"This sentence has five words. Here are five more words. Five-word sentences are fine. But several together become monotonous. Listen to what is happening. The writing is getting boring. The sound of it drones. It’s like a stuck record. The ear demands some variety. Now listen. I vary the sentence length, and I create music. Music. The writing sings. It has a pleasant rhythm, a lilt, a harmony. I use short sentences. And I use sentences of medium length. And sometimes, when I am certain the reader is rested, I will engage him with a sentence of considerable length, a sentence that burns with energy and builds with all the impetus of a crescendo, the roll of the drums, the crash of the cymbals–sounds that say listen to this, it is important."
--Gary Provost
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Modern Day Worship and the Rat Race
Because here's something else that's weird but true: in the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And the compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of god or spiritual-type thing to worship--be it JC or Allah, be it YHWH or the Wiccan Mother Goddess, or the Four Noble Truths, or some inviolable set of ethical principles--is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive.
If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never have enough, never feel you have enough. It's the truth. Worship your body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly. . . . Worship your intellect, being seen as smart, you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out.
But the insidious thing about these forms of worship is not that they're evil or sinful, it's that they're unconscious. They are default settings. They're the kind of worship you just gradually slip into, day after day, getting more and more selective about what you see and how you measure value without ever being fully aware that that's what you're doing.
And the so-called real world will not discourage you from operating on your default settings, because the so-called real world of men and money and power hums merrily along in a pool of fear and anger and frustration and craving and worship of self. Our own present culture has harnessed these forces in ways that have yielded extraordinary wealth and comfort and personal freedom. The freedom all to be lords of our tiny skull-sized kingdoms, alone at the centre of all creation. This kind of freedom has much to recommend it. But of course there are all different kinds of freedom, and the kind that is most precious you will not hear much talk about much in the great outside world of wanting and achieving and displaying. The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways every day.
That is real freedom. That is being educated, and understanding how to think. The alternative is unconsciousness, the default setting, the rat race, the constant gnawing sense of having had, and lost, some infinite thing.
--David Foster Wallace
Some people don't know what they want. They end up hating their job because there's no purpose to all of it. Others just want money. They end up hating their job because they work all day with people who have even more money.
The point of life is to realize what it is you want. Until you have some kind of goal for your job, your work is going to suck. And this is especially true if you just want money without anything to direct it towards.
from
If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never have enough, never feel you have enough. It's the truth. Worship your body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly. . . . Worship your intellect, being seen as smart, you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out.
But the insidious thing about these forms of worship is not that they're evil or sinful, it's that they're unconscious. They are default settings. They're the kind of worship you just gradually slip into, day after day, getting more and more selective about what you see and how you measure value without ever being fully aware that that's what you're doing.
And the so-called real world will not discourage you from operating on your default settings, because the so-called real world of men and money and power hums merrily along in a pool of fear and anger and frustration and craving and worship of self. Our own present culture has harnessed these forces in ways that have yielded extraordinary wealth and comfort and personal freedom. The freedom all to be lords of our tiny skull-sized kingdoms, alone at the centre of all creation. This kind of freedom has much to recommend it. But of course there are all different kinds of freedom, and the kind that is most precious you will not hear much talk about much in the great outside world of wanting and achieving and displaying. The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways every day.
That is real freedom. That is being educated, and understanding how to think. The alternative is unconsciousness, the default setting, the rat race, the constant gnawing sense of having had, and lost, some infinite thing.
--David Foster Wallace
Some people don't know what they want. They end up hating their job because there's no purpose to all of it. Others just want money. They end up hating their job because they work all day with people who have even more money.
The point of life is to realize what it is you want. Until you have some kind of goal for your job, your work is going to suck. And this is especially true if you just want money without anything to direct it towards.
from
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Interesting Analysis of The Master
Dodd
In general, the idea in Buddhist philosophy is that we're are eternal beings trapped in this system of suffering, trying to break free, and the only way to break free is via enlightenment. This is extremely similar to what Lancaster Dodd is teaching, that our souls are trillions of years old, and are sort of infected by these ethereal forces (in Buddhism that would be karma) which prevent us from realizing our true selves (achieving enlightenment).
In Thervada Buddhism the way to achieve enlightenment is to follow the teachings of the Buddha as written, so in the case of The Master, Lancaster Dodd would be the Buddha, and his books would be the Buddha's teachings.
Those teachings basically state that you have to work on yourself, through meditation and study, until you reach a state where you no longer desire the material, or physical world. Lancaster Dodd's idea is that you eliminate your animal self (desires) through almost a kind of meditative hypnosis and practice, and that is the means by which you are able to discover what you are and the meaning of your existence. For Dodd, that is enlightenment.
Quell
The Charavakas believe that this world is the only world, there is no afterlife, so you should partake in all the pleasures of the flesh, because in the end, that's all that exists. Have sex, drink as much drink as you'd like, revel in your beastliness if it so pleases you.
The Charvakas believed that most of the religious texts were a bunch of bullshit, that men made up as they went along.
So you can see how this relates to Quell, in the way that he is living. Having sex, drinking way too much, getting into fights, and enjoying in the pleasures that flesh brings.
Now, you can't simply just "be" a Charvakan. That is to say, if you go out into the world trying to have sex and drink your way through life, you'll be unhappy. It is only through understanding that this life is precious, and indeed the only one which we have to live that you can live happily as a Charvakan. So there has to be a deep level of thought, understanding, and self realization that goes into it.
So we see Freddie Quell in the beginning of the movie doing essentially all of the same things he is doing in the final scenes of the movie (drinking too much, asking random women to sleep with him, wandering aimlessly), yet he seems to be a completely changed man. Before, he felt lost in his travels as a Charvaka, now he appears to revel in it.
How Dodd and Quell relate to one another
In the beginning of the film we see Quell essentially acting like an animal (masturbating over a cliff in front of everyone, simulating sex with and fingering a sand sculpture, drinking, fighting, wandering aimlessly). When Lancaster Dodd finds Quell, he sees an opportunity to use his teachings on a genuine beast of a man.
Over the course of the film we see his efforts to help Quell achieve Dodd's version of enlightenment through his experiments, meditative practices, and teachings. It is able to at times temporarily restrain Quell, but time and time again, Quell's beastly nature explodes forth when confronted with various situations (police scene, jail scene, beating up the man at the book release, drinking too much).
All the while, we're getting a glimpse into the fact that Dodd himself struggles to control his beastly nature (his wife masturbating him and the animalistic sounds he makes, snapping in the jail cell, exploding on the critic at the party, drinking too much, snapping on the lady at the book release). Dodd himself seems to begin to realize that his teachings are failing but by this time "The Master" has become a slave to the thing he has created (but that's a whole other issue).
The sort of climax, if you will, is the final meeting between Dodd and Quell. Dodd asks Freddie to stay, and Freddie states, "Maybe in the next life," in what was IMO, a very knowing tone. Knowing in the sense that, he is aware of the fact that there is no "next life" and that Dodd is full of shit. Dodd then replies that if Quell leaves and they do meet in the next life they will be sworn enemies (Thervadans and Charvakas are basically diametrically opposing schools of thought).
So then we have the final scenes with Quell which show him wandering the European countryside, in a bar drinking. He asks a random women to come back to his room and they have sex. Quell seems for the first time to have some sense of peace and understanding. He has finally become a full fledged Charvaka.
from
In general, the idea in Buddhist philosophy is that we're are eternal beings trapped in this system of suffering, trying to break free, and the only way to break free is via enlightenment. This is extremely similar to what Lancaster Dodd is teaching, that our souls are trillions of years old, and are sort of infected by these ethereal forces (in Buddhism that would be karma) which prevent us from realizing our true selves (achieving enlightenment).
In Thervada Buddhism the way to achieve enlightenment is to follow the teachings of the Buddha as written, so in the case of The Master, Lancaster Dodd would be the Buddha, and his books would be the Buddha's teachings.
Those teachings basically state that you have to work on yourself, through meditation and study, until you reach a state where you no longer desire the material, or physical world. Lancaster Dodd's idea is that you eliminate your animal self (desires) through almost a kind of meditative hypnosis and practice, and that is the means by which you are able to discover what you are and the meaning of your existence. For Dodd, that is enlightenment.
Quell
The Charavakas believe that this world is the only world, there is no afterlife, so you should partake in all the pleasures of the flesh, because in the end, that's all that exists. Have sex, drink as much drink as you'd like, revel in your beastliness if it so pleases you.
The Charvakas believed that most of the religious texts were a bunch of bullshit, that men made up as they went along.
So you can see how this relates to Quell, in the way that he is living. Having sex, drinking way too much, getting into fights, and enjoying in the pleasures that flesh brings.
Now, you can't simply just "be" a Charvakan. That is to say, if you go out into the world trying to have sex and drink your way through life, you'll be unhappy. It is only through understanding that this life is precious, and indeed the only one which we have to live that you can live happily as a Charvakan. So there has to be a deep level of thought, understanding, and self realization that goes into it.
So we see Freddie Quell in the beginning of the movie doing essentially all of the same things he is doing in the final scenes of the movie (drinking too much, asking random women to sleep with him, wandering aimlessly), yet he seems to be a completely changed man. Before, he felt lost in his travels as a Charvaka, now he appears to revel in it.
How Dodd and Quell relate to one another
In the beginning of the film we see Quell essentially acting like an animal (masturbating over a cliff in front of everyone, simulating sex with and fingering a sand sculpture, drinking, fighting, wandering aimlessly). When Lancaster Dodd finds Quell, he sees an opportunity to use his teachings on a genuine beast of a man.
Over the course of the film we see his efforts to help Quell achieve Dodd's version of enlightenment through his experiments, meditative practices, and teachings. It is able to at times temporarily restrain Quell, but time and time again, Quell's beastly nature explodes forth when confronted with various situations (police scene, jail scene, beating up the man at the book release, drinking too much).
All the while, we're getting a glimpse into the fact that Dodd himself struggles to control his beastly nature (his wife masturbating him and the animalistic sounds he makes, snapping in the jail cell, exploding on the critic at the party, drinking too much, snapping on the lady at the book release). Dodd himself seems to begin to realize that his teachings are failing but by this time "The Master" has become a slave to the thing he has created (but that's a whole other issue).
The sort of climax, if you will, is the final meeting between Dodd and Quell. Dodd asks Freddie to stay, and Freddie states, "Maybe in the next life," in what was IMO, a very knowing tone. Knowing in the sense that, he is aware of the fact that there is no "next life" and that Dodd is full of shit. Dodd then replies that if Quell leaves and they do meet in the next life they will be sworn enemies (Thervadans and Charvakas are basically diametrically opposing schools of thought).
So then we have the final scenes with Quell which show him wandering the European countryside, in a bar drinking. He asks a random women to come back to his room and they have sex. Quell seems for the first time to have some sense of peace and understanding. He has finally become a full fledged Charvaka.
from
What can Meditation do for you?
It trains your mind to focus first and foremost. If you can control which thoughts you give attention to and which you don't, in a sense, you become the master of your universe. After all, “The mind is everything. What you think you become,” -- Buddha.
Once seemingly immutable thoughts, feelings, likes, dislikes, ways of thinking, they all of the sudden become much more malleable. They are all just thoughts and can be dropped if you so choose. You start to realize these things that you thought were concrete aspects of yourself may not be so concrete after all.
I wouldn't say you should expect personality changes or anything big after a few months or even ever, although it is hard to believe that it wouldn't change the way you see the world and live your life given enough practice.
If not just for the myriad health benefits shown in study after study, you should meditate because being able to cultivate a place of deep inner peace and stillness is invaluable. A place where you can go to escape the utterly trivial bullshit of the world. A place where the constant worry and chatter of my mind all but disappears.
For me, the effects have been subtle but valuable. I am without a doubt much more able to focus. I certainly do better at work. I worry less. Most strikingly, I'm a much more voluble speaker. It just feels like there are less thoughts competing for attention in my mind. Not to mention the fact that there are times when it just feels really, really good. My body starts buzzing, my hearing gets a little distorted and I can just feel my body relaxing into this stillness. And lately, on occasion, I'll just be sitting there (not meditating) and all of the sudden I recognize this inherent stillness, or peacefulness is maybe a better word, in myself that I experienced the night before when I was meditating and I just start to feel real good about everything.
from
Once seemingly immutable thoughts, feelings, likes, dislikes, ways of thinking, they all of the sudden become much more malleable. They are all just thoughts and can be dropped if you so choose. You start to realize these things that you thought were concrete aspects of yourself may not be so concrete after all.
I wouldn't say you should expect personality changes or anything big after a few months or even ever, although it is hard to believe that it wouldn't change the way you see the world and live your life given enough practice.
If not just for the myriad health benefits shown in study after study, you should meditate because being able to cultivate a place of deep inner peace and stillness is invaluable. A place where you can go to escape the utterly trivial bullshit of the world. A place where the constant worry and chatter of my mind all but disappears.
For me, the effects have been subtle but valuable. I am without a doubt much more able to focus. I certainly do better at work. I worry less. Most strikingly, I'm a much more voluble speaker. It just feels like there are less thoughts competing for attention in my mind. Not to mention the fact that there are times when it just feels really, really good. My body starts buzzing, my hearing gets a little distorted and I can just feel my body relaxing into this stillness. And lately, on occasion, I'll just be sitting there (not meditating) and all of the sudden I recognize this inherent stillness, or peacefulness is maybe a better word, in myself that I experienced the night before when I was meditating and I just start to feel real good about everything.
from
All About Barbecued Ribs
The pinkness in "properly" barbecued ribs is called the smoke ring, and is caused by the formation of nitrous acid when Nitrogen Dioxide from the smoking wood interacts with the meat. This prevents the breakdown of myoglobin (muscle pigment). Thus the meat remains pink. Generally, smoke ring is an indication that the meat has been smoked low and slow, and will have decent smoky flavor.
However, it's possible to get smoke ring in a gas oven, as burning gas also creates nitrogen dioxide, albeit less. An electric oven will produce no smoke ring unless the meat has been brined first.
Properly cooked ribs are NOT pink because they are not cooked well done. Pinkness in rare meat is because they are not cooked hot enough to break doen myoglobin. In barbecue, its because of the nitrogen interactions.
Indeed, bbq ribs need to be cooked well past what we would consider well done for a cut like, say, a pork chop. Ribs contain lots of collagen and fat. The goal when barbecuing them is to render out the fat, and to convert the collagen into gelatin, which gives good ribs that juicy, unctuous mouthfeel.
Converting collagen takes three things: moisture, heat, and time. They need to cook long enough at a high enough temperature for it to happen, though not so long and slow that the ribs dehydrate in the process.
Most pros go at around 200 to 250 degrees (oven temperature) allowing the meat to cook for anywhere between 4 and 12 hours, depending on their own preference and the particular batch of ribs. They are done when the meat is tender and comes off the bones easily when you tug gently. Good ribs should not "fall off the bone" with no effort. That's overcooked ribs.
You can cook to temperature, and that'll get you reasonably consistent end results, but as slow cooking, the kind where you want to break down connective tissue, is a temperature and time dependent process. It's not 100% accurate to cook only based on final meat temperature. For instance, you can break down collagen and get ultra succulent ribs by holding them at 170 (rib temp, not smoker temp) for 12 hours, or you can get slightly dryer ribs that are still very tender by letting them continue to heat to past 190, in which case time jumps down rapidly. The hotter you cook, the less time it takes, but the dryer the end results will be. Using modern techniques like sous vide or Cvap ovens, you can go even lower and slower - 145 degrees or lower for a couple days, for instance, to give you extremely moist and tender results. These are good, but don't taste like barbecue.
If you have a grill you should rub your ribs, heat up only one side of the grill to a low temperature, add soaked wood chips, then place then ribs on the cooler side of the grill and cook them with the lid closed, adding fuel as necessary until the ribs are tender. Finish them off by increasing the heat or adding more coals, brushing them with sauce (you can do several layers if you want, or none at all. It's a regional thing), and finishing off over the hotter side to get some nice charring of the meat and caramelization of the sauce.
To do something similar in the oven, rub the ribs, put them on a rack in a rimmed baking sheet, and cook them low and slow until tender. Finish them off by brushing with sauce and putting the, under the broiler
.
Several Sources:
However, it's possible to get smoke ring in a gas oven, as burning gas also creates nitrogen dioxide, albeit less. An electric oven will produce no smoke ring unless the meat has been brined first.
Properly cooked ribs are NOT pink because they are not cooked well done. Pinkness in rare meat is because they are not cooked hot enough to break doen myoglobin. In barbecue, its because of the nitrogen interactions.
Indeed, bbq ribs need to be cooked well past what we would consider well done for a cut like, say, a pork chop. Ribs contain lots of collagen and fat. The goal when barbecuing them is to render out the fat, and to convert the collagen into gelatin, which gives good ribs that juicy, unctuous mouthfeel.
Converting collagen takes three things: moisture, heat, and time. They need to cook long enough at a high enough temperature for it to happen, though not so long and slow that the ribs dehydrate in the process.
Most pros go at around 200 to 250 degrees (oven temperature) allowing the meat to cook for anywhere between 4 and 12 hours, depending on their own preference and the particular batch of ribs. They are done when the meat is tender and comes off the bones easily when you tug gently. Good ribs should not "fall off the bone" with no effort. That's overcooked ribs.
You can cook to temperature, and that'll get you reasonably consistent end results, but as slow cooking, the kind where you want to break down connective tissue, is a temperature and time dependent process. It's not 100% accurate to cook only based on final meat temperature. For instance, you can break down collagen and get ultra succulent ribs by holding them at 170 (rib temp, not smoker temp) for 12 hours, or you can get slightly dryer ribs that are still very tender by letting them continue to heat to past 190, in which case time jumps down rapidly. The hotter you cook, the less time it takes, but the dryer the end results will be. Using modern techniques like sous vide or Cvap ovens, you can go even lower and slower - 145 degrees or lower for a couple days, for instance, to give you extremely moist and tender results. These are good, but don't taste like barbecue.
If you have a grill you should rub your ribs, heat up only one side of the grill to a low temperature, add soaked wood chips, then place then ribs on the cooler side of the grill and cook them with the lid closed, adding fuel as necessary until the ribs are tender. Finish them off by increasing the heat or adding more coals, brushing them with sauce (you can do several layers if you want, or none at all. It's a regional thing), and finishing off over the hotter side to get some nice charring of the meat and caramelization of the sauce.
To do something similar in the oven, rub the ribs, put them on a rack in a rimmed baking sheet, and cook them low and slow until tender. Finish them off by brushing with sauce and putting the, under the broiler
.
Several Sources:
- Good info on smoke rings: http://www.smokingpit.com/Info/SmokeRing.pdf
- article on competition style ribs with a recipe: http://www.seriouseats.com/2012/08/barbecue-competition-style-ribs.html
- Guide to ribs of the world (only partially relevant, but interesting to see how people do it different): Ribs if the world
- Regional American barbecue style guide (great for learning about different sauces, cooking styles, cuts of meat, etc.) Regional Barbeque Guide
Monday, February 25, 2013
There is no War on Terror
911 only happened due to incredible incompetence by the Federal government. The plan for 911, including hijacking with box cutters was found on Ramzi Yousef's computer in the Philippines in 1995 by the CIA. They gave that information to the FBI who never considered that it might be a good idea to tell the FAA to review their airline crew training, or perhaps think about putting a real door in cockpits. The government had the plan for six years and did NOTHING to protect Americans.
The people in Yemen and Pakistan, in Mali and Libya have no way to hurt America. If they attack a US embassy, that is a crime, not an act of war because they do not act on the behalf of a state. There are criminals that should be dealt with through international police work and through the police services in the countries that they live in. They should not be used as an excuse for the American military domination of the world.
There is no war, there is an American military presence in various countries that is killing people, and not surprisingly suffering some casualties in return. But it is not a war.
The Taliban for instance doesn't field any weapon more sophisticated than an RPG against the military might of the most expensive army in the history of the world. If you call that a war, then please concede that the US military is clearly the most pathetic organization to ever put on a uniform. They have lost every single operation that they have been involved in since WWII with the exception of Grenada. You should be ashamed to think that the US is losing wars against illiterate, poorly armed, and outnumbered tribesmen.
But the reality is that it is not war. It is police work done with an army. That is why it doesn't work. Police work needs to be done with police methods and personnel. That is hard for Americans to understand in today's world because the American police have also become militarized.
Al Qaeda has ceased to exist as an international organization. There are numerous new salafist organizations that want to hurt the US, punish US stooges and attack Israel for the simple reason that the US has been killing thousands of Muslims a year for many years and because Israel has stolen the Palestinians land and their future.
But there is no international organization. Aiman al Zawahiri is not controlling these different groups from some bomb shelter in the mountains of Yemen.
The principle architects of 911 met and planned the attack in an apartment in Hamburg Germany, then they sent the hijackers to the US, where they trained for the Attack.
There's no war, no fighting for freedom, no defense of country going on. There's just people dying while other people make money.
The people in Yemen and Pakistan, in Mali and Libya have no way to hurt America. If they attack a US embassy, that is a crime, not an act of war because they do not act on the behalf of a state. There are criminals that should be dealt with through international police work and through the police services in the countries that they live in. They should not be used as an excuse for the American military domination of the world.
There is no war, there is an American military presence in various countries that is killing people, and not surprisingly suffering some casualties in return. But it is not a war.
The Taliban for instance doesn't field any weapon more sophisticated than an RPG against the military might of the most expensive army in the history of the world. If you call that a war, then please concede that the US military is clearly the most pathetic organization to ever put on a uniform. They have lost every single operation that they have been involved in since WWII with the exception of Grenada. You should be ashamed to think that the US is losing wars against illiterate, poorly armed, and outnumbered tribesmen.
But the reality is that it is not war. It is police work done with an army. That is why it doesn't work. Police work needs to be done with police methods and personnel. That is hard for Americans to understand in today's world because the American police have also become militarized.
Al Qaeda has ceased to exist as an international organization. There are numerous new salafist organizations that want to hurt the US, punish US stooges and attack Israel for the simple reason that the US has been killing thousands of Muslims a year for many years and because Israel has stolen the Palestinians land and their future.
But there is no international organization. Aiman al Zawahiri is not controlling these different groups from some bomb shelter in the mountains of Yemen.
The principle architects of 911 met and planned the attack in an apartment in Hamburg Germany, then they sent the hijackers to the US, where they trained for the Attack.
There's no war, no fighting for freedom, no defense of country going on. There's just people dying while other people make money.
Friday, February 22, 2013
Why Does Cheese Taste Different?
Cheese has a different process for making it each time. The first division is pasteurized / unpasteurized. This is whether or not you cook the milk first to rid it of any bacteria such as listeria (though evidence that milk has listeria in it in the first place is very far and few between). This changes the consistency of the cheese on a small scale. An uncooked cheese will be a lot 'smoother' and curdy. You get much more of a creamy taste with unpasteurized.
Next, you put the renet into the milk to make it solidify. You could put in a lot, or you could put in a little. The more you put in, the more the curds (cream, milk solids) separate from whey (liquids, sugars). The renet acts to break down simple proteins to separate the milk. As it solidifies, the whey is drained off for use in growing corn/wheat and so on. The more fat inside the cheese, the softer it'll be. Alpine cheese and gouda (emental, old Amsterdam etc. usually has less fat than softer cheeses).
You can then add the blue spores if you want your cheese to be blue. They do this for some cheddars, too, even though the cheddars aren't meant to be blue. on that later. Salt is also added. This is where a lot of flavor comes in.
Then the curds are cut up either large or small. Larger curds sometimes mean that the cheese is less dense. Some cheeses press the curds together using a piston or screw. This is called 'cheddaring' and it's where cheddar cheese comes from. When the curds are cut, they are cut with a comb-like rake. At this stage, they are wobbly like jelly cubes.
Then they're put into the molds with holes in it. At this point, the cheese tastes like solid milk, or curds. Maybe a bit like cream, but not as rich.
Then the whey is drained off over a period of days (or pressed out, if it's cheddar). Softer cheeses are often just left to their own accord, so that the gaps between the curds remain in the cheese. If you've added blue spores, they will start to grow inside these air gaps, where they are exposed to oxygen, converting the complex sugars in the cheese into basic sugars you can taste. If your cheese is compressed to get rid of these gaps, the blue won't grow (unless you get a crack in the cheese as it matures, as you often will with cheddar).
The outside of the cheeses are smoothed to stop anything getting in that shouldn't be in, and the cheese is given a covering skin - white mold (Roquefort), wax (Wensleydale), yeast (Stilton), a wash (Stinking Bishop) or cloth (Westcombe cheddar).
Then the cheese is put away for maturing. As a cheese matures, the remaining whey in the cheese evaporates, so much so that the average cheese loses 10% of its weight in evaporation every year. As it ages, cheese tends to get dryer and more solid for this reason, and also sweeter as the bacteria work on it. If you want a soft cheese, it'll take less time to mature. Some cheeses, like the Indian paneer are ready straight from the cloth with a drainage time of 15-25 minutes.
As the cheese matures, the bacteria inside the cheese (as well as any that were in the milk) get to work on anaerobic respiration, turning the complicated sugars and tastes locked away in the cheese into palatable tastes we can sense. There are also other aspects - cave molds, cheese mites and 'sweating' - where the skin is encouraged to 'sweat', leaking the whey from inside onto the outside of the skin where it stays and encourages flavor-making bacteria. Don't worry, though - these bacteria aren't harmful - and in fact act to protect the cheese from harmful bacteria that might want to grow by taking their food source.
The cheese is turned all through maturing to give it an even amount of gravity, otherwise you find it 'sinks' to be bottom heavy. This is why cheeses are often coin-shaped (with two faces). Parmesan is one of the heaviest cheeses. These are turned by - no shit here - a cheese turning robot.
There are also other cheeses, like Adrahan and Stinking bishop, which have their skins 'washed' with brine or alcohol to make it extra sticky just before maturing. This goes into the cheese from the outside, flavoring it on the way through.
Next, you put the renet into the milk to make it solidify. You could put in a lot, or you could put in a little. The more you put in, the more the curds (cream, milk solids) separate from whey (liquids, sugars). The renet acts to break down simple proteins to separate the milk. As it solidifies, the whey is drained off for use in growing corn/wheat and so on. The more fat inside the cheese, the softer it'll be. Alpine cheese and gouda (emental, old Amsterdam etc. usually has less fat than softer cheeses).
You can then add the blue spores if you want your cheese to be blue. They do this for some cheddars, too, even though the cheddars aren't meant to be blue. on that later. Salt is also added. This is where a lot of flavor comes in.
Then the curds are cut up either large or small. Larger curds sometimes mean that the cheese is less dense. Some cheeses press the curds together using a piston or screw. This is called 'cheddaring' and it's where cheddar cheese comes from. When the curds are cut, they are cut with a comb-like rake. At this stage, they are wobbly like jelly cubes.
Then they're put into the molds with holes in it. At this point, the cheese tastes like solid milk, or curds. Maybe a bit like cream, but not as rich.
Then the whey is drained off over a period of days (or pressed out, if it's cheddar). Softer cheeses are often just left to their own accord, so that the gaps between the curds remain in the cheese. If you've added blue spores, they will start to grow inside these air gaps, where they are exposed to oxygen, converting the complex sugars in the cheese into basic sugars you can taste. If your cheese is compressed to get rid of these gaps, the blue won't grow (unless you get a crack in the cheese as it matures, as you often will with cheddar).
The outside of the cheeses are smoothed to stop anything getting in that shouldn't be in, and the cheese is given a covering skin - white mold (Roquefort), wax (Wensleydale), yeast (Stilton), a wash (Stinking Bishop) or cloth (Westcombe cheddar).
Then the cheese is put away for maturing. As a cheese matures, the remaining whey in the cheese evaporates, so much so that the average cheese loses 10% of its weight in evaporation every year. As it ages, cheese tends to get dryer and more solid for this reason, and also sweeter as the bacteria work on it. If you want a soft cheese, it'll take less time to mature. Some cheeses, like the Indian paneer are ready straight from the cloth with a drainage time of 15-25 minutes.
As the cheese matures, the bacteria inside the cheese (as well as any that were in the milk) get to work on anaerobic respiration, turning the complicated sugars and tastes locked away in the cheese into palatable tastes we can sense. There are also other aspects - cave molds, cheese mites and 'sweating' - where the skin is encouraged to 'sweat', leaking the whey from inside onto the outside of the skin where it stays and encourages flavor-making bacteria. Don't worry, though - these bacteria aren't harmful - and in fact act to protect the cheese from harmful bacteria that might want to grow by taking their food source.
The cheese is turned all through maturing to give it an even amount of gravity, otherwise you find it 'sinks' to be bottom heavy. This is why cheeses are often coin-shaped (with two faces). Parmesan is one of the heaviest cheeses. These are turned by - no shit here - a cheese turning robot.
There are also other cheeses, like Adrahan and Stinking bishop, which have their skins 'washed' with brine or alcohol to make it extra sticky just before maturing. This goes into the cheese from the outside, flavoring it on the way through.
Thursday, February 21, 2013
An Analysis of the Movie Napoleon Dynamite
Napoleon Dynamite is one of the best illustrations of what it feels like to be lonely ever made. The whole movie is about portraying the many forms of loneliness. All the main characters feel disconnected, misunderstood, and have nobody to relate to.
Napoleon has no friends and lives in fantasy land. He is shunned by everybody. His brother is self-deluded, wanting to be a cage fighter but staying home all the time desperately seeing love and attention on the internet. Their grandmother is never there for them, though she has a full life of her own (a twist on the real life situation of most of the elderly). They live next to a huge field, reinforcing the feeling of isolation. Almost every home in the film is shown isolated. Uncle Rico lives alone on a trailer in the middle of nowhere, obsessed with the past. Pedro is latin and barely intellingible, oddly attired, alien in every sense of the word.
Not even the protagonists seem to truly connect. Their conversations are always a little awkward, as if only 80% of the message was received, often rolling along without any conclusions being reached. There are little details also, like how Napoleon seldom looks someone in the eyes. In fact, his eyes remain barely open throughout the film. Minor details that add to the sense of disconnection.
In the end the protagonists defeat their loneliness: Uncle Rico gets a girlfriend and gets over the past, Napoleon's brother gets a girlfriend who is clearly in love with him, Pedro becomes president and Napoleon's dance makes him popular.
Even so, you don't really get a sense of satisfaction by the time it's over. You get a sense that there's so much more Napoleon needs and that it won't happen anytime soon. Despite his success at teh talent show, he doesn't embrace the popularity at the end. He runs away. He doesn't have the emotional tools to deal with it. He is still fundamentally isolated.
Most people can never really put a finger on what made them feel odd about watching this film. While it's overtly a comedy, the circumstances presented leave most viewers feeling a bit disheartened. Your left with questions that not only aren't answered, they're not even addressed.
Where are Napoleon's parents? for instance. It is a plot point that could be cleared up with a short phrase, but isn't. You're just left to wonder. Did they abandon Napoleon? Did they die? Whatever happened, we're not given closure, just more questions and an underlying discomfort.
It is a discomfort that the filmmaker builds on, punctuating it with absurd humor, leaving you confused about how you should feel.
Napoleon Dynamite is cleverly disguised as a silly comedy, but most people who watch it with that preconception end up a feeling confused. It's just a bit too surreal and a bit too dark.
And that's because it's not a comedy at all.
source
Napoleon has no friends and lives in fantasy land. He is shunned by everybody. His brother is self-deluded, wanting to be a cage fighter but staying home all the time desperately seeing love and attention on the internet. Their grandmother is never there for them, though she has a full life of her own (a twist on the real life situation of most of the elderly). They live next to a huge field, reinforcing the feeling of isolation. Almost every home in the film is shown isolated. Uncle Rico lives alone on a trailer in the middle of nowhere, obsessed with the past. Pedro is latin and barely intellingible, oddly attired, alien in every sense of the word.
Not even the protagonists seem to truly connect. Their conversations are always a little awkward, as if only 80% of the message was received, often rolling along without any conclusions being reached. There are little details also, like how Napoleon seldom looks someone in the eyes. In fact, his eyes remain barely open throughout the film. Minor details that add to the sense of disconnection.
In the end the protagonists defeat their loneliness: Uncle Rico gets a girlfriend and gets over the past, Napoleon's brother gets a girlfriend who is clearly in love with him, Pedro becomes president and Napoleon's dance makes him popular.
Even so, you don't really get a sense of satisfaction by the time it's over. You get a sense that there's so much more Napoleon needs and that it won't happen anytime soon. Despite his success at teh talent show, he doesn't embrace the popularity at the end. He runs away. He doesn't have the emotional tools to deal with it. He is still fundamentally isolated.
Most people can never really put a finger on what made them feel odd about watching this film. While it's overtly a comedy, the circumstances presented leave most viewers feeling a bit disheartened. Your left with questions that not only aren't answered, they're not even addressed.
Where are Napoleon's parents? for instance. It is a plot point that could be cleared up with a short phrase, but isn't. You're just left to wonder. Did they abandon Napoleon? Did they die? Whatever happened, we're not given closure, just more questions and an underlying discomfort.
It is a discomfort that the filmmaker builds on, punctuating it with absurd humor, leaving you confused about how you should feel.
Napoleon Dynamite is cleverly disguised as a silly comedy, but most people who watch it with that preconception end up a feeling confused. It's just a bit too surreal and a bit too dark.
And that's because it's not a comedy at all.
source
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Monday, February 18, 2013
How to Order Flowers
First, avoid ordering flowers online. If you spend 50 bucks online, the florist sees maybe $40 to 45. Right out of the gate your arrangement is 10% to 15% cheaper.
Second, if you have a vase, order a bouquet because more of your money goes to flowers and not the overpriced vases that florists carry. If you dont have a vase or something that can hold water, then let the florist sell you one. Most girls will have something.
Third, do NOT order specific flowers unless you really really have to. Just tell your local florist how much you want to spend. Let them fill it with pretty flowers instead of forcing them to find the last tulip in the back.
Fourth, in many areas Wlmart or Sam's Club may well have fresher flowers than your local florist. My Walmart can get in flowers faster from the regional distributor than my local wholesaler can. Your mileage may vary but I wouldnt just write them off.
Fifth, buy a potted plant and skip fresh flowers. Not only will the symbol of your love not fart out in a week or two and start to rot, but it might actually grow and continue to blossom. You think they're less glamorous now, but thats because you havent seen how many you can buy. My local garden center had a flat of pansies on sale for 8 bucks. You gotta plant them of course--opportunity to earn points with your lady.
Second, if you have a vase, order a bouquet because more of your money goes to flowers and not the overpriced vases that florists carry. If you dont have a vase or something that can hold water, then let the florist sell you one. Most girls will have something.
Third, do NOT order specific flowers unless you really really have to. Just tell your local florist how much you want to spend. Let them fill it with pretty flowers instead of forcing them to find the last tulip in the back.
Fourth, in many areas Wlmart or Sam's Club may well have fresher flowers than your local florist. My Walmart can get in flowers faster from the regional distributor than my local wholesaler can. Your mileage may vary but I wouldnt just write them off.
Fifth, buy a potted plant and skip fresh flowers. Not only will the symbol of your love not fart out in a week or two and start to rot, but it might actually grow and continue to blossom. You think they're less glamorous now, but thats because you havent seen how many you can buy. My local garden center had a flat of pansies on sale for 8 bucks. You gotta plant them of course--opportunity to earn points with your lady.
What is Depression?
Drawing the disabling mental illness wild card out of the genetics pool is analogous (but definitely NOT the same as) being born into a terrible socioeconomic situation. Yes, some people do "work their way out of it" and make great symptom-free lives for themselves, but
a) this is definitely not the case for most people, and
b) it is ridiculously, ridiculously hard to do so.
Mental illness in its uglier forms can and does rob people of the capacity to lead healthy lives. A visit to any psychiatric hospital will confirm the existence of the absolutely insane amounts of sadness the human mind has the capacity to suffer under.
Depression is real and not something that can be willed away by better diet and sunlight. Yes, these things may help, but realize that
1) these things will not instantly cure what is a difficult to treat and very serious illness, and
2) even the thought of taking these steps can be too much to ask for someone in the throes of depression.
Living life as someone experiencing depression is like scuba diving with a bunch of friends, only to find out mid-dive that your equipment doesn't work. Sure, your friends are having the time of their lives exploring the reef and marveling at the pretty fishes, but in the meantime, you're there, choking to death, frantically clawing at your oxygen tank and mask praying to any dear sweet deity that you don't pass out and die right there at the bottom of the ocean.
Now, imagine those friends becoming frustrated and bored with your "antics" and insisting you "lighten up", enjoy the dive and the pretty coral and "stop being such a buzzkill." It's not very fun.
Some people think that depression is derived solely from a set of bad circumstances and that once these circumstances pass the depression should go away. Again, false. The entirety of modern science recognizes that mental illness is a legitimate condition that doesn't ebb and flow according to how great your life is going on paper at any given moment.
The good news is that people can and do get better. It happens all the time. The standard regimen of therapy and proper medicine regimens goes miles in helping depression, but honestly, for anyone who wants to help someone suffering from depression the best you can do is show that you care. I don't mean that you should offer advice like "hey, keep your chin up!", I mean show it. Offer what favors you can, like driving them to therapy or staying in with them and watching stupid cartoons. Anything. Sit with them, hold them, cry with them, listen (that's a big one - so many people have things to say, but not enough people stay long enough to hear them). Be a friend to someone in need.
a) this is definitely not the case for most people, and
b) it is ridiculously, ridiculously hard to do so.
Mental illness in its uglier forms can and does rob people of the capacity to lead healthy lives. A visit to any psychiatric hospital will confirm the existence of the absolutely insane amounts of sadness the human mind has the capacity to suffer under.
Depression is real and not something that can be willed away by better diet and sunlight. Yes, these things may help, but realize that
1) these things will not instantly cure what is a difficult to treat and very serious illness, and
2) even the thought of taking these steps can be too much to ask for someone in the throes of depression.
Living life as someone experiencing depression is like scuba diving with a bunch of friends, only to find out mid-dive that your equipment doesn't work. Sure, your friends are having the time of their lives exploring the reef and marveling at the pretty fishes, but in the meantime, you're there, choking to death, frantically clawing at your oxygen tank and mask praying to any dear sweet deity that you don't pass out and die right there at the bottom of the ocean.
Now, imagine those friends becoming frustrated and bored with your "antics" and insisting you "lighten up", enjoy the dive and the pretty coral and "stop being such a buzzkill." It's not very fun.
Some people think that depression is derived solely from a set of bad circumstances and that once these circumstances pass the depression should go away. Again, false. The entirety of modern science recognizes that mental illness is a legitimate condition that doesn't ebb and flow according to how great your life is going on paper at any given moment.
The good news is that people can and do get better. It happens all the time. The standard regimen of therapy and proper medicine regimens goes miles in helping depression, but honestly, for anyone who wants to help someone suffering from depression the best you can do is show that you care. I don't mean that you should offer advice like "hey, keep your chin up!", I mean show it. Offer what favors you can, like driving them to therapy or staying in with them and watching stupid cartoons. Anything. Sit with them, hold them, cry with them, listen (that's a big one - so many people have things to say, but not enough people stay long enough to hear them). Be a friend to someone in need.
On Being a Man
Be hard, but not cold.
People are self-centered, short-sighted, self indulgent but they are also warm, caring, forgiving and kind. Sometimes a person can be all of those things.
A man builds and relies on his inner strength, to stand on his own against the faults and weakness of others. He creates a place for himself; small enough and solid enough to maintain on his own, to shelter him against the chaos of others. That is his place, and that is where a man is hard. That is where he draws the line, it is what he defends at all cost, it is where he chooses to listen or to ignore, and one day, it is what he might choose to share with someone else.
This is not always a physical place, though it can be- it is a place you create inside you, for you and only you.
Children live in the spaces of others, men make that space for themselves.
Now there will come a time, when you have built your space, and the world outside is cold and brutal. And you will want to shut yourself in and keep everybody out, because it hurts so goddamn bad to be outside. But you listen to me when I tell you that shutting yourself away, that turning off yourself and your emotions will only make things worse.
You are the warmth in your own world. When it's cold, that is the most important time to show that warmth to others. In turn, over time, they will share their warmth with you. Look for that warmth. Cherish it. Choose your friends carefully. Build ties with people who show you care and concern, drop ties with those who are too wrapped up in themselves to give back. Be the kind of person you would want to be friends with, and your good friends will always resonate with you.
Be hard, but not cold.
People are self-centered, short-sighted, self indulgent but they are also warm, caring, forgiving and kind. Sometimes a person can be all of those things.
A man builds and relies on his inner strength, to stand on his own against the faults and weakness of others. He creates a place for himself; small enough and solid enough to maintain on his own, to shelter him against the chaos of others. That is his place, and that is where a man is hard. That is where he draws the line, it is what he defends at all cost, it is where he chooses to listen or to ignore, and one day, it is what he might choose to share with someone else.
This is not always a physical place, though it can be- it is a place you create inside you, for you and only you.
Children live in the spaces of others, men make that space for themselves.
Now there will come a time, when you have built your space, and the world outside is cold and brutal. And you will want to shut yourself in and keep everybody out, because it hurts so goddamn bad to be outside. But you listen to me when I tell you that shutting yourself away, that turning off yourself and your emotions will only make things worse.
You are the warmth in your own world. When it's cold, that is the most important time to show that warmth to others. In turn, over time, they will share their warmth with you. Look for that warmth. Cherish it. Choose your friends carefully. Build ties with people who show you care and concern, drop ties with those who are too wrapped up in themselves to give back. Be the kind of person you would want to be friends with, and your good friends will always resonate with you.
Be hard, but not cold.
Friday, February 15, 2013
A Coffee Primer - Roasting
The coffee "bean" is actually the seed of a drupe called the coffee cherry. It's a tropical fruit, growing best within the Tropics of Capricorn and Cancer, also known as the Bean Belt.
There are multiple species of coffee, and within those species multiple varieties. The two main species that are used for cultivation are the flavorful and complex arabica, and the hardier and more caffeinated canephora (robusta). In specialty coffee, the industry that roasts and sells coffees that score an 85 or above on a 100 point Q-grading scale at origin, the main focus is on arabica and its varieties. Common arabica varieties include bourbon, typica, caturra, catuai, SL28, pacas, maragogype, and gesha.
Now, the variety of coffee is important, because it essentially creates the boundaries of what flavors are possible in the bean. A bourbon can technically only produce a certain combination of chemical compounds as it fruits, meaning its flavor is typically at least somewhat distinct from other varieties. It would be fairly difficult, if not impossible, to make two different varieties taste alike in the cup by growing techniques alone. So, think of the variety as something like the artist's palette: it holds the colors which the artist can use, in limited quantity.
When it comes to origin, coffee is a lot like wine: the environment in which it is grown makes a difference in the flavor of the crop. Higher altitudes create slower, more dense growth, which makes for more complex flavors. The right humidity can influence the sugar content of the bean, making for a sweeter cup. These are essentially like the artists' brush strokes.
Give a dozen artists the same palette, and they'll all create a unique work, but the colors will be the same. If you haven't yet, try to take the opportunity to see how distinctly different two regions can be for the same variety of coffee. The difference between a Guatemala Huehuetenango and a Guatemala Acatenango can be striking, and those regions are only miles apart.
For these reasons, many passionate coffee roasters, dedicated to quality, are involved in direct relationships with their growers, working together to create a better quality product from the source. These coffees are often more expensive, but to some (including many of us here on r/coffee) the price is worthwhile.
After harvesting, the coffee must be processed, and as you may guess, processing also matters. There are quite a few ways to process coffee, but essentially the steps are as follows:
Most coffees taste pretty similar at the extremes of roasting. Very light roasts taste grainy, grassy, and vegetal, whereas very dark roasts taste bitter, ashy, oily, and smokey. This is more or less true for any coffee roasted these ways. In the middle, there is far more room for nuance, but generally, the darker the roast, the less the coffee tastes like the coffee, and the more it tastes like the roast. There is no correct roast; there are only personal tastes.
In roasting there are a few distinct markers of roast progression aside from color, smell, temperature, etc. The big two are the first and second crack (or snap, or pop).
First crack occurs as the bean loses moisture, but begins to expand as the pores inside fill with gases. Being that coffee is a brittle structure of cellulose, the bean actually cracks under the internal pressure. Around the time first crack starts, chemical reactions within the bean's structure begin, in a process known as pyrolysis. At that point, the beans are actually giving off heat energy. This is also around the time where Maillard reactions and caramelization of sugars are taking place, or finishing up. At this point, most people would consider the coffee to be drinkable, and the roast can be stopped and cooled. However, it's still a fairly light roast, will have a pronounced tartness or sourness, and may not be universally pleasing. If you want chocolate or toasty flavors in your cup, you have to go a bit darker.
Second crack typically occurs just a few minutes after first crack stops. At this point, the moisture content of the beans is getting fairly low and most of the expansion has stopped. From here on, you're going from a brown color toward black and getting further away from the distinct qualities of the beans from those early stages of production. Right around second crack, you can expect to be getting more dark chocolate flavors, more dried fruit (raisin or prune, as opposed to a big juicy tart cherry), even some hazelnut, but the acidity will be largely tamed and most of the sweetness will begin to disappear.
After second crack finishes, you'll begin carbonizing sugars, destroying acids, and the beans will begin exuding oil from their surface as the pores contract. Even further and you're burning oils, charring the beans, and leaving very little flavor from anything but the roast. Past that and you risk combustion, as the beans are heavily carbonized, most of the CO2 has been cooked out, and you've got a very low-moisture environment.
After roasting, the beans are quickly cooled to room temperature. From here, opinions differ, but my finding is that coffee tastes fairly smokey and roasty for 12-24 hours post-roast, flavors peak between 3-5 days, and fall off over the course of 2-3 weeks, at which point I would call it stale. Once stale, it's not like the coffee is undrinkable. It's the same way stale bread isn't inedible, it's just not as pleasant as the fresh alternative.
Starbucks seems to habitually sell months-old coffee in stores, going by the Best-By-Date-minus-34-weeks model of guesstimating a roast date. Ground coffee goes stale even faster, so I'd never purchase a bag of ground coffee myself.
So there's a general idea of what goes into the production of coffee up to roasting and just before brewing. There is far, far more to learn about the whole supply chain, especially how farmers deal with pestilence and disease in their crops, what geopolitical hurdles there are, all the different processing methods and such.
There's a lot more to coffee than country of origin or roast level, so welcome to the rabbit hole my friend - be prepared to be falling for a long time.
There are multiple species of coffee, and within those species multiple varieties. The two main species that are used for cultivation are the flavorful and complex arabica, and the hardier and more caffeinated canephora (robusta). In specialty coffee, the industry that roasts and sells coffees that score an 85 or above on a 100 point Q-grading scale at origin, the main focus is on arabica and its varieties. Common arabica varieties include bourbon, typica, caturra, catuai, SL28, pacas, maragogype, and gesha.
Now, the variety of coffee is important, because it essentially creates the boundaries of what flavors are possible in the bean. A bourbon can technically only produce a certain combination of chemical compounds as it fruits, meaning its flavor is typically at least somewhat distinct from other varieties. It would be fairly difficult, if not impossible, to make two different varieties taste alike in the cup by growing techniques alone. So, think of the variety as something like the artist's palette: it holds the colors which the artist can use, in limited quantity.
When it comes to origin, coffee is a lot like wine: the environment in which it is grown makes a difference in the flavor of the crop. Higher altitudes create slower, more dense growth, which makes for more complex flavors. The right humidity can influence the sugar content of the bean, making for a sweeter cup. These are essentially like the artists' brush strokes.
Give a dozen artists the same palette, and they'll all create a unique work, but the colors will be the same. If you haven't yet, try to take the opportunity to see how distinctly different two regions can be for the same variety of coffee. The difference between a Guatemala Huehuetenango and a Guatemala Acatenango can be striking, and those regions are only miles apart.
For these reasons, many passionate coffee roasters, dedicated to quality, are involved in direct relationships with their growers, working together to create a better quality product from the source. These coffees are often more expensive, but to some (including many of us here on r/coffee) the price is worthwhile.
After harvesting, the coffee must be processed, and as you may guess, processing also matters. There are quite a few ways to process coffee, but essentially the steps are as follows:
- Separate the harvest by ripeness. Most fruit is hand-picked, and mistakes do happen. Machine harvested fruit will have a greater mix of ripeness, which is not ideal for optimal flavors. Separation can be done by hand or by using a gravity separator which dumps the harvest into a water channel, where the overripe coffee and some debris floats to the surface, and the ripe and underripe cherries, plus dense debris like stones, sinks. The floaters are skimmed off and typically composted, the sinkers are separated again using a steel plate with some varying sized holes punched into it, which dump the smaller underripe cherries and stones, but retain the plumper ripe cherries.
- The ripe cherries are then "depulped," meaning the seeds are squeezed from the fruit, still covered in a layer of parchment and some sticky mucilage. The seeds can then be washed further to rid them of mucilage, fermented naturally to increase sweetness, or dried as they are. The different processes at this point will influence the character of the flavors that end up in the dried green coffee, sort of a finishing step in the raw material production. Some farms will dry the coffee seeds within the cherries before further processing, typically referred to as "natural process" coffees. In any case, the final stages include removing the seeds from parchment and drying them to a desired moisture content, before packing them for shipping overseas.
Most coffees taste pretty similar at the extremes of roasting. Very light roasts taste grainy, grassy, and vegetal, whereas very dark roasts taste bitter, ashy, oily, and smokey. This is more or less true for any coffee roasted these ways. In the middle, there is far more room for nuance, but generally, the darker the roast, the less the coffee tastes like the coffee, and the more it tastes like the roast. There is no correct roast; there are only personal tastes.
In roasting there are a few distinct markers of roast progression aside from color, smell, temperature, etc. The big two are the first and second crack (or snap, or pop).
First crack occurs as the bean loses moisture, but begins to expand as the pores inside fill with gases. Being that coffee is a brittle structure of cellulose, the bean actually cracks under the internal pressure. Around the time first crack starts, chemical reactions within the bean's structure begin, in a process known as pyrolysis. At that point, the beans are actually giving off heat energy. This is also around the time where Maillard reactions and caramelization of sugars are taking place, or finishing up. At this point, most people would consider the coffee to be drinkable, and the roast can be stopped and cooled. However, it's still a fairly light roast, will have a pronounced tartness or sourness, and may not be universally pleasing. If you want chocolate or toasty flavors in your cup, you have to go a bit darker.
Second crack typically occurs just a few minutes after first crack stops. At this point, the moisture content of the beans is getting fairly low and most of the expansion has stopped. From here on, you're going from a brown color toward black and getting further away from the distinct qualities of the beans from those early stages of production. Right around second crack, you can expect to be getting more dark chocolate flavors, more dried fruit (raisin or prune, as opposed to a big juicy tart cherry), even some hazelnut, but the acidity will be largely tamed and most of the sweetness will begin to disappear.
After second crack finishes, you'll begin carbonizing sugars, destroying acids, and the beans will begin exuding oil from their surface as the pores contract. Even further and you're burning oils, charring the beans, and leaving very little flavor from anything but the roast. Past that and you risk combustion, as the beans are heavily carbonized, most of the CO2 has been cooked out, and you've got a very low-moisture environment.
After roasting, the beans are quickly cooled to room temperature. From here, opinions differ, but my finding is that coffee tastes fairly smokey and roasty for 12-24 hours post-roast, flavors peak between 3-5 days, and fall off over the course of 2-3 weeks, at which point I would call it stale. Once stale, it's not like the coffee is undrinkable. It's the same way stale bread isn't inedible, it's just not as pleasant as the fresh alternative.
Starbucks seems to habitually sell months-old coffee in stores, going by the Best-By-Date-minus-34-weeks model of guesstimating a roast date. Ground coffee goes stale even faster, so I'd never purchase a bag of ground coffee myself.
So there's a general idea of what goes into the production of coffee up to roasting and just before brewing. There is far, far more to learn about the whole supply chain, especially how farmers deal with pestilence and disease in their crops, what geopolitical hurdles there are, all the different processing methods and such.
There's a lot more to coffee than country of origin or roast level, so welcome to the rabbit hole my friend - be prepared to be falling for a long time.
Thursday, February 14, 2013
How to Choose a Hiking Shoe
Boots vs. Shoes
Hiking boots used to rise higher up your calf, with the intention of supporting the ankles of the poor top heavy bastards schlepping a frame pack with 80 pounds of canned goods strapped to all sides. As packs grew lighter and the frames became more balanced, hiking boots became shorter and less mandatory.
For the modern thru-hiker, boots will offer some ankle support, some ankle protection from rocks and such, and will keep out more water. In a rain storm, most of the water will come down your leg, that's what proper fitting gaiters will prevent.
Poorly fitted boots are also unforgiving; they will give you blisters, screw up your stride, cut off circulation... etc. For that reason, I suggest trail runners, because unless you really want boots, and know someone who is really good at fitting them, then go with the more forgiving option.
How Trail Runners Work
Basically, the sole is there to give traction and some protection from impact. The upper is flexible to allow your foot to flex. The firmer achilles tendon area that wraps under your ankle is to work in conjunction with the laces to lock your foot in a specific position so all the other features function as an extension of your foot.
Super Feet, or other stability style insole, add another layer of protection by giving a firm heel cup and a rigid arch. Combined, these keep your heel from flattening out and your foot from over pronating.
Trail Runner Features
Shock Absorbing vs. Strike Plates
Pounding your feet into pointy rocks with a heavy pack is not pleasant. Most trail runners will have a foam pillow area under the heel, which is going to break down and compact during your hike. For the rest of your foot, you can either have a strike plate, which is a hard plastic layer to spread out the impact, or a little foam, which is to soften the impact. I prefer the plate, but the major downside is that when it cracks, the shoes are toast. Just make sure you know what is in the shoe you decide to purchase, so you can diagnose what your feet are feeling.
Gore-tex vs. Nothing
Having heavy, spongy, wet shoes really puts a damper on the day. Mesh will let the water come in and out, so it's really your socks that are keeping you soaked. If you want a more substantial shoe, I go with gore-tex. My reasoning is based on dew, and wanting a shoe that will keep my socks dry for those morning hikes through the grass. Either way, the quickest way to ensure your shoes dry over night is to pull our your insoles to dry separately, and open up the tongue as much as possible.
Laces
Having the ability to alter the factory preset lacing is important for those of us who have uniquely awesome feet. Things like the Marathoner's Knot are amazingly effective at solving fit issues. Which brings us to....
How to fit your shoes
Find a specialty running store. If that is not an option, explain to the salesperson that you are going on a 3,000 mile hike, and you need to speak to their best shoe fitter.
Bring your thickest spring hiking socks and your thinnest summer hiking sock to the store with you.
Start by finding an insertable insole that fits the shape of your arch, like super feet. If you want a demonstration of how they work, have your foot measured while standing up, then remeasured while standing on a super feet insole. Normally, there is a half size difference. Purchase the insole you like, and trim them down in the store; you'll need to place them into every shoe you try on until you find your winner.
When you have some options, pull out the insole in the shoe, drop in your super feet, and put on your thin socks (since that's how you'll spend a majority of your hike). Hopefully the salesperson can help you figure the fit, as well as learn some lacing techniques to microfit the shoe to your foot.
Check your thick socks with a looser lacing, and if everything works, you have your first pair for hikers!
Hiking boots used to rise higher up your calf, with the intention of supporting the ankles of the poor top heavy bastards schlepping a frame pack with 80 pounds of canned goods strapped to all sides. As packs grew lighter and the frames became more balanced, hiking boots became shorter and less mandatory.
For the modern thru-hiker, boots will offer some ankle support, some ankle protection from rocks and such, and will keep out more water. In a rain storm, most of the water will come down your leg, that's what proper fitting gaiters will prevent.
Poorly fitted boots are also unforgiving; they will give you blisters, screw up your stride, cut off circulation... etc. For that reason, I suggest trail runners, because unless you really want boots, and know someone who is really good at fitting them, then go with the more forgiving option.
How Trail Runners Work
Basically, the sole is there to give traction and some protection from impact. The upper is flexible to allow your foot to flex. The firmer achilles tendon area that wraps under your ankle is to work in conjunction with the laces to lock your foot in a specific position so all the other features function as an extension of your foot.
Super Feet, or other stability style insole, add another layer of protection by giving a firm heel cup and a rigid arch. Combined, these keep your heel from flattening out and your foot from over pronating.
Trail Runner Features
Shock Absorbing vs. Strike Plates
Pounding your feet into pointy rocks with a heavy pack is not pleasant. Most trail runners will have a foam pillow area under the heel, which is going to break down and compact during your hike. For the rest of your foot, you can either have a strike plate, which is a hard plastic layer to spread out the impact, or a little foam, which is to soften the impact. I prefer the plate, but the major downside is that when it cracks, the shoes are toast. Just make sure you know what is in the shoe you decide to purchase, so you can diagnose what your feet are feeling.
Gore-tex vs. Nothing
Having heavy, spongy, wet shoes really puts a damper on the day. Mesh will let the water come in and out, so it's really your socks that are keeping you soaked. If you want a more substantial shoe, I go with gore-tex. My reasoning is based on dew, and wanting a shoe that will keep my socks dry for those morning hikes through the grass. Either way, the quickest way to ensure your shoes dry over night is to pull our your insoles to dry separately, and open up the tongue as much as possible.
Laces
Having the ability to alter the factory preset lacing is important for those of us who have uniquely awesome feet. Things like the Marathoner's Knot are amazingly effective at solving fit issues. Which brings us to....
How to fit your shoes
Find a specialty running store. If that is not an option, explain to the salesperson that you are going on a 3,000 mile hike, and you need to speak to their best shoe fitter.
Bring your thickest spring hiking socks and your thinnest summer hiking sock to the store with you.
Start by finding an insertable insole that fits the shape of your arch, like super feet. If you want a demonstration of how they work, have your foot measured while standing up, then remeasured while standing on a super feet insole. Normally, there is a half size difference. Purchase the insole you like, and trim them down in the store; you'll need to place them into every shoe you try on until you find your winner.
When you have some options, pull out the insole in the shoe, drop in your super feet, and put on your thin socks (since that's how you'll spend a majority of your hike). Hopefully the salesperson can help you figure the fit, as well as learn some lacing techniques to microfit the shoe to your foot.
Check your thick socks with a looser lacing, and if everything works, you have your first pair for hikers!
Losing Weight is a Lifestyle
Attitude is the only thing (besides the occassional rare medical condition) that has ever prevented anyone from losing weight and keeping it off.
There's no diet. There's no magic pill. Only you and your attitude. You need to want it. Once you want it, and I mean really, really, want it, it'll happen.
You can't just "eat better and exercise", though physically, that's what has to happen. You need to completely overhaul your outlook on life. Being healthy is a lifestyle, not a task to be completed. There is no end -- so don't go looking for one.
Every excuse you've ever made to yourself about your eating habits or exercising has been nothing but that... and excuse.
1. Throw out or donate everything in the kitchen that's not good for you. This will probably be the majority of your refrigerator and pantry. Anything made out of carbohydrates goes except for pasta, rye bread, and wraps. You can keep meats, fruits, and veggies.
2. Go to the grocery store and look for:
4) Cut back on or quit the alcohol. I brew beer. I drink beer. But I don't drink it often. Develop a taste or appreciation for the drink and enjoy it. If you're getting tipsy more than twice a month you're probably doing it wrong. The physiological effects of alcohol last a lot longer than you think and it's all just empty carbohyrates.
5) Hit the gym. Cardio is great and will help you lose weight, but you should also lift. Lean muscle mass requires more calories throughout the day simply by existing. You'll burn more at rest if you're strong. You want to be strong. If you're not a lifter check outhte book Starting Strength. If you're not a runner; look into Couch to 5k.
6) Don't overdo it. Once you get in a routine and start seeing results, it's easy to go a little crazy and burn yourself out. Create a schedule for exercise ahead of time and stick to it. You should obviously be tapering everything up a little as you get stronger, but don't work so hard on Monday that you have to skip the next two days. You'll get more benefit from doing moderate stuff all three days.
7) This is the most important part. STICK TO IT. It's amazing how easily the pounds go on, and how hard it is to get them off. You can blow a month's worth of work in a week no problem. Don't do that. You'll end up right back where you started. Stick with it for life. Eventually it will all become habit and you won't even think about it.
Here's a sample daily routine:
Remember, eating healthy and exercising is pointless if you still eat too much. At first, you may find it helpful to use a calorie counter to keep track. Log everything. You'll probably be amazed how much extra food you're actually eating. Use an online calorie counter to determine how many calories you should be eating to lose 1-2 lbs per week. Don't go over that number even a little.
MyFitnessPal is great. They have smartphone apps and a web interface. After a while you may get to the point where you just know if you're eating too much, but that will take a while so track it at first.
Track everything. Track your weight in a spreadsheet, track your lift numbers and cardio speeds/times somewhere either in a spreadsheet or a notebook. Tracking will help you see all the progress you're making.
See you in Thinville!
There's no diet. There's no magic pill. Only you and your attitude. You need to want it. Once you want it, and I mean really, really, want it, it'll happen.
You can't just "eat better and exercise", though physically, that's what has to happen. You need to completely overhaul your outlook on life. Being healthy is a lifestyle, not a task to be completed. There is no end -- so don't go looking for one.
Every excuse you've ever made to yourself about your eating habits or exercising has been nothing but that... and excuse.
- I'm too tired. You're too lazy.
- I don't have time. You have plenty of time. There's nobody on this planet that's so busy they cant afford 30-60 minutes a day. Nobody.
- I can't run because I twisted my ankle. Okay. So lift weights, do pushups/crunches/pullups. You don't need to run on a treadmill 24x7, you need to exercise. There are literally hundreds of things you can be doing that don't involve your ankle.
- I swear I'll start next Monday. No you won't and you know it. Start now.
1. Throw out or donate everything in the kitchen that's not good for you. This will probably be the majority of your refrigerator and pantry. Anything made out of carbohydrates goes except for pasta, rye bread, and wraps. You can keep meats, fruits, and veggies.
2. Go to the grocery store and look for:
- Non-startchy vegetables - lettuce, tomato, onion, green beans, cabbage, broccoli....
- Lean meat - Mainly chickenC. If chicken or a similar high-protein food isn't the staple of your diet you're probably doing something wrong.
- Eggs are your best friends. Don't worry about the cholesterol, it's not a big deal.
- Fruit, but in moderation. Fruit has a lot of sugar.
- Nuts make great snacks and have decent protein content. They also have a lot of calories, so don't overdo it.
- Rye bread. No white bread ever, and wheat isn't much better. If you have to have a snadwich, use rye. Wraps are also okay. Go crazy on the bread products. Once or twice a week is it.
4) Cut back on or quit the alcohol. I brew beer. I drink beer. But I don't drink it often. Develop a taste or appreciation for the drink and enjoy it. If you're getting tipsy more than twice a month you're probably doing it wrong. The physiological effects of alcohol last a lot longer than you think and it's all just empty carbohyrates.
5) Hit the gym. Cardio is great and will help you lose weight, but you should also lift. Lean muscle mass requires more calories throughout the day simply by existing. You'll burn more at rest if you're strong. You want to be strong. If you're not a lifter check outhte book Starting Strength. If you're not a runner; look into Couch to 5k.
6) Don't overdo it. Once you get in a routine and start seeing results, it's easy to go a little crazy and burn yourself out. Create a schedule for exercise ahead of time and stick to it. You should obviously be tapering everything up a little as you get stronger, but don't work so hard on Monday that you have to skip the next two days. You'll get more benefit from doing moderate stuff all three days.
7) This is the most important part. STICK TO IT. It's amazing how easily the pounds go on, and how hard it is to get them off. You can blow a month's worth of work in a week no problem. Don't do that. You'll end up right back where you started. Stick with it for life. Eventually it will all become habit and you won't even think about it.
Here's a sample daily routine:
- Wake up.
- Breakfast burrito. Nothing too extraordinary. Eggs, peppers, onions, some spices, in a wrap. Delicious.
- Cup of black coffee.
- Can you realistically walk or ride a bike to work? If so, do it.
- Bring your own food to work. A grilled chicken sandwich on Rye or a ziplock steamer back full of veggies and chicken breast.
- Lift weights after work 3x per week, moderate cardio 3x per week, 1 day off. You can either get a gym membership or you can get the equipment at home. All you need is a bench and a squat rack.
- Protein shake with skim milk or water, 1 scoop protein, 1 tablespoon almond butter.
- A dinner centered around something high-protein mixed with vegetables.
- Sleep.
- If you snakc during the day, make them only fruits and nuts. Don't go overboard on snacking. Calories add up!
Remember, eating healthy and exercising is pointless if you still eat too much. At first, you may find it helpful to use a calorie counter to keep track. Log everything. You'll probably be amazed how much extra food you're actually eating. Use an online calorie counter to determine how many calories you should be eating to lose 1-2 lbs per week. Don't go over that number even a little.
MyFitnessPal is great. They have smartphone apps and a web interface. After a while you may get to the point where you just know if you're eating too much, but that will take a while so track it at first.
Track everything. Track your weight in a spreadsheet, track your lift numbers and cardio speeds/times somewhere either in a spreadsheet or a notebook. Tracking will help you see all the progress you're making.
See you in Thinville!
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Escaping Economic Bondage - Life Free of Fear
Living below your means isn't about postponing gratification. It's not about giving up products and experiences when you're young so you can have them when you're old. That's not it at all.
What it's really about is freedom.
Most people are, in many ways, slaves. Beginning at age five, we are forced to get up in the morning and go somewhere we didn't really want to go, and do things we didn't really want to do. Elementary school. Then high school. Then college. Then work.
And throughout all those years there was an undertone of fear. Fear that you'll get in trouble with Mom and Dad if your grades suck. Fear that your performance in college won't result in a decent job. Fear that you'll lose your job, and that your family will suffer, if you don't kiss up to the right people, or meet your quotas, or because some asshole above you decides to eliminate your job.... Always that nagging worry and fear in the background.
When it comes right down to it, most of us really don't want to be there. And most of us really don't want to be doing whatever they make us do. Maybe you're even forced to do things you don't feel right about just to survive, like cutting corners, speed over quality, turning a blind eye, not being totally honest....
Dealing with assholes. Dealing with office politics.
Dragging out of bed at 6am. Going to bed at 10pm so you don't feel like crap at 6. Driving through horrendous traffic.
Realizing other people have the power to wreak economic harm on you, and your wife, and your kids (which is a very bad way to be harmed because it involves having decent food, safe shelter, safe transportation, etc.).
Many people live just a few weeks, or months, away from financial ruin or homelessness. Always on the edge. Always needing to rely on others for access to a job, or for a loan, or so you can meet your job expectations.
This isn't living a life that is free. It's living a life in economic bondage. It can be a rather benign type of bondage, but it sure as hell isn't freedom because your choices are limited, your time belongs to someone else, and there's always that undertone of worry and fear.
"What if..."
"How long can we survive..."
"Will I meet my goals...."
So this isn't about postponing fun things until you're older. It's about escaping from the economic bondage of a wage slave. It's about freedom. It's about removing all that fear and worry from your life. It's about removing all the crap from your life. It's about getting out from under those above you who have the power to harm you and your family by eliminating your job, or by tossing you to the curb because maybe they don't like your attitude. It's about realizing that nobody should have the power to harm you like that. It's about wanting to get out from under somebody else's thumb.
You're legally free to walk away from your job tomorrow, but if you don't have the economic freedom to do that, you're not free at all.
It's about being free to sleep as late as you want, stay up as late as you want, and spend your time doing whatever you want. It's about realizing that there is no security unless you make it.
So it's all about freedom, not stuff or things. The sooner you start working toward untying those bonds, the sooner you'll be free. The more you deny yourself now, the sooner you will be free. And you really need to do it when you have the opportunity, because there's no guarantee that you'll even have a job five years from now.
And after you've attained your freedom, there's nothing that will stop you from continuing to work if you're lucky enough to have a job you look forward to going to (or have a job at all). But it will be YOUR choice.
So that's what it's really about. Many people will die at their desks without ever having experienced what it's like to truly be free. We become so conditioned to the worries and fear that we think we are free when we're really not. It isn't until you truly experience this freedom that you realize what you have been missing. The relief and overall sense of peace and happiness is astounding.
Don't let anyone tell you it isn't worth it.
So how do you do it?
What it's really about is freedom.
Most people are, in many ways, slaves. Beginning at age five, we are forced to get up in the morning and go somewhere we didn't really want to go, and do things we didn't really want to do. Elementary school. Then high school. Then college. Then work.
And throughout all those years there was an undertone of fear. Fear that you'll get in trouble with Mom and Dad if your grades suck. Fear that your performance in college won't result in a decent job. Fear that you'll lose your job, and that your family will suffer, if you don't kiss up to the right people, or meet your quotas, or because some asshole above you decides to eliminate your job.... Always that nagging worry and fear in the background.
When it comes right down to it, most of us really don't want to be there. And most of us really don't want to be doing whatever they make us do. Maybe you're even forced to do things you don't feel right about just to survive, like cutting corners, speed over quality, turning a blind eye, not being totally honest....
Dealing with assholes. Dealing with office politics.
Dragging out of bed at 6am. Going to bed at 10pm so you don't feel like crap at 6. Driving through horrendous traffic.
Realizing other people have the power to wreak economic harm on you, and your wife, and your kids (which is a very bad way to be harmed because it involves having decent food, safe shelter, safe transportation, etc.).
Many people live just a few weeks, or months, away from financial ruin or homelessness. Always on the edge. Always needing to rely on others for access to a job, or for a loan, or so you can meet your job expectations.
This isn't living a life that is free. It's living a life in economic bondage. It can be a rather benign type of bondage, but it sure as hell isn't freedom because your choices are limited, your time belongs to someone else, and there's always that undertone of worry and fear.
"What if..."
"How long can we survive..."
"Will I meet my goals...."
So this isn't about postponing fun things until you're older. It's about escaping from the economic bondage of a wage slave. It's about freedom. It's about removing all that fear and worry from your life. It's about removing all the crap from your life. It's about getting out from under those above you who have the power to harm you and your family by eliminating your job, or by tossing you to the curb because maybe they don't like your attitude. It's about realizing that nobody should have the power to harm you like that. It's about wanting to get out from under somebody else's thumb.
You're legally free to walk away from your job tomorrow, but if you don't have the economic freedom to do that, you're not free at all.
It's about being free to sleep as late as you want, stay up as late as you want, and spend your time doing whatever you want. It's about realizing that there is no security unless you make it.
So it's all about freedom, not stuff or things. The sooner you start working toward untying those bonds, the sooner you'll be free. The more you deny yourself now, the sooner you will be free. And you really need to do it when you have the opportunity, because there's no guarantee that you'll even have a job five years from now.
And after you've attained your freedom, there's nothing that will stop you from continuing to work if you're lucky enough to have a job you look forward to going to (or have a job at all). But it will be YOUR choice.
So that's what it's really about. Many people will die at their desks without ever having experienced what it's like to truly be free. We become so conditioned to the worries and fear that we think we are free when we're really not. It isn't until you truly experience this freedom that you realize what you have been missing. The relief and overall sense of peace and happiness is astounding.
Don't let anyone tell you it isn't worth it.
So how do you do it?
The main, main thing is just spending less than you make. That's really just most of it. Do you need cable TV? No? Ditch it. Do you need blazing fast internet? No? Ditch it. Do you need to eat out every sunday? No? Stop it.
You can eat quite comfortably on about $25 per week per person in most parts of the US. You can move into a house that's not as much money to pay off. You can sell your car for a much cheaper one.
There's lots of things you can do to shave your bill if you want. One of the best ways is cutting off all the stuff you have to pay every month. Have a debt that chews away $100/month? Get rid of it. What about a "small" one that's only $15 a month? Get rid of it. That's free money just begging to be saved up.
One thing that I see a lot of people doing, though, is they'll get rid of some debt, or they'll shave money and they'll say "sweet! We now have $50 extra a month! What can I buy with that?"
Wrong appraoch.
The best you can do is to take that $50 extra a month that you had and don't touch it. If you were doing fine without it, you can now save that as free cash to put in a bank somewhere until you need it.
You can eat quite comfortably on about $25 per week per person in most parts of the US. You can move into a house that's not as much money to pay off. You can sell your car for a much cheaper one.
There's lots of things you can do to shave your bill if you want. One of the best ways is cutting off all the stuff you have to pay every month. Have a debt that chews away $100/month? Get rid of it. What about a "small" one that's only $15 a month? Get rid of it. That's free money just begging to be saved up.
One thing that I see a lot of people doing, though, is they'll get rid of some debt, or they'll shave money and they'll say "sweet! We now have $50 extra a month! What can I buy with that?"
Wrong appraoch.
The best you can do is to take that $50 extra a month that you had and don't touch it. If you were doing fine without it, you can now save that as free cash to put in a bank somewhere until you need it.
Find out what you're spending in your life that you don't need to be paying money on, then stop spending money on it. Instead of using that money somewhere else, you use that money to pay off the debt.
Say you have a phone with 1,000 texts a month and you only ever use 500. Well, downgrade to a 500 text limit and then you've just saved yourself $10 a month. Now take that $10 a month and apply it to, say, a debt that you have on a credit card, or something else you can pay off really fast.
You saved only $10 a month, but you're now paying off your smallest debt $10 a month faster. Once you pay off that smallest debt. You can use the money from that debt to pay off your next biggest one. So, we'll pretend you have a debt that eats up $40 a month, and you need to pay $500 to pay it off. You saved $10 a month so you'll be paying off your $500 debt $10 a month faster. So, 10 months faster than normal it's paid off. Then you use that $10 a month, and that $40 a month and now you have $50 a month to use to pay off your next biggest debt. Say this one is $150 a month because your car's engine broke and you're paying off the repairs. Now it's like you're only paying "$100 a month" on it because the other $50 is from the stuff you've paid off.
Maybe you work your way up to $200 a month in "free money". Now, if your car payment is $200 a month you could say "wow I have a free car payment now!" or, you could do the smart thing, and say "wow, now I can pay off the car twice as fast!". Then when the car's paid off? You have $400 a month in "free cash" to start paying off other things faster.
The long story short is, with debt, you want to start a snowball effect. Since you're reading this online, I can assume you can afford internet, a computer, and an hour of free time every day. That means you're probably stable on things, maybe not getting rich, but you're not in danger of getting into huge debt unless something big breaks.
So, what you want to do is get to a place where you're "stable" (that is, you might not be making more money than you spend, but you're not spending more than you make). Then you just save as much money as you can, cut as many corners as you can, and use that saved money to pay off debts while living the same exact lifestyle you were before you started paying off stuff.
Say you have a phone with 1,000 texts a month and you only ever use 500. Well, downgrade to a 500 text limit and then you've just saved yourself $10 a month. Now take that $10 a month and apply it to, say, a debt that you have on a credit card, or something else you can pay off really fast.
You saved only $10 a month, but you're now paying off your smallest debt $10 a month faster. Once you pay off that smallest debt. You can use the money from that debt to pay off your next biggest one. So, we'll pretend you have a debt that eats up $40 a month, and you need to pay $500 to pay it off. You saved $10 a month so you'll be paying off your $500 debt $10 a month faster. So, 10 months faster than normal it's paid off. Then you use that $10 a month, and that $40 a month and now you have $50 a month to use to pay off your next biggest debt. Say this one is $150 a month because your car's engine broke and you're paying off the repairs. Now it's like you're only paying "$100 a month" on it because the other $50 is from the stuff you've paid off.
Maybe you work your way up to $200 a month in "free money". Now, if your car payment is $200 a month you could say "wow I have a free car payment now!" or, you could do the smart thing, and say "wow, now I can pay off the car twice as fast!". Then when the car's paid off? You have $400 a month in "free cash" to start paying off other things faster.
The long story short is, with debt, you want to start a snowball effect. Since you're reading this online, I can assume you can afford internet, a computer, and an hour of free time every day. That means you're probably stable on things, maybe not getting rich, but you're not in danger of getting into huge debt unless something big breaks.
So, what you want to do is get to a place where you're "stable" (that is, you might not be making more money than you spend, but you're not spending more than you make). Then you just save as much money as you can, cut as many corners as you can, and use that saved money to pay off debts while living the same exact lifestyle you were before you started paying off stuff.
Stop spending time in cafes, bars, restaurants, movies, theater, and stuff. Go somewhere where you'll have good memories. Getting coffee at a cafe isn't a memory, it's a money burn. Going to bar isn't a memory, it's a money burn.
Find out what's expensive about what you do right now. Cafe? It's the coffee. Bars? It's the drinks. Restaurants? It's the whole concept of going there. Movies? It's the fact that you're buying a $11 ticket instead of renting a DVD for $1.
Now. If you still want to do these things, that's fine, do them in moderation. Budget out your money and find out what you can "waste" on having fun. Look for a theater you want to go to, a show you want to see, and get some cheap tickets for it. It's still a fun time if you're in the back row, right?
Try hanging out, talking, actually doing things together that you can participate in. Learn how to play ping pong, dare your friends to start working out with you. There are a lot of things you can do without actually spending money.
Anyone who says that you have to stay at home to save money is a liar. Even in a super small town, you can find things to do for a day or two just to kill time. Time that is spent better off by not burning money and actually spending time with others. Look up "quality time with friends" vs just "time with friends". There's a huge difference.
And, as for the spending money without counting? I can see how that would make you feel free, but ask yourself this: are you freer knowing that you may or may not be in debt next month, or are you freer knowing that no matter what you do with your money, you'll end up with more of it next month than you had this month because you budgeted it out?
Partition your budget. Put the bills in one pile, the food in another pile, the emergency crap in a third pile, fourth in the investing pile etc etc. When you're done with the money, put the rest in the bank account and there you go. You can now spend money without counting it because even if you use it all up you've paid everything off that you need to. It's just a matter of re-organizing your priorities with the money.
What you have right now:
"Oh, I'm free, but then, why am I having to sell my second car to buy food?" isn't freedom. "Oh, I budgeted out my money and I decided to go on a trip because I can afford it" is a whole lot more freedom, in my opinion.
Find out what's expensive about what you do right now. Cafe? It's the coffee. Bars? It's the drinks. Restaurants? It's the whole concept of going there. Movies? It's the fact that you're buying a $11 ticket instead of renting a DVD for $1.
Now. If you still want to do these things, that's fine, do them in moderation. Budget out your money and find out what you can "waste" on having fun. Look for a theater you want to go to, a show you want to see, and get some cheap tickets for it. It's still a fun time if you're in the back row, right?
Try hanging out, talking, actually doing things together that you can participate in. Learn how to play ping pong, dare your friends to start working out with you. There are a lot of things you can do without actually spending money.
Anyone who says that you have to stay at home to save money is a liar. Even in a super small town, you can find things to do for a day or two just to kill time. Time that is spent better off by not burning money and actually spending time with others. Look up "quality time with friends" vs just "time with friends". There's a huge difference.
And, as for the spending money without counting? I can see how that would make you feel free, but ask yourself this: are you freer knowing that you may or may not be in debt next month, or are you freer knowing that no matter what you do with your money, you'll end up with more of it next month than you had this month because you budgeted it out?
Partition your budget. Put the bills in one pile, the food in another pile, the emergency crap in a third pile, fourth in the investing pile etc etc. When you're done with the money, put the rest in the bank account and there you go. You can now spend money without counting it because even if you use it all up you've paid everything off that you need to. It's just a matter of re-organizing your priorities with the money.
What you have right now:
- Spend money on stuff I want to
- Pay bills
- Save for future
- Pay Bills
- Save for future
- Spend whenever on whatever
"Oh, I'm free, but then, why am I having to sell my second car to buy food?" isn't freedom. "Oh, I budgeted out my money and I decided to go on a trip because I can afford it" is a whole lot more freedom, in my opinion.
Monday, February 11, 2013
How to Fake Your Death and Start a New Life
I am writing this with the presumption that somebody will be looking for you in your new life, whether it is family members, the law, finance companies or your crazy girlfriend. If it is the case that nobody will be looking for you, then just leave. You don't need to cover your tracks, because nobody will try to follow them.
But in the much more complex case that you want to be untraceable, or somebody is trying to find you, hopefully this guide will be of some help. I also recommend for everyone to watch the documentary 'Erasing David', where one man attempts to hide from Cerberus, a company of private investigators, for one month. It highlights just how much personal information is available to somebody who is looking for it. There are a few things to note before you attempt to disappear:
The first thing you will need is a plan. Where will you go? Who will you be when you get there? Your new life can have absolutely no ties to your old life. That means randomly picking a new place to live, not choosing your favourite holiday destination, or the town your mother grew up. The one thing you do need to make sure is that nobody from your old life will accidentally stumble into you. That means you need to go a long way, and nowhere of importance to anyone you knew.
You will also need a cover story. Remember, your previous life no longer exists to you. That means you need to think up a new one for yourself. Choose something realistic, and untraceable. Don't say you were a child prodigy, and don't copy the life of someone who is real. Make sure none of the things you say would have left a record, such as your job. Be as vague as possible whilst still being consistent.
Next, you will need a new name to go with your identity. Choose something common, like John, but something believable too, so not John Doe. Do not change your name officially with the registrar. Not only will this raise suspicion you are about to disappear, it will be traceable. Anyone looking will find records of your name change and will know your new name, making it useless.
Acquire funds
You will also need cash. Once you disappear you can't use your credit cards. You can't take out a loan. You probably can't get a job for some time, so you will need a lot of cash. As much as you can get. In fact the more you can get, the easier and longer you can disappear for. But you can't just go to your bank and withdraw all of your money.
One effective method that ties in quite well with later sections is to fake a gambling addiction. Go to a casino every night and spend a little bit of money. As little as possible whilst still playing the casino. Always play with cash, don't just start a tab as some casinos allow. Each time you play, take out what you need for the casino (as little as possible) plus a chunk extra, which you will take home with you and add to your growing cash supplies.
Make sure it is not an unrealistically large extra. Don't play $30 in the casino and withdraw $10,000, as that is unbelievable. Keep doing this for as long as possible until you have as much cash as you can get. Make sure you register as a member of the casino, so there is a record of you attending the casino many times. Try out a few casinos as well, and take out a membership in each.
Create your new identity
This is the hardest of all the sections. You need to create the person you will become. Choose a new appearance and personality and practise being that person, but obviously not in front of anyone else. Learn your cover story by heart.
Start with a new g-mail address. You can create one of these without needing a reference email or phone number, so it can be anonymous, and under your new name.
From here, just start networking. Start a facebook page, link up some more hotmail accounts, take out a phone contract, anything you can think of that leaves a digital signature related to this new persona.
Eventually, if you are good enough (there are some illegal steps in here which I cannot cover) you will have enough of a person to acquire a birth certificate. After that you are unstoppable. Get a bank account, a passport and a driving license. But do all this online through an anonymous browser such as Tor Network, to ensure your IP address cannot be tracked to your location, and that there is no history of you doing this.
Change your name and appearance
So, you have a flawless cover story, a new identity, a plan and a lot of cash. At this point, you are ready to disappear. From now on, you go by your new name, new appearance and new personality. You don't use your credit cards, your car or anything you used to own. You don't even know who you were before this, you didn't exist.
Create a false lead
One of the most important parts in this whole process is creating a false lead. If you can make pursuers look in the wrong direction, you can escape a lot more effectively. Probably the most effective way of doing this is to fake your death through suicide. But this won't be easy, and you can't leave a body.
Write a suicide note addressed to your partner, parents or someone else of significance, which blames your suicide on bankruptcy or guilt for something you say you did, such as you killed someone and can't live with yourself any more. Be sure it is something believable. If you are claiming bankruptcy make sure you don't have thousands of pounds in your account.
Either way, in the weeks leading up to this suicide you need to be acting increasingly depressed, detached and despondent. Then, fake your death. One suggestion is to drive to a coastal region with cliffs, leave your car parked next to the edge with the note in it, and after making sure there are no witnesses, walk or cycle throughout the night, aiming to get as far away as you can. Evidence will suggest you jumped and your body was washed out to sea. This is even more convincing if done at sunset and there is a pretty view from the cliffs of the sun going down. Very poetic, very believable.
Travel as far as you can that night, ending at a train station. Take the train to a half way location under another false name. This is another randomly selected location, nowhere near where you used to live or where you plan to live in your new life. You will stay here for only a few days. Book into a cheap hotel under yet another false name, and make sure it isn't one that asks for I.D. as some now do. Pay with cash.
Disappear
Now you are ready to be gone for good. Travel to your new location. Stay at a hotel and move each week until you sort a permanent address. Stick to your new cover story and identity, and most importantly, remember the old you is dead, and you never knew that person. You can't talk about you, and you can't be you. If you ever see anyone you used to know, or hear your old name mentioned, you move immediately. Change your name once again, find a new life and start again. This will be a tough life, but congratulations, you have now disappeared.
source
But in the much more complex case that you want to be untraceable, or somebody is trying to find you, hopefully this guide will be of some help. I also recommend for everyone to watch the documentary 'Erasing David', where one man attempts to hide from Cerberus, a company of private investigators, for one month. It highlights just how much personal information is available to somebody who is looking for it. There are a few things to note before you attempt to disappear:
- You MUST be ready to sever all ties with your old life. Family, friends, job, that girl you met at a bar once, pretty much everything you own, even your personality has to change. Some of these are much harder to leave behind than you might think.
- If you are wanted by the law, the whole process will be much, much harder. They have resources. There are people who make their living finding missing people, and you can bet your ass they will be after you.
- Disappearing properly takes time. You can't do it overnight. If you rush it, you make mistakes, and if you make mistakes you get found. It is also a complicated procedure that requires patience, money and some technical skills. It won't be easy.
- After disappearing your life will never be the same. From the day you start you will be almost cripplingly paranoid. You will never trust another person. You will never be able to sleep with both eyes closed. You must be ready to leave everything at a moment's notice.
The first thing you will need is a plan. Where will you go? Who will you be when you get there? Your new life can have absolutely no ties to your old life. That means randomly picking a new place to live, not choosing your favourite holiday destination, or the town your mother grew up. The one thing you do need to make sure is that nobody from your old life will accidentally stumble into you. That means you need to go a long way, and nowhere of importance to anyone you knew.
You will also need a cover story. Remember, your previous life no longer exists to you. That means you need to think up a new one for yourself. Choose something realistic, and untraceable. Don't say you were a child prodigy, and don't copy the life of someone who is real. Make sure none of the things you say would have left a record, such as your job. Be as vague as possible whilst still being consistent.
Next, you will need a new name to go with your identity. Choose something common, like John, but something believable too, so not John Doe. Do not change your name officially with the registrar. Not only will this raise suspicion you are about to disappear, it will be traceable. Anyone looking will find records of your name change and will know your new name, making it useless.
Acquire funds
You will also need cash. Once you disappear you can't use your credit cards. You can't take out a loan. You probably can't get a job for some time, so you will need a lot of cash. As much as you can get. In fact the more you can get, the easier and longer you can disappear for. But you can't just go to your bank and withdraw all of your money.
One effective method that ties in quite well with later sections is to fake a gambling addiction. Go to a casino every night and spend a little bit of money. As little as possible whilst still playing the casino. Always play with cash, don't just start a tab as some casinos allow. Each time you play, take out what you need for the casino (as little as possible) plus a chunk extra, which you will take home with you and add to your growing cash supplies.
Make sure it is not an unrealistically large extra. Don't play $30 in the casino and withdraw $10,000, as that is unbelievable. Keep doing this for as long as possible until you have as much cash as you can get. Make sure you register as a member of the casino, so there is a record of you attending the casino many times. Try out a few casinos as well, and take out a membership in each.
Create your new identity
This is the hardest of all the sections. You need to create the person you will become. Choose a new appearance and personality and practise being that person, but obviously not in front of anyone else. Learn your cover story by heart.
Start with a new g-mail address. You can create one of these without needing a reference email or phone number, so it can be anonymous, and under your new name.
From here, just start networking. Start a facebook page, link up some more hotmail accounts, take out a phone contract, anything you can think of that leaves a digital signature related to this new persona.
Eventually, if you are good enough (there are some illegal steps in here which I cannot cover) you will have enough of a person to acquire a birth certificate. After that you are unstoppable. Get a bank account, a passport and a driving license. But do all this online through an anonymous browser such as Tor Network, to ensure your IP address cannot be tracked to your location, and that there is no history of you doing this.
Change your name and appearance
So, you have a flawless cover story, a new identity, a plan and a lot of cash. At this point, you are ready to disappear. From now on, you go by your new name, new appearance and new personality. You don't use your credit cards, your car or anything you used to own. You don't even know who you were before this, you didn't exist.
Create a false lead
One of the most important parts in this whole process is creating a false lead. If you can make pursuers look in the wrong direction, you can escape a lot more effectively. Probably the most effective way of doing this is to fake your death through suicide. But this won't be easy, and you can't leave a body.
Write a suicide note addressed to your partner, parents or someone else of significance, which blames your suicide on bankruptcy or guilt for something you say you did, such as you killed someone and can't live with yourself any more. Be sure it is something believable. If you are claiming bankruptcy make sure you don't have thousands of pounds in your account.
Either way, in the weeks leading up to this suicide you need to be acting increasingly depressed, detached and despondent. Then, fake your death. One suggestion is to drive to a coastal region with cliffs, leave your car parked next to the edge with the note in it, and after making sure there are no witnesses, walk or cycle throughout the night, aiming to get as far away as you can. Evidence will suggest you jumped and your body was washed out to sea. This is even more convincing if done at sunset and there is a pretty view from the cliffs of the sun going down. Very poetic, very believable.
Travel as far as you can that night, ending at a train station. Take the train to a half way location under another false name. This is another randomly selected location, nowhere near where you used to live or where you plan to live in your new life. You will stay here for only a few days. Book into a cheap hotel under yet another false name, and make sure it isn't one that asks for I.D. as some now do. Pay with cash.
Disappear
Now you are ready to be gone for good. Travel to your new location. Stay at a hotel and move each week until you sort a permanent address. Stick to your new cover story and identity, and most importantly, remember the old you is dead, and you never knew that person. You can't talk about you, and you can't be you. If you ever see anyone you used to know, or hear your old name mentioned, you move immediately. Change your name once again, find a new life and start again. This will be a tough life, but congratulations, you have now disappeared.
source
Chili Recipe of the Gods
The best chili you will ever eat, stolen from Mount Olympus itself.
Grocery List
Grocery List
- 1 - 2 lb of a Boneless Beef Chuck cubed. (no g/b or cubed steak)
- 1 Large Container Beef Stock
- 1 large red onion
- 1 Yellow Onion
- 1 Stalk of Celery
- 1 Beer I like to use Blue Moon
- 1 pack of Thick Cut Bacon
- 1 Large Bag of Pinto Beans DRY (This is secret #1)
- 1 Small Bag Black Beans DRY ( Dry Beans all together are secret #1)
- 1 Large Garlic Clove
- 1 Red Bell pepper
- 2 Cans Stewed Tomatoes with Green Chili's
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil & Butter
- Small Can of Tomato Paste
- Cheddar Cheese and Oyster Crackers (Optional)
- Assorted Spices, Cumin, Chili Powder, Garlic Powder, Onion Powder, Paprika, Oregano, Salt, Pepper.
- Worcestershire Sauce
- Ketchup (Secret #2)
- Vinegar
- Hot Sauce/Tabasco
- Liquid Smoke
- Soak dry beans overnight, If you don't soak overnight, Soak at least one hour prior to cooking.
- Cover beans with water, Chop yellow onion in half, and chop celery 2 celery stalks in half. Add the halved onion's and celery to the water/dry bean mixture, Boil beans until almost soft and when the water level is low Add 1/2 of your beef stock/broth.
- Continue boiling until fully cooked, You will have a soupy bean/beef/veg broth just covering the top of the beans. Remove the 2 onion halves and the celery stalks.
- Dice your entire red onion, and red bell pepper, and mince your garlic.
- Start a hot pan with EVOO and 1tbs butter. Add the bacon once partially cooked, Add diced chuck, cook until the outsides are seared, add The entire onion and red bell pepper, saute until translucent and sweet, add minced garlic and cook for 20-30 seconds more. This whole process shouldn't take more than 5 minutes.
- Add the rest of the beef broth to the beans and your beer, Add the beef/bacon/onion/RBP/garlic mixture to the pot as well. Also add both cans of stewed tomatoes.
- Add about 1tbs of each seasoning, except oregano, add 1tsp oregano. Be very liberal with the worcestershire, add lots. Add 2 tsp vinegar, 2 tsp hot sauce and 1tbs liquid smoke. And add several TBS of ketchup. It brings tons of flavor profile to the table. Also add a tbs or so of tomato paste if you like thicker chili. Simmer this for at least an hour stirring occasionally.
- Serve with diced onions, Cheddar cheese and oyster crackers if you please.
- Never make chili with canned beans!
How to Improve Your Singing
Singing well is a lot like playing an instrument: there's a tremendous amount of fine motor skill involved, and it's not necessarily intuitive. In fact, a lot of what singing is goes against your instincts.
For example, singing high notes. When people think high notes, they think "I really have to squeeze to make it up here!" Stylistically, some people do that (Christina Aguilera comes to mind), but, as fate would have it, it actually doesn't work that well, and they are just doing it for notes near the top of their chest range to add style. Every note that a singer like Christina belts is able to be easily hit by that same singer in head voice, and probably, if that person is a proficient singer, in a "mixed" voice, which is blend of the head register (which tends to be light and "hooty") and the chest voice (how you sound when you sing your comfortable notes).
The good news anyone can learn to sing better. Bad news, it's usually not easy, and it does take time. We often think of singers possessing a lot of talent. And many of them have talent, sure, but there's still a lot of hard work and practice that we never saw, especially for the pros.
The best way you can improve your voice is to find a vocal coach in your area who is well respected. Don't be nervous if you've never had lessons or anything like that. Most coaches have, in fact, heard much worse. They'll be able to identify your bad habits right away and set you down the right track immediately. The downside here is the cost: voice lessons can be expensive.
There are, however, some free resources on the Internet that can help:
Karyn O'Connor at SingWise offers some of the best articles about singing that I've ever read. She's very thorough and can give you an idea of the things that you're probably doing wrong.
Ian Castle the AussieVocalCoach offers a lot in terms of free videos with exercises and tips on both his YouTube channel and his webiste which might benefit you.
Eric Arceneaux also offers some pretty good beginning instruction via his YouTube channel, and he tells a story in one of his videos about how he was a terrible singer in high school (kicked-out-of-choir bad), and how he worked hard to learn to sing like he does today (although, he did take a lot of voice lessons, which, as I said, are definitely the best choice).
There are also a lot of for-pay singing programs that I won't link to, like Brett Manning's Singing Success and others like it. I can't vouch for them, as I have never tried them and am unfamiliar with their methods.
So, the bottom line is this: to sing high notes and have a good range, you need the following: good breath support, a stable larynx, a relaxed, open throat, good resonance in the right places (chest, mix, head), good vocal cord approximation (the cords need to come together correctly), and, above all, a good attitude.
Singing high is about freeing the voice and not straining (except for certain style bits which should be left to the experienced). All of this can be overwhelming to learn, but with a coach (best) or the right resources, you can almost certainly do it.
For example, singing high notes. When people think high notes, they think "I really have to squeeze to make it up here!" Stylistically, some people do that (Christina Aguilera comes to mind), but, as fate would have it, it actually doesn't work that well, and they are just doing it for notes near the top of their chest range to add style. Every note that a singer like Christina belts is able to be easily hit by that same singer in head voice, and probably, if that person is a proficient singer, in a "mixed" voice, which is blend of the head register (which tends to be light and "hooty") and the chest voice (how you sound when you sing your comfortable notes).
The good news anyone can learn to sing better. Bad news, it's usually not easy, and it does take time. We often think of singers possessing a lot of talent. And many of them have talent, sure, but there's still a lot of hard work and practice that we never saw, especially for the pros.
The best way you can improve your voice is to find a vocal coach in your area who is well respected. Don't be nervous if you've never had lessons or anything like that. Most coaches have, in fact, heard much worse. They'll be able to identify your bad habits right away and set you down the right track immediately. The downside here is the cost: voice lessons can be expensive.
There are, however, some free resources on the Internet that can help:
Karyn O'Connor at SingWise offers some of the best articles about singing that I've ever read. She's very thorough and can give you an idea of the things that you're probably doing wrong.
Ian Castle the AussieVocalCoach offers a lot in terms of free videos with exercises and tips on both his YouTube channel and his webiste which might benefit you.
Eric Arceneaux also offers some pretty good beginning instruction via his YouTube channel, and he tells a story in one of his videos about how he was a terrible singer in high school (kicked-out-of-choir bad), and how he worked hard to learn to sing like he does today (although, he did take a lot of voice lessons, which, as I said, are definitely the best choice).
There are also a lot of for-pay singing programs that I won't link to, like Brett Manning's Singing Success and others like it. I can't vouch for them, as I have never tried them and am unfamiliar with their methods.
So, the bottom line is this: to sing high notes and have a good range, you need the following: good breath support, a stable larynx, a relaxed, open throat, good resonance in the right places (chest, mix, head), good vocal cord approximation (the cords need to come together correctly), and, above all, a good attitude.
Singing high is about freeing the voice and not straining (except for certain style bits which should be left to the experienced). All of this can be overwhelming to learn, but with a coach (best) or the right resources, you can almost certainly do it.
Reasons to Live
Here's the thing about life. On the one hand, none of it matters. Many philosophers come to this conclusion and cannot figure out why anyone should care either way.
Human beings will expand from Earth to the next galaxy and the next and then what? Our technology will increase without bounds. Life will constantly change for our species but, as a whole, we don't have a goal nor a well-defined purpose nor a mission statement for humanity. We are just trudging through the universe one day at a time.
This is why people war. They don't think things through. They crave purpose and meaning. They are incapable of projecting far enough into the future to do something useful. They are irrational, always, and they often cause more trouble than is needed.
You could look at all of that and decide you don't want to live in such a world. But, if you do that you neglect a key aspect of it all--being a human being is a highly unique experience. Really think about that: no one will ever have a brain like yours, or your quirks, or your combination of experiences.
Expand that--humans are different from you. Consider even more the unlikeliness that you would be here in the first place. We humans take life for granted because it is all around us, but, statistically speaking, you should not be here. Neither should I. We are that one in a billion sperm that made it into the highly elite University of Mommy's Egg. In our case, the penalty for not getting into that university was not sulking and licking wounds or retaking the entrance exams--it was death.
Right off the bat, many of the potential replacements for you never got the chance to come into existence and as such never got the privilege to truly experience being a human being. They never got the opportunity to develop a brain that is better than any supercomputer pound per pound. They never got the opportunity to reason. They were never able to use those hundreds of thousands of sensors we call rods and cones in conjunction with the world's best, all-natural, dynamically adjusting, camera lens (eyes) and the processing centers of our brain to interpret the energy given off by a sunset and translate it all into the beautiful image we know.
Think about that. When you SEE, you are translating waves of energy into colors. That's insane. When you HEAR, you are translating pressure waves into the audio you are perceiving. The other sperm never even got the opportunity to hear the most gorgeous note which is capable of sending chills down your spine.
Why is being a human so great? Because as a species, we are not only complex but are statistically anomalies. We go from hydrocarbon blueprints redundantly encoded in biological structures to sacks of meat to children who very quickly figure out for themselves how to take random sensory input like sight, sound, balance, etc. and make sense of it in real time.
We are self-aware and dynamically adjust to life's curve balls. Why should you want to live? Because you have eternity to be dead. That's a hell of a lot longer than the 70-100 years you will be alive on this planet.
As long as you are going to die anyway in the future, you may as well enjoy the privilege of being a human now while you can appreciate it because it is a gift that you would be a fool to squander.
Human beings will expand from Earth to the next galaxy and the next and then what? Our technology will increase without bounds. Life will constantly change for our species but, as a whole, we don't have a goal nor a well-defined purpose nor a mission statement for humanity. We are just trudging through the universe one day at a time.
This is why people war. They don't think things through. They crave purpose and meaning. They are incapable of projecting far enough into the future to do something useful. They are irrational, always, and they often cause more trouble than is needed.
You could look at all of that and decide you don't want to live in such a world. But, if you do that you neglect a key aspect of it all--being a human being is a highly unique experience. Really think about that: no one will ever have a brain like yours, or your quirks, or your combination of experiences.
Expand that--humans are different from you. Consider even more the unlikeliness that you would be here in the first place. We humans take life for granted because it is all around us, but, statistically speaking, you should not be here. Neither should I. We are that one in a billion sperm that made it into the highly elite University of Mommy's Egg. In our case, the penalty for not getting into that university was not sulking and licking wounds or retaking the entrance exams--it was death.
Right off the bat, many of the potential replacements for you never got the chance to come into existence and as such never got the privilege to truly experience being a human being. They never got the opportunity to develop a brain that is better than any supercomputer pound per pound. They never got the opportunity to reason. They were never able to use those hundreds of thousands of sensors we call rods and cones in conjunction with the world's best, all-natural, dynamically adjusting, camera lens (eyes) and the processing centers of our brain to interpret the energy given off by a sunset and translate it all into the beautiful image we know.
Think about that. When you SEE, you are translating waves of energy into colors. That's insane. When you HEAR, you are translating pressure waves into the audio you are perceiving. The other sperm never even got the opportunity to hear the most gorgeous note which is capable of sending chills down your spine.
Why is being a human so great? Because as a species, we are not only complex but are statistically anomalies. We go from hydrocarbon blueprints redundantly encoded in biological structures to sacks of meat to children who very quickly figure out for themselves how to take random sensory input like sight, sound, balance, etc. and make sense of it in real time.
We are self-aware and dynamically adjust to life's curve balls. Why should you want to live? Because you have eternity to be dead. That's a hell of a lot longer than the 70-100 years you will be alive on this planet.
As long as you are going to die anyway in the future, you may as well enjoy the privilege of being a human now while you can appreciate it because it is a gift that you would be a fool to squander.
Thursday, February 7, 2013
Must-Have Free Software
General Utility
- 7zip: In case anybody doesn't know, the freeware compression/decompression utlity of choice for zip, rar, etc
- Abyss Web Server: Host from home.
- AutoHotkey: Very powerful open source tool can script+customize macros, hotkeys, everything input related within the Windows environment right down to mouse clicks.
- Bulk File Changer: Batch utility for altering file attributes.
- Cabos: file sharing client for the Gnutella network. Not as much customization as the shareware Limewire but it does the same job.
- CDisplay: CBR/CBZ format sequential reader, which are rebranded zip/rar extensions popular for image archives such as comic books, guitar tablature, etc.
- Cheat Engine: Extensive memory editor/manager. sort of like Game Genie/Codebreaker for PC.
- ClassicShell: Restores many of the Windows features that were stripped for Win7 including disk free space on Explorer's status bar, restores toolbars, the classic file copy dialog, etc.
- Crosshair: Replaces the mouse cursor with an origin point along x and y axis and is surprisingly more handy than you might realize.
- CPU-Z: Simple utility for monitoring system components+performance
- DC++: File sharing client for the Direct Connect network that was providing a superior experience over the official Neo Modus client for years.
- DriverSweeper: I've been using this for some time to clear old drivers from systems.
- EaseUS: Several great products like Partition Manager and Disk Copy, generously free for personal use.
- EasyBCD: You would want this in order to manage boot loaders and restoring+repairing broken entries under Windows.
- FileTypesMan: All the features Microsoft stripped from file extension management in Vista and 7, and all the features they should have implemented in the first place.
- Filezilla: Fully featured freeware FTP client.
- Flare: Decompile Flash swf.
- Go PlayAlong: Shareware guitar tablature player for Guitar Pro formats. Just recently got into it, but I love the mp3 sync feature for backing tracks.
- HJSplit: Who could live without a handy file splitter-joiner?
- HTTrack: Downloads web site resources to generate a mirror for offline browsing. Use responsibly.
- inSSIDer: Seems to be the wifi scanning tool of choice now days.
- JoyToKey: J2K can map controller input to keyboard keypresses, useful if a game fails to provide joypad support when they should have. Results may vary.
- Less Msiérables: Extracting contents from a .msi file.
- Microsoft Power Toys: More from the "why isn't that built into XP by default" category, includes utilities like CmdHere that will add a directory context to Explorer for opening a command prompt at that target location.
- Opera: Yeah, all those features people rave over Firefox? Opera was doing them years prior.
- PeerBlock: Monitors connections and blocks many of them based upon lists of registered IP ranges belonging to various government, anti-p2p, etc. agencies.
- PowerMenu: Adds 'always on top' and other functions to Windows. I think I got this for some emulators lacking it.
- Putty: Excellent Telnet+SSH client with great functionality. I've been using it for my *nix shell as far back as I can remember.
- ShellExView: If you want to cut down on some of the unnecessary shell extensions crowding the right click menu under Windows Explorer, this is a handy way to do it without manually editing the registry.
- Soulseek: Used it for gathering some hard-to-find music way back. Because it runs off users shares, it doesn't have the shorter lifespan of most torrents but it's more manageable than Limewire and those types.
- Sysinternals: Every one of these should come packaged in Windows by default. All the utilities you may want as a Windows power user are here including Process Monitor and Autoruns.
- Utorrent: My favorite bittorrent client to date. They're not kidding about the lightweight and efficient part. Also customizable and fully featured.
- WatchCat: Really old program for a few functions like toggling visibility of windows to hide them from observation. It was great for hiding the omnipresent banner ads in some software through the 90s. I'm sure there are some potential uses for it even today. Still works under Windows 7!
- WinDirStat: Very useful utility builds a graphical table of any drive or directory tree in order to quickly identify consumption.
- Windows Resource Hacker: Can import+export the resources of Windows formats including exe, dll, ocx, etc
- XN Resource Editor: If Resource Hacker isn't up to the job any more, there is Resource Editor.
- XVI32: My preferred hex editor.
- 7zip Theme Manager. I like this one in particular
- DOSBox: fully emulates dos, including sound drivers, mouse, etc.
- Foxit pdf reader: I use this when the adobe one opens too slow. I don't think it supports as much specialised functionality, but when your files are plain pdfs and you don't like waiting then you're good to go. Metamorphose: similar to bulk file changer
- Imgburn: disc recording software, though these aren't as useful as they used to be because of memory sticks being smaller, higher-capacity, and rewritable. Sometimes you need it.
- mediainfo: context menu option to review the media. Shows video track(s), audio track(s), and data like codecs, frame rate, data rate, aspect ratio, audio sample rate, etc. An enthusiast's wet dream, really.
- Superfinder XT: get back the ability to actually do a real filesearch in windows 7 (vista, too?).
- Teracopy: for when you need to copy a lot of files; like 2 GB to 2 TB at a time. Can replace default copy handler, but I usually disable it and use it only for large actions. Performs CRC32 after copy if you tell it to (can make it default in options). Tells you the transfer rate as well.
- Thunderbird: not exactly a secret, but it's free and it's awesome. Set accounts to imap and you're good to go. I have 5 accounts on my thunderbird and it makes checking mail painless.
Graphics
- Microsoft GIF Animator: Classic, no frills tool for creating gifs.
- Paint.NET: an excellent replacement for mspaint. If you can't make a solid and bulletproof argument on why you need photoshop, you can use it in place of photoshop.
- Inkscape: vector graphics editor
Productivity
- Calibre: convert between text types and ebook formats. Notably useful is converting epub or html to mobi.
- PDF Creator: Create watermark-free PDF files. Do they even sell those stupid programs anymore? Plus some programs (like chrome) have built-in save-to-pdf functions. This creates a printer that you can print to, and then save to PDF for whatever else doesn't support it.
- LibreOffice: maybe a bit quirky when compared to office 2003 (which is obviously-heavily-"inspired"-by), but it's free and it does the job.
- Notepad++: just a nice text editor. Best replacement for ol' notepad.exe I have found yet (doesn't mean it's the best, though). Does tabs, highlights brackets, highlights commands, does nesting, etc. It also supports plugins if you want even more than what is built-in.
- GraphCalc: a decent calculator, and tabbed 2D/3D graphing.
- Foxit: Freeware PDF reader as the less annoying alternative to Adobe.
- Programmer's Notepad: My preference for a text editor+Notepad substitute. All the best features like code differentiation formatting, tabbed organization, managing projects.
- Sumatra PDF: Seems to be a popular lightweight reader. Has one .dat file for preferences, doesn't require an installer and supports numerous file formats.
Video & Audio
- Audacity: multi-track audio editor. Supports a ton of filetypes. Very excellent.
- AVI cc changer: In case you need to alter the identifier in video files
- AVI Mux: Utility for managing multiple audio streams in video files. For example, adding a commentary track from an mp3 file to an avi video.
- virtualdub: a way-more-specific-crowd kind of tool, but I'm going to list it. You can get plugins so it supports almost all file types, but it usually works in AVIs. It's great for a few things (stripping sound, uncompressing video, chopping streams, Video->image sequence, and some other stuff).
- CCCP: The Combined Community Codec Pack, which I've found immensely useful for installing on other people's systems so I'm not plagued by requests to troubleshoot+resolve every little codec issue they encounter.
- DVDx: Rips video files from dvd source.
- Exact Audio Copy: Once upon a time CD ripping and encoding wasn't available in every other program. Still seems to be used by many people.
- Gspot: Tool for gathering information on video files and infinitely useful for troubleshooting codec issues
- Handbrake: easy x264 encoding
- Media Player Classic Home Cinema: My own preference for video player, and immensely superior to WMP.
- MP3tag: Probably the best and fully featured tag editor for media files around, far better than Winamp and iTunes.
- Real Alternative: Play .rm files without having to install the worst player ever.
- VLC: media player. Just get it.
- VCD Gear: Various functions for mpeg & vcd formats
- VideoLAN media player: A decent player to install on other people's systems because I still hate getting phone calls over mundane issues like codecs.
- VirtualDub: Great video processing utility for encoding and editing videos.
- Winamp: Still my favorite audio player since the 90s, and has grown to continue supporting everything I need with plugins like ml_ipod and the new Bento interface.
Emulation
- VirtualBox: create virtual machines and run alternate/old/sandboxed operating systems. Good if you don't trust some program. Also good if you want to use linux programs like LaTeX in windows (I found it was much easier to install LaTeX in a virtual machine than it was to get it working in windows a while back). You might need a more-modern cpu (one that supports virtualization) in order for this to work. It also isn't great at win95/win98 (pegs out a CPU at 100% and is laggy as hell).
- Daemon Tools: Even after going commercial they're still the optical drive emulation software of choice as far as I know.
- DeSmuME: Seems to be the only major Nintendo DS emulator in development as of 2012. Not sure why anyone would want it when a NDS+flash card are so cheap though.
- Dolphin: The only solution for Gamecube and Wii, because you haven't enjoyed New SMB until you've played it with a Sony controller.
- DOSBox: DOS emulator for Windows, because Microsoft can't be arsed to provide real backwards compatibility for their own OS legacy.
- ePSXe: Definitive PSX emulator.
- KEGA Fusion: There are quite a few SEGA emulators out there. This one is best.
- Hoxs64: Very faithful Commodore 64 emulator.
- MameUI: Formally Mame32, Windows port of Mame.
- NNNesterJ: Granted NES emulators are as abundant today as Tetris clones. But this one seems to be a little bit better than the others.
- PCSX2: The foremost Playstation 2 emulator has developed enough to become playable for most games. A modern gaming system is absolutely required. Systems with integrated graphics adapters need not apply.
- Project64: N64 emulator
- Red Dragon: If you wanted to emulate VirtualBoy (for some reason)
- ScummVM: PC adventure emulator for just about every known platform.
- SSF: Fully functional emulator for SEGA Saturn. It does include an english language option within the program.
- Stella: Atari 2600
- Visualboy Advance: Emulates the entire line of Gameboy systems.
- x360ce: Emulates the Xbox 360 controller Xinput.
- ZSNES: SNES emulator for Windows.
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
How to get a Good Night's Sleep
Having trouble sleeping? Here are some things you can try:
1. Go to bed at the same time every night, or as close to the same time as possible.
2. Get up within an hour of the same time every morning, no exceptions except emergencies.
3. When the alarm goes off, get up. No Snooze, no rolling back over, get up now.
4. Stop drinking caffeine at least 6 (8 is even better) before you want to go to sleep. Same for sugary food and energy drinks.
5. Minimum if 10 minutes not staring at a screen (TV, computer, phone, tablet) before going to bed. The longer the better. Light tricks your eyes into thinking your body should still be awake.
6. Environment is important. Keep it as dark as possible. A small amount of white noise might also help.
7. Try a natural alarm clock. This is an alarm that uses light to wake you up. If you sleep in darkness your body will naturally wake up when it gets light. Condition yourself that dark means sleep and light means awake.
8. If you live in the city and there's a lot of noise, consider ear plugs or acoustical sound dampening foam. Use a fan or a rain or water sound to create some white noise.
9. Counting sheep isn’t about the sheep, it’s about occupying your mind with something routine and repetetive.
10. Stop watching TV in bed, reading in bed, doing work in bed, etc. Your bed is for sleeping, not for working or relaxing. Again, it’s all about a routine. Don’t let your bed become another place for your mind to be occupied.
11. Try meditation. If you’re still having trouble sleeping after all the above, your mind it trying to process something. Let it do so before bed and you’ll drift off to sleepy time when you finally do hit the sheets.
12. Your body has a natural rhythm (called circadian rhythm) that governs many things, sleep being one of them. The most simplistic way of looking at it is you need to get in touch with that rhythm and find the 90 minute cycle that you’re on. Five 90 minute cycles = 7.5 hours. Use these "cycles" to determine sleeping time. So for example I get up at 6:00 every day. Counting backwards that’s either 10:30 or 12:00 that I want to be asleep, so at either 10:00 or 11:30 I start getting ready for bed.
13. If you live with someone and your sleep routine doesn't work together, you're gonna have a bad time. If said partner snores, tosses or turns, etc., talk about it and figure out what works.
14. Temperature matters. Typically, a bit cooler works better for sleep. Find what works for you.
15. Experiments with pillows of a different thickness and firmness. Flat or no pillow for stomach sleepers, medium thickness for back sleepers, and thicker for side sleepers.
1. Go to bed at the same time every night, or as close to the same time as possible.
2. Get up within an hour of the same time every morning, no exceptions except emergencies.
3. When the alarm goes off, get up. No Snooze, no rolling back over, get up now.
4. Stop drinking caffeine at least 6 (8 is even better) before you want to go to sleep. Same for sugary food and energy drinks.
5. Minimum if 10 minutes not staring at a screen (TV, computer, phone, tablet) before going to bed. The longer the better. Light tricks your eyes into thinking your body should still be awake.
6. Environment is important. Keep it as dark as possible. A small amount of white noise might also help.
7. Try a natural alarm clock. This is an alarm that uses light to wake you up. If you sleep in darkness your body will naturally wake up when it gets light. Condition yourself that dark means sleep and light means awake.
8. If you live in the city and there's a lot of noise, consider ear plugs or acoustical sound dampening foam. Use a fan or a rain or water sound to create some white noise.
9. Counting sheep isn’t about the sheep, it’s about occupying your mind with something routine and repetetive.
10. Stop watching TV in bed, reading in bed, doing work in bed, etc. Your bed is for sleeping, not for working or relaxing. Again, it’s all about a routine. Don’t let your bed become another place for your mind to be occupied.
11. Try meditation. If you’re still having trouble sleeping after all the above, your mind it trying to process something. Let it do so before bed and you’ll drift off to sleepy time when you finally do hit the sheets.
12. Your body has a natural rhythm (called circadian rhythm) that governs many things, sleep being one of them. The most simplistic way of looking at it is you need to get in touch with that rhythm and find the 90 minute cycle that you’re on. Five 90 minute cycles = 7.5 hours. Use these "cycles" to determine sleeping time. So for example I get up at 6:00 every day. Counting backwards that’s either 10:30 or 12:00 that I want to be asleep, so at either 10:00 or 11:30 I start getting ready for bed.
13. If you live with someone and your sleep routine doesn't work together, you're gonna have a bad time. If said partner snores, tosses or turns, etc., talk about it and figure out what works.
14. Temperature matters. Typically, a bit cooler works better for sleep. Find what works for you.
15. Experiments with pillows of a different thickness and firmness. Flat or no pillow for stomach sleepers, medium thickness for back sleepers, and thicker for side sleepers.
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