Gringo Warrior!

August is chock full of events for me. I have Spikefest, DefCon, Game Day, and a possible BBQ competition. In addition, I have a trip to Stephenville somewhere that has to happen to help out my Mother-in-Law with a garage sale (I'm referring this event as the "Dublin Dr. Pepper run").

Of all the events, I'm most excited about DefCon. DefCon is a 'hacker' convention that deals with not only hacker tech, but mostly hacker culture. I'm no hacker by any means, but I love the culture and I'm really excited that my company is 'forcing me to go on their dime'. There are two happenings at DefCon that have piqued my interest the most, Toxic BBQ Iron Chef and Gringo Warrior. Unfortunately, I won't be in town for the Toxic BBQ competition, but I want to make it (and possibly compete) in Gringo Warrior. What is Gringo Warrior? Think of it as sort of a lock picking obstacle course in the theme of a party trip to Mexico gone bad. The idea is that you are part of a group that went south of the border to party it up, got wasted, and woke up in a Mexican jail threatened by corrupt Mexican police. You have to get out of your cuffs (within 5 minutes), pick the lock on the jail cell door, evade the guard, find your passport (in a locked cabinet of course), pick the lock of the jail building door, and get away. There will be 3 levels of difficulty for each challenge with more points assigned to higher difficulty. The person with the best time/score will be the Gringo Warrior! I'm not sure if they are going to require that you be hung over while doing this, but it should be a good time! I just need to find me a pair of handcuffs to practice (and...no, please do not offer to donate your pair, I don't want to know what you do with them).

At the end of the month, Cabelas is holding its 1st BBQ competition in North Fort Worth. A co-worker of mine, Dave and I have been wanting to do some sort of competitive BBQing for quite some time now. This one seems to be pretty accessible to us from both a distance aspect and competition level aspect. Its not a sanctioned event, so hopefully the die hards will not be in kill mode. Anyway, we are thinking about entering the brisket and pork shoulder competitions. Of course, this all hinges on our schedules...August already is booked with other things.

Speaking of Cabelas, a co-worker came back with a whole bag of spicy pork rinds from a stand outside the Cabelas front doors. They were a bit spicy, but they also had some sort of garlic/oregano taste to them that really put them over the top for me. I think these are the best pork rinds I have ever eaten! Since I work so close, I think I'll have to add it to my lunch rotation when I'm not sweating all over LA Fitness's gym floor.

I had the day off yesterday.

Yesterday I had reserved a day off to get some medical tests done. I have had some strange symptoms that prompted me to go to the doctor a couple of days ago and I went in for some followup tests. I'm being vague because I'm not ready to talk about it yet. Lets just say that the tests went well and I am waiting for the results.

For the rest of the day, I had a chance to relax and just spend time doing some things around the house. Lisa and I worked in the garden/pond area cleaning up some plants and pulling some weeds. Lisa had mentioned that it was nice to have me around to help her. She usually does the garden stuff on her own when she has time, but lately its been a struggle for her. I enjoyed it too. Even though I don't enjoy 100+ degree Texas weather, there is something therapeutic about manual labor, especially when you get to see positive results when you are done.

Our garden is overrun by ants! Not the crazy ants of South Texas, but those horrible fire ants. I suppose we need to get some serious Amdro down. I'd hate to think that Aly might find a hill and get attacked.

What else did I do yesterday? I hit the gym after my appointment. It seems that after every volleyball season, I go into crazy offseason workout mode. This time I am picking back up my plyo training and yesterday was pretty intense. I did sets of no-arms, jump-n-reaches, depth-jumps, and jump rope. Im hoping that this renewed drive will help me to lose at least 10 lbs before the fall season starts.

I discovered Twitter today. Someone had mentioned something about it a while back, but I really didn't understand until I went. Its basically a near real time blog so people can track what you are doing. For example, lets say at 1pm you go to lunch...you log it. When you come back, you can put in another log. I suppose if you are determined enough, you could log your whole day from eating breakfast to going to the bathroom to going to sleep at night. I find the concept both fascinating and freightning. Maybe this will be the entertainment of the future. People would watch other people twitter all day and live their sorry lives vicariously through someone else's online personality. If anyone catches me 'twittering' please kick me in the behind.

Tonight I get to meet with my accountability partner. I haven't met with him for a couple of weeks and I have a lot to talk about. Basically, I have been on a rollercoaster of emotions this past 2 weeks and have discovered a lot about myself, but have picked up a few scars along the way. Not suprisingly, I haven't been in the Word as much as I need to be and I think that I have been suffering because of it. I need him to give me a real slap in the head.

My Sanke bit me last night!

I have this love hate relationship with my kitchen knife, a 6.5" Mac Superior Series Santoku.


It is by far the sharpest knife in the kitchen and it has been great at almost everything I throw at it. However, sometimes I feel that it knows when I either am not taking it seriously enough or if I am using its abilities for something not worth its ability. The first time it seriously bit me was when I was sharpening it for the first time. To test whether it is sharp enough, you take the knife and try to cut through paper without any effort. The knife was definitely sharp enough, but sometimes I get obsessive about things and started to whack at the paper, seeing how fast I could slice through the paper. Unfortunately, the more I hacked, the closer I got to my finger. Inevitably, I chopped right into my left index finger. I think I hit bone, it hurt so much. In fact, it hurt all night! Anyway, it has been a while since I have seriously cut myself. Last night, I was cutting cucumbers for a salad and again my sanke bit me. I think it was protesting this time that cucumbers were not worthy of its cutting prowess. I guess I was thinking about other things and before I knew it, I had sliced into my left index finger (again). My knife is such a cruel mistress. If it weren't so darned useful, I would toss it out the window.

I hate cutting my fingers, especially on my left hand, because it stops me from playing my guitar. My guitar and I have a relationship too, but it has never bit me. In fact, when I think about how I need to treat my good friends, I think about how my guitar treats me. It loves to spend time with me, always giving me its best. Maybe it knows that without me, its just a piece of furniture (not a very functional one at that). It comforts me, watches tv with me, and plays with my daughter. Sometimes, I neglect it or treat it wrongly and I feel bad, but it never seems to mind or hold a grudge. It just sits on its stand waiting patiently for the day that we get to spend time together again. The strings may get out of tune and dust gets on it, but it knows that with a little tuning and a bit of dusting, things are great again. When I do something stupid, like cut my finger, I realize how much I miss my guitar. What a great friend my guitar is. I hope that I can be that way to my friends. I realize that without my friends, Im just a piece of furniture (not a very functional one at that).

Its amazing what falls out of my brain when I have time to think. And no, you still can't have your 5 minutes back...its the implied risk of reading someone else's crud. I guess the moral to this drivel is that we need to be friends to others in the mold more like the guitar than the knife...or maybe that we sometimes need to be more comforting than useful...or maybe that I need more sleep.

Trials

Driving in today (at 60mph), I was listening to a recording of our pastor doing a sermon about James. If Corinthians is a book about the joys about Christian life, love, and service, then James is more like a punch to the throat. It talks about how we should act and react as Christians. The first chapter talks about trials. For some reason, this message spoke to me today and I was enthralled (I didn't even notice the other drivers flipping me off as they passed me). The scripture talked about how we should be glad that God is putting us through trials because he knows that this is how we can achieve our greatest potential. An illustration Tommy (our pastor) talked about was regarding Michelangelo and his statue of David. When asked how he was able to turn a slab of marble into David, he responded by saying that David was always there, he just had to chip away the pieces that weren't David. That's how God's trials work. We are the slabs of marble and somewhere beneath is a masterpiece, but the only way to get there is for God to chip away the pieces. The trials are never pleasant, but we have to endure with the knowledge that God is in control and if He didn't care for us, we wouldn't have to endure these trials. In the end, our hope is that we have endured to become God's masterpiece.

Final update on my driving experiment. Hitting the gas station this weekend, I filled up and tallied the numbers to my sub-scientific test. The results were astonishing! I went from 24-27 mpg to over 30mpg! Worst case to best, I saved an average of 6 miles per gallon. Which turns out to be a savings of about $65 (at $4/gallon) a month. This is a little under a tank and a half of gas a month. All this just for taking 10mph off of my speed. I haven't gotten this good of gas mileage since they replaced MTBE with Ethanol. Plus, the added time it took me to get to work was only 3-5 minutes. So, based on this, I suppose Ill continue to get dirty looks on my way to and from work!

Im feeling a little nostalgic today.

This week I have been emotionally 'off'. I suppose it started with losing our volleyball finals match on Monday night and was compounded by lack of sleep. Sometimes I go through emotional down cycles and I think this is one of them. Last week, I was on an emotional high. I was in The Word, winning volleyball games, losing weight, etc... I guess this week was an emotional 'correction'. Anyway, what usually happens near the end of these cycles is that I get nostalgic for the days of yore and started poking around YouTube for some inspiring music. My search started with, believe it or not, some Barry Manilow. I heard a clip on a radio sports station and it brought back memories of my youth. I think that lasted about 2 minutes when I realized how 'un-manly' that was (Barry writes the songs and all, but unless you are trying to woo women, his music has little application for 'real men'...I need to go lift some weights). Anyway, still feeling nostalgic, I stumbled across a very cool rendition of one of my childhood cartoons, Star Blazers. It was a recording of a chamber orchestra playing the main theme song! It was very well done. However, looking at the related links, I found something even cooler! The main theme song done on recorders...5 of them! I posted both links on my YouTube list below.

I actually feel better now! YouTube again has saved me.

To complete my emotional swing, mass quantities of food is in order. For lunch I'll probably do either Chapa Grill (a local Brazilian buffet place) or Buffalo Wild Wings. My boss had discovered some sort of burger creation with pulled pork and a huge onion ring on top (plus your choice of wing sauce).

Volleyball for me has about sucked the past week. I'm having trouble staying focused and I feel that I have let down my team(s) in ways that are uncharacteristic of me. I have Spikefest coming up and I need to find a way to battle through this funk.

My daughter has been really cute lately. She is all about 'helping'. She follows Lisa around all day asking to do what she's doing (to Lisa's chagrin). Last night, she wanted to help cook. Both Lisa and I were cooking a pasta toss and she wanted to help stir, make pesto, cook chicken, etc. Lisa and I were on opposite sides of the kitchen preparing different items and she had 2 stools that she would run back and for to climb up and down trying to help. She didn't want to miss anything. I love her enthusiasm! I think it would be really cool if she develops a love of cooking like her daddy! I'm smiling now as I remember her trying to show mommy how to 'flip the veggies'....like daddy.

Lisa's been really great too! I have been playing a lot of volleyball lately and she has been really good about that. I don't know if she really understands how much volleyball is a part of my life, but she does a really good job of supporting me, considering she really hates to be alone at night, especially late. Sometimes I don't think I deserve her.

Another update on my driving experiment. Things seem to be going well. I hit 300 miles with what looks like a quarter tank of gas to go. Usually, 300 miles is about the time I start looking to fill up. Unfortunately, I hit some traffic coming in this morning and my gas mileage suffered. I expect to fill up on my way home from work. Well see how much gas I have actually saved.

So..sleepy...today...

Is 2 cups of coffee going to be enough to get me going this morning? Signs point to no. The past couple of nights, I haven't been sleeping for some reason or another. It all started Saturday night, game night. Monday night, I was up pretty late hanging out with some volleyball buddies, and last night, the night I was determined to go to bed early (by 9pm), w@rk called around 10pm and I had to go save the world. Anyway, the forecast for today looks like an early crash around 9am and again at 2pm. I'm hoping that an early morning blog will help to stimulate the brain....hmm I wonder if there is a market for something that would allow people to blog and exercise at the same time, exercising the brain and body at the same time...Ill call it the "Jog and Blog". I suppose its better to come up with a product first then name it, but, hey, I'm sleepy and little things amuse me right now (I'm going to read this in a couple of days and wonder what was up with me).

I promised Lisa a movie tonight. Her mom is in town today and I was hoping on dumping Aly off and going to the movie theater. However, in light of my sleepiness, I think the plan will be to rent a movie. I'm probably going to fall asleep no matter where we watch a movie tonight, no sense in paying $10 to do it in the theater.

The boss just popped his head over the cube wall and told me to go home an hour early because of last nights 'world saving' activities. Things are looking up...good things happen when I 'job and blog' I suppose.

What else...

This weekend DCI is coming to town. I was a band geek in high school and Drum Corps were always a big hit. I haven't been to a show since high school when they came to the Cotton Bowl. A volleyball buddy of mine mentioned that they were coming to town...in Denton no less...so I thought that it would be worth it to check it out. Last night, after saving the world, I checked out what the Cavaliers were doing this year. Looks like they are doing some sort of samurai show. I'm a big fan of Japanese feudal warfare culture, so I was naturally excited when I saw some of the clips of the Cavaliers 08 show. Here is a clip of their show:

Cavaliers 08 show: Samurai

Also, the Blue Devils will be performing. Along with the Cavs, the Devils are the top corps this year. Its a treat to see them go head to head! Here is a clip from the Devils this year:

Blue Devils 08 show clip

Update to my gas saving experiment...

Again I drove 60 mph this morning to work. I have started to notice that my fuel gauge seems to be dropping more slowly than before. I have 5 lines on my fuel gauge and typically I can go 50 miles by the time I reach the 1st mark, 100 miles by the second, and 150-200 miles by the middle mark (its not that accurate I suppose). Already, I'm at 100 miles and I am only halfway between the 1st mark and the second mark. Its too early to make any decisions, but I'm hoping that by the time my tank is near empty, I can significantly surpass my usual 300-320 mile range. Oh...I'm getting more comfortable with people passing me. *shrug*

Saving a couple bucks on gas?

So I think I pissed off a couple dozen drivers today. I had read somewhere that by dropping your speed by as little as 10mph can give you 'significant' savings at the pump. Intrigued by a story ( http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/2282974#2282974 ) of one guy that saved almost $100 a month in gas by adjusting his driving habits, I decided to try my own sub-scientific test. The story went something like this:

Then I changed my driving habits drastically by doing the following:
-Whenever possible, put the car into neutral.
-Use gravity to my advantage, if I know a downward sloping hill is coming up, I will accelerate just enough to make it to the crest, and the throw it into neutral.
-Coast to a stop, or to a turn whenever possible
-Take turns at the maximum, safe speed to conserve momentum.
-Drive 55 on the freeway at all times.
-Ensure my tires are properly inflated

I usually drive 70mph on the highway and give moderate acceleration out of stops. I don't think my tachometer ever gets above 4000 and usually is in the 2000-2500 range for most of my trip. I am surely less aggressive now than I was 10 years ago. I average 24-27 mpg in my 2000 Olds Alero (V6 sedan). I hope to get through the whole tank of gas driving more conservatively. I don't think Ill go through the whole 'putting car into neutral' ordeal, but I will certainly try to keep my speed under 60MPH when it is safe to do so.

Anyway, today started my quest to save a couple of bucks. It is very unnerving driving so slow here on the Texas highways. Everyone seems to go at least 75. I had to fight all instinct to speed up when being passed by packs of other cars. I probably pissed off about 2 dozen people, but at least I was in the 'slow lane'. Driving at the slower rate added about 10 minutes to my commute. Well see how I do in a couple of days.

Speaking of gas...Since gas prices have been unreal these days, I have been looking at some of the upcoming technologies for cars with growing interest. First of all, let me say that I am sort of an environmentalist at heart. I want to live in a world of clean air and have places to go enjoy nature. I'm a big fan of Yellowstone and I would love to visit Alaska. That being said, however, I am not in favor of unleashing the power of government to do the work that we should be doing ourselves. Government has proven to be woefully inefficient and they often choose the chainsaw when a nail clipper is all that is required. Anyway, I feel myself digressing. Point is, I want to protect the environment, but I don't want to unleash the floodwaters of government to do it. Getting back to cars...I have been watching with some interest Tata Motors. They have a car that runs on compressed air. Instead of internal combustion, the cylinders are driven by releasing compressed air. I was a big fan of paintball (in my more mobile days) and this kind of technology immediately spoke to me. Im not familiar with how much energy it takes to compress enough air to get a car going for an acceptable amount of time, nor am I interested in arguments that the energy needed to do so may come from fossil fuel plants, but the idea of not having to be slave to the middle east intrigues me. The other day, oil jumped up a couple dollars a barrel because Iran was test firing some missles. I even read a story somewhere that said that one of the pictures taken was photo-chopped! I just don't like the idea of paying more at the pump every time some middle eastern price takes a dump. Alternative energy cars are good for our environment and good for our sovereignty. Man! where did this soapbox come from?

Anyway, here is a link to the car:

http://zeropollutionmotors.us/

What else is on the plate for today...?

Well, we lost our volleyball finals match last night. I'm kinda bummed about that and I'm not sure how much I want to talk about it right now. It was one of those matches where I just wasn't focused. I felt we had the best team, but I guess we weren't meant to win. Oh well, I suppose there is a 'next time' (I know, I know "loser talk").

Game Day!

Yesterday was game day. Every month we get together with our game group and play some good ol' board games. Along with board games, we have decided in order to relieve the burden of the host, we would make game day a potluck. Every game day has a theme and this time it was "The Continents". Every couple was responsible for bringing a food from a different continent. Lisa and I got South America. So for our contribution, I decided to make some pao de queijo, garlic picanha, and finish it off with a bottle of Guarana. Everything turned out well and I had some of the other couples asking for my pao de queijo recipe. So...here it is:

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Ikiru's Pao de Queijo

2/3 cup vegetable oil
2/3 cup water
2/3 cup milk
2 tsp salt
4 cups tapioca starch
3 Tablespoons butter
8 oz grated parmesan cheese (the stuff in the green tube is fine)
6 oz shredded parmesan cheese
4 eggs
1/4 cup milk

Preheat oven to 375.

Combine oil, water, 2/3 cup milk, and salt into a small pot and heat until foamy. Meanwhile, put the 4 cups of tapioca starch into a big bowl. After the liquid mix heats up, pour into the bowl of tapioca starch and stir with a heavy spoon until well mixed. Mix in butter. Set aside to cool.
After the mixture has cooled (about 15-20 minutes), mix in the 4 eggs, both cheeses, and the 1/4 cup of milk. Mix with your hands until you get a big sticky mass.

Shape sticky mass into 1.5" balls and put them on a lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake in oven for 15-20 minutes or until the tops start to brown. Remove to cooling rack.

Yeld: 4 doz (give or take a few depending on how big you make 'em).

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I like to eat them right out of the oven where the outside is nice and crispy and the center is gooey!

I have tried all kinds of cheeses and have decided that the stuff in a tube works just as good as any other I've tried. Manchaego is good, but in this recipe, not worth the extra cost.

I find my tapioca starch at my local Asian mega-mart (Vietnamese places often carry it more than Korean places).

Back to Game Day...the menu consisted of the following:

Asia - Couscous with almonds and dried cherries
North America (with USA not being eligible for cuisine consideration) - Coconut Chicken and Rice, Mango/pineapple rum bake.
Africa - Not sure what they are called, but it was short ribs and some spicy beef skewers.
Europe - Crackers with olive tapenade and proscuito/mozzarella wheels.
South America - Pao de Queijo, Garlic Picanha, Guarana

The host was also going to serve something Australian, but he could not find Vegemite.

Overall, I thought that the food theme was very interesting and could have led to some great food, but when everything came together, I felt that no one left the house feeling satisfied. Perhaps next time we do a continent theme, we should focus on one continent and really put out some good dishes.

What about the games? ok ok, so I get carried away with food. Here are some of the games we played:

Power Grid
Memoir 44 Overlord
Relationship Tightrope
Balloon cup
Category 5
Outburst

There were some other games being played, but I was involved in Power Grid during those times. Memoir 44 Overlord went over really well. It was the first time for many of the players and I had reservations about playing a war game with some of the party gamers. However, the interaction was through the roof (strange for a war game) and everyone had a great time! In fact, there was a point where we were so loud, some of the kiddos came by and told us to be quiet (we were interrupting their movie I suppose). The scenario we played was the Battle of Prokhorovoka. I felt it was fitting considering that our game day fell on the 65th anniversary of the battle.

http://www.daysofwonder.com/memoir44/en/editor/view/?id= 1367

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_ Prokhorovka

In our version, the tide of victory swung back and forth several times over the match. Most of the battle took place in the center of the field. Early on, the Germans were the aggressive force and Soviet casualties were mounting. However, a well placed artillery barrage and armor assault quickly turned the tide and the Germans were back on their heels as the Soviets took advantage. In the end, the Germans made one last desperate push to break the lines along the left flank and secure victory, but the Soviet line held against the odds. This was enough to give the main Soviet tank force time to break through the dense forest and break the German line on the right flank to secure victory. The end score was...Germans: 11 Medals...Soviets: 12 Medals. Close game for sure!

Game day wasn't without incident though. Melissa had to be rushed to a hospital because she had been bitten earlier by a dog and her stitches had become infected.

Other than than the food and the trip to the emergency room, game day was a lot of fun. I got to scratch my Power Grid and Overlord itch. Also, it seems that everyone enjoyed Overlord so much that they would be willing to play it again.

Grill Friday!!!

So...here at work, I am part of the Employee Events Committee. We, in part, take on the responsibility of organizing fun employee events, but are told to make it CHEAP. Our company just moved into a new building and purchased some items to help make things feel like home for the newly displaced employees. One of those items was a grill. A big one! This thing claims that you can cook over 3000 hotdogs at once (ok, maybe not 3000, but the cooking surface is at least 5 feet long). Anyway, the EEC decided to have Grill Friday once a month during the summer. What is Grill Friday? Well, once a month, we pull out the grill and ask people to bring food to grill and share 'tailgate style'. Not missing an opportunity to raise a few bucks for our company sponsored charity (this year its South West Kids...a charity to help poor kids in Dallas), we partnered up with the charity group and offered anyone who did not want to bring food an opportunity to donate to the charity.

This was our second grill friday. Last grill friday, we had a great turnout. We raised $60 for our charity (which is good for a small office). There was plenty of leftovers and everyone was stuffed.
From what I remember we grilled:
-Ribeyes
-Sausages (of all kinds)
-Hot links
-Hot dogs
-Kebabs
-Pineapple
-Curry chicken
-Atomic Buffalo Turds (Jalaepenos stuffed with chipotle/raspberry cream cheese and steak...wrapped in bacon...yep I brought those).


This time, it seemed that we had an even bigger turnout. When all was said and done, we had pounds of chicken and sausage left and we counted over $200 for charity. On the menu this time (that I could remember seeing) was:

-Chips and salsa
-Brats
-Pork Ribs
-Indo/pak spiced chicken
-Chicken Kabobs
-Cupcakes
-Hot Links
-Potato Salad
-Corn/veggies
-Bread
-Ribeye Steaks
-Turkey Dogs
-Hot Dogs
-Gourmet Sausages
-Cookies
-Garlic Tri-tip

Me and my boss did most of the cooking. In the end, after everyone had done eating, I rewarded him and me with a USDA Prime rib-eye and honey/brandy glazed peaches.

Good times were had by all!