Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

Earl and I have settled in for the night in the lovely city of Wilkes-Barre, Pa. This is Earl’s old stomping ground, having spent a couple of years here in the mid 1990s. While I’ve driven through Wilkes-Barre on countless occasions, I believe this is the first time I’ve spent the night here.

Today was an enjoyable, yet relatively uneventful day at a family picnic down in Earl’s hometown. We haven’t seen most of the family since Christmas, so it was a good chance to catch up on family news, share some laughs and giggle a little bit.

We had originally intended on driving home tonight, but we were sidetracked by grumbling stomachs and a wonderful diner in a now forgotten small town in the Poconos. Nothing gets you through the Poconos like a chicken gyro and a piece of cheesecake.

19 August 2006 by Fun and Games Dept 0

Mahwah, New Jersey.

Earl and I are en route to a family picnic in his hometown near Philadelphia. We decided to take the scenic route by following the Delaware River through southern New York. Fellow roadgeek Nathan Perry has a better description of the drive than I could ever write up, so feel free to visit his site and take a peek.

Earl decided he’d had enough in the Jeep when we got outside of New York, so I jumped off the Thruway and headed into New Jersey, stopping at the first suggestion of a hotel. So tonight, we’re in Mahwah, New Jersey.

I’m not a fan of New Jersey, so I don’t know if there’s much more to say about Mahwah. Maybe daylight will help.

18 August 2006 by Fun and Games Dept 0

The Back of the BSA.

Driving home from work just now I followed a motorcycle up the street before jumping on the expressway. There’s a few lights between work and the on-ramp and this motorcycle didn’t try running the lights at all, the rider followed all the rules of the road to the letter.

He looked to be in his late 20s, muscular arms, wearing a pair of jeans, a t-shirt and an open faced helmet. He had a passenger, a young boy, presumably between eight and 10 years old. The boy had his arms wrapped around his dad, and hung on to him tightly as he displayed the utmost confidence in being a passenger on that motorcycle.

I was reminded of me being that boy thirty years ago, with my arms wrapped around my dad and with all the confidence in the world as we rode through the tiny village on his ’69 BSA.

It’s good to be reminded of those little things.

18 August 2006 by Ponderings and Musings 1

Lunacy: Sponsored By Mundanox.

Every day I have another reason to believe that the world has completely lost its mind. Today is no exception. This is really old news that I was just made aware of, but the fine folks at Ford now recommend a particular brand of gas for their vehicles. This recommendation is made by emblazoning the gas cap with the said oil company’s brand colors and a recommendation statement from Ford emprinted on the gas cap.

Detroit, we have a problem.

If I were to own a 2006 Ford Focus, I would be going against the manufacturer’s recommendation for my fuel needs because it would be at least 150 miles in any given direction to get this brand of fuel.

Now that puts the “convenience” in convenience store.

Why does Ford feel that they have to recommend a particular brand of gasoline to their customers? Do they really recommend this brand or are they getting paid lots of money to recommend this brand? What makes it better? Are they encouraging their customers to shun the local Mom and Pop store down the street in favor of this huge oil corporation simply for the sake of sponsorship money? Gag me a dipstick.

Marketing and commercials have become entirely out of control. I can’t get onto ebay now without a popup asking me if I want an ebay credit card. Dude, I just want to browse and waste some money on some junk. You can’t watch a movie in a theatre without being bombarded with commercials for up to 45 minutes before the previews even start. Attractions at the State Fair are all sponsored: “Welcome to the Verizon Center of Progress Building.” Like Verizon and “progress” have ever gone hand in hand. What’s next? Hospitals slapping a sticker on the forehead of a newborn, “This hospital recommends Pearly White Toothpaste for all children”?

When does this insanity stop?

18 August 2006 by Ponderings and Musings 0

Thanks, Sis.

My sister just informed me that I’m a two beer queer. She said it, right there on the telephone. “You’re a two beer queer.” She’s probably right, being the book smart one in the family, but still, a “two beer queer”?

After work tonight Earl and I went to “Saranac Thursdays”, the weekly happy hour gathering in the parking lot at the local brewery. There’s usually a couple of thousand people there. Tonight’s entertainment was the retro band “Square Pegs”. They tried, but um, no. Sigalert: throwing a outlandishly dressed female to the front of the stage to sing Dead Or Alive’s “You Spin Me ‘Round (Like A Record)” is completely unacceptable. I mean, that’s just friggin’ faking it. What’s next, the blasphemous move of going from Pete Burn’s “You Spin Me ‘Round” to arch-rival Boy George’s “Miss Me Blind”? Um, no. The gays do not approve. Stick to the Belinda Carlisle, babe.

Nevertheless, the “Utica Club Lite” was as tasty as always, the eye candy was much appreciated and hanging out with our work buddies was a good time. I had two beers, I pretty much got drunk and Earl ended up driving us home, with a quick detour to a restaurant to get some supper in our stomachs. It didn’t help the drunk condition as I’m still feeling like a “two beer queer”.

17 August 2006 by Gayish. 0

New Toys.

first-comic.jpg

Earl and I have been playing with Tagada, our new Mac Mini all night. One of the programs included is called “Comic Life”.

I really like this program. It’s a whole new outlet for my superhero creativity!

I also took the opportunity tonight and created a little photo album of beach shots from Southwick Beach State Park. You can take a peek here if you so desire.

16 August 2006 by Superhero. 0

Say Hello to Tagada.




A New Member of the Family.

Originally uploaded by bluemarvel.

There was a slight tingle at the base of my neck. My spidey-sense was kicking into overdrive as I made my way home for lunch. As I pulled in the driveway and looked at the front door, the tingles turned to sheer excitement as I saw a package had arrived.

The new Mac Mini has arrived!

Earl and I have been talking about buying either a gaming console or a computer for our home entertainment system. We’re fortunate enough to have a pretty big flat panel television and it was just begging to have a computer attached to it, affording us the opportunity to play games, archive some stuff off of the satellite and browse the web from the luxury of our sofa with a really big monitor.

Overtime pay has been cooperative in the sense that we were in the position to make the purchase, so I went ahead and embarked on the excitement of purchasing a new Mac through the online Apple Store. Few things excite me more!

It has been dubbed “Tagada“. Why “Tagada”, you ask? Good question, let me tell you. Being a very proud geek, we have more computers than your average household. I would bet to say that we have more computers than all the people that live in the apartment complex down the street put together. And being as eccentric as I am, I like to keep the computers names based on a theme. Since computers are my playground, then it’s appropriate for them to be named after amusement park rides.

The server in the basement is “scrambler”.

My PowerBook is “tempest“.

The studio Mac Mini is “himalaya”.

The linux computer is “trabant”.

The little server in the basement is “ticketbooth” (since it gives out authentication tokens to the others).

And it goes on and on from there. Thankfully, Earl has learned to be patient. Tonight, I fire Tagada up for the first time. If you need me, I’ll be parked on the couch playing Sim City.

16 August 2006 by Geek 0

Spin Again.

I just realized I had just emptied the dishwasher during my lunch hour. I find this most shocking. I always avoid the dishwasher during lunch hour.

What’s kind of freaking me out even further is that I considered starting a load of laundry before heading back to work, but luckily I remembered that the washer (2 1/2 years old) is making some really odd grinding noise that sounds like the bearings are shot. Anyone want to bet when the damn thing starts spitting grease on our clothes? I can’t even shout out grease. When the washer started making the beginnings of it’s odd rumbling noise a couple of weeks ago, I did some research to see how much it would cost to fix it. Apparently, you buy a whole bunch of preassembled parts from Frigidaire, gut the washing machine except for the door and the cycle selector knob and then put it all back together with the aforementioned new parts.

Said parts and labor would be $100 more than a new washing machine.

But I don’t want to buy a new washer. This one is only 2 1/2 years old and they don’t make this model anymore, so the dryer that’s stacked on top would become an orphan. I wonder if I can bolt that to the wall somehow.

So it’s a crapshoot as to when it’ll finally give out. In the meantime, I only run it while we’re home in fear of it otherwise breaking down, scaring the crap out of the cat and flooding the downstairs of the house.

Such adventure.

15 August 2006 by Ponderings and Musings 0

Keep It Real.

I’ve mentioned before that I’m enjoying “Who Wants To Be A Superhero?” on Sci-Fi this summer. It’s a reality show about an initial group of 12 superheroes that, in true reality show style, are being weeded down to the last one standing, who will win his or her own Sci-Fi movie and have their character featured in Stan Lee’s latest comic. It’s an interesting show in that there are many twists and turns, plus there’s groovy costumes and great cheesy special effects thrown in for good measure.

It’s “Big Brother” with a Super Geek twist.

Unfortunately, it’s a little too “Big Brother” for me, in that more than half of the contestants on the show are struggling actors with acting credits behind their name.

That sucks.

Everyone expects a reality show to be somewhat scripted. It has to be, because television producers are terrified to let anything happen on their own; ratings and ad revenue are both conquered best in a controlled environment. I understand that and I accept that.

What I don’t understand is the need to populate these “reality shows” with a bunch of actors. There are a ton of supergeeks out there that would love the opportunity to dress up in their favorite spandex outfit and prove to the world that they are a superhero. These folks would keep it real all the way. They’d get their 15 minutes of fame, show off a little bit in front of the family and friends and then quietly fade back into their secret batcave and continue to silently better the world, a little stronger and a little more able because of their experience on television.

Is it unreasonable to ask that producers use real people in their next round of reality shows? I don’t think so. Come on guys, let’s keep it real.

And yes, I’ll still watch the show, but since I’ve looked up the contestants on imdb, the fun has kind of disappeared. Small wonder YouTube has become so popular. It’s the only place you can find reality television.

14 August 2006 by Geek 0

Food, Glorious Food.

The world wide web is an amazing thing. With a simple click of a mouse, you can find yourself with all sorts of information on any given topic. And since its a web, it can keep up with my scatterbrained way of thinking, the pages can follow right along as I jump from topic to topic.

I was doing some research at work this morning on a Sonicwall firewall. I had mistakenly typed “sonic wall” into Google, instead of putting the name of the manufacturer as one word. While the search results did lead me to my desired location, it also led me to Sonic: America’s Drive In, one of the coveted “My Favorite Places To Eat” in the country. Since I am trying to eat healthy this week for the 999,987th time (I think my odometer is getting to roll over), naturally my eyes were glazed over with the thoughts of hamburgers, fries and Frito Pie. So I took a small detour on the web and visited the Sonic site. That in turn reminded me of our trip out west this past May, which led me to think about where else we had enjoyed wonderful meals. As a result, I did a little more googling, the Sonicwall firewall long forgotten and ended up on wikipedia, where I promptly found the recipe for Cincinnati Chili.

So, in an effort to try to enjoy my healthy barley soup for lunch, I’m going to post the recipe for Cincinnati Chili to be used at a later date. Now that I think about it, I don’t recall really enjoying the Cincinnati Chili all that much, but when you’re hungry, you’re game for anything.

Bon Appetit!
~~~~~

Cincinnati chili
3 3 onions, chopped
6 6 garlic cloves, minced
3 tablespoons 45 mL cooking oil
4 pounds 1.8 kg ground beef (chuck works well)
1/3 cup 80 mL chili powder
2 tablespoons 30 mL sweet paprika
2 teaspoons 10 mL powdered cumin
1 teaspoon 5 mL ground coriander
1 teaspoon 5 mL ground allspice
1 teaspoon 5 mL dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon 3 mL cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon 3 mL ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon 1 mL ground mace
1 1 bay leaf
3 cups 720 mL water
1 can (16 oz) 450 g tomato sauce
2 tablespoons 30 mL wine vinegar
2 tablespoons 30 mL molasses
salt to taste
freshly ground black pepper
In a large pot, sauté onions and garlic in oil over medium heat, stirring frequently, until onions are soft. Add beef and stir until lightly browned. Add spices (except the bay leaf) and continue to cook for another minute or two, still stirring. Add bay leaf, water, tomato sauce, vinegar, and molasses.
Simmer, uncovered, for two hours, stirring occasionally. Add more water if necessary, keeping the meat barely covered; chili should be thickened but still soupy enough to be ladled. Discard bay leaf and season with salt and pepper.

14 August 2006 by Food. 1

About J.P.

Just a guy with a husband. We’ve been together 28 years and he still makes me see fireworks on a daily basis. Hiker. Storm Chaser. Private Pilot. Tech Guy. Hackerish.

Weird? Eccentric!

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