It’s funny to say, but it’s true. The things I blog about tend to be the things I’m most interested in. I love this policy. For one it’s flexible. As my interests change, so goes the blog. For another, it allows for diversity. I can post a photo of a car, followed by something technical, followed by something about cheese, followed by something I cooked, followed by something I did outside, without batting an eye. I frequently look back at what I’ve posted and think to myself, “Damn, this is such a great blog! I love this stuff.”

I would go so far as to say that having this blog has made my life more interesting, because I’m often motivated to do something unusual or kind of wacky by virtue of its inherent blogability. The generally positive feedback I receive in return creates a virtuous circle which leads me to seek out yet more off the beaten path adventures—to blog about.

Many people advise would-be bloggers to focus on a single subject and stick with it. I applaud the people who are able to do this well, and there are some very good, and very lucrative subject-specific blogs out there. But man, forcing me to narrow my focus down beyond just “stuff I like” would be disastrous. I would lose interest.

I’m sure I’m not the only person out there who likes the exact same combination of things as I do, but at the same time there doesn’t have to be even one person with the same taste as mine. That’s not the point. The whole difference between blogging and just keeping a journal is the intent to share. As I see it, the value of Justinsomnia is not only in the individual post, it’s also in the sometimes surprising difference between posts. You might have stumbled upon my blog searching for something technical or food-related, and if you’re tickled by the fact that my interests extend beyond that one thing, hopefully you’ll continue to follow along.

Even though blog writing is closely related to newspaper column writing in function, I actually tend to view Justinsomnia more as an ongoing, interactive art project. Each post is like a small canvas that I can fill with words, photos, code, and occasionally even sound and video. Anyone on the internet can interact with my posts by leaving a comment, which actually changes the very nature of the work, particularly in the “eyes” of the search engines. Over time trends emerge in my posts, not unlike Eric Tabuchi’s Typologies, and it wouldn’t surprise me if at some point in the future there aren’t exhibitions dedicated to the blog post as work of art.

Half of the black trumpet mushrooms I foraged went into a very tasty, but not very photogenic coq-au-vin (chicken with wine stew) that I made in the slow cooker—just in time to feed two surprise guests a week ago. I resuscitated the leftovers tonight as sort of improvised “French jambalaya”. Très yummy.

The rest went into a soup, which I cooked with sauteed onions in chicken stock, before pureeing. I finished it off with a little cream and some sherry, resulting in a fairly rich, flavorful, almost potent soup. I think I may repurpose the rest as pasta sauce.

Makes me want to eat in solidarity with Haiti:

People with yellow tickets received a 100-pound sack of bulgur, lentils and cooking oil — enough to feed a family of five for three weeks. Within minutes of the distribution, the smell of cooking wafted through the air.

After a week of waking up at 4am, 5am, and 6am and going to bed at 8pm, 9pm, and 10pm, you’d think we would have spent our first weekend back from France just chilling. Nope. After work on Friday we picked up a Zipcar and started heading east. We made it to Groveland, about 140 miles west of San Francisco before stopping at a cheap motel for the night.

We got going early the next morning, on our way towards Mono Lake through Yosemite. Previously we’d entered the park from the south to visit Yosemite Valley, and from the west to go snowshoeing near Badger Pass, but we’d never driven across Yosemite through the Tioga Pass, California’s highest road at 9,945′ above sea level.

Though Mono Lake was our intended destination, it was impossible not to stop along the way in Yosemite. The weather was just perfect, in the high 80s, and the skies were absolutely clear. We saw Half Dome from Olmsted Point, the stunning Tenaya Lake, and of course the Tioga Pass. We made it to Mono Lake around lunchtime, so we stopped in at Bodie Mike’s BBQ in Lee Vining before heading out to explore further.

Note: I’m experimenting with adding larger versions of the photos on my blog. Each of the 380px wide images in this post links to an 800px wide version. If you’re viewing this post on my blog directly (as opposed to in a feedreader) clicking on the image should display the larger version with a sexy animated transition. Please let me know what you think.

Update: As of my Responsive Redesign in May 2015, I’m displaying the large version of photos in my posts, so I’ve removed the ability to click on the photo to enlarge it, which no longer had any purpose—and wasn’t very effective on touchscreen devices.

On Tuesday, Stephanie and I met up with Andy, Meredith, and Jonathan over at Bloodhound for the third in a series of butchering demonstrations/cookouts held there. The first one I’d heard about from Andy after the fact, and the second one I was out of town for, so I was very happy that I’d finally be able to get in on the fun.

Whereas the two previous events involved a whole pig (ah, memories), this time they were working with a side of beef hung from the ceiling. Stephanie and I arrived just as the two chef-cum-butchers (Ryan Farr from 4505 Meats and Taylor Boetticher from the Fatted Calf), were taking it apart. Over the course of an hour they disassembled the side into various cuts, while all the scraps and fat went into a meat grinder to make sliders.

The whole thing was kind of a spectacle. It was way off the hipness charts, even by San Francisco standards—so you can probably imagine the orgy of cameras, DSLRs, and iPhones all snapping away. I have to admit I did feel a little self-conscious, but I still managed to get a few good shots of the carnage.

While we were watching, they were bringing around homemade corndogs and these amazing grilled peaches wrapped with pancetta and basil to whet our appetites. By the time the meat came off the grill, the place had devolved into a kind of feeding frenzy. They’d bring out trays of food which would be completely picked clean in a matter of seconds. I didn’t get much of a chance to appreciate the various cuts of beef that they’d grilled up, partly because it was such a madhouse to get any. But the sliders—omg they were awesome. I probably had three.

Those last three remind me of pat’s vs. geno’s.