While shopping at a high-end grocery store last week, I paused at the Asian aisle. Dozens of different instant ramen packages lined the aisles with characteristic military precision. And I figured, what the heck, I might as well try out a cheap, easy dish.

So, today, I present a short review of ”Nissin” brand instant ramen.

I followed the directions exactly: I brought two and a half cups of water to a boil, then added the noodles. After a few minutes, I added the contents of the flavor packet. There was a strong fragrance when the flavoring packet hit the bowl.

I immediately removed it from heat as I stirred the flavoring packet into the dish, then poured half of it into a bowl. The actual flavor is medium intensity; noticeable but no power. And with all that water, it makes enough for two rather filling servings. I suspect that less water would create a more intense dish, though.

It felt surprisingly like comfort food. Much easier to eat with chopsticks than a knife, fork, or spoon, too.

Quite enjoyable.

Brennen has managed to distill a crucial, often unnoticed aspect of digital communication in his post, the one about the real problem of networked text communication. His post is lucid, descriptive, flowing, and terrifically important.

His post uses a beautiful metaphor to describe the tendency amongst connected geeks to cycle amongst multiple input streams, because there’s always something new to read. Maybe it’s an e-mail, maybe it’s an article on slashdot, maybe your buddy in Nevada is back online. Whatever. And I actively dislike that cycle.

Well, this is certainly an odd feeling: I have Windows running on my MacBook laptop now.

I ordered a copy of XP (with Service Pack 2) off eBay about a week ago, and it came today. I couldn’t resist installing it, and as expected, the Mac side of things went swimmingly, but the Windows side was annoying. Not terrible, just mildly annoying. I’ll write about it here in case anyone reading this wants to do something similar.

First, the Windows install booted into a blue text screen to start the installation. That kinda horrifies me, that Windows still needs to start in a text mode to install. BeOS wasn’t like that back in, oh, 1990.

I decided to cancel installation and ejected the CD. I rebooted, only to discover that the laptop kept dropping to a black DOS text screen with a message insisting that I insert a ”bootable disc.” Even when I put in my OS X install disc; same thing. Which meant that the Windows installation had rewritten the Master Boot Record to boot only off the Windows partition, even though I’d only loaded the first screen of the install process. Brilliant!

I went ahead and installed Windows, the rest of which went fine. I then immediately tried to boot off my OS X install disc, and went searching for an option to make the system boot off the CD. Windows has no such option. On the Mac, you just select “Startup Disk” in System Preferences. Why doesn’t Windows have an option or utility that lets you explicitly reboot to a CD and/or change the boot order? I guess it relies on the BIOS to do that. But I can’t get into the BIOS on this machine.

Anyvay. I fired up Internet Explorer and searched for ”force boot CD OS X”. I learned that you can force a Mac to boot from the CD drive by holding down the ”C” key while you boot. So I did that, crossing my fingers, and I was able to boot off my OS X Install CD. Whew! From there, I selected my OS X partition as the Startup Disk, and it booted back fine. At least Windows didn’t corrupt my OS X partition (I’ve read of it happening).

I then installed rEFIt, a boot manager for MacBooks, and was impressed to find there was no configuration. I just installed, and when I rebooted I had a beautiful boot menu listing my OS X and Windows partitions. I was now dual-booting.

I booted back into Windows, and immediately downloaded and installed Firefox, AVG Anti-Virus Free, and Spybot â€” Search & Destroy. No viruses or spyware for me! Once I verified that my installation was virus- and spyware-free, I updated Windows, downloaded a few classic PC games, and spent an hour and a half blasting Martians as Commander Keen, Nazis as B.J. Blazcowitz, and demons as the nameless marine in DOOM.

I freely admit, that part was great fun.

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Tonight, one of the boys at AWANA left his jacket behind, so I brought it home so I could return it to him next week. I draped it over a bag on one side of my bedroom.

Two minutes ago, one of the cats wandered in and sniffed it. She craned her neck forward, smelling deeply. She continued to sniff, all along the collar and along one side. She reared up on her back legs and put two paws on the jacket, sniffing and sniffing with the expression of a wine connossieur swishing a mouthful of a $500 wine in his mouth.

I wonder how many streams she smelled, how many peanut butter sandwiches, how many trails in the woods, how many schoolrooms and candy bars and books.

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Last night, I dreamed.

I dreamt I went to work naked…and realized this and bought good-looking clothes on the way.

I dreamt I got lost…and asked for directions.

I dreamt I couldn’t remember how to get home…so I slept in a churchyard, and awoke (still dreaming) to yellow maple leaves below a clear blue sky.

I dreamt that a strange man asked me to help him, and I dealt with him calmly and kindly.

I awoke calmed, relaxed, and refreshed.

(And late for work.)

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I seem unable to get a good night’s sleep lately. The pattern repeats: I wake up feeling drugged. I get to work, feeling tired, but as the day chugs along I chug along with it. By evening, I’m ready to tackle a few projects. Once my bedtime rolls around, I’m energized and lay awake in bed, unable to fall asleep.

It doesn’t appear to be stressed. I’ve had several busy days at work in the past week, but all the work has been involving things I accomplished right then. Nothing’s hanging over my head. My other responsibilities are downright mundane at this point.

And my personal life has been pretty placid. I don’t find myself arguing inside my head with recalcitrant friends. Indeed, my friendships are mostly solid right now; I got together with several groups of friends recently.

My nightly habits are pretty calming. I still use the computer past 9:00 p.m., which I’d like to stop, but still: I make sure to take a shower after 9:00, finish up what I’m working on, and get into bed around 10:00, at which point I read magazines and books for half an hour while I munch on Triscuits. I then floss (I keep a container of it next to my bed), drink some water, switch off the light with a satisfying <click>, and snuggle down.

And lay awake for a couple hours.

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And, suddenly, it’s autumn. It’s been in the high 70′s and low 80′s every day through Wednesday of this week, and everyone’s been enjoying the daily blessing with short sleeves and smiles.

Then on Thursday, the average temperature dropped thirty degrees. It’s cold and rainy and a bit windy. But at least the other shoe has dropped. It’s early October, and it finally feels like autumn.

I’ve spent the newly-minted season busier than ever at work. I’ve just had one thing after another piling up, never to the breaking point, but just enough to keep me thoroughly occupied from 9:01 a.m. to 4:56 p.m. every day.

Not that this is a bad thing. It keeps me occupied, and I don’t have to find things to do. Better, I don’t feel that nagging guilt I get when I go home after a quiet day.

Meanwhile, I’m having great fun working on a secret Syllable project. Can’t reveal any details, of course, but it’s programming-related, and boy is it fun to have a real programming project again.

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Just read this on ZenChill and it struck me powerfully:

Stress is only my resistance to what is now.

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It’s October 1^st, which means it’s time to begin my preparations for Halloween.

I put out my Jack O’Lanterns today. These are realistic foam pumpkins that I’ve painted black Jack O’Lantern faces onto. They go next to my front door, in the little cluster of bushes underneath the big window.

I lined the front walk with tin candle holders, that all have Jack O’Lantern faces on them. Starting a week before Halloween, I’ll light candles in them every evening, so passers-by will see twenty smiling faces flickering at them from my walkway.

I began to go through my annual set of Halloween books and movies:

• A Halloween Reader a collection of early poems, short stories, and plays about Halloween written before 1920
• October Dreams, a collection of short stories, poems, and personal reflections on Halloween by modern authors
• Ray Bradbury’s The Halloween Tree, in which a group of boys are sucked through the millenia in search of a lost friend, and witness Halloweens throughout time, borne on Bradbury’s peerless prose
• The original 1978 Halloween, still a fantastic (and chilling) film. This is probably a primary reason for increased safety concerns these days.
• The 1922 Nosferatu, which shows its age after repeated vieweings
• It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
• Garfield’s Halloween Adventure, which scores points for one of the freakiest animated sequences in any primetime animated series ever
• Something Wicked This Way Comes, which has some fantastic scenes and cinematography, but doesn’t hold together as a movie as well as I’d like
• Ernest Scared Stupid. Okay, I watched this when I was a kid, and it’s always been special for me. It’s not at all scary, but it’s goofy fun. And there are a few good moments.

I’m always looking for recommendations….

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