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Wednesday, August 21st, 2013
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17:09 pm - Moving
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For those of you who did not hear on Facebook or via other means:  karabean, aelana, and I are selling the house in Greenfield and moving to Austin, TX 'round about the Autumnal Equinox. We expect to be in Texas by the 24th of September and plan to be staying at a resort in Canyon Lake until the 1st of October.
We are hoping to do some kind of party before we go, but we're still figuring it out.
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(3 comments | comment on this)
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| Thursday, April 22nd, 2010
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20:21 pm - Typhoon - DEWmocracy Live!
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| Tuesday, January 26th, 2010
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0:07 am - New Rap Video Explaining the Boom and Bust Cycle
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| Wednesday, December 16th, 2009
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5:36 am - Avatar on Saturday?
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Avatar - Maybe in 3D, maybe not.
Saturday Matinees at Cinemark: 1:10-3D, 2:20, 3:30, 4:40-3D, 5:50.
Did you know they hired a linguist to create the alien language, kinda like Klingon, only prettier?
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(comment on this)
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| Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009
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6:04 am - Artificial Meat Grown in the Netherlands
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Another card for the "The Future is Now, Chummer" file:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/6680989/Meat-grown-in-laboratory-in-world-first.html
Researchers in the Netherlands created what was described as soggy pork and are now investigating ways to improve the muscle tissue in the hope that people will one day want to eat it.
No one has yet tasted their produce, but it is believed the artificial meat could be on sale within five years.
Vegetarian groups welcomed the news, saying there was “no ethical objection” if meat was not a piece of a dead animal.
Mark Post, professor of physiology at Eindhoven University, told The Sunday Times: “What we have at the moment is rather like wasted muscle tissue. We need to find ways of improving it by training it and stretching it, but we will get there.
“This product will be good for the environment and will reduce animal suffering. If it feels and tastes like meat, people will buy it....
No, this won't help research into vat-grown clones... Nope. Of course not. ;)
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(2 comments | comment on this)
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| Monday, November 16th, 2009
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11:10 am - Gen Xers pissed about stolen career opportunities? Well, DUH...
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Recession intensifies GenX discontent at workBy MARTHA IRVINE, AP National Writer
Mon Nov 16, 12:01 am ET
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091116/ap_on_re_us/us_antsy_gen_xers
CHICAGO – They're antsy and edgy, tired of waiting for promotion opportunities at work as their elders put off retirement. A good number of them are just waiting for the economy to pick up so they can hop to the next job, find something more fulfilling and get what they think they deserve. Oh, and they want work-life balance, too...
In these hard times, they're also hearing strong rumblings of discontent from Generation X. They're the 32- to 44-year-olds who are wedged between baby boomers and their children, often feeling like forgotten middle siblings — and increasingly restless at work as a result.( Read more...Collapse )
current mood:  grumpy
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(6 comments | comment on this)
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| Friday, September 4th, 2009
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11:44 am - Movie! Gamer tomorrow.
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| Tuesday, August 25th, 2009
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8:35 am - Fall TV Shows... V?
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| Sunday, August 23rd, 2009
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19:18 pm - Corn Chowder Chicken
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Corn Chowder ChickenThis is not "Chicken Corn Chowder", rather it is a recipe for serving chicken with a corn-chowder-style sauce.
Tools1 Skillet
1 Rice Cooker
1 Saucier
1 Knife
1 Cutting Board
1 Whisk
Ingredients2-4 Boneless, Skinless CHICKEN Breasts
2 cups MILK, half-and-half, or cream
1-2 cups of CORN kernels (11oz. vacuum-packed can or similar)
2-3 rashers of thick, strongly-flavored BACON (Dakin Farms or similar)
1 small ONION, frenched and diced
2 tbsp. BUTTER
2 tbsp. FLOUR
1/2 tsp. dried PARSLEY
1 cup RICE
2 cups WATER
Pinch of ground or rubbed SAGE
Pinch of ground PAPRIKA
Salt and Pepper to taste.
DirectionsFry bacon in skillet until cooked but not crispy. Remove meatiest parts after a few minutes and set aside. Return fatty parts of bacon to skillet and render fat until fatty bits curl. Add onion and saute until translucent with some browning. Remove onion to a small bowl. Chop half of bacon meat into bowl. Chop remaining bacon meat into a rice cooker. Discard remaining fatty bacon.
Sprinkle salt, pepper, sage, and paprika on chicken and brown in skillet. Add rice and water to rice cooker and engage cycle. Melt butter in saucier, allow water to cook out, but do not brown butter. Whisk in flour to form a crumbly roux. Add more flour if needed, but do so slowly, whisking carefully. Let roux cook 1-2 minutes, chop up with whisk, cook 1-2 more minutes, but do not brown. Slowly whisk in milk, forming first a paste, then a thick liguid, then a liquid. Add bacon, onions, parsley, and pepper then stir. Allow to cook on low heat until sauce thickens.
Finish cooking chicken and allow to rest 5 minutes. Cube chicken into bite-sized morsels, paying attention to pieces that may need extra cooking. Stir corn into sauce. Add fully-cooked chicken bites to sauce. Serve over bacon rice.
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(comment on this)
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| Friday, August 7th, 2009
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5:38 am - Tron, anyone?
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http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17560-race-is-on-to-evolve-the-ultimate-mario.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=online-news
Togelius and colleague Sergey Karakovskiy's contest challenges entrants to develop software that can learn to master Mario by playing it over and over; much as generations of gamers have learned to play the game in bedrooms the world over...
Evolving a better Mario would typically involve creating a population of programs each able to play the game, but in ways that differ slightly from each other. Software would pit them all against the game and combine elements of the most successful to "father" a new generation of Marios, each with some random mutations of their own included.
Many rounds of this automated process can create programs well adapted to a particular task, just like a species evolving to better fit and exploit its environment...
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In other news, the Tron sequel, Tron Legacy, is set to come out next year. The producer is the same guy who made the first one. It features Jeff Bridges reprising his original role as Kevin Flynn, a Steve Jobs-like computer tycoon who disappeared in the 1980s.
http://www.apple.com/trailers/disney/tronlegacy/
Apparently, they actually reopened the "Flynn's Arcade" from the original movie in California as a promotional gimmick for the film:
http://www.flynnlives.com/
http://homeoftron.com/
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(comment on this)
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| Saturday, July 25th, 2009
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22:10 pm - Fireworks? In Rome, NY? On July 25?
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We were sitting in our hotel room in Rome, NY when there was some distant thudding like explosions or shelling. "That's not good," I said.
"Yeah, not good," replied karabean.
"Ka-BOOM!" exploded the parking lot of our hotel.
"Go find out what that was," ordered Karabean, looking worried.
I reluctantly got up and went to investigate. I now consider that fortuitous, as I was treated to a half-hour fireworks display that looked for all the world like something a town would sponsor...
Except that it was coming from the backyard of a house literally across the street from our hotel.
View Larger Map
I've been close to some really nice home fireworks before, but this was insane. I mean, like literally standing on top of the Poets' Seat ridge while the Greenfield fireworks display was going on. I could've sworn some of the windows were going to break or that we were all going to catch fire.
Now the question is what the heck were they celebrating?
I doubt it was the 1759 Battle of Ticonderoga (Wikipedia's featured article today)... Puerto Rico's Constitution Day? Furinalia? The Battle of Lundy's Lane in 1814?
What's weird is it sounded like there were multiple fireworks displays going on in town. The police were driving all over the place with sirens wailing and stuff.
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(2 comments | comment on this)
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| Monday, July 20th, 2009
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20:34 pm - Microsoft Bing Jumping the Shark
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For those of you who don't know, bing.com is an arm of Microsoft. Yes, the people who brought you those stupid Windows Mojave commercials are bringing you those stupid Bing commercials...
I think they need to realize that Microsoft jumped the shark years ago and that unless they start playing ball with the 21st Century by not being jerks anymore and actually building good products, they will soon be as relevant as Happy Days.
So....
I'd like everyone to visit both Google and Bing and search for:
Microsoft Bing Jumping the Shark
Then, if in the pages of results you see this blog post, click on it and only it.
Yes, we're Googlebombing Bing to send a message to Billy and Stevie.
current mood:  quixotic
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(4 comments | comment on this)
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| Sunday, July 12th, 2009
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17:29 pm - Greenfield Independence Day BBQ Punch Receipt
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So, for those who liked it, those who missed it, and those who want make sure they never make it by accident, here is the "receipt" for the punch I created for the barbecue:
Poets' Seat Punch2x 64oz. bottle of Apple Juice (unfiltered) or 1 gal. Sweet Cider
1x 750ml bottle of Bourbon Whiskey or 24oz. (3 cups) of White Grape Juice
2x 1 liter bottle of Seltzer (unflavored Soda Water)
2x Red Grapefruit
2x Lemon
3x Lime
2x Orange
10x Clove (whole)
2x Nutmeg (cracked into chunks)
1/2 cup honey (optional, use none or less if desired.)
Preparation:
Zest one of each fruit. Retain fruit for juice. Steep zest and spices in whiskey overnight. If using white grape juice instead of whiskey, be more careful about adding honey and use half of white grape juice (1 1/2 cups) instead of half of whiskey when called for. Filter zest and spices from whiskey and place spice mixture in a large saucepan (3qt. or larger) or small stockpot. Return whiskey to bottle and refrigerate. Refrigerate seltzer.
To spice mixture in pan, add one bottle of apple juice or half gallon of cider. Heat to a simmer and simmer for 1/2 hour. If adding honey, add to juice while simmering and stir to dissolve. Meanwhile, if using two bottles of apple juice, use a funnel to divide cold apple juice in half between the two bottles and return to refrigerator.
Allow mulled apple juice cool until safe to handle. Place a funnel in the mouth of half-full juice bottle and place a strainer in the funnel to catch spices. Use a ladle to transfer mulled cider back into bottles, splitting the liquid evenly between the two bottles. Discard spice and zest mixture. Chill juice.
To serve:
Chill punch bowl in freezer. Prepare ice, either by freezing 1 pint of water in the bottom of the bowl, adding an ice round, or using cubes if necessary. Juice all but one of each fruit, starting with the zested fruit. You want the best-looking of each fruit for slicing. Slice half of each reserved fruit into rounds to garnish.
Pour half the bottle (325ml) of whiskey into bowl along with 1/2 gallon of mulled apple cider (one one bottle of juice). Add half of the fruit juice. Filter the rest of the juice and add it to the whiskey bottle. Place whiskey back into refrigerator along with remaining apple juice. Wrap unsliced portion of fruit to prevent drying. Stir punch. Add 1 bottle of seltzer and sliced fruit garnish. Serve with ladle into cups.
When the first batch starts getting low, prepare the remaining punch the same way, using the remaining spiced bourbon, juice, seltzer, and garnish fruit.
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