Anomie Train Studio Blog

More on SWTOR

2012-01-17T00:37:00.000-05:00

Okay, it's been about a month now since I've started playing Star Wars: The Old Republic, and so far I have two characters--one a level 35 Jedi Knight, and the other a level 27 Smuggler (Gunslinger). I don't know--does that mean I would have a level 50 character by now if I only played one?

It's still very fun for me. It's not a perfect game, but there is nothing that is a real deal breaker for me. The delayed animation in combat is annoying. Sometimes your companion just disappears on you when you exit a taxi or your own speeder. Targeting is not optimal with the mouse. Auto target closest enemy sometimes doesn't work. I can't tell you how many times I kept hitting the attack key 1 after I killed an enemy only to watch my character do nothing. Usually it will target the next enemy, but sometimes you lose the target for whatever reason.

I'm still reading the SWTOR forums because it's always fun to read constant whining and complaining. It's funny, because you get one group that complains about SWTOR because it doesn't have the features of WoW, which people claim set the standard for modern MMORPGs (which is probably true), and then on the other hand you have a group that complains that SWTOR is just a copy of WoW with a Star Wars skin. So, people complain because it isn't like WoW, but then other people complain that it's just a copy of WoW.

You have people who complain that SWTOR should have this, this, and that--because WoW has it, but then you have people who complain that SWTOR isn't innovative and doesn't advance the MMORPG genre. Well, iinnovation means change, but then when you change something, a whole group of people start complaining that WoW isn't like that.

I don't envy Bioware because it's impossible to satisfy everyone. Everyone has their own idea about what is good and what isn't.

As I mentioned before, I'll probably play for at least a year. I'm just not the kind of person who will play a computer game for years. I've been thinking about what I said before though, about not understanding how people can do that, and the more I thought about this, the more I realized that I was thinking about it wrong. People play tennis, golf--whatever--and those are considered life long sports--nobody questions anybody for continuing those activities for years. So, is a computer game any different? If someone plays WoW for seven years, what's wrong with that? If someone enjoys it, what's wrong with it? There's nothing wrong with it. It's a hobby just like any other hobby. So, sure, I personally wouldn't do that, but that's just me.

Oh, by the way, I cooked up some shrimp today, and I learned something. The shrimp was "pre-split and deveined," but then I saw this black line going down the shrimp along the bottom, so I spent time removing that. Then I found out that there are two black lines--one along the top, and one along the bottom. The one along the top is the digestive track, so the shrimp I bought was in fact, "deveined." What I wasted my time doing was removing the nerve cord. So now I know!

The Continuing Saga of a Fat Jedi

2011-12-24T16:41:00.000-05:00

I've been playing Star Wars: The Old Republic now since December 15, when I got in on Early Access, and I have to say I've really been enjoying it. The reason why I bought this game was because it basically seemed like a sequel to Bioware's own Knights of the Old Republic, which was a brilliant RPG. The MMO aspect of SWTOR--to tell you the truth, I don't care one bit about that. I play with the chat window off so I don't have to listen in on stupid conversations punctuated with "LOL." For me, it's all about story immersion.

There have been a lot of complaints from the MMO crowd. Since I haven't played an MMO since Asheron's Call, and I have no clue about World of Warcraft, I can't say whether or not their complaints are valid. I have a feeling that they are--but what was SWTOR supposed to be? If Bioware meant for it to be a true MMO, then they probably fell short of that. If they meant for it to be a blend of single player RPG and MMO, then I think they hit a home run. Fans of KOTOR who came into this wanting a KOTOR experience, like me, will be pleased. Fans of WoW, who want to come in and level up to 50 immediately and have macros so they can run around and shoot the breeze, gank newbies, and run raids at a pre-set optimum level, they're going to be disappointed I think.

What really bugs me is the constant whining and crying from these guys. Seriously, are all MMO players a bunch of babies? All you see in the forums are people complaining about how "they paid for this game" (guess what, so did I) and that if Bioware doesn't fix it to their liking, they're basically going to take their ball and go home.

That's one of the most tiring threats of all time. Who cares? I don't. I don't know how long I'll be subscribing to SWTOR, but with 8 characters with their own storyline to play (and continually new story additions I gather), I'll probably be on it for at least a year. But when I do cancel, it won't be because the game is bad, it will be because I've had my fill. Who are these people who play for 7 years?

Star Wars: The Old Republic

2011-12-23T01:09:00.004-05:00

Me, the fat Jedi

Good grief, what am I going to accomplish next year? Probably not much because I'm too busy playing Star Wars: The Old Republic. See, even this post is short.

The Holidays

2011-12-14T21:08:00.002-05:00

Everyone surviving the holidays? So, what's new? For Thanksgiving, I made cranberry sauce and a crustless cranberry pie. I have to say, making cranberry sauce yourself is really satisfying. With the leftover cranberries I had, I made a sauce for meatballs. It was okay. I was trying to make something similar to grape jelly sauce that people bring to office potlucks. Man, that is delicious. But I didn't pull it off with the cranberries.

I bought generic all purpose flour because it was on sale. It is--strange. Very different from King Arthur flour. Only a little bit of water and it turns very batter like. Still, the no knead bread I made with it managed to turn out pretty good.

Louis C.K. put up a video of his show at the Beacon Theater for only five bucks. I think he's a very funny guy, so I bought it and downloaded it. It is indeed a very funny show. You cannot beat that price point. It's five bucks. That's less than a fast food meal. How many times do you go to McDonalds? You buy a Big Mac meal and eat it in ten minutes. Here, you buy a show from Louis C.K. and laugh for 60 minutes. What is the better value?

I think this is a very smart play by Louis C.K., especially in not putting DRM on it. I understand the logic of wanting to do that, but it only takes one person to break the DRM and upload it (and it always happens), and then it's available to everyone. So why bother? Just price it at an unbelievable value. The people who won't pay will never pay. They just won't. They are hopeless, so I wouldn't even bother with them. Concentrate on your fan base and the casual viewer. Who wouldn't pay five dollars to see a comedy show? That's so easy to do. I don't even think about it. It's five bucks. Big deal. That is nothing. So I think it was a very smart move. I hear that he's sold over 130,000 copies so far, so he's made back his money (he fronted all the costs himself) and more.

I don't know how hard it is for a comedian to come up with new material--is it that much different than writing for a show like Louie on FX? But I would definitely cough up five bucks several times a year. Like a said, it's like going to McDonalds. It's easy.

Trader Joe's Chocolate Covered Potato Chips

2011-11-20T14:35:00.001-05:00

I saw this on Esther Kang's facebook page, so I had to try it, so I went to Trader Joe's yesterday and bought it. And it was--meh. I don't think the combination works. Chocolate covered pretzels work, but maybe that's because pretzels are made with flour, so they are similar to cookies in that respect. But potato chips? First, they're greasy, and second, the texture and taste is weird with chocolate. The potato chips turned into a glue like substance that stuck to my teeth. Maybe it's just me.

Now I'm in the mood for chocolate covered pretzels. If the Skins hold on and beat Dallas, I'll go out and get a tub at the grocery store as a celebration treat!

No Knead Bread II

2011-10-26T22:47:00.002-04:00

Okay, I had to make this again to prove to myself the first time was not a fluke--and this time it was even better! This time I let the dough sit for 19 hours. I did my usual thing afterwards--folded it and sprinkled it with corn meal. I then let it rest again for an hour and 15 minutes. Then I put it in a hot cast iron pan and covered it with my home made aluminum foil tent and put it in the oven at 450 degrees.

And here's where I screwed up (sort of, but it just goes to show you how incredibly forgiving this method is). I went to play Dragon Age II, the Legacy DLC that I had just bought. I got totally lost in the game and I looked up at the clock and saw 45 minutes had already passed! I was supposed to remove my tent cover at 30 minutes and then continue baking for 15 more minutes with the cover off. I ran to the kitchen and pulled out the bread. It was done. The bottom was slightly over done, and the top was a little lighter in color than I wanted, but it was crisp and crackling. I turned off the oven and put it back in for 5 more minutes to see if I could darken the top a little more. I don't think it mattered, because the loaf was fantastic. Outside, crisp and crunchy crust and inside, incredibly soft and chewy. I probably pulled it out of the oven a little too soon the first time I made this bread because it had a little too much moisture inside, but this time it was perfect.

I've been reading other people's experiences regarding this method on blogs and comments on the web, and most people had the same result as I did. Like I said before, this method is incredibly forgiving. It's not necessary to stick to the letter of Jim Lahey's method. You really have a lot of leeway to experiment without worrying about ruining the bread. I don't think it's even possible to ruin this bread unless you do something like add a cup of salt or bake it for two hours or something.

But the strange thing is, in reading those comments--I'd run across a handful of people who just got plain mad. And I'm wondering, why are you getting so mad for? If you don't like this method, don't use it. It was almost as if they felt real bakers knead their dough, and you're an amateurs if you don't. I don't really care what the method is, all I care about is the result, and this is the best bread I've ever tasted.

Late to the No Knead Bread Party!

2011-10-24T20:46:00.001-04:00

Well, this just goes to show you how clueless I am. Apparently in 2006, the no knead bread craze exploded, I think, due to an article by Mark Bittman in the New York Times, adapting a recipe by Jim Lahey of Sullivan Street Bakery, and I only just found out about it. You can watch a video on YouTube of Lahey demonstrating how to make it. I just saw the video last week and decided, why not give it a try?

First, I just want to say that my past handful of experiences with baking bread have not gone all that well. The result was okay, but something was off. The taste, texture, and smell--it just wasn't the same as bread you'd get from a bakery. And I couldn't figure it out--what was I doing wrong? Was it my technique? The flour I was using? The yeast?

And this problem also translated to making pizza dough as well. I've been making my own pizza on and off for probably 25 years. There was a long dry spell until recently when I started it up again. The reason I started it up again was because I read about the technique of setting the dough in the refrigerator for a long, cold rise and using very little yeast. And to my surprise, it made a huge difference. At the time I also tried it with bread flour for the first time, and I wasn't sure if it was because of the flour or because of the cold rise. Using this method, I discovered that my pizza crust tasted better the longer it sat in the fridge. After one day, it was good. After two days, it was great. And after three days of sitting in the fridge, it came out fantastic!

I began to think that the problem was me all along. I never gave enough time for the yeast to work its magic. Recipes always called for you to wait about two hours, or until doubled in size, when letting the dough rise. I think my problem was that I could never tell if it was doubled in size or not, so at two hours, I went ahead with it. That was a mistake.

So I saw this video on YouTube and decided to give it a try. What I really like about it is that there is no need for kneading. I hate kneading bread. And I wasn't about to buy a machine just to do it. So when I saw this video of Lahey dumping three cups of all purpose flour in a bowl, adding some salt (1 1/4 teaspoon), very little yeast (1/4 teaspoon), and 1 and 1/2 cups of water, giving the mixture several swirls of his hand until a wet sticky mass formed (it took barely 10 seconds!), then pronouncing, "Done! Finished!" Well, how can you not like this method?

I only used two cups of flour and one cup of water since it's just me, and I didn't want to make a huge loaf just for myself. I put in slightly less that one teaspoon of salt, and I just sprinkled a little Red Star yeast in a water, probably not even 1/4 teaspoon. Because I hate the feel of sticky dough on my hands, I used a big spoon to mix it together. Here's the thing--you kind of have to fight the impulse of kneading it, and also to add more flour--because it really is wet and sticky and everything I've heard about making dough told me this was not right. But I resisted the temptation to change the recipe, so I covered the bowl with plastic wrap and let is sit on my counter overnight for about 12 hours.

I woke up the next morning and took a look at it and saw it looking mighty bubbly on the surface. I poured it onto a floured tray (it was really gooey and stringy) and flattened it into a disc, then did that four fold method to make it into a ball. I then put some corn meal on another tray, set the dough on it seam side down, sprinkled some more corn meal on top, and let it sit for another hour (it's supposed to be two, but I didn't wait).

I don't have a dutch oven. Actually I do but I wasn't sure if I could put it in the oven. So I used a cast iron pan (remember, I only used two cups of flour so it's a smaller dough ball). I first heated the pan on the stove and set my stove for 450 degrees. When the oven was ready, I just took the tray with the dough and flipped it right into the cast iron pan so it was now seam side up.

The tricky part was, how do I cover it? I ended up making a tent out of aluminum foil. It wouldn't be a tight seal, but I thought it would do a good enough job of capturing the steam from the bread as it was baking. You're supposed to bake it covered in a pot for 30 minutes, and then uncovered for 15, but because this was a smaller dough ball, I did 25/12. When it was ready and I took it out of the oven, I got all excited. Because it looked like actual bread!

I put it on a wire rack to cool, and as it was cooling, I could hear it crackling like a fire! I think I waited about 30 minutes and then I had to slice it. I tasted it with some olive oil and salt, and I couldn't believe it. It was absolutely delicious! The chewy texture, the crisp crust--and the smell! For the first time in my life I made something that could actually be called bread!

I ended up eating it all in two days. I still can't believe how simple it was to make and how delicious it was. There really isn't any reason to buy bread anymore (well, unless time is a factor). For the price of a loaf, you can buy a whole bag of flour, and how many loaves can you make with that? A lot!

I used King Arthur all purpose flour. Now, King Arthur AP flour has pretty high protein content. I'll have to experiment to see if I can tell the difference using generic $2.50 all purpose flour. I'm eager to try this method next for making pizza dough. If you've never baked bread before, you've got to try this. Just once. It is just about impossible to screw this up I think.

Getting Old and Fat

2011-10-22T18:23:00.001-04:00

Yep, that's me in high school. I was a junior. I found a yearbook on the Internet and looked myself up. I went to two different high schools because after my sophomore year, my family moved. To be honest, I have just about zero recollection of high school during my junior and senior years. I remember much more about my freshman and sophomore years because a lot of kids who were there came up through the same elementary and intermediate schools as I did.

My first reaction when I saw this photo was how much it looked like something out of China, circa 1950! Maybe it's the black and whiteness of it, or maybe the graininess of it. Anyway, I can't believe how old and fat I've gotten now. The good thing about getting old is that you start to get to the point where you just don't care. You look in the mirror and think, "Maybe I should start exercising. Ah, who cares..."

But I have to admit, there's a part of me that does care--just a little bit. Because I do want to be able to enjoy the second half of my life, which means taking care of yourself and looking out for your health. Eating healthy--I can do that. And I have done a much better job of it since I turned 40, but I still eat more food than I need to. As for exercise? God, I hate exercise.

That's why I always like going on vacations. I always lose weight on vacation, and I'm not even trying to. It's because I love walking around and exploring a city. So if I could figure out a way to be on permanent vacation, it would kill two birds with one stone--1) I would be enjoying the second half of my life, and 2) I would be staying fit and healthy so I can enjoy it.

Now excuse me, I'm going to eat some cinnamon buns.

Fansubbing

2011-10-18T00:27:00.000-04:00

Fansubbing is basically a huge amateur industry. Several years ago I started getting into watching these Taiwanese Idol dramas, and it would not be possible if it weren't for the work of these dedicated enthusiasts. The first drama I ever watched (and got sucked into) was Huā yàng shào nián shào nǚ, or better known as Hana Kimi. It starred Ella Chen of S.H.E and Wu Zun of Fahrenheit. At first I thought it was stupid, but I was addicted pretty quick.

Sublimes, a fansubbing group, did the hard coded subs, and I downloaded the episodes. I kept them too. Eventually, because I liked this drama so much, I bought the DVD set, even though it did NOT have English subtitles. In the back of my mind, I had this idea that I was going to make the subtitles myself. I couldn't do the actual translations because I understand very little Mandarin, but I was going to use the Sublimes hard coded videos to recreate them. The reason why I wanted to do this was because I wanted better quality video. The DVD set of course is pristine, and since I had the source, I could make much better quality subbed videos.

The problem was, it seemed very difficult to sub videos. I Googled for information about it, and to replace the subtitles in a DVD set seemed way too complicated, and, I couldn't find software to create subtitles to my liking. I tried a couple of the freebie ones I found on the web and they seemed very clunky. So this project sat on the backburner for years.

Now I just happened upon Aegisub. I don't know why I never found this before, but it is by far the best and easiest software to use to create subtitles. What I am doing is playing the Sublimes hard coded subbed video in my GOM player to view the subtitles, and in Aegisub, opening my source video ripped from the DVD, and recreating the subtitles. Aegisub makes it incredibly easy to mark the time. Basically you just highlight the waveform, type your subtitle, and click on the confirm button. The style editor makes it easy to create the subtitle look that you want and make it the default. Inserting subtitles into a DVD still seems too complicated to me (it hurts my brain trying to figure it out), so I've decided to simply use Handbrake to rip the individual episodes and sub them that way.

I'm doing this as a personal project. I just want to be able to watch Hana Kimi (which I bought) with English subtitles in great quality video. I will not post these videos nor post the recreated soft subs, which is the work of Sublimes.

The 99%

2011-10-09T16:02:00.000-04:00

I have a lot of sympathy for the Occupy Wall Street movement. After all, I am part of the 99% as well. But when I read the postings on http://wearethe99percent.tumblr.com/, I can't help but feel that so many of them are just, well, so stupid.

Believe me, I've been there. When I first graduated college, I had a series of low paying jobs. I know what living paycheck to paycheck is like. But sometimes it takes a while before you start making money. The attitude of some of our young kids today--I don't understand it at all. They act like they deserve to make six figures when they graduate simply because they have a six figure student loan to pay off.

Like most high school students, I applied to to several colleges. The best college I was accepted to was probably the University of Pennsylvania. That was my first choice, but I would have had to accept aid and loans to go to Penn. I ended up going to the University of Maryland, which was a lot cheaper since I was a Maryland resident. Looking back on it, I'm glad I didn't go to Penn, because as it turned out, I was a lazy student. Would going to Penn--a different environment--have changed my lazy ways? Maybe, but I don't think so. I was burned out after studying so hard all through my life up to that point, and I think I would have been a lazy student no matter where I went to, so I am glad I chose Maryland and came out of college debt free.

The problem I think is that these young kids lack self awareness. They think they're better than they really are. They go to Brown and major in art history and come away with $100,000 in student loans and they think they're going to land a $100,000 a year job. There's nothing wrong with going to Brown, and there's nothing wrong with majoring in art history, but unless you're a brilliant guy--and let's be honest, most likely you aren't--you're going to come away from that experience with a just degree from Brown University and $100,000 in debt and that's it. I'd rather come away from college with a degree from the University of Maryland and $0 debt.

I like to think I'm smarter than the average guy, but I couldn't hold a candle to guys like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, or even those young YouTube guys like Freddie Wong who have such ambition and talent. I recognized early on that I was nothing more than a common shlub. And there's nothing wrong with being a shlub. Just don't take out $100,000 in student loans. You know what Dirty Harry said: "A man's got to know his limitations."

Old Man Ailments

2011-10-08T22:35:00.001-04:00

I am really feeling like an old man lately. I can't imagine how I will feel when I am 60 years old. This week I had a kidney stone attack. Those who have experienced this know that this is probably one of the most painful things you can go through. It started around 9:15 am when I was in my car. It lasted until about 1:50 pm. Once you pass the stone, relief is immediate.

And this wasn't even the first time. The very first time was around 20 years ago. I was 27. Is that crazy? Getting a kidney stone at 27? At the time, I was drinking these protein shakes. I thought it would be healthier than constantly eating fast food at work. They're full of vitamins and minerals and fiber I guess, and I probably didn't drink enough water, so I think it caused my kidney stone.

And now I just had my second attack.

When I first graduated college and was living with roommates, I actually ate fairly healthy. But then I got my own place, and starting around when I was 26, I started eating crap. Frozen prepared food. Too much meat. Too much junk food. Soda. Donuts. You name it, I ate it.

I think it all started to catch up with me in my mid 30's. I started getting heartburn. I had my first gout attack at at time. You think that would have been a wake up call for me, but I still didn't really change my diet. When I hit 40, I made a conscious effort to eat better. And I did, kind of. It wasn't until I was 45 that I made a really, really concerted effort to eat better. Less meat. More vegetables. Organic food. Cut down on sugar.

It's hard to do. It's easy to do it for a couple of weeks, but to keep it up, day in and day out--it's hard. Plus, I love to eat. A lot. Which is why I'm trying to get better at cooking. If I'm going to eat something, I want to know what went into it, and if I cook it myself, then I'll know. But if it tastes like crap, who wants to eat it, right? So I need to get better at cooking. It shouldn't be so hard, right? You just follow the recipe. A recipe is just a set of instructions. I should be able to do that, right? It turns out it's a little harder than that.

But it's always a nice surprise to make something and you taste it and you think, "Hey, this tastes pretty good!"

Man, I could sure go for a donut right about now.

Steve Jobs 1955-2011

2011-10-07T00:08:00.001-04:00

When I was growing up, the Apple I did not impress me. I was an Atari guy. Then the Apple II came out, and then the MacIntosh--I was never impressed with any their computers. Then Microsoft and Intel took over the PC world, and I considered Bill Gates to be The Man.

I only really became aware of Steve Jobs when he launched iTunes. I had been ready for digital music for a while. When buymusic.com was launched, I was in. But the problem was, it sucked. I constantly had problems verifying my license. Windows Media and their licenses--a horrible experience all around. But iTunes? I never had a problem. I changed computers a million times, and all I ever needed to do was install iTunes on a new computer and log in and I could play all my tracks that I purchased. That was it. He made licensed music completely transparent, which was absolutely necessary until the music industry relented on mp3s.

And then Steve Jobs opened iTunes to independent musicians. Nobody, and I mean nobody, would even consider doing that. And if it hadn't been for Steve Jobs, to this day I don't think anyone would consider doing it now. Anybody could launch a website and sell his music, but how would anyone find you? With iTunes, you could sell your music alongside major music label artists. I can't tell you how much of a game changer that was.

He was truly a visionary. Through sheer force of will, he propelled devices like the iPod, iPhone, iMac, and iPad into the consciousness of everyone. Let's face it, other companies sold mp3 players, cell phones, computers, and tried to launch tablets--but he always one upped them all. Steve Jobs will go down in history as one of the titans of the tech industry.

Losertown Portfolio

2011-09-25T20:22:00.001-04:00

I sock away most of my savings into a retirement account that comprises of about 70% equities, and the rest split into real estate, bonds, and annuities. But I also set aside a chunk of money for investing myself. When I was in my twenties, I tried buying stocks here and there, and I was absolutely horrible at it. I picked companies because they seemed cool, and I ended up losing a few thousand dollars because they tanked (companies like CDDD which held patents on fluorescent data storage or something). I had some good picks--I bought Sears at $25 and by the time it merged with K-mart, it was around $50. But most of my picks were horrible, hence losing a few thousand dollars (at least). I did stupid things like jump on what should have been an obvious pump and dump scheme (IDID). So after that disaster I decided to just stick with socking away money in a retirement account and picking index funds.

Around October 2007, I got the itch to try my hand in stocks again, so I went back in. October 2007, of course, was the market peak, and soon thereafter, it tanked in a major way. This time however, I acknowledged that I was completely stupid when it came to picking stocks. I have neither the time nor inclination nor the smarts to really research companies to invest in, so I signed up with Motley Fool Stock Advisor.

During the crash, I didn't panic, I kept buying in every couple months or so, but it was rough. I think at the lowest point my portfolio was down something like 34%. The market finally reached bottom on March 2009. And then it shot up. I got back up around 25%. And now this year the market tanked again. So, since October 2007, I am now a little above break even. It's a crazy ride, but again, I'm used to this kind of roller coaster activity. It's not uncommon to see gains of $2000 in a single day in this volatile market, and certainly I've also seen losses of over $2000 in a single day, too!

When I got back into the market in October 2007, I still wanted to pick some of my own stocks from time to time. Looking back on my own picks (nine picks), I see that they are down 10%. But looking at all of my Motley Fool Stock Advisor picks (fifteen picks), they are up a little over 7%. Clearly I should not be making any of my own picks and just select them from Motley Fool, and for the most part, I've stuck with that for the past couple of years.

Unfortunately, I don't think we'll be seeing those crazy 25-30% yearly gains anytime soon like we saw in the 90's. If we're lucky, we'll get 4 or 5% maybe during the next decade. At least that's what my guts tell me. But then again, I really know nothing about the market so who knows? Oh, and by the way, I reinvest all my dividends.

Google+

2011-09-22T00:47:00.001-04:00

This morning I checked the little Google+ button on the top of my Google page just to check, and I discovered that I was in! I was all excited, thinking I was special, but then I found out that they finally went public with their beta on Tuesday, so I'm not so special after all.

I'm not really sure what I want to do with it--it's tiring keeping a web presence. Everybody has their own web page, Myspace, Twitter, Facebook--and now here is another social network that you have to update. At least Myspace is basically dead, so I don't have to worry about that. I'm not on Twitter--I don't see the point of it--I can post 140 character messages on Facebook already if I want to. And Microsoft's Live Spaces died before ever getting off the ground. So the battle is between Facebook and Google+. Since the company I pick always tanks, I think both Facebook and Google should pay me not to use their platform.

50/90 Songs Update

2011-09-19T00:22:00.000-04:00

So far I've written 11 tunes for the 50 Songs in 90 Days Challenge for 2011. I think it's safe to say that I won't hit 50. Still, I'll try to add at least a couple more in the tally. Most of it is junk though. What I've been doing is using a lot of profanity in the lyrics. Sometimes it's helpful to free up the thought process by dropping the F bomb. I'm serious.

Of course, these are just demos, and when I go through them (along with the FAWM 2011 stuff) that I like, I'll revise the lyrics. When I have a "finished" song, I don't like to have profanity in it simply because I want it to be presentable to anybody, including kids.

But here's one of the demos I did, "I Am An A**hole." Be warned, the demo contains profanity, as you can guess by the title! When I redo it, I'll probably change it to I Am a Loser. I got lazy and repeated the first verse for the second verse. I'll write a different verse later. I got the idea for the song when I was thinking about the movie Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry. Basically, the idea of two loser/rejects getting together because no one else would want them.

I Got a Million Ideas!

2011-09-15T00:43:00.000-04:00

Yeah, that's what I thought when I was young. I have a million ideas! Turns out none of them were worth much.

I was always daydreaming, thinking what could I do to retire? I had this idea of resurrecting the old dime store pulp magazines. I was going to call it Subway Stories, and it would be geared towards commuters going to work on the subway. Got 15 minutes? Read a story.

I had ideas for serials such as, Fred, the Weirdo Co-worker. It would be about this weird guy named Fred (every workplace has one), and he sat near the restrooms. And he would hear all the bathroom noises because inevitably someone would open the door right when someone was on the can having an explosive diarrhea attack.

And Fred would keep a log of everybody going to the bathroom, when, how long it took, whether it was probably a number one or number two, and how loud it was. Yeah, I know, it's a stupid idea, but I was overflowing with stupid ideas when I was young.

The problem was, I was never a prolific writer. I wanted to be like Stan Lee. To this day I don't know how he churned out all those stories for those early Marvel comics.

I still have twenty years (!) of work to go. I gotta think of something.

Mini Moon Cakes

2011-09-10T12:53:00.000-04:00

I was at my parents' house yesterday, and they had mini moon cakes (because of the Mid-Autumn Festival). I think this is a fairly recent trend, and I wonder why didn't they start this earlier? Maybe I'm behind things by a few years though. Normally they are squares the size of your palm, and you'd cut them up into four squares because eating the entire thing in one sitting is too much since they are really dense and rich. Okay, I admit it, I've done that before.

But these mini moon cakes are really convenient. Just pop them in your mouth. Now of course, if you eat four of them, that's basically just eating an entire moon cake of the old size.

On a completely different note, it finally stopped raining here. Last week, it rained practically for the entire week.

Bolognaise

2011-08-31T21:28:00.003-04:00

I always receive a bottle of red wine as a gift for Christmas. I'm not much of a drinker though, so I thought I would try cooking with it. A while back I tried making a red wine reduction sauce to go with my ribeye, but the sauce stunk. I thought I was following the directions pretty well, but I was underwhelmed. I think I must have screwed it up and one day I'll try it again.

But today I saw on YouTube a video of Gordon Ramsay making a quick bolognaise. My impression was that this was a quick and dirty method of making it on a budget, because I've heard him say to make a real good bolognaise takes hours.

I didn't have all the ingredients, but I had most of them. And I was winging the amounts because he didn't give out exact measurements. I had ground beef (natural, grass fed from Hedgeapple Farm of course!), organic carrots, onions, no garlic so I used garlic powder, oregano, olive oil, salt and pepper, no tomato puree, so I used some of the jar of organic marinara sauce I had and also cut up a ripe tomato, too. I also didn't have Worcestershire sauce, so I used a little squirt of ketchup for that sweet vinegary zing. Yeah, I know, I can't help it--I think ketchup goes with everything. And of course, my left over red wine. I used a cup of it.

I let it simmer for about 45 minutes. You know what? It was really, really tasty! The red wine really does add to the flavor. I served it over bionaturae Organic Whole Wheat Spaghetti. Check out the the video. There are a lot of people commenting on it saying it's not real bolognaise, but I don't think it was meant to be. Just a quick and simple way to do it on a budget and still have it taste pretty good.

Hurricane Irene

2011-08-28T17:50:00.001-04:00

I'm glad that Hurricane Irene did not track more to the west. The 'ol Losertown Studio is in Montgomery County, Maryland, which got mainly just rain and some wind. My electricity went out about three times last night after midnight, but the outages lasted maybe 30 seconds or so at the longest.

I had to make a deposit at my bank today, and driving around I saw mainly small branches and leaves on the ground from the storm. I did see this--a tree with one of its main branches snapped off. I know a lot of people were irritated with all the doom and gloom catastrophic reports, but I'd rather have that and then have the storm not do as much damage as predicted than to have the reports come true.

Mick Fleetwood Drum Loops

2011-08-27T23:52:00.001-04:00

There's no way I'm going to hit 50 songs in this year's 50 Songs in 90 Days effort, but that's okay. I kind of knew that wouldn't be realistic. But I've been having fun using the Mick Fleetwood Sony Acid loops for these songs. I had an earlier post in 2006 saying how I couldn't use them when I was on Sonar XL 2.2 because no matter what I did, they kept crackling whenever I would join a loop with another one.

Sonar 5.0 solved that problem, and it remains problem free with Sonar 6. I haven't made the transition to X1 yet but I'm assuming there will be no problem with that either. Listening to these loops--you know, Mick Fleetwood was an awesome drummer. It's really cool playing along with them.

I'm thinking once 50/90 is over, I'll go over the stuff I've done along with FAWM 2011 and just distribute them on a torrent. The thing is, I'm still grappling with the new effects in Sonar now that I'm on a 64 bit platform. It's hard getting used to these new effects, and I'm still not comfortable using them.

Taxes

2011-08-06T13:16:00.001-04:00

I'm not one of those people who constantly fumes about taxes--everybody needs to pay them, and we need taxes to keep the country running. And it doesn't feel like it's a tremendous burden for me. I don't need for them to be cut, but I don't want them raised, either. If I were filthy rich I supposed I wouldn't mind having my taxes raised.

Using my home financial program, I can see my top five expenses every month. Do you know what four of them always are?

1) Federal Income Tax
2) Mortgage Payment
3) State Income Tax
4) Social Security Tax

The fifth one always varies--might be travel or auto maintenance or something. But that is a bit disconcerting to always see taxes on that list.

Louie

2011-07-31T13:01:00.000-04:00

I don't have cable, and I have never had cable tv service (I do have cable broadband though). I have never thought it was worth the money to watch a bunch of stations that show reruns and commercials. When I was a kid, my family did sign up for cable, but that was when cable was new and you had channels like HBO that had no commercials and showed movies. It was an alternative to renting movies.

I just hate the idea of paying for cable tv, and then have to watch commercials. It's like double taxation. They get money from commercials, and they get money from subscribers. That irritates me.

Anyway, now cable networks have original programming, and some of it is very good. But I still won't subscribe to cable just to watch it. I can wait to watch it on the Internet. You just have to wait, and they'll put it up. That's pretty smart of them, because if it is really, really good--then you can't wait. Which is the case for Louie on FX. I bought the season one DVD set, and it is brilliant and hilarious, so now that season two is airing--I can't wait. I can't for the 30 days for them to put it on the Internet. I still won't get cable to watch it though. I would rather buy the episodes for $1.99 on Amazon. That will still be much, much cheaper than subscribing to cable. Let's face it, sure, they have some really good original programming now, but 99% of it is still putrid trash. And I can get that free on network television.

I Think My Slingbox Just Died

2011-07-29T01:15:00.000-04:00

Hmm..I think my Slingbox just died--and just when I got my new widescreen monitor to enjoy it! I got the Slingbox as a gift about two years ago. I don't think I used it more than 25 times. I've used it when I've traveled, but more often I've had it on when I wanted to watch the NFL while I was doing some work on my computer.

Every time something breaks, I start to think, would it have broken if it had been made in the good 'ol USA? I had an RCA home theater receiver where the sound would konk out if you switched input sources. I had to turn it off, wait, and then turn it back on for the sound to come back. The DVD player on my LG HDTV tuner stopped working--it can no longer read any discs. And now the tuner itself "freezes" and I have to turn it off and back on. To me, electronics should last just about forever, but nowadays, it seems like there is a 50/50 chance of them breaking down within a year or two.

And I think I've posted before about that piece of crap Creative Labs Prodikeys keyboard where certain keys just stopped working after a while. That pretty much renders a keyboard useless for typing.

I did a Google search and it seems like a lot of people have the same problem with the Slingbox HD Pro. The network connection just dies. You can't connect to it anymore. You can't even reset it. It's like it's frozen.

My New Asus VE278Q 27 inch monitor

2011-07-28T00:49:00.001-04:00

Yeah, that's right--I bought me a new Asus VE278Q 27 inch widescreen monitor because I deserve it! It's beautiful, so much screen space, I can surf the Internet and watch TV through my Slingbox at the same time. Very good contrast, rich colors--watching DVDs on it is a joy. I can't believe I've been depriving myself of this for such a long time. This thing is bigger than my television. Okay, my television isn't all that big--just a 24" set. I guess I'll make buying a new TV my next priority.

Seriously though, you know, you should treat yourself to something every few months. Why live a life of deprivation? We're all going to die anyway. Well, okay, if you don't have the money, don't go into debt to do it, because that just makes it worse. I had a bunch of Amazon points built up, so I used them to knock $101 dollars off the price, so this monitor only cost me around $220. Sweeeet!

I guess I should ask myself, "Do material things make you happy?" Hell yeah!

Please Sir, I Want Some More!

2011-07-13T23:00:00.001-04:00

Mmm, mmm, who doesn't want a big bowl of gruel? Actually, gruel gets a bad rap. I think just about every country has some kind of porridge or gruel as part of their cuisine.

In South China, they make it out of rice. They call it congee in the West, although I have never heard of the term growing up. We called it jook. In Mandarin, it's zhou.

There's a million different variations on how to make it, but basically it's rice and water. To get a really thick porridge, the ratio is about one cup uncooked white rice to 6 cups of water. For medium consistency, it's about one cup rice to 8 cups water. If you like a thin gruel, then it's about one cup rice to 10 cups water. You just boil it until it breaks down. How much it breaks down depends on how long you cook it. I like to see little bits of grain--I don't like it when it's completely broken down like a puree. Actually that's not true--it depends on my mood.

It can be very flavorful if you use stock, or throw in a leftover chicken or turkey carcass in the pot while making it. For this occasion I just simmered rice and water for about two hours. By itself, it's very bland. The flavor comes from toppings. You can use just about anything--pickled mustard greens, salted fish, dried cuttlefish--usually it's something really salty and/or spicy.

I just stir fried some thinly cut strips of beef with smoked sea salt and pepper and topped it off with chopped scallions for my topping. That's my lunch for tomorrow. The reason why I made a big pot of it is because I came down with the flu last week. That's the first time I've ever gotten the flu in the summer. Anyway, congee is a good dish to eat when you're sick or just getting over a bout with the flu/cold. It's not heavy, it's easy to digest--good comfort food.