Recent Discoveries

A few recent discoveries that have helped me through the week:

1. Vodafone’s new mobile Internet devices. These snappy USB modems plug right in to give you Internet on your computer whenever, wherever. With speeds up to 7.2mbs (as fast as you can realistically get broadband over a landline in London) and sans the hassle of BT and Orange’s ineptitude, I don’t see what’s stopping people (with perhaps the exception of the somewhat small 3GB monthly fair usage policy…). Of course, I just lost my last post, so maybe I speak a bit too soon.


2. Robert DeNiro’s character in Stardust. It basically makes the movie. See it if you’re up for a good laugh, and remember, it’s all about reputation.


3. Yahoo Pipes. A colleague turned me on to this AMAZING service by Yahoo that can help you manipulate incoming RSS feeds to produce your own bespoke feeds. See for example my friends feed that compiles the feeds from all my friends’ blogs and sorts them by most recent post to keep me up-to-date with their news.


4. Coffee-rubbed salmon. Tonight I decided to take inspiration from a recipe I had seen for a coffee rub for chicken breasts. I added about 2 tablespoons of freshly ground Peet’s coffee (yes I have it imported), ½ teaspoon of salt, 1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper, ½ teaspoon of garam masala, 1/2 teaspoon of herbs de provence, and 1 tablespoon of olive oil. I rubbed it over two fillets of salmon and grilled in the oven for about 20 minutes. Divine!


5. MiKA. You might recognise their songs from various Ugly Betty promotions (including the Season 2 promo with "Big Girl You Are Beautiful"), but they're so much more. I downloaded Life in Cartoon Motion last week and haven't been able to turn it off. I actually think it's becoming a problem.