Cruftbox: My Box of Cruft

The Good Fairies of New York – Martin Millar
My wife, Michele, read this book and told me, “It’s great, just read it.” And so I did.
She’s right, the book is fantastic.
A touch of fantasy, a big dose of New York City, a dash of Scotland, a healthy portion of Vonnegut, and just enough rock ‘n roll for taste and you’ve got a fun book. Nothing heavy here, just a light read that will leave you laughing as you turn the page.
I’m usually more of a hard SF reader, but this book was a good diversion on my last trip to London. The story of the fairies and their (mis)adventures left me wanting more. Unfortunately, there is no sequel or follow-up novel, but I (and many other fans) would love it.
The author, Martin Millar, blogs and has a nice site for fans. So instead of the next self-help or pop culture bestseller, check out the fairies.

Foosh Mints

The people are Vroom Foods, makers of the Buzz Bites caffeinated chocolates, sent me some samples to try. They included some Foosh Mints as well.

Now, I’m not a full fledged caffeine fiend, like some people, so this dosage of caffeine is pretty strong in my book. 100 milligrams is a whole bunch of caffeine compared to a can of soda.

They tossed a bunch of other stuff like, Taurine, Ginseng, and some of the B vitamins. The B vitamins are supposed to boost your energy level as well. If you look at what’s in most of the energy drinks out there today, it’s the same basic list.

The mints themselves are fairly large, I guess to pack in all the caffeine, you need some bulk. The mints themselves taste very much like Altoids with a strong taste. I wouldn’t eat them for fun, but if I needed a lift, they’d be great.

Everyone, slow the eff down on the road

Yesterday, I saw one accident on my way home from work. Today, on my way to work, I saw yet another accident.
Slow down people. I’m sick of hearing the now familiar screech-crunch sound.
Just two rules to follow and we’ll all be better off.
1) Yellow lights mean slow down, not speed up and go faster.
2) Put down the damn telephone. If it’s that important gets a handsfree or pull over. I watched as the crasher did not stop talking on the phone before, during, and after the accident.
That’s it, two simple rules and I won’t have to through hate in your direction.

Homemade dog biscuits

My daughter Zoe is in the Girls Scouts and recently has been working to help the local Pasadena Humane Society. One of the things they did, besides making cloth beds for cats, was to make dog biscuits.
Michele told me it was easy and that Piper, our dog, liked them. Alas, they were all given away, so I didn’t have a chance to see them. I had some free time on Sunday and decided to give it a try.
The recipe is from the Pasadena Humane Society:

2 ½ cups whole wheat flour
½ cup powdered milk
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. garlic powder
½ cup ice water
6 tblsp margarine, shortening or meat drippings
1 egg beaten
1 tsp. brown sugar
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine flour, milk, salt and sugar. Cut in shortening until mixture resembles cornmeal. Mix in egg. Add enough water so that the mixture forms a ball. Pat out with your fingers the dough ½ inch thickness on a lightly oiled cookie sheets. Cut with biscuit or cookie cutter into shapes. Save the scraps and pat them out with the next batch. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes. Remove from oven and cool. Store in zip lock bag in the freezer.

We had also made some baked beans from scratch this weekend, so I had some bacon grease saved from that to use instead of margarine. Everybody loves bacon, even Piper.

I mixed up the ingredients and was a bit concerned over the use of garlic, but when I put the garlic in front of Piper, she seemed to like it.

I mixed things up and got the dough to a good consistency when I reached my first dilemma. I didn’t really want to roll out the dough and start using cookie cutters on it. I’ve done the cookie cutter thing before for gingerbread cookies and didn’t feel that a dog would exactly care.

So I reached deep into my youth and remembered the way my Grandmother used to make sausages. She’d mix up the meat, place a small amount into her hand, squeeze, and then toss the resulting shape into the frying pan. I thought that Piper likes sausage, so away I went, making Sicilian sausage shaped dog biscuits.
Onto the parchment paper went the dog sausage biscuits and into the over for about a half hour.

Sure enough out popped the biscuits, and damn if they didn’t smell good.

For the real test I handed one to Piper. At first she was a bit hesitant as you can see, but soon was munching away happily.
The recipe wasn’t hard at all, so if you have a dog, you might enjoy making your own treats.

Mini Ben & Jerry’s

Michele found these mini Ben & Jerry’s ice cream cups and the whole family is enamored with them.

I think they come in six packs, but I’ve never seen them fresh from the store, only scattered in the freezer after the girls have had a first chance at them.
Each cup is around 3.5 ounces of ice cream, a little over 200 calories per cup. Not exactly diet fare, but of you want a taste of ice cream, it’s a good way to keep yourself from eating a whole pint in a sitting.

Under the lid is a small spoon to eat with. Pretty handy once you finish to put the spoon inside, recap the cup and no mess.
Personally, I’m partial to Oatmeal Cookie Chunk, but I haven’t seen it in the mini cup yet.

Spamalot Rabbit

A haiku for NAB

In Vegas but sad,
New shoes are good, but feet hurt
Should have bought socks too.

Blogging NAB – Apple’s Announcements

This is what it looks like when I take notes at a broadcasting event.
These are my notes from Apple’s presentation where they announced Final Cut Studio 2 and Final Cut Server.
My notes will be decipherable to a TV person, but likely unreadable to others. Welcome to my world.
Apple tells me to not use my laptop during the presentation.

Workflow Automation
Templates
Review and Approve
Automated encode & publish
Intergration
Shot selection
Rough cut editing
Save as FCP
Online/offline workflow

Final Cut Studio 2 – $1299

AJA Box – $3495 in July

Open Format Tiumeline

Mix formats, resolutions, and frame rates in a timeline

Smoothcam

Motion compensation

Editable Motion Templates

Motion 3

Soundtrack Pro 2

Stereo & Surround mix in common project

Conform audio tracks

Sync changes between pictures & sound with workflow

Waveform editor w/frequency spectrum view – truly impressive
Mulittrack audio ADR tools
Auto conform tool with change tracking

Compressor 3

Color – Finish & Color Grading – SD, HD, 2k

Truly a comprehensive package that any other vendor, especially Avid, will be hard pressed to match.

Today we honor Jackie Robinson

Today, I am taking time to remember Jackie Robinson, a man of quiet dignity and extraordinary bravery.