Posts from — December 2006

Merrin and I are going out to the Swingin' C Ranch this weekend for another NYE with the Coopers - our fourth straight year of ringing in the new hotness with them.

Of course, being out in the sticks mean no cell phones & no internet - it's almost like being on Guana, but with slightly smaller conchs!

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• Finding the perfect iTunes equalizer settings
  (tags: apple apps ipod itunes mac music osx reference tips tutorials tutorial audio macosx)
• Bad Astronomy Blog » The Top Ten Astronomy Images of 2006
  (tags: astronomy blog blogs cool image images Photo photography space 2006 web)
• Untangle the World Wide Web with RSS - Yahoo! News
  Great article on RSS. I'm with Jeff - I **rarely** use browser bookmarks anymore because the web comes to me in my RSS reader.
  (tags: rss www Syndication xml googlereader)

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Green Eggs and Ham
Originally uploaded by michales.

Now you can make Green Eggs and Ham a la Theodore Geisel.

Flickr user michales posted this how to, along with pictures of the non-traditional breakfast combo.

Note: This is not a photoshop trick.

From michales post on Flickr:

Step 1)Seperate the yolk from the whites - DO NOT BREAK THE YOLK (that's why you see only one yolk)

Step 2)Add Food coloring to the egg whites. The color you see in the uncooked yolk will be much darker than the color after they are done. So mix those egg whites til you are good and ready.

Step 3)Gently add yolk back. Don't break it.

Now for the ham, I like to have a souther flavor to my pork. I made a special concoction that is vinegar based BBQ sauce. Use whatever you like, water is a good non flavor.

Step 1) Find the ham you need. Drier is better cause it helps absorb more.

Step 2) Get a clear sauce (water works too) mix in the color you want

Step 3) Brush on, or soak your ham with the new colored mix. Remember: You are going to be painting on a pink canvas so take that into consideration.

Step 4) Cook up your food like you normally would.

Looks good, but I think I would eat them in a boat.

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I know a few people who have done and/or are doing Project 365, where you take a unique photo everyday for a year. The 365 Group at Flickr has nearly 2,000 members (and that's just one of the 365 groups!) I'm actually thinking about doing it for 2007, but I'd love to have a couple partners in crime.

Who's up for a photo a day in 2007?

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It's been a long, long, long year, but it is always nice to finish with a win.

FSU beat UCLA 44-27 in the Emerald Bowl.

Jeff Bowden, who was forced to resign, called a great game last night and was able to do it his way - without too much intervention from Bobby. Bobby did keep calling for the same play over and over though - the lob pass to Gregg Carr. Eventually it worked, but I think we went to it five or six times unsuccessfully. Eh.

The good news: Two offensive coaches are out for next year - OC Jeff Bowden and RB coach Billy Sexton. That's a start. Now we just have to find someone to replace them.

How far has this team fallen? We went to a bowl game where we had to share the sideline with the UCLA players.

Odd trivia: The Emerald Bowl (San Franscisco) is the farthest FSU has ever played from Tallahassee.

All in all, this was the best possible bowl outcome: a win, plus a glimmer of hope for next year.

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• Fresh Salsa Tomatoes - The ideal hybrid for bruschetta & salsa
  (tags: garden gardening vegetables cooking cook tomato)

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I've run into this more than a few times, so I thought I would post a work around (aka hack) for setting the iTunes sync mode to manual. Most people may never need this, but it is really helpful is some/all of your music/videos are hosted on an external or network drive.

To override your iTunes and iPod sync settings and force iTunes to start in manual sync mode, hold down Command and Option (Mac OS X) when you connect your iPod and keep holding it until iTunes starts.

(Windows PC users - hold down Control and Shift and keep holding it until iTunes starts)

This will force iTunes to initiate the iPod connection wizard. You will be prompted to confirm the name of your iPod. Simply deselect (un-check) the option for "Automatically update" your iPod.

By over-riding the iTunes automatic sync option, you can keep everything that is already on your iPod and easily add songs, movies, etc that you have picked up while your away from your external hard drive or network music storage.

This is also pretty handy if you just want to charge your iPod using the USB or Firewire cables, but don't want to sync any music/movies/etc.

To return to automatic sync, simply select your iPod in the iTunes source pane, select the Music tab, and check to automatically sync your songs.

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• How To: Putting iPod into Disk Mode Manually
  (tags: ipod itunes apple howto how-to mac tutorial tutorials mp3 hardware gadgets)

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You can extract a bin cue file system to convert it to mp4 for your video iPod for free using the following steps and tools:

1. Launch VCDgearX (free!) and select the .cue file you wish to convert
2. Set your target location for the extracted video file.
3. Select "cue2mpg" for the conversion format and start conversion.
4. Drag converted mpg file to iSquint (free!) to convert to iPod format.
5. Select iPod format and choose location to save the file.
6. Select "Add to iTunes" to automatically import the converted file to iTunes.
7. Sync the movie file to your iPod.

That's it! You can get really fancy with this process, but that's the quick and easy conversion process for bin/cue to video iPod. Enjoy!

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We're off to a good ol' fashioned family Christmas weekend (and all that that implies!) in Jacksonville.

Merrin & I have already exchanged presents, but I still have one more surprise for her. I just have to find a box, cut a hole in the box, and… well, you get the idea.

Y'all have an amazing Christmas!!

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Has it really been 20 months since I bought my truck? Must be - today I went over 20,000 miles.

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For the better part of a year, I've been using Mac OS X. Now, in the words of Dan Dickinson, I am on my way to owning it.

Quicksilver is an great app - simultaneously intuitive and confounding… and totally amazing.

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• The Last iPod Video Guide You'll Ever Need at Plastic Bugs
  (tags: ipod video how-to howto apple itunes movies system:badutf8)

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A new site, MyDealerReport.com, has launched that allows customers to review and rate their experiences with car dealerships. I think it's an awesome idea. I'm sure it would have come in handy when Josh had his run-in with the worst Chevy dealer in Texas.

This one of the "why didn't I think of that!" ideas.

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Adam Savage of MythBusters fame chimes in on an AskMetaFilter question: How long in the freezer to chill a Coke from 89F to 35F?

This is particularly interesting to me, as we've had more than one freezer disaster at Chez Kev.

Adam's answer:

That would be about 20-25 minutes in a freezer. If you put it in a bucket of ice, that would halve that time. If you put water in that ice, it'd be cold (+- 5c) enough to drink in about 4-6 minutes, if you put salt in that water, you'd reduce the chill time to just over 2 minutes. Agitating the can in the water, rolling it around, reduces the chill time even more.

The fastest possible way is to grab a CO2 fire extinguisher and unload that sucker on the can.

As G.I. Joe says - knowing is half the battle.

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