Several people have asked me to provide my recipe for sushi rice; although it’s not an extremely complicated process full of secret ingredients, there is a fairly precise process to getting it right. Not to mention that you need to allocate adequet time. It’s not the best thing to try and make after a long, hard day at work due to the estimated hour and a half needed to prepare the rice.

One of the most important elements is the small amount of rice vinegar that’s added to the mix at the end. Rice vinegar takes boring, dry, tasteless rice to new heights of goodness. This small, secret ingredient adds just enough flavor to enhance your sushi.

If you like extra sweet rice, consider adding a pinch of sugar; although I would highly recommend just sticking to the vinegar and featuring the flavor of high quality fish and veggies instead of the sweet rice. Grab your chopsticks and enjoy!

(makes 1 cup sticky rice)

1. Bring 1 and 1/4 cup of cold water to a boil
2. Rinse 1 cup sushi rice until water runs clear then drain well.
3. Add the rice to the boiling water, cover and reduce to a simmer for 25 minutes
4. Remove pan from heat and let it sit for 15 minutes
5. Remove your rice from the pan and place it in a non-metallic bowl (preferably wood bowl)
6. Add 2-3 tsp of Rice vinegar
7. Cover the bowl with a towel and let the rice site for 30-40 minutes before making your sushi.

Serve cold and fresh on a rustic board or wood plate with lot’s of wasabi and chopsticks. If you can’t handle the chopsticks, use your bare hands. Using a fork or spoon is sacralige.

(Note: Never refrigerate sticky rice. It will become hard and crusty; essentially ruining any chance of a good sushi experience)

I was driving to work one morning and I stopped real quick to snap this picture of some trees in the fog. It’s a very strange and eerie picture to say the least.

This is a summary of a post that I made on photo.net on Sep 13, 2003. The incident was actually followed up with an article in our local Ohio paper which I’ll post here. I thought it was interesting how the conversation on this topic is still continuing. Actually, I was reminded about this because I happened to “stumble upon” a conversation about me again on Stumbleupon.com. It’s just a little concerning to me that normal people can be wandering around in public places minding their own business and then get pulled in for questioning. It’s not a big deal and I understand the reasons for it but we need to walk a careful path as we go forward in the world so we don’t become too paranoid, too limiting on our freedoms and too dependent on our government to decide what’s right and wrong. As someone important once said… “It can only lead to the dark side”. Below is the beginning of the post and my story. For further reading on the subject scroll down below the post to read the countless comments and discussions that have sprung up over the years. You can also read more here.

I’m writing this to alert all of you to be very aware WHERE you are shooting while in the United States! Yesterday I was out doing some street shooting and apparently I wandered a little too close to our Federal Building downtown with my camera and I was immediately ran down by four officers, detained and questioned for over an hour.

I currently live in Akron Ohio. A city of about 200,000 people in the northeast United States. During my lunch hour I went out on a beautiful sunny day excited to do some photography. I wandered down main street shooting various subjects for about a half hour and without finding much I wandered a little further down than I normally go which brought by our federal building. I wandered up in front of the building in the courtyard where they have a sculpture. I took several photos of the sculpture (shooting away from the building) I wandered around looking at a memorial they have there and then continued on my way. I crossed the street via the crosswalk and continued down the other side of the street. I took a picture of a woman in a car, a really old TV set in a window and a view of the construction of our new library being built downtown. Soon after I arrived at this spot I heard someone yelling. Being downtown I ignored it. They kept yelling and eventually I looked back and I saw 3 uniformed officers and one plain clothes man running toward me. I was very surprised that they closed in on me and the man asked me to step back over by the officers and he immediately told me to give him my bag and to put my hands above my head. By this time I was surrounded by men with guns and standing on the sidewalk in public view feeling embarrassed and confused without a really good reason since I was clearly out just enjoying the day and minding my own business.

The officer at this point proceeded to quickly go through my bag and he arrogantly asked me “why I was talking pictures of the Federal building and the businesses across the street?” I immediately realized where I was and why they were on me. I was blown away that it did not even cross my mind where I was on the day after September 11th. The officer asked me for my I.D. and proceeded to ask me a few more questions and then told me that I needed to come with him into the federal building so they could check my identification. I was immediately surprised that this had gone on as long as it had because I had a good explanation for what I was doing, I had proper I.D., I don’t look like a suspicious person, I am clearly born and raised in the United States, I was being more than cooperative AND I was in a public place minding my own business!

So I was interested to see how far this was going to go so I went with him. Mostly because I was curious and because I am a quiet, non-confrontational person. I’m not sure I really had a choice though and soon I found myself in the bowels of the basement in a grungy hole in the wall office surrounded by mold and security guards. At this point he asked me a few more questions, he asked me if there was anything that I needed to tell him before he started a background check and then he left me with an armed guard for about 15 minutes.

Read more….

This weekend my family held it’s second annual gathering at the Renaissance in Cleveland to watch the lighting of the Christmas tree in the square downtown. It’s becoming a bit of a tradition and I have to say it’s quite a festive time that helps us easily slide into the holiday season. Part of that tradition is reliving one of our family’s favorite Christmas films “A Christmas Story”. My wife and I, most of my family and well, most of the people I know can quote this movie with the the best of them. Actually it’s becoming a part of our vernacular and we reference parts of the movie all year long because it’s so ingrained in our lives.

Part of the experience at the hotel is the Christmas Story “Package” where (for a very small fee) you get to upgrade your room to include valay parking, a package of trinkets from the movie and a fun trolley ride to the Christmas Story House where a majority of the movie was shot back in 1983. If you want to read about how the movie has rejuvinated the local neighborhood and (probably) made the investor a semi-rich man you can click here and here.

The reason I’m writing this though is to show a photo that I thought was hilarious. My friend and I were sitting at a bar in Tower City and we noticed that someone had left an autographed photo of Jim Moralevitz on the bar. I immediately thought that “Someone is getting paid to sit and sign their signature and they were an extra in the movie!?”. I held on to the photo because I thought someone else might get a kick out of this. But after a little research I found out that Jim works the gift shop and tells stories about the movie, answers questions for rabid Ralphie fans and on occassion signs a photo for fun.

After watching the film again we noticed that you can barely see Jim in the movie which I thought was even more hiliarious that he was signing photos. But his largest contribution to the film was actually his second job of babysitting Peter Billingsley (Ralphie) and Ian Petrella (Randy) during the shooting!

From what I can see though, Jim is not looking to make a buck off of his appearance in the film. He’s a retiree that loved his fifteen minutes of fame on the set with the cast, enjoys that he’s a small part of a very iconic holiday movie scene (Fra-GEE-lay anyone?), appreciates that the house is rejuvenating his old neighborhood and genuinely loves the movie and appreciates that others do too. After all, he did a have a small part in something that we all love and revisit every year which is something not many people can say. Next year I might go to the house again and this time I might ask Mr. Moralevitz for a signed photo of my own just for fun and for the experience of hearing first hand, behind-the-scenes stories from a movie that I love.

From The Christian Science Monitor “On a recent Saturday, Mr. Moralevitz, a former polka-band drummer who was an extra in the movie, stands behind a display case sharing behind-the-scenes moments with visitors until he’s hoarse. “I had the pleasure of delivering the leg lamp,” he tells those stuck in front of him. No, he tells the latest person who asks, he was not the guy who shrugs when Mr. Parker asks what’s in the crate. He was the guy behind the crate.”

I recieved this letter today (in my email of course) regarding the Auman Family Estate. Apparently I have a long lost relative that just died and I’m now a millionaire! I’ve been around long enough to see enough scams that I immediately laughed at this one but I thought it was a good opportunity to point out the flaws for others that might be considering contacting someone like this in the hope that a letter like this might be legit. Let me break the bad news to you; it’s fake and we’re all just as poor as we were when we woke up today.

Here’s how it works:

Consumer receives a letter or e-mail advising them they are entitled to an inheritance from a distant relative they do not know. Consumer is asked to provide bank account and personal information to complete the necessary paperwork. Later a bill is received for inheritance taxes and the consumer is advised to send the money in advance of receiving the inheritance. The consumer sends the large sum of money, but never receives the inheritance, and in some cases may receive a worthless check.

Here’s a standard letter:

I know this Letter will come to you as a surprise, though I do not intend to embarrass you. Let me start by formally introducing My self to you. I am Honourable Denis Abidi of 50 Rue du Commerce, Lome-Togo a solicitor at law,personal attorney to Mr Peter Auman, nationality Of your country, who lost his life in recent Tsunami disaster while on vacation with his family in Thailand at the famous tourist resort Island of Phuket.

I have contacted you to assist in repatriating the fund valued at USD17,000,000.00 (Seventeen Million US Dollars) left behind by my client before it gets confiscated or declared unserviceable by the Security Finance Firm where this huge amount were deposited.

The said Security Finance Company has issued me a notice to provide the next of kin or have his account confiscated within the next twenty one official working days. Since I have been unsuccessful in locating the relatives, I seek the consent to present you as the next of kin to the deceased since you have the same last names, so that the proceeds of this account can be paid to you.

Therefore, on receipt of your positive response, we shall then discuss the sharing ratio and modalities for transfer.
I have all necessary information and legal documents needed to back you up for claim.
All I require from you is your honest cooperation to enable us see this transaction through. I guarantee that this will be executed under legitimate arrangement.

I look forward to receive your response
Best Regards.
Honourable Denis Abidi

IF you receive information like this via email research it here and possibly check the fraud information here before doing anything. Ask questions, probe and see if anyone can track down the source of the letter or email. The best action is to delete the email. If it’s legit they’ll surely take a more formal approach to contact you directly. I have to think that it’s much harder to get my Gmail account than it is to get my address or phone number.

If you haven’t seen my previous post about this book please click here. This is the first installment of scans from the book about Phrenology with the world’s most ambitious title by Professor O.S. Fowler. This book is from 1870 and it looks every day as old. I find things like this facinating because of the subject matter, the history and just the age of the find. By clicking the book you’ll be able to view the book but if you’d like images large enough to read you’ll need to view my gallery on Flickr and enlarge the images.

I was at my friend’s house a couple years ago just hanging out and I noticed a book on his shelf by Professor O.S. Fowler. The title seemed to go on forever and the book was pitifully beaten, stained and aged. I pulled it down and started looking through it and was amazed at the age of the book and the content. It was almost comical. everything from the title of the book to the descriptions in the table of contents just begged to be read. On top of it all the book clearly stated that it was ILLUSTRATED! Sweet! I think what fascinated me the most though was the books age. The date inside the book read 1870 and it looked it’s age. The pages are were all dark brown and they literally crumbled as you turned the pages. I vowed right there to take the book and scan it in so it could be preserved.

What I’ve found out since then is that Professor Fowler was a leading phrenologist of his time.

(This summary is from Wikipedia) Phrenology (from Greek: φρήν, phrēn, “mind”; and λόγος, logos, “knowledge”) is a theory which claims to be able to determine character, personality traits and criminality on the basis of the shape of the head (i.e., by reading “bumps” and “fissures”). Developed by German physician Franz Joseph Gall around 1800, the discipline was very popular in the 19th century. In 1843, François Magendie referred to phrenology as “a pseudo-science of the present day“^[1] Phrenology thinking was, however, influential in 19th century psychiatry and modern neuroscience.^[2] Phrenology is based on the concept that the brain is the organ of the mind, and that certain brain areas have localized, specific functions (see in particular, Brodmann’s areas) or modules (see modularity of mind).^[3] In other words, phrenologists believed that the mind has a set of different mental faculties, with each particular faculty represented in a different portion (or organ) of the brain. These areas were said to be proportional to a given individual’s propensities and the importance of a given mental faculty, as well as the overall conformation of the cranial bone to reflect differences among individuals.

The American brothers Lorenzo Niles Fowler (1811-1896) and Orson Squire Fowler (1809-1887) were leading phrenologists of their time. Orson, together with associates Samuel Wells and Nelson Sizer, ran the phrenological firm and publishing house Fowlers & Wells in New York City. Lorenzo spent much of his life in England where he set up the famous phrenological publishing house, L.N Fowler & Co., where he gained considerable fame with his phrenology head (a china head showing the phrenological faculties), which has become a symbol of the discipline.

Well, I have to say that it’s taken me several years to even think about the project and the book has further added years to it’s life and dust to it’s jacket but I finally got around to doing some scanning. The bad thing is that I don’t think the entire book will tolerate being handled and scanned at this point so I’m going to try to properly light and photograph the pages at some point. But I have managed to scan the cover, the spine, the title pages, the book introduction and a couple pages of the table of contents which I’ll post here in the next couple days. I’m hoping someday I’ll get around to photographing the entire book and turning it into a PDF so it can be read.

Not that we’ll learn from it in any scientific manner but what I think is interesting here (and what can be learned) is that knowledge, opinion and truth are always changing. Just by scanning the contents you’ll see nods to an era that is FAR gone and bordering on comical ignorance but in it’s day claimed to be professional scientific fact. I’m sure that it’s not ALL wrong and laughable but for the most part this book is a fascinating look into the mind of a man who felt he had the most in-depth and thorough knowledge of this wide ranging collection of subject matter in his day. I love chapter titles like “Sexual vigor the great marital and life Prerequisite”, “All Jews inherit Abrahan’s Mental Traits” and my favorites “Why a full bust and well-developed mammaries beautify” and the incredibly quixotic “Whom she marries, controls every Woman’s Destiny”. I bet you can’t wait to get to chapter I, section II, page 378 to read this jem.

What I believe we can learn from this book is to always know that we’re always learning. We’re always molding the view of society - what we know, what we believe and what is right and I’m not sure we’ll all ever agree but we all must agree that sometime in the future our views and what society accepts as the norm will almost inevitably change as we evolve. I would really love to read the chapter on raising perfect children though. There has to be some great jems of wisdom on tap within those pages. I’ll take any advice I can get.