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Today's Frozen Meal: Healthy Choice Grilled Basil Chicken

Monday, 2010 March 15 - 1:53 pm

"Chicken Tenderloins with Linguini & Vegetables in Fire-Roasted Tomato Basil Sauce."

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Posted by Ken in: food

Today's Frozen Meal: California Pizza Kitchen BBQ Recipe Chicken Pizza

Wednesday, 2010 March 10 - 1:23 pm

Not barbecue, but "BBQ recipe". I guess they want to completely eliminate the possibility of being sued because this wasn't cooked on a barbecue grill. "Pizza topped with BBQ Sauce, White Meat Chicken, Reduced Fat Mozzarella Cheese, Smoked Gouda Cheese, Red Onions, and Cilantro." (Wow, a serial comma!)

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Posted by Ken in: food

Today's Frozen Meal: Healthy Choice Salisbury Steak

Tuesday, 2010 March 9 - 2:48 pm

"Salisbury Steak in Sautéed Onion Gravy, Green Beans, Red Skin Potatoes & Caramel Apple Multigrain Crisp".

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Posted by Ken in: food

Today's Frozen Meal: DiGiorno 200 Calorie Pepperoni (Pizza)

Friday, 2010 March 5 - 3:23 pm

"Pepperoni, mozzarella cheese & marinara sauce on a thin crust." It's pizza-like, but interestingly, the box doesn't have the word "pizza" anywhere on it. 200 calories per portion, but there are two portions in the box. Sneaky.

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Posted by Ken in: food

Wednesday's Frozen Meal: DiGiorno Supreme Pizza For One

Friday, 2010 March 5 - 11:18 am

Geez, I'm falling behind. "Pepperoni, sausage, green peppers, red peppers, onions; sausage & pepperoni made with pork, chicken, and beef."

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Posted by Ken in: food

Yesterday's Frozen Meal: Anne's Italian Turkey Sausage with Cannellini Beans

Wednesday, 2010 March 3 - 9:42 am

"Gourmet Frozen Meals Made with Lots of Love." If you haven't guessed, this isn't a store-bought meal: this was made by Anne, who is awesome in every way. (If it were made by Con-Agra, it would say "... Made with Lots of Love, Broccoli & Apple Multi-Grain Crisp.")

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Posted by Ken in: food

Today's Frozen Meal: Kashi Sweet and Sour Chicken

Monday, 2010 March 1 - 1:06 pm

"Chicken Breast with Sweet & Sour Sauce; Roasted Green Beans & Yellow Peppers with Edamame; Kashi 7 Whole Grains & Sesame Pilaf."

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Posted by Ken in: food

Yesterday's Frozen Meal: Healthy Choice Sweet and Sour Chicken

Thursday, 2010 February 25 - 10:45 am

I spent most of lunchtime at the DMV yesterday, so I'm late posting this review. "Chicken Breast Chunks in Sweet & Sour Sauce, Whole Grain Rice, Broccoli & Peach Multigrain Crisp." Mmm, breast chunks.

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Posted by Ken in: food

Today's Frozen Meal: Lean Cuisine Roasted Vegetable Pizza

Monday, 2010 February 22 - 12:29 pm

"Roasted onions, red & green peppers, mushrooms & tomatoes with a four cheese blend." This is the one that Tim likes.

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Posted by Ken in: food

Today's Frozen Meal: Lean Cuisine Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto Chicken

Friday, 2010 February 19 - 1:03 pm

"With cavatappi pasta, zucchini, black olives & parmesan cheese". Cavatappi sounds exotic, but it's basically macaroni.

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Posted by Ken in: food

My New Theory About "Lost"

Wednesday, 2010 February 17 - 2:57 pm

I hope all the "Lost" fans out there are enjoying this season as much as I am. I'm formulating a new theory about what's going on. For those of you who aren't caught up to last night's episode, don't click through; there might be some spoilers.

Read more...

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Posted by Ken in: television

Today's Frozen Meal: Kashi Lemongrass Coconut Chicken

Wednesday, 2010 February 17 - 2:27 pm

"Chicken Breast with Broccoli Florets, Carrots & Sugar Snap Peas; Kashi 7 Whole Grains & Sesame with Red Quinoa Pilaf; Lemongrass & Coconut Sauce Topped with Coconut Flakes."

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Posted by Ken in: food

Today's Frozen Meal: Healthy Choice Spicy Shrimp Diavolo

Tuesday, 2010 February 16 - 12:12 pm

Shrimp devil? "Shrimp with Whole Grain Pasta in a Spicy Tomato Sauce, Vegetables & Cherry Blueberry Multigrain Crisp."

Sorry there was no post yesterday, by the way. After a Valentine's day weekend of gourmet food, I just wasn't hungry for a frozen meal yesterday.

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Posted by Ken in: food

Today's Frozen Meal: Stouffer's Meatball Italiano Toasted Sub

Friday, 2010 February 12 - 12:10 pm

"Italian seasoned meatballs with grilled red and green peppers, onions, mozzarella cheese and a zesty marinara sauce on Italian bread." Note to Stouffer's: calling it "Italiano" doesn't actually make it Italian. I'd have been more impressed if they'd called it "polpetta Italiano", though I suppose then fewer people would buy it.

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Posted by Ken in: food

No Frozen Lunch Again

Thursday, 2010 February 11 - 11:04 pm

Oh, forgot to tell you... it was free pizza day at work again, so there's no frozen lunch for today. I actually had brought something and considered eating it as a snack, but I overindulged on pizza as it was, so I thought better of it.

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Posted by Ken in: food

Today's Frozen Meal: Kashi Chicken Florentine

Wednesday, 2010 February 10 - 12:51 pm

"Grilled Chicken Breast with Spinach, Sweet Red Peppers & Baby Portobello Mushrooms; Kashi 7 Whole Grains & Sesame with Orzo Pilaf; Garlic White Wine Sauce Topped with Shredded Parmesan Cheese."

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Posted by Ken in: food

No Frozen Lunch Today

Tuesday, 2010 February 9 - 1:10 pm

Instead of my usual frozen meal, I went out to lunch with Amy, to a sports/fern bar called Kickback Jack's. It's a new chain that's been opened by the same owners as Tripp's and Rock-Ola, and the menu is similar: tasty but horrifically unhealthy. I won't even try to imagine how many calories or fat grams were in the blue cheese burger I ate today.

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Posted by Ken in: food

Today's Frozen Meal: Lean Cuisine Grilled Chicken Caesar

Monday, 2010 February 8 - 1:07 pm

"Grilled white meat chicken with broccoli, red peppers & garlic flavored radiatore pasta in a parmesan Caesar sauce".

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Posted by Ken in: food

Today's Frozen Meal: Kashi Pesto Pasta Primavera

Friday, 2010 February 5 - 12:40 pm

"Yellow Carrots, Sweet Red Peppers & Peas; Kashi 7 Whole Grain Penne Pasta; Basil Pesto Sauce with Shredded Parmesan Cheese."

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Permalink 1 Comment

Posted by Ken in: food

Today's Frozen Meal: Healthy Choice Chicken Parmigiana

Thursday, 2010 February 4 - 12:30 pm

"Breaded Chicken Breast in Marinara Sauce with Cheese, Whole Grain Penne, Broccoli & Caramel Apple Multigrain Crisp". (You know, I notice that most of these meal descriptions avoid the serial comma. I think that in this case, I'd like to see a comma after "broccoli" so it doesn't seem like we're getting a "broccoli & caramel" dessert. Though then again, sometimes a piece of broccoli does find its way into the dessert section, so maybe they're just covering their bases.)

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Posted by Ken in: food

Today's Frozen Meal: Amy's Thai Stir-Fry

Wednesday, 2010 February 3 - 12:42 pm

"Made with organic rice & vegetables."

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Posted by Ken in: food

Today's Frozen Meal: Healthy Choice Whiskey Steak

Tuesday, 2010 February 2 - 12:51 pm

"Beef in Whiskey Dijon Sauce with Roasted Potatoes and Vegetables."

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Permalink 1 Comment

Posted by Ken in: food

Today's Frozen Meal: Amy's Pesto Pizza

Monday, 2010 February 1 - 1:34 pm

Or is it Pizza Pesto? "Made with organic vegetables and basil."

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Posted by Ken in: food

Today's Frozen Meal: Marie Callender's Fettucini Chicken Balsamico

Saturday, 2010 January 30 - 3:51 pm

(Actually, this is yesterday's meal. For some reason I never clicked the "submit" button for this post yesterday.) "Broad Egg Noodles and Balsamic Reduction with White Meat Chicken, Spinach and Mushrooms".

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Posted by Ken in: food

Punditry

Friday, 2010 January 29 - 9:17 am

I'm reading a lot of "the iPad will be a failure" articles and comments lately. It just brings to mind all the "iPhone will be a failure" comments in 2007, and the "iPod will be a failure" comments in 2001. John C. Dvorak famously argued that Apple should pull the plug on the iPhone and license it out as a reference design to Samsung. Samsung. Or there was this famous Slashdot comment on the iPod: "No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame." How many people nowadays even remember what a NOMAD was? (It was a bulky, awkward MP3 player from Creative Labs.)

It's true that not every Apple product has been a blockbuster success. Critics immediately point to the Newton and the AppleTV as examples of Apple failures. But the difference with those products is that Steve Jobs did not believe they'd be hits. The Newton was a product that Steve despised; he killed it as soon as he returned to Apple. He described the AppleTV as "hobby" for Apple, an experimental, a dip-your-toes-in-the-water kind of thing. But the things that Jobs predicted would be huge, the iPod and the iPhone, were huge.

And here we've got the iPad. And just like the Nomad user back in 2001, there are people all over the Internet saying things like, "No Flash. Does less than my netbook. Lame." I wonder whose comment will be enshrined in the punditry hall of shame two years from now?

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Posted by Ken in: techwatch

Today's Frozen Meal: Amy's Macaroni and Cheese

Thursday, 2010 January 28 - 12:38 pm

"Made with organic pasta". And cheese. It's macaroni and cheese: not a lot of mystery here.

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Posted by Ken in: food

Apple iPad Thoughts

Wednesday, 2010 January 27 - 8:20 pm

So it's here, the iPad. The essential specs:

9.7" diagonal 1024x768 IPS LCD display
802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth, and optional 3G
1 GHz Apple A4 Processor
16GB, 32GB, or 64GB Flash
10-hour battery life
Microphone and speaker
30-pin dock connector
Accelerometer and compass; in the 3G version, GPS
iPhone OS 3.2; runs iPhone apps
$499 for 16GB/WiFi model; $829 for top-end 64GB/WiFi+3G model

I'll run through how I did with my predictions, and then give some more thoughts about the device.

Read more...

Permalink 2 Comment

Posted by Ken in: techwatch

Today's Frozen Meal: Healthy Choice Balsamic Garlic Chicken

Wednesday, 2010 January 27 - 12:48 pm

From the Mediterranean-inspired "Café Steamers" collection: "Grilled Chicken Tenderloins with Whole Grain Pasta, Mushrooms, Spinach, Tomatoes and Vegetables in Balsamic Garlic Sauce".

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Posted by Ken in: food

Happy Australia Day

Tuesday, 2010 January 26 - 9:51 pm

Yes, today was Australia Day, which I will celebrate every year from now on thanks to Elizabeth. I started the day with a Tim Tam Slam, and had I known in advance I was supposed to barbecue some lamb, I would have done that too.

As it was, I put on my Australia temporary tattoo and brought some Vegemite to work, along with 48 little squares of toast. I sent an email to all my co-workers, explaining what Australia Day was, and inviting them all to try some Vegemite.

I had planned to take a picture of each person as they experienced the awesome power of concentrated yeast food product. The theme song of the day was "Vegemite Face", as performed by Lady Gaga. You know, "V-V-V-Vegemite V-Vegemite Face."

As it was, I brought 44 too many squares of toast. Including myself, only four people gave Vegemite a try. And no one had the taste-bud-blowing experience I expected them to have.

Ken Vegemite

Mostly, the reaction was "hmm, not as bad as I thought". Of course, these were the guys who were the least likely to react in entertaining ways.

I ended up giving most of the Vegemite to a Chris, who's visiting from Christchurch, New Zealand. He's been here for a few months and has searched high and low for Vegemite, to no avail. He was so disappointed that I didn't have a local source for it, I had to let him have the rest of my supply.

So thus ends Australia Day in Raleigh, North Carolina. Next year I'll grill up some lamb. But all the same, thanks, Elizabeth! I had a fun time with all of this. Did I mention that every woman in the building smiled at my temporary tattoo today? (Not that things like that matter to me any more...)

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Posted by Ken in: funnyhaha, life

No Frozen Meal Today

Tuesday, 2010 January 26 - 12:06 pm

Aw, phooey. This:

Box

is not microwaveable.

Instructions

We don't have an oven or a toaster oven in the office, so this will have to wait for another day. Guess I'm eating fast food today.

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Posted by Ken in: food

Apple Tablet Coming Wednesday, According to Everyone

Monday, 2010 January 25 - 11:33 pm

It seems like everyone except for Apple themselves has confirmed that a new tablet computing device will be unveiled at their media event this Wednesday. It's a lot like the days leading up to the iPhone announcement: a lot of hype, a lot of speculation, and a lot of pundits (with no actual knowledge of what the product will be) predicting that it will fail.

So here's what I think about the tablet.

Read more...

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Posted by Ken in: techwatch

Today's Frozen Meal: Whole Kitchen Chicken Tikki Masala

Monday, 2010 January 25 - 1:09 pm

"White Meat Chicken in a Traditional Curry Tomato Sauce with White Basmati Rice." It's from Canada!

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Posted by Ken in: food

Citizen's United v. FEC

Saturday, 2010 January 23 - 4:46 pm

Some of you may not follow Supreme Court cases as closely as I do. Maybe you're aware of the bombshell that the Court dropped a couple of days ago, in the case of Citizen's United v. Federal Election Commission. It boils down to this: The Supreme Court has ruled that corporations are entitled to use unlimited amounts money from their general funds to finance political advertising, because (a) corporations are essentially people, (b) money is essentially speech, and (c) the First Amendment guarantees people the right to free speech.

Perhaps you have a vague sense of the implications of that, but let me lay out a few numbers for you. Exxon Mobil made $45 billion in profit last year (on $443 billion in revenue). If they spent just one percent on that profit (or just a tenth of one percent of their revenue) on political advertising, that would still be four times more money than Obama and McCain spent on their 2008 campaigns combined. That's one company, taking a tiny piece of their profits, dwarfing the combined campaign spending of two presidential candidates.

Now suppose you take the Fortune 500 list. Looking at the companies that were profitable in 2009, if they set aside four percent of those profits and put them towards political advertising, that would be enough to buy every ad spot on ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, and CW for an entire year. All of them. EVERY. SINGLE. AD.

We're talking about a lot of money, folks. Wait until you see what happens in the next couple of elections... if you thought political ads were bad in 2008, it'll be an order of magnitude worse in 2010 and 2012.

And that's not even the worst part.

Read more...

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Posted by Ken in: politics

Today's Frozen Meal: Stouffer's Lasagna with Meat and Sauce

Friday, 2010 January 22 - 1:35 pm

Meat AND sauce! Do they make sauce-less lasagna? "Lasagna noodles layered with meat and herb seasoned tomato sauce and three kinds of cheeses."

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Posted by Ken in: food

Today's Frozen Meal: Amy's Roasted Vegetables Tamale

Thursday, 2010 January 21 - 1:13 pm

Or is it Tamale Roasted Vegetables? "Made with organic black beans, tomatoes and corn masa."

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Permalink 2 Comment

Posted by Ken in: food

Today's Frozen Meal: Smart Ones Fajita Chicken Pizza

Wednesday, 2010 January 20 - 12:27 pm

(The box actually reads "Stone-Fired Crust Pizza Fajita Chicken". Words of order not matter does.) "Grilled White Meat Fajita Chicken with Fire Roasted Vegetables and Poblanos on a Zesty Sauce topped with Cheese on a Stone-Fired Crust".

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Posted by Ken in: food

Today's Frozen Meal: Kashi Veggie Chana Masala

Tuesday, 2010 January 19 - 1:14 pm

"Kashi 7 Whole Grains & Sesame Pilaf; Chickpeas, Red Peppers, Fire Roasted Eggplant, Carrots & Edamame; Zesty Garam Masala Sauce". Another Kashi vegan meal.

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Posted by Ken in: food

Today's Frozen Meal: Healthy Choice Cajun Style Chicken and Shrimp

Monday, 2010 January 18 - 12:57 pm

From the "Café Steamers" collection: "Chicken Tenderloin & Shrimp with Rice and Vegetables in Spicy Cajun-Style Sauce".

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Posted by Ken in: food

Today's Frozen Meal: Kashi Mayan Harvest Bake

Friday, 2010 January 15 - 1:11 pm

"Plaintains, Black Beans, Sweet Potato & Kale; Kashi 7 Whole Grain Pilaf, Amaranth & Polenta; Spicy Ancho Sauce". Yes, it's vegan.

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Posted by Ken in: food

Today's Episode of "The Biggest Douchebag"

Thursday, 2010 January 14 - 1:55 pm

In the red corner, we have Rush Limbaugh, who suggests that the White House might steal from any Red Cross donations you make via the whitehouse.gov link.

In the redder corner, we have Pat Robertson, who suggests that the Haitians are being punished for making a deal with Satan in exchange for freedom from French rule in 1803.

The winner: nobody. We all lose. We'll have to continue enduring these idiots for many years to come. Thank you for playing.

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Posted by Ken in: commentary, politics

Today's Frozen Meal: Lean Cuisine Roasted Turkey Breast

Thursday, 2010 January 14 - 12:44 pm

"Roasted turkey breast with gravy, stuffing, whipped potatoes & green beans accented with cranberries." It's like Thanksgiving... if you had no family or friends.

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Posted by Ken in: food

Today's Frozen Meal: Lean Cuisine Deluxe Pizza

Wednesday, 2010 January 13 - 3:53 pm

"Sausage, pepperoni, mushrooms, roasted peppers & onions with a four cheese blend."

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Posted by Ken in: food

Today's Frozen Meal: Healthy Choice Roasted Beef Merlot

Tuesday, 2010 January 12 - 12:31 pm

From the "Café Steamers" collection: "Beef Steak with Rosemary Red Potatoes and Vegetables with Rich Merlot Wine Sauce". Again, thanks for clarifying that Merlot is wine, because I was confused by the many possible meanings.

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Permalink 1 Comment

Posted by Ken in: food

Avatar: something for everyone

Monday, 2010 January 11 - 11:12 pm

Yes, James Cameron's "Avatar" is chock full of 3-dimensional in-your-face creamy goodness for everyone!

For the 18-year-olds: lots of explosions and whooshy flying scenes.

For the 14-year-olds: lots of loincloths and alien side-boob.

For the 10-year-olds: a valuable lesson about white male imperialism.

For the 6-year-olds: a plot you can easily understand and an ending you can predict.

For adults: ...

Well, almost everyone, I guess.

Permalink 2 Comment

Posted by Ken in: movies

Today's Frozen Meal: Healthy Choice Chicken Red Pepper Alfredo

Monday, 2010 January 11 - 12:38 pm

From the "Café Steamers" collection: "Chicken Tenderloins with Linguini & Broccoli in Roasted Red Pepper Alfredo Sauce"

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Posted by Ken in: food

Pete Carroll to Seattle

Saturday, 2010 January 9 - 9:49 am

The big football news this morning is that USC head coach Pete Carroll will take the vacant head coaching position for the Seattle Seahawks. From what I've read, Carroll is (a) trying to get out before any NCAA sanctions hit USC over Reggie Bush; (b) seeing that USC isn't quite the powerhouse it once was, and is leaving before he tarnishes his legacy; (c) looking to improve his NFL image after past mediocre stints with the Patriots and the Jets; and (d) being offered a chance to have more control over football operations, as compared to his previous NFL jobs. It's probably a combination of all four.

Oregon State coach Mike Riley is said to be the leading candidate to replace Carroll at USC.

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Posted by Ken in: sports

Today's Frozen Meal: Lean Cuisine Spinach and Mushroom Pizza

Friday, 2010 January 8 - 12:09 pm

"Spinach & mushrooms with a creamy alfredo sauce." As opposed to the chunky alfredo sauce that we're all expecting, I guess.

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Permalink 1 Comment

Posted by Ken in: food

Blog bug

Thursday, 2010 January 7 - 7:33 pm

For those who are interested (which, I'm pretty sure, is nobody), I think I've fixed a long-standing bug with my blog that put the wrong timestamp on my RSS feed, and prevented Facebook from importing my blog notes in a timely manner.

The bug had to do with the fact that I'm in the eastern time zone and GoDaddy's servers are in the mountain time zone. I should have always used UTC timestamps on everything, but my old iBlog blog used local time, and I didn't convert to UTC when I imported it, so I just hacked my blog to subtract five hours from the time stamp. It was mostly fine for the web page, but until now, the RSS feed was always two hours off.

Anyway, hopefully posts will show up on my Facebook page sooner now.

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Posted by Ken in: site-business

No Frozen Meal Today (Free Pizza Day)

Thursday, 2010 January 7 - 1:55 pm

Ok, so we had a "lunch and learn" meeting today, and they always provide Papa John's pizza for us for free. So...

Pizza

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Posted by Ken in: food

Today's Frozen Meal: Lean Cuisine Grilled Chicken and Penne Pasta

Wednesday, 2010 January 6 - 12:24 pm

"White meat chicken, penne pasta & vegetables in a garlic herb sauce with a caramel apple dessert". Penne pasta! Because I am food-illiterate and I did not know penne was pasta!

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Permalink 1 Comment

Posted by Ken in: food

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