wrm
Too good not to share
From Borepatch.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A91pY1L9meQ
Maybe some clarification required. The traditional New Orleans Funeral with Music consists of two parts. It starts with a somber procession to the cemetery, transporting the Guest of Honour to the planting* ceremony, followed by a helluva big party on the way back.
Just a Closer Walk with Thee comes in two parts, one suited for the mourning and one suited for the party. Google will give you plenty versions of it, the one I’ve always liked is by The Preservation Hall Jazz Band — I might even prefer (blasphemy!) (the jury is still out) the second half to that of Clapton et al. Not that it matters, these guys are stunningly good.
Of course Tanya hates it :-)
* In reality, tradition tends to favour above-ground tombs in New Orleans, because water table.
Read The Whole Thing.
The Adaptive Curmudgeon, phoning home:
Me: “AAAAAUUUUUUUGGGGGGHHHHH!”
Mrs. Curmudgeon: “I’ve told you to switch to decaf.”
Me: “I HAVE! I’m in Starbucks, surrounded by hipster dipshits, and I’m drinking decaf!”
Mrs. Curmudgeon: “Oh my God! Are you OK?”
Worn Out
We’ve been networking with Microsoft Windows for pretty much 20 years. Two decades, starting with Windows 95 (Might even have been Windows 3.11 for Workgroups, can’t remember, it’s been… 20 years).
And for all of those 20 years, we’ve had the PCs on a workgroup called “FOO* SYSTEMS”. Note the space.
Because now I have a Windows 7 32-bit box, and a Windows 7 64-bit box, and my venerable Windows 2000 box**. And lo, the Windows 2000 box can see both Windows 7 boxes in the network neighborhood, and copy files from the one Windows 7 box to the other, but neither Windows 7 box can see (1) itself, (2) the other Windows 7 box, (3) the Windows 2000 box, or (4) pretty much anything else in the notwork*** neighborhood.
So I started experimenting (what the Brits would call a spanner and Erin would call knobdicking). Frobbed with the firewall settings, IPV6, homegroups, 56-bit encryption, enabling NetBEUI, standing on my head and holding my breath, and who knows what else.
And you know what the problem is?
That fscking space in the workgroup name.
That space has been supported for 20 years, and that support has finally worn out.
* Usage #2 of course.
** Which has absolutely nothing wrong with it. Except that it won’t run the latest version of FireChromePera. Which is required to run the latest version of Flash. Which in turn is required to browse anything running on port 80 these days, primarily to support their revenue stream.
*** Not a typo.
Mind Bender
So I recently retrieved my Argonaut 505 Amateur Radio Transceiver from storage. Turned it on, no hiss from the speaker. That’s… unusual, points to a dead audio amplifier.
Geek line, do not cross. Geek line, do not cross. (TLDR: I solved the problem)
Never happened!
The Hobbit / Smaug. You can sit watching it and shout “Never Happened!” all. the. damn. time. and you’d be right more often than not.
OK, you also need “no FSCKING WAY!”, especially when barrels are involved. But impossible as it is, that also Never Happened.
Dayumn. There’s a book. And there’s a movie. And there’s a correlation with the name and most many of the characters.
Hell no.
(And is it just me or did they skimp on the CGI? Some of those wargs reminded me of Apple ][ games, just a bit)
Gemsbok chili
I learned to make chili from the Foodie Handbook. It calls for beans and plenty paprika. We like beans in our chili. And get your paprika from the good guys, that brown stuff from Robertson is useless.
So while digging through the freezer, I found a hunk of meat labelled “silverside”. I thought it was eland but when I started working with it I realised it’s gemsbok. Half of it went into a tomato bredie with the other half earmarked for a curry of some sort. Put it in a bowl, covered it with buttermilk, left it in the freezer overnight.
Found this recipe for venison chili (the one halfway down with the “crab bake” which I don’t have and didn’t use). Adapted it a bit.
Olive oil + butter in the flat bottom black pot, shake most of the buttermilk off the meat, fry the meat in batches and remove. Fry two chopped onions, one green pepper, about a tablespoon of garlic. Add the meat back in, add a tin of chopped tomatoes, a tin of kidney beans, a tin of borlotti beans and a tin of red beans (that’s what I had in the cupboard). I used less chili powder than the recipe calls for, small people in the house. Three four heaped tablespoons paprika, tin of tomato paste, heaped teaspoon cayenne. Some mixed spice and a tablespoon chicken stock powder. And some herbs, can’t remember what, probably rosemary. Add fresh (well, fresh from the freezer in this case) danja right at the end, serve with creme fraiche if you have (we didn’t, used normal cream).
It could have cooked for longer but we were hungry. That’s also why there are no pictures.
Slapstick
I suggest all of y’all out in the meme-o-sphere start using “slap the tree” in place of “jump the shark“.
How I met your mother should have been canned last season.
“Utopian Idealist” wins the internets.
In response to an article on news24.com, “Officials act after woman takes bath in pothole“.
Comment from Utopian Idealist:
That’s not a pothole, its a fire pool, to assist in fighting veld fires in the area.
Christmas cooking 2013
I can really recommend Pioneer Woman’s turkey brine, two-step roasting process, and turkey gravy.
Ree says she uses a 20 pound turkey — that’s huge. The biggest turkey I could find was about 3 1/2 kilograms, call it 10 pounds. It fed seven of us, with enough meat left over to make turkey stroganoff (strongly recommended recipe) while leaving the drumsticks for whoever wants to gnaw on them.
The “10 minutes per pound” rule of thumb is only linear around 20 pounds, I guess, because at the end of the 100 minutes my turkey was already clocking 160 degrees. Maybe the thermostat is off. So I cranked the oven down a bit while boiling the gammon, and the little red jobbie popped up pretty much when I needed the oven for Yorkshire Pudding. Which isn’t a pudding but the brits have strange names for things. Came out pretty well.
This is the only pic I have — it got a bit busy in the kitchen.
Gammon: 1.8 kilograms, browned, covered 3/4 with water, 20 minutes / lb, then stuck in the oven to brown. Nothing funny.
I had some complaints about the gravy. Well, one complaint. There wasn’t nearly enough of it. What I did was to Maillard an onion in the slow cooker for an hour or so, then I added the giblets and water and cooked it overnight. Used the pan drippings, some flour, and the stock to make the gravy. Unlike Pioneer Woman I didn’t add the giblets to the gravy, all the flavour was in the stock already.