2 new peeps, sourdough, Twilight, and digital technology.

The super cool bonus part of this whole blogging thing is meeting new like minded people even if only in cyber space. Keeping up with all this interwebbing takes some dedication, although it's like sourdough starter and can be resuscitated after some neglect. More on sourdough later.

So when my usual blogger pals like non-shampooing Joanna (yes, Jo, really you this time) is off with her Edward Cullen like new BF forcing him to wear her bathrobe and watch Twilight; and River is off saving cats, making awesome food, obsessing over Austen (who doesn't), and travelling the country as a champion ballroom dancer or whatever it is she does (have you ever revealed it?) I get a chance to branch out and find some new cool blogs.

Enter my 2 new blogs to follow this week: Stay Vegan and but what does she eat? check them out. Stay Vegan has an awesome bizarro cartoon and but what does she eat? has some great food porn and a nice review of NYC vegan restaurant Sacred Chow.

Now for the Twilight and technology...

So Twilight was released last night at midnight and I got to watch it the second it was released from the comfort of my own home via the Roku and Amazon on Demand. I got the Roku almost a year ago when it first came out to get the streaming Netflix on my TV. The Roku device is $99 and the streaming is free with a netflix subscription and I still get DVD rentals in the mail. Not every movie is available streaming, but it keeps me in British period pieces, MI-5 and the Office-both British and American. I'm not really British, I just don't get BBC America.
The cool new part is that the Roku also plays movies on demand from Amazon. You can either rent or buy them and they're right on your TV with no packaging waste, shipping, or DVD's to store. Pretty cool huh? I'll probably cancel HBO soon, but I really need my Big Love, Flight of the Conchords, and Bill Maher fixes each week, so I'm not sure I'll replace it just yet.

I'm also an early adopter of the Amazon Kindle. I commute on the train to work, so carrying around a small device that has all my books on it and the New York Times is so perfect for me. It's pricey, but again, you don't pay shipping-the electronic wireless delivery service is free-and books are delivered in seconds. The only thing I've found they don't have for Kindle is Harry Potter and many older vegan cookbooks. I do have the Veganomicon, Vegan Express, Vegan Soups and Stews, this Crazy Vegan Life, and the Thrive Diet on the Kindle. There are more available I just seem to have most of them in book form already. Classics like the complete Jane Austen collection are about 99 cents. Again, no shipping, packaging, paper books to end up in landfills, that sort of thing.

And don't even get me started on how fantastic the ipod is...

OK, back to old fashioned things like sourdough bread. I'm making some now from some sourdough starter. Sourdough is a long tradition in my family and although my current starter came from King Arthur Flour a few years ago, it picks up a nice local New York flavor and each loaf is uniquely my own. There are different yeast strains in every location, so even if you took San Francisco starter and made it anywhere else it wouldn't taste exactly the same.

You can buy starter at King Arthur Flour, but if you would like me to send you some of mine, shoot me an e-mail at jennlynskey at gmail dot com with your address and I'll hook it up.

I'm off to the post office to ship out Mandy's sourdough starter and adobo seasoning...It's my bribe to get some of her own maple syrup. She taps the trees in her yard. That's some local agriculture.