A hot, steamy bowl of awesome [s]

I started working on a killa chili recipe hoping to pass quals for the Manbird Invitational. Since I'm an open source kinda guy, I'll bore you with pictures and descriptions later.

While the digital negative converter works its magic, I'll to quickly digress into the topic of playoffs. Wild card weekend was pretty meh, except:

• Hooray for the Pats getting embarrassed.
  
• Also, go Cards. Now, I hate Zonies as much as the next guy, but Warner is practically the same QB as Rich Gannon (well, with a ring) and Fitzgerald/Boldin are just great athletes. That game made watching the others worthwhile.
  

Actually it'd be great if they became the USA Cardinals. If the Patriots can claim New England and the Cowboys are America's Team, why can't a franchise that's resided in so many major cities claim such a constituency? Then I'd have no guilt about cheering for them.

Here's to the improbable Az-Min NFC Championship.



I thieved/rescued Megan's Italian Stone Pine and I bought a Norfolk Island Pine to add some (eventual) vertical greenery to the yard. Likely spots are the middle section of the front yard and next to the barbecue.



35w halogens have replaced the bulbs in the living room. They're much more directional and suck enough current to make the motion sensor happy.





I painted a piece of osb. You know, for whatever.



Since I could turn a deaf ear to most of the handegg, I re-reorganized the in-wall entertainment center. Now it has room for the woofer.

In other news, plywood continues to go up in the master bathroom, I have some monkey board ready for the next step. Since there's much drywall affixing to be done, I bought a corded drill/driver for the added power.



Onto the chili. Since this was my first attempt, my m.o. was to use quality ingredients not being able to rely on a magical synergy of flavors that is developed over many attempts. I readied all my favorite seasonings, with no intention of using them all - but you gotta be ready.



Copious onions and orange peppers, chopped small because the only chunky thing in chili should be steak. And maybe a very softened garlic clove (gotta try this next time), like the ones at hot pot. It was all sauteed in olive oil and butter, per Rob's instructions.



Next was to cook the beef. With lime, of course.



Quality ingredients, yo. I threw in some nice Italian sausage and greek olives.



Once the meat was about done I added various seasonings. Chili powder, ancho, rosemary, peppercorn, basil, tapatio, and Fire Rock pale.



Then simmered with a can of black beans and half a jar of tomato sauce. Also in lieu of brown sugar I added some of the maple syrup SFS's mom mules across the border for me.

It occured to me that so much work/seasoning is put in to overcoming the tomatoey flavor. I wondered if I just needed to simmer the pot for a very long time (crock style) to let the various elements coalesce into the medium. Or maybe my chili platform should be to use as little tomato as possible so that you can taste the beef, sausage, olive, sesame oil, etc.

The liquid part of the chili isn't bland, but it isn't distinct. The WIN comes when you eat a piece of beef, sausage, olive, or combination thereof. The flavors seem to cling to the elements, rather than suspend in the medium. I crumbled some gorgonzola on each heated bowl to effect some tartness, but never followed through with my aspiration to add a nacho cheese layer.

It's a fascinating problem of taste engineering, and I look forward to further study. Next batch will certainly include bacon, chilis, and more sesame oil.



No chili for the pooch.

All kinds of win [s]

Jon, Connie, and myself played a couple Settlers matches. We let White Lambda WIN both since it was his bday. He bailed from SoCal (WIN[?]) early because the prospect of being trounced at Axis and Allies cast a grim shadow over his remaining days.



The support structures for the traverse wall came out well with some impromptu assistance from E. The three on the right depict the side that will face the studs, they'll be attached flat against the interior wall because the weld nuts are embedded. They'll never need to be removed, which is good for not turning 2x4s into swiss cheese.

The board on the left is the front side, where hex bolts with fender washers will attach the 1/2" osb such that they can be easily removed and reoriented. I think feature is total WIN.



Rfq and Birdman came over to swim off the chili cookoff gluttony. We broke out the collective equipment (d70 x2, sb800 x2, sb800 hard case, a640 w/ hard case, n80 w/ soft case) and did some pool-entry shots.



The bright, reflective surface was very clutch. We just needed some glowsticks or... well I won't steal Connie's thunder. The spray looks kind of cool lit up against the dark areas, next time we'll need a just-above-water camera with a quicker shutter.



Also seen is the led pool light finally mounted and in full glory.



The turbulance created some cool effects, though it was tough to get recognizable shapes. We'll see how Jes did with the n80. When R gets his arduino flash/camera triggers up and running, we'll have some great possibilities (and warmer water).


I call this one 'Enormous underwater fart'. Chili cookoff, remember?



My citysac came today, WIN. Its four foot diameter perfectly fills the gap between the couch chaises. It is ideal for gaming and movieing, and sits at the convergence of the surround signals.




What the hell New Mexico?

Unexpected surprises [s]

This past Friday I was honored with my first piece of original art. My old boss came over with his family for some steaks and wings, his wife brought along an awesome Japanese-style painting. (And I did in fact straighten the frame after taking the photo.)



This weekend involved a lengthy circuit of the county. Jes and I stopped by the animal shelter only to be disappointed by the overabundance of abandoned PB dogs (pit bulls) and purse dogs. I snagged some extra lumber for a weekend project, maybe Sunday during the f1, gp, and sbk events. Basically those beams will go up on the wall in the garage. The plywood will lay over them and be bolted on - rather than wood screwed - so that it's easy to remove and reattach. In this way, I can easily add and rearrange climbing grips that will go on the plywood.

I have to establish whether or not the plywood is appropriate for the job, and if this proves to not be the case it'll go over the exposed walls in the side room. The garage will accommodate a modest traversal section, which is a great first step. And apparently toproping is for noobs.



Another stop was Fry's. Awhile back I rigged some coax-rca connections because my audio signal was encountering interference between the tv and amp. Those will now have clean connections and maybe later I'll do shielded wires for each of the speakers. That'll depend highly on a clean coax-bare wire connector.



Red Alert 3 was knocked down to a bargain price, so grabbed a copy.

• Good: Pretty good graphics with really cool water effects, and this one has a lot of water.
• Bad: RA1 looked gritty next to its peers (Warcraft, etc.). RA2 looked grittier than RA1 thanks to better computers. RA3 kind of splits the middle, it's a bit cartoony.
• Good: A third faction.
• Bad: Mechs. This ain't Tiberian Sun.
  
• Good: Tim Curry, Jenny McCarthy, George Takei, that guy from several Laws and Order are pretty funny.
  
• Bad: They don't quite go over the top with the character portrayals, though the script and storyline would support it.
  

• Good: The wonderful elements of the predecessors are there. Smooth action, fortifyable buildings, Kirovs.
• Bad: That's cause EA bought the franchise. Look for Red Alert '09, then Red Alert '10, then...
  
• Good: Cool threat level based techs and superweapons.
• Bad: Not many alternatives to the Iron Curtain/Chronosphere.
• Good: Everything is designed around co op play.
• Bad: Opponent ai is still unfun, you're either almost dead or completely dominating. Where's rfq when you need him?
  

Today Jon picked up the Costco foamy I've been meaning to get. It'll be good for noobs and visitors.

Oh and the old patent app I worked on is finally listed.

A few more shots of the carnage [s]

There are a few wires to dispose of, all in due time. The couch is a bit off the wall to center its occupants more and provide a space for the woofer. Um and I'm terrible at pillowing couches.



I brought the tripods home from my office so I had a bit more snapping liberty.



Dixieline was closed today, grumble. Still, I put the head back.



Surf board rack with wifi. Duh.

Truth in 24 (6)

• Rides (7): The speed night mainstay is a powerful road car that features a wealth of modifications such as blowers, bottles, death proof roll cages, and chaingun turrets. The LeMans circuit is a departure, for sure, but not one that dances off into the fairly land of f1 and the lot where cars - to paraphrase Ferdinand Porsche - should win a race and then fall to pieces. Nay, LeMans racers have to run strong for a contiguous day and have been a testbed for the development plenty of commecial technology.
  Truth in 24 showcases the fastest and least recognizable of the series, the prototype class. These machines are purely designed for function and tend to be a crap shoot for aesthetics. I would have found myself salivating considerably more had they focused on the classes that consist of 430s, 911s, S7s, Corvettes and the like. But that experience may have been ruined every time a LMP breezed by on the outside of a hairpin.
  So while there's little variety or focus on the cars you might actually see in the parking garage at your local hospital, they look good, sound good, and require no increased frame rate or cgi to knock your socks off.
  
• Authenticity (10): It's a documentary. You can't get a whole lot more authentic without jumping formats. Of course I'm accepting the characterization of Peugot as evil. But if they weren't evil they wouldn't have made their cars looks so evil.
  
• Femmes (0): I think I spotted a few in the crowd. For something created by nfl films and shown on espn, I actually expected a few umbrella girls.
  
• One Liners (7): The authenticity and female content aren't a surprise, but the prevalence of quotables was a shocker. None are so cornball to be as memorable as 'danger to manifold' or 'my hand gernade', but they're excellent within the context of the story. The lecherous lead engineer of the Audi powerplant has a few, such as the observation that his turbo diesel is quiet and sexy, in contrast to the 'normal' perception of sexy as involving screaming. Shudder.
  Then there are a few - often through thick accents - that draw a chuckle while you're watching, such as, 'Drive home like grandma'. And then the prophetic, 'It always rains at LeMans'.
  
• Action Sequences (7): I'll start with the 3/10ths empty part of the glass: no martial arts, Mexican stands-off, or nos explosions. The 7/10ths is a tasty blend of Fine Driving, high speed camera clips, mishaps, and flying cars. The carnage is actually Tetrised into the storyline so it doesn't feel like a nascar commercial. And most importantly, the movie draws on so many sources of footage that the coverage of the track, cars, pits, is very complete. It doesn't hurt that you can watch some impressive shots and know it wasn't cooked up by a supercomputer cluster or remotely control car.
  
• Star Power (6): Paul Newman and Steve McQueen show up in a few homage clips, the rest are racers.

7+
The Fast and the Furious (7.7): Genre-defining, quotable, unreal
Gumball Rally (7.5): Still relevant
Initial D (7.1): Cult, riveting, but give us some shine
Thunderbolt (7.0): Over the top for better and worse
6+
Days of Thunder (6.7): Pretty good but not very pretty
Ronin (6.3): Left in the briefcase: girls, rides, one-liners
Mad Max (6.2): Brutal action, no frills
Truth in 24 (6.2): Good, but too much truth for speed night
5+
Redline (5.7): Fantastic if watched in a foreign language
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (5.6): Sexy, but unfulfilling
2 Fast 2 Furious (5.3): 2 flimsy
4+
Driven (4.9): Succeeds in everything unrelated to cars
Death Race 2000 (4.0): If only they were just racing across town
3+
Movin' Too Fast (3.3): Well, it has cars

Multiple fronts [s]

Now that the downstairs floor is done, the floodgates have opened.

• Media room: Ty helped me return the couches from the upstairs. I affixed surround speaker mounts to the walls and tonight added some extender cables so there weren't wires in awkward places. The next step will be to change them to coax for a safer journey from the amp.
• Downstairs bedroom: It's slated for rental, but couldn't be until the floor was taken care of. This needs touch up paint and moulding, but it's close.
• Downstairs bathroom: Everything came out for the grinder. Sunday I primered and painted. I trimmed the walls and shower today, so now it's time to find a pedestal sink. I'm thinking maybe I can snag something from Dixieline that isn't horribly overpriced.
• Downstairs hallway: This could use a layer of paint, but the task isn't quite as small as the bathroom.
• Garage: Now that I'm not avoiding pools of drying epoxy, I can rededicate the car hold for vehicles and saws while the side room becomes storage once again. I'm thinking dark red walls in the garage, but leave the ceiling white. I snagged a couple sample colors and will be looking into that one. A big, awesome workbench is in the near future, but more immediatley I have to find a shelf to hold the sound system which as been pretty clutch so far.
  

I didn't have hot water for a couple days. The pilot went out, it would relight with the manual override button pressed but would wink out as soon as it was released. The internet said the termocouple was the likely culprit, it shuts off the gas when the pilot is cold for obvious reasons. I was happy to hear Depot carried Honeywell universal thermocouples.

No dice.

I called a repairman. He walked out five minutes later with the burner working and an empty generic thermocouple package in the trash. Stuff you, Honeywell, and your unnecessarily long 'universal' thermocouple that produces signal below my valve's threshold.



My blurry faced friend dropped by with his kid.

A couple fun one liners:

• For some reason I'm attracted to bikes.
• I love it when you take hallucinogens and help me pick fruit.

Anticipation is high for:

• Fast and Furious, released Friday, its first installment still tops the leaderboard. Obtw, even though the post is backdated, I just published the reviews of Gumball, Ronin, 2F2F, FFTD, DR2000, and Movin Too Fast. There are a couple flashes of brilliance in those reviews, not so much in the movies.
• I finally remembered to replace the propane.
  
• Connie bought lots and lots of Settlers of Catan.
• The White Lambda may return. This time, it could be personal.
  

Piso mojado [s]

We left off with our heroes needing to remove some thin set. This called for a terrazo grinder, readily available from Sunbelt and not Clairemont Equipment. While I slaved away at a keyboard, dad and Jon took care of the downstairs concrete. Not to worry, I partook after they headed back to the Bay.



I couldn't let the familials have all the grinding fun, so I sqeezed some in by moonlight. Then I spent some serious time doing edges and missed spots with the angle grinder.



And that took care of the most important room in the house. It went quickly and easily because I was able to run a hose to the grinder. This eliminated the most infuriating part of the process, concrete dust.

As such, I can say that polished concrete is kind of a pain to do in a house, but for patios, driveways, and the like - no problem.



So this left my garage a powdery white, both from the exfoliated concrete and thin layer of dust. I stopped by Concrete Solutions, which seemed to be the only reputable game in town. The rep there was pretty helpful and I got to take home chemicals with cool dangerous labels on them.

The stain, sealer, and urethane (I guess I need them all) ran just north of $600 for what I generously estimated to be 1000 sq. ft. That's pretty good as far as flooring goes, even when you factor in a few throw rugs and the grinder rental.



I tested the stuff in a remote corner of the garage, apparently when sealed it appears as it does when wet. It's got a nice variation, looks fluid from an angle, and has some translucency, though that might disappear with multiple applications.



Tonight I went after the downstairs section. The process was simple:

1. Wet down section of floor with brush.
2. Apply stain using pump sprayer.
3. Brush stain into concrete (immediately changes color so probably important).
4. Apply more stain with pump sprayer to avoid brush marks.

I diluted the stain with about 25% water and ended up with a considerable amount left in the sprayer not to mention the five gallon container. Tomorrow may call for another coat, we shall see.

Most enjoyably, after I was finished, the only unlocked entrances to my house were the garage door and lower back door. It was the first time since age six I had to maneuver myself around an acid trap in order to reach the stairs.

Compromising admissions [s]

Dear Miss Manners,

Say you're at work and, er, laying cable - so to speak. Then, hypothetically, the [insert business unit] manager walks in and takes a nearby stall. You know who it is because he's talking on the phone. But you're all done, so you...

1. Flush and go knowing full well the associate he's talking to will become immediately aware of his locale.
2. Be courteous to him and discourteous to the next person in your stall.
3. Hang around until the conversation is over.

You might say he's as culpable for the fallout of his conversation venue as a driver is for bumpering someone while talking on their cell. But who really wants to adversely affect the operation of their company nowadays?



The mirrors add light and space to the bathrooms. I can get away with the panels for the sides of the upstairs bathroom and all of the downstairs. I shudder to think of how much a custom 5' x 3' is going to run me for the main, upstairs piece.

Also shown is the untrimmed switchage. A big feather in my cap is knocking the switch count from four to one (but really zero since the light and fan are on motion). A black eye is the annoying drywall work needed to cover the unused box components and the wire spanning them to connect the light and fan leads.



Another column will be good once I find my drywall anchors. The frameless door can be seen in this one.



I yanked the door to the storage nook in the media room. Then sent the electrical from under the tv to said nook. The end result should be clean stowage of the cable box, xbox, wii, and perhaps a dvd cart.

Rebroadcast without expressed, written consent:

• Never mind. Found yer seat. I'm booking 13B, although one usually does not want to sit in aisle 13...
• I will never speak Singaporean to you! Never. Even if I were pissed drunk.
• I'm pretty sure I'm the only one out of the 4 of us that can get hammered off of 8 tasters.
• And you'd best not be moving the bear skin rug. It really ties the room together.
• Oh, and there's a Sephora in Omaha!

A few errands later [s]

I ventured into Ikea today. It's far from being my favorite place, their products are about the opposite of what I'm looking for. That is, stuff there tries to be uber-modern and rather low quality. But I was striking out on some things - mirrors in particular - and had to take a chance.

Despite the Christmas music I survived the journey, bagging a rug and curtains for the media room. The curtains are necessary because the couch does not allot space for blinds. There may be a better solution in the future, but this one works for the moment.



The next stop was Expo (Home Depot's furnishings branch) on Convoy. The selection was impressive and I managed to at last find a light fixture for the upstairs bathroom. (And it turns out my only remaining bulbs are a very cool tone and I haven't yet installed photoshop to color correct). I wired it up, the fixture and fan are run off of a motion sensor with a switched light above the tub.

No luck on mirrors at either location.

My last stop was the zoo - er - Costco to put in an order for blinds.

Gears of War 2 [r]

Ty and I just finished Gears 2 with some help from Kevin. It was a two-sitting playthough thanks to a midweek cold.

As expected, the game mechanics are pretty much the same as the first, the graphics have improved, and Epic has added a few more toys. Some of the levels are visually and aesthetically quite impressive. The level design hasn't changed, it's linear except each area has a few dead end branches to make you waste time scouring them, or wonder if you missed something important.

The ai is coming along nicely, and that adds intrigue to what might otherwise be a shoot-duck-shoot adventure. On the subject of switching up the trench/barrier gunfight formula, Gears does something well. The go-to methods for preventing players from camping are to surround and/or charge. It's a crutch for adding difficulty when your pretty graphics don't let you send endless hordes.

The baddies in Gears do sometimes charge, and often flank - which is much different from having them pour in from every direction. This game presents a number of scenarios where the cover moves or disappears. The ars reviewer was all hyphy about this. It's okay but I'm glad they didn't overuse it.

What's really cool is the introduction of mortars. Fearing the vertical element you can still snipe, but not with complacency. It creates a distinct disincentive to be co-located with your buddy. There's just a whole new dimension when you can be surrounded by cover, but not safe. And it works the other way when you pick up a mortar tube.

Let's see... Epic realized that if there's going to be a trilogy, they need a story so that's been added (ahem, Halo). The in-game dialog is good and sometimes humorous (Marcus = Bender), the cutscene scripts are horrendous.

Great fun and a fantastic application of the media room.

Furnishments [s]

I furnished the media room with some proper couches. They're just one palette up at the moment, but it's great for running audio wiring.


That displaced the futon which is now furnishing the kitchen area.


And I furnished the living room with a sofa. Pretty good Vets' day deals, especially on this one.


And I furnished Jon an xr400. Much thanks to Ted for the leg work, and Christine for the bow.

And Jon furnished me a fantasy football victory.