Innovation is great. It has brought about the very things that make modern life modern. That’s why the things I saw this evening scared me so much.

There was a class here at Stanford this past quarter where students developed Facebook apps. The goal was to acquire as many users as possible. For the course final, each student group gave a 2.5 minute presentation about its app.

I went to the presentations this evening, where I was joined by hundreds of other students, faculty, and members of the public. What did I learn?

• Everybody there seemed to have drunk the Kool-Aid — Facebook apps will save the world!!1!
• The successful apps were simple and of minimal utility — Send hotness! Send hugs!
• The unsuccessful apps tried to do something useful — Save the rainforest?

The most popular app in the bunch, Send Hotness, has garnered over 5 million installations, and it is generating real revenue for its student creators: over $[number removed at request of owners]/day. It didn’t exist three months ago. Impressive. But is “sending hotness” adding value? If it is, I don’t see it.

Only the petty and the puerile apps seem to have significant traffic, yet everybody at the presentation seemed convinced that Facebook apps are the next big thing (or, worse yet, that they are important to the strategy of normal companies).

Real money is lining up behind the development of Facebook apps. The Valley is placing a bet, data be damned. We are so screwed.

That, or I’m just jealous. Anybody want to collaborate on an app?

Baking is relaxing. That’s why, seeking a way to unwind after finals, I decided to bake bread today.

I’ve been baking things from scratch for years now, but I’ve never baked a loaf of yeast-leavened bread. I’ve made plenty of quick breads, but those were all leavened with baking soda. The closest I’ve come is yeast-leavened cinnamon rolls.  I’m not sure why.

There was an article in the New York Times about no-knead bread last year, which has prompted a mini-renaissance in home bread baking. The draw is, as the name suggests, the removal of the kneading requirement. The downside is the greatly increased rising time. I’m impatient and don’t mind kneading, so I went the traditional route when the bug to bake bit.

I ended up making bread by hand based on an Allrecipes recipe that was writen for a bread machine.  The main changes were honey instead of sugar and multigrain cereal instead of oatmeal. After a few hours, I enjoyed success:

The loaf was beautiful.

I let it cool for a while before slicing into it.  As the knife broke through the crust, I was swept up in sweet aromas.  And the taste?  Splendid.  A firm, crispy crust; a soft inside.  Tight, dense crumb.  Notes of butter and honey.

Mmm.

After three months, the experiment has ended.

Batta was in town for business this past weekend, so we hung out on Saturday in San Francisco playing tourists.  After visiting Alcatraz, we met up with Voda and some other Rose alumns for dinner at Destino.  Destino is a tapas restaurant, and the menu was what finally forced the experiment to end.

You see, for the past three months I have been… a vegetarian.  I’ve rarely been eating meat for the past few years, so when an incredibly long line for beef hamburgers at a “welcome grad students” picnic conspired with hunger to drive me to eat a Boca burger, I decided to take the plunge.

My motivation wasn’t health or ethical concerns as much as it was the challenge.  I wanted to see what it was like, to see how others treated me.  I decided that I would continue the experiment until forced by social pressure to deviate.  One other thing — I wouldn’t tell anybody what I was doing, but I would answer truthfully if asked directly.

I figured that somebody would notice what I was doing, but nobody — not one person — ever brought it up.  If they noticed that I shied away from burger joints and avoided pepperoni pizza, they didn’t mention it.  I perceived no difference in treatment.

The tapas finally did me in.  Virtually all of them featured some sort of dead critter, and the group was sharing everything that was ordered, so seeking only the veggie options would have been unworkable.  And so, for the first time since mid-September, I enjoyed the taste of beef, chicken, and fish.

What’s next?  For efficiency reasons, I’m going to continue to emphasize plants in my diet, but I’ll make exceptions for certain holidays and traditions.   Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to slip off my leather shoes and go to bed.

Yesterday, I checked another item off of my life to-do list: rush the field after a football game.

I sat one row back from the field  in the end zone at yesterday’s Big Game between Cal and Stanford.  Remarkably, Stanford earned and kept the lead, and when the final second ticked away, I was one of the first to the grass.  The sheriffs in riot gear had no prayer of stopping the thousands of jubilant Stanford students, so they stood off to the side.

The experience was exactly as I had imagined it: wonderful.

What has been consuming my life? Tagg, you’re it.