehow and I got my SECOND replacement iPhone this week (they replaced the first one because I beat it up so much that they said it was embarrassing to the company for me to be carrying a product that looked like mine did. SCORE).

Benefits of getting your messed up iPhone replaced:

(1) It works again.
(b) You can do stuff with it.
(4) It's not broken anymore.

Drawbacks of getting your messed up iPhone replaced:

(a) You have to start all over on Angry Birds.
(b) I guess that's about it.
(3) Yeah.

As you can see, getting your iPhone replaced sucks and I don't recommend it. 

I am also doing an unofficial study of roses on the street. I have a theory that the ugly roses smell better than the pretty ones. So far the only official thing I have figured out is that grabbing a rose stem or sticking your face in a bush will horribly scratch your face and arms. But when I figure out more I will post a colorful chart or graph.

Torani Cupcake Syrup

It is amazing that this exists.

Take Out Beverage Lids

Awesome. 

Subway Etiquette

I'm digging these posters by Jay Shells. 

Oobleck

So today I got to spend 4 hours figuring out how to make 2 tons of corn starch goo turn the same color as a swimming pool. Life is so good. But it got me thinking about this Oobleck stuff, which oddly enough I had to make in huge quantities when I was working as a counselor in the Nature Shack at Coleman Country Day Camp like 10-12 years ago, between cleaning up goat crap and pulling kids out of the pond when they fell in. I suppose the fact that I'm doing this for a TV show now should be some kind of full circle moment or something. But I'm not cognitively developed enough to make that connection; all I can focus on is huge quantities of awesome colorful goo.

This is Lori. And a pig. This picture is like 10 years old. 

I worked in this pen every summer for 5 years. It smelled like shit.

Oobleck is basically a corn starch and water mixture that, when combined in a specific ratio, creates something called a non-Newtonian fluid. This basically means that the viscosity of the fluid is not directly proportional to the amount of stress applied to it. Usually there's a direct relationship (i.e. a constant coefficient) between stress and viscosity; the cool thing about non-Newtonian fluids is that they can function much like a solid under certain conditions.

This little girl scares me

If you want to make your own, take two parts cornstarch and one part water, and mix them together in a bowl. It will be difficult, and more like kneading. You might need to add more water or corn starch depending on how humid it is, and it varies a bit from batch to batch. Add a few drops of food coloring to your liking and mix until the color is even.

If you haven't made this before you definitely should. It doesn't matter if you're an adult, you'll have fun. And the materials are cheap enough that it's worth it. I'm going to make some this week. It's awesome if you're having a bad day too. It's like a stress ball only more awesome.

I will try to take pictures in a few weeks of the 2,000+ pounds of this stuff that's going to be made. I think it's gonna be pretty cool.