A couple weeks ago I was interviewed for a podcast show called G’day World. The show is run by Mick ‘Splatt’ Stanic and Cameron Reilly, to Australian blokes who love podcasting. I meet Mick last year at ETech.
They posted my interview. If you want to hear me blather on for 45 minutes, here’s your chance.
I’m not sure why they wanted to interview me, but I agreed because my ego is growing to an abnormally large size.
Author: Michael
More beer experimentation
After reading my post about Bud Extra, Travis’s friend Nick was inspired to do his own research into beer.
Take a minute to read Nicky’s Beer Tasting.
Off-air
Here you can see HDTV being recieved the way it was meant to be, with rabbit ears antenna.
Yes, the picture that good.
Yes, regular TV sucks in compairison.
Yes, I’ll have more to say once I get the DirecTV HD setup running.
The Man Who Would Be King
One of my most favorite movies is The Man Who Would Be King, a movie based on Rudyard Kipling’s novel, that starred Sean Connery and Michael Caine as British soldiers that march into Afganistan and carve out a kingdom.
Several months ago, we were ‘testing’ a conference room at work that had HDTV for an upcoming presentation and The Man Who Would Be King was on in HD. I extolled the virtues of the film. It looked damn good in HD.
A few weeks later, Brad presented me with a book about the real life inspiration for the story.
The Man Who Would Be King (The First American in Afghanistan) – Ben MacIntyre
The book is a history of Josiah Harlan, an American adventurer that went to the heart of Asia and literally become king. In the early 1800s, there were still many places on the globe that were hard to get to and where western civilization had little influence.
Harln left from Pennsylvania to travel the world ended up in India. At the time, India was under the control of Britain. To the north was Afganistan, a place of warfare and tribal control. To Harlan, this was a place to make his own name.
The book goes through the details of exactly how he did this. At one point Harlan was the Prince of Ghor, a huge area. The claim exists today and hs great, great, great, grandson was recently made aware of his royal lineage.
The story is interesting, but the book is a history textbook. I can be a bit slow, but for an avid reader of history like myself, it is a good choice. I needed a break from the spate of sci-fi I had been reading.
Halloween
Just finished the dishes, the girls are asleep, and the trick or treaters have stopped appearing at the door. Time to wind down from a long weekend.
The girls had a great time today and happily have the day off from school tomorrow.
Me? I gotta work…
Audio Post, especially for you
I made this audio post about something that happened in IRC today. Enjoy.
Click more if you are audio challenged.
Hello, loyal Cruft readers. This is an exceedingly rare audio weblog post. Collect them all.
Tonight on IRC I bet a guy named Phillip Torrone on a terminology issue. He’s a technology blogger and has a site at flashenabled.com
I bet him $10 that in a year people wouldn’t be using the term “podcast” since not everyone had an ipods. He took the bet. I know I will be victorious when the news gets out about the subliminal neurolingusitic programming Steve Jobs put into the ipods making ipod wearers into mindless drones.
This audio post is a public acknowledgement on the bet.
Let’s see where we are on Oct. 24th 2005.
Leftover beers
Yesterday was the party for LA Bloggers and we had a good time.
Jim bought his whole family and the four girls (his 2 and my 2) were awfully busy playing the whole time. Being the daughters of geek bloggers, the girls spent time outdoors in a tent watching a portable DVD player, emerging to get more food and more My Little Pony dolls.
Grant and Jill showed up. Mack from LAVoice came along with his son Cooper as well. Britta stopped by with here dad. I know her more from #joiito than blogging. Cousin James stopped by as well.
There weren’t enough people for the planned Mac vs. PC tug-of-war, but it was fun for all. I made them all drink shots, as usual at a Pusateri party and they were good sports to try.
L-R: Mack & Jim
L-R: Britta, James, Grant, Jill
Here I am bringing the smoked turkey & brisket into the house to be cut.
Not as many people showed up as I had hoped and we had plenty of extra beer and sodas. Grant, Jill and James were all heading out that night to hand with friends so I sent off with six packs of leftover beer.
It was a good start in getting LA bloggers together. Hopefully the numbers just grow from here on out.
Sunday stuff
I still haven’t finished my E3 stuff yet. I suck. I know.
Dad Stuff
Zoe and I went to a horse show where she won her event.
She’s becoming quite the horsewoman.
Other stuff
My project for the day was making some pulled pork. I bought a pork shoulder at the supermaket. I had spoken to Martin about it previously and had my game plan laid out.
I put my smoke rub on the shoulder and got the smoker smoking.
This is what the shoulder looked like after eight hours in the smoker.
The pork fell apart in my hands and I was able to easily shred it and discard the bones. The fat had all melted away and the meat was easy to handle.
I made a BBQ sauce based on KC Masterpiece that I found on the net. The sauce was pretty good, but a little vinegary. Perhaps overnight in the fridge will mellow it a bit.
Smoke Rub
Yesterday, I decided to smoke a brisket for dinner. Looking in the fridge, I realized that I had to make more rub. A Dry Rub, or simply a Rub, is the spice mixture you can use to flavor meat when you smoke or grill it. Many people use sauces and marinades, but I prefer a dry rub.
Here is the recipe I use:
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup salt
2 tablespoons paprika
2 tablespoons red pepper
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon ground celery seed
1 teaspoon ground mustard
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
This is based on the recipe that Martin gave me. I made a few changes. Martin’s recipe called for ground celery, which is nearly impossible to find, so I switched it to celery seed. I added cayenne pepper for a little extra zang and mustard for fuller flavor.
In the picture you can see the old rub in a jar with holes punched in the top so it can be used as a shaker. On the left is a coffee grinder that I use to grind the spices. I grind the crushed red pepper and the celery seed in it. In the bowl are all the ingredients mixed together. I toss in the leftover old rub as well.
Here’s the brisket. Note the rub shaker is full and ready for action.
“Cover liberally in rub” are the instructions and as you can see, I follow instructions. The brisket was then tossed into the smoker for about 9 hours. Low, slow heat does the trick.
The BeerNeck
Several weeks about, I was watching the Daily Show and on the screen came Curt “The BeerNeck Guy” Silbert talking about his new invention, the BeerNeck.
The BeerNeck is of course, irresistable to me. I am always setting my beer down and forgetting where I put it. I needed the Ultimate Drinking Tool.
I ordered the BeerNeck and forgot about it. Several weeks later, when I was out of town, the BeerNeck arrived in the mail. The same day, Curt Silbert, Chief of BeerNeck.com, actually called my home to make sure the package had arrived. Michele took the call and said, “He was very, very enthusiastic.” Now that’s what I call customer service.
Here is the BeerNeck. Note the neoprene case is for insulation.
The cap has an embedded opener for opening the bottle. Ingenious!
The bottle fit in perfectly and it was easy to zip up.
The cap then fits on top of the bottle to prevent spillage while I walked around.
The elastic lanyard is soft and the beer felt comfortable hanging there.
I did a few normal tasks around the house like cooking, taking out the trash, and sitting at the computer.
The BeerNeck never got in the way.
With a quick flip of my thumb to open the top, I was able to partake of cold, tasty beer.
The BeerNeck gets two thumbs up from me. At $10-$12 depending on style, it’s worth the money. The style points alone you’ll receive at your next BBQ are worth the price.