Brain Needed Space

I Need To Change My Cell Number

Aug 9th, 2011 by Daniel

/ring ring ring!

Hallo?

BRK?! It’s me! Ghostcrawler Can ya hear me, boy-o?

Well I hear you and a lot of whirring…

That’s the chopper! We’re going to lunch in ‘Frisco and I said, ‘Who wants to sit in traffic on a Tuesday?!’ So I nabbed the keys to the Sikorski and my secretary Nanette and we’re headin’ for Surf N Turf on the beach!

I didn’t know you were a pilot, Greg.

I’m not! But how hard can this be, right? That putz on Whale Wars putters around the Antarctic every damn week, so why can’t I skadoodle over to the Pier in a whirlybird?! Simple physics and determination will overcome ignorance and fear every time!

Dude, it’s against FAA regulation to operate an aircraft without…

You namby-pampy bed-wetter! You’re lucky I can’t drop this thing down on your office, or I’d kidnap you for Rob Roy’s and lobster!

My company would probably not look favorably on illegal aircraft and a drunk pilot… oh no, you’re not…

Sauced to the gills? No! But I found the pilot’s flask of… this might be vodka, or it might be fuel cleaner, I’m not certain. But whatever it is, it opens my pores like a sea sponge, baby! NANETTE! I need napkins and another jigger! The vibrations in here are soaking my pants!

Greg, I don’t blog about WoW anymore. Why are you calling?

I need to run something by you, amigo! You know we need a new expansion sometime soon, right?!

Well yes.

And some chowderhead let it slip that we trademarked “Mistical Mysts of Pandemic and Playful Pandora”, right?!

I think it wasn’t that exactly…

And now every writer on the planet thinks we’re gonna have a new race of PANDAS running amok in WoW! That’s a damn calamity! It’s obscene! It’s grotesque! We gotta fix this, pronto!

We?

You’re drafted, mon frère! The Ghostcrawler Expansion Army needs a general, and I’m signing you up!

I… I don’t know what it is I don’t want, but I’m certain this is part of it. I’m out.

SHANGHAI’D! It’s too late! The Good Ship “Expac” has launched and you’re Admiral of the Fleet!

Am I a general or an admiral?

You can have both hats, matey! Just don’t start ordering the infantry into the waters. We already did that in Vash’jir. I sacked that guy, by the way. Riding seahorses instead of dolphins? Atrocious. I passed copious amounts of gas in his computer bag before we threw him out. It was a hoot! NANETTE! Did you bring any olives in that fake Prada bag? OF COURSE IT’S A FAKE! I know knockoffs when I see them! Oh crap, she’s crying…

This is what happens when you go over 40 miles per hour, always has.

Warp Speed to the max! We gotta come up with a new xpac that doesn’t make people think we’re gonna have Panda Warriors in Stormwind. You’ve got 24 hours to make this happen! Don’t let me down!

And if I go back to work and pretend this phone call didn’t happen?

TREACHERY! I’ve prepared for your wavering loyalty! That tiny patch you downloaded yesterday wasn’t full of bug-fixes, Cochise. It was a trap!

A trap?

And I’m General Ackbar! I know a trap when I see one! NANETTE DON’T THROW THE SAMMICHES OVERBOARD! I LIKE YOUR BAG!

Are you telling me that if I don’t sign-on to your expansion-naming team, your Blizzard-authenticated “virus” will be unleashed?

I always said you were smarter than the average dwarf! Ya nailed it!

That’s not only illegal, but totally immoral and rude.

It’s the ends justifying the means, baby-cakes! How do you think Washington crossed the Delaware, or Khan conquered Tokyo?! It wasn’t all sugar and spice; it was War! Gotta get stuff done; that’s what real Leaders DO!

Khan conquered Tokyo?

Elephants! The man was way ahead of his time!

I think that was Attilla…

Elephants and crossbows will solve just about anything, only people are too squeamish to employ them! But not me! Khan, Patton, and me; all cut from the same Elephant/Crossbow-cloth!

Patton didn’t use crossbows!

And we’re gonna get the next xpac changed from PANDAS to SOMETHING! I’ll call tomorrow!

Please. Please don’t. I have a recipe I want to write about.

NIXXED! Gather your army and come up with ideas for a The Greatest Xpac of All-Fricken’-Time! NANETTE! THAT’S MY WALLET, NOT A… WELL THAT’S NOT SANE, WOMAN! HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO GET IT BACK NOW!!

What did she…

COMBAT LANDING PROCEDURES, ENGAGED! Until tomorrow BRK! I push down on both pedals to go down, right?! TORA TORA TORA!!

/click

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Clafoutis

Aug 6th, 2011 by Daniel

Sick of ice cream and crappy cookies? I am too. So let’s do something about it.

From Wikipedia, Clafoutis is a baked French dessert of black cherries arranged in a buttered dish and covered with a thick flan-like batter. Cherries are in season, so let’s crank this out!

Ingredients:

3 cups of fresh, pitted cherries. If you wanna go “all-French, all the time,” leave the pits in.
1 1/2 tbps of cherry brandy. If you wanna go “all-America, all the time,” double this.
1/3 cup of sliced almonds
1 1/2 tbps unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup of whole milk
2/3 cup all-purpose flour, sifted
1/4 cup plus 1 tsp (for sprinkling at the end) of granulated sugar
1/4 cup heavy cream
3 large eggs
1/8 tsp almond extract
1/8 tsp table salt

Preheat the oven to 350F and place a metal baking sheet inside.

Pit the cherries and let them soak in the cherry brandy for 30 minutes. You could stop right here, couldn’t you? Yummy!

When the oven comes to temperature, put the sliced almonds on the hot baking sheet, place the almonds in the oven, and toast them for 2-3 minutes, toss, and toast for another 2-3 minutes. Don’t let them burn! What are ya thinkin’?!

Crank up the oven to 400F.

Grease an 11″ baking dish with the butter.

Combine the milk, sifted flour, sugar, cream, eggs, almond extract, and salt in a mixing bowl.

Mix on medium speed for five minutes to aerate. We want to see some bubbles.

Drain the cherries and save the juice in the mix…

While you place the cherries into the baking dish.

Pour the batter over the top and place the dish in the oven for 15 minutes.

Sprinkle the almonds, sugar, and butter on top. Bake for 40 minutes.

Let the dish rest on a cooling rack for 30 minutes before devouring. For devour you shall…

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Spirit Beast 1, Beth 0

Aug 4th, 2011 by Daniel

The guild has decided that 25-man raiding is just not possible with our current roster of players, so we’ve downsized to 10-man raiding . Then we took a hammer to Firelands, indignation fueling our venture. Shannox, Beth, and Baleroc down in one night. New boots from Bale for yours truly, and DPS-supremacy for Beastmastery and Hobbes, nee Gondria.
Warlock and mage on the spiderlings with a Freezing Trap and Multi-shot thrown in when necessary, this hunter nuked the adds and blasted the boss until the meters wept.

Yes, we’re know that our guild is behind in terms of progression. But the point here is to yet again prove that it’s not the spec that should be craved — as long as the spec isn’t completely gimped — but the capacity of the player to make his chosen spec work.

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Single-Line Thoughts That Evolve Into More

Jul 27th, 2011 by Daniel

I made a “raclette” as a side dish that sent my step-daughter into spasms of joy. This will have to be a blog post recipe since she included “potatoes and melted cheese” in her nightly prayers.

The iMac’s video card cost $330 to replace, then it broke again. Thankfully, the card was still under its 90-day replacement warranty. But still, lugging a 27″ iMac to and from the Apple Store is never a comfortable experience.

Starbucks is happily churning out my raspberry mochas. If they change the raspberry formula again, we’re gonna take to the streets.

I haven’t owned a PC since my Zeos back in 1994, preferring to be a Mac-head. But this Asus G73SW is the bees-knees. As long as you don’t expect it to be “mobile”, this laptop will satisfy. Although Asus has come out with the G74SX, Amazon still has the G73SW in stock.

Got my new business cards with the job-title increase. I was able to refrain from cackling with pride.

Get the spicy pork lunch box at KimChi and you won’t be disappointed. The Asian television shows are a hoot as well.

Royal Pains > Suits > Franklin and Bash > Fairly Legal > Alphas > Leverage. But I’ll watch any of them.

Always know your security-badge color-codes. Getting palsie-walsie with the wrong code can get your project canceled.

Joe Nelms.

My son comes home from visiting his mom in a few days, and the next school year is right around the corner. One of the great joys of my life is watching my son pop into the back seat of my convertible and driving him to school. Can’t wait!

A stupid-simple roast beef recipe has to be next, too. It’s so much fun eating a beautiful medium-rare roast with homemade beef gravy, and knowing the entire dinner is cheaper than delivery pizza.

Never install a newer version of Java without removing the old version first. Especially in a development environment. Or at least remember to remove the old version after upgrading. Leaving two versions loaded is just asking for trouble. Yes, modifying the JAVA_HOME environment variable is simple, easy, and fun to do, but it gets honked up more frequently than you imagine.

If you freak out because I’m jamming a -120 dBm GPS signal into the lab just because you know that a blue-sky GPS signal is typically -130 dBm, then I don’t want to see your face when I make you dial *3001#12345#* on your iPhone and show you that the indoor signal strength of the cell phone network, right next to your cranium, is -91 dBm! Dude, did you know that this is about 8×10^-13 watts? I’m not an RF engineer, but I’ll bet you a Korean lunch that my lab setup is not gonna fry your bajoobies.

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WoM

Jul 27th, 2011 by Daniel

Wrath of Medivh, aka WoM, is the guild in which I find myself. We are a 25-man Firelands raiding guild, and we need DPS.
Ya hear that?! DPS! Not tanks, not trees, not green totem tossers. We need more members of our Pain Train.

Granted, we’re quite full on Hunters and Warlocks. Totally full. No exceptions. Seriously.

However, we could use a:

Boomkin
Rogue
Mage
DPS Priest
DPS Shaman
DPS Paladin

/ring!!!

Hello?

(Wamh waaaah. Wamh waaah wah wahhh. Wamh Wahh.)

/click

OK, it seems another holy Paladin wouldn’t be sniffed at, either. But I don’t hang out on the WoMHeals channel, so who really cares. Especially when my pets never get heals.

Heck, BRK was #10 on the Heal Meter on Shannox! Holy Pally… pfft.

Now I’m not an officer in this guild. I’m not in any way going to be able to give you a backstage pass or a wink-n-nod so you can get in the guild without running the officer-gamut. But if you are interested in bringing your main-DPS toon over to US Uldaman (PvE) for reasonably-mature raiding fun, and getting your @ss handed to you on the damage-meters, visit the guild’s web site and apply.

What I can tell you is that a good application on the forums is looked upon very favorably. Also, bring 15k DPS or don’t bother applying. You need not have a cookie-cutter spec, but you have to be able to defend your choices. Heck, I applied with my tanking gun, explained my reasons for using it, blew up the meters, and only then was patted gently on the head and invited to join.

Wrath of Medivh, chester. The Pain Train’s comin’! Woowoo!

(just don’t roll on my loot)

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Not A WoW-Tutorial

Jul 21st, 2011 by Daniel

Here’s my armory-link so you can see that I’m not equipped with anything you can’t get outside of Avengers of Hyjal dailies, Zul-Aman and Zul-Gurub runs, valor points and crafted gear. The other two hunters out-gear me, and in many situations out-DPS me. But not always.

This report is from Shannox, including the two dog-adds. Kill first dog, get second dog down to 10%, get Shannox down to… I forget, 35%? Kill the second dog, then kill Shannox. All while avoiding the traps, the fire, getting Cleaved into oblivion by the boss, and being out-of-range of your targets.

Here’s my 31-7-3 talent spec. In 25-man raids, I run with my Spirit Beast, Hobbes née Gondria.

If you’re a good SV hunter and enjoy the spec, raid with it. Ditto for BM. You can have the jerk’s-spec and BiS gear, but if you get caught in a crystal prison on Shannox, none of that matters. Knowing your spec, maintaining situational-awareness, and putting the squishies in their place; that’s what makes a good hunter.

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Never Eat BK/McD/Crap Again

Jul 20th, 2011 by Daniel

You’ve got $8 in your pocket and you’re heading to BK or McD for some fast, greasy, cheap grub.

Well get your @ss over to the butcher, have him cut you a New York strip steak, about 8 oz, get an ear of corn on the cob, and flip the fast-food joint the finger.

Here’s my leftover steak from last night. It’s been refrigerated, so it needs to come to room temperature before we cook it. Can you see the price per pound? You can get a great steak for the same price as a crappy hamburger. You just have to cook it properly!

Once the steak has come to temperature, unwrap it and place it on a plate. Notice that it’s wet? Well we want to change that. Use some paper towels to dry the steak.

Now look at our little baby! Isn’t he pretty!

Here’s what we need to make a pan-seared steak:

Kosher salt
Fresh ground pepper
Onion powder
Garlic powder
Olive oil

That’s it! Nothing exotic at all.

To start, nicely salt your steak.

You’re not building a salt-lick, but you’ve got to not be scared to use the salt. Next, pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder get sprinkled on.

Use tongs to turn the steak over and SPOG the other side as well. Let this mixture sink in while you preheat the over to 350F, and put your cast iron pan on the stove.
Crank the heat on the pan as high as you can without smoking your house out. This is a combination of how good a vent hood you own, if your A/C can recycle air quickly, etc. On my stove, I can put the dial… here:

Any higher than that, and my crappy vent hood gives up and my house fills with smoke.

Once your oven and pan come to temp, put a little olive oil on one side of your steak.

Do not put oil in the pan! You’re not sauteing or braising your steak, you’re just putting a little oil down so that it’ll be seared into the juices and spices. Again, you’re not oiling your steak, you’re just adding a little oil for flavor.
Slap that steak down in the pan and watch the magic start.

Let that bad-boy sear untouched. No touchie da steakie-poo! After two minutes, put a little oil on the unseared side…

Then use your tongs to turn the steak with love.

You may drool, even if you’ve just eaten. Doesn’t that look amazing?! Two more minutes of searing, then chunk the entire pan into the heated oven.

Depending upon the thickness of the steak and how well-done you like your steak, leave the meat in the oven until desired internal color/temp. For this 5/8″ thick steak, I left it in for 3 minutes for a medium done-ness. Bam!

Put the pan on the stove on an unused burner, which of course is off and cold. Let the steak sit and rest while we make the corn on the cob.

Here’s our corn, husked. Take the two pieces of paper towel, soak them thoroughly in cold water, wring out so the towels don’t drip, then wrap the corn up in the wet paper towels, like so.

Slap the corn in the microwave for two minutes on high. Can you boil water and cook the corn that way? Of course. But a two minute microwave in wet paper towels is much easier, trust me.

When the microwave is done, take the corn out, unwrap it, slap corn holders on it, and place on your plate. Take your steak, place it on the plate as well.

Serve with a cold beer and butter and salt for the corn.

For the price of crappy fast-food, you can have an amazing steak and corn dinner. One could make an amazing jus from the pan juices, but it’s not necessary if what you truly love is the taste of a perfectly seasoned and cooked cut of prime beef. The point here was to show that basic cooking skills are all that’s necessary to make an amazing feast.

And if you make a second plate, I’m pretty certain you’ll find someone special who’ll love to eat with you.

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A Little WoW-ness

Jul 19th, 2011 by Daniel

“So do you play WoW?”

I get that question a lot, and the answer is: yes.

You can find me playing in a 25-man raiding guild on a new server. My old guild didn’t need me anymore, so for greener pastures I searched. The new gang with whom I roll is progressing slowing but with definite improvements every week. We’re 1/7 in 25-man Firelands, 2/2 in Baradin Hold 25-mans. Not cutting-edge, but the guild leadership and raiding feeling is awesome.

The first Extreme-Impact Hole Puncher appeared on the Auction House, for 25,000 gold. As my ranged weapon is a purple tanking gun, the desire to pop for this bang-stick is big! But the upgrade isn’t that big, the cost is quite expensive, and the current plan is to save up Valor Points, exchange them for Conquest Points, and grab my PvP gun.

Yes, I have the bow from Zul-Gurub, but the target dummies don’t lie; the tanking gun is my best friend by 500-1000 dps. I actually had to defend my ranged-weapon choice with some hunters in my new guild, as they were skeptical. Then this BM-hunter kicked their collective @sses in Firelands on the damage meters and they acquiesced. The BoE Firelands crossbow will eventually come into my possession, but I am not looking forward to using a phoot-stick. All three other hunters in my guild use it, so I’m the only one bringing the Boom-Boom Pain Train.

The new challenge-pets don’t interest me at all. Metal cat? Rare spiders? Bah. I have the fire turtle and I never use it. Hobbes (Gondria) and Bisquick (black devilsaur) are the only pets I use. The Devilsaur and his 5% crit is what comes out 95% of the time for 5-man Troll heroics, and Hobbes is my soloing and raiding friend.

I tried to start a dwarf shaman. Spent 2000 gold on BoA gear, and the totem-chucking dwarf bored the beejezus out of me. Maybe I will try a gnome shadow priest?

Am I the only skinner who cannot stay out of the Firelands spiders? Dear Elune, it’s like Nirvana there. Each stack of leather sells for 400 gold, the spiders never stop dying, and it’s a great place to grind while watching the Food Network.

I’m done with Archeology. Every achievement is completed, got the skeleton raptor mount, but the “thrill” is gone. There needs to be a bigger incentive to keep doing this, Blizz.

The Asus G73SW laptop is amazing. In a 25-man raid, I slap the video settings to “full-right” and there are no issues. Asus now sells the new G74SX as well as the G73SW on Amazon. If you’re in the market for a gaming laptop, I don’t think Alienware or Sager makes a better product.

Razer Naga. Period. End of story.

Tonight is a pan-seared NY Strip Steak with corn on the cob. Let’s see what kind of bachelor-pad dinner blog-post I can do.

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Actually, Things Are Awesome

Jul 11th, 2011 by Daniel

For many months, I’ve been trying to determine the best way to write about all the things that have happened in the past couple of years. This process interferes with my blogging, as sometimes I feel like writing about cooking is a defense-mechanism to help me cope with not being able to write about that which has dominated my life recently. Well, the domination is over. All is good. Things are as they should be. I’m happier than I’ve been in ten years. My family is amazing. The boy is doing very well and his future with me is secured.

But I still cannot write about The Stuff That Happened. Perhaps I never will. Perhaps I’m not capable. Perhaps it’ll come in time, but not now, or any time soon. But trust me, I think about writing about it very frequently. It’ll come. Or it won’t.

Do I have more food-blogs in me? Heck yes. I need to take you down the Red-Skinned Smashed Potatoes road, over Chicken Parmesan bridge, and into Panko-Crusted Fried Porkchop With Sauteed-Apple Topping boulevard, with a sweet parking spot at Roasted Brussel Sprouts commons.

Don’t worry about the food.

Are there WoW-stories in here? Yes, foshizzle. New server and hopefully a raiding slot in a premiere raiding guild. Raiding BM, of course. Topping the damage-meters, natch. Showing up on the Warcraft Hunters Union podcast on Saturday night every once in a while, unless, as in this past weekend, I have a dinner party to throw and roast chicken with leeks, golden beets, onions, rutabaga, and turnips to cook. Life comes first!

I turned down a job at Disney. Yes, THE Disney wanted me to come work and do software testing. I said no thank you. There’s a story in there, too.

My little mean cat, Bisquick, was 16 years old when I had to take her to the vet one last time, last week. I need to tell you about how a two pound terrorist cat eventually won me over and made me her daddy.

But first I think I need to get through writing about The Stuff That Happened. It should start to flow soon.

I hope.

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Baking!

May 8th, 2011 by Daniel

If cooking is art, then baking is science. Splash a little extra extra olive oil and nobody can tell. But add a little extra baking powder and suddonly Zambia becomes ruled by the British monarchy. Or the moon shifts orbits and the tides cease.

So knowing the propensity for baking accidents to cause world-altering events, let’s try making some cobbler!

Preheat the oven to 375F, then assemble the following ingredients:

One package of frozen (and then thawed) sliced peaches. You can go blueberry, raspberry, etc.
1/3 cup of granulated sugar
1/4 cup of granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp kosher salt
the zest of one lemon
6 tbsp cold unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup heavy cream

Oh phooey, forgot the butter in the pic.

There, don’t tell me I forgot to tell you to get the butter.

Next, defrost the frozen peaches, completely drain the water, and pour into the 9″ baking dish.

Add 1/3 cup of sugar and 1 tbsp of flour.
Stir the peaches and the dry ingredients thoroughly.

In a medium-sized mixing bowl, add baking powder and salt.

Add the zest of one lemon. You own a lemon-zester, doncha? Well it makes a great present if you don’t. Find someone who owes you big-time and delicately tell them that you need a zester or you’ll do something unmentionable.

Add 1 1/2 cups of flour and 1/4 cup of sugar.

Cut your 6 tbsp of softened butter into chunks.

Add the butter to the dry mixture and mash it all up with your hands until the butter-chunks are eliminated.

Add 3/4 cup and 2 tbps of heavy cream. Do NOT forget the extra 2 tbsp. This is critical!

Use your hands once more and mix until you get a dough. You can taste the dough if you like; there’s no raw eggs in it. Not saying its the best idea ever in the history of the known universe, but the option is there.