Anyone in Pittsburgh know of anything interesting going on?

I got the pre. So far I like it. We'll have to see over the next few days but I think it will be a fine phone. I also got the unlimited everything plan. Since this is going to be my only phone, and because my usage has been through the rought lately, I think this will work out. Sprint will let me change the plan without starting the service contract period over. So if its too much I can back down.

So I think I've decided to look at what plan would be best for me and then figure out the phone. I can get the Sprint unlimited everything plan for $100 less a 15% CMU employee discount. If I dump the land line I think this might be my best option overall. It shoudl end up being a wash in terms of cost and hopefully be more functional. So the question is a blackberry or the pre? I can get a curve 8330 for like $49 versus $199 for the pre. But the pre is pretty sexy at the moment. Maybe one of the other blackberries?

Any opinions on them or other sprint phones?

Note: I've had sprint before and not had a problem with them in the area I'll be using it the most.

For various reasons I think it would be a fine time to get me a new phone. I'm looking for something that is good for texting so I'm looking for something with a physical keyboard. I also need something that actually has decent call quality and battery life as I might be getting rid of my landline. I don't want to have to recharge my phone on a daily basis. I'm also cheap. I'm not opposed to getting an iPhone but its not really high on my list at the moment. The whole apps thing doesn't have a lot of appeal for me at the moment. Something with real GPS would be good and the occasional web browsing. I've been thinking about the Pre but I'm also looking at some Blackberries. Does anyone have any opinions?

A big issue is going to be the monthly fee. I'm paying $55 (with taxes) right now. I'd like something that's not too far from that. Maybe $70 or so. Ideas?

edit: turns out I get a 15% discount from sprint and verizon.

Star Trek? Really, J.J. Abrams? Oh Really?!

What the fucking fuck dude?! That's like the cheapest laziest trick in the world.

So I had all this crap I was going to write but screw it. My brain is fuzzy from the cough syrup I took for this cold I've been dealing with for the past 10 days. It all really boils down to the fact that I miss my friends.

So yeah, I miss you people.

I get oddly jealous of people for dumb things. I really wish I could stop doing that.

still sick. went to the doctors. got a script for zithromax but neither of us feels like it will do any good. Also got an Rx for a cough suppressant. Had it before with variable success at actually ya know, suppressing coughs. Basically, the message is 'tough it out big guy'. Yee ha. Mornings are the worst - it hurts to cough up all that crap and the blood mixed in with it just bothers me.

I'm still sick. Big nasty solid chunks of green phlegm. My lungs feel like they are on fire. Unfortuantely, plants needed planting so I bucked up and planted my little corner of the universe.
3 early girl tomatoes for slicing and salads
6 Romas for making sauce and drying
2 clemson spineless okra plants
2 cayenne peppers
2 sweet banana peppers
3 genovese basils
1 thai basil
1 dill
1 sage
2 parsley
1 upright rosemary
12 celery

The asparagus is done for the year and the chives have started to bloom. I like chive blossoms. I also planted a mess of marigolds, gerberas, snapdragons, and so forth. I'm still planning on putting down some eggplants, zucchini, watermelon, cilantro, beets, peas, and radishes. Now, astute observers may notice that I'm not putting down as much as I usually do. I've decided to try giving everyone a little more space and seeing how that works out. If nothing else it will be easier to work on.

Feeling worse now. Yeeha.
Good thing I'm not driving to Philly tomorrow. Or have meetings until 8pm this evening.
shit.

Now I'm not feeling well.

So I made a smoked chicken this weekend. It turned out amazingly well. So I thought I'd write it down here.

Brine
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup salt
3 juniper berries
1/2 tsp whole allspice cracked
1 - 2 Tbs molasses
2 -4 Tbs toasted garlic
3 thai chili pods (or whatever you have)

The toasted garlic can be tough to find. I got it from a chinese grocer but you can just use regular garlic if you like. Dissolve the sugar, salt and molasses in a couple cups of hot water, add the cracked allspice, juniper, chili, and garlic. Add another qt or so of water. Put a young/fryer chicken in the brine and add water until covered. Put the whole mess in your fridge and brine 12 hours or so.

As for the chicken, a fryer is probably your best choice with this. Its small enough so that it will cook in the smoker in a reasonable period of time. You can go with a larger chicken but I don't see the point. If you want more chicken then just make two fryers. Remove the chicken from the brine and dry it off. Don't season the chicken - you'd already done that with the brine. Open a can of beer and drink about 1/4 of it. Tasty! Then shove the can up in the main cavity of the chicken so that the chicken remains upright. Now your chicken will 'stand' on its legs. The beer will add some moisture and a tiny bit of flavor as the chicken cooks. Preheat the smoker to around 250. Pop the chicken in and smoke it with oak or apple for 2 hours. Continue to cook in the smoker until the thigh reachers around 165 to 170 - around another 60 to 90 minutes. Don't be freaked about the timing - the long brine and beer will keep it from getting too dried out.

The end result should be a chicken with a medium brown bark (smoke color), and a tasty smokey flavor all the way through it. Be aware the the skin does *not* crisp up. If you want a crispy skin skip the beer can enema, remove it from the smoker after 2 hours, remove it from the smoker after 2 hours, brush some oil on it, and finish it off in a 350F oven.

So i thought I'd take a moment to up date people on things

1) That crazy company I started. So we had a partner meeting where one of the partners was on the verge of tears as she described how much work she put into this and how she didn't think it was fair I kept so much equity and was ramping down my hours. I didn't care but in the interests of avoiding even more drama I feigned sympathy. The company lawyer basically said that my position was defensible and legal. At this the crying partner said maybe she should just do the same thing wah wah wah. The end result is that I kept all of my equity. I agreed to be a little more hands on with the IT strategy and managing some of the resources. The crying partner also demanded a higher salary. Of course we have no money so it would be as deferred compensation. Whatever. If we ever make any money then she's welcome to it. I don't care enough at this point.

2) I got a bike. A friend of mine was selling his old hybrid road bike - a specialized sirrus with an xl component set. Its a much stiffer ride than I'm used to but its nice and light (in comparison to the MTB action) and I feel like I'm not putting as much work into getting the bike moving as I was before. Good aero wheels, smooth gear action, tight brakes, and no suspension of any kind. I've taken it out a couple times now. Maybe 7 miles on one ride and 4 on another. Nothing major but I'm so far out of shape that I really don't want to push this harder than I have to right now.

3) I have a shit load of garlic from last season I need to do something with. I think I'm going to take 10 heads and smoke them. Just to see how they turn out. Maybe an hour or so with an alder smoke and then 4 hours at 200 to see how they come out. I need to dump this garlic asap as I have 80 new heads coming up. They'lll probably be ready to pull in late june to mid july.

4) The garden bed is prepared. I did that a few weeks ago during a warm spot and then laid down around 2 inches of straw to suppress the weed growth. Unfortunately the straw wasn't very well cleaned so now I have hay coming up. Fuck organic, I'm going to hit it with some roundup. So far the plan for the garden involves peas, carrots, beets, tomatoes, okra, maybe some zucchini, and hot peppers. Radishes will also be invited. In the community garden spot (where the garlic is now) I'll be putting in some melons just to see what happens. When I take the garlic out I'll probably plant broccoli for a later crop or brussel sprouts. I do like the brussel sprouts in the fall. Saute some leeks, get some sprouts in there, you got a damn fine time. Especially if you mix in some salt pork.

5) I'm going to Bloomington IN and then Los Angeles CA in May. Business trip but I'll have a couple days of down time in LA. Unfortunately I'm not *in* LA proper but some place called La Mirada which is maybe 18 miles outside of downtown LA. Hopefully I'll meet up with a friend of mine out there and at least have a decent night out.

6) I am not a number.

7) 2nd wedding anniversary on Tuesday. Going to make T some dinner, crack open a nice bottle of wine, and hope that she likes whatever it is that I end up getting her. My Dad's birthday is the next day. I need to remember to send him some cards this weekend.

8) I forgot what 8 is for.

Really, no offense to the people I know who twitter. I just don't get it.
Damn kids, GET OFF OF MY LAWN!

Arlen Spector just switched parties.
1) This will feed blowhards at fox for weeks.
2) I don't think much will change.
3) This is still kind of cool.

86. Cancer. Died at home with her family.

So the idea that we only use 10% of our brains is a myth but damn if it don't seem that way sometimes.

You cannot spend your way out of debt *but* a government can certainly spend its way out of a recession. Oddly enough, this can actually reduce debt over the long term because government revenue is a percentage of the GDP.

I need a new bike. I have no idea what sort of bike to get now or where to get one any more. The problem is that I always rode mountain bikes and I'm starting to think that they aren't the right choice for me anymore. I don't go off road. I'm not rolling down stairs anymore. I'm not even doing bunnyhops over curbs. I'm thinking I want something a little lighter. However, at the same time I don't want to go with a fragile road bike because I don't want to destroy it the first time I hit a pothole. I'm thinking a hybrid would be the right way to go but I don't even know what half the components are any more or what these brands are. I know I don't want a coaster or a fixie. I'm also cheap and don't feel like dropping a grand on a bike. Anyone have any suggestions?

Maybe I should just go to k-mart and pick up a beater.

So the second round of bacon has been cured, smoked, sliced, and sampled.

This time I got a cleaned pork belly - no skin - which I think is a good move. The cure process seemed more consistent and I ended up with a firmer cure. I also only smoked it for 6 hours over maple. This doesn't impart any sweetness to the pork but that's okay. I'm not a huge fan of the maple sugar cured bacon.

There are still two issues that I'm dealing with. The bellies I've been able to get seem to be a bit on the thin side. The end result is tasty and delicious but the strips aren't very wide most of the time. The second problem is that meat slicer I picked up doesn't have enough travel on it to slice a full sized cut. So I end up with these half strips of bacon. Its good though and I have to admit, using a slicer is a *lot* easier on my wrist - in big part because the bacon should be partial frozen when you slice it. Slicing up pounds of frozen meat is tough.

So the next project will be different cures and amendments. I'm going to try a peppered bacon. I'm also thinking of adding some citrus to a cure and seeing how that works. Different aromatics as well - garlic seems like an obvious choice but also bay, coriander, and maybe even something like chamomile. I don't know how that would stand up to frying though but if it works that might be a nice counterpoint to the saltiness.

I'll also be trying my hand at sausage again. I found a butcher that can get me fresh fatback - while most sausage recipes don't call for it I really think it adds a critical texture and flavor to coarse ground sausages. If anyone is in pittsburgh and they are looking for a good butcher I cannot recommend Tom Friday's highly enough. When I asked for brisket he went into the walk in, pulled out a front quarter and sliced off a flat cut for me. Amazingly good quality and already aged. Wonderful cut of meat.