A while ago, our man in Osaka sent some super-secret videos of some takoyaki-making. I have decided to release them to the public. Press release to follow…

Seriously, my friend Matt shot some footage of a cook at a takoyaki stall in Osaka. Here you can see the skill required to make these delectable little snacks. Actually, their size is deceptive: they fill you up quite quickly. If you have never tried takoyaki before, you are really missing out. Maybe I can coax Mariko into breaking out the takoyaki pan this weekend… Anyways, without further ado, I present the five sacred videos (.avi format):

[url=/media/video/tako1.avi>Takoyaki part one (7.8MB) Putting the pieces of tako (octopus) into the batter.
[url=/media/video/tako2.avi>Takoyaki part two (2.8MB) Putting ten-kasu (tempura crumbs) into the takoyaki.
[url=/media/video/tako3.avi>Takoyaki part three (8.4MB) Packing some of the finished takoyaki into containers/Turning the takoyaki over to ensure even cooking. (the difficult part, in my opinion) .
[url=/media/video/tako4.avi>Takoyaki part four (7.9 MB) More turning of the takoyaki.
[url=/media/video/tako5.avi>Takoyaki part five (3.9MB) And even more turning of the takoyaki. If you’re not salivating by the time you reach this video, please check your pulse.

[videos © Copyright 2004 Matt Melton>

Papa took these using his camera and new lights!

As part of our “clearing of the clutter” in the house, I decided to remove all of our music cd’s and covers/liner notes from their cases, and chuck the cases. We had about 10 cd storage boxes from The Container Store filled with cd’s, and they were taking up way too much space in one of our closets. It took a couple hours, but now all of our cd’s fit in two cases. I filled up two huge bags (contractor-style from Costco) with the empty cases. I felt kind of bad throwing out lots of the cool cd artwork, especially the Japanese cd’s, which can be really cool (and expensive at $30 a pop), but I honestly never really looked at them often. Probably once, and that’s it. The Pizzicato Five cd’s were very very cool, though.

I am now in the process of ripping all the cd’s to mp3. My Lite-on drive in my computer is nice and fast, ripping at 16x at 160kbps with iTunes. I love it. After I rip our entire cd collection, I will back up the mp3’s to dvd-r’s. How nice to clean out the clutter!

Mariko is at a baby shower today, so I got the kids! We have played with most everything in the house now, ate lunch, and are now watching “Kipper”. Tomorrow is Super Bowl Sunday, and I am going to make homemade chili. I will actually make it today, and by tomorrow it will be tasting great. I was chatting with my brother and asked him what he was doing tomorrow. He said he was making chili. Hehe.

I joined a couple of my friends and signed up for a Flickr account. I already have a photo site, but this seems like a neat way to network and view some neat pictures! If you’d like to add me as a Flickr contact, my screen name is “barron”.

I got a bonus at work this year, and I am gonna treat myself to a small studio lighting system. I can’t wait to try it out with some still lifes, food, and on the kids! I did a little research on dpreview.com, and found out that this setup will work nicely with our Olympus E-10. It’s gonna be lots of fun playing around with it.

From LATimes.com today (Larry Stewart):

The Clippers have been a favorite target of Jay Leno, and Carson, as Carnac the Magnificent, once took this shot at the Dodgers:

“Catch 22” was Carnac’s answer to this question: “What would the Dodgers do if you hit them 100 fly balls?”

From the L.A. Times/Larry Stewart:

(at the Southern California Sports Broadcasters awards luncheon)
When Vin Scully went to the microphone to introduce Porter, his broadcast partner for 28 years, the first thing he said was, “The Los Angeles Dodgers of Los Angeles. Just wanted to hear what it sounded likec. Incredible.”

I think that Arte Moreno renaming the Angels to “The Anaheim Angels of Los Angeles” is silly. He should just give it up already. I liked the name California Angels, and Anaheim Angels is good too. If they are going to change it, change it to Los Angeles Angels already. Of course they don’t actually play in Los Angeles, nor Los Angeles County. But at least it doesn’t sound stupid. Oh wait… it does.