Christopher’s Internet Affliction

Hello! 

I decided to make a silly birthday list. Just a bunch of lowcost items that are a little hard for me to reach sometimes, but that’s saving for a car for you.. most are to make art with, and some, just for fun I need more fun! If you need to get my mail addy, just email me @ chris at evilstar dot net. Thank you!! But don’t ruin the surprise!
Ladyada:

A new TV-B-Gone. A dear friend gave me one, and I used it a lot, it’s fun! And sadly, I’m pretty sure it was lost in my recent move from Chicago to Florida.

http://www.ladyada.net/make/tvbgone

These toys look fun too!

Analog meters make things look cool!

http://www.adafruit.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=37&products_id=252

Yeah, I know, pricey. But hot damn! Make your own TV stations!!

http://www.adafruit.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=26&products_id=95

Evil Mad Science:

One of these mini-development kits with ZIF socket, and a five pack of the plain PCB:

http://evilmadscience.com/tinykitlist/112-tiny2313

Just a fiver or three of these..

http://evilmadscience.com/tinykitlist/74-atmegaxx8

Anything off this page: It just needs a common cathode. Common anodes are a PITA. That only applies to RGB LEDs.. I eat these things like candy!

http://evilmadscience.com/partsmenu/89-led

Mouser.com  Just search for attiny13, attiny2313, atmega168, attiny45, atmega8 and attiny85. As long as they are in DIP packaging, it’s all good They’re between two and three bucks.

This would be nice… http://www.northerner.com/en/snus/Northerner_Flatpack_Rolls-468/Flatpack%20Roll%20-%20General%20White%20Portion-23848/ … yanno, filthy tobacco habit.

And finally, a tobacco pipe of your choosing. Whatever you think I’d like. It would be a very special memento from you. I prefer the shape pictured, so if you could..  It’s called a ‘billiard’ shape. I collect them, but make sure they’re clean and nice.. anything you’d order online would be good. I like iwanries.com.and enough material goods for the day! It is time to go do something!

Hi everyone!

So I’ve been playing with spices and sprucing things up a little, as I’ve never much been into heavy spices in recipes, and I think that this recipe works out nicely- Not blazing and indiscriminately hot, but rather a subtler, more flavorful spice, with a little heat for fun. I emulated Middle Eastern and Caribbean cooking, picking a little from Jamacian jerk recipes, while adding what seems like good things to it. I’m sure there’s some other great things that can be thrown into this one, a little saffron powder, smoked salt, things like that. This is a really great recipe to play with and just have fun!

I named this recipe for fun for one of my favorite actors, John Barrowman. He’s a super talented British actor, but spent his formative years and was raised right close to me in Joliet, Illinois. He still visits sometimes, and I hope to bump into him on the street, or see a live performance here in Chicago! Wouldn’t that be so exciting?! Anyhow, this recipe is spicy and beeeefy (if you wish) like Mr. Barrowman. (heheh!) He also has a new CD of showtune covers coming out in just a few days, on March 1, 2010. He’s also playing a guest role in the last six episodes of this season’s Desperate Housewives on this side of the ocean, too! I also have to gush over the cufflinks made by Ian Flaherty that he’s chosen for his site- They’re all so wonderful!

Anyhow! After the jump, Onwards with the recipe!

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Okay! Our beloved Lost is in the first half of the final season, and now some secrets are coming out. The numbers, part of the show’s lore since Season Two, have appeared in repeated forms throughout the entire show from there- The numbers are used to win the lottery, they are to be input so ‘the button’ can be pushed, and add up in some interesting ways. Now, it has been revealed that each ‘candidate’ has their own number, as referenced in both ‘The Numbers Cave” (06×04) and “The Lighthouse” (06×05), both pretty new additions to the storyline, as well as being a part of The Valenzetti Equation. Anyhow, here’s a few little bits of trivium for you:

4 John Locke

8 Hugo Reyes

15 James Ford (Sawyer)

16 Sayid Jarrah

23 Jack Shepard

42 Sun or Jin Kwon

4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42 added makes 108, the number of minutes that must pass before the button is pushed… 5×108= 540, the number of days indicated by The Dharma Initiative that crews are to be switched out of the Swan Station. Curious, no?

Also, 108 is the number of the man that is to come to help Jacob. A candidate or a hero? I guess we’ll have to keep watching!

Every once in a while, I like to look at how I’m doing on web traffic and such. Turns out the two recipes for hummus and the Magnolia Bakery buttercream icing are big hits! And this is thanks to our pal (or emerging evil giant) Google.I don’t know how this happened, but it certainly is a tangible source of proof that I’m doing something right!

And a few snaps for posterity!

SuperGreg! Numba One! (wikki-wokka-wheer-wheer-schratch-dj noises)

Hehehe. Neato.

Updating is really rather proportionate to what I have going on in my life right now.. ie; not a whole lot right now! I do suppose it’s some sort of spartan economy of words, or perhaps writer’s block? I have been writing a little, though. I’m working on that cookbook, finally, but it’s still on paper. So, because it’s so easy, expect a long series of recipes soon.

Ok, so there’s been speak.. of a odd introduction of BUTTERMILK in my fridge, so I did what any commonsenseical young man would do: Make a couple biscuits, get bored of said biscuits after two, then make BUTTERMILK PIE!

It’s ugly, sugary, buttery tart mess, and it’s also absolutely amazing. Just.. take my word. Make it. Photo is an example of ‘ugly’, recipe courtesy of interwebs. A buttermilk dessert. It will kill you. This is ultimately your choice. We’ve been gobbling mounds of it like Robert Downy Jr.,  right off the tabletops and stairwells. We get bored, I guess.

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So, sometimes I’ll feel fine with trotting out a little bit of an old, favorite bit of poem.. This one has been a longtime favorite, it brings up a rather good point, at least I figure so, and it’s a little funny, too. Meanwhile, I think that every one around can use a decent cigar and a couple minutes out of the game, right?

Yeah, and Maggie sounds like a <I>bitch</i>!

The Betrothed

“You must choose between me and your cigar.”
–BREACH OF PROMISE CASE, CIRCA 1885.

Open the old cigar-box, get me a Cuba stout,
For things are running crossways, and Maggie and I are out.

We quarrelled about Havanas–we fought o’er a good cheroot,
And I knew she is exacting, and she says I am a brute.

Open the old cigar-box–let me consider a space;
In the soft blue veil of the vapour musing on Maggie’s face.

Maggie is pretty to look at–Maggie’s a loving lass,
But the prettiest cheeks must wrinkle, the truest of loves must pass.

There’s peace in a Larranaga, there’s calm in a Henry Clay;
But the best cigar in an hour is finished and thrown away–

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So, I machined together a few Ant-style chassis for some ‘bots- I am planning on making them close to real ants- exploration for ‘food’, but always heading home at the end of the night. I couldn’t wait, and I wanted a test for the joints on the chassis, so what to do? Strap a vibrating motor on it! Let that thing shake itself apart… but it didn’t.. then it hosed me with eyebeams.. oh crap. Here are photos before it all went awry.

Look into his eyes.. is it redemption? Or is it.. DOOM?

Our new overloads await. Whoops.

Oh! How I adore a few things: Simple electronic toys and a jab at established mores. (Irreverence is my anti-drug.) Anyhow, this post is all about the fun that we all had some of in the mid to late 90′s- Vibrating pagers. I don’t know about you, but I always smiled when my pager (affixed to dirty punk rockly, patch-covered pants) would scoot its way around a small table.. And Lo! A dozen years later, and apparently, I’m not the only one! The peoples over at Evil Mad Scientist Labs have documented a little more into the evolution of what could be called A Very Dumb Robot.. The Bristlebot.

The premise is simple: Take an old cell phone or pager, harvest the motor, and fix it up with a battery and slap it on a toothbrush. With a little planning, you can order the motors off the internet for about a buck a piece, Grab some dollar store toothbrushes, and find some cheap 3v coin cells, and you’re off to the races! It’s kinda fun to get a little herd of these guys together and run them all over the kitchen floor.. Or, go a little further and do a little anthropomorphizing. A favorite one of mine, and perhaps only one of two bristlebots I own anymore, has a pair of eyes, and little doom-hands flailing about over his little disky-body. Oh, just Look For Yourself.

And so, as it goes, I got Bored one day and put together one of my favorite Dumb Robots so far- The Flying Spaghetti Monster Bristlebot. I was touched by His Noodly Appendage, and the joy of the FSM was rained upon the world… That afternoon, the fimo flew, hot glue was glued, and the Noodly One was given an earthly body: Perched upon a 7,000 RPM motor with a die glued to it, prone to flying off and hitting one in the eye, given a seat upon a hairbrush.. truly,  a rather odd thing to see!

TORCHWOOD SEASON THREE

All five episodes, magically being shown at Chris’s house. No commercials, Exactly as shown during world premiere in Britain.

Saturday; July 11th, 2009 Time: Based on Consensus – Put aside five hours

Non-Alcoholic beverages & really good popcorn provided.

Well, you could have a go at that bottle of Chardonnay I have, and those two little bottle of Merlot. I’m never going to drink them, but they’ll desperately need a dusting. Send an email.

“It’s like rice cakes for Doctor Who fans”

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