My dark meat piece was awesome; however the breast meat of the Coq was dry. Such a shame. I'm not sure what to do when the recipe says "simmer for 1.5 hours" _ I guess at a lower temperature?

Pommes Anna could have used a tad less salt but it was great; no undercooked potato hardness.

Wife threw out the first batch of baguette dough, claiming it was too tough. Glad she did, the finished product came out great.

Apple tart was supa' sweet and the crust was perfect.

Cambria pinot noir was a good choice, too.

The Village: thank god my wife snuck it on the queue. This was a fun-ass movie. A period piece, a hero quest (with a blind girl as the hero), a commentary on communes and the base nature of greed within humans, and just a little bit of spooky thrown in. All of you who said it sucked are stupid. Like, totally! And the moment I saw the red-cloaks I fell in love. I now know what my halloween costume will be next year!

Through a Glass Darkly: I was soo not feeling this movie. What is it with "auteurs" throwing incest into a movie for no apparent reason?! Does this make them edgy? Worst place. Whats-her-faces physical performance of her hallucinations was cool. Winter Light is up for next week. Lets hope for better.

Tipping The Velvet: You can't go wrong with olde timey lesbians. There were parts where it was good, which is probably a reflection of the book. There were parts where it was cheesy, probably a reflection of the adapters (this was a bbc telly series).

the system is 6, 7 months old?

512 mb ram, 1.5 ghz processor.

so I hit the enter key, it wakes up from sleep, I type in a url, it says "your fat fingers mistyped, moron" and then I get the spinning beachball of death.

I'm in a hurry, trying to look up a phone number on Der Intertronn.

And that beach ball is still spinning.

So I turn to my right and boot up my win XP box; 512mb ram, 1.1ghz celery-ron processor.

Beach ball is still spinning.

I get the windowz boot up screen.

Beach ball is still spinning.

I select my WinXP account.

Beach ball is still spinning.

I get the desktop.

Beach ball is still spinning.

I double click Mozilla; Which takes FOREVER to load because even though you get the desktop, there's still work being done under the covers.

Beach ball is still spinning.

Mozilla springs to life.

Beach ball is still spinning.

I type in the address.

Beach ball is still spinning.

I get teh website, and have it search for a couple of names.

Beach ball is still spinning.

I forget an extension, so I re-look up a name.

Beach ball is still spinning.

At this point, I disconnected the powercord from the Mac.

I am LIVID. WTF is going on?!

If this were an AIX system, I'd make sure the AIX trace facility had a big ass buffer, I'd load a kernel extension (with a highly favored priority, so I always ran) that registered for the EPOW signal (or whatever signal happens to connote "wake up from sleep"), and on a 1 or 10 second period find out who the top cpu users are and log that, and then once things calmed down I'd stop trace and write it out to a file and find out who's ganking the CPU. (I suspect some stupid swap madness and the memory is thrashing, or I'm hanging on some device driver somewhere)

Perhaps there is an easier way of doing this on a darwin based system?

But yeah, I'm totally pissed.

This is a Poll:

A) Big phat 0

b) Big phat 0 because I shut off the lights and put up a sign saying "NOBODY HOME"

C) <10

D) <20

E) <25

F) <30

G) <40

H) < 50

I) < 100

J) > 100???

For me, the sweet spot woulda been 'round 25 unique kids, or 5 groups of kids (approx 5 kids in a group) instead of the big ol' goose egg I got.

I don't need to make turkey for thanksgiving this year. Because I already did and it came out great (unlike last years disappointment). (NOTE: when I say turkey, I mean turkey breast. We can't eat a whole turkey for weeks straight, thats just cruel)

Saturday was the day chosen for no apprent reason to bust out the china and do up a 5 course meal. Cooking Light October 2002 had a "Harvest Menu"; Curried Butternut Squash soup, Pears with goat cheese and fig preserves, Leek and Potato Tart with Gruyere, Pear and Gruyere Strata, and Raisin-Rosemary Rye Bread. I added in the Mahogany Turkey breast with vegetable gravy (from Cooking Light December 2002; The annual recipes book is great to have) to add some meat to the deal.

I was apprehensive; Last years turkey was a project. It simmered in a gigantic stockpot to ensure it wouldn't be dried out. It was lovingly basted. And it was dry as heck. All that hard work went to waste.

I think the key this year was that it was a smaller breast (3.6 lbs instead of 5-6). So it lived up to its mahogany name thanks to the molasses baste, and the gravy (thick with vegetables) was delightful. Whats interesting is that this 3 lbs breast cooked for as long as the instructions said for a 5-6 lbs breast (nearly eating up all the time buffer I put into the schedule!) Once the in-breast thermo-temp-popper popped up that was my queue that it was done. I tented and let it sit. But upon cutting, large swaths of the breast were still pinkish; Is that normal?. We only ate the white parts (we had so much damn food, the turkey was just there for show). And for left over sandwiches and such, I'm giving the meat a good microwave. But whats great is that its still not dry. Even in my sandwich for lunch yesterday the turkey was moist. Good show!

So this thanksgiving; NO TURKEY. We've done it, it worked* (I think...despite the pink?), and we've gotten it out of our system.

This november, it'll be Coq Au Vin!

Dario Argento sucks. Suspiria is such an insanely bad movie I want to demand my money back from netflix ($1.41). It is highly stylized. And that is all that can be said of it. It is non linear, and by that I mean the scenes don't flow, they make no sense on their own, and are gigantic non-sequitors. Upon reading Dario's very inflated bio on the dvd, I can only assume the thing that propelled its cult status back in the day was its overt violence. Which is really no great shakes.

When thinking of older movies that have aged well, I compare with The Shining and Clockwork Orange; mood and tone feature heavily. Dario's answer to mood and tone is a lot of red and green lights. This is not an oversimpification; he seems to have "broken lots of brain" over complex lighting that does nothing. It simply confuses the viewer and obscures things in a non-positive way.

The performances are un-believeable. While reading the bios apparently few of the actors spoke the same language; many were 'speaking' italian phonetically. Such beginnings don't bode well. And they aren't supported by the words that do exist in the script, nor by the inhuman actors. The "Freaky occurences" aren't really that freaky at all. Had any of us been in the movie, we'd be completely unawares that the coven of witches existed; we'd have overlooked the maggots, we'd have disauded sarah and flat out called her a crazy conspiracy theorist, and we probably would have enjoyed taking dinner laced with tranquilizers in our room. We'd would have enjoyed it more than this movie.

I can only assume that the performance of the blind pianist was supposed to be comic relief; his un-believably bad impersonation was so overwrought and outright incorrect that while being berated by the head mistress he kept not facing her, despite being 8 inches away. But it subtracts from the drama of the moment; Dario has sabotaged himself. (regardless, fans of industrial music will recognize the sample)

Now the demise of the pianist does show some skill and we have a bit of hope for our boy Dario. The chiaroscuro light work has something; we almost start to believe. However the overtness of the dog attack snaps the spell; its an itriguing idea to have his own dog betray him but we're back in our living rooms. The magic is gone. Had all previous lightwork been this effective the movie would get a much higher rating from me.

The Mod/Bauhaus 70's fashion and architecture are really the only reason to watch the film. That, and for the hysterical video of an italian goth-bands take on the theme music. Oh man, that was a howler.

F--.

See me after class!

This chat has been hit by the dreaded /. page-wideners!!!

ACtually, thats not the case. The lame host has posted a HORRIBLE, login-only nexis link (air head!@) and it breaks firefox 1.0.4.

IE has it looking good!

Open source; you can't compete.

So my wife mentions this in passing in the morning. She heard about it weeks ago from the Going Out Guru's web chat. So I'm thinking "yeah, I can't wait for this to open." Which is apparently today. So I didn't even get a chance to wait. Damn. Perhaps I was a bit too hasty in my previous JE and the Brickskeller will no longer be "Teh Sopt!"?

We shall see.

The Deep End: it sucked.
Love is the Devil:I actually enjoyed to artsy-fartsy camera work at first. Wife did not. Ignoring the biographical nature of it, it is a very simple story and there is nothing to make it endearing. We don't care about cruel fags.
Croupier: What is with that gawd-awful stupid hat?! Great flick.

An old chum was in DC and we got together for a bite to eat. Figured we'd wander around Dupont and pick a spot. Somehow wandered in front of the Brickskellar. It had everything we wanted and more. Great "authentic" atmosphere. Ashtrays on the table (my friend still smokes), good beer (big up the Racer X IPA), and good music (smiths, morrissey, pixies, joy division, depeche mode, q and not u, talking heads, clap your hands say yeah, blah blah blah blah blah), and a burger with caraway seeds in it (I've been totally craving caraway seeds. Seriously).

It gets an A++++++++++ and its the new spot.

oh, and on the Home Cider Consumption front: George Hardy's Hard Apple Cider (NOT to be confused with the Draft Cider) tastes like green apples. Highly recommended.

Unexplicable. Non-explicable? De-explicable.

In-explainable.

Damn. Who was I kidding, wearing a short-sleeved polo shirt? By noon, I was so frozen I got in my car and drove around with the heater on. Don't worry, I brought along some reading re: Hypervisor and SMT so work could occur.

1) Spazmolytic, Skinny Puppy
2) This Charming Man, The Smiths
3) How Soon Is Now, The Smiths
4) Add It Up, Violent Femmes
5) Thieves, Ministry
6) Stepping Razor, Peter Tosh
7) You're Wondering Now, Skatalites
8) Reggae and Ska, Judge Dread
9) Nothing Natural, Lush
10) Hoosier Love, Mu330
11) 007 (Shanty Town), Desmond Dekker & the Aces
12) Long Shot Kick De Bucket, The Pioneers
13) Schpreck, Infectious Grooves
14) Repeater, Fugazi
15) Astronomy Dominae, Voivod
16) Soup is good food, Dead Kennedys
17) Astrozombies, Misfits
18) Precious Things, Tori Amos
19) Psycho Killer, Talking Heads
XX) Moon Rocks, Talking Heads
YY) Life During Wartime, Talking Heads
D3) Memories Can't Wait, Talking Heads
>2) Brendan #1, Fugazi
44) Public Bath, Shonen Knife
88) ANtibody, Spahn Ranch
22) Riding the Rocket, Shonen Knife
00) Got The Time, Joe Jackson
*8) Glamorous Glue, Morrissey
#2) Love in a Void, Souixie and the Banshees
71) Cuts you up, Peter Murphy
8@) Low Self Opinion, Rollins Band
4$) Youth Against Fascism, Sonic Youth
32) Wasted, Black Flag
73) Group Sex, Circle Jerks
91) Radio, Elvis Costello
84) Tame, Pixies
2%) Head like a hole, Nine Inch Nails
3#) Its Tommorrow, Overwhelming Colourfast
5%) Sheila na gig, PJ Harvey
40) Channel Zero, Public Enemy
%%) Reign in Blood, Slayer
3#) PRove You Wrong, Prong
8*) Frizzle Fry, Primus
6^) New Boy, Sub Humans
$5) Soundsystem, Operation Ivy
4#) Dalis Car, Dalis Car
43) interimsliebden, einstuerzende neubauten
&1) S.K.I.N.H.E.A.D., MDC
77) She gone, Mephiskapheles
9!) Ice Breaker, Skinny Puppy
etc. etc. etc.

I didn't listen to radio. EVAR.
I don't think it was ever good.
And MTV has been a sell-out since day 1 (not wanting to play Michael Jackson? OMGWTFBBQ!)

Pleasure pool at the beach!

Thank you for the precious palpitation that anyone is unable to give me.

I myself, Mr. Gurbik, half shark half man, skin like an alligator, carrying a dead walrus. Check it.

My new case mod website.

Okay, perhaps thats a bit misleading.

As you all remember my computers power supply blew up. So this is a photo-journal of my attempts at replacement.
Cower in fear as Mekka bends metal and plastic to his will.

Oh, and PS- verizon "automagic website builder" is stupid, turgid, and hysterical. Enjoy!

I hate bOINGbOING.

I only started looking at it because of some faux connection with Factsheet 5 of old, and I think I came away from the zine experience with the realization that "all zines suck, unless you can use 'em to get back stage at shows."

But I keep going back because its easy to load a page. But I HATE them. I REALLY REALLY hate Cory, Xeni, Mark F. and whats-his-wife's-name (the original bOINGbOINGers). Okay, maybe I don't hate frauenfelder... he actually seems to be the only cool one.

And its not because of what internet oddities they collect, but they spin they put on them. Cory and Xeni especially have a 3rd grade mentality when approaching issues. Maybe I'm not a leftist no more; maybe I'm a capitalist apologist. Perhaps I'm just a moderate republican (I did find 1 thing that Bush did that I agree with!!) and I don't know it or can't admit it.

One of the worst is:
Gmaps hack shows effects of high-yield explosive detonations
Here's a haunting Gmaps hack: "The High Yield Detonation Effects simulator maps overpressure radii generated by a ground-level detonation; these radii are an indicator of structural damage to buildings. No other effects, such as thermal damage or fallout levels, are included in this tool. Note that the displayed rings are "idealized"; that is, no account is taken of terrain, urban density, ground type, weather conditions, and so on."

Wait. Back up. This so-called-hack draws concentric rings around a point. THATS IT. Thats all it does. I was doing shit like this in LOGO back in 1983.

If they had some how tied in a diagram of how our basic freedoms of stealing copyrighted work are being eroded away, it would be the perfect crystallization of why I hate these fuckers.

Its not chilling! The FCC rulings aren't schizophrenic! They are the very obvious conclusion of a republican administration (de-reg of dsl) that wants to use technology to fight crime, never mind the lack of social freedoms (eav's dropping req for the feds). Its completely rational the police can rifle through your GARBAGE to find evidence; you threw it out on the curb! Its also logical that they can look through your windows; if you have the shades open, you are advertising! ACk!

So why do I keep going back?

There is only one conclusion; I hate myself and want to die.

I also loved the readers write-ins on why Mark Frauenfelder isn't getting Crema from his tres expensive espresso machine; he's not jerking off on coffee beans that have been shat out by lemurs. But of course! It makes me want to drink sanka.

After some much needed yard work, vacuuming and laundry folding it felt as if the summer heat was getting to us. My feet ached and a short nap was in order. We slept, and the house slept with us. In a half-hazy gauze of warmth and sleep I noticed how quite everything was, with only the pitter-patter of little feet to wake us (and my little feet, I mean cat paws).

What I didn't notice was that we lost power for about an hour.

Normally, I'd just shrug it off, but it killed my computer! No, not the mini. My Win XP box- an overloaded HP pavilion.
I'll try to salvage a PSU from an older 1996 era metal tower but this is a good chance to ask the subset of slashdot:
Whats the best way to consistently protect against surges?

I know that some UPS also have the side benefit of conditioning the power "signal" on the line, but whats the most cost-effective solution?

All comments welcome.