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February 28, 2024 – Repurposing Super Bowl Leftovers

February 28, 2024 /

I hope that you don’t have leftovers from the Super Bowl still. It took me a while to get to this topic. But I wanted to put out mind opener. Let me cover what we had going here. I had a crab Rangoon dip with a bunch of raw crab, queso dip and spinach artichoke dip. So what can we do with this stuff other than eating a bunch of chips, crackers and dip for weeks?

First of all, I had wings on Monday and we did make nachos on the Tuesday after the super bowl. But we did have a lot of queso dip left after that. You have to use your brain here. What is in queso dip? The dip was evaporated milk, white American cheese and a can of green chiles. I found it to be really bland to begin with so why not repurpose this? After all, alfredo sauce is a cheese dispersed in milk.

To combat the slight, wrong cheese flavor, I heavily seasoned shrimp with Cajun seasoning with some to the sauce as well and thinned the whole thing down with cream. I served over fettuccini noodles. You would have never known that this started out as queso dip.

The crab Rangoon dip needed a little more delicate flair. This dip was made with crab, cream cheese, green onions, topped with some shredded cheddar cheese and sweet chili sauce. I love to use this kind of thing as omelet filler so that is what I did.

I purchase crab for the dip in a can. We only needed about half of it so we had probably a cup of crab. That got made into a seafood chowder. It wasn’t enough crab to call it a crab chowder so I supplemented by adding some canned clams. My point with this one is that you can still use up smaller quantities of leftovers by adding other items with them.

The spinach artichoke dip stayed just that. It is a whole lot easier to finish off one dip than three. I really didn’t apply much thought to repurposing this one but may some kind of soup? Maybe I could have even thrown it in with the chowder? Something to think about.

It didn’t hurt that I had nearly a half gallon of cream that was near the expiration point. I had to act quickly with all of these things or risk them going bad. I am pretty happy with my creations and those leftovers will become lunch portions that I will much more likely eat than a big container of dip.

End Your Programming Routine: Making all of these things was my wife’s brainchild. I would have probably made one thing and focused on the game. That being said, we both have our idiosyncrasies. So, it was my job to figure out what to do with the leftovers. Truth be told, I think the re-creations were better than the original. It comes with a second helping of satisfaction as well.

February 27, 2024 – My First Stiches

February 27, 2024 /

Back in my day… I started middle school in 1986. As a sixth grader, we were required to take a whole year of survey classes. We had art, choir, shop class and home economics. I didn’t think too much of it. While my family lived a home economics lifestyle, it wasn’t something that I had done much of it, but I had been around it my whole life. We baked cookies and learned how to sew.

Our project was to make a drawstring bag using a sewing machine. We had to supply our own fabric, but that was easy because my mom had a whole chest of it. I remember completing it in a couple of days. I don’t remember much about it but I am guessing that I probably didn’t do the best job. Sewing is a skill that requires practice.

Learning to use the sewing machine came in handy when I was at home and had access to one. Occasionally, I would need to put a patch on my Boy Scout uniform and my mom didn’t get around to it. There was the periodic mend that needed to be made as well.

As time would have have it, I have been away from sewing machines a long time. It had been on my mind to pickup an inexpensive second, hand machine when I had the opportunity. I guess you could say I inherited one as I claimed my mother-in-laws machine as we were cleaning out the storage unit last year. But, it didn’t help much because I couldn’t remember a thing.

I watched a couple YouTube videos on how to load the machine. The one that was actually the most helpful was an eight year old (guessing) loading a simple Singer. This one is old and pretty basic, but it is well made. So, after watching the video three times, I got the thread loaded. Fortunately, the basic operation hasn’t changed much over the years. I’d have to say that if it wasn’t for my past experience helping me with what I thought I knew, I don’t think I would have got enough information from the videos alone.

The picture on the right was my first attempt. As you can see I kind of started out as a mess. But that is OK. I am simply mending the pocket of my sweat pants. For years now, the seam between the back panel and my pocket has been coming apart. It isn’t a huge deal but more often than not when I try to stick something in my pocket, it ends up going down my pant leg, which is annoying

I could have done it by hand. And I would have if I didn’t have a sewing machine. But, I have been sitting on this for over a year waiting to figure out how to use it. I took the opportunity to do it. I have a bigger project in mind. My son needs all of his merit badges sewn onto a sash. He is Eagle Scout bound and it would be good to finally get this completed.

Sewing patches by hand is not easy. Pushing through the thick material with a needle and fingers is slow going. To make matters worse, most of the ones I have sewn by hand have eventually fallen off. My knots break and then it all starts coming undone.

I got my pant’s mended. I am ready to take on the next challenge. I probably need to practice before I do some more public facing stitching. The good news is that I have learned how to use a seam ripper too. The cutting is permanent but the stitching can be redone.

End Your Programming Routine: I think that it is valuable to have a sewing machine and know how to use it. Mending used to be a valuable skill, now we just replace items. But, there may come a day when that is not possible. My wife has already given me a pillow case to fix now that I am an expert. We will see how long it takes me to get around to that.

February 23, 2024 – The Divine Comedy, Inferno, Canto IX – XI

February 23, 2024 /

This week we are at Circle six. In this level, which is the first of the three inner hell circles and we will see the heretics. I could certainly see why they made it to hell, I almost wonder why it is only level six rather than nine. Is there a bigger sin than actually denouncing god? I guess not, according to Dante.

In Canto IX, Dante and Virgil wait at the gates of Dis to go deeper into hell. The gates are guarded by furies who summon Medusa to attempt to turn them into stone. Virgil responds with a prayer whereby an angel comes and thwarts Medusa and the furies, letting them in.

Canto X takes place once inside the walls. This is a rolling landscape packed full of tombs. Some of them are ‘active’ or open. Out pops someone named Farinata who was a political enemy instrumental in kicking Dante out of Florence. There were several interactions in this Canto. The last Canto wraps up their walk through circle six and a peak into circle seven.

Despite the fact that this was three times the length as we have typically looked at so far, there is about the same amount of information coming out. One or two surface level conversations with an enemy of Dante or someone that he holds in low regard. A chance to put his digs in and make fun of these people.

Is there a difference between heretic and agnostic and atheist? I have to say that Dante thinks so and I agree as well. The term atheist was not around in the 1300s and so they didn’t make it but let’s take a look a the terms themselves. An atheist is someone that does not agree that there is a god. An agnostic differs slightly in that they are potentially open to god but have not seen proof. Whereas a heretic is someone that believes in god but against the doctrine of religion.

This all could be a little confusing but let us just say a heretic would attend church but also believe in ritual sacrifice of Judaism as an example. The new covenant, as the belief in Jesus and resurrection says that there is no longer an intermediary between the believer and god, it was the priest who was sustained by these sacrifices. The priest was the only person allowed behind the veil (or curtain). Going behind the veil was the only permitted way to communicate with god. So, in those days the proxy of god was the priest. This would be practicing contrary to accepted Christian beliefs.

Agnostic and atheist are more subtle in difference. The two terms are sometimes confused by people that don’t have command of the vocabulary. You have to wonder if level one (the pre-Christians) also contains the agnostics? And do the atheists live with the heretics in level 6 or are both in here? I suspect that in those days, it was not safe to proclaim that a person didn’t possess faith.

Again, this is a work of fiction and there has been a lot of water under the bridge since the 1300s. And so, my interpretation and standards I feel differ significantly from the days of Dante. I think about things like the witch trials, I suppose that was a crime of heresy. Interestingly enough that (at least so far) there has been zero interaction with unknown culture. Think about all of the Chinese people that have existed and none of them have been seen in hell to date. I am starting to develop an opinion on The Inferno, which I will share in the wrap-up in about a month.

One thing that kind of puzzles me still is why the tomb sharing? What is the relationship of the tomb to the spirits that reside in them? It was probably convenience of the story more than anything but it is still a mystery to me. I also wonder if Dante is just lucky or do these spirits seek him out? I seems pretty serendipitous that everywhere he goes, he runs into familiar specters.

End Your Programming Routine: I found it interesting that a pre-Christian condemned to hell could pray and summon an angel. That seems spiritually inconsistent. That is what this story is turning out to be. When I read this in high school, I got none of the subtle nuance nor the in depth background of the story. This is a whole new perspective on the Inferno for me. Next week, Canto XII – XVII.

February 22, 2024 – Good Luck Buddy

February 22, 2024 /

We are at the culmination of high school wrestling season. Today starts the state tournament for those good enough to make it. I have been away from wrestling for a long time. The last time I dipped my toe in it was youth mat club when I accompanied my son for a season. It became pretty clear that this wasn’t going to be his sport and so I drifted away.

My brother and I were into it in high school. He has remained active, in fact he is a head coach at a local high school. My nephew and my son are three weeks apart. He started school a year later than my son so that makes him a junior this year. But, he stayed in youth wrestling and is now reaping the rewards of that. A third district title and a 34-4 record looking to make a mark in the state tournament.

There are very few sports where getting started early pays as many dividends as wrestling. Most of the state champions that I have followed have been devoted youth club participants all the way through their career. Wrestling involves strength, quickness, stamina and technique. Show me someone that has continuous participation and you won’t find them out of shape.

When I was a wrestler, I started out late. I actually did it because I heard that it was hard, physically. I was a sophomore in high school and started in the 165lb weight class. I remember the day that I decided, I was wearing a ‘professional couch potato’ t-shirt. I wrestled on the Freshman team and didn’t win a match, not even close. In fact, I got pinned in about 20 seconds in my first match.

I wasn’t discouraged. I was doing this for me but to see how much I could push myself. I don’t remember how I did when I was Junior, I think that I was pretty bad that year as well. But I decided that I was going to push myself my senior year. Instead of just wrestling, I ran cross country in the fall. I went from one of the slowest running wrestlers to one of the fastest.

I was in shape wrestling between the 142 and 136 weight classes comfortably, I developed a never quit attitude. I still couldn’t beat the kids that had five years of experience over me. I was physically tougher but less skilled. And despite all of my efforts my senior year, I didn’t wrestle a single varsity match. I don’t consider that a failure, I simply ran out of time.

I pestered my brother for the wrestling schedule at Christmas time. He finally sent me the schedule with one dual left to go, so I went to support my nephew. My nephew won his match by pin, one two team wins in a 69-9 blowout. My wife really wanted to go to districts so we made the day of it and watched my nephew win his weight class in districts, now it is on to state.

In today’s world, I think too much emphasis is placed on putting kids in club sports. Travelling basketball, volleyball, baseball cost thousands of dollars and precious time on kids that likely have no future beyond high school. In fact, there were a few years I was questioning who wanted to wrestle more, my nephew or his parents. They claimed that it was his decision, they were just making him finish his commitment.

Some are going to go on. My nephew claims he wants to wrestle in college and winning a state title as a junior would help a lot. As long as the kid is happy and everybody loves it, I am fine with that. It has been a huge commitment in their lives.

End Your Programming Routine: We all do for our kids what we hope is the best path. I have zero interest in participating in Chess in the Park but there is no denying that it requires my enablement to fully make it happen. Wrestling was really important in my life not for what I did but for what it did for me. My mindset moved from that is too hard to try to I can do anything I set my mind to. That was invaluable to me.

February 21, 2024 – Same Old, Same Old…

February 21, 2024 /

I have mentioned before that my wife likes to binge watch shows. What has been on for the last couple of months is ‘Deadliest Catch’. In fact, it is on right now as I am typing this out. I haven’t heard this much in the later seasons but they liked to use this term ‘grinding’.

Grinding means that to make their goal, they have to just keep working. They don’t look at the clock, they don’t take a break, they don’t worry about the conditions, they don’t really even try to take stock in what is currently the status of their catch is. They just keep grinding.

That is where I am at, grinding. I probably have too many things going on at one time. I got ahead with my culinary book club reading and so I started “The Boys In the Boat” that I got for Christmas and continuing to read “The Inferno”. I have been pecking at my duct project. The next run is going to be more complicated with wiring in the way. I am still running into Linux problems getting my software scanner done.

I tapped one of my kegs for super bowl to get promptly plugged. I got to thinking that my valve was bad and so I changed it. It promptly got plugged again. After doing this six more times, I gave up. It is hops plugging it up from my dry hopping. I am going to have to filter this keg before I use it. Another thing to do.

Lesson learned that all the loose hops did not settle to the bottom after lagering. I like the effect, finally a homebrew that has some teeth to it from the hops. So, I think I will keep experimenting with dry hopping. But, it also means that filtration is required before kegging. Since this is my last keg, I really should get to brewing my next one

I also upgraded a scope on one of my air rifles. The main reason I did that is my eyesight is starting to degrade. I noticed that the open sights on my son’s Crossman 760 were really limiting. So, I decided to move the chinsy 4×12, $10 scope off of one of my rifles to a whole honking $30 variety. Anything will be better than nothing on that old rifle. I have been plinking away at getting those things sighted in.

I have projects in the waiting, so I am not just letting off the gas, I am just not done with anything. I like my work on AltF4 to be reflective of completion, not just progress unless there is something to learn. That is what generated today’s title. I have been holding onto this one for almost a week now waiting for something to break and it just has not. Sometimes you have to grind.

I will remind you that the reason for the duct project was in preparation for a wine cellar build. I am actually beyond where I needed to be to work on that project but it has made so much difference that I might as well finish this off before starting something new. I am amassing parts for a CB radio installation in my pickup. I have wooden valence to build. I should be starting seeds right now. There is going to be another culinary book tomorrow and I still have all the current things going that I want to finish.

I sometimes have problems getting motivated in the winter. It is dark and cold and wet and I just don’t feel like I have the energy to do anything. Besides that, I have other reasons (not excuses) for me making slow progress that I am not ready to discuss. I will likely have more information soon but I want to be absolutely concrete about the details.

End Your Programming Routine: So, a cliffhanger for the ending. I don’t have a lot of insight on this post other than you don’t finish a big job without putting one foot in front of the other. In other words, you gotta grind. Some day I will look up and it will be done, until that keep working.

February 20, 2024 – What the Heck is UEFI?

February 20, 2024 /

For the last couple of months, UEFI has been irritating me. I am going to get into what it is in a minute. A couple weeks ago I set off to fix the situation and then I really messed things up. So much so that I actually bought a new solid state hard drive (SSD) to start over. This was an attempt to make progress on my Software Defined Radio scanner project.

First let me define what UEFI means. This is an acronym for Unified Extensible Firmware Interface. If you do not do what I do, then you may never see it. There is a selector screen before the operating system boots up. In my case, I can choose between starting Linux or Windows.

This is an old computer that was inherited. I wanted to keep it in case we needed some data from it, but I did not have the password to login to Windows. By running Linux, I can access anything on the hard drive. This is also part of my long running experiment with Linux which will eventually become my software defined radio police scanner.

For several months now, I have been getting notifications that my UEFI driver was out of date. It wouldn’t be so bad except for the fact that it notifies me twice a day that it is out of date. At first, it was a problem for later, which became months. Then I set out trying to fix it.

It turns out that the UEFI driver has a Microsoft signature. I thought that maybe if I could add an account to Windows, I could run the driver update there. Once I selected boot to Windows, it was a one way street. After the Windows path was chosen, there was no going back to having the Linux option. So then I started changing settings in the BIOS. I messed the configuration up so that it wouldn’t boot Windows either.

I saw some options to go into ‘Safe Mode’ make a recovery disk and all of that. But, the truth is that this machine also has Windows 10 and is just slightly newer than my primary desktop. I highly suspected that it was not going to make the Windows 11 cutoff and I felt like all of that effort would be for little gain anyway.

I made the decision that I was going to start over. Solid State Hard drives are cheap. I paid $30 for a 512 GB drive. If you haven’t gone from disk based drives to and SSD, it it hard to explain how much better things work. I firmly believe that my Windows 7 computer runs better now than it did when I bought it in 2012. In fact, that computer runs better than my significantly more powerful laptop from 2018. I am going to be changing it to an SSD as well after I get a few other projects completed. But, let’s get back to the subject at hand.

I have started to become comfortable with Linux. I am not proficient by any means but I am convinced that Linux is in my future for the desktop that I do most of my writing on. Once support runs out for Windows 10, I will be converting that computer to Ubuntu. I am a light PC user anyway, browser based work, word processing and spreadsheets are the primary stuff I do. The more familiar I am with Linux, the easier the transition will be for me.

Its funny, the more connected our devices have become, the more isolated they are. In the old days, I would start a file at home, email it to myself and continue to work. Or even better, I put it on a thumb drive. I haven’t done anything like that in years because I can’t really share anything between environments anymore for security purposes. My biggest outstanding concern is that I have been using, saving and storing everything in Microsoft 365. This seems like a topic for another day however.

As it turns out, UEFI is important to me and without it working properly, I can do nothing. The good news is that I got my SSD today and I already have Ubuntu installed along with everything except the Software Defined Radio and SDR++. Starting from scratch, I got an updated UEFI driver and everything works like it was supposed to.

The computer geeks out that probably find this to be a little juvenile. I had no idea what this driver was supposed to do. Reading the release notes there were vulnerabilities to certain viruses. Hindsight being 20/20, Ubuntu recommends the risk as low and to not worry about it. There are some commands to ignore the device check that I read after the fact. I wish I would have read that before I messed up everything but in the end this is going to be better.

End Your Programming Routine: I have heard that the reason little kids learn so fast is that they have no fear. They just push keys and try things because they can. I have a streak like that with Linux, I don’t know what I don’t know and definitely what I am doing. That being said, be careful. I had no data or anything really on this computer so it was $30, a re-install and two hours for me and the end result is a better computer. I guess I am learning like a child but I will be more cautious in the future.

February 16, 2024 – The Divine Comedy, Inferno, Canto VIII

February 16, 2024 /

This canto also covers some of two circles. Once again I am going to focus on the one of them, circle five the wrathful and sullen. Circle six will cover several cantos so we can cover that adequately next week. Don’t forget that this circle officially began last canto, but don’t worry I will cover it here.

It wasn’t just my imagination but reading the notes for this canto said that the last chapter was a change in philosophy. It is speculated that Dante took a break at Canto VII and that it was intended to be one circle per canto. But that break brought out a re-imagination about how the story was going to go. As a consequence, I am rolling with it. Next week will be three cantos for the first time.

There isn’t too much going on from this level. The setting is the river Styx. The condemned seem to be under the black and stinky water. Once again there was only one encounter, a fella by the name of Fillipo Argenti. He was apparently an argent enemy of Dante’s.

If you ask me, it seems like Dante was the wrathful in the story. Dante is using his writing as the vengeance that he seeks. Very little is said other than sharply condemns his enemy. So, I guess we will have to look at the crime (or end it here).

I think we all generally know what wrathful means. So let us look at sullen. The definition that I see for for the word means gloomily or resentfully silent or repressed. I rhetorically ask, is this really worthy of the fifth circle of hell? To date, the crimes have all been pretty petty to get into hell.

Apparently, level six is a transition from what is considered outer to inner hell. To get into inner hell, it is all contained in iron wall like a prison called the city of Dis. Another thing that I kind of find interesting is that most of these so called sins to date would not be considered crimes in our society. No assault or rape or murder, maybe those will be in the inner circle but even theft or larceny? Once again, the wrathful one seems like Dante.

I am not totally sure where to really go with this today other than it is very clear that this story is personal to Dante. So I am giving you an early weekend this week. The pace is going to pickup next week and go into hyperdrive for the following week. Get ready.

End Your Programming Routine: Like a good Christian, I believe in redemption. So, it would be a good idea for my soul not to get involved in too much wrathfulness or sullenness or gluttony or any of the other sins. That being said, if we do slip into any of those things, I can’t help but be thankful that something is out there to help out eternity.

February 15, 2024 – Along the Lines of Yesterday

February 15, 2024 /

Yesterday I talked about waffling about whether I should invest in a garden space and things like fruit trees and bushes if I am planning on moving. The same is true with all home projects. The wisdom in the space is to be careful about changes that are made so that you don’t overspend compared to value of the house.

This project that I have been picking away at is not one of them. I cannot say how much improvement there is in my basement by tucking ducts up into the floor joists. It hardly costs any money and it make the space so much more open and accessible. I used to have to duck under two ducts each time I entered and left my office. That has all changed.

Not only is it easier to get to my office, having the duct tucked up in the ceiling allows more light over the whole space. There are two windows in the basement, more natural light is coming in as well as the electrical fixtures. Because the ducts were hanging down, they were constantly in the way of moving decorations and other storage items around. All of that is going away with each duct I move.

I won’t be able to do all of them because they don’t all run parallel with the floor joists. But, doing the major pathways has paid major dividends on the usability of the space. It looks better too, not just an after thought or the laziest installation possible.

To date, I have spent about $100 on materials. I have never worked with duct work before since this is typically a one and done type job. That being said, I am kind of liking it. I ended up buying a crimping tool so I can make my own custom lengths or rigid pipe. The truth is that the original installers taped the flex duct to the rigid fixtures and over time, that tape has failed. I have already had to fiddle with trying to re-attach ductwork that is in my way over the years.

This is one of those projects that fits into the do it regardless of how it effects value. In my opinion, there is no way that it could hurt and it is so little initial outlay of time and money, I should have done this years ago (it should have been done this way originally). So, I will pick away at it a couple hours at a time until I have done what I can do.

End Your Programming Routine: If it was simple, I would be done already. I have to delicately pick my way through different things like re-enforcing structure or wires in the way that have to be reconfigured etc. But, I am doing this purposefully and carefully and each one of those things adds a little dimension to the puzzle without having heat all day. It is a new kind of challenge.