Come flix with me!

I recently realized that while I very good at sharing my contact information for facebook, twitter, tumblr, this blog, etc, etc... I have utterly missed out on utilizing the social features of Netflix. I don't know how useful they are, but from other forms of social media, I know I can't figure it out if I don't give them a try, I also know I enjoy discussing movies with my friends and acquaintances, and often put more weight on a good review from someone I know than a renown movie critic.

So if you want to try this out with me, click this link, and become my friend on Netflix!

Edit: If you do add me as a friend, I would appreciate it if you were to send me a quick note or a comment here so I have some idea who my new Netflix friends are.

Pale Blue Dot

Today is the 75th anniversary of Carl Sagan's birth.Carl would probably be the first to tell you, he wasn't all that important, and I would mostly agree. He was a human who lived all of his life on the surface of the small blue speck in the brown band on the right hand side of this image.

Of this photo, Sagan said

"Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known."

The same brilliant words are also available in a video. I recommend that you read the words, watch the video and try to remember them always, especially the last part, "To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known."

I think that the world is a better place for anyone who remembers and cherishes these words.

Sidewalks?

I was very excited to read this article in the Gazette about the upcoming project to widen Collins Road. Although I am not so excited about the road widening part as I am about the fact that there are finally going to be sidewalks along the the portion of First Avenue east of 40th street.

Not only do I think that all roads (other than interstates and rural roads) should have sidewalks, but especially this area of First Avenue. The area in question is mainly commercial zoning and I have always thought it was ludicrous that I had to put my life in fairly significant danger to go from one shopping complex to the one across the road from it. In addition, 1st Ave is one of the few ways to get from Cedar Rapids to Marion (for two neighboring cities, they don't have many connections).

One thing the article doesn't say, and I am trying to figure out, does the improvements to Collins Road include sidewalks? I hope one of my three regular readers knows.

Why I trust Google as much as I do.

In another attempt to appear more hip than I actually am, I started using Google Voice to text message my friends, as this appears to be what you use a cell phone, in lieu of talking, if one is actually hip. While discussing my new set up with Brooke, she mentioned that although the system seems kind of cool, she doesn't know how she felt about Google knowing even more information about her (if you're not aware, Google Voice will record voice messages and send transcriptions to you via e-mail, I assume Google uses these transcriptions for something, you also must give your contact's information to Google for the system to work effectively).

While I can certainly understand the feelings, I don't share it, I have no problem with Google knowing, and profiting from, all types of information about me. However the conversation did spark an interest in why I feel this way about Google. It didn't take me much thought before I realized that it all came to one simple fact, protecting my personal information is in the best interest of Google.

If one of my credit card companies loses my information (along with the information of millions of other customers) they look foolish, type up a press release and call it a day. On the other hand, if Google loses my information, they have lost their only asset, a large volume of personal information that they had exclusively. So while losing my information might cost other companies customers in the long run, it would cost Google their competitive advantage.

My name is Sam, and I have a problem

Recently my employer has started blocking access to a myriad of web services. Originally it was stated that these blocks were to prevent employees from accesses websites that are forbidden under our polices (gambling and porn) as well as curb the heavy amount of bandwidth use (mostly due to streaming media) that we had been racking up.

The implementation of this new policy really forced me to examine my internet addition as I discovered which site were and weren't being blocked. Below is a list of sites/catagories which are now blocked followed with my reactions.

Social media - While this shows that the people making decisions don't really understand the usefulness of these new means of networking I know that they were being overused by many co-workers (probably including me). I can cope with this.

Wulffmorgenthaler - probably not the most appropriate site to check out during work, but it's no worse than some of the "humorous" e-mails that get forwarded around endlessly. I can cope.

Pwned on camera - see above. I can cope.

Blogger - When you try to access a blogger blog, the blocking software says that this falls into the category of "Forums & Newsgroups" which are blocked, this category includes many blogging services (not wordpress for whatever reason) as well as many forums. This was my first set of blocked sites that I found objectionable, as I use a wide variety of forums to gain information about ducts and pipes. This is what I view as being one of the strengths of the internet, the virtually unlimited amount of information that is available on it. This resulted in medium annoyance and heavy head scratching. (luckily the mechanical engineering group have a blog set up, so I have since gained access to Blogger).

Sports - An interesting group of sites to block, as news sites were not blocked. I can cope (even once fantasy football starts)

Games - It makes complete sense to me to block this category, while I am guilty of playing games at work sometimes, I realize that I shouldn't be doing so. I can cope.

Porn - [Don't worry, while porn is blocked, the porn entry in Wikipedia is not (I think, I haven't checked it)] Who looks at porn at work (we don't have private offices). Blocking this makes perfect sense as it is part of our corporate policies but didn't realize that we were having problems with people looking at porn. I understand, and can cope.

Streaming media - This is what I thought the whole filter system was for, streaming media eats up an incredible amount of bandwidth which the company has to pay for. Although this is the most heavily abused category of web usage I still think that this can easily be monitored and dealt with on a one by one basis. I can cope.

Web based e-mail - Discovering this almost caused me to have an aneurysm. That may be an overstatement, but I did have to spend several minutes on the roof of the parking garage cursing loudly to my brother on the phone. A good part of my life is spent online, utilizing numerous tools to connect to people in my life, and all of those internet resources are funneled to me through my gmail account. In addition to that I have been forced to use my gmail account when the one provided to me by my employer is too sissy to perform a needed task (I am limited to 5 MB file size and a total of 80 MB of storage, seriously). While I can understand limiting my usage of the previously mentioned sites, by preventing me from using gmail I am unable to even be alerted if someone tried to use them to contact me. A lot of cursing and thinking about quitting my job. (As previously mentioned the mechanical engineering group has a blogger blog set up, to view this blog one needs a gmail account, thus I was able to argue my need of access, along with this access came a greatly reduced amount of cursing and feeling bad for myself) (And yes, I do realize I have an internet addiction problem)

While I understand that many companies have much stricter internet filters in place, I don't care. These internet restrictions were not implemented due to security concerns or because of widespread abuse. They were implemented because a small group of people did not know how to responsibly use the internet and their managers weren't able to address these issues.

During one of the many conversations with my brother on this issue he used a phrase that I think is very appropriate, "Penny wise, pound foolish." While I can understand someone looking at the sites being blocked and pointing out that most of them do not have any business application, they lose sight of the fact that if I am able to spend a few minutes catching up with my friends outside of work, I am much more willing to stay at work until late at night/early in the morning.

I imagine that this policy will be changing a lot in the near future, even as it was implemented it was being questioned by in the company above my own plebeian class. I'm sure I will write about it as it changes, as complaining is something I never get tired of.

Instantaneous communication

I have always complained about the expectation of instantaneous communication that cell phones and e-mail create. Nothing sums up my issues as well as the following video:




This video also does a great job of encapsulating a crazy girlfriend in text form, which is much more hilarious than a crazy girlfriend in person.

(Via Kottke) (I know kottke wasn't the first site this video showed up on, however it is the site I saw it on first.)

A burger not good enough to write about (but I did anyway)

For today's lunch I went to Victor's Place and purchased their daily special (I of course got the bacon cheeseburger, not the pasta).

I have always been pleased with the quality of the food as well as the variety offered through their specials, however today's fare left much to be desired. I would refer to this burger as a Sysco burger because it was very apparent that is where everything came from.

The patty was obviously preformed, and was low quality meat to boot, while the bacon was your standard razor thin slices of something bacon-like. Neither one of these items bothered me too much, as such food of this quality is unfortunately the norm and not the exception.

What really bothered me about this burger were the vegetable additions, namely the lettuce and onion. Instead of a nice crisp leaf of lettuce, the bun was filled with preshredded iceberg, and instead of sweet and crisp onions, they were limp and bitter, telling me that they had probably been pulled out of the ground a year ago.

Overall there wasn't anything about this burger I could complain about, nothing was obscenely gross tasting, and nothing was wrong, but I found the burger so uninspired, it was as if it had been put together by someone with less pride in their job than the burger assemblers at Wendy's.

My final rating of this food is one of the worst I can give, I determined that the burger was not worth the calories contained within and didn't finish it.

Idaho's Stop-As-Yield law

Local bicyclist B.J. Smith recently tweeted an article about Idaho's Stop-as-yield law.

To quickly sum up the law (you should read the article anyway,) the law allows bicyclists to roll through a stop sign,

when a cyclist approaches an intersection controlled by a stop sign, the cyclist must slow to “a reasonable speed,” but is not obligated to stop unless doing so is “required for safety.” After yielding to any vehicle that has the right of way, the cyclist may proceed.

The points raised by the article all make a lot of sense,

[Stop signs] reduce [safety] by requiring cyclists to enter the intersection after a stop, with no momentum, which makes them less stable and poorly positioned to execute evasive maneuvers, if necessary.

I see two points there were not mentioned in the article, firstly is improve the efficiency of the auto traffic at an intersection by decreasing the amount of time necessary for a bicycle to clear the intersection, and in turn decreasing how long opposed automobiles must remain stopped.

Secondly, it increases safety by making bicycle traffic more predictable. It makes standard what many cyclists (and cars as well) do already, the rolling stop. By officially stating bike can perform a rolling stop in lieu of a complete stop, it makes it easier to predict what is going to happen when a car and a bike approach an intersection.

However, I would be interested in hearing what impact such laws have on the motored segment of traffic. Do laws like this make driver's feel like they should have the right to roll through stop signs thus causing more accidents, or does it enforce a set of rules for rolling stops thus decreasing accidents?

In which I ramble about the Cedar Rapids Library and downtown.

The Cedar Rapids Public Library opened a location in downtown for the first time in a year. I was very pleased as my use of the library dropped off without one, and the library was an important part of the downtown.

The fact that they opened the location in the Armstrong building made me think. Why is the city looking to build a new library when there are so many vacancies downtown? Wouldn't a commercial store front, or an office space serve the needs of a library just as well as a custom build building?

I would think a partnership like that would serve both parties well, the library would benefit from existing infrastructure, parking is available (especially after 5 and on weekends), there is as much bus access as Cedar Rapids will currently provide, and a location in the core of downtown would allow the library to better benefit from the numerous events in downtown. The surrounding area would benefit by the increased draw outside of the Monday-Friday, nine-five time slot.

With a large amount of the Linn County government currently located in previous retail space, I'm surprised that I haven't heard similar discussions about the Library's permenent downtown location.

A secondary argument can be the environmental impact. Alliant Energy has spent a lot of money putting up billboards with the message "Rebuild green," which is a good message (as much as I hate the term "green"). But it overlooks the most enviromentally friendly option, not building new at all, simply work with what we currenlty have, and we currently have a lot of empty office and retail space in the downtown.

The Armstrong building is so called, because it used to be a department store (Armstrong's department store), which has since closed and been turned into retail and office space. If the library were to have a large location in it (or a similar building), people going to the library would be more inclined to go to a store or restaurant as the walk past, and we might actually have a chance to recreate a vibrant commercial area in downtown Cedar Rapids.

How to make a philly cheesesteak sandwich

Please note: what follows in not a recipe, or a how to, for making a cheese steak. If you want one of those, you need to go visit the greater Philadelphia metro area (you should go there any ways, it's a pretty cool, and historic, city). What I write here is simply the best approximate I have found using materials available in my area some 1000 miles from Philadelphia.

First, you start with a source of meat. My brother is correct, Steak-umms create the wrong type of greasy reprocessed meat flavor/texture. If you know a butcher who is willing to finely slice some steak for you, that would be perfect. Unfortunately the minimum wager behind the meat counter at Hy-vee that most of use get our meat product from can't help with this, which is why I am glad that I found Farmland's "philly style shaved beef," the meat comes in an easy to use, pre-potioned format and as the name of the product implies, it is made of strips of shaved beef, not beef puree like Steak-umms.

The second, and harder to find, part of the sandwich is the bread. The bread is also the most important part of the sandwich, it needs fluffy and chewy, and it needs to be able to absorb all of the delecious grease that will come out of your steak bits.

Once again, a compromise has to be found. If you really want an authentic sandwich, you need to find the correct recipe for hoggie rolls and then make it fresh. For those of you that simply want a close approximation, the best substitue I have found are Hy-vee Bakery's brat rolls. They're chewy and fluffy and they're made for brats, so you know they can absorb grease. They're nowhere near the size of the real thing, but once again, this is simply a substitue for the real thing.

Now that you have those two parts, all you just have to do is fry up some onions (I refuse to beleive that you can have too many onions). Throw you meat into the pan, mix it around with the onions. Throw some cheese on top, throw on the bread untill the cheese begins to melt, and then pull off the sandwiches and revel in the awesomeness.

I'm not silent about the "Ride of Silence"

The following post is about the "Ride of Silence," if you don't know what I'm talking about, please go here and quickly read the post, then come back here and read this post (I ask so much, don't I).

Before I alienate everyone who organized or participated in today's ride of silence, let me compliment it for a while. I thought the idea of the ride was great, I think that anything that increases the visibility of bicyclists in the community (especially the Cedar Rapids area) is great. And raising awareness of cyclists who have been injured on public roads is a very important cause (I hope someone has a ride for me if I get hit by a car).

That being said, there were many things in the execution of this ride that seemed to me to have missed the mark. The most glaring was the fact that at two points along to rout (north end of Oakland and the north end of Center Point) It was loudly announced that we needed to "get single file and get over, there are cars behind us" (announced by a fellow cyclist, not by a passing car).

Now don't get me wrong, I think that sharing the road is just that, sharing, and sharing goes both ways. However, I believe that the main issue in the bike/car relationship, is that drivers don't realize that the bicycle has the same right to the lane as the car, because bicycles don't act like the lane belongs to them. On my daily commute to work, I have stopped riding on the right side of the lane, and I found cars stopped trying to take the left portion of the lane. By riding in the center of the lane I clearly communicate to the cars around me that this is my lane and they need to act in such a manor. And I don't think there is a better venue to reinforce this behavior than on a large group ride.

There is protection in numbers, so I think that people who might not feel comfortable riding in the middle of their lane while alone, would be more comfortable if riding with a large group who were all behaving similarly. And I think that the more cyclists on the roads who behave like the lane belongs to them, the more drivers will behave in a similar manor (but I might be wrong and we might just end up with more people to commemorate with bicycle rides).

I don't want to rant too much about it, and I will participate on any similar rides in the future. I just hope that the organizers think about what they are communicating to the drivers on the road as carefully as they think about the message they are making to the cycling community.

My story about gas prices

Remember about a year ago when it seemed that every news organization had a (at least) weekly column about the price of gas? Why did not of them report on the price of gas for race cars?

I was filling up my car when I noticed one of the nozzles was for 110 octane, leaded racing fuel (I didn't even know you could sell that at a normal gas station). But what really amazed me was when I noticed the price, $5.399/gal. And this was when the price of regular gas was below $2.

Where were the stories about the poor race car driver that had to take a second mortgage on his house just so he could drive his kids to soccer practice? If I was a race car driver, I would feel that the national media really let me down on this one.

(After I posted this story, I noticed I was getting a few hits from people searching where to buy 110 octane racing fuel in Iowa. The photo was taken at the Hawkeye convenience store in Czech Village on 16th St.)

Canstruction - The conclusion

Saturday was the build date for this year's Corridor Canstruction, and although I could write a long rant about my many dislikes for how the lack of organization this year, I will just keep this short and post of cool pictures.

I was very please how smoothly the build went, and except for the substitution of razor sharp steel wire for the insulated copper wire I had originally used, there were no screw ups.

To the right is a photo of the front of the boat, although my brother seemed to get the front and the back confused. In retrospect I can see the confusion, it seems that the group in charge of the stern decided to make it a little on the pointy side, while the method used to construct the bow resulted in a rounded bow, oops.

For more pictures of the event, go to the Gazette's photo gallery. There is only one photo of our TiCanic, but as Gazette photographer, Liz Martin said, it wasn't very photogenic. I have to agree with her on this, it was a bulky bizarre thing. It will just give me more to think about in planning next years...

Dear Asshole (A letter to the asshole in the truck, from the asshole on the bike)

Dear Asshole,

I understand why you might have been pissed off with me, I was selfishly taking up an entire lane of a four lane road with a stupid bike. I can understand, I am often pissed off at things, more so when I happen to be driving.

However, bikes on the road might be something you should learn to deal with if the City of Cedar Rapids has their way and become a bicycle friendly city. As I said, I can understand being pissed off while driving, which is probably one of the reason I enjoy bicycling, you might want to look into it.

On a serious note, if you're going to honk at a bike in front of you, and then quickly accelerate and pass that bicycle quite closely while saying something (you have to slow down if you want me to actually hear you,) you should punch yourself in the face, because you shouldn't do that to start with. But if you do, you should at least have the courtesy to acknowledge that same cyclist when they catch up to you stopped at a traffic light a block down the road.

ZOMG!! Virus!!!!!

Today at work I received an e-mail from out IT department warning us about the confiker virus. It didn't really give any good solutions, it just warned the staff about how it is slated to be activated tomorrow (April 1).

I have a few problems with that. Mainly that it is their job to make this a non-issue, how would a client respond if I were to tell them "that system I designed for you, it won't work at all" and walk off?

It seems the the number of "warnings" I get about viruses is second only to stupid jokes when it comes to stupid mass e-mails. Most give dire warning about how it will melt my hard drive, steal my credit card number and kidnap my children, so I should send this e-mail to everyone I know. I find them funny, as it highlights the computer illiterate around me.

So make sure you don't have this evil virus, I hear that it will steal your kidneys in your sleep and eat your dog.

IC's drinking problem (part 2)

After writing yesterday's post, I ended up having a long conversation about the scope and the root of the drinking culture in Iowa City. In addition we discussed possible solutions and the possible unintended consequences of those solutions.

I know my audience base isn't very large (in fact I feel the majority of my readers were included in the discussion yesterday) however I am interested in turning this into a larger conversation.

• What are possible ways to reduce the amount of alcohol imbibed in Iowa City (in the next year or two)?
  
• What are possible ways to reduce the issues caused by the drinking culture in Iowa City?
• What should bar owners/operators be responsible for? What shouldn't they be held responsible for?
  
• What state/national regulations would prevent taxing served drinks in Iowa City?

Please leave your comments, I am interested in hearing what you have to say.

IC's drinking problem

I recently came across this article and was taken by this quote, "Most assaults occur at night and often involve people who have been drinking."

My response in one word, "Duh." The relationship between Iowa City and the drinking establishments is an interesting one. Having grown up in Iowa City I am well aware of this. There were bars that would serve me and my friends drinks when we were sixteen (and don't claim they thought we were older, we were sixteen.) Furthermore, there are several bars that I frequented up until I turned 21, once I had reached that age, I suddenly felt like I was the oldest person in the bar.

But while Iowa City wants to appear to be taking on under age, and binge drinking, they can't crack down on it too much, as I'm sure that the availability of alcohol has a very positive effect on undergrad enrollment at the University of Iowa. I would be interested in hearing if more people enrolled at the University because they had a football team, or because they got really drunk (or saw really drunk people) on a college visit.

The price to the city is obvious, increased crime rates, mainly assaults, but more frequently something stranger, causes a need for more police. This price is currently paid by the home owners in the city who, in turn, blame the University. As the previous article shows, it's not always university students, the bars in Iowa City have become such a draw that it is often people from out of town who show up to enjoy a night of sin in the city.

One solution I would be interested in seeing the City Council look at would be a taxation on all alcoholic drinks served in a bar or restaurant. While I'm sure there are state laws preventing this (which were probably pushed by the alcohol distributors,) many cities have high taxes on hotel rooms and rental cars, the only difference is those cities have convention centers, Iowa City has bars.

By taxing served drinks, the city would not only raise money directly from the thing that causes them to spend it, but it might actually encourage people to drink less. Unfortunately, as we saw with the previous 21 and over ballot initiative, serving alcohol is a lucrative business, and the bar owners in Iowa City realize where their money comes from and are willing to spend handsomely to prevent the city from taking action to try and curb some of the problems it cause.

Even though I no longer live in Iowa City, it's still my home town, and every time I read an article about stupid drunk people doing stupid drunk things, I'm reminded of something my brother said, "I shouldn't be afraid to take my three year old daughter downtown at two in the afternoon, just because it's a game day." And therein lies the question, what does downtown Iowa City exist for? The people who live in the city, or the bar owners?

The blind LEEDing the more blind

I recently started the documentation portion of my first project which is going for LEED certification (it's going for silver, but time will tell). My first impression is exactly what I have always assumed about LEED, it takes a lot of extra time and money to get a fancy plaque in the lobby of the building.

Did I say money, oh yes, it takes a lot of cash. The current estimates are that going for a LEED certification will add 5 to 10 percent of cost onto a project. And that's just for the project, take a look at the this link and click on "brochure" to realize that the USGBC (the organization behind LEED) is charging people 75 cents for a brochure about why their system is so great. They're charging you for a sales tool to try and convince your customers to give the USGBC more money, so that they can "earn" the right to buy a plaque (that's right, even after paying thousands of dollars to register and submit all of the documents you still have to pay for the plaque) and have their building listed on the USGBC website.

I'm all for sustainable design, lessening our environmental impact, being environmentally conscious as well as the myriad of terms people like to gloss over by saying "green." However, if the only reason you want to do those things is so you can brag about it, you seem to have missed the point.

St. Patrick's Day

Every year for St. Patrick's Day, I am confused by it. I understand that there were a lot of Irish immigrants to this country, they worked hard in crumby jobs and laid the groundwork for many of the luxuries we now have, and they entered this country enough time ago that we have forgotten that being a drunk Irishman used to be an ethnic stereotype and not a basis for cute t-shirt slogans.

The t-shirts really put an exclamation point on the fact that this holiday is not about celebrating one's Irish heritage as much of an excuse to wear stupid costumes and drink too much starting much too early in the morning (I would point you towards the bottom of the list, are drink specials at 8 am really necessary?). I would also like to point out at this time, that making excuses to get drunk is a calling card of an alcoholic, how would you respond if a relative/friend started getting drunk at 8 in the morning on any other saint's day?

I must tread carefully on this subject because I am not Irish, and I wouldn't want to be accused of being racist by some drunk idiot who thinks his 1/16th Irishness needs to be defended at all costs. But I do feel that it is reasonable that the annual St. Patrick's Day celebrations should include more of this and less of this.

And if your city does not have a group of people so proud of their Irish heritage that they practice Irish dancing, or wear kilts and play bagpipes, maybe we should question that said city's need for a parade.

Oh Crap!

A real blog has linked to my blog. I should really have something worthwhile to read...

When I started this blog, I promised myself I wouldn't write about food. I made this promise for one simple reason, I didn't really expect anyone outside of my family to read it, and if they wanted to read, they could read a food blog written by a real journalist (and the best new food writer). Oh well, it didn't take long for me to break that promise.

For a St. Patrick's Day potluck at work, I made candy potatoes. The recipe sounds easy enough, but that is what candy recipes do, they lull you into a false sense of security with their minimal ingredients, and their short, simple sounds instructions.

Anyone who has tried to make candy realizes that the only reason that the instructions sounds easy is because it either works with a fantastic outcome, or you fail and end up with a pound of burnt sugar cemented into the bottom of your pan. I am about 50/50 on the different outcomes, mainly because I don't try the more difficult candies very often (caramel and toffee, compared to the more difficult fudge).

I tried a test batch on Saturday, it turned out like I thought it would, a mess. It seemed to grain up much too fast resulting in half of the mixture turning to a sugary/sandy concoction, and the other half cemented to the bottom of the pot (not burnt, but cemented none the less).

Tonight I tried my second batch (early enough to initiate plan B,) but it actually turned out. The candy seems to taste alright and there is minimal burnt sugar chunks in it.

I would like to say/warn that the step "Beat syrup until creamy." is the biggest misstatement you can have in a in a recipe. The concoction is neither a syrup nor beatable. It resembles a quickly setting glue or (I have already said it too many times) cement. And while I might not have a problem acting out this instruction if I were Lincoln Hawk in "Over the Top" or if my job comprised of more arm curls and less sitting at a computer. Neither one of these is true so it turned out to be the biggest test of strength since the rope climb in elementary gym class.

Luckily with a few minutes of stirring the candy began to set and I began forming potatoes wildly. Once you roll the things in Cinnamon they actually look like something that resembles a potato. We'll see if I can convince my co-workers they aren't animal turds tomorrow.

Stupid people are stupide (and other revelations)

Although I claimed that I wanted to finish my previous post, I have yet to do so. I mostly have been busy with work and Canstruction.

"What is Canstruction?" you might ask. 

Most people would tell you that it is an event where design firms compete to build the coolest structure out of cans as a means to compete and raise a lot of food for local food banks. And the photos would lead you to think that was all there was.

I, on the other hand, would tell you canstruction is really about. I would tell you that it is an annual event that causes people to seek control of the group without really wanting to actually be responsible for anything,  thus causing a power mobius strip.

Either way, you should come out and see the creations (and ours if our team hasn't fractured by that point). Put it on your calendars;

Saturday, April, 18th

At Sycamore Mall.

Show up at 11 am and vote for the sinking ship!

Life, Death and Marshes

The weather predictions for Saturday turned out to be correct, fog and mist, turning into rain and thunder, so I didn't really want to go for a bicycle ride. I prefer to think of bicycling as something I do for fun, not for the health benefits or competition, and limiting my bicycling to good weather goes very far in keeping it that way.

Although the weathered turned out to not be conducive for bicycling, I have lived in Iowa too long to not take advantage of any day in March where the weather isn't completely inhospitable. So I pulled out my trusty Sportsman's Atlas to weigh the options I had for local nature areas I could go to. I'm fairly familiar with the nature areas in the area, but it never hurts to look at a map, and sometimes you see a destination that you wouldn't have thought about otherwise.

That was the case today, after glancing at my map, I realized that I hadn't been out to Palo Marsh since before the flood. Being a marsh to begin with, I assumed that it had been pretty waterlogged during June of '08, and I was interested in seeing how it had fared.

Being a marsh, it is generally very marshy, and the rain over the last 12 hours didn't really help dry it out much. To make this nature foray even more uplifting, the marsh was decked out in the finest grays and browns an Iowa winter has to offer.

I was first greeted by a set of muddy ruts (actually the second greeting, my first greeting was a sign warning me about the possibility of drunk idiot with shotguns). Luckily it was only the path that was a muddy, boggy, mess. The rest of the area was simply wet and muddy.

(Author's note: I have to apologize to the two readers I have, I put off finishing this article too long and now have lost the train of thought. I am still learning this whole blogging thing, and this is the best lesson yet. Hopefully I will be struck by creativity again soon and actually write a conclusion to this post.)

(Author's second note: Who knew that shotgun shells came in so many colors?)

Font junkies, move over

Recently I have started watching the AMC show Mad Men. I know, I'm only a year or two behind everyone. Having missed a lot of the buzz for this show, all I know is that everyone was amazed by it's historical accuracy.

The characters dress correctly for '62, they act correctly for '61 and most importantly, they smoke the type and quantity of cigarettes correct for '62. In fact, the only historical criticism I can find about the show is the font used for the closing titles.

I only made it a few minutes into the first episode before I was hit by the amazing realization, thousands of font junkies have been focused on what I think is a stupid inaccuracy, while missing a much more glaring one. Every space in the ad agency has been decorated using 2'x2' lay-in acoustical ceiling tiles (ACT). Look at this link again and notice the ceiling through the doorway.

Not only is a 2'x2' ACT system a fairly new design (they used to all be 2'x4', think about your elementary/middle/high school) but the use of ACT ceilings in such a space is questionable. Unfortunately my extensive research (read: googling) turned up nothing about the history of ACTs or their use. But the only buildings from that era I have seen ACT used in were buildings concerned about costs (once again, mainly schools,) and I can't imagine a powerful Madison Avenue ad agency being concerned about the construction costs of their office.

I'm sure if you're a font junkie you'll think that my fascination with the ceiling tiles is as stupid as I feel about your fascination about fonts. But understand, while you spend a lot of time staring at fonts and fussing about fonts, I spend a lot of time staring at ceilings and fussing with ceiling layouts. So really, why could you blame me.

(This is my first post, so I appologize for the many gramatical errors contained within, one of the many reasons for starting a blog was so I could improve my writting. Bare with me and I might eventually produce something interesting and easy to read)