Life

Smokin’

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

Woke up around 4:30 AM.

Lit the charcoal. It’s makes it easy to get started.

Took the briskets out of the fridge. These are from the calf we recently bought. I thought about only doing one, but like all cuts from a calf, they’re smaller than you’re used to. If I’m going to run this much fire, might as well do them both. They’ve been sitting in the fridge for about 24 hours with dry rubs. Didn’t feel like putting my own rubs together, so I’m trying two commercial seasonings/rubs. One is rubbed with Good Shit. The other with McCormick Grill Mates Montreal Steak Seasoning. They might turn out awesome. They might suck. Either way it just means one must make more brisket in the future. Either way it’s a fun experiment. I am expecting the Good Shit to turn out pretty nice. No idea how the Grill Mates will turn out given how salty it is.

Around 5:20 or so the charcoal was ashy. Threw a few good-sized chunks of mesquite wood on as well as a nice oak log. I’ll be working to keep the temp in the 200 to 250 degree range all day. I’ll use mesquite and oak for the first couple hours, then oak only the rest of the day. I really like the flavor mesquite imparts into beef, but I also found if that’s all you use for long smokes like this it can be overpowering or even too much and get bitter. Oak works great for long smokes.

After another 20 minutes or so to stabilize the temps and ensure the wood caught, put on the briskets. I’ll check every hour or so. After the first few hours, I’ll wrap them loosely in foil. I usually don’t do that, but given how small these guys are compared to regular brisket as well as how tender the meat is from the get go, something tells me that’s a wise thing to do. The plan is to smoke them 10-12 hours.

Poured myself a Stone Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale. Never tried it before. May not try it again. It’s a good ale in and of itself, but I’m so damn tired of everyone trying to make the most bitter, most hoppy beer. I had no idea when I saw the bottle in the store… that’ll learn me. Tho while at the store I also picked up some Brooklyn Lager. Never had that either, but it’s been on my radar so I figured why not try it.

Once everyone else in the house is awake, I have salsa to make.

We received about a pound of tomatillos in our CSA box this week. Wife found a simple roasted tomatillo & garlic salsa recipe online, so I’ll give that a try. We also had peppers and tomatoes and other goodies in the box, so I’ll also throw together a basic tomato salsa. Just tomatoes, a couple serranos (those were the peppers in the box), onion, garlic, cilantro, some lime juice, salt. Whirr it in the blender to smooth it out but still be somewhat chunky. No idea of the proportions… just going to wing it. 🙂

Should be a good day.

Socialization

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

Whenever people learn we homeschool our kids, the follow-up response tends to be something asking about…

Socialization.

“But what about socialization?”

My response these days is that we let our children out of the dungeon for 30 minutes a day, they get to walk the perimeter of the yard twice, eyes downward, then it’s back into the cage.

Usually that response works because people see the exaggeration and realize the absurdity of not only my response, but their question. But for a moment yes, this is about what people think. That just because our kids don’t spend 8+ hours a day surrounded by others of their age that somehow our children will turn out socially retarded.

Today I hear about this story, of a 68-year-old bus monitor receiving all manner of abuse from middle-school kids.

Here’s the original video

What sort of socialization leads to this sort of behavior? Where 13-year-olds find it not just acceptable — but enjoyable — to abuse and drive an elderly woman to cry.

I refuse to allow my children to be around this is the sort of socalization.

So yeah… what about “socialization”?

on testing and qualification

/ hsoi

ToddG reveals something that many wouldn’t like to know — the truth about police shooting qualification courses.

For the non-gun public, I think the thing they’ll probably be shocked to realize is how little many police forces actually shoot their guns, and how when standards are made “more realistic” lots of cops can’t pass the minimum requirements.

The anti-gun folk say things like only police should have guns… you know, people with training and skill. You would be shocked to see how many don’t have either. Just because your job requires you to have a gun doesn’t mean you can use it (effectively). Conversely, just because you’re a normal Joe Citizen doesn’t mean you don’t have nor can’t acquire good gun handling skills, and their skill level can surpass those who have “gun” in their job description.

This is not to say it’s this way across the board. Many police officers are good shots, and a lot of PD’s are realizing a need to up the ante — which is ultimately the crux of Todd’s article.

What’s sad is when people blame the test instead of looking at themselves. It’s like anything in life. If something fails or goes wrong, where does the blame first go? It ought to be on you, to examine yourself and see what you can do better.

But it’s like any sort of mandated government “test”, be it a police qual or be it standardized testing. There’s lots of politics, lots of wrangling, and lots of weight put onto the test — even if the test has nothing to do with anything in the real world. But because such weight is put onto the test, all “education” then becomes is prepping for the test. So we don’t prepare people for the real world, we just prepare them for a test that really doesn’t matter much in the world — but it matters to some pencil-pusher or politician somewhere.

Well, at least in this area of life it seems some are trying to get it and improve the way things are.

So much can be taken from this

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

Napoleon Rutledge, a 67-year-old Chattanooga man and Vietnam vet, was the victim of an attempted robbery in a grocery store parking lot.

Rutledge refused to be a victim.

In fact, he was mad.

When the gunman held the gun up Rutledge said, “Why you wanna rob me? Why don’t you get a job? What I got, what I get, what I spend in this store, I earned it! I said if you gonna shoot me then shoot me. I got a wife and three kids that you’ll have to take care of.”

The gunman apparently got scared and took off, tho was apprehended along with two others.

Rutledge just doesn’t understand the mentality of people like Malone. “What is wrong with them? I got drafted to go to Vietnam, I didn’t have a choice. They got all the opportunities in the world now to make something of themselves but they don’t want it,” he said.

In hearing this story, I think about so many different things.

First, Rutledge is black, and his robber was black. So those of you wishing to inject race or racism as the root of all conflict are just out of luck here… sorry Jesse Jackson, sorry Al Sharpton, go pander somewhere else. Or better, how about you come and support Mr. Rutledge?

But it also demonstrates that race isn’t the issue. It’s an issue of people who work and earn their keep in this world, that are productive, and just don’t like people who come along and wish to take it from them… that expect a handout, or are unwilling to earn their keep, or are otherwise unproductive in society. And yes, the parallel between this robbery and the robbery going on by our government and so much “liberal compassion”, desire to “redistribute wealth”, and so on well… it’s about the same, both in behavior and in the anger it produces in the victim.

The there’s the coda to the article:

It should be noted this is not how the Chattanooga Police Department recommends you react in a similar situation, but in Napoleon’s case it seemed to work.

If you watch the video, it’s slightly different saying “it’s nice to see the good guy win for once”. Folks, if you want to keep seeing the good guy win, then the only way to do it is to stand up to the bad guy. Handling things the way the Police say will always let the bad guy win. No the good guys won’t always win, but if you always permit yourself to be the victim, you’ll never have a chance to be the victor.

 

Getting my geek on

/ hsoi / 10 Comments

When it comes to geekery, I’m more of the “medieval fantasy” type than the sci-fi type. I played Dungeons & Dragons. I played on lots of MUDs, and I just prefer swords and sorcerers to ray guns and aliens. Sure I like some sci-fi, but given a choice I know what I prefer.

But given that, I’m really weak in my geek cred.

I’ve never read J.R.R. Tolkien.

Well, not entirely true. Some years ago I think it was my older sister that bought a copy of The Hobbit for my kids. I realized the shortcoming in my geek world and did set about reading it a few years ago. I’m ashamed I didn’t read it sooner because it was wonderful. And of course, once I had read it, so many things became clearer in my geek world. Tolkien’s influence is vast.

So of course that means I need to read The Lord of the Rings.

But being the tech geek I am, and that I’m enjoying the new Apple TV well…. I opted to buy all 3 LTotR movies. 🙂

Watched “Fellowship of the Ring” last night. Going to watch the other two movies today. So… this is all the blog you get for today.

Really enjoyed “Fellowship”, as did the rest of the family. In fact, Oldest is in process of reading The Hobbit, this is all dovetails nicely. I reckon we’ll buy and read the books down the line, because books are usually always better than the movie adaptations.

Anyways… off to be a geek.

Deer control

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Waterton Lakes National Park has a mule deer problem. The deer wander into the town because… it’s safe. But that the puts hundreds of deer into the town, which can cause its own set of problems… but then a bigger one happens too, like other animals that prey on the deer wandering into town.

It’s all a big problem.

Parks Canada is taking a really cool approach to working with the problem.

Adapt the natural abilities of… Border Collies.

The whole concept is cool, but it’s also just cool watching Jill (the collie) work. I love watching smart dogs.

First day down

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

Don’t worry… I won’t write about work all the time. 🙂

But first day today was pretty cool.

Got right into code, with the project lead explaining the app architecture, which is all pretty sound. Then I dug through the codebase and it’s pretty straightforward. I like it because it’s simple, seems to be well-written, fairly understandable. Not much in the way of documentation or comments, but most is fairly easy to figure out. This is a very pleasant and welcome change compared to some codebases I’ve dealt with in my past.

Lots of process changes too. Using GitHub, Heroku, different bug tracking, different tools (like DropBox), new workflows. Just a lot of new ways to do things. Today was a HUGE dump of information and process, and I know I won’t remember it all. But I’m diving right in… got a few easy bugs assigned to me to help me get my feet wet and start to learn how things work, and in handling those all the process stuff will come to make sense. Slow but sure I’ll get there, and I reckon by the end of the week should start feeling comfortable.

There’s a lot of things I’m going to have to get used to and adapt to, not just in terms of the work itself, but the new people, new environment, new everything. I’m the FNG, and all that comes with that. 🙂

But I can say… I really am liking the people. The other 2 devs that I work directly with, we seem to be hitting it off fairly well already. They’re both wicked smart guys, funny, laid back, and just good geeks. At one point one of them pulled out the old iPhone lightsaber app… and then I pulled out mine, and we geeked out for a bit. In so many ways, the people you work with make all the difference as to whether the job is good or bad… and I think this is going to be good.

I’m debating if I should bring my Nerf Raider in….

To you, my readers, thanx for the support. Things will be different, but I’m just going to enjoy the ride. 🙂

A new journey

/ hsoi / 10 Comments

Today I begin down a new road.

I spent the past (almost) 12 years working for one software company. It started at a small house, which was acquired some years ago. The small house was great. I remember choosing it for the intangibles it offered, because while the pay and some other options were less than some other offers I had, the fact it was so “family” just drew me in. But then, acquisition, and corporate culture changes as it always does. And while all things weren’t bad, the road the company is going down and the road I wish to go down are no longer the same path. So it’s time for me to move on.

I’m joining a small company here in town doing iOS programming. I’m quite happy about that. The future is mobile computing, and I’m happy to be a part of it… especially since I can continue to be an Apple fanboy (been one since I was a kid, with Apple II’s… learned to program on a //e). 🙂

It’s going to be a lot of changes in a lot of ways. I think one of the more interesting ones will be joining a small company. I’ve been part of “large” companies for the majority of my career, companies with at least 3 digits worth of employees. This will be the smallest I’ve ever worked at… maybe 15 employees. It’s going to be different, it’s going to be some adjustment. But I think it will be great to be able to make more impact and not have to fight such a tide of corporate red tape all the time.

This is part of what I was alluding to in a prior post about a big change in my life. Schedule changes… I’m working with people all in my time zone, instead of west and east coasters. Have to adjust to these differences and so yeah… maybe my workout plan will have to change. We’ll see. There’s just much to figure out.

I’m nervous. I’m excited. A little scared too. I’ve had a lot of “known comfort” for many years. Most people I know have changed jobs numerous times while I stayed at the same job for 12 years. In some ways, I just don’t know how to be the “FNG“, other than to shut up, do my work, prove myself, and exceed their expectations. It’s going to be weird in a lot of ways… but I am hoping the changes will all be for the good, even if right now it may not seem it. There’s always something to learn, something to gain, some way to grow. Just have to seek it.

We’ll see where this leg of my journey takes me.