John Wulff :

Tam's Ankle [Flickr]

John Wulff — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 23:46:33 PDT

John Wulff posted a video:

Tam's Ankle [Flickr]

John Wulff — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 23:43:59 PDT

John Wulff posted a photo:

Holy shit section 309 row RR is high [Flickr]

John Wulff — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 12:40:56 PDT

John Wulff posted a video:

John and Mark 5 and 3 [Flickr]

John Wulff — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 15:23:38 PDT

John Wulff posted a photo:

Melee [Flickr]

John Wulff — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 21:00:07 PDT

John Wulff posted a photo:

Defilier [Flickr]

John Wulff — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 20:59:41 PDT

John Wulff posted a photo:

Warhammer at Ira's - Ira phones a friend [Flickr]

John Wulff — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 20:48:05 PDT

John Wulff posted a photo:

Warhammer at Ira's - Preparing for Battle! [Flickr]

John Wulff — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 19:15:28 PDT

John Wulff posted a photo:

Poker [Flickr]

John Wulff — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 21:26:26 PDT

John Wulff posted a photo:

Links for 2009-07-03 [del.icio.us]

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 00:00:00 PDT

Freaking out after WoW account cacnellation

Tougo Panorama [Flickr]

John Wulff — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:30:31 PDT

John Wulff posted a photo:

Links for 2009-06-28 [del.icio.us]

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 00:00:00 PDT

The Learjet repo man

Links for 2009-06-24 [del.icio.us]

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 00:00:00 PDT

Links for 2009-06-01 [del.icio.us]

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 00:00:00 PDT

Awesome Helicopter Takeoff

Links for 2009-05-26 [del.icio.us]

Wed, 27 May 2009 00:00:00 PDT

Rosemary Martini Recipe

Tue, 26 May 2009 08:43:00 -0700

Making cocktails is fun. Came up with this one last night when Courtney asked for an herbal beverage.

Ingredients

1 small sprig of rosemary, 2 or 3 inches long, for garnish
leaves from 1 large sprig rosemary (dozens of leaves)
leaves from 1 sprig parsley (4 or 5 leaves)
2 TB sugar
juice from a quarter of a lime
4 oz Dry Fly Washington Wheat Vodka

Directions

Put leaves, sugar, lime juice, and 1/2 oz vodka in mortar and pestle. Grind until sugar dissolves and rosemary looks well pulverized.
Pour mortar's contents into cocktail shaker filled with ice along with remaining vodka. Shake vigorously.
Strain into chilled martini glass and garnish with small rosemary sprig.

Links for 2009-05-24 [del.icio.us]

Mon, 25 May 2009 00:00:00 PDT

The Downfall of Agile Hitler

Poached Egg in a Potato Nest

Sun, 26 Apr 2009 11:43:00 -0700

One of my favorite breakfasts: poached eggs in a nest. I've been ordering this for years at Roses. Recently my dad started making it at home. Inspired by him, I gave it a try. It went very well!

Recipe:

Grate potatoes
Squeeze the heck out of the shredded potato (make a ball with your hands, squeeze) to remove as much moisture as possible
Toss salt and pepper with shredded potato to taste, add green onions if you'd like
Heat skillet medium-low, add butter, heat should be well below smoke point, butter should NOT burn/brown
Evenly distribute shredded potato in hot skillet, lightly pack
Flip potatoes when nicely browned, add more butter for new side (To keep potatoes from breaking up cover pan with cookie sheet and flip skillet/cookie sheet so skillet ends up upside down on the cookie sheet. Slide the potatoes back into skillet.)
While potatoes finish browning poach egg(s)
Plate and enjoy!

Links for 2009-04-16 [del.icio.us]

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 00:00:00 PDT

Blue Cheese Stuffed Olives Recipe

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 16:56:00 -0800

Disappointed by the quality of store bought blue cheese stuffed olives I decided to make my own. It’s so much more enjoyable to have a stuffed olive with MY favorite blue cheese than the generic “blue cheese” pre-packaged olives use. I used Point Reyes Original Blue. It’s creamy texture blended well with the cream cheese. I’m also a big fan of St. Agur, I’ll try it next time. But, it’s a little thicker so it may not spread as well.

Ingredients

1 10oz Jar Pitted Green Olives
1oz Blue Cheese
1oz Cream Cheese
~10 Peppercorns (adjust to taste)

Directions

Mix equal parts blue cheese and cream cheese until completely combined.
Microwave mixture for about 20 seconds until just warm so it will spread easily.
Spoon mixture into plastic bag, forcing into one corner of the bag.
Using scissors, cut off the tip of the corner of the bag, making a peppercorn sized hole.

Drain the olives, reserve their brine in original container.
Squeeze cheese mixture into each olive and return to original container.

Add a peppercorns to olive and brine mixture.
Let sit for a few days (time for peppercorns to season olives and cheese to mellow).
Enjoy in a martini.

Update on March 22, 2009: Made them again, this time used canned olives (not in a glass jar, canned in metal can). Turns out canned olives are much smaller than the fancy pitted green olives that come in a glass jar. They still turned out all right but they’re awfully small. I recommend springing for the larger, glass jar, pitted green olives.

Link Buying Tool

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 09:29:00 -0800

I get a couple of these emails a day. Joan Young and Linkstar UK Limited, please stop hurting the Internet.

from: Joan Young joan@linkstar.co.uk
to: John
date: Wed, Feb 4, 2009 at 3:02 AM
subject: Advertising on Johnwulff.com

Hiya,

Good day. It’s me again, just want to know if you are getting my mails because I haven’t received any reply from you. This is regarding our business project about link sponsorship. I am still interested in acquiring a link from your website(Johnwulff.com).

Cheers!

I look forward to hearing from you.

All the best, Joan Young Account Executive

This message was sent by Linkstar UK Limited, it is STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL and is solely for the individual or organisation to whom it is addressed. It may contain PRIVILEGED and CONFIDENTIAL information. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication and its contents is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication and its contents in error, please notify us at info@linkstar.co.uk and delete it and any copies from your computer.

This e-mail has been checked for viruses but it is the responsibility of the recipient to ensure that the opening use or onward transmission of the e-mail and any attachments will not adversely affect its systems or data and no responsibility is accepted by Linkstar UK Limited in this regard.

PS – I hear Joan loves receiving porn at work. If you know of any hardcore email lists please subscribe her to them. She and I thank you. joan@linkstar.co.uk

Making Hard Cider

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 00:05:00 -0700

I started with two 1.5L jugs of apple cider. I poured half of each jug into a saucepan with 2 cups of white sugar and 2 cups of brown sugar. I simmered the mixture until the sugar completely dissolved. Then I let the sugar cider mixture cool to 105 degrees fahrenheit (the yeast I used operates best between 101 and 109). I added 1 packet of champagne yeast to the sugar cider mixture and gave the yeast fifteen minutes to “bloom”.

Then I poured the remaining cider out of jugs into an empty pitcher. I poured half the sugar, cider, and yeast mixture into each jug. Then I topped off each jug with the cider in the pitcher. (I had about two cups cider left over. Courtney mixed it with some cinnamon tea, it didn’t go well.)

Finally, I topped each jug with a balloon and pricked each balloon with a needle. (The balloons act as a poor man’s airlock to keep bacteria out while allowing gases to escape.)

I’ve read it can take anywhere from 3 weeks to 9 months for optimal fermentation. I’ll test one jug in three weeks. Depending on how it tastes the other jug will either be opened in 3 weeks and one day or in 9 months.

Paying for Mass Transit by Increasing the Gas Tax(?)

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 20:22:00 -0700

I recently told a friend I thought mass transit expansion should be funded by increasing the gas tax. She responded, “could it actually cover all the costs?” I didn’t know, so I did some number crunching. Here’s what I came up with:

The Sound Transit 2008 ballot measure’s expansion plans will cost $13,500,000,000. (source)

To be conservative, let’s say 2,000,000,000¹ gallons of gasoline are consumed in Washington State each year. This means that for each penny per gallon the gas tax increases an additional $20,000,000 (2,000,000,000 gallons * $0.01) in state revenue is generated.

To generate $13,500,000,000 from the state gas tax in one year would require raising the gas tax by $6.75 ($13,500,000,000 / $20,000,000 / 100 cents/$). This would effectively raise the current price of gasoline to $10.75 ($4 + $6.75).

If the tax were diluted over 11 (2020 – 2009) years (the current proposal’s construction wouldn’t be complete until 2020 (source)) the gas tax would only need to increase by $0.61 ($6.75 / 11 years). This assumes an average gas consumption of 2,000,000,000 gallons per year over the next 11 years. This would effectively raise the current price of gasoline to $4.61 ($4 + $0.61).

If an average of only 1,500,000,000 gallons per year of gasoline is consumed over the next 11 years then the gas tax would need to increase by $0.82 ($13,500,000,000 / (1,500,000,000 gallons * $0.01) / 11 years) to generate $13,500,000,000. This would effectively raise the current price of gasoline to $4.82 ($4 + $0.82).

Based on my imprecise methodology, an assumption that the entire state would be willing to pay for puget sound’s transit expansion, and a highly conservative estimate of our future gas consumption the gas tax would need to increase by $0.82 a gallon to pay for this fall’s transit measure.

That’s a lot.

Now that I understand the numbers a little better I’m not sure how I feel about funding mass transit by increasing the gas tax. I’d personally be willing to pay the increased tax but I fear the impact it would have on our economy.

2,912,000,000 gallons of gasoline were consumed in Washington State in 2003.
- In 2003 Washington State consumed 334,897,000,000,000 BTUs of gasoline. (source)
- 1 US gallon can produce 115,000 BTUs. (source)
4,898,000,000 gallons of gasoline were consumed in Washington State in 2005 and 2006.
- In 2005-2007 Washington State collected $2,665,000,000 from the motor vehicle fuel tax. (source)
- Gas tax, including federal excise tax is 54.4 cents per gallon. (source)
2,095,236,000 gallons of gasoline were consumed in Washington State in 2001.
- In 2001 Washington State consumed 63,492,000 barrels of gasoline. (source)
- 1 barrel contains 33 gallons.
So, how many gallons of gasoline does Washington State consume a year? Currently, somewhere around 2.5 billion gallons.

Rails Bug: Saving Only "changed" Attributes Hurts Serialization

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 19:10:00 -0700

Really unhappy with this bug. I hope the Rails team agrees that this is a bug unlike my last “bug” report.

If you’re unfarmiliar with “changed?” attribute updating I recommend reading Living on the edge (of Rails) #14 before continuing.

Here it is, the nasty:

class Node < ActiveRecord::Base
  serialize :data
end

>> n = Node.create! :data => { :a => 1 }
=> #<Node id: 417950, data: {:a=>1}>
>> n.id
=> 417950
>> m = Node.find 417950
=> #<Node id: 417950, data: {:a=>1}>
>> m.data[:b] = 2
=> 2
>> m
=> #<Node id: 417950, data: {:b=>2, :a=>1}>
>> m.changed?
=> false
>> m.save!
=> true
>> m = Node.find 417950
=> #<Node id: 417950, data: {:a=>1}>

Changes to the hash are never saved and that makes me really, really sad.

I’ve opened a ticket.

Shultzy's Glory

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 15:35:00 -0700

My burger at Shultzy’s is no longer on the menu. It’s gone. I hope you had a chance to try it.

It was a sweet ride while it lasted. I guess I’m just not cut out to be a gastronomical rock star.

Thanks Bruce, Don, and everyone else at Shultzy’s.

Ruby's sym.to_i

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 11:19:00 -0700

Give this a look:

>> :"5".to_i
=> 148447
>> :"5".to_s.to_i
=> 5

Hurts a little doesn’t it? Here’s the why:

Ruby-Doc.org: sym.to_i returns an integer that is unique for each symbol within a particular execution of a program.

Makes sense, sure. But damn was it painful to figure that one out the hard way.

For more fun with Symbols I suggest What is a ruby symbol? – symbols explained.

Time-lapse of the University Tower

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 16:00:17 -0700

Time-lapse of the University Tower, originally uploaded by John Wulff.

My first attempt at a time-lapse. I’ll pick a more interesting subject next time.