June 2008 Archives
Intervaluino: A DIY Intervalometer for your Canon SLR link via
To access the server, enter the handicapped stall in the woman's bathroom link via
The dark side of Switzerland link via
Image Fulgurator link1 link2 via
The ultimate washing detergent test: the postal system link via
Displays of space junk link via
Katate audition videos link via
How to hide an airplane factory link via
Friends with benefits: benefit summary prospectus link via
A volunteer plant grew up in my back yard. It is quite large and easily tops nine feet. I always think of these flowers as mutant sunflowers. Which is not their proper name, of course. I suspect that they are in the family Asteraceae.
I am going to have to cut it down sometime with a hacksaw. But, before I do, I decided to commune with it by doing some sun salutations...
This time I was curious if separating the eggs and whipping the egg whites would make any difference. I had this idea of making a Soufflé. But reality set in. Melted chocolate + butter + sugar = a dense and grainy lump. It is impossible to fold this mixture into the egg whites. But all was not lost. I mixed it enough to make it homogeneous. And it rose in the oven.
It was interesting when I was reviewing the pictures. You could see the cake fall over the frames. This time I turned off the master flash on the camera and used a slave flash at the camera's lower right hand side (against the Lowel light). This lit up the side of the cake and gave it more dimension.
I was going to Wilco this morning but decided to change my mind and went to the Rivery instead. I got a birdie on hole one and pared most of the rest of the course.
It looks like they stole a brick that was used for a bridge and instead used it for a sign that points to hole 12. Sigh. I wonder how the park officials feel about that tactic.
With the release of the fourth edition books, there has been a lot of interest in starting up a campaign. Well, the stars must have aligned or something because we actually played tonight. I dug my old D&D books out for nostalgia's sake. I found out that I had a sixth printing of the Player's Handbook and a fifth printing of the Dungeon Master's Guide.
I procrastinated as usual and did not create a character yet. So I arrived an hour early and worked with Mike to create one. I decided on a Tiefling Scourge Warlock named Hrothgar.
We had 5 players in the party: Jeff, a Devoted Cleric; Joe, a War Wizard; Jon, a Two Bladed Ranger; Mark, a Scourge Warlock; Susan, a Brawny Rogue.
Our first encounter was easy. It was on the road on the way to a city. All the minions needed was one hit and they died. But we had to hit them, of course.
We took the optional side quest. This was much harder for us. One of the special monsters escaped and ran off into the waterfall. There were a lot of minions. And they would hit for four hit points each. This added up. But we persevered and moved into the water fall.
When we entered the dungeon there were a lot more minions and a couple of higher level monsters. We were able to defeat them. And then a whole new set of monsters came at us. At the end, it came down to a die roll. The big, bad, treasure guarding monster was slowly being whittled down. But then he became bloodied and enraged and started dealing out some harsher spells. There was one other special monster. Jon was down. Susan was down. We finally killed one of the monsters. But, by now, Jon and Susan had failed two of their savings rolls vs. death. Both Joe and Jeff volunteered to save their lives. This left me alone with the bad guy. I finally have a clear line of sight to cast my big spell: Flames of Phlegethos. It hits for a lot of hit points. But its not enough. I have to kill the monster before people die for good. Jon is stabilized. Susan is not and bites the big one. I finally kill the monster.
But the DM retroactively made our unhelpful Gnome revive Susan...
For tonight, we had a good selection of games on the table. We decided to go with Tinners' Trail.
Martin Wallace's new game is out. This one is about mining Tin and Copper in Cornwall, England. While it is not as heavy as Age of Steam, it was an interesting game with hard trade offs. At the end of each round, you can convert money into victory points. The amount of victory points that you can buy for the same amount of money decreases as the rounds pass. At the end of the game (round 4), you get half as much victory points than you could have gotten on round one. Besides victory points, you use money to purchase new mines and to actually mine. These mines come with an amount of tin, copper, and water on them. The number of water cubes determine how much it costs to mine each cube of tin and copper. So you want to spend turns reducing the water on that spot. Keep in mind that each time you mine, more water comes back to haunt you.
Next, we tried another new game. This time you build "gardens" in order to collect tiles for victory points. The problem is that you are forced to pick up a card and you are forced to play it someone on your plot legally. This usually hoses your plans. I was going for two different sets. I was not that efficient in building either. But I was able to complete one set and pick up the bonus tile for that set for the win.
Another night of bridge. For my only hand, bidding was as follows (with my partner opening the bid):
| W | N | E | S |
| 1C | 2H | 3C | 3H |
| 3N | pass | 4C | all pass |
My partner shows support for clubs. I don't have any hearts for defense. So I decide to go for it. When the dummy shows his hand, I realize that there is only one remaining club out there! I believe that the Ace of diamonds was lead. And I lost that one. I was able to cross ruff between my hands and make my bid.
I needed to buy saffron and just couldn't resist this package. It looks like something that the Japanese would do. I wonder if the case that these jars ship in is itself a glass container?
From a lighting standpoint, two big lights to either side and a reflector in the rear was not enough. The camera mounted flash could not be pointed at the scene. The reflection would be too bright. So I pointed it away from the camera and used it to control a hand-held slave flash. I should have turned the firing of the master flash off since it created a new shadow (even pointed backwards). But the slave flash relit the shadow.
An issue came up where I searched for information on photographer's rights. I found a couple of good pages. The first is at Bert P. Krages. And the second is at Andrew Kantor
2008 Democratic primary in 8 minutes link via
McDonald's Line Rider Commercial link via
A replicator replicates itself link via
Buffet's million dollar long bet link via
The fringe benefits of failure, and the importance of imagination link via
Robot building robot fractal scene link via
White seamless tutorial link via
35 articles of impeachment link via
Dissapearing car door link via
The underhanded C contest link via
Goverment run Senate's food service is failing and unpopular while privately run House's food service is popular link via
Requiem For A Day Off link via
Don't Talk to Cops link1 link2 via
How not to make bread link via
"How many times do I have to tell you that Lord Vader's Lightsaber is not a toy?!" link via
Star Wars Floppy disk link via
NSFW: A Beginners Guide To Sporn link via
Phonographantasmascope link via
Edith Macefield, 1921-2008: Ballard woman held her ground as change closed in around her link via
When I stopped my Monument cafe for lunch one day, I noticed someone selling locally grown produce. I wanted some heirloom tomatoes. But they didn't have any. So I bought a half of a pound of garlic for a buck. Mmmm, the smell they made while they sat in my truck was divine.
So today, I roasted them. But first I had to take a picture of my self taking a picture. I think that I need another tripod and camera...
It is a real pain to get the right balance between steaming the garlic and browning the garlic. Not only did I fail at that. But this batch of garlic acted weirdly. They secreted some protein like scum (such as floats to the top when making soup stock). Of course, this browned nicely. But it tasted bitter. So I left it out.
And, of course, after I cooked the garlic I had an idea to cook them confit style in some duck lard. Gah! Next time...
I went to Old Settler's park today after my morning bike ride. And, as luck would have it, I met a new player. His name was Chris and he was visiting from Tyler (who's wife was attending a party in Round Rock and he took the opportunity to play a new course). He had mistakenly parked at hole 14 when he turned in after seeing a basket. I can understand that since I do that all the time.
He asked if he could join us and we agreed. He also suggested to play skins for a quarter a hole to make it interesting. This is not something I would normally do, but I agreed. Wow, was it a total slaughter. He is by far the best player that I have come across. He birdied something like ten of the holes. He was able to throw his Star Destroyer and his Star Excaliber perfectly stable. And long distance too. He threw it consistently underneath the basket from 400+ feet away.
It looks the the dam construction has removed another hole. Those bastards! It looks like they removed the small hill in the background and replaced it with an identical one made from fresh dirt. Of course, they forgot to replace the basket. (I hope that they don't lose it).
The Wilco's Tennis shop has some weird hours. So I went to stop and buy another year's pass during lunch. And played a round of disc golf of course. I threw three birdies.
And had a good first throw on hole 3. I don't know why that hole is so hard for me. But when I have a good throw like that one, it makes the day better.
Ed and Susan brought over the new expansion for Pillars of the Earth (the game based on a book). I think it worked well with five people. And the expansion seemed to fit the same style and theme of the game.
Ed and Susan also brought some muy spicy WAAASSSAAABI nuts (four versions. and yes, the product is actually named that). Two thumbs up!
We ended the night with a few hands of Big Three. In the hand that you see, Doug bids three before I get a chance. And here I am sitting with all four of the three cards! We shall see, Dougie. We shall see about that!
The picture was also quite technically challenging. I must have taken a number of different photos. It is hard to light the picture based on the cards in the foreground compared to Doug in the background. Of course, I focused only on the cards leaving Doug a little blurred out. There is only so many attempts that you can make...
We played bridge again. This time, I played 4 out of the 5 hands. Woot! Sometimes I was wild and crazy. Sometimes my partner (Nick) was wild and crazy. We had one amusing moment. The dummy has AQJxx in diamonds and I have matching low diamonds. I tried finessing my Queen. I led a low diamond. Wayne ducked it. The dummy played a Queen and John ducked it as well. I knew where the King lay. I transferred control back to my hand again and led another low diamond. Finally, after the third diamond play goes around and my dummy's Ace is still sitting on the table, Wayne gets frustrated and throws his King down. We all had a good laugh.
In the hand above, I went a little crazy and overbid four hearts. How often do you get a hand containing seven hearts and void in one suit? My partner made it easy by showing a strong supporting hand.
Still don't know about the score keeping...
Thanks to Jon, we were able to make for for Tichu at Chuy's. Our server was pretty bad. She messed up almost every order and the final bill. But it was still fun. After all, how can you complain about Friends + Tichu + Chuychanga + Margarita + Hatch chili sauce + Creamy jalapeño + Chips?
| GT/T | Team #1 | GT/T | GT/T | Team #2 | GT/T |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MarkH & Nick | Jon & Stephanie | ||||
| 50 | 50 | ||||
| 95 | T+ |
205
|
|||
|
275
|
T+ | 225 | |||
| 475 | 225 | ||||
| 475 | 425 | ||||
|
550
|
450 | ||||
|
625
|
475 | ||||
| 660 |
540
|
||||
| 690 |
610
|
||||
| 720 |
680
|
||||
| 765 |
735
|
||||
| T+ | 1065 | 735 |
I came across this recipe and had to try it out. I only had one six inch springform pan. So I poured the rest of the batter into another baking dish. Note to future self: pour only half-way up the pan! This cake will expand quite a bit from the steam generated. It looked like a soufflé in the oven.
I also experimented a little bit. I used one teaspoon of Chipotle chile power instead of the recommended 3/4. And I also added one teaspoon of Ancho chile power as well. I wonder how it will turn out...
I woke up early enough this morning to go biking for 25 miles before disc golf. Since the meetup group has now moved to 9am, my options for finding someone to play disc golf were rather limited. Fortunately, Nick was up for a game. We played "skins". Not to escape this brutal heat, but only to record who won which hole. Sadly, Nick was nigh-invulnerable.
Some stoopid tagger wrote this on a couple of the benches. Grrr! Probably some crazed vegan dissatisfied with supermarket vegetables...
A quick round at Wilco today. I wanted to renew my season pass, but the tennis pro shop was closed. Sigh. At least I got three birdies.
I was happy when John Bohrer offered to sell me a copy of Locomotive Werks. It is a train themed game where you invest in train producing factories. Dice will determine the market demand. But you can moderate their impact by diversifying and moving production capabilities around. It was an interesting game. Marty was the run away leader.
We finished the night playing Big Three instead of Neuroshima Hex. Sigh. Maybe some another time I will finally play that game!
Dan and I wanted to try a new sushi place. So we chose one surprisingly close to work at Metric and Braker. Unfortunately, it was pretty bad. Starting with the Miso soup. This was the first time that I have had bad tasting Miso soup. The sushi was a la carte. The menu's descriptions of the rolls was laughable. A rainbow roll "has all of the colors." We tried two rolls. Mine was not as advertised. Ugh. Two thumbs down from me at least.
How bold can Darth Vader be? link via
David Lynch Remix: Panties in my Mouth link via
Things younger than John McCain link via
How to Make a Chocolate Portrait link via
42 Awesome Business Card Designs link via
Lessons learned from the OpenSSL fiasco link via
A simple dolly from PVC pipe link via
An exploding battery in your cellphone is a SAFTEY feature link via
The miracle fruit that rewires the tongue link via
Self-portraiture and emerging artistic consciousness in Dafen link via
Why every guy should buy their girlfriend a Wii Fit (NSFW) link via
Photoshopped scientific articles link via
Top Ground Gear Force link1 link2 link3 via
Demystifying the Modulation Transfer Function link via
The Wrong Lessions of Iraq link via
Cthulhu for president 2008 link via
Remix of Radiohead's "Nude" with old computer equipmetn link via
The group went to Logan's for some Tichu tonight. Five people showed up, but thankfully, someone sat out. Because I was here for Tichu, I didn't volunteer. John sat next to an indoor window. Not only were the people on the other side trying to figure out what game he was playing but we could almost make out the reflection of his cards in the window.
B--- doesn't want me to blog about her. She feels it would ruin her reputation. I wonder why.
Oh, my god, Magnum! This has to be the worst score-keeping eva! That is what I get for letting someone else keep score. I mean they didn't even bother to give the other team the remainder of the points when we said what was taken. I think they just made up a number. I did the best I could reconstructing the score...
Update: Apparently the score was Rittiman compressed. I didn't consider that as a possibility...
| GT/T | Team #1 | GT/T | GT/T | Team #2 | GT/T |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JohnG & B-- | Wayne & MarkH | ||||
| T+ |
175
|
25 | |||
|
255
|
45 | ||||
|
335
|
T- | -35 | |||
| T- | 270 |
30
|
|||
|
370
|
30 | ||||
|
425
|
75 | ||||
|
480
|
120 | ||||
| T- | 365 |
235
|
|||
| 375 |
225
|
T- | |||
|
435
|
265 | ||||
|
495
|
305 | ||||
| 525 |
375
|
||||
| 525 | 575 | ||||
| 525 | T+ | 875 | |||
|
625
|
T- | 775 | |||
| 625 |
975
|
T+ |
This month's Cook's Illustrated had a recipe for blueberry pie. And it looked good. It gave me another excuse to make another pie crust. And it provided me with some pie. Sweet, sweet, blueberry puhaaa...
The group went down to Circle C for disc golf. This time, Gravitt used playing cards to separate the groups quickly. And the other group went off to hole seven to start. Sweet. Unfortunately, it rained for the first few holes. But that quickly cleared up, thank god. We did have the added challenge to throw around a sewer maintenance truck on hole one. No one seemed to want to skip the hole. They just threw it. Luckily, no innocent workers were harmed.
After we were finished, Jon and I went to eat fish tacos at Wahoo's Fish Taco on Rio Grande and Fifth street. Then we drove over to Central Market to get some dessert. And, finally, we stopped by Great Hall Games just because. This made for a longish day.
Adam made Chicken Tikka Masala recently and he provided recopies here and here. This inspired me to make my own batch!
Cooking the Chicken Tikka was somewhat difficult using a gas oven. And rather wasteful during Summer. The pan underneath the burners didn't really have a good rack. So I didn't use one. But the heaping amount of yogurt sauce that I used made a mess as it sat under the chicken resting in the pan. Next time, I will definitely use a cookie rack to get the chicken up off the ground, so to speak. And I will also pound the chicken into an even thickness. The natural breast is just too thick at one end and too thin at the other. It doesn't lead to even cooking.
Also, I should have use the Highlight Tone Priority feature of my Canon camera. That rice is rather hard to not lose detail in the picture. I used two large lowel lights at both ends with a white reflector at the rear. And I also used a naked flash unit on the camera for some highlights. But I probably should have diffused it somewhat.
With all of those minor nibbles aside, the food tasted good.
There were six people for gaming tonight, so we split into two tables of three. Ed, Susan, and Mike went off to play fluffy games. And Doug, Jon, and myself played Outpost. Mmm, I like this game a little better than Zepter because of its Science Fiction theme. Three people is not a bad number. Everything seemed to be balanced. However, the dice did cause one unique thing to happen. Neither scientists nor laboratories came out until the end of the second phase. Which was sad. I wanted to build some new chemicals. When the scientists/labs did come out, they were hotly fought after. The 40 dollar scientist went for 75+ dollars! And I didn't get either of them. In the next round, they both came out again (being the last cards of phase two). This time, I didn't bother going after them. The game would be over soon and I needed to save up for the big guns. I bought a planetary cruiser for the first round, and a moon base for the second round. Unfortunately, I was only at 73 victory points. So the game didn't end yet. It lasted one more round. I let Doug and Jon fight over the last cards since I was so far ahead of them. I didn't want to king make second place.
As I was mowing the lawn today, I noticed this bird's egg. How odd. No sign of a nest. No sign of the mother. I wonder if this egg will survive?
Its a shame that there were two other pickup trucks and two smaller trailers in the picture. But you have to work with what you have.
