Author: Michael

Several people have been discussing how to handle communications these days (Sean, Jason, Tantek). All suggesting that email is a bad way to communicate. I agree and thought I’d throw in my 2¢.
I get a lot of email, so I would like you all to bend to my specific desires to reduce my email stress. At the office I get 300-400 non-filtered emails a day and often don’t check my personal email for days at a time.
So, that said, here is how I prefer to be contacted:

1. Human Courier – You will hand write a letter to me, seal it with wax and your personal seal, then have it personally delivered by a human courier. The courier will present the letter to me on a silver tray. The courier will then wait for my reply, waiting the hours or days it takes me to come up with my thoughtful reply. Be aware, if you send bad news, I reserve the right to physically harm the messenger.
2. Telegram – If you don’t have the time for a handwritten letter, I will accept a telegram. Yes, you can still send a telegram to me. Western Union got out of the game, but there are several other companies providing service.
3. Battlefield 2142 – Get a copy of Battlefield 2142, install and start a character. Then track me down to a time I’m playing and join the server I’m on. Next, hop into my squad. I’ll be happy to VOIP chat with you in game, while we play. I like to play engineer, defending Toll Station on Gibraltar, so please spawn as Support to resupply as needed.
4. Adam Carolla Show – I listen to the podcasts of the Adam Carolla show fairly regulalry, so find a way onto the Adam Carolla show on-air and I’ll probably hear what you have to say in a day or so. Be aware, that I don’t like the Angel Adam/Devil Danny segment, and tend to skip those.
5. My Secretary – The first rule of corporate life is “Listen to your Secretary.” That being said, if you can track her down and convince her of the urgency of your message, she will be able to track me down wherever I am and get me out of any meeting I may be stuck. Of course, she is aware that Wednesday Lunch is Comic Book Day and I am not to be scheduled before I have picked up my books for the week.

Obviously, this leads to me creating a new community called mypreferredmeans.com where you can register your preferences and that other people can check. I will be Web 2.0, run on Ruby on Rails, be Ajaxy, we’ll have a corporate blog, it will be open sourced, the community will get a vote on everything, and it’ll have a large presence in Second Life…

Michele and I were at the 7-Eleven on Friday getting coffee, when we saw this.

One day while out shopping, Michele bought a corned brisket. She’s aways on the lookout for new things and knew that I’d be interested in a whole corned beef that wasn’t sliced.
The difference between corned beef and pastrami is subtle. In both cases, a beef brisket is ‘corned’ by curing it in a salt brine for a couple weeks. This comes from the days before refrigeration, where the use of salt and sugar to preserve meat for a long time was common.
To turn the corned brisket into a corned beef, you boil the meat.
To turn the corned brisket into pastrami, you smoke the meat.
Loyal Cruft Readers will know that I love to smoke meats, so I decided to make pastrami.
Here is the brisket.

SxSW starts this weekend in Austin. This is my fifth year and these are my helpful tips for the novice.
Introduce Yourself – People are at SXSW because they want to meet people and see new things. Strangely, many of the blogger types that go are introverted types that are a bit shy. Do yourself a favor and say “Hello, I’m So-and-so” to that person you are sitting next to. (Don’t say So-and-so, use your name…) I guarantee that they will be happy to talk to you.
ABC – Always Be Charging – If you bring a laptop, you need to be charging it every single chance you get. No battery lasts long enough. Try to sit near an oulet in the session rooms. Share power outlets with others.
Personal cards – Make up business cards with your name, email, and website info on them to hand out. Bring your regular business cards if you want, but what people really want is a card that ties you to your online persona so they can find you after SxSW.
Session Info – When you arrive on Friday go to the Convention Center and pick up your badge. They will give you a large canvas bag of swag. You don’t want to haul this around, so you need to figure a way to drop this off at your hotel before a long night of partying. In the bag are two crucial items. First is the program which has detailed session descriptions. Second is a small pocket card with the session schedule on it. You want these to be in your daily walk around bag, not in your hotel room.
Shiner Bock – Shiner Bock is a local Texas beer that you find everywhere. Often referred to as simply ‘Shiner’.
Fray Cafe – Go to the Fray Cafe on Sunday night. It’s one of the best things about SxSW.
Stay Warm – It can get cold and rain in Austin this time of year. Bring a good jacket or coat.
Sharpeners – There are no pencil sharpeners at SXSW. People think writing on a pad of paper with a wooden pencil is a bit strange.
The Backchannel – Be aware that there is a backchannel of real-time IRC discussion going on. Probably on irc.freenode.net, probably on #sxsw. The trick is to not make the backchannel into the front channel for you. It can distract you from listening to the speaker/session that you paid to see…
Secure connections – Wifi traffic is in the clear and people are sniffing packets all the time. Arrange for secure email, FTP, and if possible, secure browsing while at SXSW. It’s unlikely that a malicious hacker is gunna do bad things, but it’s best to be prepared.
Street Signs – For some reason, downtown Austin has few street signs. Get a map and study it before venturing out.
Food – Eat food. Austin has a great bar scene. You will be drinking. Don‘t drink on an empty stomach.
Texas BBQ – IMHO, Texas BBQ pales in comparison to BBQ in other areas like Kansas City and Carolina. That chopped beef sandwich stuff just doesn’t cut it, but people will want to eat it for lunch.
Say Hello to Me – I would love to meet Loyal Cruft Readers. On Friday night I will be at Break Bread with Brad drinking beer and smoking cigars. Email me or IM at pusateri AT gmail.com and I promise to respond.
Any questions?

My eldest daughter Zoe, loves herself some anime. As Loyal Cruft Readers may recall, we dressed as Naruto characters for Halloween. This weekend was the Anime Los Angeles convention. After gathering the approval of our family cosplay/anime expert Rachel, I decided to take Zoe to her first anime con.
Now, I’m been to sci-fi cons, gaming cons, all kinds of cons, but I had never been to a anime convention in costume to be part of the cosplay. Cosplay takes things to a whole new level of geek. I mean, I’m a corporate exec type, not a crazy cosplayer right?
Before I knew it, it was Saturday morning around 9AM and I was standing my kitchen dressed as Kakashi, drinking my coffee wondering if I was really up for this. Zoe was nervous in her Hinata costume and beyond excited to go. There was no backing out now.
Once we got there, I knew it would a different kind of convention as we walked in the door and someone yelled out “Yay! Hintata!” runs up and give Zoe a big hug. Zoe had to explain that the other girl was dressed as an older Hinata.
Within about 30 minutes, we were in the groove and I had been asked to pose with other people a few times. I was a bit perplexed by a girl wearing what appeared to be a bikini made of cotton puffs, wearing a mask like mine, and nothing else. She and her girlfriends were laughing up a storm. Zoe informed me that she was dressed as Sexy Jutsu Kakashi. It took me until the next day to actually find out what Sexy No Jutsu was.
Soon enough Zoe made friends with another group of Naruto cosplay kids and the rest of the day was spent following them around like some sort of ninja bodyguard.

I have been watching several podcasts, including Ctrl-Alt-Chicken. Recently they did a short segment on making Cheese Pie. Go ahead and watch it. This entry won’t make a ton of sense if you don’t watch it first.
The girls love cheese, so I thought it might be fun to make the Cheese Pie per the Ctrl-Alt-Chicken recipe.
Enjoy the first episode of Control-Alt-Children: