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CTP is looking to get a super-fancy button making machine. He’s got a sweet deal for you to help make it happen. Check it out.

I’m thinking of making an assurance contract with ThePoint.com so I can chip in $20 instead of $100. That’ll be fun…

How long does it take to cut down a tree, strip the bark, trim the tree to haulable lengths and set it down to be carted off?

How about 15 seconds!

(Video not safe for work if you are at a tree-hugging organization)

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I saw this at Civic Center during Obama’s Innauguration.

With my 3 shoes, I hit him twice and missed once. That was enough to win me a new president!

:-(

Last night I picked up my phone and pushed the Menu button. The phone flickered on for a split second and then fell dead black. The phone was completely unresponsive. I googled a bit and found a reset command:  Hold down the power button and Menu button for 6 full seconds.

The phone came back to life. But hmm… every phone call I made today had poor cell phone reception :-(((. I uninstalled all the apps I had installed over the last couple days just in case those contributed to the problem. Those programs include: Falling Balls, UStream Viewer, PAC-MAN Lite, and iEphemeris Lite.

I tried pushing that reset sequence again today and the iPhone crashed or something such that it said that it would only make emergency calls. I left the phone off for 1/2 an hour while I went shopping (rather miffed and paniced that my expensive toy might be broken), turned it on again and it gave me a message like “iPhone activated [Ok]”. And now it seems to work fine.

We’ll see….

Just like that!

And you’ll stay alive. What Marah has to say about making lists and going over them.

Squeee!!

 http://tiltshiftmaker.com

Tiltshift photography is so super-nifty! It, of course, reminds me of so many old Japanese monster movies done with models and incorrect camera lenses. Tiltshiftmaker.com applies a filter to your images to make a nice tiltshift effect. To do the real thing you need to build yourself a tilt-shift camera.

Here is a Tiltshift Flickr group. (warning, some of the images are poorly done, some awsome).  And you have to check these out at  Laughing Squid, especially.

(click the thumbnails!)
My tiny balls

San Francisco 2008 Valentines Day Pillowfight

My Burning Man 2007 Camp

Bread is very simple.

Here is my new favorite bread recipe. I started with the Best Recipe recipe for “Rustic Bread” and simplified it because I’m lazy. It comes out terrific.

It takes less than 5 minutes work. Yes, really.

1. Put 6 cups all purpose flour, 2 tsp salt, 3 tsp yeast  in big bowl
2. Mix
3. Add 2 3/4 c water or so. 2.5 – 3.0 cups is fine
4. Mix with one hand until it’s gloopy, about 2 minutes. No, don’t kneed it
5. Cover the bowl with aluminum foil for 2 hrs in a warm place
6. Flour a baking sheet
7. Grab 1/2 the dough and plop it on the pan
8. Roll it around a tiny bit so it looks more like a loaf
9. Grab the other half of the dough and do the same
10. Turn on the oven to 450
11. When the oven comes up to temperature (10-20 minutes) put the pre-bread in
12. Take out the finished bread 45 minutes later
13. Eat it!

Here is “Bread Making Level 2”. If you want a really nice thick crust do this:

1. Put a heavy, oven safe pan in the oven below the bread.  (cast iron is good)  
2. Just before you put the pre-bread into the oven, pour some boiling water in the pan

The steam will give the bread a thick “meaty” crust.

See my notes about the price of yeast

That recipe comes from Cook’s Illustrated’s “Best Recipe” cookbook. It’s a rustic country bread recipe. I find it interesting that, first, one can distill their full-page recipe down to this, and second, this excellent recipe is so gosh darn simple.

Here are some comments on the recipe:

Yes, I just mix it until it’s goopy, like 3 minutes of stirring with one hand in a bowl. The dough will be very wet and it sticks to everything. There’s no point in getting any utensils all gooped up. And I didn’t “work” the dough at all.

There’s all kinds of yeast treatments, like letting it develop for days on end, sourdough starter and the like. I guess they do a little something but feh, just add yeast. And I’ve seen all kinds of yeast: instant, nearly instant, super instant, wet, slimy, goopy. I’ve never tasted or witnessed much of a difference. I used Fleishmann’s #2139 Instant Dry Yeast in a 1 lb vacuum sealed bag.

2 tickets ordered (15 seconds after sales went live)

Now… am I going?

This is totally random… I woke up a few weeks ago with memory of this random dream floating in my head. Continue reading ‘A Random Dream I Had’ »