Monthly Archives: May 2008

Full beef loin tenderloin

Full beef loin tenderloin

I went to Sam’s Club and bought the smallest PSMO (IMPS/NAMP 189A: Peeled, Side Meat On) that I could find for $40.13. The packaging that you see is exactly how the processing plant ships it. All Sam’s Club did was stick a label on it. I learned about tenderloins thanks to Alton Brown.

Cut into steaks

I cut away all of the fat and “silver skin” (connective tissue). I proportioned four rather large steaks. My eyes were definitely bigger than my stomach was. Next time I will make 6 or 8 servings.

After searing

I put a cast iron skillet on the grill and preheated it to 600 degrees Fahrenheit. I then seared the sides for a minute each.

Final result

I then liberally salted and peppered them and vacuumed sealed them in food saver bags. Mmmmm….

Disc Golf 05/17/2008

Hole 2

The meetup group went to Cat Hollow. And it was quite large. There were ten people to start with. We spent some time looking for discs on hole one. This was enough motivation for three teams to leave us and play hole 2. Unfortunately, I was stuck in the slow and smoking group.

I was teamed up with a new person named Tim. It was amusing to learn that he was red/green color-blind when he was trying to spot his red disk among the green leaves in a tree. We did pretty well. My Ace Race disc put me within range of a birdie on hole 2.

Hole 6

I also threaded the needle and landed close enough for a birdie on hole 6.

Hole 12

On hole 12, my Panther flew correctly to land near enough for another birdie (although it didn’t look like it in mid-flight)!

Tim also did well and got us close enough for other birdies. We kept neck-in-neck for the lead the whole game.

Disc Golf 05/16/2008

Hole 10

I went to Wilco today for some disc golf. For the first time, I actually scored a par on hole 10! With no mulligans, even.

Hole 12

And on hole 12, my Ace Race disc was good enough for a birdie (but still no ace yet).

Game Day 05/15/2008

Game #1

Big Three

While we waited for Marty to show up, we played a couple of hands of Big Three.

Game #1

Through The Ages

Its sad that out of all of the more than five-hundred games that I own, Jon only wants to play less than a handful of them. He didn’t even want to play Antiquity, which I thought that he liked. So we played Through the Ages.

I tried going for a military economy. Chapel was out in the lead with a good point generating economy. At the mid game, Chapel was still in the lead, so we knew that we had to do something. I was able to assassinate his leader only two turns before the era ended. Marty built up his military and declared war on Mike. Mike was not able to defend against the aggression and went from first to third. Marty scored a lot of points towards the end of the game and this clinched first place for him. I secured second and Chapel was able to beat Jon for third place.

Anyone failing to display my signature

Anyone failing to display the mandatory black velvet Methodist style painting of President Quayle on their living room wall… WILL BE SHOT.

For the longest time I have kept the same signature. Perhaps it has been for too long. But I have never been motivated to change my signature even when I have come across interesting quotes. It must be the result of pure laziness, I guess. Or a hole in my psyche.

The earliest recorded example of my quote is here on Tue Oct 28 12:28:16 PST 1997 where I fell into a trap of an internet spammer.

I remembered a song with those words in it. Back in the times of Bill, Sean, & Sean. But I could not remember which song it was. I tried searching of course. But I was never successful. You would think that it would be easy to find. There are only 9 hits on web pages that have the words “Anyone failing to display” in them. Plus, who uses the words Quayle, Velvet and Methodist at the same time?

Recently, I came across this Twitter post. Which is my signature. Those bastards! This spurred me into renewed searching for the source of my quote.

I found this posting:

We interrupt this program with a special bulletin.

AMERICA IS NOW UNDER MARTIAL LAW.

All constitutional rights have been suspended. Stay in your homes. Do not attempt to contact loved ones, insurance agents, or attorneys.

SHUT UP.

Do not attempt to think, or depression may occur. Stay in your homes. Curfew is at 7pm sharp, after work.

Anyone caught outside the gates of their subdivision sectors after curfew will be shot.

REMAIN CALM. DO NOT PANIC.

Your neighborhood watch officer will be by to collect urine samples in the morning. Anyone caught interfering with the collection of urine samples – WILL. BE. SHOT.

Houses will be inspected for trace elements at noon.

Anyone failing to display the required embossed Mexican velvet painting of Alexander Haig on their living room wall – WILL. BE. SHOT.

Cameras and surveillance equipment will be posted on all lampposts and streetlights. Anyone failing to attend required worship services on Sunday will be promptly arrested and dispatched to a re-education resort.

Stay in your homes. REMAIN CALM.

The number one enemy of progress is questions. National security is more important than individual will.

All sports broadcasts will proceed as normal. No more than two people may gather anywhere without permission. Use only the drugs prescribed by your boss or supervisor.

SHUT UP! BE HAPPY!

Obey all orders without question. The comfort you’ve demanded is now mandatory. BE HAPY! At last — everything is done for you.

It was very close. Obviously that person was inspired by the same source.

Finally, I found this posting:

This kind of thing always reminds me of a song off the “Terminal City Ricochet” soundtrack by Jello Biafra… “Message from our Sponsor”. It’s a pretty funny yet chilling song.

“ANNYONE WHO INTERFERES WITH THE COLLECTION OF MANDATORY URINE SAMPLES WILL… BE… SHOT…”

“ANYONE FAILING TO DISPLAY THE REQUISITE MEXICAN VELVET PORTRAIT OF PRESIDENT QUAYLE WILL… BE… SHOT…”

“RELAX. EVERYTHING IS DONE FOR YOU. THE CONVENIENCE YOU HAVE REQUESTED FOR SO LONG IS NOW MANDATORY…”

— LC

JACKPOT! It listed a soundtrack CD and artist. The movie was Terminal City Ricochet. And the music artist was Jello Biafra

Poster #1
Poster #2

I went out and purchased the sound-track right away. Track number 12 was “Message from Our Sponsor/Object-Subject.” The lyrics are the following:

We interrupt this program with a special bulletin. This territory is now under martial law. All constitutional rights have been suspended. Stay in your homes. Do not attempt to contact loved ones, insurance agents or attorneys.

Shut up! Do not attempt to think, or depression may occur. Stay in your homes. Curfew is at 7pm sharp after work.

Anyone caught outside the gates of their subdivision zones after curfew WILL BE SHOT. Remain calm, do not panic. Your neighborhood watch officer will by to collect urine samples in the morning. Anyone interfering with the collection of urine samples WILL BE SHOT.

Houses will be inspected for trace elements at noon. Anyone failing to display the mandatory black velvet Mexican style painting of President Quayle on their living room wall WILL BE SHOT. Under provisions of zero tolerance and the child protection and obscenity enforcement act, all property and life savings of suspected drug users and distributors of pornography will be seized and sold prior to trial. Cameras and surveillance equipment will be placed on all lamp posts and street lights. Anyone who fails to attend prescribed worship services on Sunday will be promptly arrested and dispatched to a reeducation resort.

Stay in your homes. Remain calm. The number one enemy of progress is questions.

National security is more important than individual rights.

Sports broadcasts will proceed as scheduled.

No more than two people may gather anywhere without permission.

Use only the drugs prescribed by your boss or your supervisor.

Shut up! Be happy! Obey all orders without question.

Shut up! Consume! The comfort you’ve demanded is now mandatory. At last everything is done for you.

I was surprised how close I was. Mexicans and Methodists are interchangeable, right?

links

The impossible art of Li Wei link via

Battlestar’s crazy closers link via

The Milky Way galaxy suspended in a glass cube link via

More than 150 individual clockworks tell time link via

Font bots link via

New crescent moon link via

One gate, multiple locks link via

Experiment: 96% of passers-by ignore famous artist’s street painting link via

Unpacking an iPhone link via

Eagles vs. Goats vs. Florez link via

Safe baby pregnancy tips link via

Fractal animals [ed: misleading term] link via

Micro panorama link via

Cities at night link via

All streets link via

The Royal Mint’s new design for coins link via

The one day poem pavilion link via

Bob Dylan’s head link via

Opposing team helps home run hitter run the bases after a knee injury link via

NOVA 3D LED Display link via

VR bubbles link1 link2 via

Piet (artistic programming language) link via

Apple toilet paper dispenser link via

VW 1L released in 2010 link via

The engineer’s guide to cats link via

Music video performed on public CCTVs and requested footage via Britain’s Data Protection Act link via

DIY beauty dish link via

What is the universe expanding into? link via

Polymer clay color scales link via

18% Gray

Attempt #1

While I was messing around with my camera, I came across an interesting problem in photography. What happens if you take a picture of a white cat in the middle of a snowfield or, for that matter, a black cat in the middle of a coal mine? Well, if you use an automatic camera, you are going to get a rather gray picture. You see, the camera figures that an average exposure of a scene is 18%. This is the middle of a geometric scale between black and white. And who says that your camera’s 18% is really 18%?

The first picture is a white sheet in bright daylight. Or, it is at least what the camera took of it. Adobe Photoshop tells me that the average values for this picture are around 140,140,140.

Attempt #2

This time, I stick an 18% gray card in front of the scene and tell to camera to lock onto that value with its meter by using the “AE Lock Feature” (with the FEL button (Flash Exposure Lock)). It got closer, with average values of 230,230,230, but still not in the ballpark.

Attempt #3

I finally switched the metering to “spot metering”, metered the scene, and then changed the exposure compensation until the bar was at the top of the graph. It got much closer this time with values around 247,247,247. 8 off. Which is close enough for today’s exercise. Who says the paper was perfectly white anyways?

Disc Golf 05/10/2008

Joggers

The meetup group met out at Wilco park today. I drove past a marathon out on Chandler Boulevard.

birdie on two
Gravitt putting

We had seven to start out with (two teams of two and one of three). There were two new people that came. One was supposed to be only taking pictures. But when his friend hurt his elbow, he played. I paired with Gravitt today. We birdied hole two. Later on (around hole four), two more people showed up (well, one guy and his son).

orange mushroom

I came across a rather colorful orange mushroom. I’m guessing that it is poisonous. William tells me it is a Amanitaceae mushroom.

big group

With nine people playing we played rather slow. And we finished at one pm.

john listening to music

Apparently the big group was getting on John’s nerves. He kept listening to long and mellow music during the day.