Super serial

The title is just to show you how little I know about South Park (I really miss Chef).

Anyway, starting January 1st is the Serial Killer Hunt. One offering is by Ben "Kras Alter" Gunz of Gilded.

There has been a definite lack of straitjackets in SecondLife and none of this quality... I do hope you'll take advantage of this and the other offerings in the Serial Killer Hunt. I know I will.

And if you cannot possibly wait until the hunt begins (or have better things to do with your time), then just pop over to Gilded or check out his Marketplace.

Devil's Work

Can't have Magnet Man without...

...Magnet Dog.

(playing "fetch")

My Idle Hands

I'm a tad paranoid when my hard drives die. I just don't feel comfortable sending my platters to the landfill. This, combined with over fifteen years of computer usage, results in a stockpile of dead hard drives. What to do?

Well, if you have a Torx-8 bit and some inspiration, you end up with this:

(I'm going to assume it's a male). He's made of hard drive magnets - which are unbelievably strong and rather industrial looking. The tiny red eyes are also magnets from a hard drive as well.

I took the liberty of removing the platters from the casings. The ones I couldn't remove, I drilled.

Maya, I miss you

Kahula Delicioso commercial

PSA #2: Laugh with me

I can't keep this to myself.

http://slamebook.wordpress.com/

The potential for this site is mind-blowing.

The Blackest of Fridays

She was poultry and I was a carnivore.

We tried to make it work, but it was doomed from the start.

Goodbye, my turkey deluxe

Madness, I tell you

So, I just ordered the Christmas present I'm giving my wife.

It's an i7 laptop. Way better than anything I have. She's been without a laptop for far-too-long, and our current financial situation has improved such that I can finally get this taken care of.

Jealous? You bet I am. But for $700 (plus tax), I'll take it. (If anyone wants the details of this deal let me know - it's still valid until Wednesday, the 24th)

Now, to counteract my jealousy by shopping for a new camera...

PSA: Registering Single-word names now available

Hello,

FYI, you can register single-word names for SecondLife.

Go to SL's website and register.

I was able to get "Takashi"

Maximum of 10 allowed.

Thank you.

Gorewhore

A few things about this outfit. I really like how the dirt on the shirt and suspenders matches exactly with the dirt stains on the skin. Two different creators, same coloring and patterning (I got lucky). Also, regarding the fingernails, I was able to "Edit Linked Parts" to position each nail individually - no floaty cuticles.

The boots have a colorization HUD for toeskin and nails.

This was all initially inspired by "The Walking Dead", now playing Sunday Nights on AMC.

Shape: Pleiades_A - Heaven's Shape (now extinct)

Skin: Reek of Putrefaction - Show Me on the Doll

Shirt: Zombie Boy Shirt with Suspenders - Dirty - Rotten Defiance

Shirt Collar: Dare Shirt (White) Collar - Havana

Pants: Plaid black - INDI

Shoes: Gother Boot (Blood) - Demotik

Eyes: Winter Months - Deviant Designs

Hair: Cruz (Espresso) - MADesigns

Nails: Black Long Nails by Jayden Zweig - possibly at Nikita Fride

So simple...why did I not see this before?

One of the things I do is make mashup portraits. This is where you utilize Photoshop-trickery to combine an SL-avatar with a RL-figure. I typically do this because I either don't have an SL-pose for what I need, or the body-lines just look smoother than what I can get out of SecondLife, or I'm just lazy. In any case...

I believe I may have blogged about Tineye before. That's an image-analyzer website that combs the 'net and can determine what other images were used as source-material for your picture. My other photoshop buddy and I have been constantly trying to beat Tineye: using screen-capture tools, doing colorizing and pixel modifications...at each attempt, Tineye was able to see right through us.

Only recently, have I discovered a way to obfuscate the eye-of-tin.

You simply mirror your image.

Sorry, Vic

For those of you keeping score, apparently Vic Zuzu lost his inworld photo-studio.

The new rage: Zuzu

Those of you who follow SL-drama are probably already familiar with Vic Zuzu. He's the guy that took-over the MHOH (Make Him Over Hunt), once the original creators had a falling-out. I can applaud his initiative.

Unfortunately, that's all I can applaud about him.

Once you get past his broken-english, you start to uncover his methodologies. He's very effective at making you utterly hate him. He carpet-bombed several of my designer friends (many of whom do not make men's items and have no interest in participating in his MHO hunt), he routinely uses his style-guru fashion sense (ha) to attack others when logic fails him, he does not recognize the difference between fame and notoriety, twisted moral compass regarding intellectual property, bigoted against gays, et cetera.

In a lulzy way, I'm admiring him. I've adopted his last name for my Plurk profile and often refer to him in the third person. For example, "You cannot use large words when you try to insult The Zuzu. It just won't work."

"C'mon,...how bad can he be?" I know. I hear you. I invite you to form your own judgments regarding The Zuzu. Please visit his blog page.

http://viczuzu.blogspot.com

I made it through 3 pages of The Zuzu challenge before I went mad.

Halloween 2010: Part Two

Have a safe and Happy Halloween!

Halloween 2010 part one

When the wife leaves me with the kids for a weekend, stuff like this happens:

My cupcake menagerie

Vanilla with white-chocolate cream-cheese frosting. Pomegranate accents and fondant tombstone. Inspired by Horrid Twine.

Goth cross half-and-half
Chocolate w/chocolate cream-cheese frosting and fondant zombie
Chocolate with Vanilla cream-cheese frosting and fondant hand
Chocolate with chocolate cream-cheese frosting and fondant bonepile
Vanilla with white chocolate cream-cheese frosting. Fondant accents.
Megan's Purple-frosted parental nightmare
Tigger Jack-o-Lantern

Yes, I was a sucker and bought the fancy cupcake liners.

Pictures of costumes next week!

Cake Nine

I'm becoming the family cake celebrity. Even my mom wanted to see pictures of my son's birthday cake this year (Hi Ma!).

This year's challenge was: Lego Atlantis

Fair enough, Lego has NO shortage of photo stock of their products. Even moreso, now that they've expanded to online and animated media. I acquired an underwater backdrop, complete with temple-ruins (he's really into Greco-Roman Architecture), some submersibles, and a pic of "Manta Warrior" - his favorite character from the series.

I threw these components into a Photoshop file and used Lego's website header - their font and design was just too good to try and reproduce by hand. Also, taking a tip from CakeWrecks, I decided to bake all the required text into the picture, rather than risk them writing something horrible in purple icing.

But, I wanted just one more element. I had done some marketing research with/on my son using the Lego Atlantis website. He'd picked out his favorite sets - one of which was a Seabed Scavenger - complete with giant claw, sawblade, and Manta Warrior. How difficult would it be to integrate this into the cake? Oh, about 30 minutes of assembly time...

So the night before, I rushed out to the local toy store, got the Scavenger, put it together, and hid it away - to be used as a cake-topper for the party. The sawblade would actually be embedded into the cake, as if they were mining for precious undersea resources, with the Manta Warrior standing guard.

Another successful party. The kids had a great time, and C. had no issues licking the frosting right off the sawblade.

The next thing my son wants: A Lady Gaga Jack-o-Lantern.

37

Twenty-two years ago, I met a girl. She had this sparkling personality - the kind that takes command of an entire room. Like myself, she was blessed with the gift of a keen sense of humor. Believe me when I tell you she has not a single enemy on the entire planet. She later became my sister-in-law.

Two nights ago, my thirty-seven year old sister-in-law suffered a debilitating stroke. She has compromised right-side mobility - showing improvements in alertness after 24 hours.

I'm writing this because I know how brilliantly intuitive you all are, and how bad of a liar I am - eventually, you would sense something is going on...I thank you all for your kind thoughts and prayers - you would not be my friend otherwise.

As with everything else, I am keeping a positive outlook. It's naturally difficult trying to be funny in this situation, but I think my family is looking to me for an easy laugh and a strong shoulder during this crisis. Right now, I'm rather disjointed - making a chicken parmesan, 11 strips of bacon, and a pan of brownies for dinner - I really didn't know which direction I was going tonight. At least, everything tastes good...

We love you, C. You can beat this.

Your assistance please

The following is a tiny snippet from my life:

I had just come home from a more-stressful-than-usual day at the office. It was dark and I was hungry. I went into the kitchen to fix myself a sandwich: two slices of untoasted, multigrain bread, roasted turkey, and mayo.

My wife was on the sofa, watching "The Daily Show" on Comedy Central. I sit next to the seat next to her, about five feet away.

Wife: WHAT are you EATING?!?
Me (surprised): a....turkey sandwich?
Wife: You're chewing too loud.

Partially out of deference to Jon Stewart, my wife, and the fact that I was mentally-exhausted from my job, I tried to finish my sandwich as quietly as I could. However, it is now that I must ask for some guidance:

1. I was hungry: Those of you who know me, know that I love food. Some of you would say I take loving food to an entirely new level. It really was an effort to hide my lust for that turkey sandwich on that night - it was just so satisfying, so reliable. I also find it a source of pride being able to provide for myself and my family - having the resources to eat when I'm hungry.

2. Bread: My wife also prefers getting the multigrain varieties, which have loads of nuts, seeds, and other various plant-matter baked inside. I, myself, can do rather well on plain, soft, quiet, Wonderbread white. So, I think her loaf choice is partially to blame here.

3. Just a sandwich: I didn't go through my entire repertoire of exotic ingredients for this sandwich - I didn't even toast the bread! No potato chips, or crisp lettuce leaves, not even crunchy strips of bacon. No, the sandwich innards were, in my opinion, as quiet as they could have been.

So, am I crazy here? Do your significant others' eating volume annoy you? Have you been labelled a loud eater?

I'm wondering if I should cater to this, or lash out in the totally opposite direction and start making slurpy ramen noodles or hard-shell tacos for dinner. This, however, would go against my policy of using food as a weapon. But, is it my chewing or is my wife getting at something more? I wonder.

This is 40

I turned 40 last month. Since then, I've noticed some radical changes in myself:

1. Finance. I've always considered myself fiscally-responsible. Not really splurging on things - rather, I was more-occupied with saving up for life expenses, like college tuitions. I've started listening to news more...figuring out when it's time to refinance my home (rates are low, btw!) Now realizing the value of that good credit I've been working on...

2. Fashion. Probably fueled by item #1 above. Since I've been "running my numbers", I started to get an idea of how much lower my monthly expenses would be. More disposable-income can be very dangerous and very powerful. My own social circle also changed. I find myself attending more weddings and sadly, some funerals as well. My attention focused on my wardrobe.

For the longest time, I've been jeans, t-shirt, and sneakers. Comfortable, inexpensive, long-lasting, totally inappropriate for these formal-events I keep getting invited to. Time to buy something really nice to wear. It's been well over fifteen years since I needed a new suit - I take pride in the fact that I can still fit into it. But it has broken stitches and the style just isn't relevant anymore. Now that I have the means, motive, and opportunity, it's time to commit a crime.

Research. I research the hell out of everything before I buy anything, especially when we're talking about a potential four-figure spend for a new look. For style and fashion, there's NO shortage of information. I've already read up on fully-canvassed vs. fused, which labels to avoid (pretty much every label I knew in my limited exposure to suitmakers), good tailoring and alterations, and which sources to acquire quality goods from. I've realized I don't need the most-expensive, I just want to feel good in what I have - that means spending that perfectly justifiable amount of money. And hey, if it's on sale with a newspaper coupon, all the better.

You always hear about how lottery-winners suddenly change. Well, not necessarily change, but how the money brings-out those long-dormant qualities in people. I suppose that's what this is, too. I didn't think I was a closet clothes-horse, but here I am, going slack-jawed at a $1,600.00 pair of John Lobb double-monk buckles while critiquing the lack of pick-stitching on someone's lapels...

Wish me luck.

facepalm

I'm still trying to figure out a title for this particular post...maybe it'll come to me when I'm done explaining.

One of the websites I frequently read is Trendhunter. Gattina had initially exposed me to this, unbeknownst to her. I routinely gain inspiration from the posts on TH, and this particular day was no different. I saw a link for breast cups.

For those of you who haven't been keeping score, I've been sending Gattina some rather unique Christmas/birthday gifts - pretty much since I first knew her - spare me your pity. As it's now July, I started formulating ideas for this holiday season (hey, it's never too early to plan for your bestest bbf evar.) In this context, the breast cups intrigued me.

For those of you who haven't been keeping score, I'm also somewhat of a cautious shopper. I tend to research items compulsively before purchasing. I read the information about the breast cup product thoroughly. Apparently, the active ingredient is a rare Far-Eastern herb called Butea Superba. It sounded quite exotic and the scientific claims made on the rather descriptive webpage sounded magnificent. I decided to dig just a little further.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that the most-common usage of the Butea Superba herb was not breast cups - quite the contrary, actually. If we allow ourselves to correlate Google results to real-world application, then we can infer that the most-common usage of this particular ingredient is in fact....male enhancement.

Now, I applaud the practitioners and pharmacologists of Far Eastern medicine. How they can determine the effects of rare herbs that are present in the remotest corners of the globe just astounds me. I imagine that some local inhabitants happened across this particular plant, consumed it, then noticed its effects...and by word-of-mouth, started capitalizing on it.

However, I'm a bit skeptical at this new application for Butea Superba. Having studied biological science for many (many) years, I just can't believe that one particular plant can bring the benefits it claims to both male and female humans. Do I think that these Butea Superba harvesters are trying to find another market for their wonder-plant-extract? Possibly...

I could also be one-hundred-percent wrong. But this is Gattina's birthday present we're talking about. I just have the slightest discomfort in ordering what-amounts-to-Asian-Viagra - to apply to her bosoms. I just don't think I could do that to her.

Of course, if any of you are willing to try, or have already tried, these breast cups (which just so happen to be on a 2-for-1 sale) and provide feedback, I would greatly appreciate it.

Factory un-fresh

This'll be a techie, nerdy post. I've been dorking around with my cellphone, finding out the new-ways-to-do-old-things, and hit one of those binary brick walls.

One of the critical activities I like to do with my phone, is use it as a cellular modem. "Tethering" my phone to my laptop through a USB cable, allows me to surf the internet on my wireless provider's signal. The advantage is that I can be online anywhere I can get signal bars. The disadvantage is the additional cost...that is, if I were on some non-SERO, charge you by the kilobyte, limited data plan....which I am not.

But back to task...it turns out that, while my phone could tether to my laptop successfully, I would always get the error message on the phone that the battery could not charge while being tethered. That seriously put a limiter on my otherwise unlimited broadband activities. I ensured that the usb cable I was using was high-speed/2.0 certified, and that my phone was loaded with the most-recent firmware. I also started seeing application slowdowns and java-incompatibilities with the browsers. The next step was to totally wipe the phone.

Now, when you wipe a phone, you erase all the installed applications as well as all the locally-stored music, photos, and contacts. For me, all of my music is stored on the microSD card (eight gigs...can you believe it), and the contacts are kept safe on an Exchange server. Using the appropriate button-combination, my phone was lobotomized back to the day it emerged from HTC's build plant. It re-connected to Sprint's CDMA signal, initialized itself, and (more-importantly) was able to charge it's battery while sharing the Internet. I can now surf all day, and still have battery life.

Here's another one. I'm also exploring DLNA. I've got Windows 7 and a Samsung LCD television. The TV has media players built in to it's firmware, along with an ethernet jack. Last night, I was successful in establishing a media playlist specifically for the television. I can drop any number of video, photo, or music files into the TV's playlist on my server, run over to the Samsung, then access that content via the built in applications. It's got pretty good codec awareness and I no longer have to copy content to a usb thumbdrive just for the TV.

The next step is to fix the "Play On" feature in Windows 7, where I can click on my file, and send it directly to the television instead of the TV's play-queue...it's not activating for me yet, but this may also require a firmware upgrade for the television (I'm one revision behind).

And in closing, Father's Day is coming up. I've asked for one of these. My Roku Soundbridge suddenly DIED in the middle of the night and I have no alarm clock now. I did an autopsy on it, but could not revive. There are plenty of iPod/iTouch docks out there that will function as an alarm clock....but you need an iPod....and owning one of those is strictly against my religion. Chumby is open-source, has an active discussion forum, founded on hackability, is priced right, and contains a snooze button. This will be exciting.

The Leaky Sink

Last weekend, I gained a great deal of appreciation (and a bit of sympathy) for plumbers.
The bathroom faucet was beginning to leak. Since I knew nothing about repairing faucets, combined with the fact that the bathroom was a little outdated, pile-on an 8 year-old son who is ravenous about interior design and renovation, and top it all off with a Sunday morning meltdown by the children and the day's mission was clear: separate the kids by taking the son to Ikea and fix the bathroom.

The Ikea.com website provided all the details we needed for choosing a sink and faucet - right down to the local store's inventory. We headed out and returned with our items.

Shut the water off at the valves under the sink, have a bucket handy, unscrew the connections for the water lines and the drain, remove the plug plunger (which never worked reliably), and lift out.

For the new sink, attach the lines to the faucet and install the faucet onto the new sink (better do it now rather than when it's already installed in the cramped vanity), dry fit the drainage piping and cut them to length. Once you have everything set, lift out the sink one more time, run a bead of caulk around the vanity top, then lower the sink back on.

Post-Op notes:

Apparently, Europe uses 5/8" water valves. I had 3/8" installed, so I needed an adapter. $5.00 x2 (yes, but it was better than trying to replace my valves - that would've involved blowtorches)

Also, when you're going to Lowes for plastic parts, be sure to bring all the parts you want to fit together.

"Schedule 40" is plumberspeak for really thick PVC plastic parts.

Hose connections use compression to achieve a watertight union.

Be prepared to get a little wet.


Bathroom is dry and leak-free. Mission accomplished (and look at that smile)

The Mother's Day Present

My son and I decided to do something special for mom/wife this year. Of course, I did the usual let-her-sleep-in / breakfast-in-bed thing. But we also had a present in mind.
Rewind a few months back and we decided to get rid of our living room torchiere lamp (a 90's era energy-sucking fire-hazard). We got this. I wanted to customize the lampshade, so I took a tip from eHow.com and shopped for some plastic. Instead of using sharpie markers, we decided on using paint (more on that later). My son idolizes David Bromstad, so his thought process was as follows:

• Interview mom and find out what her favorite color scheme is. (She likes cool tones)
• Use a heavy brush with stippling patterns and lots of gradation
• Use a spray bottle of water to get the desired artistic effect

The tempera paints in the kid's art-center wouldn't hold up to the plastic and the water, so we took another trip to the crafts store and scored some acrylic paints. After some test paintings, we had a working solution.

She was quite surprised and loved the finished product. Happy Mother's Day!

TOYS!

Boys and toys. You know the rest. Here's my latest:

528 MHz, 512MB, 3.2 MPx, WinMo 6.5, GPS, headphone jack, TouchFlo3D, tetherable, etc. I've got music, ringtones, and picture contacts already installed. I was prepared to flash the OS, but this model already came with the update applied.

Improvements desired:

• Ability to delete mail messages when browsing them - right now, you have to open the message then delete.
• Ability to mark messages in Inbox-view for mass deletion. As it stands, you have to delete messages one at a time.
• More integration of contacts data with the other functions of the phone. For example, I should be able to search for a contact, then navigate to their address via the GPS. The Sprint navigation app doesn't even allow pasting in an address - you have to type it in manually.
• Ability to delete music files from the Sprint Music application. They force you to use a file manager for tune removal.

The love affair continues...

And to show that I'm not totally heartless, I'm planning to spoil my wife with the following Mother's day presents:

• A hand-painted lampshade. The artist would be our son.
• A macro-lens for the DSLR camera (yeah, I want this too)
• Dinner out or in, her choice
• Kid-free day, duration dictated by her
• Upgrade her phone to the HTC Touch Pro 2

The love affair continues...

My whereabouts

I last reported about the new soundcard that I purchased. The PCI-Express X-Fi Titanium is working rather nicely. I've already submitted the rebate, so let's hope that gets processed without too much drama.

One tangible benefit with the new hardware is that it can handle my drumkit signal. Yes, I've adjusted the volume levels on the three pieces of equipment involved to get a live stream into Second Life. I'm tempted to close out my next DJ gig with a drum solo...

In other news, I read for a part in a SL Television series. Apparently, they make TV shows in Second Life, too. Well, the directors like me for the role of Zepplin - he's the teen love-interest in the series. Go figure.

I've also got to formulate an entry for a photo contest. I was supposed to go on a vacation to Europe, this week, but the planet had other intentions for me and my family.

Filed my taxes

New sound, we hope

A few months ago, the onboard audio on my Gigabyte motherboard suffered what I can only describe as an unrecoverable, electrical anomaly. Once that happened, the soundcard portions of the motherboard were unresponsive - no detection in windows, no reinstallation of drivers, etc...

As a temporary fix, I had to install an Audigy 2 PCI card. This was capable of handling routine audio (playback and dj duties), but I was getting a lot of distortion trying to stream my drumkit live through this method.

Fast-forward to today: NewEgg has a special on the Creative X-Fi Titanium PCI-Express card.

Of course, I was in the market, but I also needed to do some research, quickly...it has drivers for Windows 7 - 64-bit, it's got 96kHz sampling, user-selectable parameters, HDMI pinouts, and some optical interfaces. The PCI-Express bus will offload audio processing to the dedicated Creative hardware, hopefully lowering latency further. Apparently, no one else has been insane enough to specifically stream live drums through the X-Fi Titanium - but we can't have it all now, can we?

The card usually retails for $99. Using the promo code, EMCYRYW45, and sending in a $25 rebate, the final cost is $49.99 delivered tax-free. This promotion ends on 4/14.

How can you not...

..give her absolutely everything she asks for?

Hope you had a very happy Easter.

Eatin' Crack

What Gattina is referring to, is a recipe for Momofuku's Crack Pie. Quoting the L.A. Times,

"It's ooey-gooey. Buttery and rich. Silky. Pillowy."

I have never made pie before. I usually stick with cakes and cookies, but if I were to choose a pie to make, well I's be makin' crack.

I followed the recipe with the following notations:

1. I used a 10-inch glass pie plate. Didn't alter the cooking times or temperatures.
2. The recipe yields 2 pies: I made the full recipe for the cookie-crust, but halved the recipe for the filling, resulting in one pie with crust and one separate batch of cookies.
3. After reading the comments on the recipe page, I added a half-teaspoon of corn starch to the filling mixture, because I was concerned my first pie would be a soupy mess. The cornstarch did thicken the pie - instead of gooey, it solidified into a nice, forkable custard.
4. The butter in the pie carmelized the cookie crust, giving me a very crisp, Florentine-like texture.
5. I prefer warm crack over cold crack.

The porn

Uncooked crack.

Right out of the oven. BE CAREFUL. This is full of sizzling butter. Let it settle down, then move to a rack and the fridge.

You can see how it crisped the crust and also how it expands during cooking.



After setting in the fridge. Even better warmed in the oven.

My 8 y.o. crack addict. He also helped dust the top of the pie.


THANK YOU, GATTINA! ILU

Party People in the house say "hey"

"When kids hit one year old, it's like hanging out with a miniature drunk person." - J. Depp

My daughter is turning four in just a few hours. I've broken away from the weekend-long festivities to blog about....the cake...of course.

A week before, I had asked her what kind of birthday cake she wanted - and she immediately started spouting off names of her favorite cartoon characters, nearly hyperventilating herself. The crucial elements included:

Ni-Hao Kai Lan

Dora the Explorer

Hello Kitty

The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse characters

We also browsed through Google images for some source material that was acceptable to her. Once I had a rough idea of what to construct, I started Photoshopping a montage. This was going to be a photo-cake, so I had to plan accordingly.

For extra-credit, I found a rounded font similar to the Ni-Hao Kai Lan logo, color-matched the text and utilized some of the decorative inserts and elements. With photo-cakes, it's best to put the text in yourself, rather than risk having the baker write something in icing.

Here's the end result:

Bugs in the boobies

Now that I have your attention...

I've been using the Emerald viewer for quite a while now - the implementation of breast-physics was just too good of a feature to pass up. However, there are a few things that have now tempted me away from the jigglyness.

1. I started to experience more and more Transaction errors with Emerald. I'll get a message box that will say something to the effect of "your transaction could not be processed." Shame on me for not capturing the exact text for you. But the end result is that I lose a linden here and there, while my balance temporarily goes to -1, requiring a relog.

2. The introduction of Linden Labs' SL 2.0 Beta viewer. There are several new features being introduced with this new viewer, some of which include:

a. Browser-like navigation for teleporting

b. A new sliding-menu motif for the main user interface

c. A separate tattoo-layer for avatars

d. An alpha-mask layer for avatars (no more invisiprims)

e. The ability to apply shared-media as a texture to a prim face. Not only video, but also browser sessions

I should re-iterate that the SL 2.0 is still in beta release, so expect the usual bugs, fixes, and changes. They've done a major overhaul on it, so you'll no doubt be fumbling around trying to find new ways of doing old things. Performance seems to be (for me) about the same for this viewer compared to Emerald.

If you're an early-adopter, or just curious, give it a look.

Less than three hours to go...

Let me just say that this election has shown me something that I'd never thought I'd see. I know I had the support of my friends at the start of this election...but what I did NOT count on, were the friends of those friends coming out to support me.

People I had not heard from in a year just teleported in and freely gave their support. Then, THEY started asking their contacts to vote also. I sit here before you a humbled man.

Thank you, everyone who voted, and those of you who wished to, but could not. The results are still a long ways off, but with friends like you, there's no losing.

Happy Chinese New Year

One thing I like about being Chinese...we get to celebrate the New Year twice.

The Kitchen Gods smiled on me tonight, since I was able to make the following dinner without triggering the smoke alarm:

Pan-fried potsticker dumplings

Bean-thread long-life noodles

Steamed broccoli

Soy sauce chicken

Broiled bacon-wrapped prawns

Oranges

Gung Hay Fat Choy, y'all.

Happy Valentine's Day

Wishing you hopeless romantics out there a happy St.Valentine's Day.

Here's what I made my valentine:

Start with a heart-shaped chocolate cupcake

Dip some strawberries in chocolate-espresso syrup

Throw on some vanilla cream-cheese mousse

Needs crunch...so use an Oreo cookie

Some more chocolate-espresso sauce for the pornographers.

HVD - ILU