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Kopaka's Ice Engineering

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  1. Kopaka's Ice Engineering
    My, it's been a while, hasn't it?
     
     
    I guess I could recap the past week, what I've picked up, news, and what not....
    My stock picks don't like me any more, A Collision by David Crowder Band, Thrive by Newsboys, The Eleventh Hour & Christmas Songs by Jars of Clay, I'm not nearly as upset about the Louisiana Republican party subverting my Huckabee vote as everyone else (electability, hello), and who in 1968 knew Fidel Castro would last this long?
     
    There, with that out of the way....
     
    For the first time since I was in college, 6 years ago, I got to help with a MathCounts chapter competition. The NOLA chapter was very poorly turned out, in my opinion, even for post-Katrina New Orleans. 7 schools participated, and three of them were named "Lake Castle School". Makes me really wonder where I'd want to send a future kid to middle school.
     
    For those of you unaware, MathCounts is a nationwide mathematics competition at the 7th and 8th grade level, now in its 25th year. I participated in it when I was that age, and 15 years ago, I was 1 correct question away from a spot on the Louisiana state team, which would have gotten me a trip to Washington, D.C. Instead, I got 6th place for my efforts. Still, I have MathCounts to thank for going into engineering: were it not for the set ups at the 1992 state MathCounts competition in Alexandria, LA, I probably would have been a mathematics major.
    Here's a tip for those of you not yet into college:
    Things you can do with an engineering degree:
    Build bridges.
    Build skyscrapers.
    Design automobiles.
    Start at $38k when you get the first job.
     
    Things you can do with a mathematics degree:
    Luck into a job in statistics
    -OR-
    Go to graduate school, get your Ph.D., and teach.
     
    Just wanted you to be aware of that, all of you mathematically-inclined.
     
    I have more to say, but this is not the place, nor the time. Instead, I give you another funny email that sauntered into my inbox the other day:
    (NB: Some of this is a little tongue-in-cheek. The rough stuff I have edited out, but be wary if you are easily offended or otherwise cannot take a joke.)

     
    -KIE
  2. Kopaka's Ice Engineering
    Hello.
     
    Remember me?
     
    I used to be a moderator here on these boards, but life has happened over the past 7 years. If I hadn't rotated off the forum circuit by the time Katrina hit, I was awfully close to doing so. I'm thankful, however, for the time I've gotten to know people with color-shifty masks. I'm honored to have been one, and I do not regret the time spent, for more reasons than making friends scattered throughout North America and beyond.
     
    Gee, it sounds like I'm leaving the site. I'm not leaving the site: it's just been 10 months since I've gotten around to posting anything of consequence. Maybe if I were more studious about posting, I wouldn't feel like I have to reintroduce myself each & every time I duck my head in the door.
     
    "What has happened in the past 10 months?" you may wonder. Well, I live in the "country" now. My house is on an acre and a half, and the nearest full grocery store is some 10 miles away. My office in downtown New Orleans is 50 miles away from the carport. I spend about 2½ hours a day commuting. (What's more, the computer is usually reserved for my daughter to watch Jay Jay the Jet Plane episodes on a popular website for video in the evenings.) I find myself getting up at 5 AM to get to work, and am rarely home before 6:15 PM. I'm not complaining, per se: this is just where I am now.
     
    Anyway, I have more to address than the two tanks of gas I buy in a week. No, today is an important day in the USA.
    ELECTION DAY!
     
     
    Forty-five months ago, I set forth an auspicious challenge. A vote is a grave matter, and not something I should have thrown around so haphazardly. Of course, I felt that I was shielded by the fact that it would take a southern Democrat (see: Carter, Clinton) for Louisiana to light up any color other than red on the map, regardless of my ballot. I made my gambit not having a clue what the next years would actually have in store.
     
    And oh, did those next years have a curve ball.
     
    I confess, I felt as though this criterion was open and shut within 3 months. The passage of the second half of the stimulus package was a big deal, and we at the Jefferson Parish Sewer Capital Program sought to put in on the money being made available. Not a one of our projects was selected, and I thought that this was going to be it for my January posting.
     
    Then life happened.
     
    Not 4 months after the wedding, I leave the Yenni Building and end up getting laid off after 4½ years at DEII. Miraculously, I am hired before my severance runs out, and a countdown clock of sorts starts: with this job, of which 60ish% of the funding is footed by the ARRA, I am going to have to move my wife & I to Illinois for almost 2 years. As the calendar switches from March 2010 to April, we're driving a UHaul north on I-55 (figuratively: a good chunk of it was I-57).
     
    Not long after we leave, the Deepwater Horizon accident happens, and the Oval Office puts a moratorium on all deep water exploratory drilling. My father is laid off from Halliburton after 35 years, some 2 years away from his planned retirement. People in Illinois ask me what the big deal is, why drilling on the shelf alone isn't enough: I inform them that, by and large, the shelf is tapped out, and no one has expected to find anything new there for the past 15 years.
     
    Over the course of two years, my wife & I acquire a set of close friends in Illinois. We learned who we are as a couple, independent of our respective families. We learned how much we can rely on the other, for there were times (before the friends) we had no other person there. We become parents to a wonderful, adorable little girl.
     
    I say all this, needing to circle back around to the original question I posed myself forty-five months ago: are my life and surroundings better off than they were four years ago, and if so, are they a direct result of Barack Obama becoming president and his policies becoming law. To the first part, I say yes, absolutely. Certainly it is not in the manner I thought it would be "yes" when I typed that four years ago, but the fact remains: yes, despite my father losing his job, I and my family are better off. (I suppose there's a tangent here about when or where the definition of "family" shifted from "my parents & brother" to "my wife, and now daughter." Even though it doesn't seem to be long, I'm not going to chase it here.) To the second part, I credit my family's fortune to God's provision. However, I feel compelled to further elaborate. I'll save the full text of the story about God, the flood victim, the news, the boat & the helicopter and say that Divine Providence takes on many forms. It would be remiss of me to ignore the very real possibility that ARRA was God providing a way for me to provide for my family, even though none of it went to the sewer projects I helped submit for in the first place.
     
    Is this two years of northern exposure mellowing out my hard right lean? (Maybe)
    Is this all an exercise on how one shouldn't throw one's vote around? (Maybe)
    Is this going to make a real, appreciable difference? (Not really. It wouldn't have made a difference if we weren't back from Illinois yet, either.)
     
    Am I going to own up to my statements? (Yes)
     
    From the outskirts of Chocolate City will vote for the following candidates for the Louisiana Electoral College for the November 6 election:
     
    2012 Electoral College
    Karen Carter Peterson
    Shane Riddle
    Gilda Warner Reed
    Jay H. Banks
    Diana Hamilton
    Cedric Bradford Glover
    Leslie Dandridge Durham
    Kyle Gautreau

    pledged to vote for Barack Obama of Illinois and Joe Biden of Delaware.
     
    From the outskirts of Chocolate City endorses the following candidates and positions for the November 6 election.
     
    United States Representative, First Congressional District of Louisiana
    Steven Scalise (R)

    Louisiana Constitutional Amendment #1
    Medicaid Trust Fund for the Elderly
    AGAINST

    because we don't need to solve problems that don't exist
     
    Louisiana Constitutional Amendment #2
    Strict Scrutiny Review for Gun Laws
    AGAINST

    because we don't need to solve problems that don't exist (didn't I just say that?)
     
    Louisiana Constitutional Amendment #3
    Earlier Notice of Public Retirement Bills
    AGAINST

    not when the bills are going to get changed in the legislative process anyway.
     
    Louisiana Constitutional Amendment #4
    Homestead Exemption for Veterans' Spouses
    AGAINST

    not interested in changing the state Constitution for the benefit of less than 5 people.
     
    Louisiana Constitutional Amendment #5
    Forfeiture of Public Retirement Benefits
    FOR

    as toothless as this may be, since it's usually the USAO that prosecutes these
     
    Louisiana Constitutional Amendment #6
    Property Tax Exemption Authority for New Iberia
    AGAINST

    Nope. There are better ways to do this, City of New Iberia. If there aren't, you just got unlucky and are going to have to deal with it.
     
    Louisiana Constitutional Amendment #7
    Membership of Certain Boards and Commissions
    FOR

    because it won't make sense otherwise
     
    Louisiana Constitutional Amendment #8
    Non-Manufacturing Tax Exemption Program
    AGAINST

    because I honestly believe we have too many tax exemption programs out there now
     
    Louisiana Constitutional Amendment #9
    More Notice for Crime Prevention District Bills
    FOR

    ...because nobody needs "concerned citizens" end-running around their neighbors. I mean, come on.
     
    Local Option Vote #1
    Term Limits for St Tammany Parish School Board Members
    FOR

    because incorporating new blood is important
     
    My vote is my vote, not yours. That said, I am a registered Republican, and will remain a registered Republican. I would appreciate no further thoughts about, as a Republican, my supposed inability to empathize with views not my own. Bring back the melting pot: this composed salad bowl mentality isn't healthy for us as a nation.
     
    -KIE
  3. Kopaka's Ice Engineering
    I've been hit by the nostalgia bat recently. A few weeks ago, I was tagged (on the book of faces) in an 18-year-old photograph of my senior homecoming, well, a homecoming alternative put on by those of us (and our parents) at the church I attended at the time. I was about to turn 17 (if I wasn't already) at the time of the photograph, and I'm now more than twice as old as I was when that photo was taken.
     
    Something else I saw on the book of faces recently: an update to something I posted 6 years ago. I got to reading the old entry, and I was struck as to what has changed in the past 6 years:
    I have not worked at another MathCounts competition since then.
    One of the other judges at that competition is now a co-worker.
    I'm now considering sending my firstborn daughter to one of those three Lake Castle schools for pre-Kindergarten.

    As for the funny email, well, it appears six years hasn't done too much to the running joke. I'm sure you've heard it before, but here it is to enjoy again. (Lines with no change have been greyed out.)

    Good comedy never gets old. Does this qualify as good comedy, though?
     
    -KIE
  4. Kopaka's Ice Engineering
    The end of September is always a favorite time of the year for me. Not only because September 25 is my birthday, but because Olive Garden always has their "never-ending pasta bowl" special. All you can eat pasta and sauce for $7.95$8.95...I think. For $2$1.50$1.95$2.95 more, you can get meatballs or italian sausage (like the pizza topping) or chicken with every fillup.
     
    I like pasta. I'mI was OCD over my wire-mesh colander, because I like my pasta. I tinker with cans of tomatoes, fresh onions & garlic, to make a good sauce, because I like my pasta.
    But Olive Garden is better at it than me, so I defer to their expertise.
     
    I give you:
    KIE'S GUIDE TO THE OLIVE GARDEN'S NEVER ENDING PASTA BOWL
     
    First things first, I will explain the different types of pasta.
    Spaghetti: You know it, you love it. A long noodle with a circular cross-section.
    Linguine: Spaghetti that has been flattened some. Not round, but more of a rectangular cross-section. Also comes in a whole-wheat variety.
    Fettuccini: Linguine flattened even further. A flat noodle that is often served with alfredo.
    Penne: Tube pasta cut at angles. "Rigatoni" has ridges running the length of the tube, but penne doesn't necessarily have them. However, they always look like they were cut in a miter box.
    Capellini: Also known as "angel hair," this is spaghetti that shrank in the wash or something. Very small, very delicate, very easy to snap and get all over the kitchen if you bought it at the store.
    Farfalle: The famous "bow-tie" pasta. Best for hanging on to chunky sauces.
    Orecchiette: Foreboding name. Shell pasta.Actually means "little ear", and is basically a large dimple. Neat.
     
    That's not all the pasta there is. You've got vermicelli, which is somewhere between spaghetti and angel hair. You've got ravioli and tortellini, which are filled shells. You've got lasagne, which warrants its own dish. The six (7 if you count whole-wheat) are just the choices you have at Olive Garden for this promo.
     
    Then, the sauces.
    This is less an explanation and more a critique, so that you will not waste a dish getting something you don't want.
     
    Alfredo: I didn't get this, but I have it on good authority that Olive Garden doesn't screw up an alfredo often. It's a white cheesy sauce that's not chunky at all.
    Marinara: A chunkier, spicier variation on the tomato sauce you know & love. If you're going to get meatballs, this should be your first choice on sauce.
    Meat sauce: All this sauce really is, is bland. Meat cooked down with some tomatoes, it's just oily and bland. Fleh. Despite the illusion of being able to cheat the system and get meat without paying for it, this sauce is just not worth it.Olive Garden has made some effort to improve this sauce. My folks thought it was okay, but I didn't have any the other day.
     
    And then, there are some non-standard sauces.
    Sun-dried tomato parmesan: I tried this sauce twice: once in Kenner and once in Lake Charles. Both times it was just...bland. The tomatoes didn't really add any flavor, and the base parmesan is not alfredo. It was missing something. Maybe garlic salt. Maybe garlic or some other herbs. I don't know for certain, but this sauce is incomplete as it is served now.
    ThreeFive cheese marinara: This sauce I remember from two or three years ago (I didn't get the chance to pig out on unlimited pasta last year: Katrina and Rita both closed the Olive Gardens that I would have been able to visit.), though it might have been a three cheese marinara at the time. The sauce is a smoother marinara, mixed with a five cheese blend (I can't tell you what the cheeses are, but it's cheese, right? It's not cottage, cheddar, or pepperjack so it all tastes the same.). Easily the best sauce they have. Might be too rich for meat on the side, but I definitely recommend this sauce for the younger palate.
    Sausage & peppers marinara: Italian sausage and red & yellow bell peppers in marinara sauce. Lovely to look at, but I'm not one for the taste of bell peppers. I confess: I didn't have the opportunity to taste this one.
    Smoked mozzarella alfredo: Alfredo with more cheese on it. Divine
    Asiago Alfredo: My brother said "It's good." I take his word for it.
    Tomato Basil Caprese: Light & tasty. Very good stuff, if only a bit runny at the bottom of the bowl. Highly recommended.
    Roasted Portobello Pomodoro: Whew. They bill this as a marinara sauce, but it's not anything like the multi-cheese marinara. If you've had the Capellini Pomodoro off the regular menu, this is the same sauce. If not, prepare for a spicy take on marinara. How they do it without chile peppers, though, is beyond me at this time. I am interested to find out though... Oh, and the portobello mushrooms contribute nothing: the pomodoro sauce well over-powers it. This isn't a bad sauce per se, just poorly described.
    Creamy Parmesan Florentine: It's cheese sauce. With spinach. Nothing. Special. Just. Disappointing.
    Chianti Three Meat: In a word, disappointing. If you've ever had the Chianti Braised Short Ribs from the menu, you know of the absolutely wonderful sauce that comes pooled in the bottom of the plate. This tastes nothing like it. It's spicy; it's heavy; it's greasy; it's disappointing.
    Creamy Parmesan Portobello: Oh, what did the cremini mushroom market do before they started marketing the oversized ones as portobello? Still, if a sauce has the name of a mushroom in its name, I would expect it to have some element of meaty umami in it. Instead, the sauce literally tasted like pasta water. I don't know who dropped the ball in the kitchen, but they would've done better to just drop some mushrooms in their alfredo and called it "done."
     
    Olive Garden's "Never Ending Pasta Bowl" ends in early October.
     
     
    On a side note, unless Donald Driver single-handedly beats the Philadelphia Eagles tonight, the Moss Bluff Cruisers will defeat the Poplarville Stallions and return to a .500 record, just in time to visit the Cookie Crunchers in Week 5.Assuming David Akers has a quiet night and Rashard Mendenhall has a ho-hum game tomorrow night, the Moss Bluff Cruisers will climb back to .500, going through the undefeated Waveland Wusses in the process.The Cruisers in globo laid an egg. Clinton Portis, Kurt Warner, Baltimore D/ST, Antonio Gates, Brandon Jacobs....it's going to be a long season.Hooray for fantasy football.
     
    -KIE
     
    (Yes, this is a republish. It will be republished every year, as applicable.)
  5. Kopaka's Ice Engineering
    Hello there. Have we met?
     
    For the many here that don't know me, I go by KIE on these boards, which is short for Kopaka's Ice Engineering. I derived the name from the bridge Kopaka built at the end of the first BIONICLE comic so many years ago. I am a registered Professional Engineer in the State of Louisiana, though right now, I live and work in Illinois. Within the next two months, my family will be moving back to NOLA [greater New Orleans], more properly, the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain. Hence, I will retain the "Chocolate City" reference in my blog's title, even though we're far closer to the outskirts of Chicago right now.
     
    I am 32 years old. I met the woman who would be my wife while we were summer missionaries some 10 years ago in northeast Ohio. It was there I discovered an Onua canister, and wondered aloud why LEGO Bricks weren't this cool when I was in the target age. I became an AFOL at that point, and have nestled into a no-longer-board-active role on staff here at BZPower.
     
    I am a father. My daughter Bonnie is 7½ months old at this juncture, and she is just so precious. I must gush, for she is my first child, and we do get a share of comments from random people about how beautiful she is.
     
    I like to play around in the kitchen. The 2011 edition of Tryptophantic Advent will include staying home instead of traveling. I'm roasting a turkey, too, this year. Wish me luck.
     
    I've worked for the company I work for now for 2 years. They've been in the bridge business since 1893, and the name is synonymous with excellence in bridges. It's funny, though, since 25 months ago, I was laid off from 4+ years modeling and maintaining [in an office role] the sewer system of Jefferson Parish. Admittedly, that has nothing to do with bridges. BUT, it was a bridge design program about 20 years ago, when I was a participant in MATHCounts that led me to engineering, civil engineering even, in the first place. A long, circuitous route to come full circle.
     
    I am also open to a line of questioning, if anyone cares to ask anything. If nothing else, expect more to filter in during the coming weeks as we move back south, out of winter's way. Seriously, why is it December outside the door already?
     
    -KIE
  6. Kopaka's Ice Engineering
    For entertainment purposes only.
     
    New Mexico
    Texas-El Paso (+11½) over Brigham Young
    BYU 52, UTEP 24
     
    Humanitarian, uh, MPC Computers
    Northen Illinois (-2½) over Fresno State
    NIU 40, FRES 17
     
    New Orleans
    Troy (-1½) over Ohio
    TROY 48, OHIO 21
     
    St. Petersburg
    Southern Mississippi (+3½) over Louisville
    LOU 31, USM 28
     
    Las Vegas
    Boise State (-16½) over Utah
    BSU 26, UTAH 3
     
    Poinsettia
    United States Naval Academy (+1½) over San Diego State
    SDSU 35, NAVY 14
     
    Aloha, er, Hawaii
    Hawai'i-Honolulu (-11½) over Tulsa
    TLSA 62, HAW 35
    (6 turnovers in the first half...unreal...)
     
    Motor City, er Little Cæsar's Pizza
    Toledo (-1½) over Florida International
    FIU 34, TOL 32
     
    Independence
    United States Air Force Academy (-2½) over Georgia Institute of Technology
    AFA 14, GT 7
     
    Champs Sports
    North Carolina State (+2½) over West Virginia
    NCST 23, WVU 7
     
    Copper, er, Insight
    Missouri-Columbia (+1½) over State University of Iowa
    IOWA 27, MIZZ 24
     
    Military
    East Carolina (+7½) over Maryland-College Park
    MD 51, ECU 20
     
    ev1.net, uh, GalleryFurniture.com, er, Houston, um Texas
    Baylor (-1½) over Illinois-Champaign
    ILL 38, BAY 14
     
    Alamo
    Oklahoma State (-6½) over Arizona
    OKST 36, ARIZ 10
     
    Armed Forces
    United States Military Academy (+7½) over Southern Methodist
    ARMY 16, SMU 14
     
    Gotham, er, Garden State, um, Pinstripe
    Syracuse (+1½) over Kansas State-Manhattan
     
    Music City
    Tennessee-Knoxville (+2½) over North Carolina-Chapel Hill
     
    Holiday
    Nebraska-Lincoln (-13½) over Washington (Sorry, xccj)
     
    Meineke Car Care
    South Florida (+4½) over Clemson
     
    Sun
    University of Miami (-3½) over Notre Dame
     
    Peach, er Chick-fil-A
    South Carolina (-3½) over Florida State
     
    Liberty
    Georgia-Athens (-7½) over Central Florida
     
    EagleBankTicketCity
    Northwestern (+9½) over Texas Tech
     
    Hall of Fame, er, Outback
    Florida (-7½) over Pennsylvania State
     
    Citrus, er Capital One
    Michigan State (+10½) over Alabama-Tuscaloosa
     
    Gator
    Michigan (+6½) over Mississippi State
     
    Rose
    Texas Christian (-2½) over Wisconsin-Madison
     
    Fiesta
    Oklahoma-Norman (-17½) over Connecticut
     
    Orange
    Virginia Tech (+2½) over Stanford
     
    Sugar
    Arkansas-Fayetteville (+2½) over Ohio State
     
    Mobile..er, papajohns.com, um, GoDaddy.com
    Miami University (-1½) over Middle Tennessee
     
    Cotton
    Louisiana State-Baton Rouge (-1½) over Texas A&M-College Station
     
    GMAC, er, Compass
    Pittsburgh (-2½) over Kentucky
     
    Emerald, um, Fight Hunger
    Nevada-Reno (-9½) over Boston College
     
    BCS
    Oregon (+3½) over Auburn
     
     
    Last year: was a very momentous year, but not for football picks
    This year: 8-7 straight up, 8-7 vs. spread
     
    Key:
    Correct
    Correct versus spread only
    Correct straight up, but not against the spread
    Incorrect
     
    -KIE, who reserves the right to update and republish this throughout the bowl season.
  7. Kopaka's Ice Engineering
    Behold, the end of C. Ray Nagin's trial on counts of bribery during his term as mayor of New Orleans.
     
    ...courtesy WDSU, NBC affiliate in New Orleans, LA (and whose offices are catercorner from my office (parking lots both open to Carondelet St)). 
    I've wanted to post about my computer for a few weeks now, but I haven't gotten around to it. This, this is something I couldn't delay in posting, not when I borrow one of his most famous lines to entitle my blog.
     
    It would behoove me to learn more about this text editor, too, should time permit.
    In the interim, I'll simply say that I'm not dead yet, and that two girls a wonderful, except when big sister acts out on little sister.
     
    -KIE
  8. Kopaka's Ice Engineering
    I can't exactly say that I'm a fan of Semisonic, or any of the other bands who may have covered the song "Closing Time", although it is a very appropriate lyric at the moment.
     
    We have just gotten back from a whirlwind trip to NOLA, only to be thrust into more acceleration. It is the endgame of my time in Morris. As of 12:30, my wife & I now own (well, mortgaged) a house outside Covington, Louisiana. Yesterday, the Army Corps of Engineers completed the dredging beneath the new bridge, widening the navigation channel by 150%.
     
    In other words, we are done here. Not to sound overly cryptic or shifty with my words, but this is the end.
     
    Morris is the past: when we arrived in Morris, I was met with McSkillet burritos at McDonald's, Italian Chicken Sandwiches at Burger King, homestyle fries at Arby's, and boysenberry syrup at IHOP. Things that had left my world before I had wanted them to leave.
     
    Morris is the future: as we leave Illinois we will not be the two we were when we arrived. Indeed, we are now three, and even just the two of us aren't the same as we were almost two years ago.
     
     
    While we've been up here, I've had the opportunity to download the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for the Virtual Console, and have played through it a few times. Forgive me if I hear Spirit Temple music in the background until we move next week.
     
    -KIE, who won't be publishing his bowl picks this year: no time to transcribe them into a blog entry
  9. Kopaka's Ice Engineering
    Ever since I moved out from under my parents' roof in February 2005, Thanksgiving has involved traveling. I [and later Amanda] jumping in a car and driving an appropriate amount on I-10, I-20, I-55, or US 165 and arriving at my parents' [or her parents'] home for a Thanksgiving meal. (Except in 2007: that year we were on baby watch for Oliver in Baton Rouge.)
     
    Not so this year.
     
    For the first time, family is coming here for Thanksgiving dinner. Our cozy little house of 3 will become 11 in a few short hours, and cooking must be done.
     
    Good Eats, don't fail me now.
     
    I will be attempting to implement the Good Eats Nobel Prize Pending Roast Turkey recipe found from the 14th episode of the famed cooking show, named "Romancing the Bird." In the absence of time, I will refer you to the Food Network archive of said recipe, although a search of the episode's name will surely elicit 45ish minutes of high quality turkey talk. I will say that as my mother-in-law has an apparent allergy to sage, the sage will be replaced with garlic and/or bay leaves, in a quantity not yet determined.
     
    As I have a bajillion other things to get done, both with cooking and with work, I will bid you, dear reader, adieu, and wish you the warmest and heartiest of Thanksgivings, even you Canadans who jumped the gun a month ago. Don't go dropping frozen turkeys into a too-full pot of hot oil.
     
    -KIE
  10. Kopaka's Ice Engineering
    Packing is a most arduous task with a 9-month-old in the house. One person must always be parted off to entertain the girl, and sometimes, one isn't enough. This is a new feature against the 3 previous moves in the past 7 years, and it's a bit of a trip.
     
    One that has been constant through the past three moves has been a 10" non-stick skillet. A relatively heavy aluminum number done by Invitations, and I don't know if that's a store brand or what. All I know is that I've had it since my mom gave it to me when I moved out from under my parents' roof in February, 2005. It wasn't party to the first actual cooking I'd ever done. (That was trying to sliver in a clove of garlic into a raw, frozen chicken breast and cooking in the microwave. I ate a can of pasta that night instead.) However, it was my pan when I cooked chicken parmigiana the first time. It was my pan when I did extensive potato/onion experimentation in the art of the mixed hash browns. It was my pan when I first cooked for someone else. It has been my pan for so long, it's as though it's an extension of my cooking skills.
     
    Sadly, I must part with it.
     
    7 years of use have worn away at the non-stick coating to the point where aluminum flecks show through in the cooking surface. 7 years of poor cleaning skills have left a mahogany brown coating of oil & grease on the bottom of the pan. I can't clean this off, and I can't cook with it properly: it pains me, but I must retire this skillet. When we pack our belongings this weekend, the 10" Invitations will not be boxed, and will remain as an unannounced gift to the next owner or tenant of this house.
     
    *21 cork salute*
     
    -KIE
  11. Kopaka's Ice Engineering
    I saw my first snowflake yesterday.
     
    I've mentioned before that it will snow on rare occasion in south Louisiana. While it did snow two weeks before Christmas 2008 in New Orleans, it also snowed on Christmas in 2004, and to ring in the new year 2001. Before that, maybe something in the late 80's. I'm too lazy to look it up in an almanac now, anyway.
     
    Those of you who know the story that brought me to BIONICLE may also know that I passed a semester of graduate school at The University of Akron in 2003. It was the spring semester, which means that school began in January. While it did snow during my time there, it was largely a blur. Remember, part of the story that brought me to New Orleans was that I couldn't drive in the snow, and wrecked my car [the first time, although the second time was what did the experiment in].
     
    It snowed for the first time of the season overnight November 30. Where the snow continued on December 1, I was in the Modjeskimobile (what my wife & I have taken to calling the company minivan I'm using to go to work), and saw a small six-point star hit the driver side window. For a moment, I stopped to look.
    I'd never seen that before.
     
    I mean, we'd cut paper snowflakes in elementary school. It was a rite of passage in December, when leading up to Christmas ("I'm dreaming of a white Christmas//Just like the ones I never knew...."), but never did I get to see the real thing.
    It would snow, but it'd be minuscule flecks that would melt when they'd touch something, and could never be inspected.
    Even when I arrived at Akron, snow was already on the ground, and it all ran together.
     
     
    My, those things are pretty.
     
     
     
    In a slightly related note, it has become insanely cold outside. To compensate, Amanda & I bought our Christmas present to ourselves early: a copy of Wii Fit Plus, with a Wii Balance Board. Immensely fun, but not near as easy as we'd think. That, or we're really uncoordinated.
    Oh, and neither of us are keen on being deigned "obese", either. I have a large frame, and Amanda is pregnant. Those are very good reasons why our BMI's are above 22, thankyouverymuch. Seriously, if I got down to 167 lb., I would have to check into an ER again like what happened 11 years ago, with dehydration.
     
     
    Has it really been 11 years since my life took such a straight-yet-winding turn? My, how time flies.
     
     
    -KIE
  12. Kopaka's Ice Engineering
    My my, what have we here?
     
    So much dust; so many events; so much life has happened here, I should think I ought take a moment to catch you all up.
     
     
    However, that moment is not immediately. Expect more soon.
  13. Kopaka's Ice Engineering
    One of the things about being a reporter, that I've caught on very quickly, is that I'm bound to get a lot more email. In fact, byron@bzpower.com is a whole new email account I set up exclusively for BIONICLE News.
     
    Unfortunately, news travels quickly...
    Before I go off on the miscapitalizations and the butchering of "Israeli", I'd like to comment that his is the first time that a copy of the "Nigerian" scam (Also called a 419 scheme, after the related Nigerian penal code under which this type of scam falls.) has ever made it to one of my quickly-becoming-a-dozen-for-the-first-time-since-college email inboxes. 
    The way it works is that someone off-shore (very important, as crossing international boundaries makes legal prosecution all-but impossible) emails the victim, stating that he has, or is charged with, a rather large sum of money, and has determined that the victim would be a good final steward of this money. A conversation is struck up, and while the promises endure, at some point it becomes necessary to "lubricate" the transaction by posting a fee to them. This charade keeps going, and the money never does make it to the victims' hands. It works, because the money is promised at the start, and the victim keeps looking back to it, coupled with the mental obligation that "if I'm this far along, I can just go ahead and see it through to the end."
    Suffice it to say, if you ever get an email that reads like the one above, just delete it. The money doesn't exist, and the charade will only end once you end it.
     
    I'm not dissing Nigeria per se. A former bunk mate of my dad offshore, ExxonMobil had him working out of Nigeria for about 4 years in the mid 90's. (He's in western Russia now.) It's just, well, sometimes you get a reputation and it's not your fault.
     
    (By the way, the domain on the sender's address was from Spain.)
     
    Sadly, this confidence scheme is not the worst I have to say regarding Nigeria this week.
     
    William Jefferson, 9-term representative, and senior Democrat in the Louisiana Congressional delegation, got caught with both hands in the cookie jar.

    Since none of the links work because I just copied and pasted, here's the Story on CNN
     
    I like Rosenberg's line about politics. Goes back to what I said a month ago: no one is above the law, not even lawmakers.
     
     
    Besides that, I'm ashamed to be from Louisiana right now. Not because Jefferson represents me (because he doesn't: I live in Bobby Jindal's district), but because, gosh darnit, I share a state with so many people who would RE-elect an obvious-to-everyone-but-his-kin felon. How in the world do my congressmen ask for more hurricane relief funding, when it will go to people who choose someone that corrupt to speak for them?
    It's not about the lesser of two evils: he shouldn't have been in that runoff in the first place.
     
    Sorry, I need to go stew for the rest of the evening.
     
     
    -KIE
  14. Kopaka's Ice Engineering

    Slam

    By Kopaka's Ice Engineering,

    Hi.
     
     
    Wow it has been a long two weeks.
    Well, nearly two weeks: I just got my computer back online last night.
     
    In any case, I hope to catalogue the past two weeks in multiple entries, starting with BrickFair.
     
    Thursday saw me flying off to Washington, DC, ahead of the inbound Hurricane Gustav. Setup went fairly well, given the help I had. (Thank you, Roa & DV, for being my stand-in helpers, as well as bringing the great MOCs.) As anyone who attended the open fair Saturday or Sunday could see, BIONICLE was front and center, and, in fact, one of two attractions one could see without having paid admission (the other being the crane holding up the Brickfair banner).
     
    Some random observations, in near-chronological order:

    I hope to never drive in NYC if B6's automobile operation is any indication of the level of skill required. Makaru is tall. It's not easy to relax when your girlfriend is slogging through Friday night evacuation traffic. "Come with me if you want to live." Smeag could be the driver in any defensive driving video: his car is physically incapable of exceeding any posted speed limit. I'm not good at bingo. Smeag & Makaru were clearly separated at birth. It is sad that their reunion took as long as it did. Socks are not overrated, but apparently shoes are. Everyone needs a little Mardi Gras. Kohaku is a world record holder. The Black Mage has been avenged! Never trade material for position: I could have won a $200 LEGO chess set, but squandered a huge early lead. Chipotle should consider expanding to the Gulf coast: I wonder about all these taco truck taquieras. There is a zen about building a set, be it SYSTEM or BIONICLE, that is hard to replicate. Never let a drunken ninja drive your squid-mobile. Steve Witt is one of the best things ever to come out of northeast Texas. Omi has a fear of parallel parking. Wet ribs > dry ribs > CPK I regret that I won't be able to be the coordinator for BIONICLE next year. I'm going to have other, more important things to worry about right about when the planning should be done, so I will defer to my protégés (Kohaku, CF, DV) for the 2009 version.
     
     
    Oh, and CF, your MOCs are with the violin teacher, and you can pick them up at the next WAMALUG meeting. Sorry, but I never caught which address you wanted them sent to, and mailing back was very very hectic, as will be seen in the next entry.
     
     
    Much more to come from KIE's wild ride.
    Adventure, wooo...
     
     
     
    -KIE
  15. Kopaka's Ice Engineering
    <image to be added at a later date>


     

    This time I'm walking to New Orleans
    I'm walking to New Orleans
    I'm gonna need two pair o' shoes
    when I get through walkin' these blues
    When I get back to New Orleans
     
    I got my suitcase in my hand
    now ain't that a shame
    I'm leavin' here today
    yes, I'm going back home to stay
    yes, I'm walkin' to New Orleans
     
    you used to be my honey
    'til you spent all my money
    no use for you to cry
    I'll see you by and by
    'cause I'm walking to New Orleans
     
    I've got no time for talkin'
    I've got to keep on walkin'
    New Orleans is my home
    that's the reason why I'm goin'
    yes, I'm walkin' to New Orleans
     
    I'm walkin' to New Orleans
     
    I'm walkin' to New Orleans
     
    I'm walkin' to New Orleans


  16. Kopaka's Ice Engineering

    The Answer

    By Kopaka's Ice Engineering,

    Ladies & gentlemen, my fiancée, Amanda Weems.
     
     
    Plan C evolved and came to fruition over the course of about 54 hours, from mid-day Thursday through Saturday evening. A too-clearly drawn line to December removed plan A (where we first met), and Ike washed away plan B (Dickens on the Strand, in Galveston, TX).
     
    Suffice it to say, the giant cheque in the back of the car was all I needed to distract from the jewelry box in my pants pocket. After one presentation, I deftly (for as much as Ally would let me) segued into the proposal, and it was all on camera.
     
    Unfortunately, I don't have the means to post it online...not yet I don't think. Not even on the book of faces.
     
     
    As for the lot of you asking for some cake, well, if you get an invitation, you're welcome to come. Unfortunately, I can't send you all invitations.
     
     
    Look for more info about next June closer to, well, June. I've got to buckle down on the PE exam like, yesterday.
     
     
     
    -KIE, who knows the meaning of Genesis 2:18
  19. Kopaka's Ice Engineering
    One of the most thrown-out-there quotes is "Art imitates Life; Life imitates Art". There's a measure of truth to it, too. For instance, I give you a scene from both Bleach 19 and 211: Bakudō 99. It's funny, in that the first time it is introduced, the ultimate manner of restraint is rendered insufficient. In a similar manner, I've seen intangible things grow lives of their own, even recently. That the hype around some things can grow and build and compress and concentrate and...compress, it is noteworthy, in any life.
     
    Have any of you ever had a delayed surprise for friends or family? Has the planning ever made you giddy? Has the anticipation ever got so intense, it welled up in your chest like a knot? Did the reactions in your mind's eye ever distracted you so, that the energy started to eat away at you? Has your heart palpitated over such a surprise? Was it such that there wasn't a day you couldn't think about it? That random eye and hand twitches pop, just out of the blue?
     
    Imagine, if you will, trying to squelch such emotions for two months.
     
     
    I have a confession to make: when I restarted this blog, it was under a slightly false pretense. None of what you have read since August here has been fabricated. Come to think of it, none of it since 2006 has been fabricated. However, I've not been forthright in hitting the biggest points going on thus far. This is by design, however, as protocol dictates blood family carry certain courtesies not extended to non-related family. Two months have passed tonight, and finally, the opportunity to extend said courtesies has come to pass.
     
     
    It's time to spill the beans.
     
    WE'RE PREGNANT!
    WE'RE PREGNANT! WE'RE PREGNANT! WE'RE PREGNANT! WE'RE PREGNANT! WE'RE PREGNANT! WE'RE PREGNANT!
     
    -KIE
  20. Kopaka's Ice Engineering
    What do the Buffalo Sabres, Oakland Raiders, Silkeborg, UMass Minutemen, Lille, Αποελ Nicosia, LSU Tigers, the Ohio State/Michigan game, Mississippi State Bulldogs, and Maurice Jones-Drew have in common?
     
    If you said "sports" or "athletics," you're about as close as I would expect anyone to get.
     
    For the past two years, I've been playing a game called Streak for the Ca$h on ESPN. It's a simple little game: select one from a series of offered props on sporting events. Sometimes it's a simple as who will win; sometimes it's on an individual's performance. Sometimes, it's something even crazier.
    However, not once have I ever strung together double-digit wins in this monthly game.
     
    Not until this past Sunday.

     
    I feel proud of myself, even if you don't. I may never win money with it, but I do feel quite the sense of accomplishment in achieving a blue star once.
    Even if it took 2 years.
     
    -KIE
  21. Kopaka's Ice Engineering
    Amanda & I went to see The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian tonight. Well worth the wait.
     
    Even saw some cosplayers.
     
    Or, more likely, just dressed up in an old Halloween getup. For shame.
     
     
    Anyway, we're both looking forward to The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, for whenever it comes out.
     
     
    -KIE
  22. Kopaka's Ice Engineering
    "Pigs have flown. ###### has frozen over. The Saints are on their way to the Super Bowl." -call from Jim Henderson on the Saints Radio Network
     
    Somewhere, if only on the front page of the Living section of this morning's Times-Picayune, Buddy D is wearing a dress.
     
    Euphoria is running rampant in Chocolate City. I swear, but nothing else of relevance happened in the world except that the Saints are going to the Super Bowl.
    being the 1 in Tampa's 1-26 franchise mark Bum Phillips not figuring out how to win 1-15 the original Paper Bags The Aints Finally winning the Division, only to get throttled by the Vikings in the Wild Card round (1991) Bobby Hebert blowing the Dome Patrol's shots at postseason glory The River City Relay, only to watch Carney miss the extra point Mike Ditka trading away an entire draft for one questionable running back Aaron ___ Brooks *wince* Not a single player enshrined in Canton 43 years of abject futility are washing away even as I type this. This is every 8-year-old's dream come true, even those 8-year-olds that are now 28. Or 48. 
    The party has started early this year in New Orleans. I can guarantee it won't stop for the next two weeks. And, if the Saints win another game, Lord only knows what will happen next.
     
    Y'all come along for the ride.
     
    -KIE
  23. Kopaka's Ice Engineering
    As the temperature cracks 60 degrees of Fahrenheit for the first time since November, I have to comment that I'm glad that the snow is gone. Yes, I understand that the snow isn't gone for good: Chicago has seen snows as late as May, but, at least now, everything outside is brown as it should be [for January, not March], not white.
     
    I want to go back to a world where a "Blizzard" is something you go to Dairy Queen to get.
     
    I have had the pleasure of digging out a snow drift, shoveling the driveway, plowing through snow in the Modjeskimobile, driving on ice, and driving on a frozen road (two different experiences, let me tell you). I have seen a blizzard, and I have seen how ugly and nasty snow gets when the plows get bits of dirt and pavement with their frozen quarry. I have to think I've gotten the full on "Winter" experience that forever eluded a boy from the bayous of southwest Louisiana. (No, I'm not like Swamp People, but I am kin to some of them. I grew up in a subdivision, thank you.)
    In other words, bring on March. And not the upper 40's/lower 30's March of Illinois, but the upper 60's/lower 50's March of Louisiana. I'm tired of the calendar being two months ahead of the weather.
     
    There is a lot of anticipation about the garden this year. Not just because we're growing potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, squash, and a gamut of herbs: it's March; green would be nice to see.
     
     
    On an unrelated note, as of today, Amanda is 75% and Bonnie is -1. In layman's terms, "April 14" just became "any day now". Here we go. (and I'm not talking about Bud Light).
     
     
    -KIE, who will likely be a father within the fortnight
  24. Kopaka's Ice Engineering
    Yes he did and no one had better let him out of it!
     
    Wow, BrickFest was a blast. It's all mish-mashing in my head right now, so I'll make with the quick-hits before I forget everything.
    50° F (10° C) is an overnight low, not a daytime high, for March. Geez, Oregon. It's spring. Get with the program. The scent of a Randazzo even before the bag is opened is as hypnotic as ever. TLG has to open a LEGO store at some point along the Gulf coast. I'll drive to Gulf Shores if necessary; I just can't go to Orlando for one store. Roa McToa is well on her way to being the next Cajun. Not for awesomness of MOCcing per se, but for being the standard-bearer for the legitimacy of BIONICLE among AFOL-dom. SQUIDDIES! Photographs do not fully explain how tall Makaru is. EAURUGYUNUGH! Chris doesn't have my childhood LEGO collection, which means they truly are lost for the ages. Dalek the Dark Hunter Destroyer would be good at a photo scavenger hunt: I think the last couple were in my pocket. Turakii, Roa has the squiddies. Bug her. Aisle seat, heavy-set men in front and behind, colicky baby & kid who apparently had never been on an airplane before: 1 Any hope of KIE getting some sleep on Continental 208 Sunday night: 0
    Light rails are fun. If Jefferson, Orleans, St. Bernard & Plaquemines parishes ever got it together and built a system, it'd be pretty cool. Wouldn't have to be a subway or anything. (The water table in Louisiana is generally 8 feet (2.5 m) below the ground surface, making it pretty difficult to build anything of size underground.) I'd so totally ride it. Fred Meyer: meh. Give me Walmart, blue state socio-economics be darned. Thank you, UCLA, for letting me and my bracket down, right there at the end. Good times. We must do it again. 
    -KIE, enjoying his 80° F (27° C) weather.
  25. Kopaka's Ice Engineering
    Hi.
     
     
     
    I finally got the opportunity to watch Fireproof over the weekend. Let me say two things about it:
     
    1) This film is a must-see for anyone considering marriage, or even in a long-term relationship. Yes, it can happen.
    1a) I don't love Amanda because I get or even expect anything in return. I love Amanda because I love Amanda. (If you don't understand the previous sentence, you haven't found "The One" yet.)
    2) Kirk Cameron has come a long way from "Growing Pains".
     
    In other news, in light of last year's debacle, Amanda forbade me from cooking dinner Saturday night. Instead, breakfast in bed will be served some time before noon.
     
     
    -KIE
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