It’s quiet now, i hear the wind. The crickets sing, the birds chirping. The cars still drive by, but it’s more of a restful sort of hum. Low and soothing, rumbling on. Finding center, coming back. Breathing deep and settling in. It’s quiet now, beyond the din.
After working with Linux and Unix for so long it’s been difficult to go back to the Windows world. It’s not that I’m anti-windows or anything, it’s just a different environment and not one that I adore.
I’ve been trying to be fair to SharePoint and I don’t think that it’s necessarily a bad starting point, but it’s just so massive that it isn’t a one person type show.
I’ll continue to plug away at it and try not to squeeze my squishy ball to death when SharePoint designer or the web interface doesn’t work the way I think it should.
I think that’s all the ranting I’ll do for now. Like I said, it isn’t bad…. it’s just different.
So I decided to say what the hell and signed up for the “Rockmelt” beta. I was intrigued by the video and thought it might be a good experiment. Unfortunately, it really did not live up to my expectations.
The interface is nice and the ability to add favorite friends and feeds is a nice thing. The chromium engine give it good speed for loading and browsing and the ability to limit javascript and plugin activity is nice, though nothing close to what NoScript is capable of in Firefox.
I understand that it is a beta and that things may not work properly, but core functionality should work. I’ve tried on multiple occasions to “share” a link with either friends or post it to my wall and it has not worked. the button works, but the connection to Facebook fails. I find it interesting though that when I look at the feed for Facebook, on the left, my credentials work and things are hunky dorky.
The search is different and I’ve had to get use to not seeing them in a page, but in a drop down menu. That hasn’t really bothered me and the overall usefulness of the search is on par with any other search. It’s all based on what you’re searching for and how you phrase it.
I’m going to Zap the and reinstall it to see if the issues I’ve been having persist.
So I’m working on a beer recipe. I’m going to enter it in Next Year’s Queen of Beer Homebrew Competition. I’m looking at doing one of the “ancient” beers. Something along the lines of an alcoholic chocolate drink. I have to formulate it myself without help from the mighty one. I’m thinking I’m going to have to make some small batches to test out the formulation. I’m thinking maybe some 1 gallon batches. I don’t know though. Anyway, wish me luck!
Beautiful Morning, including the Sky!
Yesterday was a beautiful morning, even the sky was amazing. The temperature was perfect and there was a great breeze. It was just perfect. I took a few pictures, but this is probably the only one that even remotely looked good. I’m still getting use o the new camera on the phone. Have a great day!
Olive, Krab and Feta Omelet
So I was just going to make scrambled eggs, but for some bizarre reason that intention turned into an omelet. A very very salty omelet. Everything started fine. The cheese was good and the Krab was well… the only protein available, but it still wasn’t bad. The problem item was the olives and my lazy butt. I was going to chop up the olives, but nooooooo.. they’ll cut when I use my fork. So I ended up with a boat load of super salty Kalamata olives. I still ate it and it was edible, I just think that I could have gotten away with half the olives if I would have chopped them up and then the salty would have been balanced more. At this point I would also like to give kudos to the pan I made this omelet in. My Great-Aunt’s Le Creuset Flame Orange 6.5″ enameled cast iron skillet. LOVE IT! I’m having a whole cast iron love fest lately, they’re the best thing since my Classic ScanPans (Ceramic Titanium).
My now shiny sink
So I’m trying something new, at least for me, I’m making my sink all shiny before I go to bed at night. It seems to be a really happy feeling to get up and see it like that. I still have some work to do to buff out the scratches in the stainless steel, but I’m working on it. It’s a new endeavor to start eliminating some of the clutter in my life. If you’d seen the sink area previously, you’d know that I have a tendency to have stuff on the window sill and on the part of the sink by the window, and dishes in the sink. I’m trying to get away from that. I also managed to make the coffee maker provide me with fresh coffee in the morning when I wake up (well except for the night the power was knocked out, that morning Bryan had to push the button. The Horror!). So I’m on my way. We’ll see how it goes and I’ll take it slow.
Koos-Murphy House Salsa
Along with the squash I had some tomatoes that needed to be used or they were going to rot, so…. I made some salsa. I usually make a fresh salsa or a table salsa, but I decided to get adventurous and blend the 2 together. I had about 8 tomatoes, so right there I’ve got to make a double batch. I’ll try and relate the recipe, but really I add the spices and such until it tastes good to me.
I diced the tomatoes and added them first then I got out a medium white onion and diced it. Usually I’ll use a small one since Mr. the Man doesn’t like them, but I was going to take this to work, so medium onion it was. after that, I realized we had used the last 2 fresh jalapeños in the last chili, so I had to dig out the backup can of diced ones. I put in about 1 tablespoon of white vinegar and after that it was all spices. There is Smoked Paprika, cumin, cilantro, salt and pepper. There really isn’t much to it. I always thought I’d have to go through a lot more effort to make salsa, but nope.
Oh! One last thing… I do try and squish the seeds and some of the guts out of the tomatoes while I’m making it, so it isn’t too soupy. You could probably also put tomato paste in it to thicken it up.
Missy's Version of Alton Brown's Squash Soup
I made the Alton Brown Squash Soup last night. I had squash and I really wanted some soup so you can see where that went…
I ran out of chicken stock after 2 cups and I needed 3, so I fished some dashi stock I made a little while back out of the freezer and stuck that in. I don’t think I taste any odd flavors because of it. I thought it tasted really superb until I put in the nutmeg. Now maybe I just don’t like nutmeg, I don’t know, but where it was great before, I think it’s merely good now. Oh, I also didn’t have cream, or an immersion blender. So I used my potato masher and and mix and masher to creamy it up a bit. In place of the cream I ended up using plain yogurt. I probably should have just used milk, but frankly I like the tang of yogurt and like I said it was great, until the nutmeg. I think I’ll skip it next time. and maybe add some roasted carrots.
Slowly moving through the rhythm of sound. That sliding, pounding that loops in my head. Then the sharp pain as I focus to much. It splits my head wide, a cleaver like instance and then it’s gone. I lean back my head in the chair thinking that might help, but all it does is make me remember the other pain in my neck. Life’s little lessons about a sedentary job. I should get up and move but the code is flowing from my mind, in a swirling mass. If I stop now it’ll be gone, like a wispy stream of fog in the morning sun, and the end will be that much further away. There is a magical space in my mind that opens up and spills forth a litany of statements. That creating, magical space where there is an instant translator from human to machine. It’s an unconscious slip into that space, never conscious. Almost dream like, sometimes it seems to be a total take over. The flow from the brain, to the hands, to the screen. Flowing and twisting the syntax. Not even caring that I don’t usually know how to type. It seems to have embedded that ability in itself not relying on my body’s so called skill.
There is in clean code a simplicity, a beauty. An almost erotic excitement in the creation. Pushing further towards what can be done, never mind if it should or shouldn’t be, just that it might be. It serves a purpose that creation. It proves to ones self that the spark hasn’t died in some form that’s been created over and over and over, or some other mundane thing. These minor miracles are meat to help people, the complex creation an ode to the singular thought that perhaps if this person were to posses the ability to do this one thing easier, better, faster, then perhaps then they too might feel the joy of the day. There is always that hope.
Should it be otherwise, then it begins. The dark slid to the bottom of the creative ramp. The feelings of despair, uselessness. Ugly feelings and thoughts into a infinite loop of disgust and unhappiness. Those points at which there is a block whether mental or otherwise, which cause you to dry up. The external triggers become dulled with time, thoughtlessness and carelessness of external events may slice open the early wounds and send down torrents of self doubt and leave the raw pain of inadequacy and disaffection.
The brilliance of self creation and the darkness of self destruction.