Naughty Biscuit

GSSP - Adin, CA

2008-07-14T12:24:00.000-07:00

I had the pleasure of spending 5 hot days and 4 lovely nights with Inga in Adin, California 2 weeks ago for the annual GSSP (Golden State Star Party). My mom, after suffering though some vehicle problems, joined us the second day in her camper (along with Kelsi who was very well behaved the whole trip).

I had never been to an overnight astronomy event and it proved to be quite the experience. If you aren't completely in love with gear of all types, this is definitely NOT your thing! Between camping gear and astronomy gear for two people, we had a challenging packing job which included a rented car top cargo box.

We brought:
1 tent (sleeps 8 or 9) - admittedly, overly large for two people!
2 pop-up shades - absolutely essential
2 camp chairs
2 sleeping bags w/inflatable pads
4 telescopes (18UC Dob, 14RCX400, AR6, 120ST) and all of the necessary equipment which is too vast to list.

The days were filled with the smoke from some of the 1000+ fires in California so far this year and fierce heat (107 was the high one day). We were blessed with wind each day. Sometimes just a light cooler breeze, sometimes gusting hot nastiness that tested our tent stakes. I have to give kudos to the special red aluminum REI stakes...they held tight and we lost no gear. The wind did help in two ways. It helped keep us cooler than we otherwise would have been and it helped push the smoke out of the valley were in.

I took pictures of some of the surrounding area and other folks' rigs, which I will post at some point. It was quite the shindig with 300+ attendees from far & wide (we drove over 300 miles to get there).

Of the four nights we were there, the last was the best by far. Although I could go on and on about how wonderful it was, I could not do justice to the experience. You just had to be there. Friday night we stayed up until the sun started to come up (and ruin our perfect eastern horizon). The highlights of the viewing for me were looking at the M24 star cloud, which Inga found along with the two dark nebulas (B92 & 93?), seeing Io & its shadow transit across the face of Jupiter, and another fantastic view of the Veil Nebula in its entirety. We checked out the usual suspects (over 100+ items) in our sessions. We also got to watch an Iridium flare as it moved through Bootes and into Scorpius.

We managed to wander over to Dob lane on Friday night and caught up with Alvin Huey and his 30" Dob. We got to look through it at several items and were suitably wowed by the experience (especially the 8-10' climb up the ladder!). Despite my nervousness the next day, I asked Alvin if he would mind autographing my copy of one of his books concerning the ARP galaxies. He cheerfully agreed. We also met up with Albert Highe on the first day, which is always a treat as we had first met Albert at one of our first public star parties and were treated to some fabulous views through one of his custom light weight Dobs. In fact, he was featured in Sky & Telescope earlier this year.

We met some very nice folks, especially our hosts for the party, the Albaugh family, who own Frosty Acres Ranch, where the party took place. They provided one hell of a fine meal on Saturday night with their own beef. I admit, Inga and I gobbled up quite a lot and finished things off with 3 home made cupcakes each :)

I think the one thing I will remember most was the town of Adin (population 500). It's a cozy town along interstate 299 up near mount Lassen in Modoc county. Ash creek runs through the town and next to Adin Supply Company which is the town store/deli built in 1906. The people working there were some of the most friendly I've met. On Sunday, before the started our drive back to the bay area, Inga and I stopped back into town where I just HAD to try the biscuits & gravy at Adin Supply Co. We then walked over to the creek and dipped our toes in (or, more precisely, we waded in). The water was brisk and incredibly refreshing. I swore next year I'd bring a bathing suit.

We're already planning to attend next year and are anxiously looking forward to it in June 2009.

MacWorld Virgin

2008-01-16T11:39:00.000-08:00

Greetings from the Moscone Center in San Francisco. My first MacWorld Expo experience!

I'd have to say, for a serious gearhead, this is the place to be...if you're a Mac addict, that is.
I've just picked up Parallels so I can run my Atlas mount and CCD's on the same laptop (I hope!)

Mom, Cathy and Michael are visiting for the event so we all met up here :)

I'm sure to have all sorts of little goodies and other show swag by the time the day is through, but that's the whole point, right?

RIGHT!

No skirts in Islam (especially for men)

2007-10-03T21:48:00.000-07:00

In three days I will be off on another adventure holiday with my father. This year we're heading to the dark continent! Well, perhaps the lighter side of the dark continent. Morocco to be precise.

I had gotten accustomed to wearing one of my Utilikilts on my forays to other lands (and most other places) but in this case, due to the conservative nature of the culture in Morocco, I will forgo my favorite travel garment as I do not wish to attract any attention of the dangerous sort (any more than normal, at least). Depsite being mistaken as Scottish most places I've traveled, it really isn't worth the risk. You might argue that if it's that dangerous, why am I going?
The answer?
Because it was too late to change to Kenya by the time it occured to me.

I will be taking my 9x63 binoculars and an astronomy book for binoculars in hopes that we will have at least one clear night in the Sahara desert to enjoy the kind of clear seeing I will never get anywhere in the US. If I could have figured out how to bring my yet to be purchased ED80, I'd have done that instead. But we travel light so that was out.

I am the proud owner of a new Macbook with Aperture installed (and nothing else). I've been trying to get my scuba pictures "white balanced" and tuned up a bit before I start posting them to the web (and possibly here if you're lucky!) The little mac is also going to be the brain behind the new autoguiding/goto mount I'll be purchasing upon my return so I can start my eagerly anticipated career in astrophotography (if you think of it more like a paper route kind of "career") I hope to have pictures from on the earth, beneath the ocean and far out into space before long.

Then I'll have to revamp my poor decrepit web page so I have somewhere to put the pictures.

Virginia Gena Harris

2007-07-01T22:28:00.000-07:00

Today I learned of the death of a friend of mine, Virginia Gena Harris. She passed away yesterday, Saturday, June 30th, 2007.

Gena was also my therapist for the last two years. She had helped me with a great number of things in my life and was always eager to see me each week. Gena had a very calming effect on me and she was one of only two people I trusted enough to talk to about my life in such detail. Our sessions regularly ran a bit over time, but she never seemed to mind, even though it bothered me. I always took it as her just being a kind soul who really wanted to help me. For that and all of those terrible hours you guided me through with patience and understanding, thank you. I never got to tell you how much you helped me.

I will never forget you, Gena.

Update (as opposed to downdate)

2007-05-27T14:29:00.000-07:00

September 2006 was my last entry. This might lead you to believe nothing significant, noteworthy, or memorable has happened since then...

Well it has!

Things to contemplate:
A trip to Thailand (This happened shortly after my last entry)
Two more scuba trips to the Channel Islands (September 2006, May 2007)
Model trains took up a whole room (and a commensurate amount of money)
Telescopes (and the associated astronomy learning) were added to my pile of stuff that has begun to encroach on my remaining living space.

But I'll get more into each of these in separate entries, since each so rightfully deserves much more than a quick blurb.

For now, let's just say I'm naked, with a box of mini powdered donuts and a half gallon of milk.

Or not.

Boys and their Toys

2006-09-12T23:50:00.000-07:00

You know that saying every "modern" woman likes to bandy about on how to tell the difference between a boy and a man? (answer: the price of his toys) WELL, let me tell you, that is no longer the case, my dear XX readers.

I got to witness first hand how boy toys are no longer the innocent, "Go get your penny jar" type of investments. What wallet-busting hobby are we talking about?

Why, model trains, of course. I've re-discovered this ancient and respected use of copious amounts of space, time and money.

However, it took an 8 year old to really show me how it's done. He talked like one of the octogenarians hobbling about the train place, with a glint in his eye. Extolling the virtues of "N" scale and how this particular locomotive was a great deal because of the performance(which he then spouted off) and that it was on sale. He then began grilling me over my choice of HO scale track, engine, and rolling stock (commonly called "box cars", etc by the uninitiated). I was struck by irrational fear and the desire to punt this child through the plate glass door. After all, they were MY trains, damn it! Punk sprog was showing me up in front of, well....hmm....

So yes, even the "kiddie" trains command a hefty amount of cash these days. Unless you want to try out the little wooden ones that you push around with your finger...

Put it on my tab

2006-08-18T23:23:00.000-07:00

Rules for leaving your credit card at a bar with an open tab:

1) Don't tell anyone you don't trust (or know) you've done it
2) Don't open a tab for yourself if you only intend to have one drink (you're only tempting fate)
3) Don't drink so much that when you leave the bar you forget to cash out and get your card back
4) Call the bar once you get home and realize you left your card with an open tab (they'll put your card in the safe until you're sober enough to drive back and get it)

Can you guess which of the above happened to me?
2 million zarquats if you guess right!

It's the table, stupid

2006-08-17T23:23:00.000-07:00

What's wrong with it? All day I worked on putting something ONTO the table just right. Not just one something, it was several somethings. Then, with half the day spent, I noticed it. The TABLE wasn't right...why didn't I see that when I got started? Or at any time between then and later (when it was too late to undo what was already done)?

Because it was the table, stupid. No one ever looks at the actual table before putting things on it. Is it too high? Too low? Not level?

Three hours later, with a table worthy of a robot wars competition completely disassembled (it wouldn't fit in my car as a whole table), I had to go back to work to give over these proto-table parts to someone who specializes in table design (obviously! since it was this same person who had given me a custom built, incorrectly sized one to begin with) and have them make the table three inches shorter.

Somewhere, there is some minor demon laughing its ass off. I'm sure of it.

Rhymes with Ubiquitous

2006-08-02T23:11:00.000-07:00

I don't remember when I last wrote a poem. It was quite a long time ago. I used to be a prolific writer. It was somehow easlier to express those things which words fail to describe by putting them into some form of whimsy.

No doubt you'll be crying aloud in vain about "Well, where is it then?"

Tsk, tsk....

I have an irrational fear that were I to put my ramblings into the public eye, no doubt many years later I would come to find someone other than myself had claimed to have written them.

Maybe some day I'll collect them all up, hand them over to someone with my best interests in mind, and reap my just rewards.

Uh huh.

In Sickness & Health ( but mostly sickness )

2006-02-20T22:51:00.000-08:00

You know how you get that funny smell late on a Friday, just as your work day is winding up? That odd tinge to everything that you try to ignore because you know what it means. It means you'd better have some Theraflu in the meds cabinet at home, and your weekend is going to suck.

I had just that sensation this past Friday at the appointed hour. I dutifully checked for my Theraflu when I got home and then waited.....

and waited.....

and waited.....

And then I woke up and had to go back to work on Monday. Now normally you would think this shouldn't be a source of irritation, but think about it. I spent the whole weekend preparing for being sick. Taking vitamins, drinking more water and juice than normal (and remembering!) and never changing out of my Hugh Hefner outft.

And still, I have that same sensation, except now I have a sore throat, slight sinus pain and general body aches. Flu maybe? The slow, three week, build up until you are incapacitated type of flu? I guess we'll have to wait and see. Oh joy.

While I Grumble and Groan

2006-02-15T00:56:00.000-08:00

You would think I could make time for this. No, really. I get all excited to share some of my ever so profound experiences and what happens? Life happens. Life like the sort you get when you stop thinking about what you ate for breakfast and it's almost midnight only to recall you didn't HAVE breakfast. THAT sort of life.

I have to thank a very dear friend of mine for punting my brain back into geat tonight...or this morning, as the case is. I sorely miss her even though she's never far from my thoughts. Put that together with rediscovering a song from the Donnie Darko soundtrack, and you've got a very teary biscuit.

So much to do, so little space in which to do it. Inside my head, that is....speaking of which, did you realize that drinking the full daily compliment of ten 8 ounce glasses of water can have amazing health benefits? Like....*gasp* improved memory? Who'da thunk it?

I swear, I'll post more details about, well, everything in the last 6 months....yeah, right. I can barely keep up with yesterday. You can all snivel and whine as much as pleases you, but it mostly won't happen, so keep your socks in the drier.

Why is it not Tuesday?

2006-01-18T22:58:00.000-08:00

All day today I thought it was Tuesday. It is a problem. Wednesday had it coming, getting completely skipped this week. I would have done many many interesting and mildly amusing things today had it actually been Wednesday.

Instead, seeing as how I thought it was Tuesday, I didn't do jack shit. What a waste. Work was normal...all those sneaky eyes glinting with hidden glee...that knowing shadow crossing behind them all the while.

So now, having been robbed of my Wednesday(oh no, it's too late for that. FAR too late) I am faced with Thursday. Suddenly. Long haul up there, working my ass off all day and then racing back to Sea-Tac to catch a flight to Portland, from whence I shall drive another 2 hours to lovely Corvallis to spend the night so I can help my fellow man the next day.

Oh by the way....when in Seattle, DO check out Utilikilt. I expect to be making another purchase there so as to make my trip truly worthwhile.

Oh, and I did say I'll be catching up on the last 6 months(or so) from Corvallis, so be ready!

Stop the World, I Want to Get Off!

2006-01-18T00:34:00.000-08:00

What the hell? You'd have thunk I had fallen off of the face of the earth for 6 months(or more). But never fear, gentle reader, the biscuit is well, if not worn out.

I swear to GOD, I will perform a Herculean catching up feat(feet? fete?) as soon as I get to Corvallis, Oregon on Thursday night. Don't even bother asking....no one knows where that is unless they had the misfortune of going to the University of Oregon. Actually, I'll let you know how misfortunate they were(or not).

Sufficeth to say, I'll be blaming someone else for all of this, and rightfully so (you know who you are!)

Here's the reader's digest version:
Scuba -> great
Peru -> better than great (wait until you see the pics!)
Job -> still sucking ass, but at a higher wage and title
Lovelife -> alternately sucking ass and better than great
Hockey -> definitely NOT sucking ass
Family -> last grandparent gone (hell, he was 92. what do you want?)

Tune in next week, same bat time, same bat channel; unless you have Tivo, in which case you can just go about your normal life and tune in when you feel like it.

Change the Channel!

2005-05-09T20:24:00.000-07:00

In preparation for a 3 day scuba trip to the Channel Islands(this being the second annual) I have to make sure all available motion sickness treatments are on hand. Although I suffered along with everyone else, I still remember the good things about last year. My dearest did not. She swore she wouldn't do it again, and it took nearly the intervening year to persuade her that we were prepared this time and that it was unlikely we would face similar rough weather this time around(like I'm some kind of Neptune or something).

However, no bowl of milk can be left out without it going sour eventually. I guess I just expect it to be a bit more than a day before things turned. I'll be flying to SLC the day after we get back. The only good thing about it is it will keep me from having to clean up the expected mess that will ensue during my absence for a couple more days.

I sure can't wait for July when Galatica comes on as a weekly. Sheesh!

Owie!

2005-05-05T23:27:00.000-07:00

I discovered today that you CAN have too many shots all at once. I was preparing for a trip to south america(Peru to be a bit more precise) and I was told I would need some "travel" shots to protect me from all kinds of horrid things.

I went to the hospital dutifully to get this taken care of. Once there, the nurse who was supposed to give me my various injections commented on how I hadn't had any shots of any sort in quite a long time....since I was a child, in fact.

So, here's what I had to get:
Hep A
Hep B
Yellow Fever
MMR(Measles, Mumps, Rubella)
Typhoid
Malaria

I couldn't get them all at once because my last blood work earlier this year showed a borderline result for the MMR, so I have to have the test again to make sure I do or don't need that vaccine.

I got the Hep A & B and the Yellow Fever shots today. I have to go back for the MMR blood work next week, and (after the Channel Islands scuba trip) get the Typhoid and possibly the MMR.

I couldn't get all of them today because three of them are "live" vaccines and it's too risky to get them all at once.

That and the Hep B is a three shot series....

The Malaria isn't a shot, thankfully, but a series of pills(Lariam) one has to take once a week for the week before travel, during and two weeks after.

And on top of all this, I've been warned to NOT drink or otherwise manage to ingest ANY water that is not bottled and sealed, nor anything that might have been washed in untreated water. I'll have to use bottled water to brush my teeth, and make sure I don't drink any of the water in the shower...Jesus! Can't eat any vegetables or fruit that may have been washed in untreated water either...sounds like lots and lots of canned & bottled everything!

Hockey in San Diego. It's true!

2005-04-20T22:34:00.000-07:00

Just in case everyone thought hockey was out of their lives....I can attest that it, in fact, isn't. All you had to do was be at the Hertz rental place at the San Diego airport this morning around 9:00 a.m. and you would have the honor of standing right next to, and being completely oblivious to, Jeremy Roenick. It required a bit of stealth on my part to be unaware of him while I was bumping into him with my bags, but hey, I was talking on my cell, okay?

Even the hapless staff at the Hertz were unaware, the poor saps. Well, I had the pleasure of explaining who he was to the man helping me, but he was more interested in upselling me a spiffier ride than I had reserved. Sucker. He didn't get the upsell because of his lack of hockey sense.

A can of corn and pumpkin seeds

2005-04-04T21:15:00.000-07:00

What else would one have for dinner?

Unless you want to eat the elephant man cheeto, of course...

It started off as a nice visit to Trader Joe's. Sadly, it went all downhill from there. The sheer abundance of snackie foodstuff was just too alluring and I succumbed. Dramatically.

But at least the milk wasn't bad and I got to have a fruit jewel for dessert!

5 hours in a bunny suit

2005-03-26T14:16:00.000-08:00

It's my job, what can I say?

Some days you just have to go with the bunny suit.
Sure, it's hot and uncomfortable, but it really ranks up there
on the style chart.
You sit there staring at the same thing over and over, taking
measurements and writing down numbers, hoping to see
something interesting(or at least a crash!), but no.
You strip off the bunny suit, feeling like you've been basted
like a slow roasted haunch of pork, and head home.

But at least you got to wear the bunny suit.

Sick Friday

2005-03-04T11:52:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure which is worse, being sick on a Friday and knowing you're going to spend at least some, of not all, of your weekend being sick as well, or being sick in the middle of a work week and dreading the workload you're going to come back to.

I'll have to get back to you about this after the weekend is over. Besides, through the wonders of the internet and mobile phone technology, I can just keep right on working(to some extent) even while I'm home sick.

I think that's pretty sad.

Of crustaceans and men

2005-02-26T14:01:00.000-08:00

It seems, in the aquarium universe, shrimp are the canaries in the coal mine. I had a very nice Singapore wood shrimp in with my more finned aquaria for a couple of months. It seemed to be doing quite well filtering the water as they do. It had even shed for the first time. I had been meaning to do a partial water change this weekend, but that wasn't soon enough. Two mornings ago, it was lying on its side out in the open, which it never does. The aparent cause of death was excessive ammonia, which is quite deadly to them. An albino tiger barb and a diseased rosy barb had died in the tank the night before and the released ammonia was enough to do the job. I should have removed the two fish once I realized they were ill to protect the others. A lesson learned.

"That's just sad."

2005-02-17T21:47:00.000-08:00

I admit it. I said it. What prompted this pronouncement of dispair you may ask? I saw an oppossum waddling across the road this evening. On a busy four lane road. It made it all the way across without fainting(as they sometimes do) or being hit (as they likewise sometimes do).

So why did I utter that phrase? Because my honey sitting next to me in the car, after squeeling in delight at seeing it, said, "That really made my day."

I didn't know what else to say. It just popped out. But seriously, how bad a day must she have had for THAT to have been the highlight?

I don't even want to know.

I was just glad the little critter made it all the way across.

Work anywhere but at work

2005-02-16T19:37:00.000-08:00

Do you enjoy office politics?
I abhor it. My best days are whe I get out of the office
and get to do some actual work, please a customer in person
and feel like I'm earning my pay.

There are other days when I can remotely log in and
read all the e-mail at work that describes what I've been missing
while I'm out. I find it stressful just reading it, and I feel thankful I
was not there to have to deal with any of it.

Then there are the days when you go to work and you feel like you
just wandered into some odd foreign movie where nothing makes
sense and everyone is speaking some other language that you
never learned. And to top it off, all of the previously intelligent,
well-meaning, dedicated people have been mysteriously replaced
by a pack of insane fast food employees. I'm not quite sure what
that would actually be like, but it feels the same when I think about it.

So, do I need to start looking for another job because someone
might read this and be offended that I had the temerity to speak,
even in veiled phrases and non-specifics, and fire me?

But then who would help the customers?
Not everyone wants fries with that.

How tired is too tired?

2005-02-13T02:34:00.000-08:00

When you fall asleep while eating and you do a face plant into your unfinished meal? When you are sitting on the toilet and you doze off without flushing?

Although I can't claim to have experienced these things, I can say I've witnessed them. In person. Really.

So I thought about it a bit. Especially at 2:40 in the morning. I can tell I'm tired. In fact I'm passed being just tired. I'm almost delirious. But am I too tired? For what? I already successfully ate. I didn't fall in. Flushing did occur, although not without some assitance.

So what is next? Do I just fall over in a stupor while trying to type these last few words?
I feel certain that would be a new low, even for me.

*thunk*

The good, the bad and the WTF!?

2005-02-02T01:06:00.000-08:00

Some days are just better than others. You know the kind I mean. Things at work go smoothly, you get a lot done and feel appreciated. Then you have the after work pleasures of eating something good(if not healthy) and engaging in a relaxing pastime.

And then, it hits you. Some emotional wreckage of a person drags you into hell and stomps up and down on you until you are nothing more than a little pile of stomped on you. But hey, that's what friends are for, right? Someone to help lift your spirits when you are feeling that self loathing that only comes to the truly self absorbed. Except that now YOU are the focus of the loathing and squirm as you might to extricate yourself, there is no escape, all the while trying to molify this raging bomb of a damage personae. And here I was, having an abnormally good day.

I should have known there would be a karmic rebound. Or at least a poorly scripted western B movie to scavenge for snappy dialogue.

Rex & Regina Rat

2005-01-26T21:28:00.000-08:00

For those of you who know what this title means, I feel for you.

On another note, Johnny Carson has died. The world of entertainment as we know it, has just gotten a whole lot shabbier.

Southwest still can't manage to get a flight out of BUR on time and no rental car places ever have cars available at BUR unless you like driving minivans when you ordered anything else.

On the plus side, Japanese food travels well in styrofoam, even on aircraft, unless you are seated next to an oaf who can't control his carry-on and blasts the poor helpless leftovers all over the plane while disembarking.

Oh, btw, Holiday Inn offers valet laundry service. I wish I could have tried that. It sounds quite decadent. I will give high marks for the throw away toothbrush which served as my savior during an unexpected over-night stay.

I sure look forward to a vacation where I get stuck somewhere nice for an extra day.

Shhh! Can you smell that?

2005-01-24T20:44:00.000-08:00

You know how some things taste pretty much exactly the way they smell? Why then, do other things not? Take, for instance, swiss cheese. Now, normally, it's got a pretty pungent odor. But it sure doesn't taste like that! Then there's stuff like garlic....it tastes exactly the way it smells.

I'd compile a list of things that taste and smell the same and another one for the other items which don't, but I'd have to eat too much to figure it all out. Besides, then all I'd ever hear from people is, "Is does SO taste like that!" and so forth.

Too tired to sleep?

2005-01-24T01:52:00.000-08:00

I don't know if it's some primordial part of our brains that makes it so difficult to go to sleep once you've gotten past that magical barrier of sleep deprivation. You know the one I'm talking about. Your eyes feel really fat and dry, your thinking becomes sluggish and blurred, and yet, even if you were to lay down right now, you'd still be wide awake.

Or, maybe it's something far more sinister. Like the simple fact that continuing to drink tea this late just drugs up my brain and makes it misbehave.

DRE

2005-01-21T15:14:00.000-08:00

Ahh middle age. You've survived the horrors of teen angst and the trepidation of joining the huddled masses trudging into adulthood only to be unceremoniously faced(excuse the obvious problem of rectus inverticus) with this oh-so-personal health inspection.

Can't we just leave it at lymph nodes?

I'm sure some people reflexively clench up at times like this, what with all the rampant homophobics out there doubting their masculinity, but come on people! I bet all those folks out there with a bit of history in our lovely penal system would laugh at you for such flinching.

Personally, I just keep right on chatting with the doctor about motorcycles or scuba diving without breaking a sweat.

I'm sure you're glad to hear that and will keep my sage words of wisdom in mind at your next middle age exam.

2005-01-20T20:40:00.000-08:00

Biscuit discovers the advantages of having an opposable thumb

Why soup is better than gummi bears

2005-01-20T17:25:00.000-08:00

Firstly, it's salty instead of sweet. I've discovered this is especially important to men as opposed to women. Secondly, it's a liquid(mostly) and therefore easier to eat(less energy to consume) which is also a typical male desire. Lastly, it comes in cans and is therefore mostly safe from going stale. No one can debate this last item, so I'll comment on the first two.

Salt vs. Sweet
I think males are predisposed to crave salty foods, whereas women seems to mostly crave sweets. I'm not saying this is a universal constant, but let's face it, this whole chocolate thing is by FAR a female thing. Men like chips, steak, etc....you never hear a guy say, "Hey, I sure could go for some ice cream."

Liquid vs. Solid
I'll go out on a limb with this one and say that in general, men like to eat things that require little to no preparation and can be consumed as quickly as possible. So...liquids are going to win out almost every time. Unless you are me and you chew your soup anyway.