Thursday, August 08, 2024

Quotes - Part Four

 So #48 is taken from a book by Kage Baker.  It's said by a wife at the funeral of her husband.  I just found it beautiful.  kage Baker's writing tended to be pretty amazing all of the time.

34.                   People refer to “the good ol’ days”, but I don’t know what they’re talking about. As someone who’s battled cancer, if I lived more than 20 years ago, I’d be a dead man.

--Lance Armstrong

35.                   I believe every human has a finite number of heartbeats. I don’t intend to waste any of mine running around doing exercises.

--Neil Armstrong

36.                   Not all construction work is equally enjoyable.  For example, enlarging a drilled hole is boring, but fastening pieces of metal together is riveting.

--@aromanticduck

37.                   I believe in evidence. I believe in observation, measurement, and reasoning, confirmed by independent observers. I’ll believe anything, no matter how wild and ridiculous, if there is evidence for it.  The wilder and more ridiculous something is, however, the firmer and more solid the evidence will have to be.

--Isaac Asimov

38.                   The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not “Eureka!” (I’ve found it!), but “That’s funny…”

--Isaac Asimov

39.                   Theories are not so much wrong as incomplete.

--Isaac Asimov, The Relativity of Wrong

40.                   I’ve never understood Christianity’s obsession with homophobia.  Because if you read the 1,700-page bible. and think the main message is to hate gay people, you probably think the main message of Harry Potter is to not date Asians.

--Geoffrey Asmus

41.                   I’m sitting at the opera, and I’m thinking, “Look how much work it takes to bore me to tears.”

--Dave Attell

42.                   Some things just aren’t funny. Beatings aren’t funny. Mimes aren’t funny. But beating a mime… why is that so hilarious?

--Dave Attell

43.               I have this thing I call “The Two Rogers Rule of Manliness”: Basically, if Steve or Fred wouldn’t do it, neither should I.  It’s stupid, it’s simplistic, and it’s geeky, but it works.

--Greg B (@ak404)

44.               G: If we do happen to step on a mine, Sir, what do we do?

EB: Normal procedure, Lieutenant, is to jump 200 feet in the air and scatter oneself over a wide area.

--BA4, Somewhere in No Man’s Land

45.               Many a man owes his success to his first wife and his second wife to his success.

--Jim Backus

46.               The general root of superstition is that men observe when things hit, and not when they miss, and commit to memory the one, and pass over the other

--Francis Bacon

47.               If Paul saw the church in America, we’d be getting a letter.

--Chad Bailey

48.               Will you never open your eyes to me again? Once you walked with me in the long grass, where the lilies poked through and opened their bright throats, and the white mist was on the hillsides and concealed us when we lay down; and your eyes looked into mine.

Will you never speak to me again? Once you lay with me in the summer groves, and the blossoms drifted over us and the branches bowed down to my lips, and the long red sunlight of summer dappled the forest floor; and you sang all night long.

Will you never lift your head again? Once you rose, you moved without tiring, and on the dancing green under stars you were light-footed, and through the red and yellow leaves that drifted you were the swiftest in the chase, and brought me down, best of all the young men; and you rose above me high and strong.

Will you never hear my call again? Once I sang like a bird, no heartbroken note, once I sang and you heard me over the meadows, over valleys, over mountains, and groves; once you came to me voice dropping down swift from where you soared. You heard if I turned in my sleep, you woke if I murmured in my dreams.

But you have been unfaithful, you have listened to the earth’s voice, you have despaired, gone down into sleep and left me to my grief. How will I go after you and leave your children unprotected? Who will care for us now?

--Kage Baker, The House of the Stag

49.               The reason everyone my age has back pain is because our entire lives it was super uncool to carry your backpack on both shoulders.

--Missy Baker

50.               Inanimate objects are classified scientifically into three major categories: those that don’t work, those that break down, and those that get lost.

--Russell Baker

Tuesday, August 06, 2024

Quotes - Part Three

So the last two of this group are mine.  The first was conceived on a day when the balance of creation was totally in evidence; however, I don't remember the situation anymore.  The second, I came up with at a bar during school in Sacramento.  The wordplay just stuck with me.


22.                   I will not eat oysters. I want my food dead - not sick, not wounded - dead.

--Woody Allen

23.                   Sex is dirty only when it’s done right.

--Woody Allen

24.                   Sex without love is an empty experience, but, as empty experiences go, it’s one of the best.

--Woody Allen

25.                   Some guy hit my fender, and I said to him, “Be fruitful and multiply,” but not in those words.

--Woody Allen

26.                   Time is nature’s way of keeping everything from happening at once.

--Woody Allen

27.                   The shortest distance between two points is under construction.

--Altito

28.                   I don’t want to attack religious people; it feels like a sort of unkind thing to so, to attack religious people, because, you know, it’s too easy, and it feels like the battle has already been won.  But it just feels rude.  Like if you’re at a party and say, “Oh, how ridiculous.”  I feel at this point we have to treat people with kindness and love and respect, in the same way you’d treat a child running ‘round a party saying, “I’m a helicopter!”  And you can say, “Good for you!  We’re all having fun.  I’m a choo-choo train!”

--Simon Amstell

29.                   I have a Level 85 Dwarven paladin, an 82 shadow priest, and I’m currently leveling a warrior though Northrend, although I spend most of my time tanking instances in the Dungeon Finder.  I’ve held off on getting Mists of Pandaria because I got burned out on endgame progression after Wrath of the Lich King and the Cataclysm content is still new to me.  Plus monks seem redundant in an era of dual specialization and viable hybrid DPS, and while I know they’re well-established in the lore, Pandaren don’t appeal to me.  So, I’m wrapping up a Taunka questline in the Borean Tundra, trying to determine if I should go to Dragonblight or grizzly Hills, and now you know how I feel when you won’t shut up about sports.

--Nathan Anderson

30.                   A fun part of having a black cat is occasionally accidentally talking to a crumpled up black T-shirt on the floor.

--Sarah Anderson

31.               Any tool, when dropped, will roll into the least accessible corner.

--Anthony’s Law of the Workshop

32.               For every constructive act, there is an equal, and usually unrelated, destructive act.

--Erik Appel

33.               You can dig a good well, but you can’t dig a well well. You can dig a well well, but you can’t dig a well good.

--Erik Appel

Friday, August 02, 2024

Quotes - Part Two

So, I've found that lots of things have changed since I first started collecting these quotes.  Like for example, some of these people have turned out to be, or over time become, assholes.

If you're offended by the people, oh well.  Some of the pre-insanity wisdom is still pretty funny.


11.                   Organic chemistry is the chemistry of carbon compounds. Biochemistry is the study of carbon compounds that crawl.

--Mike Adams

12.                   Catbert is a typical cat, in the sense that he looks cute, but he doesn’t care if you live or die.

--Scott Adams, dilbert.com

13.                   Man is a game-playing animal, and a computer is another way to play games.

--Scott Adams

14.                   The only time women are not attracted to intelligent men is when they have the option of a good-looking guy who is dumber than pants on fish.

--Scott Adams, dilbert.com

15.                   A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it.

--Agent K, “Men in Black”

16.                   Almost everything in life is easier to get into than out of.

--Agnes’ Law

17.                   Time heals all wounds unless you pick at them.

--Shawn Alexander

18.                   Your mother mates out of season.

Tenctonese insult, Alien Nation

19.                   The solution to asylum seekers is better signs to the asylum

--allseeingeye, on Everything2

20.               Electricity can be dangerous. My nephew tried to stick a penny into a plug. Whoever said a penny doesn’t go far didn’t see him shoot across that floor. I told him he was grounded.

--Tim Allen

21.               Never comment on a woman’s rear end. Never use the words “large” or “size” with “rear end.” Never. Avoid the area altogether. Trust me.

--Tim Allen

Wednesday, July 24, 2024

Quotes - Part One

 I don't remember when it started, but I began collecting quotes from books I was reading.

Insults and greetings.  Interesting turns of phrase.

These were all kept in a spiral bound notebook, and then once I had a computer, I thought, "Wouldn't it be easier to keep track of them in a text file.  This has grown into a Word doc that is over 100 pages long with over 1,300 entries.

And so, I thought i'd start sharing them here.

1.                   The word “laptop” comes from a Latin expression meaning “don’t drop this”.

--3 Dead Trolls in A Baggie

2.                   Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.

--Douglas Adams, Last Chance to See

3.                   I refuse to answer that question on the grounds that I don’t know the answer.

--Douglas Adams

4.                   In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.

--Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

5.                   The big corporations are suddenly taking notice of the web, and their reactions have been slow. Even the computer industry failed to see the importance of the Internet, but that’s not saying much. Let’s face it, the computer industry failed to see that the century would end.

--Douglas Adams

6.                   The major difference between something that can go wrong and something that cannot possibly go wrong is that when something that cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong it usually turns out to be impossible to get at or repair.

--Douglas Adams, Mostly Harmless

7.                   There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened.

--Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

8.                   The world’s a lot less scary when you’re carrying a rocket launcher around with you.

--Ernest Adams, The Designer’s Notebook, Gamasutra

9.                   I find that a great part of the information I have was acquired by looking up something and finding something else on the way.

--Franklin P. Adams

10.               The science of government it is my duty to study, more than all other sciences; the arts of legislation and administration and negotiation ought to take the place of, indeed exclude, in a manner, all other arts. I must study politics and war, that our sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. Our sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history and naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry and porcelain.

   -- John Adams, Letters of John Adams, Addressed to His Wife

Monday, March 25, 2024

Going Home

 So, back when I was living in Kentucky during high school, I spent a lot of time in our basement where I had about a quarter to a third of the basement set aside for me.  I had our big color TV that I'd watch cartoons and MTV on.

This was top tier MTV before the reality shows started.  And a new album that came out was Dire Straits' Brothers in Arms.  It was quickly a favorite album, and it connected closer me with the guys from the church youth group who were huge Dire Straits fans.  And then when I was moving to Maryland for my junior year of high school, we had a little going away get together and they made cassette copies of a bunch of albums for me.  One was the Beatles Magical Mystery Tour, and most fo the rest were Dire Straits albums, because as they said, "Once you listen to one whole album, you're going to want to listen to all of them."

And I did.

In Maryland, I found a Dire Straits album at the library that had not been shared with me: a double album called Alchemy.  When I took it home, I discovered it was a concert album, but there was one song on the album that I didn't know about called "Going Home (Theme from Local Hero)".  It was a song that closed the concert and was so impactful to me.  Now this was pre-internet, but I was already into soundtracks, and I had to know more about this song, and how to get the studio version of it.

But until then I was focused on Dire Straits.  I found a VHS concert video at Erol's Video and watched through all of the songs I knew from the LP and then watched fascinated as the show closed with this video:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Pvn8IYrKMJ4?si=wfiyr0lRiFPrXTLX" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>

While I was in college, I finally found the soundtrack to the movie "Local Hero", and got to hear the studio version of "Going Home":

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3DB-uJ0TxKQ?si=nQWA1Ox2ku_4K6rW" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Also in college, I went to see Dire Straits on tour for their last album Heavy Fuel, and I learned that they close every concert with "Going Home"

Well, now Mark Knopfler has taken hsi song "Going Home" and made it into an incredible charity single with over 60 guitar masters.  You can read about it here and about the making of a new video here.

And finally, here is the amazing 10 minute video:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zBGm7gJtSZE?si=csXM7mi1ampRuH6-" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Tuesday, August 02, 2022

Wife-Safe Copycat Rice-a-Roni

So, to start, I will apologize for the story before the recipe.

As various members of my family can attest, I love Chicken Rice-a-Roni.  There were never leftovers of this when I was growing up.  And when I was living with my aunt and cousin in Kentucky, I had it regularly.  It was great when it would go on sale for 10 boxes for $10

A great quick meal is to make it by instructions and include a chicken breast during the cooking.

My wife and I have shifted our diets to maintain our lifestyle, and so to reduce the salt and other processed ingredients, I went looking for a copycat recipe. It turned out to be a great keyword as I found this recipe for Copycat Rice-a-Roni.

A more recent problem that's developed is that my wife has developed an intolerance/allergy to certain foods.  The more dangerous ones are onions garlic, and capsaicin.  So we took out the garlic and onion powder from the recipe.  Still was still having problems, so I did some research.

Do you know why chicken bouillon is yellow?  It's because they add turmeric.  Would you expect that the turmeric plant produces capsaicin?  It was certainly a surprise to us.

So the next step was to make our on chicken broth.  Now, this is just cooked chicken-backs from the butcher that cooks for a few hours.  No seasoning.

Now, you'll notice that this takes a lot of seasonings away.  So I decided to use my old default seasoning blend which I call my Scarborough Faire blend (🎶 parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme 🎶).

Now, we've upped our rice intake, so we needed an easy way to make rice without buying a rice cooker.  Truly the last thing we need is another thing to sit on the counter all the time. So my wife found this rice recipe on the Listening Method.

So finally, below is the recipe.  This will have my method using our chicken broth, so if you're using bouillon/granules, just follow the instructions on the packaging.

Ingredients:

1 cup short grain white rice

¼ cup vermicelli (mini-spaghetti)

1 cups chicken broth

1¼ cups hot water

1½ Tbsp. butter (I use unsalted. If you use salted butter, reduce the added salt below)

1 Tbsp. miso paste

1 tsp. parsley (ground)

1 tsp. sage (ground)

1 tsp. rosemary (ground)

1 tsp. thyme (ground)

1 to 2 tsp. salt (to taste)

 

Steps:

In a Pyrex measuring cup, pour in 1 cup of chicken broth.  Mine is thick to gelatinous, so I don't use full strength, and instead add 1¼ cups of boiling water from my kettle.  Stir in the miso paste until it is mostly dissolved.  The boiling water will heat up the mixture and help the miso dissolve.

Put all seasonings and salt into a small bowl.

In a pot, melt butter in pan on HIGH heat.

Pour in rice and vermicelli.  Stir to coat with butter.

Let rice and vermicelli partially brown, stirring occasionally.  It's not all supposed to be browned, just enough for some color variation.  Keep an eye on it the butter doesn't burn.

When the rice and vermicelli is sufficiently browned, stir in the seasonings.

Give the chicken broth a final stir, and then while wearing an oven glove, pour in the chicken broth mixture. Immediately place lid on pot.  I wear the glove, because the liquid will start to boil almost immediately, so you don't want to burn yourself.

Allow to boil for 4 minutes.  Do not remove lid.

Reduce heat to LOW for 15 minutes.  Do not remove lid.

Raise heat to HIGH for 30 seconds.  This will dry off the bottom of the rice.  Do not remove the lid.

After 30 seconds, turn off the heat and move the pot off to a cool burner.  Do not remove the lid.

Immediately before serving, you may now remove the lid and fluff the rice.

Serve and Enjoy.

Monday, February 28, 2022

For The Russians That Read This Blog for Some Reason...

Go here and read what's really going on:

https://etersec.org/en/how-to-circumvent-russian-censorship/

or

https://imgur.com/gallery/qh1ZUZK

Wednesday, January 12, 2022

Balrog Blitz

 So NinjaSpaceMonkeys shared a link from Twitter from TammForce


We started pondering if there were filk lyrics to this anywhere.  I went looking, and there were not.


Now there is:


Balrog Blitz

 

Are you ready Sam? Uh-huh

Merry? Yeah

Pippin? Okay

Alright Hobbits, let's go!

 

Oh it's been getting so hard

Learning what the One Ring does to me

My life is getting so strange

I'd like to tell you everything I see

 

Oh, I see Durin’s Bane in the back as a matter of fact

Its flames are as red as the sun

And the Dwarf with the axe that no one ignores

'Cause he knows this fight cannot be won

 

Oh yeah! Sauruman cast lightning

The creature was frightening

Shore’s music was soothing

And the bridge started moving

Yeah, yeah, yeah-yeah-yeah

 

And the orc at the back said, “Everyone Attack”

And it turned into a Balrog Blitz.

And the maiar with the staff said, “You shall not pass,”

It’ll turn into a Balrog Blitz.

Balrog blitz, Balrog blitz, Balrog blitz, Balrog blitz

 

Oh, reaching for the One Ring

Feeling thin is all I ever do

Oh, I slip it on my finger

The Eye appears, there's nothing left for you

 

And the wizard on the bridge is ready to crack

As he tells his fellows to fly

And the elf in the corner is everyone's mourner

He can kill you with a shaft in your eye

 

Oh yeah! The fight was electric

So frantically hectic

And the band started crying

'Cause they thought Gandalf was dying

Yeah, yeah, yeah-yeah-yeah

 

And the orc at the back said, “Everyone Attack”

And it turned into a Balrog Blitz.

And the maiar with the staff said, “You shall not pass,”

It’ll turn into a Balrog Blitz.

Balrog blitz, Balrog blitz, Balrog blitz, Balrog blitz

 

Oh yeah! We cast lightning

The creature was frightening

Shore’s music was soothing

And the bridge started moving

Yeah, yeah, yeah-yeah-yeah

 

And the orc at the back said, “Everyone Attack”

And it turned into a Balrog Blitz.

And the maiar with the staff said, “You shall not pass,”

It’ll turn into a Balrog Blitz.

Balrog blitz, Balrog blitz, Balrog blitz, Balrog blitz

 

It's, it's a Balrog blitz

It's, it's a Balrog blitz

It's, it's a Balrog blitz

Yeah, it's a Balrog blitz

Saturday, February 08, 2020