Look, I’m a sickening liberal. A smug, self-satisfied liberal. A liberal who can’t believe anyone else with a working mind is a conservative. (Sorry! <– look, at least I’m apologetic.)

My father would always tell us, “Anyone under 30 who isn’t a liberal doesn’t have a heart. Anyone over 30 who isn’t a conservative doesn’t have a brain.” (This quote is frequently misattributed to Winston Churchill. Wikiquote argues it was François Guizot, who is said to have stated, “Not to be a republican at 20 is proof of want of heart; to be one at 30 is proof of want of head.”)

Well, here I am, 41, still brainless. (WTB brain?) I’m someone who would quote the fictional Matt Santos (played by Jimmy Smits in The West Wing):

“Liberals got women the right to vote. Liberals got African-Americans the right to vote. Liberals created Social Security and lifted millions of elderly people out of poverty. Liberals ended segregation. Liberals passed the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act. Liberals created Medicare. Liberals passed the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act. What did Conservatives do? They opposed them on every one of those things…every one! So when you try to hurl that label at my feet, ‘Liberal,’ as if it were something to be ashamed of, something dirty, something to run away from, it won’t work, Senator, because I will pick up that label and I will wear it as a badge of honor.”

But even as disgustingly liberal as I am, even as much as I supported Obama and rejoice in his victory, and even though I’m surrounded by people who think like me (California voted 61% for Obama, and my county result was 69% Obama), there’s no way I have blinders on and suddenly believe that all the rest of the country is somehow magically united.

This week I’m full of optimism and hope (despite Prop 8 passing). I cannot wait to see Bush the Junior leave office forever. Some of the immediate changes in policy (accelerated withdrawal from Iraq, and reversal of bans on stem cell research just to name two) have my full support.

But I know that Obama has made lots of promises, and he’s just a human being. He’s got a lot to live up to. I hope he can turn around some of the 48% who didn’t vote for him and turn them into supporters. But I know how much of an open mind I had for Bush in 2000 and 2004: Not very open at all. I remember how disheartened I was. And I know that 48% of U.S. voters are just as disheartened now as I was four years ago. Practically everything Bush said reinforced my already highly negative opinion of him. That’s just the way I spin. There was almost no chance he could convince me that he was a good president. (I still think Reagan was a bad president, even though history disagrees with me on that one.)

So I don’t expect many minds to change. If anything, given the daunting challenges Obama faces in January, many who voted for him will turn on him when there are not overnight positive results.

Conservatives are conservative. Liberals are liberal. Elections are decided by the people in the middle.

Here’s the most telling factoid for me from the election (from CNN’s exit polls — scroll down to Party ID result section):

• Democrats cast 39% of the votes, and 89% of them voted for Obama.
• Republicans cast 32% of the votes, and 90% of them voted for McCain.
• Independents cast 29% of the votes, and 52% of them voted for Obama (vs. 44% for McCain).

Like almost all US Presidential elections, this was a close election.

And yet here we had an election with an unpopular war, an economic disaster, the most unpopular sitting president since Truman in 1952, a vice presidential candidate demonstrably unprepared for office, and a unique candidate at a unique time in history. While you could argue that the electoral results were one-sided (365 to 173), the popular vote certainly was close. Bush took 51% in 2004; Obama took only 52% in 2008.

So, “Our Turn.” I’m going to enjoy it while it lasts — because Obama will doubtless need to work miracles to make his turn last more than four years.

Thing is: I think he can. Yes, he can.

EDIT: The above was written before I learned that Proposition 8 is passing, early Wednesday morning. So, while I’m very happy with the Presidential race results, the election is overall feeling a little bittersweet to me.

However, that Proposition 8 was close shows progress overall. Eight years ago, Californians voted on Proposition 22, which added language to California marriage law to formally define marriage in California as being between a man and a woman. That passed with 61.4% voting in favor.

We wait eight more years, and my bet is Californians will support an initiative that removes this wording. Alternately, in the same way that the courts overturned Proposition 22, it’s possible courts could overturn Proposition 8.

If you voted for Proposition 8, does your marriage really feel any different yesterday vs. today? I’d urge you to watch this video from Lawrence Lessig, or read this essay by Molly Wood.

After monitoring, the only calls we received were useless calls from surveys or businesses. We didn’t make any significant number of outgoing calls.

I never got a replacement answering machine, so if friends did call, it just rang and rang (confusing to them).

Now when they call, they get a referral to my cell phone, and after 30 days, that’ll go away too.

The last four digits of our land line used to be 8486, which spells out TiVo, and I enjoyed that it was an easy mnemonic. I do miss that part.

Everything else, I don’t miss.

We do still have a couple of phones connected that don’t require power, so in an emergency we can call 911. (I haven’t tested, but we may be able to call 800 numbers as well even without service.)

Ditched your land line lately? Plans to do so? If not, why are you keeping it? As far as I can tell, the main reasons to keep a land line now are:

• You have a whole bunch of talkative people in your house who chat on the phone a lot and require unmetered local calls.
• You don’t have any options for decent cell reception
• You really need a working modem for some reason (Series1 TiVo?)

I’m happy to save $30+ a month.

Starting right this second, you can begin downloading some amazing art house, independent and foreign films to your broadband-connected TiVo Series2 or Series3 DVR. There’s also a wide selection of anime.

To get started, either visit Jaman’s TiVo site or on your DVR head to TIVo Central -> Find Programs & Downloads -> Download TV, Movies, & Web Video -> Jaman Movies & Shorts. You can find more information over at tivo.com.

Jaman has been a great partner to work with, and I’m very excited about the new content available today for TiVo customers.

From now on, these updates are no longer going to be in text form and won’t be featured here. Instead, we’ve created a new channel for TiVo Video Download fans to learn about the best new content, and we’ve also created two other new TiVo channels that we hope you’ll enjoy!

• The Badoop-Badoop Show: This show stars “the voice of TiVo,” Shanan, with covering topics as varied as folks who dress up as stormtroopers (in the first show) and AMC’s hit show Mad Men (in the second show). Previously the only place to watch The Badoop-Badoop Show was on the TiVo channel on YouTube,  but now it can be downloaded directly to your DVR.
• The Best of Video Downloads: Featuring John T.’s picks, this new show replaces the blog posts that I previously put here. We’ll also include announcements about new channels.
• Try This: Learn more about the latest TiVo features and how to get the most from your TiVo experience. Features instructional videos about different TiVo features (many starring Shanan), some of which were previously posted to YouTube.

To subscribe to any of these channels on a Series2 or Series3 broadband-connected DVR, you can either visit the TiVo Channel page on TiVo Central Online, or go to TiVo Central -> Find Programs & Downloads -> Download TV, Movies, & Web Video -> Browse Other Videos -> All (and then pick the channel you want to see from the list, in the Ts).

Some things you can do to celebrate this auspicious day:

• Use a robotic droning voice. Perfect for completing robotic droning tasks at work.
• Watch this video for inspiration, then say “Affirmative” instead of “yes” and do a binary solo or two.
• Mutter “brain the size of a planet” a lot and answer questions with 42.
• DANGER WILL ROBINSON as your ring tone
• Someone cuts in front of you in line? Scream “Exterminate” at them.
• Pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew.

Affirmative? Acknowledged. End of line.

And, in this case, fortunately it’s unneeded as well. Here’s the story.

The other week, at work, I got a call from my neighbor, Corey. Corey lives a dozen houses down the street, is a mechanic and tow truck driver, has a fun family (including a daughter, Caitlin, who is 2 and plays with Sammy sometimes), and is a hell of a nice guy. But he called me and said, “Um, Steve, did you ask for someone to haul stuff out of your POD?”

“Um, no,” says I. “Wait, maybe Kimi did. Why?”

“Two people are loading boxes from your POD into their car.”

I called Kimi and confirmed she didn’t pay for any hauling, and then I called Corey back. (I should have called the police at that point.) Corey said the two thieves had noticed him watching them and took off. He was currently chasing them in his pick-up truck, but had Caitlin in the back, so nothing too crazy was gonna happen. He lost them when they ran a red light across Middlefield.

I rushed home, and at that point I was imagining a worse-case scenario: The house robbed, computer and stereos taken, Kimi’s jewelry gone — but nope, the house was untouched.

After opening the POD, it was clear that some things had been rifled through. Turns out an old video camera, my old Nintendo 64 (oh no! No more Goldeneye!) and maybe a few other things were taken. But everything really valuable had already been unpacked — mostly what was left inside were books and Kimi’s crafting materials and office supplies.

A police officer arrived quickly, took my statement, and then tried to dust for prints. Remember on CSI when they can extract partial prints from bullets and the throats of corpses or other random stuff? Here a perfectly ordinary handle and bolt — with plenty of surfaces for prints — didn’t prove to be a sufficient surface for the officer to find anything. (”By the way,” he says, “that dust is toxic so wash really well.”)

In the past when something’s been stolen, I’ve felt really violated. After this incident, all I felt was that we had gotten lucky. It was also entirely our fault for leaving the POD unlocked. As a wake up call, it reminds us to be more diligent — and that we should finally finish unpacking.

1. Veracifier: John McCain: A Chicken in Every Pot. With everything happening today on Wall Street, it’s interesting to use the way-back machine to look at the interviews that Senator McCain gave to the morning news shows regarding his “the fundamentals of the economy are sound” speech. The power of editing is not his friend.
2. Break.com: Mary Poppins jumps off a bridge. Why is it funny to me to watch a guy hurt himself by jumping off a bridge while holding an umbrella in an attempt to fly? Because I tried it. Every year when I was a kid, my family would order a huge load of firewood for the winter that would get dumped into our driveway for my sister and I to stack up. One year, I decided that if I took the umbrella from the patio furniture (a huge umbrella meant to shade a whole table) and jumped off the top of the 15 foot pile that I would float…even if only for a moment. Needless to say, I did not and I still have the scar on my knee to prove it.
3. CNET: Must Have Gadgets. It’s been a while since I’ve highlighted CNET (one of my all-time, can’t miss favorites each week) but this time it’s not really about that tiny phone they reviewed or the latest uber-powerful gaming PC they’re playing with. No, this week I’m convinced that Brian Cooley (one of CNET’s editors-at-large) has the coolest job in the world. Almost every week, Brian’s got a piece of the show dedicated to driving some super awesome tech’d-out car through the streets of San Francisco. He’s the luckiest man on the planet.
4. The WB.com: Sorority Forever. Yes, it’s true. I’m addicted to this web-only drama series all about the trials and tribulations of a sorority that’s involved in something mysterious. It’s fluffy drama that’s great for watching in-between commercial breaks for live prime time viewing or for burning a half an hour here or there during a lazy weekend. It’s great fun and I’m totally into it.
5. The Totally Rad Show: Flume. It’s no secret that I’m a fanboy for this weekly show about the latest in movies, games, TV, and comics — but this week’s episode struck a special chord with me. We’ve all been a bit “Rock Band” crazy since about this time last year with many a Friday/Saturday/Tuesday night completely blown trying to get to the next venue. So seeing the boys of TRS playing “Rock Band 2″ was awesome…and can partially be blamed for my blown weekend of “Rock Band 2″ madness.

Last time I’d had a checkup, my left eye was 20/15 and my right eye was 20/25. Now things are a little worse: 20/20 in my left eye, and 20/30 in my right eye. But that’s not bad — no need for glasses or contacts or laser surgery yet.

When they were doing tests, the puff test (which I believe tests for glaucoma) stung my right eye so much that it watered the rest of the test. Then my eyes got so dilated during the last portion of the test I couldn’t read anything at all for hours and hours.

I feel like most of my co-workers and friends wear glasses. But the National Eye Institute data says that among adults 40-49, only 36% are nearsighted and 3% are farsighted (with a few more percent suffering from more serious impairments to visual acuity). So that suggests that most of the people my age still don’t need glasses.

It’s a myth, by the way, that “20/20 vision” is perfect vision. In fact, among teenagers, 20/15 vision is far more common (per this study). I couldn’t find good statistical information about adults and whether 20/20 is more common than 20/15 at age 40. I suspect I’m doing about average, though.

Man, I hate the idea of wearing glasses. And I hate the idea of contacts even worse. I’d rather spring for surgery and let them peel off layers of my eyeball. (I loved watching them do the surgery on Kimi’s eyes back when she got it done a few years ago — it really worked for her, she went from worse than 20/40 to better than 20/15.)

So, how about you? Glasses? Contacts? LASIK?

This week, the SEC enacted a ban on short selling on shares of 799 financial companies. The SEC admits that the list was hastily generated, and many companies left off have lobbied to be included.

The company where I work, TiVo, has always had a large short interest. The same is true of many start-ups and tech companies. When there’s good news, and a short squeeze is applied and a gain becomes a giant gain, I’m elated. When the news isn’t so great, and the short interest widens and a loss becomes a bigger loss, that obviously affects me the other way. (”Sorry kids, no Disneyland trip this year. Damn those short sellers!”)

I do agree that short sellers can create an incentive to manipulate a market, and having negative energy out there does seem to lead to some bad behavior on an individual basis (where investors with an axe to grind and a short position may even manufacture falsehoods to convince others to sell). But that’s hardly widespread, and hardly makes a big difference in the long run. At worst it adds volatility.

If short sellers damage oil futures and create turmoil in the financial sector, why isn’t it equally true that they act against the best interests of the entire stock market? Why ban in just one or two sectors, and let short sellers run rampant everywhere else?

But I’m not actually arguing that short selling should be banned. I find the current ban absurd — and not just because it’s limited to one or two sectors.

The fact is, free market works. if a significant chunk of investors argued that a particular company would fail — and more importantly, backed that up with money betting the stock would fall, maybe instead of “speculation,” it’s because they’ve done their due diligence and actually believe the company is making mistakes?

We have a long tradition of letting people bet on the loser. What if Vegas suddenly said you couldn’t bet on the Don’t Come line in craps?

The current administration has so little faith in our economy and the financial sector that they have to change the rules in order to prop it up. That’s what’s terrifying: It’s a startling vote of no confidence.

Best would be to leave the free market alone. Next best (but not smart at all) would be to ban short selling, permanently, for all sectors. What actually happened is a far, far more unfortunate alternative.

That changes as of today. Thanks to our partnership with The WB, you can now catch Sorority Forever, a new episodic show executive-produced by McG, following the lives of three freshman sorority members as they arrive on campus. I definitely got a bit of a Gossip Girl vibe from the show.

You may recognize the star, Jessica Rose, as the infamous “lonelygirl15″ of YouTube fame.

The first five episodes (about 2-3 minutes each) are available now:

1. “Sisterhood”
2. “Terrible Mistake”
3. “Sexy Bra Shopping”
4. “Panty Pledge”
5. “Nobody Likes a Fat Girl”

The next five episodes are already available from TheWB.com, but you don’t have to watch them on your laptop — we will publish those five on Monday, and we’ll publish five new episodes each Monday after that to match the run from TheWB.com.

To get a Season Pass, visit TiVo Central -> Find Programs & Downloads -> Download TV, Movies, & Web Video -> Browse Other Videos -> All -> TheWB.com. Or you can use TiVo Central Online’s TheWB.com page.

Not that I speak from personal experience or anything.

Each year, a significant number of people die “intestate” — without a will. This is a terrible condition to end up in, especially if you have children, because the probate costs on your estate will be significant (meaning attorneys and the state will take a huge chunk), the process will drag on forever, and result in hard feelings or problems, because each state has default assumptions that probably don’t match your wishes (such as, depending on where you live, your parents getting a bigger share of your estate than your children).

I feel fortunate that TiVo has a good legal benefit available: For a small monthly paycheck deduction, I have access to a range of legal services at no charge. One of those services is estate planning — which was really a relatively simple process of calling up a local attorney, going through an interview, and then signing the documents as we did today, just a few weeks after we started the process.

It’s never pleasant to think about all the different scenarios that come up during the estate planning (such as what happens if you’re on life support, or whether you want to be buried or cremated), but I do feel immense relief that if the horrible happens, Sophie and Sammy will be well cared for.

So, are you set? If you’re single and don’t have a lot of assets, probably not a big deal. But if you’re married or have children or have a house, it’s something you really should take care of. And eat your broccoli while you’re at it.

Kimi and I were at Kevin and Rachel’s wedding today, in a ranch above Carmel. Right before dinner, during the toasts, they selected someone from each table to read a particular quote or song lyric about love or marriage. There were Beatles lyrics, a quote from Star Wars, the Rubber Ducky song, and much more. (I was selected to read this line from Never Been Kissed.) Very cute, engaging, well thought out, and personable, just like the rest of Kevin and Rachel’s wedding.

Well, when they got to Sparky’s table, where he had been selected to read a quote from Brian Andres (”We sat side by side in the morning light and looked out at the future together”), instead he launched into, “We’re no strangers to love / You know the rules and so do I”

Kevin and Rachel looked shocked at first but then really laughed.

Sure, maybe only 10 or 20 of the guests knew what Sparky was doing, but it was epic. Well played, sir. Is this the first live wedding RickRoll?

1. Pixel Perfect: Feel at Peace with a Pastoral Scene. If Bob Ross was the king of the painted Happy Tree, then Bert Monroy is the Bob Ross of the Photoshop Happy Tree. Each week, Bert teaches another lesson about everyone’s favorite photo editing software. It’s a useful and fun way to learn all the little tricks that will help you edit your ex out of all those pictures.
2. Nickelodeon: iCarly Don’t be Lame. If you’ve got kids, they probably watch a lot of Nickelodeon. Even though Nickelodeon doesn’t have all my old favorites like Danger Mouse or Double Dare, they’re still cranking out a lot of great original programming. Each week, our Nickelodeon Video Download channel highlights a behind-the-scenes look at one of the shows that the House that Green Slime Built is producing. It’s a great quick break for kids to watch instead of commercials for cereal, toys, or other things they want you to buy for them.
3. Days of Our Lives: Dena Hagley. The folks at Days of Our Lives provide the bigger kids with the same kind of behind-the-scenes look at all the different pieces that go in to making one of television’s longest-running soaps. While I don’t spend a lot of time in the afternoon watching the stories since ‘Passions’ was canceled, this should be on your Season Pass list if you like Days of Our Lives or just want a backstage pass for the making of a soap opera.
4. Vogue.TV: Models.Live Episode 4. One of the biggest hits of the last few years has been Tyra’s fierce America’s Next Top Model, but for a more realistic view of what it takes to become a fashion model, you should check out Vogue’s new Models.Live series. A real life look at what it really takes to be a model (even once the lights have turned off), this should be required viewing for everyone who’s got The Hills, 90210, or One Tree Hill in their Season Pass list (and I know you’re out there).
5. Zen Living: Aromatherapy. While I know I’ve talked about Zen Living before, it’s just not something I’ve been able to connect with. While lots of people I know are really into massage and therapeutic teas, it’s just always been a bit high and outside for me. That being said, I find the Zen Living series interesting, entertaining and a great way to learn about things that otherwise mystify me. This is a great show to help take the ‘um?’ out of ‘ohm’….which may be the best pun I’ve written in a year.

So that’s what I’ve been pondering this week…what are you watching that everyone should know about?

Jack and Andy liked the ski slalom a lot, but being five year olds, they didn’t really weigh enough to steer properly, so I would help them out by “steering” them from behind. The mechanic that they latched on to fastest was the star rating showed with the score at the end of each trial: They quickly could tell from the disappointment of the mii that one star wasn’t good, and started trying to predict how many stars each person would get, and celebrating when they got two stars or three stars. The penguin iceberg sliding game was a hit as well. Seeing other people struggle with the Tree yoga pose and the timing of the step exercise made me feel a little better about how I’ve been doing.

I took a quick body test while showing the system (even though I was wearing jeans), and accidentally had it add 5 pounds to my weight instead of subtracting, so it made me 10 pounds heavier (the nomenclature of +5 pounds versus -5 pounds threw me off — but why does it even allow negative clothing in the first place?). I intended to do a real workout this evening (instead of a fake one earlier when I was just showing a few of the activities to the group), but my head’s hurting, so I’m heading to bed instead. This’ll look a bit strange on the graph.

Tuesday morning I tried an early morning workout, and I felt that worked better. I like the evening workouts because I don’t feel time pressure and can experiment with new Yoga poses, but after working out in the morning I do feel more energy for the rest of the day. I even had a second workout Tuesday night, and ended up having a pre-midnight and post-midnight workout, and taking a final body test post midnight. That worked great, because I had credit for a half hour workout on Wednesday and ended up not being able to work out again either Wednesday morning or evening.

This morning was another early morning workout, with Sammy picking the activities for me to do after he woke up. I got a “you’ve been working out for seven days straight” message, which was nice to see. Some good progress overall on BMI as well.

Now that I’ve been using it for a while, I’ve unlocked and tried almost all the activities, and have started to get longer duration workouts. That’s good, because for a 30 minute workout I was spending 45 minutes or more of actual time, doing menu commands and clicking through results and choosing the next activity. Being able to do longer sets of pushups and jack-knives and leg raises gets my heart going and makes the time more efficient, even if the variety of activities is lessened.

Reading online, I can see why people complain about the game — the lack of multiplayer and online is a serious problem, and having the ability to program a workout that skipped a lot of the screens and UI falderal would be a great boon. But on the other hand, I think this game is an amazing development in turns of innovation — marrying the theme of your balance with the gaming structures of unlocking activities and building up levels and points really works for me. It’s only been a week but I still really look forward to the workouts.

I’ve lost about 4 or 5 pounds so far. Yesterday I wore a belt that I hadn’t been able to wear in a year. So, progress is being made.

“Never” is a very strong word. (What if you were trapped in the Andes with a rugby team? Marooned in a life raft in the Atlantic? Competing on Survivor?) So, I took “never consider” to mean “probably would not consider,” but even so there are not many cross outs.

Most of the ones that aren’t crossed out I’d genuinely like to try, although it didn’t seem worth the effort to score each item on how tasty I considered it or how much I wanted to try it; I did add some comments in parentheses here and there.

My score is only 54, which doesn’t seem that high to me. Post in the comments your score if you don’t have a blog to do this yourself!

1. Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2. Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3. Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4. Optional extra: Post a comment here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

(Links are to Wikipedia. FAQ here, analysis here.)

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich (allergic to peanut butter, that vilest of substances)
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream (allergic again)
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava (ate this once by mistake, not knowing it had walnuts in it)
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi (tried a tiny sip once, didn’t like it)
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar (nope, not going to try any form of smoking)
37. Clotted cream tea (probably had this as a kid but can’t remember)
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O (at a memorable TiVo celebration in 1999 was the last time)
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian (really want to try this some day)
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis (once was enough)
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini (I’ve tried each separately but never together)
73. Louche absinthe (thanks to an absinthe bar at Burning Man)
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant. (Someday, I hope.)
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox (I’m allergic to salmon)
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake (Garlic Festival for the win!)

• iFanboy: Y: The Last Man. The guys at iFanboy took a look back at the entire “Y: The Last Man” series and talk about the themes, questions and over-arching awesomeness of the comic book series. Yes, it will someday be a movie, but do yourself a favor and read the entire comic book series first…if for no other reason than the fact that there’s a monkey named “Ampersand.”
• Diggnation: Live at NVISION 08 in San Jose. Yes, I am a total Bay Area fanboy so there’s no way I could let this go by without mentioning it. Last week, Alex and Kevin from Diggnation did a live show here in San Jose and the nerds showed up in force. It’s awesome to see an online show translate from a webpage to an auditorium full of screaming fanboys.
• Wine Library: 6 Wines from VA. As I just mentioned, we’re in the Bay Area (home of some of the best wines in the world) but I’m originally from Virginia (home of some of the worst “wines” in the world) so it was great to see Gary V. and the Wine Library team tasting and (for the most part) enjoying wines from my home state.
• The Totally Rad Show: Geekdipointment. You know a host (or in this case, a group of hosts) has something going for them when you find yourself enjoying something that might normally bore you to tears. That was the case this week as the TRS gang attempted to make their own clever t-shirts. Watching Dan try (and fail, and fail, and fail, and fail) to come up with something funny to put on a shirt was hilarious. It’s amazing what these three can find to compete in.
• The Onion: Portrayal Of Obama As Elitist Hailed As Step Forward For African Americans. There’s not a lot to say about this other than the fact that there’s nothing more inappropriately hilarious than The Onion. They’re not afraid of anything or anyone and that’s just plain awesome.