It's the biggest television day of the year, at least here in the US. This year NBC has the broadcast rights, and they're going to be streaming the game online.

Which is interesting: it means they're directly competing with their own affiliates. Here in Portland, I could watch the game on KGW (if I owned a TV) or I can watch the game directly on the web, missing KGW's ads.

Or I can do what I'm actually going to do: "watch" the game using a flash file at the NFL site, which will graphically display each play as it happens, and otherwise not assault my senses. And I'll do other things while it's going on.

I remember the first Super Bowl. I was in high school. My dad was a Green Bay fan. (Vince Lombardi, and so on.) This year is Super Bowl 46, and just thinking about that makes me feel old.

UPDATE: No one is being sprinkled with glory so far. New England's Safety is pretty scandalous. And now the Giants got a 12 yard penalty for having an extra man on the field. What a bunch of clowns.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Daily Life at 01:45 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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I usually have some kind of music ringing around in my head. Maybe it proves I'm crazy.

Could be worse; could be voices. Anyway, these days it's usually something from anime. But for the last week or so, it's been the second movement of Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra. Which at least has the distinction of being classy, as opposed to trash like the OP of AsoIku.

And I hope that posting about it will make it go away.

UPDATE: Seems to have worked. Now it's battle music from Dog Days.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Daily Life at 09:11 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Was sitting here a little while ago, thinking, "You know? It's been forever since I've gone out for breakfast. I hardly ever eat out at all, in fact. Maybe I should go out for breakfast tomorrow, just for a change. There's a Hooters near here, isn't there? It's supposed to have a good breakfast; maybe I should give it a try."

"Or at least, therer was a Hooters over there six years ago, the last time I walked past. I've never been in it, and I wonder if it's still there?"

So I got onto the web to check out the Hooters site. And it told me I had to install Microsoft Silverlight in order to view the site. No thanks.

Fortunately, the restaurant locater page didn't require that. So I plugged in my zipcode, and it told me that the nearest location was Jantzen Beach. Which is hell-and-gone away from here. It sure as hell isn't walking distance.

Jantzen Beach is where I-5 crosses the Columbia River. Google Earth says it's 10 miles as the crow flies, but the crow would be flying over Forest Park and the West Hills. By road it's more like 15 miles.

Rats. Oh, well; I'm too old for that kind of thing anyway.

UPDATE: There was a pastry shop over in the SW corner of the Beaverton Mall last time I was there, but that was something like a year ago. I wonder if it's still there?

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Daily Life at 08:12 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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Probably it's instinctive to want to keep and stockpile food, and to feel good when your food supply is secure. But having my shelves and freezer full always makes me feel good.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Daily Life at 01:37 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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1 The first major snowfall of the year, I always start frantically baking and soupmaking. I think it's a lizard-brain thing.

Posted by: Boviate at January 16, 2012 02:00 PM (q39AX)

2 OK, I gotta ask:  Why do you store your jars of peanut butter upside down?

Posted by: Tex Lovera at January 16, 2012 04:21 PM (uw3L9)

3 Tex, I think it's because the peanut butter is imported from Australia...

Posted by: Siergen at January 16, 2012 05:21 PM (VoVql)

4

That's the kind of peanut butter that's made from peanuts and salt, and nothing else. It doesn't contain emulsifiers, so it separates. When you open a new jar which has been stored normally, you'll find a layer of oil on top of a very thick layer of peanut paste. It has to be stirred before you use it, a process which takes several minutes.

And you'll usually end up with an unstirred bit at the bottom of the jar. If you store the jar upside down, then the oil begins at the bottom of the jar and the paste is over it. That makes it a lot easier to mix it up and to get all of the paste mixed up.

Once I've opened a jar and mixed it, I store it with the lid upwards. But it works better to keep the unopened jars upside down.

By the way, it tastes a hell of a lot better than things like Skippy and Jif, which have added corn syrup and a lot of other things mixed in. The texture is better, too; emulsifiers suck.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at January 16, 2012 05:25 PM (+rSRq)

5 As to why the tuna is upside down, well... it isn't, actually. Bumblebee did something weird with the labels on this particular kind of tuna, and I honestly don't know why.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at January 16, 2012 05:27 PM (+rSRq)

6 I liked Siergen's explanaton better...

I agree about getting the GOOD peanut butter - it's worth it.  It really does taste better without all that sugar/corn syrup added to it.

As for my fridge, it's an ongoing war between me and my wife/daughters.  They do not understand how an engineer's mind works re: organizing storage space...

Posted by: Tex Lovera at January 16, 2012 06:00 PM (uw3L9)

7 Hey, that's what I do with my peanut butter, too, and for the same reason!

Posted by: atomic_fungus at January 16, 2012 07:57 PM (4deSp)

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Hope there won't be a problem delivering my groceries tomorrow!

Weather forecast is that we're supposed to get intermittent snow through Tuesday. But it's going to go above freezing each day (and it's above freezing right now, so I don't expect this to hang around).

UPDATE, ten minutes later: It's stopped snowing, and the sun is out. And it's already starting to melt.

UPDATE: It was just a light dusting anyway. It didn't even fully cover the grass.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Daily Life at 01:20 PM | Comments (12) | Add Comment
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A lot less crowded at the grocery store just now than it was two weeks ago, I tell you. Much nicer (for me, though probably not for the store).

As I was checking out, the young guy ringing up my stuff complimented me on the fact that I kept all the like items together on the conveyer. It made it easier for him to ring things up.

Then he completely missed the point, by not packing like items together in the plastic bags. Reason I put things together is in hopes they'll be packed together, which makes it easier for me to load up my shopping cart for the trip home.

On the way home, just as I was wheeling into the apartment complex, a paramedic unit with its lights going pulled into the place. It ran down to the mailboxes, and they looked at something there, then backed up and went past me towards the part where I live. And I had this sudden fantasy: I'd finally get to my apartment and see that they were just coming out of it, with my dead body on a stretcher. And I'd say, "But I'm right here!" and no one would hear me, and suddenly I'd realize that I was a ghost.

Turned out they were going somewhere else, different building even. And they didn't seem to be in too much of a hurry, either.

I think I've been watching too much TV.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Daily Life at 12:20 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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Things are usually pretty slow around here. But just now there was an unexpected knock on my door. Just as I opened it, the phone started ringing.

At the door was a couple of Mormon missionaries. I told them I wasn't interested. The phone call? A robo-call from a local carpet cleaning place.

Sheesh.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Daily Life at 01:44 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Why is it that when I do my laundry, all the pockets in my sweat pants poof out?

Laundry gnomes, maybe? Looking for spare change?

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Daily Life at 02:56 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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I can feel it building. The urge to buy another technotoy, not because I need it, but just because it would be awesome, or I hope it would be.

Last two times I had this urge I gave in. First one was Uiharu, my iPaq. Second was Saten, the Slate 500 tablet computer which runs Win7 Professional.

And the problem is that I didn't really have any use for either one. Over time I've come up with a few things to use the iPaq for, though. I use "notes" on it to maintain my grocery shopping list, which means it's an expensive and high-tech substitute for a piece of paper.

I also run a program called "Simple Timers" on it when I cook a french-bread pizza in my toaster oven, which makes it a substitute for a $15 timer.

As to Saten, the tablet computer, there really isn't anything at all. I turn it on once a day because if I don't then Deneb, the Windows Home Server, starts to complain that it can't do backups. But after that's done, well, Saten gets turned back off again, and usually doesn't get turned on again until the next morning, so it can again be backed up.

There is actually one thing I use Saten for, which does make a difference. It's rare, but Microsoft has been known to release patches which cause trouble. I have a vague memory that the first release of one of the major upgrades to one version of the OS ended up bricking some people's computers.

So when I get around to running Update, I run it on Saten first, and make sure it doesn't get bricked, before I do Alcyone, my main computer. Now they aren't exactly the same; Saten is running Win7-32 Professional and Alcyone runs Win7-64 Professional, but it's close enough to give me peace of mind before potentially sacrificing my main console to the Gods in Redmond.

Arcturus, the old laptop I leave on 24 hours to run uTorrent, runs XP. So how do I eliminate that risk? I use Windows XP Mode on Alcyone and update it first. If it works, then I can risk Arcturus.

Right now I don't have anything like that for Deneb, the Windows Home Server, so for that one I just hope that MS doesn't have it in for me.

So that's a use for Saten. But it's hard to argue that it's an important one, and it sure as hell doesn't justify the price I paid.

Yet the urge rises to buy yet another techno-toy, like an Android tablet or something. But what would I use it for? Fact is, it would be of even less use than the two useless techno-toys I already have. Bummer.

So I'm trying to raise the willpower to not do so. Hear me? I am not going to buy any new electronics this Christmas! Because I don't need it!

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Daily Life at 09:12 PM | Comments (15) | Add Comment
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Bank of America put a hold on my credit card again. They called the number they had on file (my brother's business answering machine) and asked that I call back.

So he emailed that info to me.

Yesterday I scheduled a $250 delivery of groceries from Safeway for today. This morning they called me to tell me the credit card charge had bounced. So we cancelled it, and I apologized to them.

And found the email, and called BoA.

A couple of days ago I bought an upgrade to a program I use quite a lot, Sothink SWF Decompiler. Sothink is a Chinese company, and they do their online sales through a company in the Netherlands. BoA thought that it might be a fake charge, and I guess I can understand that. I confirmed to them that it was really me, and they unblocked my card again.

But my groceries didn't get delivered. I'll probably go over to the grocery store this weekend, to get a few things I'm low on, and to confirm that my card is working again. Then I'll do that delivery again.

(Why do I get groceries delivered sometimes? Maybe every three months I do that, to stock up on things that are bulky or heavy, like canned soup and soda pop. Stuff that I can't really bring home myself using my shopping cart, which is the only other way, since I don't have a car.)

I can't really blame BoA for this. Since my account did get compromised once, I suspect I'm now on a high-suspicion list. And though this is a hassle, it's a damned sight better than if someone spent a bunch of my money illicitly without BoA stopping them.

So deep down, I'm grateful to them. But I thought I was going to get food today! And I've been grumbling about it all afternoon.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Daily Life at 03:21 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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