MrEntropy's blog: "A Cromulent World"

Thanksgiving Day is nearly here. It'll be here in less than a week. This can be a stressful time, especially with all the work that goes into creating a lovely Thanksgiving meal. So this year I'm going to cheap out. I figure I can cut down costs if I stick with these ingredients: * Sliced turkey deli meat * Loaf of bread, thin sliced (59¢ at HEB!) * Can of cranberry "sauce" * Can of green beans * Box of instant mashed potatoes * 1 Packet of gravy mix * 1 Can of pumpkin pie filler * 1 Can of Yams or sweet potatoes See, you take two slices of bread, put some turkey slices on it (thin sliced is best so you can kind of crumple up the turkey and make it look nice). Open the can of cranberry "sauce" (it's more of a jelly to me) and slice off a round and put it on the turkey. Close up the bread and you have your main course. Since stuffing is made out of bread, you get that with your turkey, too. The green beans and yams (or sweet potatoes) can be heated up in a microwave. The instant mashed potatoes is probably the most labor intensive portion. But here's a tip: you don't really need butter and milk to make it. You can do it just using hot water. If you're hot water heater is set to high you can probably do it with tap water. You could probably do the same for the gravy mix. No Thanksgiving dinner would be complete without dessert, and I budgeted that in. Frozen pumpkin pies are way too expensive, so we're going to make one. It's not really a pie, though. 1. Take two pieces of bread and cut the crusts off 2. Take a couple of spoons of the pumpkin pie filling and place in the center of one of the slices of bread. 3. Take the remaining slice of bread and put it on top of the pumpkin stuff. 4. Squish down the edges of the bread so you meld the top and bottom together while leaving a pocket of pumpkin in the center. Et viola! You have a pumpkin… thing… for dessert. If you wanted to get fancy you could probably deep fry it. That might kill you, though. Seriously. Obviously you can make substitutions. Changing the turkey for ham, for instance. Or the green beans for any canned vegetable of your choice. You could even go "Old World" and use pumpernickel bread. I don't know how that would taste with pumpkin pie filling, so you may want to replace that with peanut butter and jelly. If you have any money or time saving Thanksgiving ideas don't hesitate to let me know.

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It appears that there are people who believe that meals should start with soup and salad. I've never heard of having soup on Thanksgiving Day but, hey, it takes all kinds. I've heard of soup after Thanksgiving. Turkey soup, to be specific. And turkey sandwiches, turkey pot pie, turkey casserole, turkey salad, turkey nachos, turkey quesadillas, turkey dip, french fried turkey fingers, turkey a la mode, and other crazy things that people do to use up all the turkey from Thanksgiving. Anyway, here's my recipe for home made tomato soup. On the cheap. You'll need: * A bowl * Hot water * Lots of ketchup packets I recommend going to a food court in a large shopping mall to get your ketchup packets. Just breeze by all the fast food places and grab a handful. With the attitude those teenage counter workers have this day (so apathetic) they'll probably give you a bag of them just to "stick it to the boss man." If you like your tomato soup spicy then make sure you hit up the Taco Bell for some hot sauce. You can probably use regular store bought ketchup, too, but I didn't budget my Thanksgiving dinner for soup so I didn't try it. After you have your ketchup (some places have 'catsup') you're ready to start. Heat up your water until it's hot. Pour it into a bowl. Then open up all those ketchup packets and empty into the hot water. Stir vigorously! If you have any Taco Bell hot sauce packets, now is the time to add them. If your soup is too thin, add more ketchup. Your neighbors will probably lend you a cup of ketchup if you ask nicely. If you're adventurous in the kitchen (wink, wink) then you may want to experiment with different packets for different soups. Like mustard soup, relish soup (or a combination of mustard and relish with sliced hot dogs), soy sauce soup, or mayonnaise soup. I don't know that you'd want to eat any of those, but making them would be a breeze. As far as the salad goes, well, put some lettuce and tomato on your Thanksgiving Turkey Sandwich. If you can think of anything else that comes in a packet drop me a line. That's all I could think of.

There was nothing better to watch last night so I figured it was time to pop in the old Black Adder tapes. I settled on Series 3 because the Prince is so stupid, and because it has my favorite word in the first episode: “Anti-distinctly-minty.” You can’t go wrong with that. Amazon.com: Black Adder - The Complete Collector’s Set ASIN: B000EBCEVS I see some of Live Writer’s plug-ins need some work. I’m sure that Amazon linker thing could be done a wee bit better. Anyway. People usually talk about “comfort foods.” These are foods that you eat because they make you feel better. Maybe you’re down in the dumps and cinnamon toast perks you up. Stuff like that. Or you’re depressed, so you buy a bunch of Ho-Ho’s and watch M*A*S*H re-runs. Black Adder, Red Dwarf and Jurassic Park are my “comfort videos.” I don’t really know why Jurassic Park is in there, but if I’m at a loss to watch something but I need to have something playing on the boob tube then JP gets the job. I just scarfed down some oatmeal. All that talk of Ho-Ho’s made me hungry. At least I ate kind of healthy. Of course, I got another coffee, too. I just needed it, that’s all. Autumn is back in Austin. It’s chilly and windy. I wonder if it’s a chili night? Or stew? Or soup? Perhaps I should brave the chill wind and fire up the BBQ? Maybe I should just go to the Outback. Ars Technica has a review of Super Mario Galaxy. It looks like they’ve gone ga-ga over it, in a big way. I really miss being able to play games like this. Mario, Spyro and Ratchet & Clank especially.

Autumn is one of my favorite seasons. It only comes around once a year and it’s sandwiched between Summer (beaches, parties, amusement parks!) and Winter (snow, skiing, holidays!). So what’s so great about Autumn? If you’re lucky enough to live where there’s an actual Autumn, then you get to see leaves die. It sounds mean, but it looks really nice. Instead of a bland green a forest top can look spectacular with all kinds of red, golds, browns, and yellows. You can walk down the street and listen to dried leaves skitter across the pavement when a breeze is blowing. If a strong wind blows you can see it by the way the leaves fly. The cool weather means you get to wear different clothes. More of it, in fact, that you can show off to your friends. Hats and gloves can make fashion statements. Long coats look good and menacing. Autumn has the bumper holidays Halloween and Thanksgiving (in the U.S.). Thanksgiving is great because you get to eat all the Autumn type foods, like sweet potatoes, potatoes, pumpkin pie, turkey, ham, corn. Not only that, but it’s expected of you to eat it. Until you burst. The bonus part is that you don’t even have to buy presents for anyone! Just get together with your family, enjoy the game, and eat until your belt gives. Autumn means you get to light up the fireplace on a chilly night and put your arms around the one you love. Have some hot mulled cider and listen to the wind blow those leaves against the window.

If you haven’t seen “Kid Nation” yet, and you want to and still want to be surprised then it might be a good idea if you pass on this. In other words, there may be spoilers. “Kid Nation” is the show where they take 40 kids, drop them off in an abandoned ghost town and let them fend for themselves, with no adults to influence what they do. I’m not a big fan of “reality” TV. I’ve never seen an episode of “Survivor” or “Big Brother” or shows like that. I’ve only seen enough of “The Real World” to be able to turn it off. “Kid Nation,” though, I find fascinating. There are some problems, though. Like most “reality” shows, I think it’s a hoax. In fact, I know it’s at least ¾ hoax because these kids are not left without adults. There are adults manning the cameras, at the very least. Presumably there’s a director there. One would hope that there’s some sort of EMT standing by in case someone gets run over by a cow. Also, the town isn’t a ghost town. It’s an abandoned movie set. So we know that it’s not going to turn into Lord of the Flies. At some point in the episode the town council gets together and decides who wins the big weekly prize. This prize is a gold star that weighs two pounds and is worth $20,000.00. A nice chunk of change. So, the council gets together to decide who gets this thing. Whoever they feel contributed the most towards making their western town, Bonanza, a working and humming city. Or, whoever happens to have a birthday. Either one. The winner of this star gets a key to the only building that has a phone so they can call their parents and tell them the good news. Now here is where it gets tricky. The kid wins the star, gets the key and is shown running out of one building, then the camera cuts to them unlocking the door on the phone booth and making their call. Then the camera switches to the kids parents. I’m all for creative editing, but do they keep a film crew at every kids house on the day the star gets awarded? And the parents never seem to be surprised. I’m sure if my kid called and said they won twenty grand I’d be a bit more emotional than just, “Wow, that’s great. Yeah, we sure miss you. Be good, okay?” In addition to that, they show an interview of the kid between getting the star and calling the parents. They’re holding the star, but talking as if they haven’t talked to the parents yet. It takes away from the spontaneity. If the show is at least 50% on the up-and-up, then I wonder what kind of effect it will have on these kids in the long run. Right now it’s popular to cite child abuse and child labor laws. I agreed with this at first, but after some thought I’m not so sure. I think about what life must have been like, back in the 1800’s and early 1900’s, for kids. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t easy. I know that there were chores that needed to be done, and if they weren’t they got a whoopin’ for it. The chores could be anything from cleaning the house to slopping the pigs to beheading chickens for dinner. It was hard work and there was no time for boredom. In one episode of “Kid Nation” they did behead chickens. I thought this was horrible at first but, if we’re still working on the assumption that the show is mostly honest, it was the kids’ choice to do this. Will that act turn these kids into psychopathic serial killers, or give them an understanding of the food chain that we all follow? Will it give them an appreciation of life? Yes, these kids do some dumb stuff, like chasing down cows and walking around in a sand storm. But these are things that they would be doing anyway, if given half a chance. I know I used to do some dumb things when I was a kid and didn’t have an adult standing over me. Should any of the adults nearby step in and stop them? I’m not so sure. Maybe we’re too soft on children today. Maybe we’re creating the problems that we see today by cutting down on the amount of homework they have, by not giving them more chores to do at home, by not giving them a whack on the butt when they get out of line. When I watch this show I see a group of kids trying to do something. They’re learning to work together to complete a challenge. They’re learning that by putting in a lot of work on a challenge it gives them a chance to relax a bit later on. They’re learning that money must be earned and that if you want to buy something from the general store then you need to have saved up enough money to buy it. They’re learning that some of their fellows kids are slackers and, rather than let them slide, they take them to task about it — even if it means bringing them to tears. They’re learning to work together, to make choices that are good for everyone, not just themselves. Is that worth sleeping on the floor or uprighting a fallen outhouse? Look at your own house. Do you see kids who sit around watching TV all day? Giving you a hassle about picking up their clothes or doing the dishes? Wanting money, constantly, without doing anything for it? Do they talk back and sass you? What will these kids be like when they grow up? Maybe we all have too much free time on our hands. All of us.

I don’t have anything to write about today but I don’t feel like not writing. I’m in a typing limbo. I’m really far behind in television watching, but I did catch an episode of “Kid Nation” the other day (DVR’s can be handy, yeah?). What a scary show. I wonder what other things they can make kids do? I always say that there’s nothing I want for my birthday — why do I always forget that I really want all of the “The Simpsons” and “Futurama” DVD’s? Speaking of “Futurama,” did that show ever make it back on the air? I heard it was supposed to be on a different network. That was about a year ago. Now I’m getting tired of Sirius satellite radio. Everytime I turn on the Punk channel it’s the Dropkick Murphy’s. Every time. I’ve got nothing against them, but every time? I end up spending more time over in 1st Wave (new wave) or the 80’s channels. Every once in a while I’ll tap the 70’s channel to see what’s up. It brings up a lot of memories, though. I may have mentioned this before, I’m not sure, but all the pasture and farmland around where my house sits is about to be turned into industrial and commercial buildings. All of it. The town is happy about it, I’m not. I liked it the way it was, where I didn’t have to worry about the kids being hit by a truck or something. Now, it’s going to be a lot busier, a lot louder, and a whole lot uglier. But that’s what happens. I suppose, barring any kind of disaster, that eventually all space will be taken up by houses and other buildings. How sad. Maybe it’s time for all of us to keep it in our pants and slow down the growth. If I were famous and I could get my parents to admit that my being born was an accident then I could refer to myself as a “popular misconception.” That would be funny. Unfortunately, I’m neither. Okay, I’m not popular or famous. This is probably the only version of the Bible I’ll ever be able to read completely. I haven’t touched my Linux in a while. I’ve been too busy playing games and stuff. Maybe soon I’ll get back on to it. It’s not been the same since I installed the new hard drive and re-installed Linux. For once I wish I could have a Linux install go the same way at least twice. Last night I watched “1408.” I think it’s the only Stephen King based movie that I like. I wasn’t too thrilled with the ending, and I don’t think there was enough explanations, but I like John Cusack.

In one month it will be my birthday. I know some people who think that you should stop paying attention to birthdays after you reach a certain age, but I think differently. Your birthday is your day. A celebration of you being brought into this world. You should be able to enjoy this day to the fullest and screw anyone who tells you differently. Personally, I celebrate my birthday for a week. And anyone else's, too. It's not unusual for me to coax people into going out to dinner or drinking by convincing them that even though their birthday was four days ago there's still time to whoop it up. Besides, you do everyone a favor. If you go into a bar on “everyday” Tuesday and drink it's just another Tuesday. But, if you go into a bar on “Birthday” Tuesday and announce it, then it gives everyone else in the bar a reason to celebrate. And celebrating means more drinking. And more drinking means more fun! At least until that certain point when your body won't take it anymore. I've never had a surprise party. My birthday is especially important because it gives people a chance to give me something that I either need but can't afford, or want badly but can't justify spending the money myself. Also, in extreme cases it gives me the excuse of spending money on something I want and all I need to do to justify it is to say it's my birthday. So there. That's a whole month away, though.

I watched Speed Zone this weekend. I was surprised because it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It was supposed to be the third movie in the “Cannonball Run” series but, for whatever reason, it didn't get the title. It's got a lot of cast members from SCTV, like John Candy, and quite a few other big names (for the time). If you like the “Cannonball Run” movies I'd check this out, if you're able to. It doesn't appear to be very popular. I like cars, but I don't love them or base my life around them. I particularly like the 70's era muscle cars and anything that reaches “exotic” or “supercar” status. But I do like driving. You won't find me with a wrench, but at least I know where the go-faster pedal is. That's probably why I like racing games so much. I don't like games where the cars are made up. I really prefer the ones that license real cars. And I prefer games that don't make you race around a track all the time because I think it gets boring really quick. I'm almost tempted to pick up a steering wheel for Test Drive: Unlimited, though. It's a $100.00, but I think it would be neat, especially since TD:U has real cars and doesn't make you race around a track. In fact, it lets you race on “real” roads like you were in your own little “Cannonball.” There's a psychologist who thinks you should start giving your kids alcohol at a younger age (watered down and/or in moderation) so they get used to it and don't feel like they have to binge when they get into their teenage years. I do agree with this. I think if you want a kid to try something out then tell them how forbidden it is. Part of the job qualifications for youth is to be rebellious. It happens. But I think if you're honest with your kids and don't patronize them you get more respect out of them. When they respect you then they're more likely to think of you when their low life friends try to get them to do stuff they know you wouldn't be happy about.

Nostalgia continues to creep over me like a fungus. This weekend I watched several movies. The first of these movies was Death Proof. It's a Tarentino movie, part of the Grindhouse movies, and it deals with car chases. Q wanted to capture the feel of the 1970's exploitation and car chase movies. It was all right. It wasn't actually all that great, but it mentioned several other movies that I'd never seen but had wanted to for quite a while. Vanishing Point is about an ex-cop-military-race driver turned junkie. He delivers cars for a living and makes a bet with his pusher that he can drive from Denver to San Francisco in 15 hours. Thus beginning a long police chase as he eludes them in the Challenger he's supposed to be delivering. There's not much plot there, but it's an interesting flick. The original Gone in Sixty Seconds is about a group of car thieves getting a collection of 48 cars to be shipped out. It includes a massive chase scene at the end involving a bunch of cop cars and a yellow Ford Mustang fastback. I've read a lot that says it was a Mach I, but it didn't look like a Mach I to me; it was missing the Shaker hood for starters. Then there was the classic I'd never seen but always heard a lot about, especially in the context of computer games: Death Race 2000. One notable thing about this movie is that it has Sylvester Stallone in it. It's a highly satirical movie about a futuristic race (it takes place in the year 2000, ahem) where the drivers get points for killing anyone dumb enough to be on or near the road during this presidentially sanctioned race. Finally, as a counter to the revolution-themed movies, I watched Herbie the Love Bug. A movie I haven't seen since I was just a wee little lad. For being a Disney film, I have to say the acting was better in the this older movie. And, yes, it's quite dumb and silly but it's still better than Herbie: Re-Loaded. I had thought that movies had gotten a bit raunchier as time went on and standards slipped a little more. I was really surprised by the amount of swearing and nudity in these movies. Vanishing Point, for instance, has an entire scene with a naked woman riding a motorcycle. She does her entire scene naked and nothing is said about it. It was like she was wearing clothes, but she wasn't. Death Race 2000 also had quite a bit of nudity. Not that I'm complaining, mind you, I'm just surprised. Gone In 60 Seconds only had Playboy centerfolds hanging on a garage wall, but it had a lot of ethnic slurs. Against the Polish. When was the last time you saw a movie where the main characters were Polish? I grew up in a Polish family so you can imagine my surprise when one guy told another to shove something up his 'dupa.' What current movies have, though, is more sex. Less nudity but more sex. How does that work? Herbie, being a kids movie, filled it's own quota quite nicely. It's got sex, violence, alcoholism, and esoteric conversation. And hippies. So what did I get out of all this? I really miss my car. I drive around in a stupid SUV and I hate it. I wish I could plop down a couple hundred dollars to get a 1970's Dodge Challenger or Charger, but those things are running anywhere from $14,000 up to $100,000. Not cheap. The desire to hop in a car (not an SUV) and drive cross-country still grows, just as it's been growing since I was a teenager. Back then, the idea of getting in my RX-7 or Trans-Am and hopping on Rt. 80 and following it west was very tempting. And things aren't the way they were back in the 70's, or even the 80's. It's not the same world. Smokey and the Bandit, Cannonball Run, Gumball Rally, Vanishing Point, Gone in Sixty Seconds, Death Race 2000... There's probably a few movies I'm missing. In fact, next weekend I'll have to see if I can find Bullit and Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry. If any of you can think of more car chase type movies, just let me know. If anyone knows where I can get at least a working yet inexpensive Challenger, Charger, Barracuda, Mustang, Camaro, Duster, Scamp, Demon, or Dart you can let me know that, too. I'll learn how to restore cars if I have to, and I'm a quick learner when I want to be. Oh, before I finish this I want to look at two things. There was a television remake of Vanishing Point about ten years ago. I didn't see that one, either, but reading through the plot line I see they changed it. Instead of having not much of a plot, they give Kowalski (another Polack!) a full name, a wife, and an actual reason for driving 1200 miles eluding the fuzz. In the remake for Gone in 60 Seconds (made in 2000? Was it really that long ago?) the main character (who is no longer Polish) is an ex-car thief who has to steal cars to save his brothers life. When did we become such pussies? The heroes in the two originals were criminals. They broke the law and they got away with it (sort of). Somehow we lost that rebellious edge, and I think that's sad, too.

Today brings us the anniversary of the September 11th attack on the U.S. It's hugely remembered for bringing down the two tallest World Trade Center buildings and a portion of the Pentegon. I lived and worked in New Jersey. The place where I worked at was only a couple of miles from the George Washington Bridge. If the view had been better, I would have been able to see the WTC from there. The morning started off the same way every other morning did. At one point, though, people started filtering into my office and mentioning that a plane had hit one of the towers. At the time I thought it was another accident involving a small plane. That would have been bad, in itself, by not a big surprise. At the time, light planes had been falling on houses. I brought up a news site and saw a picture of the first tower and it had a big hole in it. It hadn't been a small plane at all. I started getting instant messages from my mother who was watching TV. It was turning bad. At one of my earlier jobs I had been told that I didn't "schmooze" enough. That is, I didn't go around to people and talk to them and get to know them. It was advice that I carried around since then and I thought it would be a good time to walk around the building and see the people that I knew. Everybody was hectic in those early moments, but not panicky. That changed when the second plane hit the other tower. When the radio started reporting it was a terrorist attack everything became tense. It was obvious that no work was going to be done that day. The company I worked for, if I remember correctly, to just go home. They set up a TV in the cafeteria and tuned it to CNN. I roamed the hallways. I knew people who worked in Manhatten, but I was fairly sure they were far enough away to be safe. I spent my time talking to people who were very worried about their friends and families who worked at the WTC and its surrounding areas. There wasn't anything else I could do besides listen and be sympathetic. The news got worse. Office doors were closed. People were yelling on telephones trying to find their loved ones. I talked to someone who was missing thier mother, who worked in one of the smaller buildings around the Towers. The guy who had almost accepted a job in the WTC, but had decided against it at the last minute. "I could be dead, Walt. I could've been dead." Nothing was as bad as hearing the shriek of anguish from a woman, who had many dear friends in the Port Authority, when she heard that the towers were collapsing. When I did leave, I got on to Route 80 and headed west. I looked in my rear view mirror and, for the first time in my memory, I could not see the Twin Towers. Just a cloud of smoke and dust.

I was just reading an article about how technology is ruining kids lives. And I can sympathize with it. In fact, I think technology is ruining everyone’s lives. As a society, I believe we’re less patient now. In the old days we would get our information from weekly or monthly magazines, or even the daily paper. None of which is updated on the fly. Now, with web pages, we expect all information to be up to the second. And when we learn that there’s a new movie being made, we want to see it now, not later. We torment ourselves reading everything we can about these things and then we bitch mercilessly when they don’t show up. As an underage boy, back in the day, you had to work at getting a glimpse of a naked woman. It meant scavenging through your parents room, the garage, the back shed or the workroom looking for your dad’s hidden stash of Playboy’s. If he didn’t have any, or your parents were divorced and you were living with mom, you had to settle for not-at-all-sexy photos of women in Redbook or Reader’s Digest. If you were lucky, there was a Vanity Fair laying around. In a worst case scenario it meant shoplifting a magazine at the 7-11. Now, some really raunchy stuff is available just by typing a few letters after everyone has gone to sleep. Granted, it can be made difficult by putting in a firewall and other parental locks. Do not make the mistake of underestimating the lengths a pubescent boy will go through to view an image of a naked woman. As adults we’re not much better off. You can’t hide dirty pictures on a computer. Not from your wife or girlfriend. The woman you thought was incompetent with computers will, somehow, manage to become intimate with keyloggers, web browser caches, temporary files, and undeleting programs. And she’ll still refer to the act of completely erasing a hard drive and re-installing the operating system as “rebooting.” Just to annoy you. Why do I never use my name on my blogs? Because a potential employer might look it up and get offended by something I say, or a picture I post, and not hire me. Worse, I may get fired. It used to be that what you did in your non-work time was your own — not anymore. Now, if you have a public web page you are open to scrutiny by anybody and everybody. Is that really a good thing? Just as you’re checking up on what your new girlfriend is doing on MySpace or Facebook or Zango or whatever, so too, are they doing the same to you. Remember making all those prank calls? With caller ID you can get yourself in trouble. Big trouble. Did you do something stupid at that party? No problem, no one will remember and it will be forgotten. Except that someone took a picture of you with their cellphone and uploaded it their web page. You really like that girl/guy you went out with but you made some not-so-nice comments on your web page about them. Uh oh. Yeah, so while technology has helped us out a lot (like putting TV’s in refrigerators so you don’t have to skip Oprah while cooking) it’s also put a big crimp in a lot of lifestyles.