Model Fight: Maison de Roulement

I've been thinking about something for the past couple of days. I've had an image in my head about a huge apartment building that's wheeled and rolls around certain places.



I've also been thinking of some backstory to it as well as some ongoing stories about the adventures that some of the residents will have. Who knows, this might turn into a longer project? I just have to make sure I keep it different from the Crimson Permanent Assurance building in Monty Python's The Meaning of Life.

Kickstarting Model Fight

I'm trying to get my creativity going again with the Model Fight. I got to a place where I felt like stopping on the factory, but I couldn't leave it alone in my head.

My first idea was to go as fast as I can, just to get some work on paper (pixels?). I even had a cool title - 24 Robots in 24 Hours. The gist was to work quickly going in with the expectation that I wouldn't have a finished project at the end, or even 24 finished projects! I would go for an hour, stop and move on to the next one. I got the idea for faster-paced work from places like National Novel Writing Month, the Three Day Novel Contest as well as other timed creative events.

At the end, I could revisit all 24 models and pick ones to develop further. This "rushed creativity" with ridiculous deadlines isn't new, and it's not the best way to work, but the goal is usually to spark something in your head or get you in a more creative spot.

I worked on my first model for about 20 minutes yesterday, and I didn't like where it was going. But it did give me an idea that I'd like to flesh out...or do I mean steel? Puns-a-flying! Maybe it's already a success?

Either I just accidentally dropped some acid, or we're watching a Disney movie!

We have a regular movie night on Fridays where we order pizza and eat in the living room. Thanks to Netflix we have queued up family/kid movies to always be here. I'm not Leander's biggest Disney fan, but you can't go wrong picking some classic Disney fare for the kids, right?

Uhhh, not so fast.

Dumbo was the latest offering. You can tell that it's from a long time ago (1941) by the tone of the dialogue - not that family friendly and antagonistic.

But that's not what raised my eyebrows.



Dumbo apparently has a dream sequence brought on by...something, perhaps the titular acid? Forgive me for not taking better notes - we were travelling and it was on in the van. Some of this stuff is pretty out there.



I'm pretty sure I watched Dumbo when I was younger, but I don't remember any of this.

Apparently there's an elephant that shops at Pottery Barn too!

My plan for World Dom...I mean High Definition

I've been wanting to jump on the High Definition bandwagon for a while, more for watching movies than anything else.

As to the competing formats, HD DVD and Blu-Ray, I'd be happy with either one if I knew every movie was going to come out on both. As it turns out, at least for now, there are some titles that I want exclusive to each one of the formats. I'm going to go out on a limb here, but I think eventually Blu-Ray is going to win, but it's going to be a long time. In the meantime I need to figure out how to get both....

I think I just got approval from the CFO to get an Xbox 360 + HD Drive. I should probably get it before she reads this.... Why the 360 and not the PS3? I know more people with the 360.

That's basically it.

I know I'm going to be happy with either High Definition video format. I'm getting ahead of myself with my blog posts, but I've seen examples of both, and Daddy likes!

I don't have all the time in the world to play games. Xbox Live is very nice, and I like having the opportunity to play with my friends when I get a chance.

But what do I do about Blu-Ray movies? The answer came to me a few days ago. I'll build a computer with a Blu-Ray drive and connect it via HDMI or DVI to the TV! The 360 covers the HD DVD angle.

Bada bing! Both formats. Thank you, Cleveland. Good night.

I put a preliminary system together today, and it worked like a charm. I have to figure out the best place to put it, as the Wife Acceptance Factor is both critical and slippery to grasp. A regular desktop stuck next to the TV has a low WAF, so I need to figure out how to shoehorn the components into a small form factor chassis, or at least one that is similar to my home theater components.

Definitely more to come.

Full sized images posted...FINALLY!!!

I've complained about images I post to my blog not being clickable, that is, clicking on them did not link to the original/higher resolution images.

I've been searching Blogger help files, help forums and sending email to Blogger with no response. I checked other blogs on Blogger and their images don't seem to suffer this same fate.

I checked the HTML of my posts and I couldn't see any alternate upload paths for the high resolution image...it's like my blog lost the functionality to upload fullsize images.

Blogger lets you work in a WYSIWYG environment or an environment that displays all the HTML code. In the WYSIWYG environment, you can drag uploaded images around to the correct spot and the layout code was smart enough to make everything how you want it.

Well, almost how you want it.

It turns out that moving an image in the WYSIWYG space gets rid of the original resolution code (image name, path, pixel count, etc) that is in the HTML. It just disappears. All that is left is the code for the thumbnail image.

I stumbled on to this while flipping back and forth between the an older post that still had clickable links to full size images and a recent post.

Why does this happen? I can find no other reason besides it being a bug.

If you go to the HTML environment you are able to cut and paste ALL the image-related HTML code to another place in your post, and everything goes with it. I've reuploaded the image to the post below and it works like a champ.

I'm relieved that I've found the solution, to say the least. Am I going to go back and fix everything? Probably not.

Not that there's anything wrong with my blog....

I just previewed my blog after posting the Snipping Tool entry, and I happen to check out the Ads by Google area.



Thanks, Google.

What's up with Vista Enterprise?

I've been on Vista Enterprise on my corporate laptop for a while, and a friend just got Vista Ultimate, so he's going through and finding some cool Vista tidbits.


One of them is the Snipping Tool, which looked to be in Vista Home Premium, Business, and Ultimate, but not Home Basic nor Enterprise, or so I thought. My initial reaction was confusion, as I thought Vista Enterprise was to Business as Ultimate was to Home Premium.

I mean, (performance wise) the bits are the same - the features are what define the edition.

I use the tried-and-true Alt-Prnt Scrn for screenshots/dialog captures, so I was slightly disappointed that my system didn't have what sounded like a cool program.

After some poking around, it turns out that Enterprise DOES support the Snipping Tool. As pointed out by Spaghetti, the Snipping Tool falls under Tablet PC Support, which defaults to disabled in Vista Enterprise.

After checking the box and a few moments of configuring...make that a few minutes of configuring...I'm golden! I'll definitely be using this.

But why wasn't it enabled by default? I would think that "Enterprise users" would want more productivity-increasers and would be savvy enough to not be overwhelmed by feature inundation, but who knows.

Gifted and Talented

We moved our kindergartner out of a private school and into public school with some trepidation. I'm a product of both private and public schools, and our assumption was that we (and our son) would get more out of a private school.

We quickly learned the opposite.

After enrolling in our subdivision's elementary school (Leander ISD) we found that the kindergarten teacher our son has is amazing. Any doubt as to the quality of the education from her quickly dissipated. But could kindergarten keep up with our son?

LISD and our school has a Gifted and Talented program, and something called QUEST. At this level, QUEST focuses on creativity, critical thinking, observation, etc. We went through the application process, filled out questionnaires, the school interviewed our son, and finally we heard that he had been accepted into QUEST! Shazam!

His first project is researching a particular insect (he chose honeybees) and working on making his insect out of craft materials for a QUEST fair later this year.

Housekeeping

It looks like more than a month has gone by - time for blogging!

Fixed wishlist.
Fixed movielist.
Removed musiclist.

Model Fight update 10...the end?

So our Model Fight kind of ran in to the weeds. I finished most of the exterior of the building I was going for, and here it is.

I'm going to give this project a rest and start another. It will have something to do with robots, of course.

A .dream come true!

I have a laptop running Vista Ultimate, and I recently found out about Windows DreamScene. It basically allows you to have mpg or wmv files as your Vista background.

Here is a static shot of mine. Just imagine the plasma wave gently undulating as I do work.

The software for this comes in three parts.

1. An update to Windows Vista Ultimate - Windows DreamScene.
2. Stardock Deskscapes - a free download. This extends dreamscape files (.dream) to add dynamic content, changes over time, etc.
3. Stardock DreamMaker - another free download. This allows you to create the actual .dream file and share them.

I already have some ideas for making some .dream files - basically animate some 3d content I already have for a quick test. This could definitely be an attention-grabber for systems at stores, kiosks, tradeshows, etc. Stardock has provided six free .dream files, and they are charging a few bucks for another one.

Go to WinCustomize for more .dream files, downloading the software or picking up some user-generated content.

Six Degrees of Freedom!

Yesterday I emailed my manager to see if I could purchase the 3DConnexion SpaceNavigator, a six degrees of freedom (6DOF) controller for 3D applications. I've used 6DOF controllers for a long time, and I love them. Also, at $59, the SpaceNavigator is A SCREAMING DEAL!

An hour or so later my manager stops by my desk and hands me a box - a SpaceExplorer! Very nice!

Uh oh - I'm running Vista. Will it work? I notice that there are Vista drivers on the website. After a quick download and installation it works like a champ in SketchUp. I also was able to load SolidWorks on my system yesterday, so I'll give that a shot.

$59 is truly a bargain for a great piece of hardware. Definitely recommended if you use CAD or DCC applications, Google Earth...even a Mac!

Syd Mead

I'm a big Syd Mead fan, and I just found a new (to me) website with some of his work - The Syd Mead Project. I've always liked his retro-futuristic designs, and I love his cars.

Enjoy!

Too...Many...Books!

Wow. Yesterday I added a bunch of books that I wanted to a List (Blogger Page Element) and I guess I didn't realize how many books I wanted. Now I have a huge list on the right that pushes my other Lists down into nigh obscurity.

I'll switch those over to a Froogle Wishlist, which Blogger can accomodate easily, but I believe it is only in my Profile. I started a Wishlist but never did much with it. I wanted to add these books to my blog so I could access the list from anywhere (current softcopy of the list is on my work PC).

The Poor Man's Guitar Hero

I tried out a new program this morning - Frets on Fire. It's basically Guitar Hero with a keyboard instead of the guitar controller.

It's pretty fun, and I got a few more people interested in it today. It comes with three songs, but it can also import Guitar Hero tracks from the game DVD. Very nice!

Messing around with this definitely makes me want to get the real Guitar Hero (and Guitar Hero 2) for the controller and extra features (encore, crowd, meters, etc), and dismantle a keyboard to make my own guitar controller.

Frets on Fire is definitely fun, and a great way to show off your hot licks at the office.

New OS version

If towns around Odessa, TX, wanted to use the new Microsoft OS, as advertised in Friday Night Lights, would they use Vista Permian?

On Vista and Tags

A feature within Vista that I was really looking forward to using is Tags (sorry for the lame link - scroll down to the bottom). Tags are basically quick labels for files that one can use for organization or searching. They are already used by websites and blogging software (my blog calls them "Labels").

I thought this would be great - I could tag all my patent documents and graphics with "patent" and then I could always quickly find what I need to be working on or saved data.

Tagging is done within the Explorer in a pane below the folder, like this.

Clicking on the box after "Tags:" prompts you to select an existing tag or create your own. So far so good.

The more I played around with Tags, though, the less useful they seemed. Apparently you can't tag everything. Tag-supported files include Office files and image files - these are the ones I've tested so far. No tag support for .txt or .rtf files. Wha wha wha? I prefer to do quick documents in Textpad, not Word, so most of my quick work is untaggable.

While that's not a dealbreaker, it's a little disappointing.

I was also planning on using Tags to help me organize all my data, especially with patent files, benchmark results, etc. The more I thought about it I realized it wasn't exactly like I had wanted.

For instance, I put all patent work in a folder, \patents, with subfolders for specific projects or topics. What would be the point of me tagging all my graphics with "patent" if they are already organized in patent folders? If I needed them, I already know where they are. I'm going to have to tag with subtopics, but the files should already be in subfolders, theoretically already "tagged" by placement.

I could definitely see the benefit of being able to search for all benchmark results for AMD X2 5000+ processors (tagged as AMD, 5000, etc), but since I've done a lot of work on pre-Vista/pre-tag-enabled systems, I've named my result files with specific details in the filename to help with sending them to the correct people.

A plus for Tags is group-tagging. If I didn't want to go through and rename all my vacation photos from IMG0001 - IMG4165 to discrete names I could just select all of them and tag them "Seattle, June 2006" and move on to the next batch. I like that.

I guess it comes down to your preference - do you want to organize by folders and filenames, or by Tags? Or am I missing something? How would you use Tags, and do you think they have a benefit over foldername/filename organization?

Corporate Vista

Two days ago I volunteered for the early adopter Corporate Vista rollout. I'm typing this from Vista as we speak. I'm still in the process of getting my data and programs back on my machine, but I'm running a mobile Precision M65, T2600 2.16GHz, 4GB RAM (3.3GB reported thanks to 32-bit OS), Nvidia Quadro FX 350M.

My Windows Experience Index is 2.0, unfortunately, with the graphics the limiting factor. I'm pretty sure that's because I'm still running the driver from the OS and haven't loaded the Nvidia driver.

My monitor is a Dell 2007FPW at 1680x1050, and Vista looks NICE. Widescreen monitors are the bomb with Vista.

Excel 2007 is pretty much the same usage-wise, and I thought I would have a harder time getting around the Ribbon, but I think I like it. I haven't had much to do with the rest of Office 2007 but I'll be sure to post it. I really like Outlook 2007, especially the calendar layout. A To-Do Bar is present within many sections of Outlook, and I like it more than previous editions.

This is all pretty subjective right now, without screenshots, but I'm almost late for a meeting. I'll try to put more as my experience grows.

It's been a long time, baby!

Hey, I'm back! I know it's been weeks since I've posted last, but sometimes life occurs. I have a lot of content to upload too, and I'm embarrassed to say that some of it is still Christmas-related! Wow...at least a month late, but sometimes that's how I roll.

I couldn't resist

So I'm cruising IMDb, like I love to do, and I start reading a story about how Harrison Ford turned down $20 Million to play Han Solo in another Star Wars movie, and instead will play Indiana Jones in a fourth IJ movie.

I'm fairly deep in the thread, and I see this entry by a certain Mr. Roadkill, and I couldn't help but post it:

Okay, here's the REAL deal.

Harrison Ford took the Indiana Jones role over the Han Solo one because it's going to be a much better movie.

The rumour that it takes place in the sixties is true, and fits in nicely with the Mr Ford's present age.

What hasn't been widely revealed is that Sean Connory *will* be in the movie, although the role will probably surprise many people.

Since Satan owns the pink slip for the soul of pretty much everyone who has ever worked in motion pictures, he can shuffle the deck however he sees fit... and some interesting studio mergers mean that Sean Connory will play an elderly James Bond who fell through a temporal rift as the result of Xindi interference with Earth history - the theory being that if they could get all the kids hooked on beer and acid and dope then warp drive would never be invented. Little did they realise that Optimus Prime would ride in on My Little Pony and save the day by assassinating Kennedy and illegitimately fathering Rosie ODonnell with, you guessed it, Rosie ODonnell - who fell through the same temporal rift James Bond fell through. Pygmies re-discover left-over gou'auld technology that permits them to build hypersonic blow-dart weapons, which are capable of destroying ICBMs and thereby save the USA from the tyranny of total destruction when they decide to make the Ukraine glow in the dark...which happens two-thirds of the way through the movie, because the Ark of the Covenant (which was stolen from Area 51 by the Xindi) has been given to the Russians, who are using it to try to re-animate a cut-n-shunt SuperPolitician they've made from the cryogenically preserved remains of Adolph Hitler, Josef Stalin and Walt Disney - but exposure to nuclear fallout causes this re-animated monstrosity to sprout wings and fly to Tokyo, where as Mothra it does battle with Godzilla until Indiana Jones...

Sorry, I've given too much away already. You'll just have to buy a ticket like everybody else.

Jumping for joy

Merry Christmas!

There, I said it. I can't stand it when people say "Happy Holidays" when they are too scared to say "Merry Christmas." And a "holiday party" at the end of December...with gifts...food...watching The Polar Express? Please.

Santa brought our boys (and their parents) a trampoline this year! They've always had fun on the ones we've visited, and my wife had been praying and dreaming for one since she was a little girl as well.

Being the mechanically-inclined dad that I am I asked Santa if he could just drop off the unassembled trampoline and I would put it together. He naturally agreed, but he said that I would need to put get it ready the night before Christmas, as he wanted to surprise the boys with it on Christmas morning.

That works for me, but I didn't realize how cold and rainy it would be after dark...when the boys would be asleep. I got most of it done that night (being out after midnight I think I got a Christmas cold too), and finished it early Christmas morning.

We even let the kids have some time on it too!

I'm not brave enough to do a flip on it yet, but I can manage a somersault.

Happy New Year too!

Greater good from The War Store

I've been playing games for a loooong time, but relatively recently got into miniature wargaming, specifically Games Workshop's Warhammer 40k.

Actually, I'm more into the hobby aspect of the game, which consists of creating game boards and terrain upon which the miniatures, uh, fight. To put a finer point on it, I'm more of a terrain supplies collector than an actual terrain maker, as I collect a lot of styrofoam, plastic bits, etc, and I havean utter inability to throw anything away.

Finally I've gotten around to purchasing a Tau starter-set army so I can actually throw down (or get my Greater Good handed to me).

I had heard about a store called The War Store through various on-line sites, and since they offered a 20% discount on Games Workshop products, I decidedto give them a try. I had no idea as to the size of The War Store, but their website boasts an impressive selection of many products. I figured it was just theweb presence for a local game store.

The website said to call them and Neal, the owner, would talk to me. Okay. When I called, another person said Neal was out of the office for a few minutes butleave my name and number and he would call me back. To be honest, I was a little skeptical at this point, as I figured that anybody there would take my orderand I wouldn't actually talk with the owner of the store. I left my info and tried to do some actual work.

A few minutes later I got a call from Neal! It may not be much to many people, but I appreciated the personalized service. I told him what I wanted (the Tau Battleforce box) and he knew exactly what I was talking about. Unfortunately they weren't in stock, but should be arriving the next day. I went ahead and placed the order as I was in no hurry - this was before Christmas and I had plenty on my plate.

I was happy to see that I got quick email updates on when the backorder was filled (the next day, just as Neal forecasted) and when my order was shipped, alongwith the tracking number.
A few days later I came home to a very special package waiting for me, securely packed and in great condition.

Thanks to a good discount and great service, I'll definitely be ordering from Neal and The War Store again.

Peter Boyle, RIP

Peter Boyle died two nights ago from heart disease and cancer.

The first time I saw him was when my main man Spaghetti and I went to see Young Frankenstein in Rudder Auditorium at Texas A&M. I thought the show was pretty funny until the "Puttin' on the Ritz" scene with Dr. Frankenstein and the monster.

Wow.

I could not stop laughing...loudly. Apparently my uncontrollable laughter carried over through the next couple of scenes and people were turning in their seats to see what's happening.

The story goes that during filming, Mel Brooks, Gene Wilder and Peter Boyle didn't know what the monster would say, and Peter came out with the garbled response on the first take. Awesome.

He'll be missed.

VRay for SketchUp

I downloaded the beta for the VRay rendering plugin for SketchUp. Below you will see the result of just loading and a one-click render.

I haven't had a chance to fiddle with materials at all, and the shadows are from SketchUp's shadow configuration. Rendering was pretty quick, but this is a simple scene of one of my printers. The blob on the top left is the beta version watermark.

VRay is a high-end renderer, and this is good news for SketchUp fans. There are definitely some competing renderers that are used heavily by the SketchUp community, but it's a good sign that SketchUp is taken seriously enough for a renderer of this caliber.

Creative Fatal1ty mouse "review"

Here is a write-up I was asked to do for our gaming group about the Fatal1ty gaming mouse from Creative:






Day Zero with Fatal1ty mouse:


Is this just some coked-up competitor to the double-awful Razor mouse, or an actual contender for the Logitech G5 gaming mouse throne (my opinion)? Only time will tell, but here are my initial thoughts…more of an OOBE tonight, with gaming details coming this weekend.

• Box: I missed the "Open Here" sign and was trying to slide the middle part out to the side leaving the outer ring intact (similar to our printer "Wrap" ID language). Finally I stumbled upon the hinged part and noticed the magnets. I like this a lot, and one of the only other places I've seen hidden magnet closures like this is on Asian DVDs (some mid- to high-end collector's editions). Very nice!
  
• Mouse: Okay, Mr. Wendel has definitely made more money than I have playing videogames. I'm okay with that. This mouse is a little poseur-tastic, though. If I eat this mouse, will I gain more of Fatal1ty's powers? I think I'm against the idea of a celebrity mouse, but I wouldn't buy a Jonathan Ive monitor either.
  
• Finish: I really like the textured button 1 and button 2 - good feel. I like but don't love the rubberized sides. My thumb slides around on it a little too easily. I hate the glossy black button 3 and wrap-around detail. This will scuff, attract fingerprints and eventually transition to dull black.
  
• Buttons: Button 1 and 2 have nice solid clicks. Depression of scroll wheel feels and sounds good. Scrolling of scroll wheel sounds and feels cheap. Button 3 click is lame and dissatisfying. It's a hollow sound unlike all the other buttons. It sounds and feels cheap and suggests that it will be the first point of failure.
  
• Weights: Nice design for swapping weights quickly. Easier and faster than the Logitech G5. Lame implementation of retention mechanism - the fit isn't tight so moving the mouse causes the weight column to move, producing a clicking, something-in-my-mouse-is-loose sound.

A brief fling with Vista

We've been working with Vista a lot over the last few weeks for benchmarking and application compatibility, and I've really liked what I've seen. I recently decide to install it on a home test system.

It's a pretty nice system - XPS 700, E6700 2.67GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB 667 DDR2 RAM, two 7800GTX graphics cards in SLI mode, RAID 0 striped 10k rpm drives, XP Media Center Edition, 2007FPW 20" wide aspect ratio flat panel. I was worried about the RAID driver and the graphics driver, as this is also a gaming and 3D content creation machine.

I ran a few benchmarks that I knew I could duplicate in Vista. Well, basically one benchmark - Quake 4 timedemo001. At 1680x1050, graphics maxed, 2X Anti-Aliasing resulted in ~120fps+, 4XAA ~80fps, 8XAA ~50fps (numbers from memory, but close).

The DVD RTM version of Vista Ultimate installed flawlessly and everything was supported out of the, uh, disc...no bangs. I did an upgrade to my XP MCE installation as I didn't want to reinstall Quake 4 and SketchUp, and I also wanted to see how that worked. It looked like it had a generic Nvidia graphics driver, but my resolution was supported.

The Windows Experience Index was 5.4 (lowest score was for memory), while graphics got a 5.9. WEI uses the lowest score as the base, not an average of the subsystem scores.

I ran Quake 4 timedemo001 again at 2XAA and got...~17fps. One-seven. Wilco Tango Foxtrot? Ah, the integrated driver on the Vista DVD must be software rendering only! Good thing I downloaded our latest gold driver for the 7800GTX. A few minutes later...looping bluescreen with restarts! Oh, snap!

Okay, maybe upgrading the XP wasn't the best thing to do. I entered Safe Mode and rolled back the driver...back to semi-goodness. I went to nvidia.com and downloaded the latest beta Vista drivers, yadda yadda yadda, ~56fps at 2XAA on Quake 4. Not great. I tried to whip out a quick SketchUp model to see how that performance was...and SketchUp became hung. Very nice.

Reinstalling Vista, I chose to blow away the hard drive and clean-install Vista. Still no problems with the installation, and it didn't need the F6 for the RAID drivers anymore. I didn't look into this, but I'm pretty certain the disc contained them, like a slipstreamed XP CD would. Integrated Nvidia drivers gave me the same awful performance. Loaded our gold drivers...looping bluescreen again.

I almost gave up the ghost, but I reinstalled Vista one more time and downloaded the Nvidia beta drivers. Still limping through Quake 4, and then I realized something! My graphics cards were still in SLI mode (with the bridge still in place), but I never told Vista that I wanted to enable SLI! That's where my performance bottleneck must be, right?

Fifteen minutes of scouring Vista for strangely placed graphics options led to nothing, so I went back to nvidia.com and looked at the driver details. Hmm...these are only good for RC2. I don't think that will make a difference though. A few more minutes of deep diving. Uh oh. SLI mode is not supported yet in any Nvidia driver. Plus, the drivers seem to be mostly proofs of concept, with performance taking a backseat to compatibility in Vista.

So I am faced with some options. Downgrade to a single graphics card and use Vista, but not at its highest levels of performance, or roll back to XP Media Center Edition and use SLI mode at peak performance (for my hardware).

While I really want to play with Vista more, I decided to go back to XP MCE. There are still some games I want to play, plus I want to use SketchUp, and I want to explore the Media Center aspects of the OS.

In a few days I'm getting on the corporate early adopter program for Vista at work, on my main machine, so I'll be able to kick Vista's tires on a daily basis.

Experiments with chocolate are always good

So we're on this diet and it's working, but the dessert choices are fairly limited in the beginning. One of the choices in the second phase is Pistachio Bark, which is roasted pistachios in melted semi-sweet chocolate, and you break off sections. It's really good.

I bought some Mexican chocolate which is infused with cinnamon, and I've been trying to duplicate a Mexican mocha coffee drink from an Austin coffeehouse. I figured why not mix things up a bit and try the Mexican chocolate with the pistachios, right?

Eh, not so much.

We started out melting the chocolate in a double boiler and roasting the pistachios in a cast iron skillet.



The chocolate is pretty grainy, so it didn't melt into liquid, per se, like the baking chocolate bark does.



After pouring some soy milk in it looked a lot better and creamier.



All you do after that is pour the pistachios in the chocolate, mix and spread out on wax paper. It needs to harden in the refrigerator for at least an hour, but then you (and the bark) are set.



When we use regular baking chocolate, or even semi-sweet chocolate chips, it turns out really delicious, but the Mexican chocolate never totally set, so even after a day in the refrigerator it was malleable. It didn't taste like what we expected either...not bad, but not what we were used to eating. We finally abandoned the idea and have gone back to the baking chocolate.

One more Seaworld trip before the holidays

We met some of our friends at Seaworld a few weeks back to get the most out of our season passes before the year is up. Of course, we had to go to the roller coaster I like, the Steel Eel. I sat with one of our friends, and I had to get my nerve up to raise my hands - this was the first time we rode it and I was a little nervous.


Here are some closeups of some of the other riders. Notice the calm kid with his hands up in the air - no problem!

With four kids pitstops are inevitable. I happened to check out the floor-length urinals and in an adjoining one I saw a scorpion! We ran out, got the camera and I ran back in to, uh, take some pictures in the men's restroom. Nice.

It was still alive so we told some park workers about it.

Is it Halloween yet? Oh, snap!

I'm finally getting around to posting some stuff that I've needed to get up here.

For Halloween we had a neighborhood potluck party that went a lot better than we expected. Most of the people came in costume. I was in agony trying to pick a costume - I have a few aces up my sleeve but I need to work on them before I reveal them to the world.

I ended up going as a vegetarian vampire bat.

I got a beer helmet at Spencer's (thanks Chris) and spray-painted it black. My theme necessitated cans of V8 instead of beer. Lacey sewed bat wings to a black turtleneck and attached furry bat ears to the helmet (after having our five-year-old tell us about echolocation).

My family rounded out the costumes with the most beautiful pirate in the seven seas, a pirate in training and the smallest mobile skeleton ever seen.

Ags win!

I can't believe it! My Aggies finally beat Texas, with Colt McCoy playing for all but 20 seconds! I stood for most of the game (except for the time playing checkers with my boys). It looked like the Aggies were trying to sabotage themselves with some stupid errors and fouls but we managed to pull it out!

Stat of the game... 244. The Aggies rushed for 244 yards against Texas, which came into the game No. 1 in the nation allowing 42 yards per game.

Cilantro pancakes

I really love cilantro. I'd like to put it on everything. My wife doesn't like it so much.

One morning we were making pancakes and we had some cilantro left over from the night before.


The rest, as they say, is history.

We usually make pancakes from a Krusteaz mix for the sake of time, and this was no exception. We also don't use Teflon/non-stick pans, but instead use cast iron (below) or stainless steel.

They smelled great cooking, but what doesn't smell great once cilantro is in the mix, right?

They were great. We use an organic maple syrup, and the sweet syrup/pancake plus the cilantro make for a dominant entry in the New and Exciting Breakfast Foods category.

Model Fight update 009

I've started building the, uh, building. I haven't found a way to map images to planes in SketchUp the way I'm used to doing it in 3D Studio MAX, so I ended up scaling my wall component to match the image on the plane. I didn't want to do it that way, as my initial object was scaled accurately, but I ended up going the easy route.

There are six walls like this, so I should have quite a bit fleshed out fairly soon, and the rest of the geometry isn't that difficult.

Buying movies from Netflix?

We've been on and off with Netflix multiple times. We aren't the biggest TV watchers (some would say we aren't even the biggest movie watchers...), and we like to have movies for us (grownups) as well as some movies for them (kids). Ergo we're back on Netflix as we are generally disappointed with matching movies from cable.

Something that I haven't noticed in the previous Trey + Netflix hookups was that Netflix is selling previously viewed DVDs now. I don't have a problem buying previously viewed DVDs, as long as they are guaranteed defect-free/playable. Now, I wouldn't buy a Criterion DVD from Blockbuster's previously viewed trough, but I would from another movie-phile.

My favorite sub-genre of movies is Vampire movies. I even watched Stakeout hoping it would turn out favorably! I happened to browse the Netflix previously viewed area and found Underworld: Evolution, the sequel that I missed in the theaters and still haven't seen. At $5.99, it's quite a bargain (compared to $12.97 from DVD Price Search). There is only a single disc edition out so far, so even if I double-dip for an eventual Collector's edition, I'm only out $6.48 shipped.

It arrived three days after I ordered it in a slick plastic wrapper, and I could tell it was a standard keep case inside.


I was curious about the cover, as I've seen some DVDs with the Netflix logo inside the artwork, like it was a customized silkscreen for the Netflix DVD. I was worried that my DVD would have Netflix on the cover visible on the spine. How gauche! Amazingly, it is the retail cover, and it is in mint condition. I wasn't sure if these covers were sitting around in some warehouse in case someone decided to buy one, but there were no folds, marks or abrasions from the security sticker. This baby was pristine! But what about the DVD itself?

No insert, but I wasn't really expecting one. The silkscreened side of the DVD was pristine - no scratches or marks, no serial numbers or other Netflix-specific markings. The playable side had very minor scratching, but minor at worst. It definitely looks playable.

Overall I'm very satisfied with my purchase, especially for the price and free shipping. Netflix has probably less than 75 DVDs for sale, but I will definitely check them again before purchasing something. I'm not sure what constitutes a DVD being placed on the previously viewed for sale area though.

Model Fight update 008

Wow! Another blast from the past. I'm planning on slowly resurrecting the Model Fight, before we have to change to Model Fight 2007!

I'm going back to working on the building (Robot Factory) and giving the robots a brief rest. I managed to dodge security and take some photos of the building exterior for some reference shots. Here is one of the side wall with windows. There are 20 of these window "modules" across (each "module" contains the three large and three small windows) and three rows of them.



I had a measuring tape with me and measured everything that I could find, so my model is close to spec. Of course, I picked the day with the most wind and I borrowed a thin measuring tape, so the only thing I couldn't get was the height of the smaller window, which I estimated (with some sloppy Photoshop measurements) to be rougly a third of the large window height, which works for me.

Here is my SketchUp model. I'm just using rough colors for the base.

The STR8 dope on movie reviews

One of my good friends got talked into this whole blogging thing.

You want action? It's in there.
You want great movies you've never encountered? He's got it.
You want to know about some amazing packaging and collector's editions? Big time.

Check him out:

http://str8upfilm.blogspot.com/

One more thing...

I added a Google Adsense box to see what all the fuss is about.

By the way, the Labels don't show as a drop down box, but I have a "Show/Hide all" link that can show all the Labels and clicking on them updates the contents of the box.

I've switched...

...to the new Blogger beta program. Why? There are a good amount of reasons, but the biggest one for me is now I can label my posts. I'm not sure why Blogger didn't contain labels originally - maybe it was in place and acquired by Google before labels were The Next Big Thing in blogs? Who knows.

As I'm typing this entry, I see a spot for me to enter a Label. Hopefully it will remember all the labels that I make so I won't have to recreate the wheel each time, but I don't see it as a drop down box. Maybe after I make a few Labels will I get to select them? Hopefully.

Another big hope of mine is that I can go back and Label all my old posts. I've been wanting to show people all the posts about my Singapore trip, but without labels I have to point them to the archives and a certain date.

I'm not sure if My Sweet Blog will have many growing pains transitioning to the new beta, but I'll try to break as little as possible at a time.

Worst day evar?

Wow. Yesterday was pretty amazing. I don't have time to make a short entry, so I'll have to make a long entry with all the details.

It started with a bang! Thunder and lightning, that is. We ended up getting roughly four inches of rain with huge storm cells wandering across the hill country. I decided to be smart and wait for the main torrent to go by before driving to work, as I would be in its path for most of the trip. The first five minutes were soggy, but fine.

I get two turns out of my subdivision and my car starts shuddering every few seconds, with very little power. I manage to pull off the road into some company's parking lot and try to start my car. Nothing, but my oil light comes on. Ah! I realize, once again, that I am behind on my oil change schedule. Luckily, I have my handy and I call my wife to come pick me up. Also luckily for me, she was at home today.

Off to The Beast we go to get a few quarts of oil. Back to the car and Little Jerry Seinfeld greedily gulps it down. Amazingly enough, he starts. Now I figure would be a good time to get the oil changed. Off we go to a service place. Things might be looking up!

What's this? The car died? On the road? Not two minutes from when it started? Okay, I'll just push it off the road and repeat the oil trick, because if one quart is good, two quarts must be better, right? Wrong. First of all, the car died on a slight incline, so I can't push it off the road. Mind you, it's still raining. And I'm in a heavy construction zone. A few of the workers see our predicament (I'm pushing in vain, my wife is steering and our two-year-old is being an angel waiting patiently in our other car) and help me push it across the road.



The workers want to see what's up with the car, so I show them the oil trick. Gulp! One more quart, but no starting. They dive in and start fiddling with the engine. I'm a little hesitant, but I'm also not one to look a gift horse in the mouth. I don't know much about cars, and these guys (about six were talking while "the foreman" of the group was fiddling) seemed like they knew what they were doing. After a few minutes, they showed me where there was an electrical arc when I tried to start it. His English wasn't that great, but he managed to say something about needing to replace this part, and mentioned something about "coil."

Off we go to the nearest auto parts store and plead my case. The only parts they had in stock were some spark plug cables. As I wasn't sure what the original problem was so I figured that I would just buy them and see if they did the trick. The woman behind the counter noticed something about the cables and talked to the manager. It turns out that someone had returned old cables in the new cables box, and one of the pieces was damaged. They just gave them to me to try, as they couldn't sell them anymore! Awesome!

I take the cables back to the construction site and find Marcus, my contact. I show him the cables, and he shakes his head. It turns out that it isn't the cables that are bad, but the part where one cable connects. I have no idea what it is, and Marcus didn't know what the word was in English to describe it, but it had something to do with "coil." I tell him that I'm not sure about installing it once I get it. He says that if I bring it back, he can install it. "What about tools," I say. He has tools in the truck.

Okay, back to square one. I knew Advance didn't have any other parts, so I try O'Reilly, the next closest. They thought it might be an ignition coil, but they didn't have one in stock. Situation...worsening.

I then go home and get my camera and take a few pictures of the part in question. Back to O'Reilly, and after getting complements on my camera from multiple dudes, they are closer to thinking that it is either ignition coil or voltage regulator, but they still have neither. Ouch! Off to the next next closest place, Autozone. A high-school age-looking girl with a diamond studded French manicure came over to help me - not exactly the grease monkey I was expecting. I told her that I need a part that I don't know the name of, but I have a picture. She raised her eyebrows and started looking up my car details. We checked the voltage regulator - luckily their database has pictures and we realized it wasn't a match. Next we looked up ignition coils. Bingo! $100 later and I'm in business.


Back to the construction site. Uh oh - nobody is there. My handy installation expert is nowhere to be found. Back to O'Reilly, as they mentioned that they could come out and look at the car to see what kind of part it is. They couldn't come out to do the work, either above or below the table, so it looks like I'm it or we tow it somewhere.

I went home to get my tools and picked up my wife and two-year-old, as she had to have a parent-teacher conference with our five-year-old's kindergarten teacher just around the corner. I get all up in Little Jerry's engine and realize that the screws with which the ignition coil is attached aren't phillips, but the angle is so bad that I can't see if it is Torx and how big. I try to push my finger against the screw to get a quick imprint. No dice - the resolution of my pinky isn't high enough. Then I try to push a piece of paper against it. Okay, it looks like Torx, but I can't tell much detail. Why can't Volkswagens just have tombstones in the engine so I can get a decent rubbing? Brainstorm! I have my wife chew some gum (I can't chew gum) and we get a nice imprint of the bit and size I need. Back to Advance Autoparts.

It's still raining.

We compare the piece of gum to the Torx screwdrivers, bits, drivers, etc, and I settle on a folding multi-Torx tool that is small enough for me to access the part. Back to the construction site.


It takes me a while, but I finally get it replaced. Luckily I didn't drop anything in the engine or the mud, and I didn't shock myself - always good news. Little Jerry started like a champ.

It's now almost 3pm. I'm definitely getting my oil changed on Wednesday.

I've Switched to Decaf, and other signs the apocalypse is upon us

I know it sounds bad, but let me explain.

Someone in our family was diagnosed with what may become prediabetes. Note - it's not prediabetes, but symptoms are exhibited that could escalate, at some point in the future. We are trying to act proactively, so we started...wait for it...the South Beach Diet. One of the symptoms the book mentions is localized fat around the midsection (based on our ancestors' feast or famine lifestyle necessitating storage of fat while leaving the extremities leaner for escape or whatever), and that's something with which I've been struggling.

I've thought the South Beach Diet was a fad, or something ridiculous like Atkins. Follow the link above if you want more info, but I've read one of Dr. Agatston's books, and done some research online, so I'm satisfied with the validity.

The basic gist is to reduce bad carbs and bad fats while increasing good carbs and good fats, change eating habits, etc. We are in the first, most strict phase, aptly named Phase 1, which has the most severe reduction of carbs. I'm finding it not too bad, but my wife started out climbing the walls. Of course, this comes from both of us loving to cook, especially bake.

No alcohol of any kind is allowed during Phase 1. Now, I'm not one to get sodded every night, but I enjoy my Guinness. Sometimes I'm even known to enjoy my Schlitz! This wasn't that bad a restriction, but we stopped buying wine for dinner.

The diet recommends reducing caffeine (or eliminating it during Phase 1), since caffeine stimulates the pancrease to produce insulin. It also said that if you are following Phase 1 requirements, one cup (caffeinated) a day probably won't ruin your progress, and if it really makes you feel good, go ahead and do it. My wife and I talked about it, and then I figured if I'm in for a penny I'm in for a pound. Behold: the start of decaf for me.

We started the diet Monday (after a Sunday afternoon at Chuy's! Oh, snap!), and Phase 1 lasts for two weeks, or longer if you want to stay on it. At least for me, the jury is still out on staying on it or entering Phase 2, which is just the gradual, monitored inclusion of some carbs back in to your diet.

What's interesting is that you don't really count calories, or have really restricted portion sizes. You eat until you are full, with three meals and two snacks a day. Of all our meals and snacks, I feel like I'm eating a lot, volume-wise. I don't get that too-full, bloated feeling, and sometimes I feel hungry a little bit after a meal. What I think is happening is that I'm getting the nutrition that I need, but I'm so used to eating carbs and fats that I expect the full feeling, and something must be wrong if I'm hungry after eating a sirloin steak, broccoli and beans.

Don't get me wrong - the temptation is there. I make everyone's lunches, and I am at a point where I could probably destroy a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in one bite.

It's only been a little over three days but I think I can already see a slight change. Some clothes seem to be slightly larger, but I'm not sure yet if this is just my imagination. I'll keep posting on any progress I see.