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50% faster for 30 dollars

Instead of selling my old portable on ebay for the $200 or so it's worth, I decided to upgrade the processor instead. It currently has a 1.7G pentium m, which is worth about $20 on ebay. I found a 2.5G for $50 and bought that. I'll replace the processor I have and ebay the old one.

I've already bookmarked the dis assembly instructions from Dell. It just seemed too good of a deal to run 50% faster for about 30 dollars net.

The portable I have now really isn't too bad. 1600x1200 screen dvd, 1.5G of ram, 54Mb wireless internal. I don't do CAD on it anymore anyway, so I just need something that is reasonably fast.

Sunday

It's peaceful.
I'm on the love seat, laptop on my (wait for it) lap, Thomas lying on the rug in the sun. I just finished some yogurt, protein powder, walnuts & blueberries (breakfast of choice these days) and some coffee.

I am pre-workout and post-chocolate party. About 20 people showed up for this one -- basically a chocolate dipping party. I have a lot of leftovers and no real desire for any more sugar at the moment.

Today I need to write an office action, but I'm not sure I'll get to it.

Since I'm still waiting for a new motherboard, I've been on the portable quite a bit. Sometimes I pull out my regular curve keyboard and one of the 20" lcd monitors. That does help a bit. Anyway, the portable is pretty slow, compared to my normal system. I did add more memory and an internal 54 Mbit wireless card which did help a bit.

Tonight I'm cooking dinner for Jenny. She's nice.

My garage is basically a disaster, and I should change the oil in my truck. Let's see...what else is there to say. Oh, my workouts this week have really sucked, but I guess you do what you can.

Did I mention furry Thomas? I'm sure it's a spring thing, but seriously -- does so much hair have to fall out? Even brushing him every day, it's just everywhere.

This is my favorite time of the day. The neighborhood is quiet, the sun is out, Thomas is calm, and I don't have to actually BE anywhere or DO anything unless I want to.

Although sitting here, I wouldn't exactly say I'm happy. Maybe a more accurate description would be 'satisfied'. There isn't anything that I want at the moment, per se, but perhaps to have a few more moments of living in the 'now' before the rest of the world gets in the way.

Raise, roomie

I got a raise. Every bit helps, I guess. I only have about 30K to go until I'm back to my old salary. I have no clue how long that will take, though.

I'm also looking for a roomate. I prefer a chick. It will help me get serious about paying off some bills.

Making crappy beef taste better

The truth is, I'd love to buy an amazing beef roast to eat whenever I wanted to. The reality is, it's hard to spend the 50-100 bucks it takes to get a decent cut of meat (e.g., strip roast).

So here is what you do. You buy the cheap crap. Rump roast, whatever. You prep it and cook it right.

Here is what you don't do: take the thing out of the fridge and toss it in a 400F oven for 3 hours. You might as well go chew on an old leather shoe.

step 1: buy something. You can get a top or bottom round roast for a reasonable price. Today I bought one got one free. 12 bucks.

step 2: dry aging. Yep, back to that again. Stick it in the back of your fridge UNCOVERED for 3-5 days. Yes, it will shrink. Yes it will get hard and crusty on the outside. It's supposed to do that. It will taste better. Honest.

step 3: take it out of the fridge and carve all the crusty hard bits off. Don't carve off all the fat on the outside. You'll need that later.

Step 4: let it warm up on the counter for at least an hour. Don't ever put a cold roast in a hot oven. The thing will never cook right. Would you cook it frozen? There had better only be one answer out of your face on that one.

Step 4: preheat the oven to 225F. Yep, you got it...slow and slower is the way to cook this sucker.

step 5: Pat the meat completely dry. dry dry dry. Rub some freshly ground pepper on it.

step 6: heat a hot skillet with some olive oil in it. Sear each side of the roast for at least 2 minutes on med-high, or until you end up with a decent crust. When your done either use the pan you've got if it is oven safe, or find a new pan/dish.

step 7: A THERMOMETER WITH AN ALARM and probe goes into the meat. Spend the 25 bucks. You should always be cooking to temperature anyway, not time. Set the alarm temp to 130F. OK, 140F if you're a real pussy. Any higher than that and you're wasting your time.

step 8: in the oven. Fat side UP, if you have any. Remember step 4? 225F.

step 9: wait. wait. wait. The alarm will go off. Take the thing out of the oven, and cover it for 10-15 minutes. This part is important. Don't skip it.

While the roast is resting for 10-15 minutes, make up a mix of softened butter, crushed garlic, and whatever spices you fancy. You can try oregano, dill, basil, thyme, whatever. If you don't know what to do, then mix up a few batches and give them a taste. Pick one you like.

Spread it onto the top of the roast while it's resting. When your 10-15 minutes are up, slice the roast AGAINST THE GRAIN. That part is important too. Muscle fibers are long. If you cut with the grain you'll be chewing all night long.

tits up

My motherboard went tits up the other day. It's been acting weird for a while (problems booting). I'm working on the portable (slow, annoying) but I've got an external 20 inch lcd on it now. I'll just have to wait for the RMA on the thing to complete.

DIY auto repair

I'm taking a break from writing a patent at home, and I thought I would post again today.

There is something uniquely satisfying to know that you can fix basically anything that goes wrong with the vehicle you're driving. It's really not that expensive, either. For example, I could drop in a rebuilt engine for about $1200, or rebuild the transmission for about $150, change or replace the differential gears for about $180. Of course it does help that the auto you're fixing doesn't have anything fancy like air conditioning, air bags, power steering or power brakes. The downside of course is that until the body work and painting is done, you're not exactly driving a chick magnet around. I'm OK with the lack of chick appeal. When it's finished it will be a pretty sweet looking ride, and in the meantime I can fix or change anything I want on it.

Dry start

Automobile engines typically use a mechanical oil pump driven by the crankshaft to circulate the oil around the engine. The oil is important, obviously, for a number of reasons. One reason is that it lubricates the main crankshaft bearings, removes heat from the bearing surfaces, and generally lubricates the reciprocating parts in the engine including the valvetrain.

One inherent problem with this design is that NO oil circulates when the engine is first started. You usually get a few hundred crankshaft rotations before the oil pump can pressurize the oil system and actually lubricate the main bearings. This is hard on the engine because it involves metal to metal contact under load. This problem is made even worse in cold weather. Depending on the temperature outside and the oil weight, your poor oil pump might be trying to basically pump molasses around the engine. This is the main reason some people choose to run lighter weight oil during the winter. Remember that the next time you crank your cold engine and rev the crap out of it. As a general rule you should let the engine come to temperature before any hard driving.

There are a couple of solutions to the dry start problem. One involves a pressurized oil chamber that pre-pressurizes the oil system when you turn the key. With this system, the oil chamber injects pressurized oil into the outlet of the oil pump, fully pressurizing the system for a non-dry start. Another solution is an electric bypass oil pump. In this case, the bypass oil pump runs off the battery on first start, which pressurizes the oil system until the mechanical oil pump can take over.

I've been considering both of these solutions for my next truck engine build.

Why human evolution through a non-directed process should end

Evolution, i.e., the variations in gene frequency in a species population from one generation to the next, consists of two main components. One component comprises environmental selection pressure, and the other component comprises sexual selection pressure. Neither component is probably working towards what you might consider to be a positive genetic future for the human race.

So, what exactly is variation of gene frequency? Essentially a species population comprises any number of genes, and the distribution of gene expression changes over time and location. For example, sickle cell anemia is the result of a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) on chromosome 11. A SNP means just what it sounds like -- a single nucleotide, or letter, in the DNA chain is wrong. Interesting enough, sickle cell is more common in areas with higher instances of malaria. Why? Well, our SNP error for sickle cell gives the unlucky genetic winner the benefit of not dying quite as often when infected with malaria. Over time, people with sickle cell don't die as often and therefore have more children. Bingo. Gene frequency changes based on environmental selection.

What about sexual selection? Well, besides environmental factors affecting reproductive fitness (how many kids you'll have), there is a sexual selection component. This relates to pretty much anything not tossed into the environmental selection category. Facial symmetry, waist to hip ratio, height, complexion, etc. There is serious ongoing debate about the role of sexual selection in human brain growth in the last 500k years. The rise of language, humor, art, music, etc. These are not random byproducts of environmental selection, but specifically selected traits associated with social interactions between potential mating partners. Society is not a random byproduct of evolution by environmental selection creating a large human brain. Hominids with much smaller brains survived and thrived just fine without it. Your big brain is the byproduct of sexual selection through societal interactions. There is a reason why charming, funny, intelligent, witty guys are getting laid.

So what about the future? The truth is, there is no guarantee that random selection is going to give us what we think or decide is important, long term. Maybe selection pressures in modern societies will give us all the things we don't want. Remember that every genetic disaster with coke bottle glasses and a daily insulin shot are still reproducing. It's also important to note that the biggest brain does not always win. Cro-magnon had bigger average brains than we do now. So did Neanderthals. There is no real guarantee that your decedents won't be dumber and sicker than we are today.

I suggest that it's time to give up on random evolution. Kids born today will probably grow up in a world where they have genetic choices about the kinds of kids they'll have. Smarter. Taller, healthier. Longer lives. Why not genetically engineer our kids to have an I.Q. of 150? Why not a photographic memory? Why not crazy math skills? Who says it's in our best interest to just roll the dice and hope for the best?

Hummus

In a food processor or blender:
1 can of chick peas, no salt added, rinsed
1/3 cup of Tahini (sesame paste, no salt I prefer raw over roasted)
1-2 cloves of crushed garlic
Juice of 1 lemon
1-2 tbsp olive oil (optional)
1/4 cup whole yogurt
salt to taste

blend everything but the salt. Salt to taste. Spread onto a plate, sprinkle some cumin and paprika, drizzle some olive oil on it. As always you should try using cumin seed and grind it yourself as needed, and use spices less than 1 year old.

variations: drop the yogurt and paprika/cumin. Add in black olives or roasted peppers.

You were always my favorite actor, Chuck

Felon/no license/back with folk's/new life/great job - 31 (lakewood)

So I get the crazy chick's that need all the drama to get hot, rite? Naw, time to change up, since I lost my lisence I started a company, have 3 employee's, take a bikeride in the afternoon, just for fun, been sober + no smokin for 8 month's, got some cash set aside to buy a house, but I might have to do a couple week's county time for a year old traffic charge so if I got a pad myself I'd loose every thing plus I like my family most day's, I'm a christian, I've never heard from God, but it's who I'm choosing to be, I'll never go back to prison and no longer care about my ink. I want a hottie that's 100% clean and simple to please, I'm into work then redbox then putting your head on my hairy chest for a couple hour's of sleep, so I need the cutie that can laugh while grocery shopping or doing volenteer work. I DONT HIT OR CHEAT.

--craigslist Denver

Happy birthday sister!

Happy birthday sister, you worn out old whore!

Fuck me twice today

Well, I was pretty much down to fumes for the next two weeks, money wise. That is, until I woke up this morning and found out that my bank account was charged twice (i.e., two withdrawals) for the same transaction. Therefore, I'm off to the bank to turn in all my change, so I have enough gas money to drive to work.

What a bunch of shit.

$50,000 down the toilet

50 grand is what I've lost in wages over the last year switching careers. Right now I'm losing $2,500 a month until I can switch from salary to % billing. I have no clue when I'll be able to do that...maybe 3 more months? Another $7.5k down the drain. It all depends on how productive I am.

It's more than starting to get old by now.

Missy Higgins - The Wrong Girl (Live radio broadcast)