The Dark Mirror

2011-09-03T19:02:00.000-05:00

DIYS Gardening: Tomato Pie
Once again if you don't eat the tomatoes you'll wake up with them under your bed. There the tomatoes will try to turn you into pod people and make you worship the Green Man.

So it's tomato pie to save your life.

This recipes come from Simplyrecipes.com:

Tomato Pie

Ingredients

* 1 9-inch pie shell (or you could make a pie crust, but that adds on more time)
* 1/2 yellow or red onion, chopped
* 3-4 tomatoes, cut in half horizontally, squeezed to remove excess juice, roughly chopped, to yield approximately 3 cups chopped tomatoes
* 1/4 cup sliced basil (about 8 leaves)*
* 2 cups grated cheese (combination of sharp cheddar and Monterey Jack, or Gruyere or Mozarella)
* 3/4 cup mayonnaise
* 1 teaspoon (or more to taste) of Frank's Hot Sauce (or Tabasco)
* Salt and freshly ground black pepper

*To slice basil, chiffonade them by stacking the leaves on top of each other, roll them up like a cigar, starting at one end slice the "cigar" crosswise in thin slices.
Method

1 Preheat oven to 350°F. Place pie shell in oven and cook for 8-10 minutes or longer until lightly golden. If you are starting with a frozen crust, you'll need to cook it a little longer. If you are using a homemade crust, freeze the crust first, then line the crust with aluminum foil and pre-bake it for 20 minutes, then remove the foil and bake an additional 10 minutes.

2 Squeeze as much moisture as you can out of the chopped tomatoes, using either paper towels, a clean dish towel, or a potato ricer.

3 Sprinkle the bottom of the pre-cooked pie shell with chopped onion. Spread the chopped tomatoes over the onions. Sprinkle the sliced basil over the tomatoes.

4 In a medium bowl, mix together the grated cheese, mayonnaise, Tabasco, a sprinkling of salt and freshly ground black pepper. The mixture should be the consistency of a gooey snow ball. Spread the cheese mixture over the tomatoes.

5 Place in oven and bake until browned and bubbly, anywhere from 25 to 45 minutes.

Serves 6.

Some Suggestions

1. Cut the amount of cheese in half.

2. You can caramelize the onions before placing them into the pie shell.

If you want to make the Technomage heart attack version of this pie try this:

1. Add 1 pound of cooked bacon, crumbled to form a layer between the tomatoes and cheese.

2. Instead of mayonnaise add some more milk and an egg to the cheese mixture. This will make the pie more quiche like. I haven't try this yet, but it is next on the list of the things to try.

2011-08-22T16:56:00.001-05:00

DIYS Gardening: Tomato Sauce
Last year I had more tomatoes than I knew what to do with. One of the reasons? I was unwilling to peel my tomato. It seems a little to much work. Then I found this wonderful YouTube video on blanching and peeling tomatoes. This video change my cooking life and let me try a different tomato sauce from the one I posted last year.

This sauce is pretty good. It just takes hours to cook. Start this one after lunch. The sauce is a little sweet, but that could be due to the Big Girl tomatoes from my garden. Try cutting the sweetness with more wine, wine vinegar, or salt. Try adding small amounts while cooking and tasting the results.

Homemade Tomato Sauce I

Ready In: 4 Hours 30 Minutes

Servings: 6

Ingredients:
10 ripe tomatoes
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
1 onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
1/4 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/4 cup Burgundy wine
1 bay leaf
2 stalks celery
2 tablespoons tomato paste

Directions:

1. Bring a pot of water to a boil. Have ready a large bowl of iced water. Plunge whole tomatoes in boiling water until skin starts to peel, 1 minute. Remove with slotted spoon and place in ice bath. Let rest until cool enough to handle, then remove peel and squeeze out seeds. Chop 8 tomatoes and puree in blender or food processor. Chop remaining two tomatoes and set aside.

2. In a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat, cook onion, bell pepper, carrot and garlic in oil and butter until onion starts to soften, 5 minutes. Pour in pureed tomatoes. Stir in chopped tomato, basil, Italian seasoning and wine. Place bay leaf and whole celery stalks in pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low, cover and simmer 2 hours. Stir in tomato paste and simmer an additional 2 hours. Discard bay leaf and celery and serve.

Recipes Courtesy allrecipes.com

2011-08-11T11:50:00.000-05:00

Nothing says "Hi I'm a serial killer" more than Hello Kitty Ductape. All I need now is a white van with a sign on the side that says "Free Candy"

Who at the ShurTech Brands, lost their mind and thought this would be a great idea?

2011-08-10T11:10:00.000-05:00

DIYS Gardening: Eggplant
I'm growing two type of eggplants: Purple Blaze (Shown here) and Little Fingers. I avoided eggplant in the grocery store, but I don't know why. Maybe it's because the only purple foods I've eaten are grapes and blueberries, so a purple vegetable puts me out of sorts. However my eggplants have been growing like gangbuster! So what to do? Eat them! I heard of Eggplant Parmesan in every cookbook I've ever had, so why not give it a whirl.

Eggplant is a bit of an annoy vegetable, which is probably why people avoid it. The eggplant taste great, but you must prepare it properly. Eggplant needs to be drain of excess water before you can cook it. Usually this mean slicing the eggplant and putting it into a colander in between layers of kosher salt for 2 hours. That what makes most recipes for eggplant stretch past the three hour mark. After drain my eggplant, I found it helpful to give the eggplant a good rinse to get rid of the extra salt. Then press the eggplant dry between paper towels. When your eggplant is dry and rubbery (Not the word I want but it fits, and the eggplant taste so much better than rubber), you are ready to cook.

I find that eggplant chips battered and fried like onion rings can be quite yummy.

Eggplant Parmesan
Ingredients

* 2 lbs (about 2 large) eggplants
* Kosher salt
* 1 28-oz can whole peeled tomatoes
* 1 clove garlic, peeled and minced
* Olive oil
* Freshly ground black pepper
* 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
* 1/2 cup fine dry breadcrumbs
* 4 large eggs, beaten
* 1 1/2 lbs of fresh mozzarella cheese, sliced into 1/4 inch rounds
* 1 cup grated high quality Parmesan cheese
* 1 packed cup fresh basil leaves

Method

1 Cut eggplants lengthwise into 1/4 inch slices. Arrange one layer in the bottom of a large colander and sprinkle evenly with salt. Repeat with remaining eggplant, salting, until all eggplant is in the colander. Weigh down the slices with a couple of plates and let drain for 2 hours. The purpose of this step is to have the eggplant release some of its moisture before cooking.

2 While the eggplant is draining, prepare tomato sauce. Combine tomatoes, garlic and 1/3 cup olive oil in a food processor. Season with salt and pepper to tasted and set aside.

3 When eggplant has drained, press down on it to remove excess water, wipe off the excess salt, and lay the slices out on paper towels to remove all the moisture. In a wide, shallow bowl, combine flour and breadcrumbs. Mix well. Pour beaten eggs into another wide shallow bowl. Place a large, deep skillet over medium heat, and pour in a a half inch of olive oil. When oil is shimmering, dredge the eggplant slices first in the flour mixture, then in the beaten egg. Working in batches, slide coated eggplant into hot oil and fry until golden brown on both sides, turning once. Drain on paper towels.

4 Preheat the oven to 350°F. In the bottom of a 10x15 inch glass baking dish, spread 1 cup of tomato sauce. Top with one third of the eggplant slices. Top eggplant with half of the mozzarella slices. Sprinkle with one third of the Parmesan and half of the basil leaves.

5 Make a second layer of eggplant slices, topped by 1 cup of sauce, remaining mozzarella, half the remaining Parmesan, and all of the remaining basil. Add remaining eggplant, and top with the remaining tomato sauce and Parmesan.

6 Bake until cheese has melted and the top is slightly brown, about 30 minutes. Allow to rest at room temperature for about 10 minutes before serving.

Serves 8.

Recipe courtesy of Simply Recipes

2011-08-10T10:41:00.001-05:00

I Love Animeiowa - 2011

It's like Halloween and my favorite hobby store rolled together in one great big ball of repressed teen desire.

Actually, Animeiowa was quite fun this year. I saw a few of my students, recognized several more custom without asking the cosplayers, and spent more money than I ever thought I would.

I'm sure you all recognize Pikachu and the other lady is from "Oh, my Goddess", but don't put money down on that.

2011-08-05T01:54:00.001-05:00

Technowiz becomes an Eagle Scout!

Technowiz as a cub scout.

2011-08-02T22:25:00.000-05:00

Gardening and Genealogy

My hobbies take me some weird places. One of them is cooking. When you are staring at 20 pounds of tomatoes, and you are tired of freezing, canning, stewing and making spaghetti sauce, what do you do? Well, find new ways to cook your tomatoes of course! This also answers the question what to do with all those other vegetables in the garden as well. I spend my time searching for recipes I would like to try and keep the recipes I like.

Which bring me to the second instance: family reunions and get togethers. How many times have you been sitting around your great Aunt Bernice kitchen thinking, "OMG, this is the best Sun Drop Carmel Cake I have ever had! I need this recipe before she dies." A little cold to be sure, but there is some truth to the situation. Good food can take you back to the past memories of your life. It would be a shame to lose them. I amazed how many times when talking to relatives about the past or family history does the subject of food come up.

In both cases, you end up with a binder full of clippings from the newspapers and magazines, hand written notes scrawled on the back of a grocery list, or pages of printed websites. I've found a wonderful aid for keeping track of all those recipes: MacGourmet Deluxe

2011-08-01T15:58:00.001-05:00

DIYS Gardening : Water, Water Everywhere!

A good garden filled with your average plants; tomatoes, Swiss Chard, Peppers, and etc requires at least 1 inch of rain every week. The past few weeks in Iowa have been in the 90's. The plants grow well but must be water frequently. For my 4 foot by 8 foot raised bed, that's 20 gallons of water each time they need water. My water bill jumped by $40 last month. The High Priestess says my garden is taking up all the extra water. Perhaps, but I got $40 bucks that says the three teenagers who spend all morning in the bathroom have something to do with it as well.

I've been looking at rain barrels for quite awhile now. Especially since the state climatologist predict a drought this summer. I missed the chance last year to pick up some $40 rain barrels the city was selling to family gardeners, so I spent a lot of time looking since then. Most rain barrels will run from $80 - $150 with an insane upper limit of $300. That price was from a lawn and garden place trying to sell art deco styled rain barrels. Most rain barrel come as just a container with a spout at the bottom and a hole in the top. You have to provide the method of getting the water to the barrel and keeping the mosquitoes out of the standing water. I found this at my local hardware store: Fiskars 5998 Salsa II 58 Gallon Rain Barrel with DiverterPro - Spice Granite. I picked up three at $100 a piece. IMHO, well worth the price because it come with the hardware to integrate the unit into your downspout.

The instruction that came with the unit were easy to follow, but I found it is best the remove the downspout before cutting the section for the diverter. So set up your best barrel in nice flat stable surface , then measure and mark the downspout. Then take down the downspout, make the appropriate cut, install the diverter and remount the downspout. If you do it that way it should take you 30 - 45 minutes to finish the set up.

Some side notes:

1) Each barrel holds 58 gallons of water. One gallon of fresh water is about 8 pounds. When full each one of these beast weight over 465 pounds. Make sure the area can support the weight. About 1/10 of rainfall on an average roof of a small house (1000 sq. ft) with fill a rain barrel.

2) The spout is mounted about a foot from the bottom of the barrel, so you really only get access to about 50 gallons of water. This is a good thing because it mean any sand, or shingle grit settles to the bottom of the tank and you get clean water.

3) The spout is made from hard plastic (nylon). You need a hose with a plastic (nylon) hook-up, because the metal hook-ups do not fit properly and will tear up the spout.

4) Don't expect the water to flow at the same rate as your house faucet. The flow rate out of the spout depends on the water level height in the barrel above the spout. (This is really a nice little physics problem.) In simple terms, don't expect to hold the hose and walk around your garden spraying water everywhere.

After spending one day in the hot summer sun trying to water my garden, I decided I need a better way. Using some PVC pipe and some odds and ends for the hardware store I came up with an irrigation system. The pipe is just held to together by friction so I can change it around or take it apart. All of this took me an 1 hour to put together and about $20. Now, I can run a hose to the nearest rain barrel and just turn on the spout. It about the time it takes me to finish a cup of coffee my watering can be done. Of course, you can use the time to weed or harvest. The system works quite well, but you need to make sure your don't have too many holes in your pipe. Otherwise not everything in your garden will get water.

2011-08-01T12:05:00.001-05:00

DIYS Gardening: Season 2 - Two Months and Counting

If you are in Iowa you must try growing some corn. Those of you who know me realize the completely passive approach is not me That's where the Daisy PowerLine 901 Pellet Gun comes in handy. Now I haven't actually killed anything with the gun, but i have given all the rabbits, squirrels, birds and other vermits something to think about when approaching my garden.

First, I'm never going to plant from seed again, if I can possible help it. The only planting that work last year were my sunflowers. This year my corn and sunflowers are doing well, but my watermelon never sprouted. Last year I must have spent $5 per plant trying to start them inside before the last frost, only to have them all die after transplanting.

However, I did find the tomato plants I brought last year at the farmer market for $2 a piece have grown like wildfire. This year I decided to use starter plants for everything. I have: peppers (green, banana, jalapenos); Eggplant (Purple Blaze, Little Fingers); pumpkin; zucchini; and tomatoes. I have gotten mid summer crops from everything expect the pumpkins and zucchini. I've paid between $2 - $4 for each plant and I'm very happy. That being said there is only one problem going to the farmer's market: Veggie Envy.

Remember back in high school (or junior high for some) that first gym class with mixed grades? You are standing with your ninth grade in the locker room with all the upperclassmen and the thought goes through your head: "Hmmmm.... my zucchini is not as big as everyone elses.... " (I suppose with the young ladies it goes something like: "Hmmmm Mary's melons are bigger than mine and Molly's are just Frickin' HUGE.)

I was happy with my banana peppers until my last farmer's market trip. The High Priestress suggest I use some fertilizer. So, I've started using a little Miracle Grow with every other watering.

2011-05-25T12:03:00.000-05:00

DIYS Gardening: Season 2 Starting Out
If I'm in Iowa I think I should at least try my hand at growing some corn. Hence, the reason for my buddy here. For the past two week I've been trying to keep the squireel, birds and other vermits from digging up my seeds. I'm trying to be a little Earth friendly so here is the homage to the Dynonisse: the scarecrow. Those of you who know me realize I just can't have the passive approach. That's where the Daisy PowerLine 901 Daisy Outdoor Products 901 Gun (Black, 37.5 Inch) comes in handy.

2011-03-20T03:16:00.000-05:00

A Random Thought: Asteroids
I'm sitting on the toilet listening to the traffic go by. It's Saturday late afternoon, when I hear the warble of the an Iowa City Police car. Since we live near a main thoroughfare, it is not uncommon. What struck me as odd was the fact the siren sound exactly like the UFO crossing the screen from the old Asteroids Coin-op Video Games.

2011-02-12T23:18:00.001-06:00

Valentin's Day Post

Normally, I talk about my past and my relationship with women on Valentine's day. However, I just had to put this out into the void. Ladies would it kill you to wear something sexy on Valentine's Day. I know what you are thinking, I'm too fat, too skinny, too short, too tall, or any number of things that mean nothing to your significant other (SO). I will give you the male view point, but I think it works even if your SO is of the same gender.

If your truly cares you could show up in a burlap bag with a seductive slit up the side and he will still want to make love with you. Trust me on this.

Lingerie does have to be expensive or silk and lace. What Lingerie does it is a visual signal to your mate, boyfriend, or anyone else you have in mind that you are ready for having sex. What you are wearing says, "I'm ready to indulge all your perverted twisted fantasies for at least the next hour or two." So what should you be wearing? Lucky for you I have some suggestions, a lot of suggestions.

Trailer Park Beauty - A-Shirt (sometimes called a wife-beater) and thong panties. That's it! Never underestimate how damn sexy simple can be. Yes you may feel everything is "spilling out", but that the point. You you want paint your toes.

Hose and Heels - Stockings, grater belt, your choice of panties. If you want to match a bra with the set that's OK. This is a classical look and it goes with anything from classy dress to Halloween flapper costume.

College Coed - Just you wearing college sweatshirt that one size too big for you. You can use his sweatshirt or pick a sweatshirt with his favorite team. Nothing else. You can do this same look with a men's button-up shirt as well.

The Cheerleader - Every guy thinks about having sex with a cheerleader. It doesn't even have to be a real team. Short skirt or hot pants, tight t-shirt and some fake pom-poms from the dollar store and you are set.

The Teddy Bear - Just a Teddy. A nice teddy that fits you is always nice.

Just You - Nude, birthday suit, naked as a jaybird or any other reference you can to use. Skin is always welcome. If you want modest turn off the lights and crawl under the covers. If you have a big fluffy robe that works too. Try that and cuddle up on the couch.

2011-01-26T22:29:00.000-06:00

I'm going to try really hard to do at least one post a month! Yes, It's a new year. Yes, the world ends in 2012, but by GOD I'm going to get 12 posts in my blog before the end comes.

2010-11-15T15:32:00.000-06:00

Book Review: Bullet by Laurell K. Hamilton

This is the last Anita Blake novel I will ever buy! Even as an ebook, I feel robbed. Anita Blake has gone from a tough as nail Vampire Hunter to a bit of a Nympho-pansy. Hamilton last five books have taken our heroin from indendent women to a a main character who can't think for yourself. Anita spend more time fretting about her bed partner's feelings than fighting any evil. Anita and her sets of triumviates spend most of the time gathering power to combat some darkness that has been looming for the past three books. Granted, each book focus on a smaller span of time. It has just gotten to the point of being silly. Anita, poor girl, acculamates power by having sex with various supernatrual creatures, from the standard vampires to wererats and werelions. this just turns the book into one big bedroom scene. When I start flipping pages to get to some meaning non-sex related action, you know something is wrong. This comes from a guy who has dog-eared pages in his copy of Nancy Friday's "My Secret Garden".

When something goes wrong in her bed choice partner, Anita stresses about it to the point of a fault. I have long felt Ms. Hamilton was writing her character into a corner, and I've been proven correct in that the main story plots have been pushed aside for relationship angst. Anita has several problem in her own camp that need to be solve with lots of bullet and 10 pages of writing from Ms. Hamilton. I'm surprised "Evil" hasn't taken advantage of Anita indecision, and brought fiery destruction down on St. Louis, MO.

Now if you want an adult version of Twilight with cover to cover fucking feel free to grab a copy of Bullet.

2010-08-24T09:56:00.000-05:00

DIYS Gardening: .... and More Tomatoes

What to do with the the next crop of tomatoes? I have done the tomato sauce, and the salsa. Now what?   I don't feel like making tomato sauce morning, noon, and night. However, I do need a way of preserving them. I like the idea of sun-dried tomatoes, but I don't want to put them out in my backyard and them the squrieel, rabbits, chipmunk, and yes a ground hog get at my tomatoes.

So I brought a food dehydrator. I had one ripe tomato that I could test the food dehydrator.   However the the appliance demand you use all the trays, so I had to fill the the other tray with apple, peaches and nectarines. After filling the tray I turned it on and waited.   About 10 hours later I had great apple chips that tasted wonderful.   My tomato was a little too dry, but I have several recipes that require dry tomatoes that have been pulverized into a powder. The taste is something else. They just scream TOMATO! The flavor seems boiled down to the essense of what is a tomato. I can see how you could make a great tomato paste using pulverized dried tomato in a sauce.

I'm using a food dehydrator made by Nesco. I wanted something cheap, just in case things didn't work out.   However the test run has convinced me that drying the tomatoes and other thing would be the way to go. I will not be wasting any tomatoes because I have too many for sandwiches, but not enough for pasta.
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2010-08-24T09:23:00.000-05:00

DIYS Gardening: GREEN PEPPERS!

I finally have green peppers! This has taken awhile, but they have finally come up. I guess I expect the flowers to be bigger, but they just quietly sit in the background then BLAM! I still have to wait another week or two before they are ready to pick. They should have a nice bell pepper shape and sound hollow when thumped. I can pick them when they are green, but as they change color (red, yellow, chocolate brown) they should be sweeter.

If my peppers are ready at the same time my next set of tomatoes are ready I'll make tomato salad again. Otherwise, I may try some stuffed green peppers.

2010-08-19T16:52:00.000-05:00

1 down and 2 to go.

Yesterday the High Priestess drop Technotaz off at Iowa State. Hot Damn! Of course, now we have to play through the nose to keep him there. Of course the HP, was in tears for the past few weeks. Well, at least the bot is not on drugs, in prison or a father to several kids around town. Which I can say is a world of difference from some of his kindergarten soccer teammates: One in jail, another is a drop-out and who knows about some of the others.

All I asked from him was to make sure i didn't get a call at 2 AM from Iowa States saying, He's dead, dying, drunk or blew up the Chemistry building. In a nutshell: Don't do anything Stupid!

Aside: Last week I took the HP and Technowitch down to the campus were I work. I introduce my wife and her to a colleague. We talk about our kids and I mentioned Technotaz was off to Iowa State. The colleague response? "I didn't think you were that old!"

Thanks.... Sometimes everyone needs a kick in the balls...

2010-08-03T22:46:00.000-05:00

I've been pining for an Amiga 3000 for years. When they first came out I wanted one! Two Megs of Ram, 25 Mhz 68030 proccessor, Hires color graphics I was in Heaven. In 1990, the Amiga 3000 had a $4000 price tag and only ran a limited amount of software, but I didn't care.

Time jump to 2010, The College I work at is throwing their Amiga 3000 away. Yippie! I've been waiting for this for years. The college's video production studio finally upgraded to a Macintosh, so I get this computer before it goes to the trash heap.

Computer are the only thing that goes to pennies in 20 years. So much, a computer is the only piece of equipment that falls off the inventory roll faster than toilet paper, because the value practilly disappears overnight. A 20 year old car is a classic. A 20 year old computer is a doorstop. Unless you are a geek like me and you think old computer are like living museum pieces.

The fun parts is I can tinker with it. Just like my neighbor who spends his hours working in his garage on his classic corvette. I need to start comb EBay for spare parts. :)

2010-08-02T16:10:00.000-05:00

DIYS: Gardening - MORE Tomatoes!

I've got more tomatoes and I don't quite know what to do with them. I leaning toward a food dehydrator so I can make "sun" dried tomatoes, but Technowitch has been dying to do some cooking with them. She came up with a salsa recipe from Great-Salsa.com

It's pretty good, but it help to know what Tomatilloes look like before driving all over the city to find them.

Mild Homemade Salsa

8 Fresh vine ripe right from the garden Tomatoes, chopped
4 small Tomatillo, remove the papery skin and chop
½ cup of fresh cilantro, chopped
2-4 whole green onions, including the green part; chopped
Jalapeno peppers to taste.
½ bell pepper, seeds removed and finely chopped
1 lime, juiced
½ teaspoon Kosher Salt

Combine all the chopped ingredients into a bowl stir lightly. Squeeze the lime juice over the homemade salsa.

This flavorfuly mild homemade salsa can be served immediately, but its flavor will be enhance after allow the salsa to season for about an hour or over night in the refrigerator.

2010-08-02T15:52:00.001-05:00

DIYS Gardening: The Sunflower
You know, I've never realized how beuatiful and creepy a sunflower can be. I remember planting these guys and hoping they would grow to be six or seven feet tall. The big one is fast appaorching 11 feet and does not appear to be slowing down. Aflower should never grow this tall unless you've sacreficed a puppy or something. I hear the tallest one was recorded in Padua in 1567 and was 12 meteres (40 feet). The High Priestess says it is so big because it's in the perfect place for sunlight. I think it is just evil, but it does keep the zombies away.

Shameless Plugs

2010-08-02T15:09:00.000-05:00

It's hot, humid and I'm in my underwear. Must be time to stain something. This piece took me 21 years to get it right. This is one of the first piece of furniture the High Priestess and I bought when we first moved to IOWA. It cam from a craftsman who had a shop called "The Loading Dock". The man was an ex-grad student with a PhD. in Science Education, or at least that's what he said. I should have seen that as an omen. The chest of drawers was always going to be stained, but we could never agree on a color. The HP wanted it to match our furniture, but at the time all we had was the random collection of odds and ends most couple and recently graduated students would have. There was nothing to match. Even now the bedroom furniture shades are just a little off. The Nightstand tables match the bed, but the other chest of drawers (mine) comes from somewhere else.

The piece was already sanded and ready for whatever, but we just couldn't decided. Personally I think the HP was convienced I would fuck it up and it took her 20 years before she trusted me enough with a brush. She may have been right. I've learned quite a deal from my other projects. For you staining you need patience, time, hot weather, and underwear....lots and lots of underwear.

My technique is always the same: sand to open the wood, pre-conditioner helps the wood take the stain deep into the wood, three light coats of stain, then three coats of polyurethane. The can of stain always say to wipe away the excess stain, but I find it work better if you use very little stain on the brush and work it into the wood until the brush it almost dry. Let the piece sit for 3 to 6 hours to dry (NOT IN THE SUN), before adding another coat. Keep repeating until you have the shade you want. I always do at least two coats, because the first coat never quite takes evenly due to the difference in the wood itself.

The same goes for the polyurethane coats as well, but I don't brush until dry. You should have enough on the brush so it flows evenly over the wood but does not run or drip. You may need a very light touch on the side because gravity will make the coating try to run. The coat should be thin enough so you can see the brush stroke trails as the poly goes on, but the track should disappear after 15 - 30 second after the stroke. Let the coat dry completely, at least eight hours. (Never let it dry in direct sunlight!) The wood should have hard candy like coating. Lightly sand with 220 grit sandpaper to remove uneven brushstrokes. You should have a fine white dust that can brush wiped away easily, as if you were dusting a piece of furniture. Now you should apply the second coat. Following the same steps for the first. afterward you should feel a smooth surface under your fingertips. The surface should not snag or pull on a soft cloth if brushed over it. You can stop here, but I always add a third coat.

Some side tips now: Always use natural hair brushes. Clean your brushes well after you are done, but don't expect the brush you used for poly to ever get clean. You may use it for crappy jobs again, but next time you need to work on a show piece BUY A NEW BRUSH! After cleaning your brushes or if you have to step away for short awhile (having to run to the store or something) wrap your brushes in plastic bags. Make sure there is very little air in the bag and it's air tight. This keeps your brushes nice and fresh.

The original piece didn't have handles. You could open the drawers by pulling on the end of each drawer. However that always annoyed the HP and it's her chest of drawers anyway. Handles are highway robbery at any DIYS place: Lowe's, Menard's, Home Depot, etc... I found mine at Restore for fifty cent each. The HP and I also found a lovely dining room set for a steal, but that another story.

I redid the handle in the same cherry wood stain I used on the dresser. I think they came out great. How does one add handles and make sure they are centered? I find a great website for that. Drilling Guide for Drawer Pulls

Shameless Plugs

2010-07-24T08:13:00.000-05:00

DIYS Gardening: I've got Tomatoes, now what?!?

My tomatoes are growing like gangbuster, along with the rest of my garden. I think a good garden should provided at least one dish you can eat regularly. This year doesn't quite do the job, because I need to grow some spices. Maybe that what i should do for next year.

This year, it's what to day with 3 dozen tomatoes. Actually, I all ready had a plan. The High Priestess like to make pasta dishes, so tomato sauce seems to be a good choice. I've asked friends and combed the internet looking for a simple recipe that had fresh tomatoes and could be prepared with little effort. This is what I came up with, courtesy of allrecipes.com.

Fresh Tomato Sauce
Prep time 2 hours ( the website say 30 minutes, but they lie). It took me ahile to chop everything and I just threw them in the pot as I went. I forgot to add the oil first then toss in the veggies. I am willing to bet that the hot oil would have brought on more of the flavors in the tamotoes and peppers. It's a ver sweet sauce and kind of soupy. I added 2 (6oz) cans of tomato paste to thicken the sauce up a bit. It's pretty good, but lack the Itallian spices. Next time, I'll add more garlic, basil and oregano.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup olive oil

6 tomatoes, chopped

3 onions, minced

2 green bell peppers, minced

4 cloves garlic, minced

3 tablespoons white wine

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1.	In a large saucepan, heat oil over medium heat; add tomatoes, onions, green bell peppers, garlic, white wine and salt and pepper to taste.
2.	Mix ingredients well; cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Serve.

2010-06-30T00:40:00.000-05:00

DIYS Gardening: The Little Green Bastards

After spending some time weeding my gardening I finally saw what has been munching on my broccoli. The culprit is the "Green Looper". This little guy loves to eat any leafy green veggie plants: broccoli, cabbage, and Tomatoes! After picking several of these off my plants I went to the internet to learn about my enemy.

It turns out that these caterpillars have a natural enemy: bacillus thuriengensis or Bt. Bt is a bacteria which love to get inside the digestive system of there green worms and multiply. Eventually they kill the host by making it not want to eat. The caterpillars starves and dies. Since Bt is naturally occurring it's safe to use, and doesn't affect human or other animals. You can use it all the way up to a day before harvesting. I spray this stuff in the morning about 3 times last weeks and the results are terrific. My broccoli is coming back and I may get a good crop this season. Bt is sold as Dipel or Thuricide. (ex. Bonide 803 Liquid Thuricide or GREENLIGHT DIPEL DUST 1#)

2010-06-16T17:03:00.005-05:00

Some numbers to think about.

One oil barrel holds 42 gallons of oil. That's 168 quarts of oil.

One quart of oil can contaminate up to 250,000 gallons of water. So one barrel of oil has the potential to contaminate about 42 million gallons of water.

On June 3, 2010 USA Today quote the BP Oil Leak at 800,000 gallons of oil a day , or 19,048 barrels per day. That's enough oil to fill a supertanker in about 105 days or 3 and a half months. Just FYI a typical supertanker hold 2 million barrels of oil (84 million gallons). The current estimate as of June 15, 2010 according to the Washington Post say the oil leak surges between 30,000 and 60,000 barrels per day. Ok, let's put on our thinking caps shall we.

Let's say the average flow is 45,000 barrels a day, and BP can recover 18,000 barrels. That's still 27,000 barrels each day leaking into the Gulf of Mexico. To be fair BP does say that it's recovery rate will increase by mid-July to the point where they capture all the oil. So just for a back of the envelope calculation let's say 27,000 barrels a day is the total leak over the whole time period. That takes care of the underestimate early on and the improving oil recovery until the end of the crisis. This leak started with the demise of the Deep Water Horizon Oil rig on April 20, 2010. Assuming the leak can be stopped or at least by mid-July (July 16) that is 87 days.

27,000 barrels a day for 87 days is 2,349,000 barrels of oil. That's a supertanker and a little friend as well.

OR IN OTHER WORDS

2.35 million barrels of oil can contaminate up to 98.6 trillion gallons of water. How much is that? I'm glad you asked. :)

The Gulf of Mexico holds about 650 Quadrillion Gallons of water. Look at the amount of possible contaminated water compared with the Gulf of Mexico that's about 0.0151% of the total water in the Gulf. That doesn't sound like much, but all that oil has to somewhere. Most of it will wash up in the Photic layer of the ocean and then end up on the shore. The rest will settle into the silt when the clam, oysters and bottom feeders are. Only the truly lightest hydrocarbons will evaporate. Any way you cut it, a night out at Red Lobster is going to be a lot more expensive.

2010-06-09T13:33:00.000-05:00

DIYS GARDENING: I've got tomatoes!

I must says my tomatoes are growing like gang buster! They must like the rain and hot weather we have been getting, which is a little usual for Iowa. Never the less, I'm very happy with my success. I haven't needed to fertilize or use any pest control at all. However, I think something is eating my broccoli, so I may have to start using the hot pepper sauce solution.

2010-05-30T11:44:00.001-05:00

Amanda's Back!

My AMD Goddess has been resurrected with more memory, a new hard drive and and a copy of Window 7. It's looks like everything has final taken and that pesky Blue Screen of Death has taken a holiday. I do realize that Amanda may be on her last legs here. I don't think her motherboard is design with 2 GB DIMMs or higher. That limits her to 4 GB of Ram. Only 2.75 GB of that is usable now, due to issues we have already talked about. Amanda does seems to be happier in the 64 bit world. The whole project was only $250, about fifty dollar shy of my first estimate, so it's all good.

Parts list:
1. Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade

2. Western Digital 500 GB Caviar Black SATA 7200 RPM 32 MB Cache Bulk/OEM Desktop Hard Drive WD5001AALS

3. Axiom - Memory - 1 GB - DIMM 240-pin - DDR2 - 400 MHz / PC2-3200 - CL3 - 1.8 V - registered - ECC

2010-05-28T16:38:00.003-05:00

DIYS Gardening - Part VI: Finishing what you started.

As I said last time, my first try at growing tomatoes failed miserably. The plant you see here I bought at the farmer market for 1.50 a piece. I may just do that from now on, since they seems to be doing so well as of this entry. I already have a few tomato blossom, so I'm a happy camper. The strawberries are doing nicely, but I think the hotter than normal weather is retarding their growth.

The last bed hold my pepper plants and broccoli. They seems to be taking rooting, because they have not died yet. Since I was having problems with transplanting, I just cut out the bottoms of the individual packs and planted the whole thing. After the plants establish themselves I'll remove the plastic pack liner.

2010-05-22T12:43:00.003-05:00

Amanda has Alzheimer's: A Building the Perfect Beast Postscript.
Amanda (My AMD Duo Core Goddess) has been having a problem. She tend to forget where she puts things. This is understandable since she is over 4 years old. Last time I had the blue screen of death Amanda had a bad memory DIMM. The fix was pulling the 512 MB DIMM. Problem solved. The Stick sat on my desk for over six months, until I had time to get a replacement from NeoComputer. The DIMM has a lifetime warranty so I can get a new one for free. After ordering one and waiting for a week, I return to find the the store clerk forgot to place the order. (Aside: the NeoComputer in Iowa City seems to have gone downhill in terms of quality.) Long story short: I walk out with a new 1 GB DIMM.

I go home and put my sexy bitch up on the bench and proceed to fondle her innards. She get her six month "dust and suck": CPU, Fans, filters, and GPUs get cleared of all the dust they pick up during the winter. I installed the new DIMM. and we are off and running. Things are great for about two hours of WoW time, but Amanda starts to act funny. POW! Blue Screen of Death (BOD). After a reboot and resetting somethings breaks again after 2 hours: BOD! This happens every time I tax her system with too much information: Playing a Game, while surfing sites with lots of Flash. (Damn You Jello PORN!)

I think I've got a bad stick of memory, but after doing some digging I thinking it is something else. Amanda is partially handicapped. She is a 64 bit processor using 32 Bit Windows XP. Windows XP (32 Bit) can only see about 4 GB of memory period. That includes allocation for RAM, I/O, Cards, Graphics Cards, OS Kernel Space, and a crap load of overhead. Amanda has always been a little twitchy when over 2 GB of RAM. Now I think I know the reason.

Window XP (32 Bit) likes to have 3.5 Gigs of RAX max allocated for running programs and data. The other 512 MB of RAM is for WindowsXP and bookkeeping. That's a gross simiplification, but it makes this next part easier to understand. By adding that new stick of RAM Amanda sometimes loses her mind: 3 GB of RAM, 1 GB of Ram on the Dual SLI Video Card, all that space needed for WIndows XP, USB Card, 3 hard drives, Sound card, and butch of I/O devices. So she forgets where things are placed, which leads to the BOD. The solution is getting Amanda to do 64 bits instead of 32.

Amanda is more than capable of doing such a feat. When she first came off the bench I had her doing Windows XP in 64 bits. XP64 was buggy as a candied apple sitting on an anthill, and many of the drivers I needed weren't 64 bit ready yet. So Amanda got the specail needs version of Windows XP (the 32 bits). That was four years ago, so it's time to make the jump.

Since, she is going back on the bench, I should give her a face lift and a tummy tuck as well. So I need to save some cash for the following: Windows 7 Home Premium (64bit), another DIMM stick 1 GB (Bringing her total to 4 GB), and another Hard Drive for the System. True, I could just reformat the old one, but I want to keep the old drive as a backup. This should set me back about $300.

2010-05-20T17:19:00.009-05:00

What have I been doing Part II or DIYS: Gardening Part V

After taking all that time last fall to finish these beds. I finally had to put them down for the winter. All i really needed to do is keep the dirt from blowing away and keep random seeds from falling into the dirt. Not much to talk about during the winter so fast forward to mid-March.

I wanted to plant seedling instead of seed, so I built a grow light. I started two flats of plants in March in the basement. One flat was tomatoes. The other flat was a combination of broccoli, peppers, and sunflowers. By mid-April I felt like a was growing WEED down in my basement with the amount of moment and attention I was giving theses plants. The High Priestess say these will be the most expensive tomatoes she has ever had. At the same time the plants are doing well in the basements it's time to start working the bed. Which mean a trip to Menards.

Still trying to keep within the $50/week was hard this time. The bags of peat and manure were cheap, but I need to find a way of keeping out the pest, mostly rabbits. I bought some rabbit and pest repellent, which is little more than hot pepper sauce. I still worried so I brought some physical barriers as well. I wanted lasers and landmines, but I can just see little Debbie form next door losing a few limbs. That wouldn't do, so it's chicken wire.

Before I put up the chicken wire I transplanted some of my tomato seedlings. That was an EPIC failure. The starting soil I used was great for indoors as long as the plants stayed indoor. However as soon as I moved the plant the soil just fell away and exposed all the delicate roots. Even with the care I put them into the ground they all died within a week. In addition to the root problem, the Sun can be a real bitch. I learned that most plant produce several kinds of leave depending on the lighting condition. The plants that were growing and thriving under my grow light had not produced any "sun" leaves. Consequently, my poor plant burned before they could produce leaves that would tolerate the solar spectrum. A lesson learned. I may have to start my plants sooner or increase the light intensity. One bed down. Bed number Two needs starting but I want to wait a week or two and let my plant toughen up a bit.

One thing about gardening everyone wants to give you something. In my case, it is my lab assistance Ruth. (Yes, I have a minion. World domination will soon follow! In reality, Ruth would never be a minion. She has told me so on several occasions.) Ruth give me a ton of strawberries, the only fruit that's a weed too. Strawberries spread like wild fire, and a suspect they really just sprout pods that take over people's mind and convince gardeners to give their offspring to other people. The only thing human can do is consume them before they take over. We must eat them In pies, smoothies, shortcake, salads, covered in chocolate and random dessert. Come PEOPLE WAKE UP BEFORE WE LOSE THE PLANET TO THESE RED BERRIED MONSTERS.

OK, so they get a bed by themselves. (YES...MASTER..... I OBEY....)

Finally, two beds planted and one to go. The failure with the tomatoes will have to be rectified by a trip to the farmer's market. Since it is a little late to start tomatoes plants indoors I will buy some and plant those. Yeah, It's a cheat, but I really like tomatoes.

2010-05-15T19:40:00.003-05:00

What I've been Doing Part I: Video Games

Bayonetta PS3

I've told you about waiting for Bayonetta to come out for the PS3. So let me cut to the quick. Bayonetta is interactive BDSM porn with guns and it just gets better from there. The main character and the games namesake looks like Sarah Palin's stand in. It's really frightening how much of a resemble there is. However, Bayonetta is a lot more intelligent than her real world look like.

Gameplay is typical of SEGA. You kill stuff, collect the rings that drop, jump through hoops, and kill the big bad monster at the end of each stage. One of my MORGA (College Video and Anime Club) member commented how much Bayonetta is like Sonic the hedgehog. Expect for the guns, pose downs and Torture/Climax attack Bayonetta does.

Bayonetta torture attack demo

Bayonetta climax attack It's about half way through the clip.

This is the first game I've finish in a long while. However, I did do it on the Very Easy Mode for Middle-Age Pussies. I can still go back and collect more weapons, credits and specialty items if I've got nothing to do on a rainy day. I am going to try very hard not to pay full price for a game if I can help it.

Heavy Rain PS3

This is a great game. It has non linear story play and multiple ending. If you really screw up It's possible to get all the major characters killed off. You're after a serial killer who like to kill little kids by drowning them in rainwater. If that's not enough incentive, one of the main character's children has been kidnapped and the clock is ticking. I won't give any spoilers, but I will say I nearly shit my pants when I found out who the killer was. One hint I will give, if you really mess up a scene during game play you can quit the game and reload the scene and play it again until you get the outcome you want. You should do this immediately for scene you want to "correct", otherwise you can disrupt the flow of the game.

The coding is pretty solid, and the live motion capture for the characters is pretty good. The FBI agent remind me a Neo from the Matrix, especially when he has his ARI Computer interface sunglasses on. The shower scene are just fun. If you play the game right you can make the character walk around naked for quite some time. I will say the the main father characters is a major dufus and should never be allowed to have kids in the first place.

I've been pining for this game for awhile, but no way I was going to fork out $60. I waited for this to show up as a used title and picked it up for $45

Bullet Witch XBox360

I would like to say Bullet Witch is a Poor man's Bayonetta, but that would be quite true because Bullet Witch was out long before Bayonetta. It's another girls with guns game. This game really satisfies the need to blow shit up after a day at the college. I also like the fact you can still download different costume for her to ware on her shooting spree. I can't decide between the schoolgirl outfit or the sexy business wear.

Gameplay is straight forward with lots of upgrades to earn. I've finish this game, but I still go back to grind for points in the first level. Points allow you to buy upgrades for spells, effects and weapons. This game teaches the need for strafing and not standing in one place for too long.

I wanted to try this game for a long time, I finally picked it up used from a "Going Out of Business" sale at Mr. Moovies.

2010-05-15T08:06:00.003-05:00

The Wife has a headache.
The Mistress is out of town.
The Milf across town has got religion
And the Coed just thinks I'm creepy.

Must be time to Blog. Clear the Baffles. Time to diarrhea on over the page.

I've had an epiphany. I'm a big kid. A Really big kid somewhere in between the ages of 14-17. I sort of knew this, as I have mentioned this before. I have never realized how truly deep this run. This came to me after spending all day eating cherry frosted Pop Tarts, and alternating between playing Video Games on my PS3 and jerking off to Transvestite Jello Porn. OMG! I'm 45, it's before noon and already went through a box of tissues.

It's a powerful thing to realize your place in this universe. It's not to be some great leader, save lives, or win people hearts and mind. You are places as an example of what NOT to become: the old guy who scare small children and smell vaguely like an old gym sock. Hmmmm.... Am I having that mid-life crisis?

So what have I been doing when I'm not being Keyser Söze.

2010-04-16T21:47:00.003-05:00

DIYS GARDENING: Part IV

I know it's been quite awhile since blogging. A lot of the things I've been do in my garden happen last fall, so this may be a little out of sync.

I had finally finished framing and putting down pathway rock in my last segment. By mid October I had three four by eight foot framed boxes with nothing in them. I need topsoil or black dirt, lots of it, about 3 and a half cubic yards. Another way to look at it I need about 60 pounds of dirt per cubic foot. Soil ranges between 50-125 pounds per cubic foot depending on water content and density. I'll need about 3 tons of dirt with my current density of 60 pounds per cubic foot.

So where does one get dirt? Dirt is well, "dirt cheap." The trick is moving the dirt when you have a lot of it. I call around and find a truck load of dirt (about 1.5 tons) is around $70 hauled to your door. I'll need two truck loads, but I want to stay in my $50 a weekend project budget. So I have to find another solution. Hello Uhaul!

There is something wrong about be able to rent a pickup truck for $20 a day. I find a place to has soil for sale, and will load it for me. Saturday morning, I head to the Uhail store and get a pickup truck. It's a Ford F150. I install my GPS unit because i have no idea where I'm going and i don't want to pay for any unnecessary miles. I crank the country station on the radio and get in touch with my inner country cowboy.

The nice folks at S & G Materials fill the back of the pickup with 1.55 tons of rich black Iowa soil mined from a river bed. I pay $12.33 after the visiting the scales. I'm off for home. I spend the next 90 minutes filling a wheelbarrow and then dumping the soil into the garden frames. It's now past noon and I still need another load and I need to get the the pickup back to the Uhaul store before 4 PM so I can keep the day rate.

The second load goes as smoothly as the first. This time it's 1.27 tons at $10.10. It's a little less this time, because I'm worried about breaking the back axle. The truck did seem to be sagging quite a bit. After doing the "Fill and Dump" for another 90 minutes, the beds are filled. I use the powerwasher to clean the bed of the pickup and return it to the store by 4 pm.

I end up paying about $100 total between the dirt and the Uhaul pickup. Yes, it's over budget but at least the beds are done.

2010-01-30T16:41:00.001-06:00

Does this sound like anyone you know?

Excerpt: Power Girl #8

2010-01-23T11:41:00.004-06:00

DIYS Gardening Part III

As You may have figured out all this work I did last fall, but I'm writing about it now. After finishing the woods frame I wait until I could get wood planks on sale. I really want 2 by 12 planks, but I could swing the price and stay below $50 a week. These planks are 2 x 10 and they work just as well. The frames give me a nice solid brace for the plank and they raise the planks up just enough to give me an extra 2 inches of soil depth. The ground is uneven so there is some extra room to fill in with dirt. I've got 4 by 4 cedar post in each corner and the planks are attached to thoses. The post are cut at 12 inches so the box formed by the planks stand on stills which gives that extra two inches I was talking about. If you look closely you can see what I mean.

So that is 9 2x10 8 foot planks, and 2 4x4 8 foot cedar posts. Total was around $50. Add in a box of deck screws, and I spent a little over my budget for the week.

The next thing to do is just fill them with topsoil and I'll be ready to tuck theses beds down for the winter.

2010-01-23T11:38:00.002-06:00

Just after the new year Ingrid (My Mac Pro)started running slow than normal. Fine, just great. It's not bad, but it does annoy the hell out of me. I think it due to the new software I installed for for my Livescribe PEN. I can't prove that, but that's my guess. I call Apple and do some digging on the internet. The solution was to wipe the hard drive and reinstall everything. I wanted to do that as much as I wanted to run a 5k in minus 20 degree weather.
Ingrid has a second hard drive which is set as the Time Machine backup. I had planned for this possible problem, so I figured I'd wipe the hard drive and restore the system from the backup. Great! Long story short a full backup restore doesn't bootup. I reformat the hard drive, reinstall the system software (10.5), upgraded the system software to 10.6, run the updates. I drag what I can from the backup drive and restart the system. That takes me all weekend and a better part of a week.

2009-12-31T14:44:00.004-06:00

Russian Scientists Working on Plan to Deflect Asteroids

Russia 'plans to stop asteroid'

Does anyone believe this crock of crap?!?!

Russia plan to save the world in 2036!!!!

Since when has any government thought or even planned 26 years ahead, the Chinese and Japanese are the exception of course. I give you the One-Child Policy in China, and the High-Tech industrial might that is Japan. (Aside: Do any of you remember when Japan was truning out cheap plastic and porcelian crap?)

This is all just some snow job for Russia to do what ever they want in space and then take credit for an event that would not have happened in the first place.

If the Russian really thought there was even a remote possibility that this would reall happen, they would be screaming to high heaven. When has Russia ever, ever spent million upon million of rubles on something altruistic? NEVER! So why would they start do doing it now?

2009-12-30T22:30:00.003-06:00

New Series: What if I Won the Lottery?

I'd like to start a new series of post. All of theses would be based on winning a large sum of cash and what I would do with it. I'm going to try something different than pay some bills, buy a new car, and get a new house. I think everyone would do that, but what happens when you get past the 10 million dollar mark? or 50 million? or 100 million?

That's what I'm going to do here. My road map for spending the mega millions of dollars I would surely win, if I started playing the lottery. I do have some rules. One, I'll assume the government will take half in taxes. Two, I'm going to start small and work my way up to the megabucks. Three, I'm going to try and spend it all and not just stick it in a bank. I can invest it however. Four, I going to try to do a reasonable job of researching my purchases. Five, the list is progressive. If I buy one thing in a post the next post assumes I buy the same thing plus something.

For example, If I were to win $10, I would buy: A Mocha latte $3.50, Banana-Nut muffin $1.50, One Comic Book $4.00, and a bagel $1.00. If I were to win $20, I'd buy everything I would have bought with the ten dollars, plus a manga book ($11.00) and skip the bagel (-$1.00).

I will not bore you with number less than a million dollars, because we can just assume I blow it on fast cars, older whiskey, lap dances, and detoxing bills.

Look for this starting in January.

2009-12-27T16:59:00.002-06:00

Ok...I'll admit it I need some serious help...

But Come on... Anything with "Bikini Zombie Slayer" in the title has to be played at least once. This game got terrible reviews, but I like it. I like the fact you have young women with swords. I like the fact the screen get splashed with blood. I like the fact that the character get drenched in blood as well. I like the special move the ladies do to shake all the blood off their swords to clean them.

I bought this game for myself, as a "At Least I know what's in my stocking" Christmas gift. What better way to honor the baby Jesus by slaying the undead hordes and sending them back to hell.

I hope this game can hold me over until Bayonetta (PS3), Heavy Rain (PS3) and Dante's Inferno (PS3) next month

2009-12-27T16:24:00.004-06:00

The Best Thing I Got for Christmas

You seen all the crap I keep in my pockets and book bag: Blackberry, iTouch, PSP, iBook, etc... Each one has a charger and about 6 feet of electrical cord. In some cases I have two charges, one at home and the other for Work/Travel. The only good thing that has happen in the past two years: They are all rechargeable and most business are staring to use the Mini USB styled port. That last one is starting to change back into chaos. I guess the "powers that be" found out that the mini USB made thing to convenient. Poeple started using their computer to charge their phone and one crap. I do it all the time. The computer already on all day, night as well use it for something other than playing Freecell and WoW.

I'm pretty broken up about how many trees I have to kill in the form of coal to charge all my toys. I've been trying to use rechargeable batteries whenever I can, but even those are not the best for the environment. (By the way... all the sex toys run on rechargeable batteries and the line forms to the left ladies. Well except the 220 volt monster I own.)

As I was saying, I been looking for a solar recharger for quite awhile. The Solio Classic charger is one of the best I've seen. You can read the features yourself, but the key is it charges a set of internal batteries so you can use it anytime. When it's sunny you can charge your stuff or the Solio. At night you can plug your stuff in and it will charge your cell phone from the internal batteries. It's darn near perfect. The price is a little high for the basic package (about $80) plus you need special tips for each object you want to charge. I really wish the mini-USB port would just be the standard. Fortunately that's one of the tips I received as well, along with another tip for my iTouch/iPod.

I just charged my Blackberry today and it took about 2-3 hours. That's about normal for hooking it to the computer as well.

Now if I could convince the High Priestess to let me cover the house with solar panels maybe I could off set the electricity use in the lab and the Mancave.

2009-12-09T13:49:00.005-06:00

DIYS Gardening Part II

Originally, I had planned to buy a couple of raised garden bed kits. Each one would be about 8 feet by 4 feet. After shopping around I found most raised bed kits were 4ft by 4ft and about 12 inches deep for about $60 each kit. OMG, I was surprised to say the least. I felt the 10ft by 16ft space could hold three 4ft by 8ft beds with nice walkway between each bed. At the current rate I would have to spend way over my budget to put in exactly what I wanted.

I also want to put in a rocky bed of river-washed stones. Something that would give me a nice walkway between the bed, but your could kneel on without too much trouble. If the stones are well eroded and and small enough the rock bed can be quite cushy.

All of this gets me too my first picture. To cover the entire bed with rocks would take about 58 bags of stone. Even at the cheap $2.50 a bag price, I'd spend far too much in one weekend. Let's not even talk about the pre-made plastic bed. If I want 8 by 4 foot beds I would have to build them from lumber. I can do that, but I wanted to at at least finish the rock bed over the weekend. It occurs to me that I don't have to cover the entire area, I just need to cover the space not taken by the raise bed. That's where the frames you see come in.

The frames act as a guide the the rock bed. They also weight the plastic down so the plastic doesn't blow away. The frames will also act as a template for the raised beds, will anchor the final result and provide support for the the bed when I add the dirt.

The frames mark out enough space that the number of bags of stone I needed went from 58 bags down to just 20 bags. The stone was on sell at Menard's for 2.38, so I was under $50 that weekend. The two by fours for the frames were cheap too. I only needed nine of them. That added another $15 to the weekend, but it would let me wait until I found a great price on the wood planks I would need later.

I spent the rest of Saturday afternoon filling in the walk-space. Then spent Sunday, leveling and tamping down the rock-bed. Don't they look nice?

2009-12-07T20:10:00.005-06:00

The Bathroom Is Leaking!
Once again water is my nemesis. The toilet in the kid's bathroom was rocking back and forth, and it seemed to be leaking. This was the same problem i had in my rental unit, so I feared the worst. I figured the sub flooring was going and any moment the toilet would fall thought the second floor and into my living. I had two choices. Ignore it and pray that it would go away, which never happens, or just fix the flooring.

After last summer job of fixing the rental unit's bathroom the second option seemed doable. After a lot of trips to Menard's and Lowe's the High Priestess and I picked a floor pattern we could live with.

Tear down was lot easy this time because I didn't have to get rid of a ceramic tile floor. After removing the toilet the good news was the flooring seemed Okay and not rotten at all. The bad news the flooring seeming to be and a half and inch lower than where it should be. This is what made the toilet rock back and forth. The toilet was literally resting on the flange and nothing else. Without any support from the floor the wax ring was warped and mashed down it into the floor flange. Fortunately, replacing the wood floor would solve most of my problems.

After cutting out the pattern and tracing it on the linoleum, I cut out the linoleum. I spent the next hour listening to the Iowa Hawks play a nail biter of a game while sanding the floor and gluing down the linoleum. (Aside: This project was undertaken early September. Over the next couple of weeks I'll be posting all the little things that have kept me busy this semester.)

2009-12-05T13:23:00.005-06:00

DIYS Gardening: Part I

I have been keeping busy this semester by doing more project around the house. Some time ago I announce I wanted to build a supercomputer network out of used Macs. I had all the Macs but it never quite got off the ground. Something about have too many power bar plugged into too few outlets. I swear Fire marshals can be so picky.

So in late summer I started looking around so another project that might be a bit more useful. Some neighbors of mine have some really nice raised beds for a vegetable garden. I thought, "I can do that!" I had a perfect place in the backyard for a plot to go, beside the old swing set in the backyard was starting to become a death trap. Of course, Technowitch did not think so and chained herself to the swing set to prevent me from taking it down. I wish I had thought to grab my camera and take a picture, but if I left to go get it TW would have hid my tools like she did before she chained herself to the swing set. After an afternoon of work I finally had the wooden play set removed and I could start on the sand.

I spent the next morning removing all the weeds and grasses that have rooted in the sand. All that material was dumped into a new compost pile in the far corner of the backyard. After raking and smoothing the area, I was left with a 10ft by 16ft (about 3.3m by 5m) sandbox. I could have used this space for the garden itself, but the wood play set was pressure treated and most likely had arsenic in it. Who know what would have happened to the fruits and veggies that would have grown there.

Of course, nothing says, "Please take a dump in me", like fresh turned sand. I've had experience with several cats in the neighborhood. They see an open plot of loose sand as their personal kitty litter box. Between that and the chance for heavy metal poisoning, I had to cover things up.

I put down two layers of plastic. Not the most environmentally friendly thing to do, but I wanted everything dead beneath my garden and I wanted to keep toxins from coming in contact with the roots of my plants. the first layer is a thick clear plastic (3 mils thick). This was followed by another layer of black plastic. This was another afternoon of work and afterward I thought I could just stop here and cover everything with concrete. That would make a nice foundation for a hot tub. Then vision of nude Coeds frolicking in my hot tub started dancing in my head. I had been out in the sun too long...

I've started this project with the goal of spending no more than $50 each weekend. After buying a bow rake, the plastic sheeting and replacing the wheel on the wheelbarrow I'm at my $50 break point and I needed to stop. Look for Part II in an upcoming post.

2009-10-23T15:40:00.001-05:00

Mice: 0
Technomage: 3

It's been three week since I've caught my last mouse. Although there do seems to be sign of action in the Chemistry Lab. At least now the little bastards are not pooping all over my desk.

2009-09-30T19:20:00.004-05:00

So I come back form a long weekend and I see the Physics Students have sacraficed a small furry mammal to apease whatever dark gods watch over the college. It's always great to find dead animals on your desk. It just makes you feel loved and gives you a warm fuzzy feeling in your heart.
In reality, I go through this ever year. The weather starts getting cold and the field mouse start wandering inside looking for food and warmth. I've been seeing little present left over my desk and keyboards for about a week now. Last week I decides to do something about it.
Being a traditionalist I went for the plain wood trap. These little bastards just licked the peanut butter off and didn't spring any of the six trap I left scatter around the office. So it's was off to the hardware store to find a better mousetrap.

Theses black Rentokil mouse are great: easy baiting and a hair trigger. The only thing better would be mininuke land mines that would give a satisfying popping sound and vaporize the mouse body at the same time. I was so happy I bought a couple more just for spite. I use peanut butter because it spread easily and is aromatic so the mouse can find it. Although, I can't figure out why they like my desk. (I threw away that bag of chilli cheese fritos a long time ago.)

I was rewarded again with a dead animal on Tuesday as well. Looks like I caught the fat one first and his skinny brother next.

2009-09-12T18:56:00.002-05:00

Last become hooked on this salad from the HyVee Deli. Last year it was the brocolli salad. Now, it's this tomato salad that does have a name. I was tried of buying it for $4 a pound, so I thought I'd tried it at home. It's even better when you do it yourself. It also gives me ideas for my garden next year. This makes a nice side for a steak dinner (ribeye with mushrooms, of course) in stead of the baked potatoe.

Tomato Italian Salad

4-8 Medium size tomatoes
4 oz. Feta Cheese (1 package)
1 Medium to small Red Onion
4 oz. Slice Black olives (1 can)
1/2 cup Italian salad dressing

Slice the tomatoes in bite size slices. Dice the onion. Throw everything into a bowl. Add the salad dressing. Stir. I'm fast and loose with the amounts here, so you can play with your own combinations. You can eat it right away, but I prefer to let in sit in the frig for awhile. This lets the flavors blended, and I swear it's better the day after. If it's too strong leave the onions out and use less salad dressing. I usually put a touch of salt on each serving but none in the recipe.

2009-09-12T16:22:00.003-05:00

I hate it when salespeople lie. It makes me want to start kicking their ass.

I at the Verizon Store in the Coral Ridge Mall paying my bill. (Full disclosure: Yes, I've been a Verizon customer for many years now, and I'm happy with the coverage area and that's about it. In the past 18 months I've gone through 5 Blackberry curves, three of those in the last six months.)

I overhear this conversion between a Verizon Salesman and a Potential Customer.

Customer: "I have a Verizon account and I'd like the add my daughter to my service. She would daughter would like an iPhone. Do you have anything like that?"

VZ Salesman: "Yes we do, it's a Blackberry Curve!"

(Lie number 1: The Blackberry Curve is nothing like an Iphone. As much as Verizon wishes it were true, it's not even close.)

I choke at this point and say and tell the clerk helping me that's so not true. She shrugs.

Customer: "She has seen that (The Blackberry), but she really likes the Iphone and thinks it's cool."

VZ Salesman: "This does everything the iPhone does and more. It's has an Apps Store just like the iPhone. Beside the iPhone doesn't have a camera."

(Bullshit! I almost scream across the room. I really wish I could have gotten the woman's name because she needed truthful information right now. The last statement was full full of lies and half-truths it just pissed me off.)

(Lie #2 (not direct but implied) The iPhone and the Blackberry Curve both have a GPS unit. The verizon version of the Blackberry Curve have the GPS disabled. This makes the VZ customer purchase the VZ Maps app to get the same functionality the iPhone has. That's $10-$20 a month extra.)

(Lie #3 (Half-truth) The Blackberry World App store is nothing like Apple's iTune store, but it is a store. Apple apps run from free to $40, withthe average price being $1-$3 per applications. Blackberry's apps run from free - $70, with the average price being about $5-$6 per application. Blackberry most common apps start pricing at $4.99, where Apple's are at 99 cents. I have used the Blackberry store and It's a pain in the ass to navigate and not nearly as polished as the iTunes store.)

(Lie #4 (Half-truth) The 1st gen model of the iPhone lack a camera, however it is now standard on all current models. If this woman got an iPhone, it wouldn't be a used two year old model.)

I could go on, but the main point is the VZ Salesman was a Douchebag. I had to leave before I really blew my top.

If the Blackberry is so good, why is Verizon desperate to get their hands on an agreement with Apple? Rumor has it that Verizon will get the iPhone late 2010 or early 2011. I just hope they don't fucked the iPhone with all the hamstring cutting they did to the Blackberry Curve.

If it weren't for Verizon better coverage in Eastern Iowa, I would so drop my plan and get something with an iPhone!

2009-09-12T16:02:00.003-05:00

WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU SEVRE CHEESECAKE WARM?

The High Priestess and I, are coming back from a play at Old Creamery Threater. It's a cool summer night and I think a little coffee and dessert would be please. We stop by the Okaboji Grill. Normally I don't do reviews on chain restaurants, but I will complain.

I order the cheesecake and coffee. I know most dessert are made someplace else, mostly by little gnomes. The dessert are frozen then shipped all over creation. I would expect some dessert should be left in a cooler to thaw. I would guess a store should be able to go through at least one cake a day. At five bucks a pop, selling even three pieces pays for the cake and the cost to ship it.

I get my cheesecake and it's warm, not room temperature but warm, hot even. The top of the cake is cool but the bottom is warm even to flow like melted wax. WTF! I ask the waitress, she finally admit she put it in the microwave for 30 seconds. She quickly explains that she does that with everything. It's standard policy. Whoever runs this place is a moron and probably has never had cheesecake in their life.

Cheesecake should be served at room temperature. Period. Even fresh from the oven it should be allowed to cool before being served. Chilled cheesecake is an OK second. End of story.

2009-08-19T10:44:00.002-05:00

AnimeIowa 2009
I've gone through many goals this summer and this last month has been quite something. I finally went to the Twin Cites. I now have a trailer hitch in the back of the van, and cool bike rack for the recumbent I own. Finished taking down the swingset of doom that was going to kill the kids. I took a couple of road trips to usual places. I watched a bunch of movies and anime. Which brings me to three main revelations about myself.
1. I'm still a kid and I still see myself as a kids even though no one else does. The HP spend her time constantly rolling her eyes at me while watching anime, or the way my eyes light up for electronic toys. I feel somewhere around the age of 17, but my body tells me otherwise everyday.

2. I'm a bit of an ass. I don't get my friends name right. I spend a lot of time wool gathering instead of paying attention. I almost seem to spend my time mubbling not because being angry, but because the thoughts are running through my head so fast my mouth can't keep up. My patience has grown short, and I have no time for fools.

3. I'm getting old. I can longer tell the ages of people (especially women) anymore. That annoying near point of my eyes seems to kept moving further away from my nose. This makes me stare at stuff more. Sometimes it is to focus on things. Other times it is just my mind wanders off into the past and my eyes just focus on the last thing that had my attention

4. I'm turning Into a Dirty Old Man. Mainly because of 1, 2, and 3.

2009-08-17T08:55:00.006-05:00

Bluebird Diner
330 E Market St
Iowa City, IA 52245-2171
(319) 351-1470
Normally, I don't trust a dinner that doesn't a fat guy cooking, but when a friend suggested this place I had to go. The other item that intrigued me was this place once was the Pittsburgh Paint store. The location is Gilbert and Market across from the Iowa City landmark John's Grocery.

I have had lunch, dinner and breakfast at the Bluebird so it's no time to write my review. First up the appearance.

As the name implies there is alot of blue: Blue chairs, Blue Booth, Blue awning, Blue floor tile, Blue T-shirt, and you get the picture. Even the main mirror has faint hint of blue. A word of warning, don't go into the male bathroom during a sunny morning without sunglasses, preferably some "Blu-Blocker". It all nice as a diner should be. The twenty-something staff gives the place a beatnik feeling, especially when the stand on the counter to change the chalkboard menu-of-day.

(Aside: How come I never get the cute waitress?) Enough about me and my personal issues, back to the Food.

Lunch
I had the Classic Reuben. This is almost always my first choice in any diner or theme restaurant. It's a good gauge of what staff in the kitchen are doing and the wait staff as well. It was a nice start especially during the lunch crowd. The sandwich had a generous amount of corn beef served with two thick piece of toasted rye. It came warm and juicy with the bread still crisp. A lot of places will not drain the sauerkraut enough to keep the bread from getting soggy. Other places grill the Reuben to hide this fact, but not here. The sandwich came quickly enough so the wait time didn't make the bread soggy either. Kudos for the staff. The taste was fine, but I found myself really wanting a kosher pickle with Reuben was well. Instead I got fruit, an interesting choice but not need. Stick with the pickle, if I'm order the Reuben I'm not thinking about my heart at the time. The Reuben was served with a nice portion of fries. This were crisp, yet a little cool. Which could mean the fries were probably put on the plate first and left to wait on the sandwich. This could be a timing problem in the kitchen. Normally I expect the sandwich, burger, fish or whatever to be under the fries slightly. That let's you know the order how things were put on the plate: Sandwich, fries, then garnish (Pickles). Then BOOM! to the table. The garnish may come before the fries depending on what it is: tomatoes, lettuce, or onion. Not sure with the fruit maybe after if it is cold, and before if warm. ( Aside: There's an idea, baked apples slices served warm. Maybe not for summer, but it might be a good winter choice. What do you think, guys?)

Dinner
I had the Classic Caesar Salad with grilled chicken. This was very nice. The Chicken was warm and the lettuce was crisp, not the easiest thing to do. This shows good timing in the kitchen and low wait time with the staff. The HP order the Vegetable Lasagna so kudos for the staff getting it to the table at the same time. (Aside: I tried my wife's Lasagna. It was good, but in the back of my head I kept saying to myself this needs more meat. Go figure. I just order a salad with meat.) The salad a a nice amount of dressing. I might have asked for a bit more if I wasn't in a good mood. The kalamata olives were another interesting choice. To me they taste like a cross between a old dishrag and a used diapers. I suspect the olives themselves were off, but I that could be just me. I will have to try this salad again. Then, I had pie.

Want to keep a fat guy happy? Offer him pie. The pie of the day was an Apple Pie with raisins and walnuts. The desserts are made everyday so there is something different each time I've been there. This pie was perfect, serve warm it held together nicely. The crust was flaky and moist. I thought the walnut and raisins would throw the taste, but they made a pleasant surprise. I was expecting something like currant or something dark, but this was light. The was served with two small scoops of vanilla ice cream. I wanted more. Once again, if I'm ordering pie with ice cream I pretty much killed my diet or already worshiped the StairMaster for an extra hour, just give me the ice cream! I going to come back for this pie.

Breakfast
I spent all morning chopping wood and doing yard work, so earned a big breakfast. I dragged the HP with me and order my two breakfast standards: Eggs Benedict and Pancakes. Once again this is sort of a standard benchmark with me. The Eggs Benedict was very good. The eggs were truly poached and not fried a short cut sometimes used in diners. The Hollandaise sauce was mild in flavor but very creamy. The ham was deli style shaved thin, and then cooked, a pleasant change compared with the Canadian bacon some places prefer to use. The ham does dry out faster when cut thin and cook. The sauce and eggs cover the ham slight dryness very well. The English muffin was nicely toasted. I couldn't quite place the brand, but it was tasty.

The hash brown were close to being perfect as I have ever got in a restaurant. Most place just fry brown one side of a mound of shredded potatoes, then flip the other side over. What you get is a raw mess of potatoes in a burnt brown layer. I hate that. The Bluebird's hash brown were cooked throughout and crunchy outside with a hint of butter. I had promised myself not to eat them all, but I did.

I order three buttermilk pancakes on the side. For $2.50, I received three sauce plate size pancake. This is a deal. I may just have to go back for just the pancake. They were light, but not too light as to be a sponge soaking up the maple syrup. I buttered the hell out of these, and wolfed down most of the cakes before they had time to cool. You can get these pancakes with whipped cream and fruit (grilled bananas, strawberries, or blueberry). Which just makes these pancakes evil and more time on the StairMaster for me.

Overall, a 7.5 out of 10 for me. The food will bring me back, but the staff sort of annoyed me.

2009-08-08T07:55:00.006-05:00

If it's Saturday, it must be St. Paul.

I've finally got back to the twin cities, after finding half the world has moved here. The exception is my brother who just left a couple of years back. So on to the ramble.

The Drive was better than I thought, since I thought I would fall asleep behind the wheel after 2 hours to anywhere. However, I've found out some very nasty things.

One, it is possible to overdose on Sorbitol. One if my routines when driving is chewing Orbit Bubblemint and downing Eclipse Winterfrost mints like there is no tomorrow. Both have Sorbitol a sugar alcohol substitute. One of the reason I do this is to keep my mouth happy, thus causing me to stay awake and not run into the minivan filled with Nuns and orphan kids. (There's an express ticket to hell.) Since I'm diabetic I try to avoid sugar when I can, hence the need for the Sorbitol. However, soon after arriving in the Twin Cities part of my body feel like they have gone to another country and started drinking the pond water. The Odd thing is this happen the week before, and the week before that. Almost like clockwork.

Last time, this happen was in College when I would get a headache at 2 PM every Sunday and would clear up by dinnertime. Turns out that my body was going through Caffeine withdrawal. Hmmmmmmmm.....

Let's run it down. Two weeks, I drove to Des Monies for a conferences, then last week the HP and I took the kids to Adventureland. Both road trip with my usual routine, and a couple of days afterwards of me finishing off my supply of Eclipse mints. All followed by spending more time in the bathroom than a ten dollar hooker on payday. A little research and you guess it: Sorbitol! One more thing to scratch off the list. Other side effects: Gas. (Yeah, like I need that!), High Blood Sugar readings (Oh Shit, why don't you just say my head could explode.)
Truth to be told, the blood sugar reading are a result of my biochemistry and the sorbitol working together in interesting ways. Which leads me to my next point.

300 mg/dL! You gotta be Shitting Me! I admitt I have not been as diligent about watch what I eat, but I haven't had a donut in weeks and only one funnel cake in the past week. Some of this maybe the Sorbitol, but I hope it's not my pancreas giving up the ghost. I though I had this under control, before my lancet device failed. Which brings me to my next point. I'm sure all of you have seen those diabetic ads for all kinds of stuff. (Aside: I'm always tickled by the TV shows that have diabetic and ED ads in the same break time. Makes me think of old fat guys in wheelchairs with boners.) One of the ads is for the OneTouch Ultra Mini.

Sure, it's cute and small, but it's a pain in the ass. The unit is sold as being hip, small and convenient. I picked up one of these units for free at the local Hy-Vee store from the local rep pitching the product to the pharmacy customers. What they don't tell you is you have to dragging all the other crap with you: test strips, lancets, lancet device, and the case to carry it all. The picture makes it seem the unit carries the strips, HA! You load one test strip for each time you test. My old Accu-check Compact has all the test strips loaded into a drum so it's one less thing to carry. It's about three times the volume, but the case size for all the accessories is only 50% larger than the OneTouch. So I'm sticking with the Accu-check

2009-07-20T10:47:00.005-05:00

I spent last week at a conference in Des Moines with my trusty Refurbished iBook G4. I got this from Apple about 3 years ago and it has worked well on this little trips. However, I started getting Netbook envy sitting around my fellow teachers. Everything in the laptop world is a compromise. Those 17 inch widescreen laptop are cool, but the are a beast sitting on the tabletop elbow to elbow with several other overweight 8-10 pound laptop. I like the netbooks. The cute little screen and keyboards are a pain to view and type on. So I'm a stuck in a muddle, with wanting something light and big. I could get a Mac Air, but but I think the High priestess would freak over $2000 on a whim. Beside I spent far too much this summer.

So I'm typing away on the iBook G4. (No, she doesn't have a name. But I guess she should have. Something like Candy, Bubbles, or something in the lap dancer category since she spend most of her time on my lap anyway. I should think about that.) Anyway, she has been a little sluggish because her 60GB drive is almost full. I wanted to play a couple of hours of World of Warcraft, and since I haven't updated the patches in awhile I spent those extra hours downloading the patch. At the last patch window, the program says I only have 2.5 Gigs left on my hard drive and I need 3.5 Gigs. I dumps my Itunes Library and some other crap. I get 4 GB free. I download the patch. Then I get a message that the install will take another 6 GIGS! I find the space somehow and get everything install. This event just makes me say, "Fuck IT". I hop on Other World Computing and start looking for upgrades. YEAH! I can get a new drive for $50 and another 1 GIG of RAM for another $50. This is perfect. Prices for this model are just at that sweet spot. Low demand parts because my iBook is an older model, but not so old that the part are consider rare and expensive. I order the parts and they arrive back home awhile I'm still at the conference. Yippie, there is something to be said for ordering stuff at 5 AM.

I spend Friday night work on the old girl. The memory goes in place in about 5 minutes. I guess Apple wants you to do this upgrade. The Hard Drive is another story. I have to first backup the old drive. This is similar to the PS3 upgrade I did awhile back. Fortunately, OWC has a hard drive enclosure and drive package deal for $130. OK... more than I wanted to spend but I get a bigger drive in the deal. I put the new drive in the enclosure and "Clone" the laptop drive onto the new drive. After 3 hours of backing up, I'm ready to swap out the hard drives. I can tell Apple does NOT want me to do this.

There are more than 30 little screws that need to be removed and their locations noted. The whole laptop pretty much has to be disassembled, not a Pretty Sight. Thankfully I found some step by step instructions with pictures on the web. I get the drive installed and start closing up. I notice I got more screws than holes left and I forgotten a few parts still on the workbench. I take the iBook apart for the second time to get everything back inside. I close her up again and cross my fingers. I press the power button, and get a heartbeat "Bong". She LIVES!

Stacy..(hmmmmm Do I like Stacy?) has a new 250Gb Hard Drive (over the 60GB is had from Apple) and 1.5 Gigs of Ram. She works fine and she is a lot peppy too.

(Aside: I forgot to take pictures while doing this, so I swapped this picture from somewhere else.)

2009-07-13T10:54:00.003-05:00

It's been a awhile since I've done a book here. This is Skin Trade, the latest book in the Anita Blake. After reading Blood Noir I gave up on this series, because I was too digsusted. Which is really saying something, if I'm offended. I guess she must have turned off a lot of fans, becuase this book tones down the sex A LOT. It's only the last few short chapters that gets racy. That's good, but I still want to see the old Anita Blake who spends her time shooting people. This book does make me want to go back and read Blood Noir, because I think I missed something.

Aside: While doing some searching for this book, I realized some of my favorite authors are coming out with book this fall. I'm quickly running out of self space in the house, so I may just breakdown and get a Kindle. The books are cheaper this way and take up less space. It's not an idea I have written in stone, because I do have other options, such as the Library, or sending things to my iTouch. It depends on the pricing, for the same money you can get a nice netbook. The way I figure my book discount compared with the price of a Kindle version book, I would need to buy 30 books to make the Kindle pay for itself at the $300 prictag.

2009-07-13T10:15:00.005-05:00

For a while now, I've been wearing ear protection while mowing the lawn, or using power tools. (Yeah, I'm an old guy.) Of course, all that silence, causes me to spend far too much time in my own head, which is definitely not good. So I spend my time my ipod earbuds in my ears with the ear protection over them. It's not as weird as it sounds. I have a lovely pair sound protection FM WORKTUNES headphones from Menards. However, I really want to listen to my Ipod. Worktunes also makes a mp3 player compatiable headphone model, but I'm cheap. Also, I get a chance to work in the Evil Genius Lab/Workshop downstairs. So I whipped these up, using a pair of ear protection head gear, some cheap (free) earbuds, a hobby knife, my dremel tool, and lots of hot glue.

I took off the vinyl ear cushions, and traced the earbud pattern into the foam in the headset. I also cut a channel for the earbud wires using my dremel tool. After making the pattern, it's just a simple matter of cutting out the foam. The hole smaller, but deeper than the earbud. That way you get a tight fit around the earbud, but still have space behind the earbud for glue. It doesn't take that long to do both sides of the ear protection.

Here is the final picture, after everything has been glued in. This project has been bouncing around my head for at least 5 years. It's nice to see something come of it. They work great, but you may have to use a slightly higher volume. Since the earbuds are no longer in your ears the sound is less intense, but the ear protection dulls everything outside so it does work out.

2009-07-06T22:35:00.001-05:00

I bought a new lawn mower, because I hit a Yew stump hidden in the grass I put down the year before. This isn't really a deep or important blog item, but I can't rember when I bought the last lawn mower so I thought I'd catalog this. The older mower was bought either 7 to 10 years ago, but I can't be certain.
I don't bag my grass. I mulch it down to nothing and it goes back into the lawn. I once dreaded doing the mowing, becasue I alergic to grass. However, I 've learned if I don't bag the grass and wear the right clothing I rarely have a problem.

2009-07-06T22:17:00.001-05:00

Ok, this may seem a little stalkerish, but thought it was funnier than hell. A little background, this lucky couple pulled out in front me at a four-way stop. It was their turn, so it's all good. They drove the speed limit all the way down Scott Blvd. I was behind them all the way, keeping a safe distance. The State of Iowa really frowns on running over poeple from behind. We were all being good safe drivers.

Then it hit me. What am I staring at? Her Butt!

Ok, I'm a guy, racing toward dirty old man. This was just funny, because I couldn't help but look at her butt.

There's a "BIG RED LIGHT" under, you guessed it, HER BUTT!

There are two people on the motorcycle. The closest body part, you guessed it, HER BUTT!

What the brightest piece of clothing these two are waering, you geussed it, the bright fushia sweats covering HER BUTT!
(The Dark shirt also contrast nicely with the sweats.)

The only words bigger than the lience plate, you guessed it, the "PINK" on HER BUTT!

Satan and God help me, I could not help but spend the next two mile staring at her butt. What is worse it was legal, that's where I was suppose to be looking.

Ladies, please don't give me excuses to look stare, because I will. I am a dog. I'm so going to fry in the afterlife.....

2009-07-04T16:16:00.002-05:00

Remember that day I promised I'd post my dry ice videos? Well it's the fourth of July. let's blow some shit up!

One More time!

2009-07-04T08:14:00.005-05:00

For the past six months, the HP and I, have been trying to convince Technotaz of the merits of college. Which he has rebuffed, and stomped off whenever we mention anything about growing up. We have been dragging him to SAT, and ACT test center. because of his "You'll Never take me alive" attitude, we missed all the convenient testing time in town. Which means trips to Cedar Rapids.

Normally, I have no problem with people using my stuff, even family member. However, past experience has told me no one will EVER take the same care of your property as you would. The only way around that is if they have a personal stake in said item. Ok, that's off my chest.

The test is 8 in the morning, so I expect The HP and Taz to come back by noon or 1 PM the latest. 2 PM rolls around, and the phone rings. "Dad... we were in an accident..."

Ok, I really want to say I was concerned for my wife and son, but what I thought was... "Fine, Great, They fucked up my car." I guessing the right half of my brain processed the fact that if anyone was really hurt Taz would say something about that first. At least I hope that was the case. Also, I think my subconscious picked up the hidden glee in TAZ Voice. ( Hee...Hee Dad I have something important to tell you, and this is the first time I've used the call phone to say something important...Hee Hee. and we fucked up your car...and it serves you right for getting me up at 6 AM, to take a stupid test I don't want to take.... Hee...Hee so Fuck You dad! Hee... Hee)

Some 20 something woman, ran into my car, while the HP was at a stop light. As the woman tells the police officer, she was at the stop light behind my wife. She was READING (WTF!) and saw the left lane traffic move out of the corner of her eye. She just assumed it was time to go and didn't look ahead and just stepped on the gas. (OK, she wasn't even looking out the front of her windshield, and when the Turn LANE started to move, she went.) Some people need to be beaten with a stick. I suppose if my wife hadn't have been there, she would have driven right into the intersection and into the turning oncoming traffic. So the HP save some one's life.

So now I have to spend two fixing something, because some random ditz decided using using The Force is a good driving strategy.

As you can see the damage is not that bad, but it's still a pain to settle everything with the insurance company. THANK GOD! Iowa law always places the blame on the person who strike you from behind.

The rear bumper was replaced, and the truck lid was replaced as well. It looks nice now but I miss the dealer's logo. He was a cute little logo of a secret agent, peeking out of a window. If you look closely you can sort of make him out on the truck lid.

2009-06-30T12:09:00.002-05:00

"Lick my booty hole"
I Got this can about 10:30 at night. It's rare to get obscene phone call in this day and age. It's even rarer for that call to come from a woman. I think most woman have enough common sense not to call any guy, because they know a guy will do anything obscene you ask and maybe come up with a few ideas of his own. Personally, I have no problem with analingus, and God so help me if Angelina Jolie calls my tongue will be so far up her ass I'll tickle her tonsils. (OK TMI)

The call was on my cell phone, which narrows down the field of callers quite a bit. Second the persons called me by name, so not a random call. I hung up , and she called back. I hung up again, she called back again. After cursing, she finally hangs up. I had no idea who it was, until the next day.

We finally received a judgment in our court case in the mail. We owe our former rental part of their security deposit back. Which is bullshit, but after all the pictures, the judge said it was hard to prove that the condition of the house before the people moved in. Basically because the property manage never had the tenant sign a check-in list. Lessons we learn after the fact. I could have avoided everything if I would have fired the property manger and kicked out the tenant after a year. Hindsight is always 20/20.

2009-06-30T11:01:00.005-05:00

Space Again : The Bathroom
Last month my father and I put new flooring in the rental units bathroom. Let me give you a tip for all you people thinking about starting a family and having lots of kids. Never use tile flooring in a bathroom, and for that matter the kitchen. When the High priestess and I moved into this house over 20 year ago, she was enchanted with the tile flooring. It was OK with me. After having kids never again. Everything you drop on the tile floor breaks. If your kids splash (why wouldn't they)in the tub, the water goes everywhere. The grout is a pain in the ass to clean and if it cracks anywhere kiss the subflooring goodbye.

I knew when we moved out, and converted the house to rental property we would have to redo the floor. That moment came in May 2009. As the subflooring went the tiles started to shift, and that make the grout crack even more. Which let more wet get to the wood underneath and destroys the wood, which cause the tile to move and shift more...... You get the point.

So we torn up everything and put down new foundation.
That took about 4 hours. After making a pattern, we cut out the linoleum and installed that. We put down vinyl molding and caulked the hell out of every nook and cranny. Basically turning the bathroom floor into one big bowl. I'm happy now, because it seems to be working.

2009-06-25T18:05:00.002-05:00

Patterns - As I have gotten older I've started to notice my life falls in to a patterns of behavior: Some good and some bad (Warning Geek Alert)

The latest one I have recognized has a 10 - 12 year cycle.

In 1987 I bought my first Apple Computer a Macintosh SE ( 2 800K Disk Drives /w 1 MB Ram)(about $2500). I wrote my master Thesis on this computer. I spent the next few years upgrading my pet: First it was a external hard drive (20MB for $600); Second more Memory 2MB then later 4 MB; Thrid a Transwarp Accelerator card for $500 (25MHZ 68030 w/ 16 MB of Ram). She was sold to a teacher from Minnesota. We made the exchange in a Hardees parking lot near the Iowa - Minnesota border at twilight around 6 pm. I sold her for $400. (I felt so sad!)

Then there was a series of Amigas, PC, and some Used Macintoshes.

Then in 1997 I bought a Power Computing Macintosh Clone: A PowerCenter Pro 210 for about $3000. She lasted for about five years helping me teach physics to young college students. She had upgrades too, but not nearly as expensive as the MacSE. Apple brought Power Computing just a few month after I brought my Pro 210. I guess someone at Apple wised up and realized they would get destroy if people started making faster and cheaper Mac. I still have her downstairs in the "Lab". She was plugged in until about 6 months ago.

The next ten years I started building all my own PC, and bought Used Power PC Macs. The last used mac I bought was a G5 Mac tower from a Doctor in Iowa City for $850 with a 20 inch Cinema Display, a steal in my opinion.

Early this year I read the handwriting on the wall. Apple will be releasing Snow Leopard in September, an Intel processor only operating system. The days of Universal software (Intel and Power PC) will be number. Even Google and some other Mac developers are writing/compiling code only for the Intel-based machine.

I've been lusting after the newer Intel-mac for 2 year now. Mall security at the Jordan Creek Mall are really getting tried of hearing calling from the Apple Store.

"Pssss..That Black guy is back. He keeps rubbing the Macs on display and mubbling under his breath... "Oooooooo I bet your a hot one, a really fast bitch in heat..."'

Ok...I have some issues....

June 2009
The check clears for my summer teaching load. One week later, Inga arrives at my door: My 64-bit Quad Core Nordic Goddess MacPro Tower. Amanda, My dual core AMD PC is jealous. The AC is up full and both these angels put out some much heat I spend a lot time sitting in my underwear. (OK, that may be TMI) I suspect this winter I will be able the close the heating vent in the room and still stay warm.

My pattern? Every 10 years buy a New Macintosh...

patterns by Devo

Patterns all around you
patterns everywhere
patterns of behavior
sometimes seem unfair
can you recognize the patterns that you find?

Patterns unfamiliar
patterns lead you through (to)
patterns of discovery
tracing out the clues
can you recognize the patterns that you find?
stuck in your mind

In this land where stability is hard to find
you can rearrange the patterns so unkind
don't bother asking why a pattern never cries
old patterns never die they just go on and on

Patterns multiplying
re-direct our view
endless variations
make it all seem new

2009-06-22T21:23:00.002-05:00

It's only the second day of summer and Vulcan the fire god has hit Iowa with a vengence. 100F ! and that not the high this bank sign had. It hit 103 earlier!

2009-06-16T20:59:00.004-05:00

Space #3 - Itunes and DVD
Right now I'm in the middle of doing a full backup of my Itunes Library. Maxine (my 2ghz G4) is telling me I need about 16 DVDs! There has got to be a better way of transferring my library from one computer to another. You would think the people at Apple would let me do a direct backup and restore to a different computer.

2009-06-10T18:51:00.003-05:00

This just kills me. Pig's tails, Pig's Ears, Pig's Feet and Pig's stomach all for sale, along with the standard bacon, ham and chops. All I need is a needle and thread and I could make my own pet pig out of spare parts!

2009-06-07T00:37:00.002-05:00

Cutting the Cable (Sort Of)

I've been getting free cable for quite awhile now. I've paid for the basic package, but I got all the non-digital channels as well. This had nothing to do with me. Cable has changed so much in the past decade that most of the switch is done remotely. In the past the Cable company had to send someone out to put traps and filters on your line to block channels. Since this is a college town and people move in and out all the time most cable companies hardly have the staff to keep up with the changes. I guess 10% of the subscribers slip through the cracks. If you don't complain or have a problem there is no reason for the Cable guy to show up in your neighborhood. The people at the main office are too busy billing to check anything else.

So what the problem? I got the SciFi Channel which was great, but I also got the Disney channel, Cartoon Network, and all the other mind numbing crap as well. Some of those channel I have no problem with, others are just evil. Some channel such as Disney are just there to push product on my kids and the TV shows are really bad TV. They are shows with bad stereotypes, canned laughter, lousy plot, and poor writing. I got tried of hearing TW says "DAD! We have to get home and watch ICarly meets the Jonas brothers". What Crap! If see another High School Music anything I'm gonna go nuts.

So I cut the Cable, but not quite. Turns out if I drop my cable TV and just have the internet at home I get Charge $10 more each month! WTF! It really does piss me off. So I may start looking for a new Internet provider.

While I was at it, I pulled my TIVO subscription as well. No SciFi, NO BSG anymore, so I don't need the TIVO. I've got Netflix and fast computer hooked to my TV. I haven't missed it yet.

It will be interesting to see how the summer goes, when the only TV the kids have is Fox News, and Public Access.

2009-06-07T00:00:00.003-05:00

The High Priestess and Technowitch are spending the weekend at The MALL of America with TW's girl scout troop. So that mean the mage tower is just a regular sausagefest with XY chromosome all over the place. Actually it's more like three bears in a cave. Ladies when you leave it's just a long slide down hill into being pigs with furniture. Yes, I've be picking up the cave here and there, but I really need to get rid of some of the electronic crap I have. Last count I have 4 laptop not being used, but in working order.

So boys and I have been doing guy thing, ordering pizza, watching action movies, watching anime, and playing the "Pull my finger" game. Tomorrow we may do "Things you shouldn't do with Dry Ice". We have a lot of stuff to do before the double XX's come home.

2009-06-02T09:46:00.003-05:00

SPACE: PART II
You can replace the built-in hard drive in the Sony Playstation 3 by yourself. It's really quite easy to do, but what they don't tell you is backing up your data on the drive is a pain in the ASS.

If You don't care about such things: your save games, your music you ripped from CD, your pictures, your movies, or anything else you. You can replace the drive in 15 minutes. However... Who is like that?

I choose to backup my system and replace the 80GB drive with a fast 320 GB 7200rpm drive. No problem, I just buy a external drive, backup the PS3 drive using the USB port and the Backup Utility on the PS3. Then I'll pull the drive, put in the new larger drive, and restore the system. OK... One hour tops I figure.

HA!

I shop around for a external drive and enclosure at Newegg.com. It's 1 TB (1000 GB) and on sale. Great! This should handle my needs quite nicely. They also have the 2.5 inch drive I need for the PS3. Everything comes in a couple of days, and after reviewing several YouTube DIYS video clips I think I can handle the transfer. I first I need to backup the original PS3 drive...

WTF!

The USB port on the PS3 only recognizes hard drives smaller than 32GB and in Fat32 formatting. WHY would SONY do that. How do you squeeze 80GB into 32GB? Several thoughts go through my head. 1 - F*CK - My new drive is useless, unless I reformat and repartition it. 2 - I've an old 40GB laptop drive partitions into to small 20GB drives. 3- Great I'll just copy the stuff I want keep in one partition and back the system in the other partition. 4 - What a Pain in the A**

WTF!

The PS3 doesn't see the second partition! Now I have to reformat the little drive into one 32Gb drive and leave the other 8 GB unallocated. Plus I have to cut about 40 GB of current files just to make the backup small enough to fit onto the USB drive. I spend the next two hours getting rid of stuff, backing up files to my PSP, flash drives, and anything else I can get my hands on. At about 11 PM, I'm done and can start the backup utility. My PS3 start cramming 31 GB into my little drive. My PS3 tells me it might take awhile (71 minutes).

Midnight.

I pull the old drive out, and install the new drive. I start the restore function on the PS3. Hmmm... the backup only took 29GB. How did that happen? The restore proceess will take another hour. Time for bed.

Morning.

After 10 hours and large sum of cash, the PS3 has a new drive. Now I'm afraid to use it. :P

2009-06-02T09:42:00.000-05:00

For the past two weeks it has all been about "Space". I just figure that out. The common thread of my lfe that I've been dealing with has been about "SPACE" in one form or another. In this case the DVD collection has become disorderly. It has closed over the 600+ mark, and this doesn't count the Blu-ray, Video Games and Computer Games that all seem to be coming in those DVD-type cases.

I've been moving everything that can go into these slim cases. It's a big project, but it cut the DVD space in half, effectively doubling my storage space. When I'm done I should have everything in a boxed set or a slim DVD case. It's a little expensive, but better choice than having binders filled with DVD I can't see.

2009-05-15T23:44:00.002-05:00

How Long does it take for a Judge to decide a case?

I've been waiting for close to THREE month to get a ruling on a small claims court case. My Gosh....What a Crock!

2009-03-16T13:41:00.004-05:00

Fong's Pizza
233 4th Street
Des Moines, IA 50309
515-323-3333

Ok, a Chinese Bar that serves pizza.... Hmmmmm.... Ok, I'll try anything once. I heard their Crab Rangoons were great: crunchy with a hint of orange. The pizza was different, I had the "Big Delicious". It was not what I expected, and the crust was quite yummy: A combination of sausage, chicken, banana peppers, bacon, onions, cheese and marinara sauce. This pizza would go great with some of the beers they serve. It was too early to indulge, but next bar crawl Fong's is on my list to try.

2009-03-04T22:15:00.002-06:00

Ok....I've been slacking. Really I've been busy with stuff I can't quite comment on right now, but the light at the end of the tunnel is close. I should be back in TKD soon and back to normal, but right now I'm busier than a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest.

I've been doing some little things like playing this golf game on my PSP or trying to learn the guitar. I guess the busier I get the more I want to play.

2009-01-23T22:37:00.002-06:00

I Love this picture. Malia Obama looks so much like her mother. She is so intend on her camera. Always trying to get the perfect shot. Taking Picture is a trap. To get teh best pictures is to remove yourself from the events around you. You can only relive second by looking at the picture later, but having the camera and not taking the picture let's the perfect moment slip away.

2008-12-16T15:20:00.000-06:00

There are free margaritas when it snows!

2008-12-16T15:01:00.002-06:00

Gee! I can't see why these are in the clearance pile... Doesn't everyone want to be the smelly kid?

2008-12-09T15:29:00.004-06:00

IT's A Snow Day! So It must be time to blog and clear the baffles. Right After I take a nap.

The irony of this just kills me. Save the earth and fight consumerism by purchasing a cheap plastic piece of crap Wall-e flower pot.

2008-11-22T13:17:00.002-06:00

Normally, I'm all for let people hang themselves with their own stupidity, but someone really needs to talk to Ms. Palin before she trains herself on national TV again. COM'ON guys you have all that scenic beauty and your camera shot is the slaughter table covered in blood?!?!? I can take a better shot than that.

2008-11-16T11:27:00.003-06:00

Be careful what you tell a Dragon.

The High Priestess went shopping for panties. That's the 5 panties for $25 deal that Victoria's Secret pushes every three months or so. (Aside: I was just at the mall today and VS is selling 7 panties for $25. So I guess things are bad in the undergarment retail business.) The HP buys this stuff online, so she doesn't have to be in the store with the perky, gaunt, coeds VS always has working there. SO VS gets our address and an email. The Wife has gotten an email from Victoria's Secret everyday since then. Plus, we get catalog, LOTS of catalog! So far, that's one a week.

VS charges three dollars for their standard catalog and five dollars for their holiday issues. How do they make any money? I figure if we see four more catalogs before the High Priestess needs new panties, the panties will be free.

Notice how all the images tell you to BUY NOW! So what are you waiting for? Get that credit card out and start saving the world economy!

2008-11-16T10:25:00.000-06:00

Q:How bad is the Economy?

A: Even the porn is 50% off!

Hmmmm... On second thought

Can I have her at 50% off?

2008-11-06T11:37:00.002-06:00

Ok, Is it just me or does someone else find this funny? Only a college town newspaper would used the title of Espiode IV of the Star Wars saga.

2008-11-05T22:20:00.003-06:00

OK...Now I'm worried! I can't breath for the next four to eight years.

Everyday I get up and pray, "Lord, Please don't let me screw up!"

I know million of people feel a great hurdle has been cross, but still hold my breathe. I too have felt chills down my spine listening to Barack Obama speak, but I still hold my breathe. Being black always means the the bar is set extremely high, so I am even more concerned than I was before election day. Now I pray, "Lord please don't Obama Screw this up!"

I pray no one decides to take a pot shot at him.

I hope to see him take the oath of office on January 20th.

I pray he has a very successful first 100 days.

I hope he fixes the economy.

I pray there are no major disaster during his term.

NO massive earthquake in California. No Category 5 hurricanes hitting Miami or the Florida Coast.

I hope the Democrats don't go completely "batty" and want to pass all kinds of crazy crap.

After all of this I just want to be able to breathe again.

2008-11-05T21:36:00.003-06:00

There was a wound in his flesh so deep and wide
From the wound a lovely flower grew
From somewhere deep inside
He turned around to face his mother
To show her the wound in his breast that burned like a brand
But the sword that cut him open
Was the sword in his mothers hand

Though the sword was his protection
The wound itself would give him power
The power to remake himself at the time of his darkest hour
She said the wound would give him courage and pain
The kind of pain that you cant hide
From the wound a lovely flower grew
From somewhere deep inside

Every day another miracle
Only death will keep us apart
To sacrifice a life for yours
Id be the blood of the lazarus heart
The blood of the lazarus heart

- Lazarus Heart - Sung by Sting
(Edited for content.)

2008-10-16T20:58:00.003-05:00

OK, I'm vaguely pissed now.

I bought season ticket to the Old Creamery Theater in Amana, Iowa. Not a problem, it's seven cheap dates over the summer and fall. Coming home from the last show two weeks ago I hit a raccoon. Not my fault he ran out in front of my Honda Civic. There is a "THUNK" followed by a "SPLAT". After I get home Technowiz asks "what up with the front bumper?"

The Civic front bumper is out of place and has raccoon hairs wedge in the front driver's side. Ewwwww. After drive the car a couple of days I notice a funny sound coming form the cooling fan near the radiator. OK, I've got the Honda schedule for an oil change this weekend so I don't worry about it. On Friday, I take the car into the dealer and I tell him what happened. "I hit a raccoon" He looks at the under neath the car and says, "Yep, your frame is bent, your radiator is damaged and you lost the mountings for your cooling fans, and your reservoir. Yeah, that's what happens they (the raccoons) go right up under the bumper and into the radiator..."

WTF!

I call the auto body shop, my insurance agent, and the High Priestress.

Long story short, the little bastard did $1600 damage to my Hybrid!

I'm sooo going to the sporting goods store and buying a bis Ass shotgun. I going to kill so many of those little bastard!

2008-10-06T21:25:00.001-05:00

Ok, I'm not the guy you go to for domestic tips, but from now I'm folding on my T-Shirts this way.

2008-10-05T20:38:00.004-05:00

I just fell like sitting in my underwear and scratching my balls for awhile. These past to months have been flying by and I barely have time to breathe. It's been go ..go ..go. Normally, even the busy semester gives me some time off for my nights and weekend, but due to some really bad tenants I've got no time.
I've finally got some new poeple moved into my rental, but it's taken two months to get everything back to some state of being able to support human life: Painters, Drywallers, Plumbers, and people to lay carpet; Placing Ads, Answering Callers, Seeing Lawyers. So help me these jerks are going to pay for being assholes. Maybe I should just pay to have someone go beat them with sticks every day for the next four years.
I've missed all the fun stuff I usually do this time of year:

The Iowa State Fair - I was really looking forward to chasing the PORK Queen around the Ag building. I heard the treat to eat this year was "chocolate dipped bacon"! OMG I can just see that as "Death on a Stick". I'll have two please, and a funnel cake. Hurry UP, you think theses walking tacos and turkey legs are going to eat themselves?!?!

Wilson Orchard - The Song of September Apples have ripened and fallen off the tree two weeks ago. DAMN IT! I bet Mrs. Wilson has run out of Homemade Apple turnovers too.

Bowling - I've become a bowling nut. I got a ball, a bag, and some shoe. My score would be better if I had more time to practice. Instead I'm working on the RENTAL!

TKD - I've spend all my weeknights working on rental issues. I really want to want to kick someone. I know some smug people who need a foot in their ass.

Now, I can't put everything in September on the rental house. This semester, every course on the schedule ran. Which mean I'm way over the load limit for this semester. The only positive is lots of bonus pay. Maybe I can get the kids something nice, or maybe a new computer for the office at school. However, the local massage pallor has a two girls in a hot tub special. Ninety dollars for one hour. Maybe I should park myself in a hot tub with some daiquiris for about eight hours.

2008-08-30T01:02:00.002-05:00

1 Week Down, 15 Weeks to go...
This year I'm teaching a whole bunch of courses and it's almost like work, an eight to five job. The first week is always the hardest. After not talking all summer, my voice get a 8 hour workout for five days straight. It always makes my throat sore and makes me less than talkative at home. After talking all day I just want to sit. the first week of school always makes me a little cranky. Their are always a couple of fruitcakes I wish to strangle, or at least beat with a large stick. Students who still think their job is to get a raise out of the teacher like they are still in high school. It's times like this I feel mandatory military services after high school would be a wonderful idea. I think two year shoveling crap in a desert climate would do wonders for an 18 years old's focus.

2008-08-22T22:31:00.003-05:00

I hate waiting for plumbers, repairman, and especially the Cable guy. I just loathe it. I've been waiting to get my rental basement ceiling to be repaired for over two weeks now. After wiating all day at home yesterday for them to show up I find out they can't come until Friday. Fine, just wasted a whole day form work and school prep. So Friday comes and I wait for a call saying that the drywallers will be over. I wait... it's 8AM. They can't be expected to call this easier adn I have been bugging them all week. I wait some more.

9AM...I call to see what is going on, feeling like an ass because I been calling every other day for the past two weeks. I get the answering machine. Ok, either he is really busy or he is avoiding my calls. I try a different phone line and get the same results. OK, maybe he is busy and me staring at my cell phone is not going to make him call any faster. I really have to be at work.

10AM.. Ok they may call after lunch, so I may get something done. I get in the car for the 45 minute drive to work. My cell phone is set on LOUD. I just know I'll pull into my parking space and they will call.

11 AM ...No Call and I'm at work. I keep my cell phone in my pocket because I don't want to take the chase I'll miss my call. I clean up my classroom and office. Check my Email. Return some phone calls. The lab Assistant says "Long time..no see"...indicating she did not see me Thursday. (You just saw me less than 48 hours ago, Bitch! Beside my Dept. Head knew where I was and that's all that matters. SO Screw YOU! Can you tell my mood has soured?)

12AM ... OK, I'm convinced they aren't coming and I should dug in to my work. I set my cellphone down it's 12:01. I need to step out to my car for just a moment to get my notes and textbooks so I can work on my syllabii. I'm gone for 4 minutes. FOUR FREAKIN' MINUTES! It's 12:05 PM and I have 3 missed calls and 2 voice mail messages! All timed between 12:02 and 12:04. WTF!!!!! I just knew as I walked to my car this would happen!

It's the drywaller and they we be at my property in 20 minutes! I tell them I'll see them at 1 PM and drive back to Iowa City using the back roads.

I drive in and see the two men waiting for me. One is like the god Vulcan and the other reminds me a Loki. Vulcan is the 6'4 black guy and introduces himself as "New York". I never met a whole state. (Why do I have to take after my mother and get the short genes in the Family?) They are both nice guy and get to work. New York says he is a storm chaser. Spent two years chasing damage from Hurricane Katrina, and is know in Iowa after the floods.

I know it's not really their fault. I'm sure they have more work than they can handle with all the flood damage. What gets me the most worked you is the waiting!

2008-08-20T22:50:00.002-05:00

Isaac Lee Hayes, Jr. August 20, 1942 – August 10, 2008

I remember listen to the Shaft album over and over as a kid in the 1970's. Finally, in Junior High Stage band, we got to play it. I could never get that cymbal opening intro right. Of course, maybe I should have practice more.

2008-08-19T23:30:00.004-05:00

George Carlin (May 12, 1937 – June 22, 2008)

It's time I caught up on some obituaries. Why do I do this. All these people are part of my person Pantheon. George is in the Humor wing as a lesser God. He has slipped a bit, because he seemed to get a little bitter toward the end. IMHO, His best routine was Baseball/Football, although I know some consider the "Seven Words YOU CAN'T Say On TV" his best stuff. I think 9/11 really charge his tune, all his terror entertainment bit were seen in a new and not so funny light anymore.

I did however almost shit my pants when I saw him as The Conductor on Thomas the Tank.

He will be missed, and we will not see his like again.

2008-08-19T22:59:00.003-05:00

What have I been doing with my summer? Playing Soul Caliber IV. I got hooked on this game in the earlier 1990's. In another form it was one of the first games I purchase for the Sega Dreamcast. Back then the graphics were awesome, and I be lying if I didn't say Xianghua and Ivy didn't give me a serious woody. In March, I hear Namco is making Soul Caliber IV. Bang! The release date goes on the the must buy list!

I'm not disappointed. Well, maybe a bit Darth Vader on the PS3 version is a bit of a wimp. The light saber is cool, but would it just be overkill? A light saber cuts anything except another lightsaber or a force field. You would think it and Darth Vader would make short work of anyone stupid enough to charge him with a mere metal sword. One swish, and Maxi is laying on the floor trying to put his guts back into his Elvis pants. This is not the case...Oh Well.

Namco has a thing for big breasted women. (Who doesn't?!?) I think that comes from Japanese erotic desires. Large breast are rare in Japanese women. I guess that would example alot of things around the world (Blonde and blue eyed women are the Cat's Meow in Middle Eastern locales, and dark skinned men/women are sexually exotic in the white dominated portion of the planet.) I Digress.

Soul Caliber is a fun game, and this time I don't have to spend hours trying to unlock the special features. You can now buy cool gear for you characters. This really extend the replay factor. Too bad I can't spend more time, because of my tenant problems.

2008-08-18T23:18:00.004-05:00

WHAT HAVE I BEEN DOING FOR THE PAST MONTH?!?

Cleaning my rental house. I've kicked out the former tenant. Actually I choose not to renew their rental agreement. I should have done that two years ago. How can you Fuck Up a place that you live in?!?! So I've been cleaning, patching, painting and fixing everything that is wrong with the house. The list is extensive and when I have someone's ball in a sling I'll talk about it.

I will say this. I've found pennies in every possible place you can imagine in a house: under rugs, in the air ducts, on the roof, in the lawn, behind the stove, in the rock garden. The total is about 5 dimes, 4 nickels and over 175 pennies. WTF! Pennies scattered around the house as if the tenant could not be bother to pick up their spare change.

Some people should just be beaten with sticks and forced to live in caves.

2008-07-24T00:31:00.002-05:00

Technowitch has been going through a girly girl phase. She got a manicure kit as a gift. Now all she want to do is paint fingernails. So when your daughter ask you: "Can I Pleeeeeeeassssse do your nail Daddy?" What are you going to do. The color is nice. TW really likes the sparkles.

I don't mind the nail polish but it makes my nail feel heavy. The dark color cast little shadow under the edge of the nail, that makes me think my fingernails are dirty . Ever time I look down I have the urge to clean them.

Although I like the color it makes me feel cheap. Like I just came back from the bars, and spent my time earning drink money by giving five dollar hand jobs under the tables.

Now I can take this off for a couple of days other wise I hurt TW's feeling. I'm all about building her self-esteem, so I wear the color out in public. It was funny. I got some interesting look from several store clerks and one bank teller.

2008-07-15T01:46:00.003-05:00

OK, Geek Alert! Most of the known universe may not care, but 4th Ed is here. I finally broke down and bought the 4th edition rules for Dungeons and Dragons. I got them on sale, so I caved. I have every set ever published for this game from the "white box" to the current version. I started playing D&D in 1980 when I nieghbor "ran" me through a dungeon and I got chased by a Geletenous Cube. I spent the rest of the summer trying to get him to let me play again. Then it was club, groups and friends, all the way up until now. I can safely say I am here today because of what happen that one summer years ago.

IMHO, the 2nd Ed rules were the most complex, since they were an attempt to add more detail to the old Chainmail and "White Box" rules. I think the 3rd ed rule and later the 3.5 Edition rules try to make things easier for people to play. I still think it takes a certain mind set to be a roleplay gamer. Although, I did notice 3rd ed was eaiser to adapt to computer games.

My current groups seems to hate the 4th ed rules, but I can see some good things in the mix. In just a quick browse of the caster classes, it seems the rules have moved to spell lines and a less restrictions on amount of spells cast. Net effects is fewer spells per class, but you can cast them more frequently. I haven't looked at the others because I like caster classes. Technomage....get the hint...

Maybe I'll start up RPGA again....

2008-07-14T01:20:00.004-05:00

OK! This just fucking pisses me off.

I'm sure the New Yorker Magazine has many insight article about Obama positions and the fact he is NOT an Muslim extremist. I sure the editor were thinking this would be satire. Well screw you. You weren't thinking! No one reads in this country, especially just walking past a newsstand in any major city's downtown during rush hour. NO ONE is going to see this and say, "Hmmmm, I should check this out. Surely I will find some deep social comment on the scare tactics of this election."

BULLSHIT!

People are going to walk by this and shit their pants! Image is everything and a picture scream a thousand words.

"See..I knew was a Muslim"

"You can't trust them!"

"He'll start a Race War in the United State!"

"His wife is really a Black Panther!"

"He's not American!"

"He's gonna FUCK all our white daughters!"

What a bunch of horseshit! I always try to believe in the higher ideals and intelligence people have, but I've always been disappointed. When you are unsure of the situation always bet on people's greed, lust, fear, hated, laziness, envy, and rage. You will never go wrong.

2008-07-10T22:02:00.004-05:00

My Mom had Knee replacement surgery about two months ago.This week was the first time I saw her after the surgery. She wanted to be on her feet and free of pain before she had her grandkids over.I'm still amazed what they can replace these days. My Uncle has had knees knees replaced over the course of his life. From what I hear the typical knee has a life of 10 - 15 years. I plan on keep my original benders as long as possible, so all those young whipper snappers in TKD that tells me to get lower go take a flying leap.

If you want to see what is involved with Knee surgery try this interactive demonstration: Virtual Knee Surgery

2008-07-04T11:53:00.002-05:00

All we asked for was a chance to prove ourselves. A fair and impartial opportunity. We thought we had that chance. But you invite us to a poker game, hand us a fixed deck...and then wonder why we can't win?

Every colored pilot in there went through his own private hell to wear those wings. Each of those men carry not only the dream of becoming American Military Aviators but the hopes of an entire people as well. Am I the only one here that understands what that means?

I was brought up to believe that beneath it all Americans are a decent people with an abiding sense of integrity and fair play. The cheers I heard across this country when Joe Louis and Jesse Owens humiliated Hitler's "Master Race" didn't just come from proud colored folks. They came from everyone. How are we to interpret that?

As a United States Army Officer who gladly puts his life on the line everyday there's no greater conflict within me. Not, how do I feel about my country? But how does my country...feel about me? Are we only to be Americans when the mood suits you? A fair and impartial opportunity is all we ask. Nothing that you yourselves wouldn't demand.

-- Edited Monologue of Andre Braugher as Lt. Col. Benjamin O. Davis from "The Tuskegee Airmen"

2008-06-09T21:25:00.006-05:00

WE ARE ALL DOOMED.
As you can see this is a picture of the water level of the Iowa River at the Coralville dam. The current level is about two to three feet below the high water mark for the flood of 1993. Right now the dam is letting 18,000 cubic feet per second through the spillway. That's about 137500 gallons of water every second. It's not enough.

This is the emergency spillway at the Coralville dam. The water is just inches from flowing over the dam! Yes, those are people on the dam. What can I say, we are all Lemmings to our own doom. The water is expected to go over the emergency spillway tonight and then crest 3 to 4 feet above the spillway next week.

2008-06-09T18:14:00.003-05:00

Sometime later I'll post how I feel about the current presidential candidates. Right now, I want to rant about how people will believe whatever suits them, even in the face of cold hard facts. I'm not just talking about Obama. This is a long list of shame from Global Warming, Gas Prices, Air Pollution and other topics. The amount of delusion out in the world is astounding.

Obviously this picture is a Photoshop creation, but listen to the waves of ignorance from theses next clips are just scary. Watch these clips!

2008-05-30T22:50:00.003-05:00

It seems Hillary Clinton is taking the "Salt the Earth" approach. Before I get started this is not a women bashing post, nor is it anything anti-feminist at all. I know criticizing Clinton at this point seems anti-women especially when coming from a black male, but hear me out first.

This is not about Obama, McCain, Bill, the Country, women, men, black, white or whatever. This is about just one person: Hillary Clinton. In 2004, I posted a blog entry explaining how and why people should Vote for Bush. I stand vindicated. I predicted the Republican would have no strong candidates and 2008 was Hillary Clinton's chance.

I'm sure Clinton knew this in 2004 (if not earlier). In 2007, the Democrats realized they could run a rotten head of cabbage and win. I'm sure that information was not lost on Senator Clinton. She is as sharp as they come. I'm also sure she was completely blindside by the phenomenon that is Obama. I'm sure no one in the Democratic Hierarchy saw what would happen when Obama spoke in the convention.

Sen Clinton plan and ran as if she would face no significant opposition. That's why no thougt about the Convention or Primary rules. Hillary was planing for fighting the 2000 and 2004 elections all over again. That's why she only started with a 120 million dollar warchest and it would have work if she won by February. Sen. Clinton is in a trap of her own making. She is losing and she Doesn't like it.

Call it what ever you want: Bad elections, anti-women, anti-black, anti-white..whatever. Here is the point. Hillary would be doing this no matter who was ahead of her: Edward, Gore, Kennedy, even Kucinich. She know if she can just get the nomination the election is hers. She has vowed to "fight" now.

She is losing, and she knows it.

Her only ploy left: salt the earth. "If I can't rule it then no one can". My prediction she is going to take this to not to the convention, not to the election, but to 2012. If Obama win the nomination then she will fight to the convection. IF she loses there, then she will undermine the campaign up to the election. Sen. Clinton might even try an indenpedent run. (If McCain's health takes and unexpected turn and his poll numbers drop, I could see that. She could win in a three way race by getting enough women, Latinos, and Anti-blacks to vote.) The only ways she wins is if Obama loses, so she can make a run at 2012. She has no interest in the country, the people or the party. Her eyes have always been on that desk in the Oval Office. It's all about her.

I hope I'm wrong, and she can really see the people she keeps talking about. But.... I've learn never bet against Human greed and ego. The Democratic convention will be a Bloodbath. If McCain wins in November there will be chaos in the Senate and the House. Heads will roll in the DNC.

2008-05-29T22:51:00.006-05:00

If you had told me a month ago I would have a GPS, I would have said "Why?". I commute 80 miles to work everyday, but I've done the route for close to 20 years. I think I have it down by now and I can read a map. I'll admit those Tom-Tom things look pretty cool but I don't need it. Then one of my students mention Geocaching in one of my classes. I looked up the site and bookmarked it for later viewing.

The High Priestess has been talking about doing some more "family fun" stuff over the Memorial weekend. OK, I remember this site and suggest "Treasure Hunting" with Geocaching. I always do a dry run with new things just so it goes smoothly. My experience has taught me that exposing the kids to a new activity, the more wrinkle and problem free the activity is the better the chance that the kids and the wife will like it. So I figure instead of blowing my summer budget on gas I can get some cool stuff and play close to home.

I run out to my favorite electronics store (Best Buy) and pick one of these: Etrex-Legend GPS. I take it home and set it up. Very Cool, I got something that talks with satellites in space. I know my cell phone and some of my other toys sort do this , but this is sooooo much cooler. I find my house. I walk around the house. I walk down the block. Ok...this could be fun.

Technowitch is the only one really excited about hunting for treasures. Probably because I always get the rolling eye when I hatch one of my scheme. HP kinda wants to go, but Technowiz is way behind on his school work and needs a parent to use the cattleprod on him.

I prep by downloading some cache site coordinates and maps. I find there a lot of caches close by. I could walk or bike there, but remember the "Make This Fun" rule. I pile Technowitch into the van and off we go. The first couple of site are a wash, and after some time looking we call it quits and move to another place. We come to a park I've seen dozens of times but have never entered. Technowitch takes off, I follow the GPS. We find a "Hidden" entrance to the park, and start looking when the coordinates on the GPS match our notes. No luck. Technowitch decodes the hint on the computer printout.

Bingo! We find it. Dang that cache is small. I bet you would never see it unless someone points it out. The cache is like a dead drop from a Cold War spy novel. It's exciting. I've always love hiding secret message as a child, exploring and finding hidden places. The only thing in this micro-cache is a log. Just a small strip of paper you sign to prove to everyone else you were here. We sign it and put it back.

Ok, Technowitch and I have the bug now. She calls her mom and talks her ear off. She want to go again after dinner. This time the whole crew and I go out. We look for another cache in the same park. We find it, and move to a new locations. We find two more, all places we have driven or walk by a dozen times before. This is a lot like orienteering I did in Boy Scouts and summer camp. These things are all over the place! There are close to half a million of these cache all over the world.

I won't call Geocaching a sport, but it is fun. I go buy books, a compass, and upgrade my GPS with maps for all of North America. There are plugins for Google Earth that mark geocaches, the state of Iowa lights up like a Christmas tree. I'm in heaven!

2008-05-26T23:37:00.002-05:00

This is the kitchen table. The shade is "Golden Pecan". I like the color, but the High Priestess thinks the color has a little too yellow. Yeah, I can see that. I've had fresh paper-shell pecan in Georgia. The color is similar to the pecan shell in sunlight. So I have to darken the table. I got the table two shades darker and I just have to put on the polyeuthane.

2008-05-21T19:23:00.003-05:00

Finally! The Desk is done. I had a bear of a time getting it upstairs and into my office. Technotaz had to help me get it in place. Just feet away from it's finally destination it won't fit through the door! We had to take the door off it's hinges and try again. Failure. Finally, we remove the top of the desk and slid the whole thing through the door.

I'm a victim of my own success. The High Priestess want me to refinish the kitchen table. The table has waterspots, heat damage and paint stains, such is the wear from three kids growing up.

Top picture is the before, bottom the after. Can you see the difference. I think the flash make the wood seem lighter than it's real color. Try clicking on the picture. The writing surface was cleaned with Armour-All.