Smoky

Today started quietly as I made an electric smoker out of a trash can. I gave the smoker a quick test before starting out on the other events of the day. When I get a chance, I’ll write up a page about making the smoker.
We got rolling with a trip to the mall to get the girls some shoes. Success was found early with each girls getting two pairs of sneakers. We celebrated with candy and lunch at the mall.
Zoe had her soccer game at 2 PM and then went to go play at a friends house. That left me with time to mix up a dry rub and get a pair of top sirloin steaks smoking. I know that tri-tip is the preferred item to smoke, but the market was out and the butchers recommended this.
I got the meat into the smoker and sat down with a beer to wait it out. While I was sitting outside, supervising the smoke, I finished the Cory Doctorow book, A Place So Foreign.
The book was a good set of short stories. I had already read two of them in other publications, A Place So Foreign in the now defunct SciFi Age magazine, and Ownz0red at Salon.com. The other stories were good, but tantalizingly short. After tasting a full novel of a fully concieved world in Down & Out in the Magic Kingdom, all of the stories left me wanting more.
You can check out more about the book at Cory’s site, where you can even download the book for free.
Around 8:30 or so, the meat was finally done and I pulled it out to rest for a 1/2 hour. It was most tasty as Michele & James can attest.
To wrap up the day I watched Samurai Rebellion. I had Tivo’ed it the day before and enjoyed it immensely. Toshirô Mifune plays the lead character and is fantastic as usual. The only bad thing is that the recording ended before the movie was over. I don’t know what happens in the very end! If you know, please tell me what happens after the battle in the field.
Tomorrow I’ll be looking around to find a place to rent the film.
Time for sleep.

Halo for the PC

This week, I picked up Halo for the PC. Halo is widely considered the best game for the Xbox and was lots of fun when I’ve played the console version.


Now I’m a multiplayer kinda guy. I thnk the best opponent is another person, not a computer AI. So my thoughts on Halo are about the multiplayer mode. My thoughts are simple.
Halo Multiplayer Sucks.
There I said it. It doesn’t live up to any of the hype and is barely mediocre.
Bad things about Halo Multiplayer:
It’s s-l-o-w. Everyone moves like they are in molasses.
No dual mode weapons.
The ‘killed’ info is non-descriptive.
The weapons are underpowered.
No ‘lock-on’ modes.
Weapon fire creates glare the obscures the view of target.
Can only hold two weapons.
Weapon switching sucks.
Godo things:
The Warthog.
Ragdoll death graphics.
The Single player game is fun, but Halo simply doesn’t live up to the hype.

Chocolate Covered Bugles

Last Friday I was in my office talking with Brad when for some reason (unknown to me) I said “chocolate covered Bugles”. When I said that, Brad’s eyebrows raised and he considered the possibilities. Then I considered the possibilities. Brad said, “You should write that idea down.” I did.
On Saturday, I decided to make chocolate covered Bugles. I remembered Alex’s Chocolate Covered Twizzlers knew the technique I would use.
I told Michele what I was doing (after I bought the Bugles & chocolate) and she was mildly unsupportive. She said things like “No Way!”, “This is going to be a mess!”, and “Why are you so crazy? This is for your blog right?!?”
After carefully considering her concerns, I ignored them and walked into the kitchen to begin.



The base ingredients, Bugles and chocolate chips.


This is the doubleboiler setup I made with the bowl of chocolate floating in the pot of boiling water.
I asked Michele how to make it, and she started to help me.
Then she looked up and said, “What the f**k am I doing? YOU figure it out!”

Continue reading about the Bugles….

Continue reading “Chocolate Covered Bugles”

Poker

I played poker Friday night and had a good time.
Due to my slacking, I got there a little late and we played from about 8:30 until midnight. We played all kinds of poker from the standard five card draw to higher betting things like Texas Hold’em and Baseball to the new (to us) Cincinnati and High Flush Wins.
Anaconda was probably the funnest game. The ability to ‘pass the trash’ to other players is fun. We found that playing Anaconda Hi Only is a sure way to piss off poker purists.
We hung out, drank beers, ate junk food, and smoked cigars. Quite a good time. I lost $2.75, but it was well worth it. Many thanks to Brad for hosting and to Katy for her delicious brownies!

The Lady Milano

Michele’s bike arrived yesterday. She’s ecstatic and the girls are impressed.



The Lady Milano features a teal green finish, red sidewalls, leather seat and grips, 7 speeds, and much more.


Check out those fenders!


Michele’s aftermarket mod, a detachable basket suitable for impromptu shopping


The leather seat incorporates rear LED lights that move for night driving

Meet

I went to the SoCalWUG meeting tonight. It wasn’t the best, but it was fun.
Probably the best part was waving to people in the joiito IRC channel via the video stream of the event.
I met a couple cool guys and we chatted about linux, wardriving, and old school computers. The presenter was giving a base discussion on securing wireless and showed a demo of packet sniffing. I’m sure others were impressed, but my own experiences made it a little boring.


Wifi and pancakes, mmm good.


Lots of laptops, lots of coffee


Bike News
Michele’s Bike has arrived. Pics to follow tomorrow.
Other stuff people said
Attorney Friend Mike makes a good point about the do-not-call list fiasco.
Attorney Friend Ernie is upset about Holland & Knight’s web site. Wha? My brother Matt works for Holland & Knight and works on their web site. Looks like there’s gunna be a legal rumble…
Mister P.’s mystery clip makes me laugh. I can see the phrase, “There is a totally new danger!” catching on!
I’m still trying to find brown sugar cubes to make an Old Fashioned according to imajes’ instructions. Finding a muddler would be a bonus.
Lastly, Being Daddy makes me laugh yet again. Damn stuffed animals…

Hat Help

I recently recieved this email:

Hey,
I read your piece about washing hats and had a
question about hats that nobody can seem to answer. I
don’t know if I just have a small head or if I’m not
doing something right, but any hat that I wear that
has that plastic liner thing you talked about looks
funny on me. I mean the liner doesn’t form to my head,
it just stays kinda square like when I first nought
it. I just got into baseball, so I really want to wear
my team hat. Is there some kind of technique to
getting the hat to form to your head or look more
round? Or am I doomed with a small head? I tried to
ask the guy at the sports store, but he looked at me
like I was stupid (My guess is because I’m 27 and just
started getting into sports). Oh well, so much for
good customer service.
Thanks,
Pete

I’m a little stumped as to what to tell Pete. Can anyone offer some advice?

Rewind

On Friday night Michele and I went out to see Underworld with Travis and Kim. We saw the movie at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in the heart of Hollywood. Seeing a movie on the big screen in an important theater was lots of fun.
Underworld was a good time. Good fun with tantalizing story stuff to keep you wanting more. Sure there were a few holes, but the movie delivered on the promise of vampires vs. werewolves. I loved Viktor fighting the werewolf and the cool ass weapondry.
When I got home I checked the reviews on the internet. I’m not one to dive deep into a movie before I see it. I was blown away to see that the critics didn’t like it.


Let’s see, 13 ‘professional critics’ give it a C+ and 4118 real people give it a A-. Critics are so out of touch with good films it’s insane.
Books
I finished American Gods on Saturday. I highly recommend it. I read a ton about various mythologies when I was a child and this book is full of references and interesting bits from all different cultures.
It’s made me want to go read Neil Gaiman’s other books. I started reading A Place so Foreign. I knew it was short stories, but I was suprised to realize that I had read three of the nine stories in magazines previously. Cory’s defintely got the sci-fi mojo and I look forward to the upcoming Eastern Standard Tribe.
OK, I’m tired. Going to bed. Y’all be good.

Bike Stores

We are buying a bike for Michele. A very specific bike that isn’t routinely carried in stores.
In tracking down this bike, I must have called a dozen stores. They all seem the same, busy and un-organized. No one seems too focused on actually selling bikes.
I have left my number with several stores for call backs and have not recieved a single one. What’s wrong with these people?
When I finally place an order, I make the specifc request that they call me when bike is ordered from Bianchi and they have confirmation that it is on it’s way. I called back today and they could give me no information other than saying, “I asked the manager and she nodded her head. I think that means your bike is on it’s way.”
You think? Nodded her head? What is this, charades?
I want some damn answers folks!