Zifferent

Not Bad for a Monday

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 19:22:34 GMT

I have been chosen by the Cheese and Burger Society (also http://www.cheeseandburger.com ) in the Wisconsin Cheese Grill Giveaway Sweepstakes as a winner of a cheese and cracker basket with an approximate retail value of $100.

Sure it's not the grill, but still it's $100 worth of freaking cheese. Now if I could win a prune basket, I'd be set.

It's Cidering Time!

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 14:02:01 GMT

Thursday I got the call. My buckets were ready to pickup at Bennett's Orchard. 15 gallons of sweet-sweet apple juice. I showed up and they rolled them out from the walk-in, I loaded them into the Prius and headed to the Muskrat Masher's brew club meeting, where I tasted over a dozen different varieties of beer and mead (small quantities only) and was fed a wonderful pulled-pork chili (quite inventive.)
I then came home, verified that indeed the buckets were still too cold to pitch my yeast.
After work on Friday, I measured the sugar levels of the juice to around 1.040 or roughly 5% alcohol, and then spiked all three buckets up to 1.080 or 10%, pitched champagne yeast, lidded the buckets and filled the air-locks.
This morning only 12 hours later they have begun to bubble.

It's ALIVE!!!

In three to four months I should have some very potent and delicious bubbly cider.

Disturbing Thought for Today

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 00:55:06 GMT

My son last night noticed an ant dragging off dead ant and thought it was neat that there were nurse ants, coming to heal the disabled soldiers. We informed him that no, the ants were bringing it back to cannibalize it and not waste food and energy.

Which is truly profound when you think about it. A dead ant is the perfect food for an ant. It has all the essential vitamins and minerals necessary for an ant's balanced diet.

Which led me to thinking, maybe Swift was on to something! Because there is no way I could eat an entire human in a single setting, but babies are like snack size. Yeah.

Neitzche is Ghod!

Sun, 30 Aug 2009 03:01:14 GMT

Has just realized when Christian friends are in trouble and ask a community to pray for them. It costs nothing for atheists to chip in.

In fact, if things turn out good, they can take credit. And if things turn out bad, it's Ghod's will.

Neat, huh?

LOLZ!

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 13:17:04 GMT

So peeking online into purchasing a spaetzle maker:

One of the suggested items from people who bought this item also bought:

Teehee.

In Honor of SysAdmin Day, hooray!

Sat, 01 Aug 2009 02:26:51 GMT

That goes out to all the sysadmins out there. From one (previous, because I just couldn't take the user abuse.) techie to another have a great SA day! A special woot goes out to muteid10t , because although we put him through shit he still hasn't deleted our personal files, and in some "special" cases that takes almost Herculean restraint.

breath deep

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 01:32:36 GMT

Rain is totally underrated. It is the only baptism I will accept. I stood outside of my porch and watched the storm roll in. In all it's power. I let it wash over me. I removed my hat and shoes and walked through the grass while the rivulets danced down my face. This is good.

Food for the Soul

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 12:09:22 GMT

And to think I only missed the 60s by 20 years or so. Some things were not meant to be.

We Have Zubbles!

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 16:06:23 GMT

Received this in my email today:

Hello to all of you awaiting Zubbles Magic, the World's First
Colored Bubbles! Thank you for your support and patience over
the past few years! We are thrilled to announce, to all of you
before anyone else, that the first bottles for public release
are currently in production and a limited supply will be ready
to ship sometime in the next couple of weeks. As a result, we
are ready to take pre-orders on our website:

http://www.zubbles.com.

We regret that we are only able to take orders for the U.S. and
Canada at this point. To those of you from other countries, we
apologize for the delay, and rest assured that we are working to
make Zubbles available to you very soon.

Thank you again,
Marc

JAMM Companies, Inc.
info@zubbles.com

Bwahahahaha. Finally a purchasable real product, after how many years of promises? Well pre-order anyway.

Welcome Back -or- The Good Bad Good Bad Weekend

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 13:04:47 GMT

My weekend started Thursday with a Michigan based brewery beer tasting after work in downtown Monroe (So metropolitan. I know. Y'all are jealous.) I tasted many great brews, and was extremely impressed with Monroe county's own brewery Original Gravity Brewing in Milan, MI. I tried their smoked jalapeno and Belgian (lambic-style) brews. Yum.

Afterward, we were hungry and the wife, a new found friend and I headed to the Mexican eatery across the street. *Insert diabolical music snippet here* The food tasted good, and off to home sleep off the happy beer buzz.

Friday, the wife wasn't feeling it and so stayed home from work. I wasn't sick in the least and had a productive day, leading into another quiet but productive drinking evening, this time at home. After sleeping for two hours I had to get up, and to put it mildly, it was Old Faithful on the flip-side all night long.

Understandably I was feeling queasy, sleepy, irritable and more than a bit tender Saturday morning. I did what any Dad would do. I took two anti-diuretics and made Becca drive the car up to Kensington Metropark (awesome park by the way.) Despite my previous bouts with evil, I had a good time. I read some of my book Legacy by Greg Bear while watching the kids swim, helped Toby attempt to fly a kite and once I felt up to it rented a peddle boat to tool around the lake with Toby as my skipper. A good time was had by all, and heat exhaustion that a day spent in the sun can bring was brought to a pleasant end by cool shower at home.

Woke up Sunday morning, went to church and then off to my dad's for father's day. About now I'm beginning to feel like an over-inflated beach ball so I didn't eat much of the yummy ribs my dad made. My dad offered me a beer, so I drank it, but continued on with plain water the rest of the day. Other than that, it was nice seeing my family and I was grateful to be able to catch up with a post-op Uncle Art who is doing better than expected, although he is obviously antsy to get back to his normal active life. He's not one to stand still for long.

After I returned home, the wife went off to the store and I stayed home to fold the clothes and do laundry. As it turns out, I was able to fold the clothes. I had no energy, was now extremely uncomfortably bloated, and it was becoming obvious to me that I was dangerously dehydrated. Of course the gallon and a half of water I was consuming in order to take control of final issue didn't help any with the primary or secondary issue.

Monday morning I awoke with a dehydration headache, called in sick to work, brought the kids into day-camp and proceed to sleep and drink fluids, plenty of fluids, lots of fluids, and was mostly normal around eight-o-clock hydration-wise. Hooray. And the rumblings in my belly region foretell of an impending and probable sudden end to my beached-dead-whale-laying-all-day-in-the-sun syndrome, though hopefully not in as violent a fashion.

The will of Wheaton

Fri, 08 May 2009 17:37:56 GMT

I've seen this opinion expressed in several places now, including possibly hearing it a couple times at con, but I'm now curious.
Who out there feels that Wil Wheaton now owes Penguicon, something? (Usually showing up as a Nifty next year, or some such.)
And why?

On my way to Pendwort Calms

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 13:27:00 GMT

So I've been working slavishly on fixing the gaping hole my bathroom ceiling, post pipe leak. And you know what there is no piece of drywall that is lightweight while balanced atop a ladder, holding a drill in one hand, and simultaneously holding the drywall up with my head and free hand, and a mouth full of screws. Also I've learned that while squaring out a hole it is best to use a straight edge of some sort or be stuck forever measuring and remeasuring and recutting the same piece of drywall over and over again.

In short I'm exhausted. Only one more frikken day!

Cider Update

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 13:19:34 GMT

The last of my cider, 4 gallons of it, the one inoculated with english cider yeast is to be bottle this evening. That said, I decided to risk a tasting yesterday.

It tastes strongly malic (it's the first thing I noticed as cracked the seal on the carboy) and a hint of acetic, tart but not bad. Tannins are present, but not noticable after the second sip. It is otherwise dry and clean without any noticable flaws. This cider unlike the others did not clear, so much haze is present, but it doesn't taste yeasty so I'm not worried. The only decision now is whether to carbonate or not. If I prime the cider the yeast may not completely consume the priming sugar by Penguicon. Which would result in a slightly sweeter version of the cider. If I go this route it would be good for the temperatures to stay up as it would facilitate the residual yeast in quickly carbonating the brew.

The alternative is to bottle it as a still cider, which would be true to style (english cider) , but I'm worried that it may not age anymore without the sugar boost.

I also made chicken paprikash last night and used the cider in lieu of water or milk in the spaetzel. Yuummmm! That brings back so many memories of childhood.

I'm off to Boston

Wed, 15 Apr 2009 10:44:11 GMT

I'm off to Boston and it's more than a feeling that I'll find peace of mind if I don't look back.

What is it?

Sat, 11 Apr 2009 16:23:39 GMT

I want to know what the difference between Facebook and Twitter is; short of Twitter's lack of apps (a positive in my opinion.)

Both are geared towards short regular updates and social networking.

Teh Cute it Noms

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 23:54:36 GMT

Just thought I'd share

The good the bad and the cider

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 04:12:38 GMT

I feel compelled to write about cider today. I've recently depleted two-thirds of my home-brew stash of cider. Mostly only because I've yet failed to bottle the last carboy, and refuse to open it due to fear of infecting it with nasty bugs until I do find the time and energy to clean, disinfect, fill and cap the bottles (a time consuming pass-time to be sure.)

And so I'm caught. I've developed a taste for cider, possibly stronger than my love for it's barley brethren, and yet I live in freaking America where good cider is impossible to find.

Shame of all shames, I've started testing various commercial ciders. Now commercial ciders are not necessarily evil, but American ones are almost universally immorally indecent. The problem is that Americans, particularly US Americans, prefer consistency over occasional brilliance. Hence any brand that I come across in the states is filtered, immature, or the mortal sin: kool-aid.

A couple weeks ago I purchased WoodChuck. Those in the know, understand that there is little to enjoy in this thinly-veiled alco-pop. To put it succinctly, it tastes of apple-juice pack, throw in a Jolly Rancher, let it sit a few days, filter any complex tastes out (just in case) and carbonate the shit out of it. It's bubbly alcoholic cider, heavy on the bubbly. Sickly sweet with an aftertaste of malic acid that will turn your stomach, this is not cider. It tastes like apple juice with grain alcohol and extra sugar. The only good thing to say about it is that it is consistent. But consistent in a McDonald's hamburger way. Bad every single time. More than two will turn your insides out. The expletives on how bad this one is never end, unfortunately. It's the cider for people that don't like beer, but want to appear macho. Verdict: If there's nothing else to drink but this; I'll drink water.

So next, I ran across StrongBow. Admittedly, this is an English cider, but I'm almost certain that any self-respecting English cider-enthusiast gives it wide berth. While not sickly-sweet, it has a certain aspartame quality that while dry asserts itself prominently on the tongue. If that weren't bad enough it appears that they send this one directly from the fermenting vat, through a series of filters (god forbid that cider be freaking cloudy) and then bottle and sell it directly. It frankly tastes of a cider only a month or two old and since they filter all the wee yeasty beasties out before bottling, it's never going to get better. Sure it's shelf life is measured in years, but a good bottle of real cider only improves. Hence, it's major flaw (other than the strange sweet aftertaste, particularly strange considering it's marketed as a "dry" cider) is that it exhibits a full-on malic body slam. Apple candy central is where this one will always be. The verdict: Drinkable in that I can have more than two in a night and not become nauseous, and it's the only one out of the three, despite it's filtering exhibits REAL cider-like flavors (think wet dirty socks, I know cider drinkers are strange.) If nothing else is offered I could drink this.

Finally, I found a beverage called Hornsby's Hard Cider. I wasn't in the mood for beer and this looked good. First the alcohol content is above 5%. Real apple juice will produce a drink with more than 5% alcohol. This was a good sign, and not because I want to get a drunk on. This one upon pouring produce a real head. That stuck around for a while. To me this indicates the presence of proteins and the lack of filtering within an inch of it's life. The taste? Well it's not bad. It's not great. It doesn't taste of artificial apple flavouring, so it may have been aged (or at least innoculated with lactobacteria, not a bad thing) It's very clean tasting which is to say I have no complaints other than it lacks that essential funkiness that makes cider, cider, but good. Not too sweet and I like my ciders bone dry, but it did have hint of sweetness that didn't distract. The verdict: Boring but the most drinkable of the lot.

Beware of the Drones

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 12:53:22 GMT

According to the Free Press, Homeland Security is dispatching a Predator Drone to watch USA/Canada border.

These are military air craft. They cost 10.5 Million dollars. They are a freaking weapons platform. And I know what you're thinking to yourselves, you're thinking that Zifferent has truly gone off the deep-end with his paranoid BS this time. But consider this, how many pilots flying Cessna's along the border constantly would 10.5 million buckaroos spend? Consider that the Predator drone's maintenance doesn't come cheap or at least not as cheap as a Cessna mechanic. Is it still a good idea?

I don't know, and I'm not even certain what they are looking for. A Canadian invasion? Seniors crossing the border for cheap pharmaceuticals? Yoopers smuggling contraband Molson and Sleeman into Michigan? Mexicans going the long way around?

Frankly, I can only see a few valid and yet not equally sane reasons for this kind of surveillance. (In order of decreasing sanity) One is the 'War on Drugs.' Another is the 'War on Terror.' And the other is to keep US citizens in the country. Ok maybe that last one one does reek of bat-shit, but after reading The Handmaid's Tale (great book btw) by Margaret Atwood (one of those rascally Canadians) it's hard to see these things and not scream "SEE!"

Sun, 29 Mar 2009 18:29:49 GMT

Ran across a fun site:

http://www.badpaintingsofbarackobama.com

It's a site that features and in fact only has bad pictures done by people of Barack Obama. Click for a new one.

Some are obviously children's paintings, and I don't think those are so bad.

A few I actually like.

But many are way out there, like tripping on acid while in the White House kind of crazy!

Like flaming tacos and underwear, Mexico Obama.
I think it's supposed to be suggestive of something, but I can't quite grasp it.

The Great Gazoo Obama:

This one is just creepy and I don't why.

And this is one that I actually like.

And another that I don't find too bad.

Please visit the site and post some of the ones below that you found disturbing or enjoyed! This could be fun.

Oh lord, if I currently believed in a higher being right now, I wouldn't be talking to you.

Sun, 29 Mar 2009 06:03:46 GMT

So (midwestern slang for "catch this bullshit if you can wrap your mind around it" ) So, I had a small leak emanating from a joint in the copper pipe that feeds our upstairs bathroom, which I've found out through deduction actually only feeds our toilet intake. By small leak, I mean less than a quarter-gallon a day. Like, drip [30 seconds] drip. Highly annoying that I had to take the ceiling drywall out, but otherwise nothing that a bucket couldn't handle till I got a round tuit.

So today I finally get up to the task and cut the pipe, only to find that the fittings I've purchased don't actually fit half inch outside diameter copper pipe that is actually five eights. I knew that, but everything I've read has confirmed that an eighth larger is par for the course. So it the don't fit and the hardware store is closed, and figuring that the valve is closed; I've got time on my side.

WRONG!

After telling people that the toilet and nothing else is out of order in the upstairs bathroom (nobody wants the unflushable turd!) and feeling safe in the knowledge, I laid myself down for a long spring's nap. Nope!

It turns out that despite the faucet and shower working, even with the valve shut, and I've tried with both valves shut, that it appears that (and correct me if I'm an idiot here, please!) waste (grey) water is coming fucking back down the supply line, because anyone standing beneath the pipe downstairs gets a nice shower when the water is turned on. WTF! That doesn't even make sense.

I'm absolutely livid. It's almost two in the morning and I feel like it's noon and I've had a half a pot of coffee. And here's why.

The people we bought the house from were nice people. My wife knew the family. And while we were aware that the domocile was purchased as flip home and that the couple was inexperienced at home repair (a bad combination to be sure) the house has been around for a hundred years, literally, and while it had issues nothing in the inspection nor numerous walkthroughs nor the legal paperwork pointed at ongoing problems or at least gross negligence. Permits were pulled and inspections were done, right?

Hence, when the wife and kids complained that the upstairs bathroom water tasted funky; we thought nothing of it. And now we know. Although it still makes no sense.

Perhaps I'm mistaken. Maybe there is some deeper plumbing mystery that I'm unaware of and maybe needs to be solved. Where is fucking Scooby Doo and Shaggy when I God Damned need them!

Huh! I don't know where to start. Do I call a plumber and then a lawyer or vice-versa. Should I patch the line for now or leave it be. These are the stupid issues that I'm left with and if comes down to a complete reboot with the plumbing situation; who pays for that shit? Me as the the home-owner or the shits who put it together wrong in the first place; knowing that a supply is not a drain. And why doesn't water shoot up my drain holes; is it some kind of super check-valve?

I have no answers.

What I've Been up to this Evening

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 03:19:13 GMT

The CPU fan (not original) on the eMachine was going, so much so that no one was allowed to shut down the machine for fear it wouldn't come back up. And while the it's my server machine, it's also almost 5 years old and a Celeron to boot so I didn't want to spend a fortune for a new heat-sink.

So I looked at Newegg and picked out a few , did a few Internet searches for extra comparisons and reviews as well as shop around for better prices and I came up with this monster. The Big Typhoon CL-P0114. It was a steal for only 19.99 and free shipping and I've had good luck with refurb products before.

I had to remove my MB to install this bad boy. Not something I enjoy with a homebrew computer, much less a proprietary shitputer.

Yes that's damn near as big as my head. It looks like it belongs on a friggen Harley; not a sissy ass computer.

About half the size of my MB, it sports a 120mm fan!

And it barely fits in the poor old eMachine case. BTW I can barely hear it. Much better than the screaming 70mm ball bearing fan on the old CPU cooler.

Want

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 18:30:41 GMT

Topobo! Only $500 for a two motor set. Gah!

Meme

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 14:17:33 GMT

Comment on this post and I will give you 3 subjects/things I associate you with. Then post this in your LJ and elaborate on the subjects given.

My topics given by custardfairy :

Homebrew, Politics, Sci-Fi

Homebrewing is simple it only requires one attribute, all it requires is patience. And an iron liver. Two! two things, patience an iron liver and an overwhelming desire to clean things. Three things...

Since the election, politics has again become that boring thing that happens in Washington with the exception of loudmouth ultra-wingers, that annoy the crap out of me.

And do I need to remind anyone on my list the the coolest convention in the tri-state area evar, Penguicon is only 59 days away! Avast! Register now, and well, uhmm. Register now! Start building your costumes, planning your parties and stocking up on liquor, it's going to be a humdinger!

Just for now

Sat, 21 Feb 2009 04:58:05 GMT

Annie Lenox

is a sweet sweet vessel of sexy filled to the brim.

...Just sayin.

Not a Torch or Match in your Inventory...

Thu, 12 Feb 2009 15:19:52 GMT

My new favorite Nerdcore Rapper, MC Frontalot (Yes I do live in a cave. Why do you ask?):

I also highly recommend the awesome I <3 Fags.