Author: Michael

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.

BF:V

I’ve been playing Battlefield Vietnam, the successor to Battlefield: 1942 for a little over a week now. I really enjoyed BF:1942, and have been looking forward to this game for quite a while.

A few screen shots:



SA-7 about to take out a helicopter.

The troops are choppered into a combat location.

Some people have difficulty mastering helicopter piloting.

In the game you can do everything flying jets, to planting land mines, to sniping, to driving a tank, to simply carrying an M-16. Overall it’s a great games with fairly good balance.

I’ve got a couple of gripes with the overpowered M60 machine gun and the underpowered anti-aircraft capabilities of infantry, but they’ll be fixed in upcoming patches.

I also have Unreal Tournament 2004, but I really haven’t played it much yet. All in good time.

The girls saw me practicing with a joystick, learning how to fly in the game and wanted to try. Who am I to deny my daughters wholesome gaming fun? Soon they were driving all the vehicles in the game and even flying the aircraft. The call it The Crashing Game since all they like to do is crash things.


I’m so proud they are turning out to be fine young gamers.
Lastly, since SXSW my arm has been hurting from too much computer usage. Since I spend all day at one and most of the evening at one, it gets little time to heal up. As a result, my forearm is a throbbing and even a handful of Advil wasn’t killing the pain.


So I broke down and got a brace. I can kinda type, but slowly. Moving a mouse it difficult. Looks like I just have to lay off the keyboard for a while. Maybe I’ll even *gasp* watch some TV.

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.

The smoker is in effect

The two briskets have just been placed in the smoker. I need to stay awake until the smoke and heat gets rolling before I can grab a little shut eye.
The rub smells great and the briskets are HUGE. Pics to follow.

Planning

Thursday is Thanksgiving and I have the task of smoking the turkey and the briskets. I picked up the meat this morning and put it in the fridge.
Smoking the food takes time and I need to plan ahead to make sure it’s ready on time. The meat needs to be done at 2:30 PM on Thursday so we can hit the road and be at my parent’s house around 3:30 PM.
I just so happen to be learning to use Microsoft Project at work and came up with this:

So, it looks like I’ll be up in the wee hours before Thanksgiving to get everything in order. I hope my Mom has the coffee ready when I arrive.

Geeking

Earlier in the week, one of the fans in my computer started to go bad. The offending fan started to make a noise and pin slowly. I knew I’d have to replace it or the BIOS chip would burn up in short order.
I went to the hellhole known as Fry’s and found a fan that would work, but was not an exact replacement. Close enough till I could pull the original and get a proper replacement.
With the case covers off and a flashlight pointed inside, I saw the usual dust accumulation on the cooling fans. I got a small brush to clean things up. Mira was hovering, as see does any time I puli out tools to work on things. She asked if she could help.
Why the hell not? I gave her the brush and her to clean the dust off.


Mira earning her keep as a tech

I ordered the correct replacement fan and few other cools things. Arrival next week some time.
BBQ
The smoking of the brisket went well. The meat was most tasty and made for an enjoyable dinner. Michele made mashed potatoes and buttered carrots to go along with the brisket. De-lic-ious.
If you want to see pictures and read a bit more story, hit the MORE link.

Continue reading “Geeking”