Jump to content

Kopaka's Ice Engineering

Premier Retired Staff
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    1,365

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Blog Entries posted by Kopaka's Ice Engineering

  1. Kopaka's Ice Engineering
    I really should get around to posting more often.
     
     
    In the past couple of weeks, I ran out of checks, had a failed attempt at booking a room for BrickFair, and was informed by LaPELS that my application was incomplete. (Kohaku, can you help describe the job of a cartpusher in a minimum of 6-8 sentences?) Oh, and work has gotten stupid busy. Busy that I'm going to be busy on up until BrickFair itself. Busy enough that my boss at the parish may still call me WHILE I'm at BrickFair.
     
    Paul, if you read this, please, don't. I'm not kidding.
     
     
    Now that you're all caught up, the current news: I miss my girlfriend. :\
     
    Amanda left Friday after work to go home for Father's Day. Since my dad is offshore this weekend & next (He's worked 14-14 for nearly 30 years.), I'd already wished him a happy Father's Day over the phone, and was planning on going with Amanda to her parents' place this weekend.
     
    That was, until, I was reminded I would have a performance tonight: The Baptist Church Music Conference opened tonight in New Orleans, and I was called to help sing in the choir for opening night: a semi-personal favor for the music minister at church/director of said choir.
     
    To top it off, my piecemeal "concert black" from college doesn't really fit (The jacket's too tight, and the pants...oooh, the pants would've exploded if I sat down with them on.), and I couldn't find the silk clip-on bow tie that finished the ensemble.
     
    Anyway, Amanda will be home tomorrow evening, and I can hardly wait. Certainly beats having just my computer to keep me company.
     
     
    -KIE
  2. Kopaka's Ice Engineering
    The 2008 FBC-Kenner season is over. It's been over for, about 30 hours, actually, but I've been busy playing TF2 with my brother to actually post about the events of the playoffs.
     
    For starters, "softball" is a misnomer.
     
    We had a game against a team that blew us out 13-2 in the regular season on Friday night. We didn't fare much better this time, falling by a score of 16-3. The worst part, however, was that before the game got out of hand, I had the opportunity to make a play at the plate. Unfortunately, the throw in from center field took a bad hop on the T-ball rubber (This field is used by the elementary school next door.), and instead of coming down on the ground where I was set up, it came high and clocked me in the forehead.
     
    I didn't lose consciousness, but I did black out for about a second.
     
    I played on adrenaline (a wonderful hormone let me tell you...if I could harness it more effectively....) for the rest of the game, and, at the post-game prayer, it really started to kick in. Took about a day for the fog to lift and the headache persists even 48 hours later. It's waning, but it still hurts.
     
    I may have had a concussion, may not. I think Neil would have pulled me if my eyes had dilated or whatnot, so I guess I'll be okay. I just don't like flinching, and I don't have another weekend to redeem myself, because we lost the Saturday morning game by a count of 11-0.
     
    But it's okay, because I need the time to heal up.
     
    Amanda's birthday is Tuesday. Wish her a happy birthday if you see her, digitally or otherwise.
     
    -KIE
  3. Kopaka's Ice Engineering
    Greetings from parts south and west of Monroe, LA!
     
    Now that it's the weekend and with softball over, I have time to recap as I should. But first, the drop off of Cherry Coke Zero versus Cherry Coke is greater than that between Coke Zero & Coke.
    *tries to spit out the aspartame aftertaste*
     
    Anyway, it would appear I don't have any lasting effects from last weekend's apparent concussion. Still a little sore to rub the point where the ball conked me, but the headache and mental fog have cleared.
     
    This past week marked a handful of milestones, two of which I will share with you.
    (Neither of these milestones are my survival of a Fury Swipe or three from Boots, Amanda's cat, on the way up here to Monroe.)
     
    First, Tuesday was Amanda's birthday. To celebrate, we skipped out on the gym and went down to the French Quarter. We took a dinner cruise on the Natchez. Weather was perfect. Food was good, but not extraordinary. Jazz was great. Company was lovely.
    I recommend the dinner cruise if you ever get to visit New Orleans.
     
    Second, since we skipped out on the gym Tuesday, I had my weekly (when it can be scheduled) workout with a personal trainer. This was rescheduled for Thursday, which is normally Amanda's day with the same personal trainer. Thus, I got someone new. We worked on my chest muscles, and I got to bench press for the first time in my 28¾ years.
    It wasn't pretty.
    These muscle groups have never, ever gotten worked. Ever.
    It showed.
     
    I successfully benched all of 65 pounds (29 kg) Thursday night. It was both hilarious and pathetic at the same time.
     
    And my arms are still sore.
     
    -KIE
     
    P.S. If you've followed my blog at all, you should know that I don't haphazardly pull titles for blog entries. Any of you sharp enough to gather what the title means, I'll tell you that the answer is "yes". The rest of you will have to mull over the enigma for a bit longer. No hints, no confirmations.
  4. Kopaka's Ice Engineering
    This would end up in Office Hijinks, if only that it were something light-hearted.
    No, this is much more life-altering than that.
     
    For the past 7 months, I have been mired in an application process to take the Principles and Practices of Engineering Exam, in hopes of gaining my licensure as a professional engineer.
    For the past 7 months, I have been tracking down references from the past 7 years, hoping to get all the paperwork together in time.
    For the past 7 months, I have been reliving the worst 11 weeks of my life: living at home while pushing shopping carts at WalMart, in front of my high school classmates.
    For the past 7 months, I have been dreading another failure to complete this application, sending me into another 6 months of obscurity instead of the opportunity to validate the career choice I made 16 years ago while in 7th grade.
    And today, with 13 days to spare, I finished all the paperwork needed to mail off.
     
    It should arrive in Baton Rouge on Thursday.
     
    *heavy sigh of relief*
    There. Now that that is done, I can concentrate on BrickFair.
     
    -KIE
  5. Kopaka's Ice Engineering
    You're electric
    And I'm out in the rainstorm
    You're the virus
    That's running through my veins
    You're a danger
    Like love and radiation
    Seeping into my brain

    You're the one I've been waiting for
    You're my rocket to the sky
    You're the diving board
    Standing seven stories high
    You're the thrill of love
    Like a jet on fire
    Push me out and see if I can fly.

    You're the ocean
    About to pull me under
    You're the surgeon
    Who says "It's got to bleed."
    You're the true love
    I've always been afraid of
    But you're the one I need.

    You're the one I've been waiting for
    You're my rocket to the sky
    You're the diving board
    Standing seven stories high
    You're the thrill of love
    Like a jet on fire
    Push me out and see if I can fly.

    <modest 4-bar guitar bridge>

    You're the passion
    Crashing my defenses.
    And I'm defenseless to you.

    You're the one I've been waiting for
    You're my rocket to the sky
    You're the diving board
    Standing seven stories high
    You're the thrill of love
    Like a jet on fire
    Push me out to fly.

    You're the one I've been waiting for
    All these days and all my life.
    You're the diving board
    Standing seven stories high
    You're the thrill of love
    Like a jet on fire
    Push me out and see if I can fly.
  6. 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
  7. Kopaka's Ice Engineering
    211 lb., 25.2% body fat
     
     
    Amanda joined a gym last week, and got me to join as well.
     
    I'll be honest: I've been slacking in the weight control department. I'm 20 lb. above where I want to be, and don't even get me started about how much flab I'm carrying.
     
    Still, a gym membership is a route I never expected I'd take. I mean, that's for people who work out, who take this seriously, who have these ridiculously sculpted body profiles like you see on the cover of Muscle & Fitness or one of those other magazines.
     
    I remember mocking the musclebound from my seat of intellectual superiority back in middle & high school. It was a coping mechanism, as my private salvos were only returning public fire.
     
    And yet, here I am, about to go see a personal trainer myself.
     
    Full circles are funny like that.
     
     
    -KIE
  8. Kopaka's Ice Engineering
    Realization for the moment:
     
    8 months ago, I was much more upset (not vocal, just... perturbed) about seeing Amanda's hair in my dryer vent.
    Not quite on the order of seeing Scout's (my brother/sister-in-law's 3 year old pug) hair, but I still had this "this doesn't belong" furrow in my brow.
     
    Now, I see one of her long brown strands, and I smile.
     
     
    Funny what 8 months'll do to ya.
     
     
    -KIE
  9. Kopaka's Ice Engineering
    (This entry is mostly for the benefit of my friends who know of this blog through Ultima Online.)
     
    I've been spending time re-playing Ultima IX: Ascension.
     
    I've referenced this game before, both the game and the series from which it comes: it's the lead item in my BOTW 27 "acceptance entry".
     
    The game itself is not very playable right now: one of the major goals of the game is the cleansing of 8 shrines of virtue in the game world. Once the Avatar (you, the player) collects the mantra, town sigil, and corrupted glyph, he can cleanse the shrine, gain a level, and progress to the next shrine. There's a neat animation that happens, too.
    But see, the animation is the problem. What is supposed to happen is the sigil "corrects" the glyph, and the shrine is cleansed in the process. At that point, the sigil and former-glyph-now-rune fall from the sky and land on the stone table in the center of the shrine. When operated by most nVidia AND ATI video cards, the sigil and rune do not fall from the sky, and are stuck 30 feet in the air. This is bad because the Avatar needs these 16 total items to finish the game.
     
    Fortunately, I never got rid of the old HP computer that I replaced with the custom rig I built last year.
    I can migrate the save game files to the old computer, cleanse the shrine, migrate the files back to the new computer, and not have to build a giant pyramid of staves, bows, and flasks to retrieve these two items all 8 times.
     
    Despite the category in which this entry falls, swapping rigs is not really what this entry is about though.
     
     
    Halfway through the second dungeon (Hythloth), Richard Garriot used Executive Producer powers and had a teleporter to the end of said dungeon installed so that the upper, more difficult, half could be omitted from the task list. The logic apparently went like this: the Avatar character is relatively weak at this point, and there is little margin for error. Plus, the upper half requires a lot of swimming, something that doesn't lend itself well to tactical retreat.
     
    Well, I'm proud to say that I completed the upper half of Hythloth. All 8 statue keys were used, including the second red and the orange ones.
    In other words, I have more skill than the game production crew in 1999 gave the typical player credit.
     
    Yay me.
     
     
    And the mandrake root made it all worthwhile, too.
     
     
    -KIE
  10. Kopaka's Ice Engineering
    One of the highlights of the past couple of weeks has been the kickoff of construction of the Elmwood Park sewer improvement job. This 1.4 million dollar job involves the relocation of a sewer lift station in a narrow clearance between a buried fiberoptic duct bank and the curb of Wilson Drive, in Metairie, LA. It is a very narrow strip of land where the station must be located, and there's not much room to lay out materials on the side away from the street (There's a canal there.), so the contractor has to close Wilson Drive to set up and construct.
     
    This is apparently a problem for some residents who like to use Wilson Drive as a shortcut. This was evidenced by the scores of drivers who ignored the press release in the local paper, stating that Wilson Drive would be closed (detour to Jeannette or Power), or the message board saying "WILSON CLOSED // DETOUR POWER", OR the sign at Wilson stating "ROAD CLOSED TO THRU TRAFFIC <--DETOUR--", and saw fit to drive down Wilson, only to come to where the street is completely blocked and be forced to turn around, much to the amusement of us at the job site at the time. (The road was blocked, but it was the day before construction began: a last walkthrough before the road would really be closed.)
    The real kicker was when some person with the citizens action group "Citizens for a Safer Jefferson" filed a complaint about the road being closed and there not being at least one lane open. To that point I volunteer this: You seek to make Jefferson Parish a safer place. Tell me, what is safe about driving right next to a 25' deep pit? One half-hitch and you have a broken axle of your automobile AT BEST.
     
     
    BZPower, to those of you who drive regularly, have just garnered your license, in the throes of learner's permit limbo, or just starting to pester parents about Driver's Ed: Pay attention to the road. Just because you drive a street day-in, day-out does not mean you can zone out and make it automatic. 29 times out of 30, that road is owned by a public agency who has the authority to partially or fully restrict traffic for the purposes of future greater good, be it utility work or otherwise. If a sign is out there to be read, it should be read because it's not out there to be ignored.
    (If it could be ignored, it wouldn't have been put together to sit out there: those things cost a fair amount of cash (>$80 each).)
    Also, your route can be forced to change, and you shouldn't file a frivolous complaint because you're inconvenienced by the 8 month loss of a preferred shortcut: we're the engineers; we can't call our job done if we don't take you into account.
     
     
    -KIE
  11. Kopaka's Ice Engineering
    There is music and laughter lately
    And there's prayers and praise
    There are reasons to be so happy
    And at least to embrace

    There's a time to be so angry
    I'd rather lie in the sun
    It's the summer of my lifetime
    I've been blessed with some fun

    (Ho Ho) I'm a season past springtime
    (Ho Ho) And my life has gone boom
    (Ho Ho) Keep my eyes on the Father
    (Ho Ho) Everything is in bloom.

    Everything will just get better.
    Through the seasons I roam
    When all of the music's over,
    I will get to go home.

    (Ho Ho) I'm a season past springtime
    (Ho Ho) And my life has gone boom
    (Ho Ho) I keep my eyes on the Father
    (Ho Ho) Everything is in bloom.

    (Ho Ho) I'm a season past springtime
    (Ho Ho) And my life has gone boom
    (Ho Ho) I keep my eyes on the Father
    (Ho Ho) Everything is in bloom.

    I don't need theology
    to know that God's good to me
    He's given me a family
    AND A PLACE TO LAY MY HEAD
    Flung into the great unknown
    I was walking on my own
    Now I never walk alone
    IF I DID I WOULD BE DEAD
    I can't use it all myself
    So I take it off the shelf
    Here it is, enjoy yourself
    PUT AWAY YOUR DRUDGERY
    Use it up: there's always more
    That's what it's intended for
    Be the Lord's ambassador
    TO BE THE PLANET'S REMEDY.

    (Ho Ho) I'm a season past springtime
    (Ho Ho) And my life has gone boom
    (Ho Ho) Keep my eyes on the Father
    (Ho Ho) Everything is in bloom.

    (Ho Ho) I'm a season past springtime
    (Ho Ho) And my life has gone boom
    (Ho Ho) Keep my eyes on the Father
    (Ho Ho) Everything is in bloom.

    (Ho Ho) Everything
    Everything
    (Ho Ho) Everything
    Everything
    (Ho Ho) I'm a season past my springtime
    (Ho Ho) I'm a season past my spring
    (Ho Ho) I'm a season past my springtime
    (Ho Ho) And my life
    Has gone
    Boom
  12. Kopaka's Ice Engineering
    Oh, believe you me, I have entries worth posting. I just don't have time to type them up.
     
    I do, however, have time to relate this to you:
     
    The best fried chicken on the face of the planet is served by a man named Arthur Davis in an old country store in Lorman, MS. Point your GPS to 31° 49' N, 91° 3' W to find it on a service road on US 61.
     
     
    You will not regret this trip. People from Vancouver, BC, have signed the guest book, saying as much.
     
     
    More to come later this week, assuming I get time to type it.
     
     
    -KIE
  13. Kopaka's Ice Engineering
    Baseball Season is upon us.
     
    Amanda & I went to watch the New Orleans Zephyrs, AAA affiliate of the New York Metropolitans, play in their season opener tonight against the Nashville Sound, AAA affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers. It was the first minor league baseball game for either of us: I'm an Astros fan, and I might have gone back when they were the AAA of the Astros franchise, but now they're not. (That's the Round Rock Express, also in the Pacific Coast League.)
    We went because there were fireworks, and because it was something to do.
     
    $6 tickets on the "levee" (a hill in right center field) and dollar sodas made it affordable, too. An evening well spent. The Z's won 5-2.
     
    What is this fantasy that has ended? Well, it also has to do with the "boys of summer."
     
     
    For the first time this millennium, I do not have a fantasy baseball team to show off.
     
    Oh, I've been playing with some guys from the church softball team in 2007 & 2006, and I'd played off & on with some other guys here on BZP. 2001, I nearly won a 14-team league with some friends from college on the now-defunct Sandbox.com. That was the summer I went to Ohio: for 10 weeks, the Moss Bluff Cruisers were the Akron Cruisers. I was even messing around on Yahoo! in 1999.
     
    And here it comes to 2008, and I don't have a team. I don't have a league to participate in: the softball contacts are now at other churches (because the coordinators were ministers at the church: one now pastors in Dry Creek, LA; another in Hattiesburg, MS; and a third is now an army chaplain).
     
    Oh well. I suppose it's a good thing: now I don't have to selectively root for players playing against my favorite team (the Houston Astros) on any given day.
    Not that my rooting ever makes that big a difference, but hey, I'm a satisfied fan. I have my 2005 NL Pennant, and I can live on for the next 19, er, 16 years happy.
     
     
    -KIE
  14. Kopaka's Ice Engineering
    Apparently, I rock.
    (I bet you thought I was posting lyrics two days in a row. Nyah. )
     
    Easter was fun. Amanda & I went to her parents' place in West Monroe for the weekend. We left Thursday night, and I got to play photographer Friday morning at Biedenhorn Gardens in Monroe. Camelias & tulips were in bloom as the gardens were open for Easter pictures. Those of you who may have linked here otherwise (Yes, BZPower, I advertise my blog on other websites.) should see photographs loaded soon. (Perhaps later this evening: I need to find a way to reduce the file size, or email them to someone who can.)
     
    Mind you, it wasn't just flowers and scenery I photographed. The main focus was actually Amanda's two nieces: Mikayla & Ally. (Yes, the same two girls that one nearly severed the other's finger back in September. Ally's perfectly fine now, thanks for asking.) Mikayla had the journeyman's full-tooth smile going, but Ally's expressions sometimes were absolutely adorable, even for a 3-year-old.
    The photos themselves came out pretty well. Denis, one of the guys at work in Kenner, got to review them and pointed out where the auto-focus focused at the wrong depth a few times, but did hit it right some other times. To quote, "Imagine that: a Canon working." (Denis is a freelance photographer, and his camera standards are very high.)
     
    We also got to play on Amanda's sister & brother-in-law's Wii. Another quote from over the weekend: "You thought you were buying a game system. Oh, but no; you bought a gym." Wii Sports notwithstanding, I got to play a little Guitar Hero III. According to Todd, I'm pretty good for a first-timer. Well, after having been booed off the stage because someone didn't tell me that you have to "strum" the center switch AND "finger" the buttons on the frets.
     
    Anyway, we left Sunday, and I talked Amanda into a detour down US 61 (known in Louisiana as "Airline Highway", because Louis Armstrong International Airport (MSY) and Baton Rouge Metro Airpark (BTR) are incidentally connected by the highway). Our destination was a country store in Lorman, MS. If you've watched Feasting on Asphalt II: The River Run, you would have heard Alton Brown comment that this place had the best fried chicken in the state of Mississippi (if not the face of the planet).
    Well, we can't attest to that statement: we arrived 75 minutes late for dinner. Too much Wii, it would appear.
     
     
    Softball team is going to try for our first win of the '08 season on Friday night. Also, plans are bouncing around as to what's going to happen BIONICLE-wise at BrickFair 2008. Stay tuned.
     
    -KIE
  15. Kopaka's Ice Engineering
    I mentioned earlier this year (because I couldn't get it together last year) that Amanda gave me XM Satellite Radio for Christmas. She got me a receiver & antenna, an FM adapter, and a 30-day subscription. While I'm content to listen to WBSN or WODT whenever I'm around New Orleans, and can generally stomach KLove between Baton Rouge and home, the only thing I'd need XM for is baseball games.
    See, I'm as big an MLB fan as Amanda is an NFL fan. (This is why she has Sirius, not for Howard Stern.)
     
    Since the MLB season is starting in a couple of weeks, I decided it'd be about time I got the receiver installed in my car. I even thought I could get it done during lunch.
     
    Oh, how wrong I was.
     
     
    On Clearview Parkway, near I-10, there's a Mobile One (car audio) store. I left work at 11:45, in hopes of getting back to work at 1:00. (15 minutes isn't too much to write off in this business.) However, due to traffic, an 8 minute drive took 15, and I didn't actually get to Mobile One until noon. What's more, I was quoted a full hour of labor, meaning I wouldn't have any hope of getting back to the office at 1 PM.
     
    Well, there was little I could do about it, so I contented myself to head to the mall across 7 lanes of Clearview Parkway, and did some shopping.
     
    Got back to Mobile One at 12:50, in hopes they had been able to get done early. Nope: not only were they not done, but they had to pull a converter to convert the GM antenna to the universal antenna, then back to the GM audio system. Ended up being an extra hour of work.
     
    The worst part was that I'd left my cell phone at the office, charging. I couldn't let my boss know where or why I wasn't back.
     
     
    This radio had better come in better than WSLA on the north shore, or I'm going to be thoroughly upset with this whole rigmarole. I'm already not keen about shelling out $110 to install and dropping an hour of personal leave. And to top things off, the normal radio doesn't work while the XM receiver is plugged in!
     

     
     
    -KIE
  17. Kopaka's Ice Engineering
    Man, the trees were whistling last night. Okay, technically, it was the wind in the pine trees, but the sound originated in the trees, so there.
     
    If you were taking someone to their first orchestral performance ever, what scores would you want on the conductor's stand? What would you want performed?
    How does the following list strike you?
    Overture to La Forza del Destino by Verdi "Caro Nome" from Rigoletto, also by Verdi the ballet suite from Faust (7 movements usually not performed with the play) Overture to The Barber of Seville by Rossini "Eccomi in Lieta Vesta ... Oh Quante Volte" from I Capuleti e I Montecchi by Bellini "Prendi, per me sei libero" from L'elisir d'amore by Donizetti "Dance of the Hours" from La Gioconda by Ponchielli (Yes, the one from Fantasia. That "Dance of the Hours.") Last Wednesday night, the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra performed "Arias and Overtures" at the First Baptist Church of Kenner. (This pre-empted choir practice, for anyone wondering. Kinda hard to practice with a concert outside the choir room.) Since there were compensatory tickets available to FBCK members, Amanda & I went.
     
    While I grew up a band nerd by any standard, I realized my livelihood would be better served if it depended on something other than my bass clarinet ability. Still, I breezed through MUSC 301 (Music Appreciation) in the fall of 1999. Last week I'd found out that Amanda took a theater appreciation course for her arts elective at Louisiana Tech, and since the music program in West Carroll Parish school system is non-existant, this would be Amanda's first taste of live classical music.
    In short, she loved it, imposing soprano solos notwithstanding.
     
    I got to thinking about how much guitar there is in music nowadays. Since music to the general public is defined (more or less) by what is heard on the radio, a guitar, even multiple guitars, are required for anything to be considered "music". This, of course, is outside of the pieces played on NPR between social programs that front views to which I do not ascribe (and thus, find annoying).
    Rock, contemporary, country & western, pop, top 40, metal, even praise & worship uses a guitar for chord definition, and it's sad. There is a whole world of music out there that doesn't need the guitar. The world needs more classical music.
    </rant>
     
    As far as other stuff going on today, well, one can only say about #4 that he did it his way. *cues Sinatra*
    So glad my name isn't "Aaron Rodgers".
     
    -KIE
  18. Kopaka's Ice Engineering
    There's a place where I come from
    It's the place where I belong
    Where you will never die
    Wipe the tears off from your eyes

    Sun and moon and stars above
    Never match this perfect love
    Just look to the painter's hands
    Like an ocean meets its sands.

    Digigee Digigee Dime Dime
    Digigee Digigee Dime
    Digigee Digigee Dime Dime
    Digigee Digigee Dime

    Twisted castles in her hair
    Building mountains in the air
    Making profits, lending loans
    Ancient TV's golden telephones

    But within this misty cave
    Lies a painter, blind but brave.
    Paints the story of where we've been
    Where we are, where we could be.

    Digigee Digigee Dime Dime
    Digigee Digigee Dime
    Digigee Digigee Dime Dime
    Digigee Digigee Dime
    Digigee Digigee Dime Dime
    Digigee Digigee Dime
    Digigee Digigee Dime Dime
    Digigee Digigee Dime

    So kiss the light, seize the day
    Shine your shoes, come to play
    Sun is shining, sky is clear
    Leave your worries with your fears

    Light eternal, sleep inside
    To my heart and through my eyes
    Bringing sweetness to my soul
    Close your eyes, be made whole.

    Digigee Digigee Dime Dime
    Digigee Digigee Dime
    Digigee Digigee Dime Dime
    Digigee Digigee Dime
    Digigee Digigee Dime Dime
    Digigee Digigee Dime
    Digigee Digigee Dime Dime
    Digigee Digigee Dime

    I ride my bus.
    I ride my bus.
    I ride my bus. (my bus)
    I ride.....

    <drum break>

    There's a place where I come from
    It's the place where I belong
    Where you will never die
    Wipe the tears off from your eyes

    Sun and moon and stars above
    Never match this perfect love
    Leave behind your broken past
    Sing this song "We're free at last!"

    Digigee Digigee Dime Dime
    Digigee Digigee Dime (hey)
    Digigee Digigee Dime Dime
    Digigee Digigee Dime (ho)
    Digigee Digigee Dime Dime
    Digigee Digigee Dime (hey)
    Digigee Digigee Dime Dime
    Digigee Digigee Dime

    Digigee Digigee Dime Dime
    Digigee Digigee Dime (hey...)
    Digigee Digigee Dime Dime
    Digigee Digigee Dime
    Digigee Digigee Dime Dime (hey...)
    Digigee Digigee Dime
    Digigee Digigee Dime Dime
  19. 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
  20. Kopaka's Ice Engineering
    Thursday night, I earned all possible points in effort and in degree of difficulty. That was barely enough to avert disaster, though, and there is a lesson to be learned.
     
    For Valentine's Day, I thought I'd get fancy, and pulled a recipe from foodnetwork.com for Pistachio-crusted tilapia & chard with prosciutto and gorgonzola.
    Because Amanda doesn't like pistachios, and I have no idea where to find chard, I made some substitutions in the recipe.
     
    It starts simply enough: chop up some oregano, thyme, garlic and macadamia nuts for the crusting. Salt & pepper the fish filets, and brush with honey mustard before crusting and frying in olive oil. While the fish cooks (2-3 minutes on each side), the prosciutto, some pine nuts, and the field greens flash fry/steam in olive oil at a higher temp. Two pans going at the same time.
     
    Mistake #1, I forgot to add the honey mustard before applying the crust. It all went downhill from there.
     
    Mistake #2, I was tending to the fish filets while the oil was heating up. I'm trying to set the macadamia into a filet a little better, and all of a sudden, I hear a *foom* behind me.
     
    THE SMALLER SKILLET CAUGHT FIRE.
    Spontaneous combustion of the olive oil.
     
    I had LIQUID FIRE in my as-of-yet unused aluminum skillet.
     
    Mistake #3, I had never complained to the management about my not having a fire extinguisher.
     
    Adding water to an oil or other liquid-fuel fire does not help put it out: it only provides a manner of fuel transportation. (A mist of water is a different thing: the mist displaces some of the oxygen in the air.) I realized this, and knew not to run it in the sink. Pouring it down the sink was also not an option: fire would certainly tear up the PVC piping or the food disposal. I couldn't blow it out, as I was quickly losing oxygen myself (semi-cramped kitchenette) to olive oil smoke.
    The only option, remove the pan & fire from the apartment. I took it outside, as if to say "Now what?"
     
    Fire needs 3 things to survive: Fuel (olive oil), oxygen (air), and heat (the pan). While I couldn't do anything about the first two components, I could do something about the third.
     
    Fire rained down at Flowergate apartments Thursday night.
    Fortunately, no one was hurt.
     
    Mistake #4, I didn't have the sense to stop while I was ahead.
    Undaunted, I pressed on with the menu. After cooling the skillet, I put more oil (at a lower heat), and tried to continue in the still smoke-filled kitchen. While I got the prosciutto in for the right amount of time, the pine nuts were in a bit too long, and they looked more like coffee beans when the greens were done steaming.
     
    Amanda (who bruised her knee during the pan evacuation episode), was still impressed with the fish, but I clearly bit off more than I could chew.
     
    Two lessons.
     
    1: NEVER EVER EVER leave a pan on the stove unattended. EVER.
     
    2: Make reservations for Valentine's Day.
     
     
    -KIE
  21. Kopaka's Ice Engineering
    Mardi Gras was great. Amanda & I caught 5 parades all told: Excalibur, Atlas, d'État, Isis, and Zeus. We could have caught 7 more (Hermes, Morpheus, Muses, Napoleon, Argus, Elks Jeffersonian, and Jefferson), but circumstances didn't allow for it. Specifically, we were too late for Hermes, Morpheus and Muses were taking too long, Napoleon broke down, and after Zeus, Amanda was just plain Mardi-Gras'd out. Pictures are in the process of being uploaded to my maj folder. (I'm just uploading them straight from the camera.)
     
    We only caught 5 of the 63 Mardi Gras parades in the area. And yet, I have beads strewn out all over the place in my apartment.
    This is good for you, however: extra beads means I have something to give to you.
     
    Why would I give them to you? Skip to the end if you can't wait.
     
     
    Anyway, seeing as how Tuesday was Fat Tuesday, we are now in the Lenten season. I always look forward to Lent. While I'm not Catholic, and don't actually celebrate Lent, I enjoy it when it comes because fish sandwiches become more readily available at fast food restaurants. Heck, even Taco Tico has fish tacos during Lent. (I could do without the jalapeño tartar sauce, though.) Yes, I live in the Gulf Coast region, so seafood is available year-round, but even I don't have time/money to go to a decent restaurant for lunch every day.
    Anything, really to get into the habit of eating healthier. I weighed myself this morning, and the scale gave me good & bad news: 209½ lb., but only 24.7% body fat. Softball starts early this year, and spring training is right around the corner. Besides, there's a tuna salad recipe I've been meaning to try that uses ranch dressing instead of mayonnaise.
    Mind you, I'm free to eat red meat: at the moment I just choose not to. Next weekend, I will probably choose to eat red meat, so there.
     
    Oh, I mentioned the camera: Canon PowerShot A720 IS. 6× optical zoom. 8.0 mega pixels. It's spiffy. It will be making an appearance at BrickFair in August, along with the extra Mardi Gras beads.
     
    I want to give these authentic Mardi Gras beads to you. All you have to do is send your best MOCs to me so that they can be displayed at BrickFair.
     
     
    Yeah, I'm officially announcing my appointment as the BIONICLE coordinator for BrickFair 2008. Send me the good stuff and I'll send it back with beads.
    Details to come later this spring.
     
    -KIE
  22. Kopaka's Ice Engineering
    Rule #1: Eating chocolate on February 14 breaks no diets or New Year's resolutions. Lenten fasts are under debate.
     
     
    I'm trying to wrap stuff up in Kenner today, so I'm here to type out a blog entry.
    Tonight promises to be quite interesting: I'm cooking Ecuadorian tilapia tonight, in lieu of placing reservations at some place I won't afford (Well, I could afford, but then I wouldn't be able to go to a Brewers' game the first weekend of May.)
     
    Quick comment: Gosh, I'm glad my name isn't Roger Clemens, and I'm not in Washington, DC right now.
     
    Another quick comment: The Darwin Award of the moment goes to the individual responsible for the following story:
    Not the brightest bulb? I beg to differ: the cad must obviously exude an electric personality.
     
     
    -KIE, whose world doesn't need to be rocked by his girlfriend tonight
  23. Kopaka's Ice Engineering
    Down in New Orleans where the blues was born
    It takes a cool cat to blow a horn
    On LaSalle and Rampart Street
    The combo's playin' with a mambo beat

    The Mardi Gras Mambo (mambo, mambo)
    Party Gras Mambo (mambo, mambo)
    Mardi Gras Mambo-ooh
    Down in New Orleans

    In Gert Town where the cats all meet
    There's a Mardi Gras mambo ...with a beat
    They shout to the Chief with the Zulu gang
    And truck on down where the mambo's swing

    The Mardi Gras Mambo (mambo, mambo)
    Party Gras Mambo (mambo, mambo)
    Party Gras Mambo-ooh
    Down in New Orleans

    Down in New Orleans where the blues was born
    It takes a cool cat to blow a horn
    On LaSalle and Rampart Street
    The combo's playin' with a mambo beat

    The Mardi Gras Mambo (mambo, mambo)
    Party Gras Mambo (mambo, mambo)
    Party Gras Mambo-ooh
    Down in New Orleans

    Mardi Gras Mambo (mambo, mambo)
    Party Gras Mambo (mambo, mambo)
    Party Gras Mambo (mambo, mambo)

    © 1954 The Hawketts
  25. Kopaka's Ice Engineering
    There are friends waiting for you.
     

    from left: Mimiru, Helba, Bear, Tsukasa, Subaru, Crim, Sora, BT
    Image borrowed from a chinese site, by way of Wikipedia
    I may replace it with a better one if I find one in the DVDs that just arrived.
     
    .hack//SIGN was on Toonami back when Veritas, my guild in Ultima Online was still mostly active. Taking away from the main plotline (which, in the text of the characters themselves, really is a subplot), the interactions of the characters and their non-RP-ness in doing so reinforced all the cool things about MMORPGs that kept me with UO as long as it did.
     
    I haven't logged into UO since Thanksgiving. Most MMOs are very boring to play without other people to play with, and there aren't that many people that play in a manner which fits my playstyle: too many people are busy trying to "win" UO, instead of realizing that it, like any game, is an escape, nothing more. I enjoyed playing it when I did, and I might get back to it. Right now, though, Team Fortress 2 and spending time with Amanda is more fun than getting it back up.
     
    I still have two accounts, though. If anyone wants to play on Napa Valley with me, I could be bothered to start it going again.
     
    And Yantri, yeah, if what happened to Sora ever gets close to happening to me, you still have permission to smack me, hard.
     
     
    -KIE (aka Cephas)
×
×
  • Create New...