Craig Rickel

Fie on Missouri!

2009-10-12T04:35:21Z

So for those not familiar with the Saga, a quick summary: We made a non-profit last year, raised a bunch of money for Safari's Sanctuary in our charity auction, and Missouri believes that we're not sales tax exempt; this despite the Missouri code stating rather clearly that social clubs - which we are registered with the federal government as - are exempt. But, at length, we found out that as a small charity/social club, with very little money to spare, we have absolutely no recourse in the matter.

As it turns out, if you're a corporation (such as a non-profit entity) an individual cannot represent your organization to the Missouri Administrative Hearing Commission unless they're licensed to practice law in Missouri. Since we're small charity and can't afford legal representation, we effectively have no representation, no matter the fact that we have both the Missouri Statutes AND a previous court ruling on our side.

This has left me irked. I wrote our state representative and senator to let them know of this hole in our legal system, but they won't be drafting new legislation until January, even if they hear about this. I would ask anyone who lives and pays taxes in Missouri consider doing the same. It's pretty easy to do - forms are right on their website.

But, yeah. We'll be holding next year's Wild Nights convention in Oklahoma. Again. :) Hope to see you all there. Should be more fun this year! We'll have a lot more people.

Which reminds me. I need to go tend to registration. And fill out state tax forms. =^-.-^=

Wild Nights - New Convention

2009-02-27T23:30:36Z

Well, we finally did it. Heros and I finally went and started a furry convention of our own - Wild Nights. It's taken a lot of work, particularly paperwork, but we have a non-profit organization set up and will be having our first year down at Robber's Cavern State Park in Oklahoma. It's a semi-outdoors kind of con, with cabins, a dining hall, plenty of space for all kinds of things to do, and a huge campfire.

Yes, I realize the actual name of our organization is the Missouri Exotic Species Art Association - but funny thing, Missouri didn't want to host our convention. Their loss, and we'll try to make it so we can have our convention there next year, but for now - Oklahoma!

The convention is running from April 23rd through the 27th. A $40 registration gets you food (prepared by yours truly), lodging in the cabins, and a variety of activities we're running there at the campgrounds. There also might well be horseback riding available, and tours of the cave along with something called the 'animal feed'. Not sure what that is, exactly, but it sounds like a lot of fun.

Anyway, hope to see you all there!

Sincerely,
Travis
MESA President
(and Head Chef!)

The Rye's the Limit

2006-06-25T14:20:45Z

Something interesting happened to me this weekend. I'm sitting here looking at a fifty dollar bill someone gave me. Why? Because they really liked my bread.

Lately, I've been baking up a few loaves, and a business friend of Joel's said, 'Hey, could you make me a few loaves? As good as I hear it is, I'll give you $5 a loaf.' Hey, not a bad way to make $20 with 50 cents worth of flour, eh?

So I baked up four. Only one of them ended up being your basic 'loaf' shapem actually baked in a tin. One I baked on a pizza cooking tray (my baking sheets weren't clean) and two I baked in pie tins (hey, you gotta use what you gotta use, and they didn't come all the way out to the edges anyway, right?).

The two in the pie tins split down the middle while they were baking. Probably because they spent too long in the oven - I put them in on the lower racks with other bread in the oven because I was running short on time and they weren't browning properly at first. But no problem, I brushed the sides with egg white in the last five minutes of baking to give them a shiny finish and called them 'artisan'.

So I sent those off, happily anticipating my $20. Instead, he sent back a $50, and a list of more breads he wants me to bake for him. More white bread, rye sourdough, pumpernickel, and cinnamon raisin (in an english muffin dough).

I don't even known HOW to make english muffins yet. But I do know this. Rye and pumpernickel are almost the same dough, except for one important detail. Pumpernickel spends 18-24 hours in a steam filled oven.

Real pumpernickel, that is. That's traditional German pumpernickel, the dark brown, rich, flavorful bread that's been colored by the Malliard reaction all the way through. You cook it low and slow. These days, bakers recognize that the biggest limit of their profession is time, and so cook high and fast. They get that rich, dark brown by throwing in things like molassas, coffee, even cocoa powder.

Hence, I have an internal conflict. There's the 'quick and easy' way, which will take only 2-3 hours from start to finish but give an inferior bread, and then there's the 'right' way. But when am I going to sleep?

Decisions, decisions. I'm probably going to go with the 'quick and easy' way. Although I don't have any molassas, and really haven't ever worked with it before. I wonder if I could use brown sugar...

Oh, and he said he was going to share this bread with all of his friends and trying to convince them to pitch in. Which means I'd be baking even more.

And here I thought I was just getting a $20!

It came back from FC...

2006-01-25T18:16:59Z

Yeah, figured I'd do a con report. Everyone else is doing it!

I'd like to being by saying 'ow'. Ow. Ow ow ow ow. Why? Because this was the first night in a week that I once again was able to sleep in a waterbed. A warm, cozy, but not-quite-entirely-filled waterbed. I slept very well indeed, but woke up with a very stiff back from the bed not being firm enough. I missed my waterbed, I did indeed, but I need to fix that.

How was the con, though? Well, funny thing, that. I missed most of it. We spent the first night visiting Joel's parents who, I would like to note, are cool. Not just like, supportive, and parenting, but very cool to just hang out with. If there hadn't even been a convention, I might've gone just to see them. They're that cool.

But we arrived at the convention site, got settled in, ran back and forth picking up friends of ours from the local airports - apparently all of them chose to arrive in different cities. Punks. And somewhere in the middle of all this, Joel and I got drafted into staff. I never did get a registration packet, but I don't think that would've mattered all that much.

See, the main reason that we started actually going to FC was Heather Alexander. I didn't go for the panels, the events, the art auctions, the dealers, or any other sort of thing going on around there. Just her, and her music. This year, she couldn't make it due to some scheduling conflicts with another convention, but we went anyway because we've made a lot of friends down there and Joel wanted to help out with the dance and stuff. To put it bluntly, friends of mine who were going were the only reason I was there this year.

So I spent almost the entire con there in the gaming room (the side with all the video equipment) making sure none of it was wandering off, listening to the furs attempt kareoke and play the same songs on Guitar Hero over and over again for three days. When I finished there, I'd go and find some friends and hang out with them. And that's what I did for the entire con. Didn't go to any panels, didn't follow the fursuiters around with a camera, didn't even manage to poke my way into the dealer's den anytime they were open.

I did manage to get a picture of my character, though - only the third one in existence. Yeah, I've been in the fandom... what, seven years now? And I only have three pictures of my character. One art trade with Frosttail, one con badge done in pencil by Krahnos, and this one, my third, the first I've actually paid money for, from Steve Martin. I also learned a very important lesson - when you're getting something done by an artist like him, who does huuuge amounts of art, that being their main source of income, give them more detail. Also, go in with a clear idea of at least what you want it to look like, because they can draw whatever you come up with. When he asked me, 'What should I have your character doing?' and I had no idea... he made something up based on the fact that I specified my character's musculature as a 'swimmer's build'. You know, muscled, but more lithe than bodybuilder style. So I got a picture of my character riding an octopus in the ocean. Not at all how I was picturing things - but the more I look at it, the more I like it, because he got my character's expression (which I did specify - 'quietly amused') dead-on. You can't quite tell what he's up to... but he's up to something, that much is sure. That is a perfect description of my character.

So how was the convention, though? I suppose I really just don't know. I had a lot of fun, but didn't really go for the con. I went for the people. Ran into almost everyone I was looking for. Almost - I missed areitu. *pokes the cheetah* And I missed a couple other people I was looking for simply because they weren't there at all, dang them. That's actually why I like the smaller conventions - it's a lot easier to find the people you're hunting when you only have to look through two hundred, instead of two thousand. Yeah, the number I heard quoted was 1980 people. YEESH. If I hadn't had my cellphone, I wouldn't have been able to find any of them. I also met some new, random people, which is always fun.

Think that's about it. I'm back home, grateful that I have a real kitchen. Next year, I'm pondering the possibilities of hunting down a suite with a kitchen or something. Zarel and I had some fun cooking up a dish of scallops over pasta on a portable little hotplate he brought. I'm tempted to see what he can do with a real kitchen, and share some of my own cooking with him. We shall see.
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5 Weird Things About Me

2006-01-15T00:36:44Z

Riiight, so...

"The first player of this game starts with the topic "5 Weird Habits of Yours" and people who get tagged need to write an LJ entry about their 5 quirky habits, as well as state this rule clearly. At the end, you need to list the next 5 people to be tagged."

Well, I've got nothing better to do. Weird habits of mine.

1. I get utterly fascinated with a topic. For about two weeks. During this time I act as an informational sponge and suck up everything I can understand (which tends to be most of it, these days, even with things like particle physics). Then I get bored and move on to the next fascination.

2. I'm a neophile. Not to the degree that, say, xiuv is, but I really like things that are 'new'. That aren't, well, crap, like 90% of everything new. New games, new movies, new books. If I don't get enough new stuff, I get wanderlust-ish, impatient, and generally cranky.

3. I'm technically a fur. Yes, most of you know what that is, and don't consider it particularly weird, but HEY. Most of the world still does. The reason I say 'technically' is because I'm mostly just in it because of my atavistic beliefs. I don't get turned on by fursuits, neither do I particularly fanboy the art.

4. My body wants to sleep on a 25 hour schedule. This means that roughly once a month, my schedule will rotate around entirely, from sleeping in the morning to sleeping at night and then back again. This makes 'normal' life difficult.

5. I can't think of a fifth weird thing about myself. So I suppose that's pretty weird in an of itself. But that means that I do have five things, but... ARGH!

And I'll tag: xiuv, jayger, dook, halex, areitu.

Scathing political commentary!

2005-09-26T16:34:37Z

A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until a majority of voters discover that they can vote themselves largess out of the public treasury.
Alexander Tytler

Tyranny and despotism can be exercised by many, more rigourously, more vigourously, and more severely, than by one.
Andrew Johnson

The great thing about democracy is that it gives every voter a chance to do something stupid.
Art Spander

Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch.
Benjamin Franklin

A citizen of America will cross the ocean to fight for democracy, but won't cross the street to vote in a national election.
Bill Vaughan

In a democracy everybody has a right to be represented, including the jerks.
Chris Patten

Democracy: In which you say what you like and do what you're told.
Dave Barry

Fifty-one percent of a nation can establish a totalitarian regime, suppress minorities and still remain democratic.
Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn

Democracy is based on the assumption that a million men are wiser than one man. How's that again? I missed something.
Excerpt from the notebooks of Lazarus Long, from Robert Heinlein's "Time Enough for Love"

Democracy substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few.
George Bernard Shaw

Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve.
George Bernard Shaw

The whole dream of democracy is to raise the proletarian to the level of stupidity attained by the bourgeois.
Gustave Flaubert

Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard.
H.L. Mencken

It is inaccurate to say I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty, and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible for public office.
H.L. Mencken

Giving every man a vote has no more made men wise and free than Christianity has made them good.
H.L. Mencken

Our democracy is but a name. We vote? What does that mean? It means that we choose between two bodies of real, though not avowed, autocrats. We choose between Tweedledum and Tweedledee.
Helen Keller

Who are the people that make up the biggest proportion of the population -- the intelligent ones or the fools?
Henrik Ibsen

The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously.
Hubert H. Humphrey

Democracy encourages the majority to decide things about which the majority is ignorant.
John Simon

We'd all like to vote for the best man but he's never a candidate.
Kin Hubbard

Democracy is the name we give the people whenever we need them.
Marquis de Flers Robert and Arman de Caillavet

Democracy is the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.
Oscar Wilde

Politicians are always interested in people. Not that this is always a virtue. Fleas are interested in dogs.
P.J. O’Rourke

The greatest fallacy of democracy is that everyone's opinion is worth the same.
Robert Anson Heinlein

Democracy, as has been said of Christianity, has never really been tried.
Stuart Chase

Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.
Thomas Jefferson

The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.
Thomas Jefferson

All extremes are bad. All that is good and useful, if carried to extremes, may become-and beyond a certain limit is bound to become bad and injurious.
V. I. Lenin

The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter.
Winston Churchill

Vote - Because the winning party doesn't want you to.
Unknown

On a lighter note....

2005-09-22T01:06:15Z

One of my best skills these days is the ability to find information from search engines and discern good, accurate information from bad information. I can't think of any job where this is actually an asset (maybe a researcher at a law office or something?) but there's no doubt that I'm very good at it.

Hurricane Rita has just hit 904 millibars of pressure. It's dropped 10 millibars in a single hour - that's a new record in meterology. That currently rates her as the 3rd strongest Atlantic hurricane of all time - and she shows every sign of getting even stronger. The eyewall was at 25 nautical miles wide this afternoon, and has shrunk to 20 nautical miles. Once it reaches 10 nautical miles, the eyewall will begin to collapse and go through a replacement cycle, which will stop the intensification.

However, that likely won't happen until early tommorrow morning. Before then, Hurricane Rita will continue over the Gulf loop current, an area of warmer water circulating through the Gulf of Mexico, which will continue to intensify her. There is a distinct possibility that she will drop below 888 millibars of pressure, which would make her the strongest hurricane in history, period. She will almost certainly make landfall as a Category 5 hurricane, making large parts of Texas a disaster area, and possibly even doing damage as far inland as Houston. As a contrast, sea level pressure is 1040 millibars.

If you've got relatives in Texas, you might want to get them out. Soon.

Angst

2005-09-21T23:56:09Z

Well, I've figured out one small segment of my personality. There's a lesson that I learned through grade school, through all of high school, and even in college. It's a bit amusing, as it's something more typical of Asians than Americans. It hurts them academically, it prevents them from succeeding in corporate jobs. But right now, it's just making me feel like crap.

The nail that sticks up gets hammered down.

All through my life, this lesson has been hammered into me. Don't look different. Fit in. Don't draw attention. Don't succeed. All of those things just make you a target. I just blend in, fade into the background, and try to do a good job while not trying to get too much attention.

The problem that Asians have is when they're in a corporate job, that's what they tend to do. They'll tell their superiors about what they're working on, but they don't brag of their accomplishments. They don't put themselves forward. They just do their job, do it well, and do it quietly - and watch their coworkers get promoted around them because their bosses hear about all the wonderful things they're doing.

My problem runs a bit deeper, though. I'm constantly picking up new things and then dropping them before I really get anywhere. I say I'm learning this, or that, or the other - and I am, don't get me wrong - but before I get anywhere near an accomplishment, I drop it and move on to something else. Get too successful, and people will start to notice - and being noticed is bad.

Being noticed in grade school got me beat up. It got my parents called about their 'precocious' kid by the teachers. I can't recall a single experience I had where I did well and something good actually came of it. It just made me a target.

Part of me is wondering if I should change. After all, it's gotten me this far in life, why stop now? The rest of me is looking at myself, looking at my life, and seeing just how little I've really done. I'm turning 27 in a week, I'm a third of the way through my life... I can't keep a job, I don't like talking to people, and I wish that the world would just leave me alone.

To be successful, I have to start putting myself forward. But is it really worth it? I don't know. I just don't. And I don't know how to change, even if I want to.

How do you undo twenty years of cultural conditioning?

Civilization?

2005-09-01T15:11:12Z

Rimmer: "They say that every society is only three meals away from revolution. Deprive a culture of food for three meals, and you'll have an anarchy."

So, we've got armed looters all throughout New Orleans. People shooting at rescue helicopters. Arson at the Superdome, one of the cities major evacuation points. Gangs of roving policemen, begging food off of people and having to siphon gas from abandoned vehicles for theirs.

Jesus Christ.

What really gets me is that even the police - trained personnel - did not fully realize the basic, fundamental rule of survival: You must take care of yourself before you can take care of others. They didn't know about the holy trinity of Food, Water, and Shelter. Even my mate, who is by no means trained in survival, knew about those!

I would like to personally send out kudos to all those people who had the sense to listen to the mandatory evacuation order that went out before the hurricane hit. Every single one of you has helped make the situation that much easier.

And I'm even more glad I live in the midwest. The worst thing we have up here? It's not the tornados. It's the occasional ice storm. We get one bad one about every three/four years. Knocks out power to parts of the city for a day or two. We know how to deal with it.

Something like this? The next time a Category 5 Hurricane comes barrelling in towards a major city, odds are, it'll be so far in the future that people will have forgotten all about this object lesson.

crickel @ 2005-08-28T19:41:00

2005-08-29T00:48:57Z

"Oh, I wouldn't want to live in the Midwest - I'm scared of tornados!" --- Louisiana Citizen

"With windspeeds of over 150 miles an hour - well, imagine an F-3 Tornado 300 miles wide..." Weatherguy talking about Hurricane Katrina

I just don't get people sometimes. :D

Teaching Math

2005-08-25T12:05:26Z

Teaching Math in 1950:
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5
of the price. What is his profit?

Teaching Math in 1960:
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5
of the price, or $80. What is his profit?

Teaching Math in 1970:
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $80.
Did he make a profit?

Teaching Math in 1980:
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $80
and his profit is $20. Your assignment: Underline the number 20.

Teaching Math in 1990:
By cutting down beautiful forest trees, the logger makes $20. What do you
think of this way of making a living? Topic for class participation after
answering the question: How did the forest birds and squirrels feel as the
logger cut down the trees? (There are no wrong answers.)

Teaching Math in 2005:
El hachero vende un camion carga por $100. La cuesta de production
es.............

Meme Dweller got me again

2005-08-23T08:59:47Z

More Scientific

You have:
77% SCIENTIFIC INTUITION and
70% EMOTIONAL INTUITION

The graph on the right represents your place in Intuition 2-Space. As you can see, you scored above average on emotional intuition and well above average on scientific intuition.Your scientific intuition is stronger than your emotional intuition.

Your Emotional Intuition
score is a measure of how well you understand people, especially their
unspoken needs and sympathies. A high score score usually indicates
social grace and persuasiveness. A low score usually means you're good
at Quake.

Your Scientific Intuition
score tells you how in tune you are with the world around you; how well
you understand your physical and intellectual environment. People with
high scores here are apt to succeed in business and, of course, the
sciences.

My test tracked 2 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 99% on Scientific
You scored higher than 99% on Interpersonal

Link: The 2-Variable Intuition Test written by jason_bateman on OkCupid Free Online Dating

What is society?

2005-08-19T11:35:20Z

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately. What does it mean to be a society? Are we a society? A culture? A community?

All those words run together in my mind. They overlap by large degrees. They all have linguistic distinctions, to be sure, but they share a common thread - a group of people, bound together by something. Meaning. An ideal. A group of similar friends. Sometimes even as little as the fates of geography, bound together by merely living close by each other.

The more I think about it, the more I realize that my idea of a community is inherently flawed. My thoughts of what it should be bear little resemblence to what it is - but whatever it is, it proceeds merrily along its way without me, independant of my muted abhorrence.

I love you all as brothers and sisters. Indeed, I care deeply for each and every one of you. I even care for those I know little of - people I meet for a single day, people I hardly know but for online communications. At some core level of my being, I think that instinctively that this is how things should be - that this is what it should mean to belong to something.

But it seems that this view is not shared by many others. It seems that every day I turn around, and friends - close friends, both of them - are going from mild friendship to bitter hatred in the blink of an eye. I hear about some group who has decided to make it their life's work that another should suffer. I hear about all the little things that people don't like, and I hear in their voices and inflections that it has gone far beyond merely 'not liking' and quite some distance beyond.

I listen to all of this, and I think on what I believe it means to be part of a group...

... and I feel more alone than ever.

I beseech you! Write below this - tell me what you think it means to belong to a community. I need the thoughts of others to act as a mirror to my own soul. Introspection can only take you so far, and I feel as if I have reached the end of my path, stumbling into uncharted darkness.

Zen and the Art of Sauces

2005-07-12T04:03:01Z

I have just added a new level of difficulty as it pertains to sauces: Mayonnaise.

For some time now, I have been studying how to make various kinds of sauces, starting with the terribly-too-easy Spaghetti Sauce, requiring only the basic skills of not burning food and opening cans. From there, you step up to Alfredo sauce (still fairly basic, but requires specific order of steps). After Alfredo comes Gravy. (Once you know what a 'roux' is and how to make it, it's pretty easy. Woe betide those who do not.) And I had Hollandaise Sauce (stir like a madman! A madman! and know how to seperate out egg yolks!) at the top of my list.

But nothing, nothing can quite prepare you to attempt making your own mayonnaise by hand. (When I say by hand, I mean no electric appliances. Partly for the challenge, partly to see how people would have done it a few decades ago - and partly because I'm too lazy to use AND clean the blender for a single small dish.) There are about a dozen different things you can do wrong, there's no real way to correct for them, and they all end up with the same result - a water-like substance that could only be dignified by the word 'mayonnaise' if you let it sit out overnight on the counter to calcify.

All the other sauces, I managed to make properly on my first try. But thus far, mayonnaise eludes me. Maybe next time, I'll use the blender.

Oh, and for the recipes:

Spaghetti Sauce
There's as many different ways to make spaghetti as stars in the sky. They're all the same basic idea, though. A tomato sauce served over pasta with oregano in it!

Hamburger, 2 lbs
Sweet Basil, a few dashes
Oregano, a few dashes
Tomato Sauce, 2x 15oz. cans
Tomato Paste, 1 small can
Basalmic Vinegar, 1 tbsp.
Black Pepper, a couple dashes
1 Small Onion (optional)
Vinegar
Salt
Sugar

Brown the hamburger. Drain off the grease. Congratulations! Hard part's over. Turn the burner down to Medium-low and throw in everything else EXCEPT for the Vinegar, Salt and Sugar. Now comes the second-hardest part. The vinegar will make things more tangy. The salt brings out the flavor of the tomatos. And the sugar helps to offset the sharp sourness of the vinegar. You want to get all three of these in balance - you'll be doing some tasting. (Isn't it great to be the cook?) Add a little at a time. I find that 2 tbsp vinegar, 1 tsp salt, and 2 tbsp sugar will get you pretty close. After that, it's basically done, but you can simmer it for 30 minutes to draw out the flavor of the other spices.

Alfredo Sauce (Quick and Dirty)
There are many different recipes for Alfredo Sauce. This is the beginner's version. For advanced cooks, look for a recipe that involves heavy cream. It's even less healthy than this one. Must be why it tastes so great. ;)

1 stick butter (that's 8 tablespoons!)
16 oz. sour cream (or so)
1 cup grated parmesan cheese (more or less)

Melt the butter over low heat. Don't let it start boiling. Throw in the sour cream and mix it in thoroughly. Once done, pause for 10 seconds. If you see buttery oil form around the edge, you either didn't stir it enough or you need more sour cream. After that's done, throw in the parmesan and turn the heat up to medium, stirring until it melts. The texture of the sauce should be smooth throughout, with no lumpiness. If you desire a dash of color, throw in a sprinkling of sweet basil. Goes GREAT with the spaghetti sauce.

Gravy (Sausage-style)
There's a lot of different kinds of gravy. This is Sausage Gravy, or White Gravy. Or just plain 'gravy' depending on who you talk to. Usually made with breakfast and served on top of the sausage you got the grease from... hence the name.

Grease
Flour
Salt
Pepper
Milk

So, you fixed sausage, and now you have all this grease in the pan. Great! Time to make a roux. A roux is very simple - take flour and sprinkle it into the grease over medium-low to medium heat, stirring to mix it in evenly. It'll bubble and foam at first, and then, as you add more flour and keep stirring, it'll form into a sort of doughy looking thing. That is a roux. Once you have your roux, stir in the salt, pepper, and finally the milk. How much? ... well, you'll figure it out. That's the tough part of gravy. It can only be made with experience. It will likely seem to be WAY too thin - don't worry. Turn the heat up to high, and keep it stirring. As the milk-roux mixture starts to boil, it will suddenly start to congeal in the pan. If it's too thick, add more milk. If it's too thin, keep boiling and stirring constantly, and it'll thicken up. Also, once it cools down a bit, it'll thicken up even more - keep that in mind.

Hollandaise Sauce
Evil to prepare - wonderful over just about anything. Most well known over Eggs Benedict - but just try it over some rice. Plain, simple rice. Just try it. ;) Also, all the recipes up to this point have been a very 'more or less' nature. This one... is not. MEASURE BEFOREHAND.

3 large egg yolks
1/2 cup butter
1 tbsp + 1 tsp lemon juice
dash of white pepper
2 dashes salt

Heat the butter over low heat until melted. DO NOT BROWN. Remove entirely from heat. In a seperate, small bowl, beat the egg yolks with the lemon juice, salt and pepper. By the time you're done, the butter should have cooled down enough that it won't start cooking the eggs as you mix them in. Do so, gradually, stirring constantly. Once it's mixed in, return to low heat, stirring constantly, never taking your eyes off it, until slightly thickened to desired consistancy. Do NOT let it boil under any circumstances. It will go from 'boiled sauce' to 'cooked eggs' in a heartbeat. LOW heat. I'm not kidding. And stir it constantly!

And lastly, Mayonnaise. In theory only. I haven't made this successfully yet, and when it's bad, it's REALLY bad.

2 egg yolks
1 c oil
1/2 lemon
2 ts vinegar
seasonings (as desired)

Juice the half of lemon, set aside. Beat the hell out of the egg yolks until slightly thickened. Start adding oil, drop by drop, while still beating. DROP by DROP. Once you've added half a cup, you can start to add it more rapidly, but still proceed slowly and with caution. Then slowly start to add the lemon juice. Once that's done, add in seasonings. Can be stored in refrigerator (but I would advise using it immediately).

League for Good Science

2004-09-07T09:34:13Z

Join me, my minions! The League for Good Science is forming!

The League for Good Science is a special interest group that I'm putting together. Our interest: keeping people from using Bad Science to influence people and win votes.

Among the ways people use Bad Science are:

Misusing Statistics

MADD claims that in 2002, 17,790 people were killed on the road by drunk drivers, making up 42% of the 42,815 deaths that year. They claim to have taken these figures from the NHTSA.

The NHTSA didn't list that as 'people killed by drunk drivers'. They listed that figure as 'alcohol-related crashes'. In other words, if any party involved in the accident had a BAC (blood-alcohol content) of more than 0.00 percent, it was 'alcohol-related'. This means that a driver who hits a drunk pedestrian is included, as well as a designated driver for his drinking friends. MADD uses this statistic to forward their campaign.

What's more, if you visit the NHTSA's online site, they list the total number of fatalities in 2002 to be 38,491!

Quoting Out of Context

Creationists often quote this from Darwin: 'To suppose that the eye with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree.' Gee... kinda implies that Darwin admitted he was on crack when he wrote the theory, huh?

They leave out this part: 'Yet reason tells me, that if numerous gradations from a perfect and complex eye to one very imperfect and simple, each grade being useful to its possessor, can be shown to exist; if further, the eye does vary ever so slightly, and the variations be inherited, which is certainly the case; and if any variation or modification in the organ be ever useful to an animal under changing conditions of life, then the difficulty of believing that a perfect and complex eye could be formed by natural selection, though insuperable by our imagination, can hardly be considered real. How a nerve comes to be sensitive to light, hardly concerns us more than how life itself first originated; but I may remark that several facts make me suspect that any sensitive nerve may be rendered sensitive to light, and likewise to those coarser vibrations of the air which produce sound.'

Or to summarize, he's saying: 'Yeah, it looks absurd, but if you think about it, it really does make sense.'

Cherry Picking Data

This is when people collect a whole lot of data from many studies - and then only use certain studies that show the conclusions they're after.

In 1993, a landmark report was published by the EPA declaring that environmental tobacco smoke (that's second-hand smoke, to the layman) is responsible for almost 3,000 deaths a year. In 1998, a federal judge blasted the EPA for excluding studies that "demonstrated no association between ETS and cancer" and withholding "significant portions of its findings and reasoning in striving to confirm its a priori hypothesis." A priori is a Latin term which means, 'before the fact'. In other words... coming to a conclusion before looking at the data.

Predictions

The words to look for here are: 'If present trends continue...'

'If present trends continue, within 20 years most countries will no longer be self-sufficient in rice...'

'The current extinction rate is now approaching 1,000 times the background ("normal") rate and may climb to 10,000 times the background rate during the next century if present trends continue.'

If present trends continue, gas prices at the end of the year will be almost $4.00 a gallon! Fortunately, present trends rarely continue.

These people often combine two fallicies - first, they're cherry picking the data. The often only use the most recent few years. And they rarely use a sample that's big enough to be statistically significant. The data that they use in the first place is often obtained through questionable means, or through secondary sources.

It's kind of like listening to a couple friends tell you about the cars they've bought in the last few years during the recession, extrapolating the net value of the cars, and concluding that in 20 years, everyone will be riding around on roller skates.

Our Goals

(1) Educate people!

The schools sure as hell aren't doing it. Teach people how they are being deceived, who's deceiving them, what methods deceivers use, how to find the data themselves, and how to interpret it.

Some basic statistics couldn't hurt, either.

(2) Investigate statistics

If you come across something that looks bogus, take an in-depth look at it. If it's wrong, then tell people about it. Make others aware about people that are attempting to lie to us. And tell me, too! I'm thinking about putting a book together. :)

Random Thought of the Night

2004-03-08T07:52:53Z

'The great struggle of life is not between good and evil, but between differing ideas of good.' -- Michael P. Kube McDowell, _Emprise_.

A thoroughly enjoyable hard sci-fi novel. I reccommend it to anyone who reads such things. But on a more personal note...

Isn't it funny that people who say they 'only want what's best for you' are the ones trying to control your life? Not just parents, but social reforms, congressmen, etc.

As the year moves on, remember that you have more voice than a vote, and that your citizenship comes with a price - that of eternal vigilance against those who would take away the single most valuable, single most available, and single most ignored gift of this nation.

Your freedom.

Corrupted by the Meme-Dweller!

2004-02-07T23:55:22Z

I'm sorry, I just HAD to...

You are in an anime! What happens? by meteoric
Name
Age
What the anime is about	Magical boys
Genre	Action
Episode count	294
Your role	Fan service

Created with quill18's MemeGen 2.0!

*laughs hysterically!* Magical boys! And my role is.. FAN SERVICE! :D :D

Zero God

2004-02-05T19:56:47Z

The Ten Commandments
... as according to Janitor Wang,
translator of Zero Wing.

How are you gentlemen!!

1. Main God turn on!
2. Someone set us up the graven image!
3. God words vain not to be taking.
4. You have no chance work on the Sabbath, make your time.
5. Honor all parent - for great justice!
6. Killing - what you say?!
7. Please not to be taking advantage of the chambermaid.
8. Hell send every thief.
9. It's you! *pointing at wrong person*
10. All thy neighbor's goods are belong to Me.

Creed of Wisdom

2004-02-03T16:10:45Z

Well, it looks like I'm going to try and be a writer. Should be most interesting, really. Going to start with short stories first, then see about actually doing some books.

With that in mind, I admit to having a most interesting sort of mind. It's a gamer's mind, and a strategist's. There are occasions when I wander into someone's house, and start thinking, 'okay, that's where I'd put the machine gun nest, that's where I'd make a kill zone'. This could easily disturb some people - truth is, I've never even so much as held anything larger than a hunting rifle. But the fact that the idea might occur to you might bother people if you mention it. It was a hard lesson for me to learn when I was younger, to keep my damn mouth shut. I've learned it pretty well, I think.

But even so, I'm going to have to keep that in mind as I start writing. There are some ideas I have that are not just idle speculation or mere curiousity - some of them are downright -dangerous- to other people - people who I have never met. The thought that I might hurt others really bothers me. When you speak an idea, when you communicate it, you reinforce its existence, and for some ideas, that's not a good thing. If you don't believe me, just look at Christianity, an idea that has killed countless millions in the Crusades, Inquisitions, and persecutions of our history.

Everyone is worried about terrorists right now. I will say two things. First, more people are killed every year in this country in car accidents than by terrorists. 17,448 died in 2001 alone. That's well over five times the number of people (2,726) who died in the World Trade Centers on Sept 11th. Yes, it was a tragedy, yes, we should take reasonable and prudent steps to prevent it (personally, I think the steps we already have taken are quite enough to prevent its reoccurence) - but frankly, we have bigger things to worry about. Heart disease killed 700,142 people that year. I can't help but wonder if the fast food industry should be considered a terrorist plot. ;)

Secondly, I know what people are capable of. And I know that what the terrorists did are small potatoes, compared to the sort of ideas I have. But the biggest tragedy of all is that people are not recognizing the true battle being waged. The attacks on the World Trade Center was an attack on American soil, an attack on our citizens, but that was not the primary goal. They are attacking our way of life. And so far, we're letting them win. America was a country founded on the concept of freedom. Freedom of speech, freedom of religion - and freedom of choice. Every day that we sacrifice our freedoms for the sake of security, we are giving up a piece of what it means to be a true American citizen.

If I own a gun, I can choose not to use it. If I'm a responsible gun owner, then I'd choose to keep it somewhere safe, locked up, and unloaded. Owning a gun does not make you a violent criminal. But when you outlaw guns, honest citizens will willingly disarm themselves. Criminals are already breaking the law - what do they have to lose?

So with that in mind, I keep in mind I learned from one of my games, actually. Werewolf: the Apocalypse. Though I have few positive comments about the game, I can say that the ideals that Garou are -supposed- to follow carry some weight in my heart. In particular, the Creed of Wisdom.

I shall be calm.
I shall be prudent.
I shall be temperate.
I shall be merciful.
I shall think before I act,
and listen before I think.

I am definately going to be doing some thinking as I choose which ideas to incorporate into my stories, and which I shall leave unspoken. Just as it can be dangerous to tell teenager in chemistry class how to make nitrogylcerin, there is some knowledge that is better left unsaid.

Pharaoh, King of the Nile

2004-01-15T00:34:20Z

I was playing this game the other day. A breif summary for those unfamiliar with it: Pharaoh is a game where you play... a Pharaoh. I can hear the voices saying, 'duh', so please bear with me. :) The game engine is based off of Caesar I and II, so those who've played either of those have a good idea what it's like. Only... prettier graphics. And you get to build pyramids.

Pyramids are funny things. It doesn't really hit you, looking at them, but the pyramids are solid stone. Nowadays, even skyscrapers have a lot of air in them, so it's really just a bunch of walls and floors around a bunch of empty space. Not so with Pyramids. There's a little tomb underneath them. Otherwise... solid stone.

I was working on one of these when suddenly an epiphany of absurdity struck me. I took a good long look at my city. It's purpose - pick up stone from the west side of the map, and stack it in a big pile on the east side. I'm paying these workers wages, they pay me taxes.

I never knew that something so lacking in purpose could be so profitable. My city was rich, I was rich, and by the end, we had one real big pile of stone.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is ... isn't money a really silly concept? I had a huge city, made all my money in taxes, we didn't have to export anything, we didn't do anything really -useful- for the rest of the world. My workers ate ostriches, drank water, and built pyramids. You'd think that a society like that could survive without cash. Seriously.

I'm one of those people that believes that humanity will eventually evolve beyond free market economics. That life has a higher purpose than the dollar bill. That people could learn -not- to be greedy and live without consuming everything. To only take what they need, and to leave the rest for others.

Craig

Informational Age (This exit)

2003-12-20T01:30:11Z

Yeah, it's been a while, apologies all around. It was 2am when I finished that last post, and then I didn't want to put something up until I remembered where I was, and then... well, let's just say it snowballed. So to get back into posting, I'm just going to start writing where I left off and cross my fingers.

So, here's the second problem. Our educational system is not equipped to handle the informational age.

It's a well known fact that colleges and universities (at least in the undergrad programs) tend to lag behind the technology curve by approximately 10-20 years. In most disciplenes, this is fine. Let's face it, math hasn't really changed that much in the last 100 years. Adding is still adding. I think the latest, biggest 'WOW!' they've done was phasors, which is a technique that was discovered sometime around 50 years ago and found its way into electrical engineering, acoustics, and anywhere else they model wave functions a lot, using cosines and sines.

However, this doesn't fly in the computer industry. 20 years ago, I was using an Apple IIe. It was my very first computer. I was so happy! We had 5 1/4" floppy drives (TWO of them!) and it ran at a blazing speed of almost half a MegaHertz! Wow!

About five years after that, we got a 286, which ran at up to 28 Mhz.

When I went into college, I got a brand new computer, a PPro 200 Mhz computer, which has since become my linux server. (Good little box. *patpat*)

And as I sit here typing this, I am on a 1.8 Ghz machine.

Let's take a moment to say 'wow'. In 20 years, we've increased the speed of our computers by almost 5000x. That speed has changed the face of programming. Back in the Apple days, if you wanted to write a REAL program - you wrote it in Assembly. Machine code. Hexadecimal ones and zeros that the hardware translated instantly and did everything it needed to. You wrote every aspect of your program. It might take you a month to write the program, but by god, it worked.

Nowadays, you have to call about fifteen functions to open a simple window. 14 of those are just clearing up areas of memory and preparing for it. Nobody really knows that they actually [b]do[/b], either. They just have to be called in this certain sequence. In some ways, it's almost like a religious ritual. 'First, you must perform the calling of the global initialization routine. Then the memory must be santified with the holy 'malloc' routine. Then chant the litany of DirectDraw, and lo, the windows shall part.'

When I was in college, they were still teaching Cobol. It was required for the major. It was also about as useful as trying to teach us to code in Latin. I've heard of [b]one[/b] company since then that still actually uses it.

We had one class in 'advanced graphics', which was pure math. I mean, PURE math. We took points, threw them through matrix transformations, and voila, they were translated as according to whatever perspective we were viewing it in.

So... what actual skills do I have? I have a theoritical backing in computer design. I could build one up from the transistors, make the RAM myself, go and write its own operating system and programming language and compilers... Too bad you never do that in the real world.

In other words, people are going to college and taking courses and coming out [b]completely unprepared[/b] to actually do anything useful. They require six months to a year of training before they can be productive in their jobs... this is costing companies a lot of money, and many of them treat fresh programmers out of college as little more than wageslaves, making them code for 70-80 hours a week, making them work on weekends, and then tell the that they're not quite meeting the companies objective and so going to be laid off. You laugh? It happened to one of my friends from down at college.

Companies can't trust the knowledge that college is giving graduates. They can't. What they need them to know isn't there. The same thing applies to the service industry. Does this guy know what he's doing? Well, he's got a diploma - seriously, [b]does he know what he's doing?[/b] The fact that we have to actually ask that question is just sad.

We can solve both of these problems by addressing this one fact. First, people need to be brought up to speed and realize that the colleges are NOT doing their job with regards to computer education. They need to become disaccredited with regards to computer science. This process is happening right now as more and more people voice complaints about it, just at a fairly slow pace. They're pretty entrenched.

Secondly, we need to get some institutions put together that actually will do the proper education - and then they need to have some high-profile graduates and get a reputation for putting out people who know what the heck they're doing. It would have to transcend current education techniques. You can't 'build on the history' like most places, teaching them addition and then algebra and then working your way up to calculus. You need to teach them two things - first, how to understand the documentation for the new things that's scattered, spotty, and incoherent (at best - often it doesn't even exist). Then you need to teach them how to apply this new stuff. Like pixelshaders in DX9.0.

We need to move past 'teachers'. The people who need to teach are the ones who know how to use it, and you can't learn that standing in front of a blackboard. I suppose you could try rotating them in and out - one person teaches one year, the next goes back out into 'the field' and studies how to use the new tools, something like that. In any case, the current structure won't work. Old professors have old knowledge, not new studies.

Whew. :) Ok. I think that's it.

Informational Age (20km)

2003-10-09T11:32:39Z

As we proceed further down the Information Superhighway, we are running smack into the problem that our economic system is simply not equipped to handle this new era. There are two fundamental problems here. The second one is big enough to merit it's own post later.

The first problem is the basic structure of our economy. You see, once upon a time, our economy revolved almost completely around commodities and their distribution. It's very easy to say whether or not someone has delivered 20 tons of weasels by a certain day, for example. However, disputes still sometimes arose as to whose weasels they really were, what happened if they were just one day late delivering the weasels, or if these were indeed real weasels, and not just ferrets painted funny - that's where lawyers came from. And being lawyers, the eventually made law. Our liturgy system is based around the idea of commodities.

So when we got around to doing things like making software, recording music, and thinking up new things to write software and music about, and making a lot of money doing so, we started treating all these things like commodities, because those fit into business models. Unfortunately, as recent events such as the dot.com crash have shown, the real world doesn't always work the way it does in an economic model.

The problem with the economy is the service industry. It's a very, very important category. It is almost also entirely subjective. Unlike delivering 20 tons of weasels, success and failure are negotiable boundries - generally negotiated by whoever has the bigger lawer. We are slowly turning into a despotic system, run by whoever has the money to hire the biggest, baddest lawyer on the block.

Some examples of the service industry: A mechanic. A surgeon. A musician. A programmer. A novellist. A painter. All of these professions share fundamental truths.

1. You don't know what you're getting until after you pay for it. Unlike buying weasels, people have problems defining what is an 'adequate' service is. Will you like the music? Will the program crash and eat three months of data? Are the brakes going to fall out of your car in a panic stop? Will the surgeon leave a forceps in your spleen while taking out your appendix? Nobody knows until afterwards. In some cases, problems may take months to manifest. Of course, though, the service providers expect to be paid immediately after finishing the project. Some of them even have the audacity to charge fees for fixing problems they caused in the first place, from releasing patches for buggy software to another operation to fix the first one.

2. It is possible to fail through no fault of your own. Sometimes, it's just not possible to succeed. Sometimes, circumstances beyond your control manifest. A normal software upgrade can fall out from under you as the hard drive crashes. The patient goes into anapheleptic shock on the table. You thought you'd be replacing a clutch, and you find out the frame of the car is shot when it snaps in half on the lifter. In some cases, you may just not know the little trick to make things work. Other problems, perhaps no one can solve. But whether or not you can perform the service isn't always readily apparent to the service buyer or seller. Also, remember where I was talking about lawyers? Well, this is where they come in, when you FAIL. Loss of data, death of a patient, cost of the car - all of these are highly visible, quantifiable losses, which lawyers are real good at getting money from.

3. The definition of 'adequate' service is variable. When is a painting 'good enough'? Is it even possible to make bug-free software anymore? There's nine different types of stitches to use in medicine, which one should be used in this instance and what defines an 'adequate' suture? Did I mention that, second to quantifiable losses, lawyers love the grey areas to play around in?

These are serious issues. If we continue on in this fashion, we will eventually become one nation, under Law.

Geez, I didn't mean to get quite this long. :) Potential solutions in the next one.

What People Really Want

2003-09-30T10:29:12Z

I talked earlier about people wanting freedom. Here's some more thoughts on the matter.

Every person, I think, has these dreams in their head of an ideal situation. Take me, for instance. I dream sometimes that I'll win the lottery and have enough money to buy a big house or apartment building, and then have all my friends that I care about live in one spot. Maybe even teach them to program so I can make all the things that I want this world to see.

It's a very idealized view. When I'm imagining it, I'm not seeing the bickering between two friends. I'm not seeing people moving out and halfway across the country to be with someone they met online for two weeks. I'm not seeing the bills for the utilities or the volumes of housing codes. Everyone has dreams like this in some way - what it would be like to have a perfect world.

You see, what people really want (eventually) is freedom from responsibility. They want to be able to live without care, love without thought, and laugh without worry. In some respects, admiriable, but in others, deplorable. What is life without thought? What is love without reason?

The measure of a man does not come by the clothing he wears or the language he speaks; by his heart and his mind, by his deeds, you will know him. No amount of song empty of truth can stand to the smallest snippet of music that sings of a true man. Though some may be noble by blood or birth, only those willing to bear the responsibility of living their lives are truly noble men.

Freedom

2003-09-24T07:45:08Z

Freedom. The cry of the people. "We want to be free!" they shout up in one voice. But then comes disagreements, the bickering. People take sides, form into groups. Leaders emerge, gathering people about their beliefs. Laws are made that restrict freedom, but deemed 'neccessary' to ensure the greater good.

Freedom is a choice; not a gift, not an inalienable right, not something you can gain by force of arms. And it a choice that should not be taken lightly. With it comes responsibility. When you take an action, whether for good or ill, you bear the results on your conscience, and nothing else.

It's a tricky thing, freedom. A man can bind your arms and legs in chain, but in the end, you have to allow him to chain your spirit. Laws don't really limit freedom, except by the choice of people. They're something that only work when people agree to pay attention to them. Pointless laws, such as, 'You can't serve apple pie with ice cream on it' (An old Kansas law) aren't followed - aren't even enforced. They cease to be laws at that point.

You can choose to break laws. You can go out to a bar, get into a fight, beat up a perfect stranger. But you have to be willing to accept the consquences - fines, months in jail, maybe even years. But don't people in jail clamor for freedom, that they have been denied somehow

So what is this freedom that everyone wants? I think it's the freedom from the responsibility they want. They don't want to have to think about how to live their lives. They want to make all of the choices, get all of the praise, and deal with none of the consequences.

The last man I knew who was willing to live with the consequences of his choices, who bore the responsibility for the things that he had done... died on a cross, almost two thousand years ago. He died at the hands of emperors and ignorance, hate and spite. But he died a free man.

One of these days

2003-09-16T02:41:27Z

One of these days, I'm going to complete un-weed the lawn.
One of these days, I'm going to re-write that design document for the game I'm working on.
One of these days, I'm going to learn Japanese. And Chinese. And re-learn French.
One of these days, I'm going to go to another country. Overseas. Mexico and Canada don't count.
One of these days, I'm going to finish the books I started.
One of these days, I'm going to learn to actually code in a production environment.
One of these days, I'm going to have somewhere where I can live with ALL my friends.

One of these days, I'm going to get around to doing all the things I'm going to do 'one of these days'.