Stuff

I’ve been play a lot of Return to Castlewolfenstein lately. Must… play… medic…

UO has been waning for me. Perhaps one of those periodic lulls that I’ve had from time to time. Battlevortex is fuxxored for almost a week now. Poor Fear.

Michele’s gunna be out of town this week, so I get the Single Dad role for a bit. Combine that with work in ‘busy as hell’ mode and I’ve decided I should be taking those stress vitamin supplements that Michele wants to me to take.

Here’s a new place for you all to visit called Metafilter. Tasty tidbits.

I saw the second episode of Enterprise and enjoyed it. The show is good, has plenty of action, minimal amount of ethical dilemma, and Vulcan breasts. If only UPN was on DirecTV, life would be complete.

Yesterday, Martin and I watched Andromeda. Lots of good action, no Vulcan breasts though. We can’t figure out how the huge ship is run by 4 people. Isn’t there at least a engineering crew to yell at or something?

I have a new object of techno-lust. I have no need for the Henry Kloss Model One Desk Radio, but I feel an amazing tug toward it. I have no place to put it, but some how feel drawn toward it, like a moth to the flame.

OK, OK

The complaints are increasing for me to update Cruft. Settle down my faithful droogs.


First of all, my beloved linux box at the office went down when the power failed in Burbank. This is the last screen shot I took. The box actually stayed up 193 days.

While I’ve not been posting, my brother has been posting tons. Go read his stuff.

A good friend of mine is going through the initial stages of divorce and it is creating emotional shrapnel all over the place. Boy o boy, D-I-V-O-R-C-E is nasty when you see it up close.

Hrrm, what else? I haven’t been playing UO much. I was gone in NY the week before the attacks and haven’t been in the groove since. The Return to Castle Wolfenstein test/demo is out and I’ve been playing that a bunch. It looks like a total winner. Death to Half-life!

Supposedly on October 9th, Dark Age of Camelot is coming out. I’ve pre-ordered it. Who knows, after 4 years it may break me of my UO habit.

I enjoyed the new Star Trek: Enterprise show. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked it. For the record, I think the gel scene was fine. My mother, however, was quite incensed by the skin shots and wrote a letter to UPN. OMG, my mother is one of those crazy ladies complaining about sex on TV.

My buddy Martin has been working a bunch lately and making me ponder the value of the corporate life. Perhaps I should go be an actor like Martin…

That’s enough for now…

The Attack

I still feel quite numb over the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. I try to force myself to wrap my mind around the enormity of the tragedy, but it seems impossible.

My brother & wife live in DC. I have lots of friends in NYC. Hell, I was in New York last week. Thankfully they are all safe.

I don’t have anything much write that hasn’t been covered elsewhere. My brother has written a good account of his experiences.

Whiel I would like to strike back against the enemy THEM, all I can really do is fly the American flag in front of my house as a symbol that America endures even through this crisis.

So I go back to work and move forward. If I stop and become afraid, then the terrorists have won.

Fight Censorship

I’m a firm believer on putting my money where my mouth is.

I don’t much like censorship of books.  I especially don’t like censorship of books that teenagers like because some adults are uncomfortable with the ideas presented.  I recently read an article on plastic (actually the original charleston.net article) about a guy that wanted Catcher in the Rye removed from the high school library because it was a "a filthy, filthy book".

Mr. Scared of Teenagers is on the school board and tried to ban the book.  He was voted down 6-1 and the book remained on the shelves. That would not stop him.  It seems Mr. Closed Mind checked out the copies of Catcher in the Rye from the high school library and now plans to keep them, in a ridiculous plan to stop teenagers from reading this novel.

Now, I’m not saying you need to like the book.  Conservative blowhards like George Will don’t like it either.  But at least he isn’t calling for it to be banned.

I thought to myself, "Self, that is a load of crap.  Someone should do something."

So I did.  

Thanks to the wonders of the internet, I have the ability to reach out an affect things from a great distance.  I sent four copies of Catcher in the Rye to the high school in the story to replace those taken by Mr. Filthy Filthy.  It’s simple, it’s easy, and YOU should do it right now.  Send a message, do something real rather simply thinking in your head that censorship is wrong.

Most everyone reading this site has some money.  You all certainly have $10.  In fact some of you have plenty of money to spend on something like this.  That’s all it takes to send a message. 

Go to Amazon.com and ship a copy of Catcher in the Rye to one of the high schools affected by Mr. Censor Jackass.  You can send a paperback or a hardcover, it’s up to you, but DO IT NOW.

Don’t be one of those people that sits at their computers and just thinks they should do something.  DO SOMETHING NOW.

Send the books as a gift to the following high schools:

Summerville High School Library
1101 Boone Hill Rd
Summerville, SC 29483

Fort Dorchester High School Library
8500 Lincoln Blvd
Charleston, SC 29420

Jerky Recipe

I found the recipe at the office.

1 1/2 cup Soy Sauce
1/2 cup Worcestershire Sauce
1 cup light brown sugar
2 teaspoons liquid smoke
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1 teaspoon onion powder
meat

Mix the marinade to dissolve the sugar and other seasonings.

I have made the jerky from beef and turkey. You could use other meat, but I haven’t tried. Cut the meat in strips WITH the grain. The strips should be less than 1/4 inch thick.

Soak the meat in the marinade overnight. Put the meat in the oven or dehydrator and set the temperature to 180 or so. It might take 10 hours to get the right consistency. Your preference will determine how dry you want the jerky. Red meats contain a good amount of fat, so they remain soft, even when a significant amount of water is gone.