Ramblings From Justin Penney

Evan is standing up while pulling on furniture and Lily got an iPhone. Wacky.

I'm hoping we made the right decision with the phone. Lily has had a cell phone for a little over a year. We cut our landline and had a cell phone for Lily to use at the house. This house/cell phone evolved into Lily's phone. For her 10th birthday she wanted a laptop or a phone and the laptop was out of the question. She had also received nothing but hand-me-down phones. We gave her a $200 budget as that was pretty in-line with the cost of the bicycles that she had received on previous birthdays.

While Lily was shopping for phone, it was decided that I would be moving to AT&T to get an iPhone 3G S. So Lily then switched from looking at phone on T-mobile to looking at phone on AT&T and settled on the iPhone 3G. I tried to get her to wait for the 3G S (which was within her budget) but she really wanted the phone now and was fine with the lack of video support. In reality, the move from a second hand RAZR to an iPhone is amazing enough to keep her satisfied.

Evan is now completely happy when he pulls himself up using the coffee table. He's even inching his was from coffee table to sofa with a little coaxing. This kid wants to walk!

Today marked the 2009 opening of the grill. After a good cleaning and a test run we set about making our dinner.

We ended up with four items on the grill: potato packets, corn on the cob, potabello mushroom, and bacon wrapped 5 oz. sirloin.

Potato Packets

This is Jacey's signature grill dish. It's simple, fast and always tasty. There's a lot of room for variations, like the carrots that we added today.

• 3 medium russet potatoes
• 1/2 of a large vidalia onion
• 4 small carrots
• Butter
• Mrs. Dash
• Sea salt
• Black pepper

The potatoes, carrots and onion were cut in to small pieces and placed on squares of aluminum foil. She sprinkled the salt an Mrs. Dash on them laid about 1 Tbsp of butter (real butter by the way) on top and folded the foil up into little packets. These were on a medium high grill for about 50 minutes. They could have come off around the 40 minute mark.

Corn on the Cob

It's a pain, but full ears of corn are so good on the grill. Having the intact husk keeps the corn nice and moist.

Remove all but a few (3 to 4) layers of husk then open each ear and remove the silk. Place the ears in cold water for a while, they were in water for 45 to 60 minutes today. After soaking, brush each ear with olive oil, add any seasonings, then fold the husks back over the ears. Today I made a mix of sea salt, paprika, and black pepper that I sprinkled on each ear before closing them up.

Place the ears on a medium-high grill for around 20 minutes. Make sure to put out any flaming husks.

Portabello

I'm pretty hit and miss on the preparation of portabellos. This one appeared to be a hit. Unfortunately, I didn't taste it.

After cleaning the mushroom, I drizzled some Worcestershire sauce into the ribs then placed it into a plastic bag with Italian dressing. I let it sit in the refrigerator for a little over an hour. I grilled it for around 4 minutes a side on a hot grill then moved it to the warming rack.

Bacon Wrapped Sirloin

These 5 oz. sirloins were pre-wrapped with bacon. I augmented the seasoning used for the corn to use as a rub:

• Sea salt
• Paprika
• Black pepper
• Garlic powder
• Parsley

After applying the rub, I placed these on a very hot portion of the grill for 3 minutes a side creating a nice sear on the outside. I then moved the steaks to part of the grill that had medium heat and brought them up to 150 degrees as this was right between rare and medium on my meat thermometer.

Upon further reading of doneness and temperature, 150 is pretty high being in the medium-well category. Maybe I wasn't measuring deep enough or my thermometer was off, but these were solidly medium-rare with a red, juicy center surrounded by just graying outside.

Impressions

I overcooked the potato packets. I usually check these pretty frequently but failed to do so today. I received the most burnt packet. Jacey and Lily were very happy with their potatoes.

The corn was amazing! There was a little char character from a couple husk flare ups but the kernels were firm but easy to bite. The olive oil and spices added so much flavor that I didn't add anything to mine. Jacey and Lily both added butter.

As I said earlier, I didn't taste the mushroom but Jacey was very happy with it.

The steak, the first steak that I have ever prepared, was amazing. It was a good decision to carry on the seasoning theme from the corn as the two dishes blended nicely. The outside of the sirloins were rich with the flavor of the rub while the inside was warm and juicy. These were very tender sirloins. The size, 5 oz., was about perfect. Lily was full with just a bit left on her plate and I was completely satiated. These were also a great deal, $2.50 per steak.

This was a pretty frugal meal overall costing around $10 for the three of us to eat.

I'm glad that they are getting the kinks as that is apparently the point.

from: Kristan P-------- date Mon, May 18, 2009 at 10:06 AM subject Let's try again! Hi ... again! I am so sorry about this! I think that I have all of the kinks out. Let's try this again! http://spreadsheets.google.com/a/----------/ccc?key=----------- Thanks for your patience! Kristan

It was always frustrating when overly paranoid sites disabled right clicking thinking that tactic would protect their content from being copied. Now MySpace, the "blighted neighborhood" of social networking, has taken away the alt-left arrow in photo galleries. Instead of the familiar back action, in a MyLameSpace photo gallery pressing that hard-wired key combination goes to the previous image in the gallery.

Overriding well known, and relatively well standardized, keyboard shortcuts is a big FAIL in user interface design. Though MySpace has never had an abundance of thought in that department. I would look to MySpace to support the concept of "money can't make you pretty."

It didn't.

One of my email addresses gets an amazing amount of Wrong Email Address messages. I have previously only bothered to chastise the wrong emailers to my close friends but that is changing. I've decided to post all of my WEA email here!

I will edit out most personal items. And I filter out signature so any "confidentiality agreements" aren't even seen. Also, if it's confidential ... it should NEVER go in unencrypted email.

Anyway ... this one comes from a church in Illinois.

from: Kristan P-----
to: Janet W-------
date: Mon, May 11, 2009 at 3:43 PM
subject: Child Protection Program

Thank you for attending the Child Protection Program class at Church of the Resurrection. That was the first step of the 5 step process. The next two steps are dependant on you: the application and interview. We will then do the reference and background checks. We are in need of your application, interview or both. If you have not yet returned your application, please download the attached application, fill it out and return it to (address omitted). If you need to complete an interview, go to the link below. You will be able to sign yourself up for an upcoming interview. http://spreadsheets.google.com/a/---------.org/ccc?key=----------------------- Thank you for completing the Child Protection Program!

This seems like a normal email about a program at a church. I decided to look in to what a "child protection program" is and was really upset. It's a program, that churches typically pay for, that let's them certify that kids are safe from molestation while at the church.

I've got a Saturday Night Live "Really?" moment going in my head. Do churches, the supposed moral compasses in our culture, really need to certify that their officiants aren't going to touch and rape kids? If so, they really need to reflect upon their original purpose!

All of the things that are cool because of their anachronistic properties were once cool because they were new. Rock and roll, choppers, café racers, and muscle cars all fall victim to a perceived tradition that was foisted upon them.

None of these things are traditional. They took the traditions of the time and stomped all over them leaving alcohol drenched, skid marked carnage everywhere they flourished.

Unfortunately, I feel like a lot of our culture froze with the burgeoning coolness of these sub-cultures. The American hot-rods are still powered by pushrod V8s. Harley has trouble selling anything that isn't an air-cooled, wobbling v-twin, and most people haven't cared about rock music since 1974.

It's time to move on! Let's look back and cherish (and preserve) our history and the path that it has presented and take that spirit, the new, fresh, aggressive spirit and forge something new. Something exciting, visceral, and innovative. I want a car that's docile and economical like a Prius until I really want to romp on the accelerator then the inner Challenger is unleashed.

I want to see a hybrid that uses a super efficient turbo-diesel engine to keep the batteries charged.

I want to see a CVT matched to an efficient but high specific output engine (like the legendary Honda B series) that sips on the oil nipple under most loads and is able to hold that peak output and let the rolling parts catch up.

At this point, it would be revolutionary for a "muscle car" to have aerodynamics that were slightly better than a brick.

Among guitarists, the capo can be a very divisive tool. Some guitarists take it as a challenge to never use a capo. The opposing side sees it as silly to make it hard when this little device can make something much more direct.

I recently had a discussion with an anti-capo person and brought up two things that the capo changes that most people overllook: timbre and voicing.

The change in voicing can make an old chord progression feel completely different. It can also help get two guitars out of each others way. Considering that an open chord can cover as much as two octaves, simple changes, like in which octave a third resides, makes a huge difference in keep the parts distinct but supportive.

The timbre of the instrument is completely changed too. Playing a B barre chord on the 7th fret sounds completely different from capoing at the 7th fret and playing the same pattern. There is less flesh in contact with the instrument and the overall resonance of it feels and sounds completely different.

I think a lot of guitarists overlook these components ... and not just with capos. I get in a rut playing the same chords, the same patterns ... it gets dull and lifeless. Some people turn to alternate tunings, which are fun but I would probably never use them as they can be daunting to perform live. Instead I've taken the observation of timbre and voicing and played other instruments before picking up my guitar.

My mom gave me an old autoharp and tonight I was working on getting it in playing order. I had it mostly in tune and started playing a bit. The same I-IV -V progressions that sound tired on guitar were completely new sounding. The chords were all voiced in a strange way and the plinky sound was unique. After playing it until it went horribly out of tune, I picked up my guitar and tried to emulate some of the character that I heard in the autoharp.

After about 30 minutes (about as long as my thumb can take playing) I had a couple new song pieces and even some new melodies. They were nothing like I was playing on the autoharp but those snippets of song would have never come in to existence I not been trying to capture an unfamiliar sound.

ATGATT - All The Gear ,All The Time. Until recently I've been MOTGMOTT - Most Of The Gear, Most Of The Time.

Other than a helmet (which is always on) and long pants, the rest of my gear would come and go. I usually wore gloves and boots, but I was spotty with my jacket completely ditching it on the hottest of summer days. Two years ago I bought a mesh jacket with padding in key places. That helped tremendously. I fairly strictly follow Murphy's Laws and believe that jinxes and irony are to be seriously contemplated before any endeavor, so I started to always wear my jacket. I knew that the one day I didn't wear it I would fall somewhere that would have been protected and be ticked off at myself.

I also moved back to full face helmets. I love the free feeling of open face helmets but bugs and rocks take their toll after a while. After my accident in which I hit the face of my helmet, I'm sticking pretty intently to the full face.

This week, I added over-pants. These are mesh (with a zip in liner for wind/rain protection) and slide on pretty easily. Yesterday was my first time suiting up in full protective gear and I am definitely adjusting.

One big plus is that I can wear shorts under the over-pants; the downside is that I'm wearing boots ... with shorts. I need to make sure to bring some shoes in my saddle bag. The multiple layers of mesh do a pretty good job of letting air through. Today was in the 80s and sunny and I only started to get hot when stopped. Buying gear in a color lighter than black (like grey) would help quite a bit. I bought my jacket on closeout and it was black ... so I took the black one ... and the pants had to match.

There are two things I dislike about all the gear. First, stupidly vain, it looks a little dorky. The over-pants look like winter weather gear at first glance. They are a little big to accommodate the underlying clothes. When wearing the mesh jacket I would get "aren't you hot?" comments nearly every time I was riding. This is only going to get worse.

The second drawback ... time:

• Change into boots (4 zippers)
• Put on pants (maybe put in liner which adds a few steps): 2 buttons, 3 zippers, 2 velcro straps
• Put on jacket (maybe put in liner): two zippers (one hooks the the pants)
• Put on helmet (changing face shield for sun conditions)
• Put on gloves
• Zip jacket sleeves (2 zippers)

That's a lot to do to make a quick run to the store that's two miles away.