Eclectic Views

    
In my best Al Haig voice:

I'M IN CHARGE HERE!

Actually, I'm just the caretaker.  Carry on.
  

    

And yet another adjustment to the hosting roster here in the Pre.vue
conference!

After a lot of back-and-forth with pre.vue cohosts (wellelp) and (arturner),
we've decided to bring another WELL member aboard to help out around here.
Please welcome the fabulous CJ Phillips, aka (cjp)!

CJ has been a member of The WELL since 1998. She's an artist and a pet
owner and a baker of erotic cupcakes. Perhaps she'll elaborate on one or
more of these subjects.
  

    
Let's take the cupcakes first.
  

    
Somehow I knew that would be the first question.  To make it short, a
good friend had a breast reduction (yeah, I know, guys, but really, not
everybody enjoys looking like Carol Doda, especially when one has
cruised way past 55 and one's love muffins are hitting one's knees), so
we had a party in celebration of her recovery, and I made itty bitty
titty cupcakes.  White frosting with pink centers and a a dried
wolfberry poking up in the center as, uh, decoration.

I just made another batch of cupcakes this afternoon, which I find
coincidental and weird, although they're plain vanilla inside and out. 
Got a link to highlights from Amy Sedaris's new cookbook and tried out
her famous cupcake recipe.  Highly recommended! 
http://www.amysedarisrocks.com/recipes.htm  I also made the rabbit
snacks for my bun and guinea pig, but so far, they're just lying down
on the eagerly proffered crackers...
  

    

I'm intrigued by the idea of cooking for a guinea pig and a rabbit.

After they left enough of their hair on 'em, did they finally eat the
crackers?
  

    
So far the crackers have turned into bedding dust.  I must have done
something wrong, or else I have little Calvin Trillins in fur jackets
pooping on my floor.
  

    

   The Cisco Chair?

"These days, the company is peddling e-mail software, video conferencing
systems, cable TV boxes — even furniture — as it tries to break out of the
data center and get its products in front of ordinary office workers."
<http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/24/technology/24cisco.html>

Evidently it's trying to promote itself as a purveyor of "unified
communications" and not just hardware. For about $300,000 you can buy
"TelePresence, an elaborate videoconferencing setup that includes video
cameras, huge displays and even the surrounding desk and leather chairs".

Which leads to the

   Quote Of The Day:

"Cisco is kind of like the Madonna of networking," said Mark Sue, an analyst
with RBC Capital Markets. "It is continuously trying to reinvent itself."