Obama Wins! Obama Wins! Obama Wins!

The republicans ran on fear -- fear of how horrible things could get if Obama was elected. The democrats ran against the approach and policies that brought us to our current national crisis: 2 wars, coming deep recession, massive budget deficits, energy crisis and a disregard for the environment. Ironically, the democrats also ran on hope -- hope for what we can do. Ironically because hope is an idea but one that is much stronger than the idea of fear and especially in times when people are already fearful.

My hope is that Obama is successful and I wish us all the very best.

Angel Food Butterfinger Dessert

This post is in keeping with my tradition of shamelessly copying recipes. However, there is a caveat -- my mom has been making this dessert for about 30 years. I'm not sure where she got the recipe but it wasn't cooks.com!

About a year ago, I had a hankering for this dessert and I couldn't get in touch with my mom -- so I googled. To my surprise I found the recipe at cooks.com. The only variation that my mom had on this is the addition of walnuts.

• Freshly baked angle food cake (you will have some cake left over)
  
• 1/4 cup butter (1 stick that has been softened enough to blend)
• 4 egg yolks
  
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 pint whipping cream (2 small cartons)
  
• 3 2.1 ounce butterfinger candy bars (sliver with a knife along length of candy bar)
  
• very finely chopped walnuts: quantity is to taste

After the cake is cool, remove it from the pan and break into small pieces and set aside.

Sliver the candy bars and chop the walnuts. Combine and set aside. The exact quantity of walnuts and even candy bars is really a matter of taste.

Whip butter, egg yolks, powdered sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy. Whip the whipping cream until light and fluffy and then combine with the sugar mixture.

Next, we will layer cake, candy bar and the creme mixture in a 9-inch pie dish/pan/tin. Spread an even layer of cake pieces over the bottom and then using a spatula, spread a smooth layer of the cream mixture over the cake. Sprinkle the candy/walnut mixture over the cream layer and then add another layer of cake and so on. The 9-inch pie dish will be heaping when you are finished. I usually end up with about 3 layers and its likely you will have about 1/4th of the cake and a small amount of the cream mixture left over. I usually make another small cereal bowl full with the left overs. Enjoy but be careful -- this dessert is rich and will fill you up almost instantly.

Polar Bear Triathlon 2007 White Sands Missile Range New Mexico

Based upon my experience I would say: Avoid this triathlon -- story below.

I'm hoping that a lot of folks find this blog so that they won't get hosed by this triathlon.

I live in Albuquerque NM and its a 4 hour drive to white sands missile range. The race was scheduled for Saturday Dec 8 2007 at 8AM and I drove to Las Cruces Friday night -- I arrived at about 6:30PM and then checked into my hotel and set my alarm for 5:30AM. I woke up Saturday morning and did my pre-race food routine and checked out of the hotel. I left the hotel at about 6:40 AM and arrived at the entrance of white sands missile range at 7:14AM. There was a large line of cars waiting at the base entrance and the line was moving very slowly but I didn't worry -- I had heard that they would hold up the start of the race until they could get everyone in the gate -- oh boy was I wrong on that.

At about 8:10AM a guy came running back along the long line of cars and trucks with bikes affixed to their bumbers etc. He went by me as I heard him say "the race is already started." He kept moving down the long line of cars and trucks behind me apparently repeating this message. I suddenly was very pissed off and then a minute or so later he came back by me. Now he was pissed off and he was yelling "don''t ask me any questions -- I'm very busy and I don't have time for it!" He did say that if we wanted to stick around there was a possibility for credit towards next year's events. I wasn't in any mood to wait any longer and I was angry. So I just left.

Bottom line:
Information on this race is very difficult to obtain and you can have a very bad experience as I just described.

• There is no real website about the race. Just a website that says that there is a race.
• The website incorrectly states that the race begins at 0900 hours -- I just got lucky: I called Thursday to confirm my registration. By chance I found out that in fact the race begins at 0800 hours
• There is absolutely no information on the matter of getting into the gate -- like arrive at 6AM so that you can have time to get through the gate. They were taking about 5 to 10 minutes to process a single car. There were maybe 50 cars in front of me. I didn't time their process time but they were moving very slowly.

This turn of events was very disappointing as I've been training and recovering from an injury over the last 7 months. This particular race is essentially the very very last race of the season in New Mexico but it would have been my first of the season as I was finally healthy and prepared. I drove back to Albuquerque and on the way decided I would do my own triathlon -- just a training session where I push myself just a bit harder than normal.

I got my bike, helmet and shoes set up in the garage for a quick transition. I have a 3 mile run circuit and I pushed myself a bit (22:53). Not as fast as I would have run in a race but not bad considering there was no competition. Then I quickly transitioned to my bike and rode into a 25MPH headwind along with some rain. I was determined and so I pushed ahead. I rode out 6.2 miles and turned around. Now I had a tail wind and I hauled some butt. At times I was going 28MPH and I could see the leaves flying around me at the same pace -- thats how I know the approximate speed of the head wind. 42 minutes later I was done with the ride. The total time for the run, transition and bike was 1 hour 6 minutes. I was happy with that but I'm still not happy about the management of the Polar Bear Triathlon.

Now its the off-season and I'll have about 3 months of easy training. I'll be back next year with a vengeance but I won't be back to White Sands Missile Range for any races -- and I would recommend you do the same (especially if you don't live in the immediate area).

Banana Nut Bread

Some time ago, I created a list of recipes for future use. The inaugural recipe was for banana nut bread. Since I have some very ripe and rippening bananas on my counter top, I clicked on my recipes link and then on the banana nut bread recipe. But to my dismay, I came up empty. The recipe that I last used and linked to ("crookedkitchen") has disappeared into the ether .

Lesson learned -- shamelessly I must copy and save a version of the recipe for myself since websites come and go. So, for posterity and myself, I am creating a version here which will not be going away for the forseeable future.

• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3 soft, ripe bananas, mashed

Cream sugar and shortening; add eggs, flour, soda, bananas, and chopped nuts. Pour banana bread batter into 1 greased and floured loaf pan; bake at 325° for about 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. This banana nut bread recipe makes 1 loaf.

I copied this recipe from Diana's Kitchen. Thanks Diana!

A small piece of heaven

As a Virginia Tech graduate, from the Engineering Science and Mechanics department (Norris Hall), I feel very saddened by the events on my birthday. Yes, that's right. April 16th also happens to be my birthday. Every time my birthday comes around, I will always remember Virginia Tech. But I won't remember it the way that a 23 year old deranged kid wanted us to remember. No, I choose to remember VT as a peaceful, beautiful place, nestled in the mountains near the New River. A place where people can come from all walks of life and all nations to learn, grow and expand in peace and harmony. I choose to remember the water falls nearby, the peaceful quiet town, and the place that gave me a chance for opportunities and growth in life. I choose to gratefully and thankfully remember the faculty and staff in the ESM department at Norris hall and the place that Blacksburg really is. A small piece of heaven.

Dual Core Linux Box -- Update

Its been 4 years since I bought my current computer (HP Kayak XU800 Pentium III; 256 Mb RAM -- which I upgraded to 512). I originally loaded RH 7.2 or thereabouts and about a year ago went to RH 9. The Kayak came with a 9.1 Gb SCSI hardrive and I added a 36 Gb 10k Seagate SCSI. I also added an old IDE Quantum Fireball that I had from my previous linux box. The upgrade to RH 9 and M$ XP was a pain (dual boot using GRUB) but since then (about 1 1/2 years ago) this system has been un-believably stable (I rarely run XP). I have been really happy with it. However, I want a new faster machine with more memory and more speed and I have decided to go dual core. This post will be a diary of the process and progress.

If your like me (running a linux distribution) then you need to know which hardware works with linux. A good source of information on that topic is Linux Hardware.

On the topic of building a pc from components, the following two links (Tom's Hardware) are incredibly good.

• Part 1
• Part 2.
  

My list of Components

• Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ (2x1Mb L2 Cache) -- I'm choosing this because of the cost/performance trade-off. Its not the absolutely latest but its not that old and it is very competitive in performance.


• Motherboard: Asus A8N 32-SLI-Deluxe NVIDIA Socket 939 ATX Motherboard -- This is "socket 939" that will apparently be going away in the not so distant future. However, the board is considered to be very good.


• Memory: CORSAIR XMS 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory


• Video Card: GIGABYTE GV-NX73T256P-RH GeForce 7300GT 256MB GDDR2 PCI Express x16 Video Card
  


• Sound Card: on motherboard


• Network: on motherboard -- Gigabit Ethernet


• Hard Drives: 2xWestern Digital Raptor WD740ADFD 74GB Serial ATA 10,000RPM Hard Drive w/8MB Buffer -- I'll be running Raid 1


• Case: Lian Li V COOL PC-V1000 Silver Aluminum ATX Mid Tower


• Power Supply: Enermax EG485P-VHB SFMA Coolergiant 480W

• DVD/CD Burner: dual layer unit

• Back-Up Mechanism: Although I am planning on mirroring (Hardware implemented Raid 1) I also plan to back-up to an external drive through a USB port.
  

As of the original posting date (January 2006) this machine would have cost about 2K. However, prices have dropped.

That's my tip jar!

As I walked into the juice bar, and glanced up at the menu, I wondered what to order. Should I get a raspberry blast or a banana swirl? I casually glanced around the small area, noticing several people waiting for smoothies to come up, but no one was placing an order. With a raspberry blast and vita-gizer on my mind I moved towards the broad stainless steel order counter. At one end of the L-shaped counter was the electronic cash register and as I approached I noticed the cashier moving about just behind. She was very indifferent and aimlessly glancing around as if to say 'do I have to take your order?' I patiently and egotistically waited for her to take my order and immediately became aware that this girl was exactly the kind of person an owner doesn't want working as cashier. She wasn't friendly at all and boy did she have attitude and boy was it hard to tell that she was a girl!

"I'll have a raspberry blast with a vita-gizer supplement," I said, reaching for my wallet; I was thinking to myself I paid $4 the last time.

The androgynous cashier said, "four o one."

I went fumbling for my frequent smoothie card knowing this one wasn't free but I wanted credit. Buy 10 get 1 free! The cashier stamped my card while I managed to find a ten dollar bill. Then I went straight for my left front pants pocket hoping to find a penny. No luck. I quickly began searching the counter top for a penny dish; my hand dived into a tall jar and I mindlessly grabbed a penny from the bottom. I didn't make much of the creased single dollar bill standing on edge in the jar or the 'tips' label on the front of the jar. It was a completely unconscious move.

"Here's a penny!"

"That's my tip jar!" she said without hesitation and a lot of ownership.

Dropping the penny, I quickly pulled my hand out of the jar. Suddenly, my mind started working on whether or not I should leave a tip; after all, I was getting 99 cents in coinage back. She returned five dollars and ninety nine cents and I nervously watched her as she turned around, picked up an empty blender container and stuck my order label to its side. Then she moved to a back counter and pumped something into my container. Oh shit. Was she going to be making my smoothie? Would she make me a good one if I didn't leave a tip; who knows what she might add to it. She glanced my way, watching me, as I stuffed the five dollar bill into my wallet and pocketed my change. I wasn't leaving a tip and I stared back nervously.

She had a round, plump face with high cheek bones, olive skin and dark curly hair that was mostly pulled up in her cap. Then I was relieved to notice that she set my blender down at the start of the line and headed back to the counter; another worker picked up my blender. Whew! She wasn't making my smoothie. I moved to the side and watched as my blender made its way around the smoothie assembly line.

"Raspberry blast up!"