Russellmania.com

Laptop Upgrade

09.27.2007

Last night my laptop finally died. It would occasionally complete booting up, but then lock up. More often than not it would lock up at the beginning of the bios check. For a 5+ year old laptop that's on its 2nd power supply, I think that it's done pretty well. I pulled out the drive, stuck it in an enclosure, and was able to retrieve anything of importance.

All I used the laptop for was mobile web programming - handy for when I was away from home/office and wanted to either get a little work done, or maybe surf the information superweb. It wasn't a powerhouse - I didn't need a powerhouse. I really didn't need a laptop for as little as I actually used it. But it was handy to have.

Mid-day I received an email that would normally be spam, but today it was a little more important. Office Depot was having a laptop sale on their Toshibas. Mom had gotten a Toshiba a couple of months ago and been happy with it. I had even thought of what a good deal she had managed, and that such a computer would work well for my needs were they ever to go on sale again. And now, here they were on sale again, less than 24 hours after my laptop had died.

So off I jaunted to Office Depot to see if they had the laptop which was advertised. They had one. It was meant to be, this joining of me and this laptop, so I gave in to the fates and purchased it. Now Mom and I will be laptop buddies - she's going to have to teach me the ways of the Vista Home Edition. But I think waiting 2 months saved me an extra $100 from what Mom paid. But don't tell her, I wouldn't want her to get jealous.

Permalink random

Tiptoe Through The Tuna

09.26.2007

When I was growing up, tuna was not the tuna as it came in a Chicken of the Sea can. Tuna was the contents of that can mixed with some boiled eggs and sweet relish. Many other people refer to that as Tuna Salad, but I always believed salad contained lettuce (except Pasta Salad, which I didn't know about back then), so Tuna Salad was tuna (with the mixed in boiled eggs and relish) on top of some lettuce.

In the ensuing years, I've learned people have lots of different ways of preparing tuna. Straight out of the can works - although it's a bit too "Tuna-y" for me most of the time. Fresh, sushi-grade tuna is out there too, but it's one of the forms of sushi that I don't really like. I've slacked off my tuna eating over the past few years, but I now find myself on a new high-protein, personal trainer certified diet where tuna is my friend. As such, I've concocted my own little recipe for tuna (tuna salad for some of you) which I now present here not only to share, but so that I can find it again years after I've burned out on tuna and am ready to try some more again.

Measurements are given in single guy terms. Although scientific and anal about measurements and cooking, I hate cleaning dishes more, so if something comes in a squeeze bottle that's what I'm going to use.

Tuna Con Russy
Makes enough for 6-8 fist-sized servings

3 cans of tuna, packed in water
8 boiled eggs
¼ splortch* sweet relish
2½ splortches* dill relish
1 splortch* mayo type product
1 heavy dusting dill weed
Another heavy dusting of chives

* A splortch is the sound made by all these squeeze bottles when squeezing. You'll know when you hear it, trust me. If not using a squeeze bottle... a splortch might be equivalent to a blobbing spoon full.

Open up the tuna and strain in in a colander to get rid of the excess water. While not terribly important, this keeps down on the tuna becoming overly "Tuna-y" over the next day or two.
Chop up boiled egg whites in a bowl. Be amazed by how much the discarded egg yolks and shells weigh as they're discarded. This tuna is cholesterol friendly!
Add sweet relish, dill relish, and mayo
Dump in the less damp tuna
Stir until either the conglomeration is well mixed or you get tired of stirring.
Shake on the dill weed - I like dill weed so I tend to add more than a lot of people. The top of my tuna now has a nice green tint to it.
Add chives. I used dried chives that don't have a lot of flavor, so I add a bunch.
Stir some more
Refrigerate over night

That's all there is to it. It tastes exceptionally good on top of plain old lettuce.

Coming soon, a crab salad recipe (after some crab salad testing)!

Permalink diet random

Time To Catch Up

09.18.2007

It's been a busy couple of weeks between traveling and Mom coming for a visit (I enjoyed Mom's visit!). I've been having a hard time catching up on my list of things to get done, so since there hasn't been anything spectacular to share since my return from the land of Canucks, I'll just share my list.

Clean Garage - DONE, with a little help from Mom. She though she could just lounge around on the couch, hah!
Clean Bathrooms - DONE Mom's a hard worker. Although the master bath needs another coat of cleaning. Mom! Come back for another visit!!!!
Websites
- Starfleet Command [SFC] - Wrapping up the design and butt-ugly CMS for the revamped website, getting ready to share it for more testing.
- Starfleet Academy - I'm also working on a redesign for a section of the international Star Trek fan club. How cool is that? I'm way behind on this one....
- Here - I've been working on a redesign for the 'mania, but you can tell that things have been getting in the way.
Replace Wireless Router - DONE Thanks to my close personal first tier associate Mathias! Now I can play the three hundred and sixty on the line again!
Replace TV Bulb - DONE??? 2 weeks ago (when Mom first came down for a doctor appt, so I blame her) the TV quit working and the "replace bulb" light came on. I ordered one of the $200 bulbs. The day before the bulb arrived the TV started working again. Now I have a spare bulb for when the working one dies (again).
Finish Watching Heroes - I've got 2 discs left of Season 1. It's an addicting little show, and I limit myself to 1 disc per day. But once I start a disc I just have to finish it, so it's hard to find the time with all the other things on my list.

So there's my short list. It'll keep me busy for a bit, I think.

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Like Geddy Lee Said, I Took Off - To the Great White North

09.02.2007

August became my month of travel for work. I started out going to Kansas City for a conference to hob-nob with the movers and shakers of the Justice Engine. Last week I made my way to Montreal for an introductory 3D training class for the 3D engine we use at work. Montreal. Canada. Eh?

Except for a childhood trucking excursion with Dad when I was 9 that led us a mile past the Canadian border, I've never been out of the country. Much less flown out of the country. Especially alone. I was a little less feared of air travel after my Kansas City experience, but now there's the international aspect to throw on top to make me a little anxious. But it's only Canada, they're an unofficial US state, right?

The flights to Montreal were (luckily) uneventful. Huntsville -> Atlanta -> Montreal. But once I got to Montreal, it's not just another state. I knew that it was French Canadian, and that everything would be in French, and more than likely also in English. I just didn't expect the French part to be so... prevalent? I follow the crowd de-boarding the plane and we walk through the Montreal terminal. Down hallways, up escalators. More hallways, more escalators. It felt like we made 3 laps around the terminal before I finally saw it. Customs.

After making my way through the line for about an hour, I finally got my first stamp in my brand new passport! Yes, I'm here for business. No, I'm not carrying anything I shouldn't. Let me pass, you hoser! So from customs I went and picked up my poor little checked bag that I feared would make its way to Greenland or something. The terminal had 5 or 6 luggage carousels. None of them were marked, and I heard no announcements as to which I should go to. I picked one at random, and a minute later my bag appeared! What were the odds? Do I really want to know.

From there I trundled through the airport wondering what my next move should be. I didn't have a car (the hotel I was staying at was supposed to be a couple of blocks from my training class according to Google Maps, so I was going to try walking around for the majority of this trip). My plan was to get a taxi and go to the hotel. Being Sunday, and with the hotel being downtown, I wasn't sure what my dining choices would be. I got screwed in Kansas City in a similar situation. It was just before 5PM and I was starting to get hungry. After getting some cash at the currency exchange, I found a Tim Hortons in the airport, right next the the suddenly long line to get taxis. I opted to dine on a lovely sammich while waiting to see if the taxi line would shorten. It didn't. After the hour long customs line, I stood in a taxi line for another 20 minutes before getting my assigned taxi (taxiteer?), whereupon I pointed to my destination, the Hotel XIXe Siecle, because I had no idea how to pronounce it. So 2 hours after my plane landed, I'm finally out of the airport and off to the hotel!

If ever there was truth in advertising, I would have to commend the Hotel XIXe Siecle. Here's the picture of one of the rooms as advertised on their website:

Here's what my room looked like:

The hotel featured fine European living. That equates to a void of vending and ice machines. They did have room service, so if I wanted any type of French variation of duck I would have been in business. But alas, I am but a country boy, so I went and wandered around the downtown Montreal area in search of (1) places to eat later, (2) that would accept Master Card, for although I had brought some cash with me, the taxi ride from (and eventually back to) the airport would take &frac13; of what I had brought.

I found a few places to eat. The first was actually a McDonalds! I went inside, expecting, well, McDonalds. I was not expecting the menu to be in French. Entirely in French. Luckily, holding up 3 fingers in a McDonalds is the international symbol for "I would like a #3 Combo, please", and the people working actually did speak English, so I wasn't completely screwed. Scared me a little, though.

Monday morning I walked about and played tourist. The training class didn't start until 1PM, and I had discovered the previous night that while Google Maps put the hotel and training class 300 yards away, it was really only half a block - a 5 minute walk, if I lumbered at my usual rate and followed all traffic laws. So I went around snapping pictures here and there.

The training class was nationally diverse. Teaching was Eric, originally from Paris. Joining him at times, acting occasionally as gopher, other times as comic relief during lunch, was Michael (from Ireland). My fellow students were Richard, a Montreal native (it was here I found out French and French Canadian is not the same thing - they actually speak different dialects of French). From Exxon out of Houston was Mikah - originally from Poland. This was all topped off by me, with my Alabama version of English. Luckily everyone spoke English. Except for me, everyone spoke a couple of languages.

From there is was 3 days of training followed by 3 nights of walking around soaking up the culture of Montreal - might have more on that some other day. The only other highlight was that I spotted a Lamborghini and had to take a pic for Brandon at work:

Weird thing to be a highlight, huh?

Thursday I checked out of the hotel and hung out at the airport for 5 hours until my flight was ready to leave. It's not that the flight was delayed or anything, I just couldn't think of anything I wanted to do before the flight left since I didn't have a car, plus I would have been paranoid about missing my flight the whole time. I did get a massage in the airport, though, from one of those "sit face down on this chair" places. That did wonders for my neck and shoulders while making a half hour fly by. Although the weather had been bad the previous night and earlier in the morning, my Montreal -> Cincinnati -> Huntsville return flights went off, once again, smooth and without a hitch. At 9:08Pm Thursday night I once again felt the humidity of Huntsville upon my face. Ahh, home!

Permalink road trip

Kansas City: The Return

08.16.2007

Just a quick note that I've survived my adventure back from Kansas City. I've got a couple of pics and more details to post later, but for now "I'm back and ok, mom!"

Here's a few pics from the camera phone just to show how uneventful the trip turned out.