The black Mac

I'm not a big fan of Microsoft, as anyone who's talked to me about computers should know. I've even got "enhancements" installed on my PC to make certain things look/behave more like a Mac. Still, I find those new Mac commercials annoying.

Homemade strawberry ice cream

Edit: This is what it looks like after I melted the original batch and churned it the second time. It's a deeper pink because during the melting and churning process, the strawberry pieces were "cut" smaller, so more of the red got into the mixture. It's much softer than before, although I still should have let it churn for longer.

Following the recipe that came with my ice cream maker, I decided to try and make some strawberry ice cream. Here I have a pint of sliced strawberries, macerated for 2 hours in 3 tablespoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice, and 1/3 cup of sugar.

1 cup of milk and 2 cups of heavy cream are first mixed with 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract, 2/3 cup of sugar, and all the lemon/strawberry juice used for maceration. Churn away, ice cream maker!

It says to add the strawberries in the final five minutes. The whole process is supposed to take around 25-35 minutes, so I was just waiting for the 25 minute mark, and checking the consistency of the churn, to pour in the strawberry.

Unfortunately, it seems the recipe they had yielded too much ice cream--the machine can only hold 1 1/2 quart of ice cream total. That means 3 pints. Or 6 cups. The process of making ice cream means that as your mixture freezes, the churning adds air and keeps it from becoming large chunks of ice, so as air is added, the mixture increases in size (anywhere between 25% to 100%). So we've got 1 cup of sugar + 2 cups heavy cream + 1 cup milk + 1 pint (aka 2 cups) strawberry. That's already 6 cups! There's still the extra lemon juice and air unaccounted for! WTF *&^#)*%!

(Why didn't I do the math beforehand? Stupid, stupid, stupid...)

This means that my mixture would overflow when I tried to add the strawberry, and it wouldn't get to the "soft serve" consistency I needed before I put the whole thing in the freezer to set.

What does that mean, in the end? Well, it tastes pretty good, but the texture is not consistent. Parts of it is soft, while others are hard. And the strawberry is not as evenly distributed as I'd like them to be.

Otherwise, it's not too bad. I suppose I can always eat away 1/3 of it first, melt it down, then re-churn the thing.

Next time, I'll decrease the amount of strawberries and milk/cream. That should make for a much more pleasing result.

GoBots are the Kmart of Transformers

Clerks II rocks.


That is all. And now back to your regularly scheduled program...

More than meets the eye

There are many rumors circulating about this upcoming live-action + CGI movie. Although they did officially announce at Comic-Con that Peter Cullen, the man who voiced Optimus Prime in the original cartoon series, will reprise his role for the movie. This is good news for the fans of the original (Generation 1) series, especially with the rumored new design of Optimus for the movie:

This supposed new design is particularly displeasing to fans, as we're all quite used to how the original Optimus looked, and considering the "promo" model they used, it seems strange that they would go with this new design (which looks more like the Armada version), with flames painted on the sides... Personally, I think flames would not fit Optimus Prime's personality, and I obviously don't like the look.

Other rumors include Bumblebee being a Camaro instead of a Beetle, and Megatron being a tank rather than a pistol. I can't fault them if Bumblebee doesn't look like his cartoon version in robot form (and if the pics I've seen of the yellow robot in the movie is indeed Bumblebee, he doesn't), since even the original toy for Bumblebee looked nothing like his cartoon version in robot form, but I don't see why they would not keep him as a Beetle. It's not like it can't be done or something...

The only thing I can think of is if Volkswagen objects to having their vehicle used in the movie. But why the hell would they do that?

Caught cheating

Always be prepared, I say.

"Premium" ice cream

Ever since I saw the Good Eats episode on premium ice cream, I've been thinking about getting my own ice cream churning machine to test out the recipe. And see how "premium" differs from regular ice cream. (Although, as it turns out, I have had "premium" ice cream before--Häagen-Dazs is considered "super premium" ice cream.)

So, on Saturday, I set out to the nearby Target and Bed Bath & Beyond (they're in the same plaza, which makes it quite easy). The mission: To find an affordable, easy to use ice cream maker. And if I find one to my liking, I would also need some additional items that I did not possess, but which are required for the making of premium ice cream:

1. Food thermometer
2. Large container (to chill and freeze the ice cream in)
   

The result is mostly a success, although I tried to add green tea flavoring to it, and failed. Many tea bags and powdered green tea packs later, I still do not taste any green tea in the ice cream. So it's basically a premium vanilla ice cream, with (if you can taste any) an extremely faint hint of green tea.

I also found a pack for making green tea ice cream. Just add milk and egg yolk. But with only 3/4 cup of milk, the yield can't be much. Most likely not even a pint. $1.99 for the mix, still need your own milk and egg yolk, it'd have to taste like heaven for me to not just go back to buying ready-made half gallons of green tea ice cream.


On a side note, it looks like Blogger has increased the maximum allowable size for uploaded images. I'll have to try the full-size pic and see what they come out as (at this point, I'm guessing 1600 x 1200) next time.

Auto Cool

It's summer time. And for many people, it means having to park their cars out in the hot sun, where they'll sit like baking ovens. If only there was some way to effortlessly keep your car cool, while you're busy working, studying in class, etc.

So a solar-powered fan to blow the hot air out of your car sounds like a pretty good idea, right? Keep waiting, America. It doesn't work.


Actually, I only caught the end of the infomercial that was pushing this product, so I didn't catch any of the details on how it's supposed to work, except that you're supposed to attach it to your window, and it purports to keep your car cool. Car shades for your windshield don't really do much, except maybe keep your steering wheel from becoming scalding hot, but it's still hot in your car. So of course I'm interested when something claims to be able to keep your car cool while it's sitting in the sun (a comfortable 75°, claims the infomercial), and looked it up in Google to find out how it's supposed to work.

With just a dinky little fan, there's no way it will keep your car cool. Even if it's a large fan, when the temperature outside is 90° or higher, how is a fan supposed to keep your car at a cool 75°?

Loco Roco

I downloaded this demo game for my PSP recently. It's quite addictive. You use the L & R buttons to tilt the ground, so that the round creature can roll in the proper direction. You can additionally make it jump over obstacles, split up into smaller creatures, and join back together. All throughout, the creatures are singing an addictive little tune.

Monty Python and the Jedi Knights

Just came across this while searching for other stuff on Google. It's pretty well done.

Effin' Yahoo

For a while now, I've been getting "random" browser crashes when I visit Yahoo! Mail. I figured that one of the extensions I've installed must somehow be conflicting with something new that Yahoo has implemented with their mail interface.

Today I finally decided to search the web and see if anyone has figured out the cause of the problem.

As it turns out, the culprit is most likely something that Yahoo! Messenger installed, which isn't working properly. And the solution is to rename or delete the file--npYState.dll, typically found in C:\Program Files\Yahoo!\Shared\ (more info can be found here).

So I'm going to try this, and see if I still encounter these Yahoo! Mail crashes.

Clerks 2

In two weeks, the Clerks II movie should be out in theaters. It picks up ten years after the end of Clerks. Dante and Randal still work as clerks (I guess Dante never went back to college), but now work at Mooby's, following a fire that destroys the Quick Stop and RST Video.

Kevin Smith has retired the website, MoviePoopShoot.com, and the new version is now called Quick Stop Entertainment. Here's why:

Chicken nugget redux

Tonight marked my 3rd attempt at a convection-oven baked version of Taiwanese chicken nuggets (鹽酥雞). It's a slightly different recipe that I found online (plus my own changes), and in my second attempt, I added eggs as a test, and also tried some with a batter. As I expected, batters don't work well with the convection oven, as they mostly dripped away (like the fat from the bacon). Aside from that, the eggs created a texture I didn't particularly like (probably would have worked better fried). This third try turned out pretty well.


My modified recipe:

4 pieces of skinless, boneless chicken thighs (or similarly portioned chicken breasts)
2 tablespoons of soy sauce
1/2 tablespoon of rice wine (FYI: 3 teaspoons = 1 tablespoon)
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon of 5-spice powder
1 teaspoon of sugar
1 teaspoon of ground black pepper
5 tablespoons of sweet potato powder (coarse)

Small pinch of salt
Small dash of sesame oil
Chopped basil leaves (to taste)
Ground white pepper
Pam cooking spray or olive oil

Create marinade mixing soy sauce, rice wine, minced garlic, 5-spice powder, sugar, black pepper, salt, sesame oil, and basil leaves. Cut the chicken into bitesize pieces, and marinate for at least 2 hours (I let it marinate overnight).

In a plate or pan, fill with sweet potato powder. Take the chicken pieces from the marinade and coat each with the powder. (Most sweet potato powder packs you get from the Chinese market should be coarse, although there are also fine varieties--I made the mistake of getting these for my second attempt, without looking carefully at the package, so be sure you check the package carefully prior to purchase.)

Brush grills with olive oil or spray non-stick cooking spray. Bake in convection oven for 30 minutes at 400°F, turning over halfway through. If, after 20 minutes, any of the sweet potato powder are still white, brush with some olive oil to get them to "cook."

(Alternatively, you can deep fry the nuggets in peanut oil, heated to around 350°F, for about 5 minutes.)

Sprinkle ground white pepper over the nuggets, and serve.

Bacon-wrapped hot dogs

It's not as unhealthy as it sounds... really. Because I use the FlavorWave Oven to cook the bacon and hot dogs, most of the fat drips down and is never consumed. I also add some grilled onions to the mix for some veggie goodness. Of course, I'm not saying that it would be healthy to eat this everyday, but every once in a while, it's not that bad.

The reason I wanted to try this is because of a conversation with Betsy, my boss' niece, who's been coming into the office on-and-off for the past month or so. Like Candice, she doesn't like to eat onions--on several occasions she had to pick out the onions from the food that either she or her dad got her for lunch. So I asked her about it, and it's mostly raw onions that she doesn't like--she has no problem with onion rings, and grilled onions will depend on how they're cooked. This then reminded me of the grilled-onions and bacon-wrapped hot dogs I've smelled the street vendors sell at downtown L.A. (when I went to E3) and Hollywood. To me, what really sold those hot dogs, was the aroma of the grilled onions.

The "grilled" onions were made using extra-virgin olive oil, with a small pinch of salt.

As the hot dogs and bacon begin to cook, fat drips down from the bacon. One piece of store-bought bacon wraps almost perfectly around a piece of hot dog, so the combination works out great. I used Ball Park franks (they "plump when you cook 'em"), so the bacon around the hot dogs will become a bit too tight for 'em, and they'll split open starting at the tip. If you cook them long enough, they'll split right down the middle, splitting the bacon along with them.

The finished product. I didn't buy hot dog buns, so I just ate them off the plate. It would be easier to eat with a bun, though.

Ugh.. Tech death

I primarily use two browsers when I'm surfing the Internet--Mozilla Firefox, and the Mozilla Suite. I actually use the Suite more than Firefox, despite recommending Firefox to others (and never the Suite). This is because the Suite is more of an all-in-one package, I use it for web browsing, emails, and newsgroups--most people these days only use webmail and don't even know what newsgroups are, so they don't need to extra stuff, and since Firefox is updated more often than the Mozilla Suite, it is also more secure.

I generally dislike having to update the Mozilla Suite, because the process is typically less than simple, as past experience has dictated. However, when the it crashed on me two nights ago, I finally decided to bite the bullet and check for a newer version. A quick check revealed that there are, indeed available updates--I was running version 1.7.11, while the latest version is 1.7.13, and I had 1.7.12 sitting on my harddrive (must have downloaded that when it was first released, and decided against updating).

After uninstall 1.7.11, rebooting my computer, and installing 1.7.13, the nightmare began. Unlike with Firefox, none of my extensions worked, and the Suite doesn't try to look for updated versions, either. I knew going in that this was how it was--having gone through the process numerous times before--so this was no surprise. Actually, if I left it at that, Mozilla would run just fine. However, I had many extensions installed previously, which I make use of daily for my surfing needs, and without them, Mozilla wouldn't be my primary browser.

Looking up and installing about 15 extensions, and omitting a few that obviously no longer work with the new version. So far so good. Of course, I have to restart the browser for the extensions to work, so I do that. And it comes up messed up--Adblock Plus doesn't work, which means I have to go back to Adblock. No uninstall function for Adblock Plus, so I try using the Extension Uninstaller extension. It still shows up on restart. I remember trying to manually uninstall Adblock before, and ended up having to reinstall the browser. So I do that, instead. Then, I remove all files relating to both Adblock and Adblock Plus.

Reinstall the extensions once again... There's no guarantee that all of the other extensions are compatible; I could install each one individually, restart the browser, and see if everything still worked... but that would take too long for my taste. So I install a few at a time. Everything seemed good, until I get to the end. I restarted the browser, and my heart sank--instead of opening the browser at all, it just sends an error report. Then *POOF*. Nothing. I took a chance and tried a Firefox trick--Safe Mode. The browser opened, and most of the extensions and plug-ins seem to be working. Mouse Gestures work, and I can see the Diggler icon. Even the new theme I applied is showing up. Still, not everything worked. Middle-clicking on some links resulted in nothing happening, while on some others the link opened in a new tab, as it was supposed to do.

Turns out the culprit is Single Window. There's no uninstall function, disabling it didn't help, and Extension Uninstaller couldn't truly uninstall it, either. Not wanting to go through the uninstall/reinstall process all over again, I looked up the instructions for manually uninstalling an extension. Now the browser works. But I still needed something to force new windows into new tabs. I had stayed away from it in the past, because I didn't want to add a ton of tab functions, but now I had no choice, so I installed MultiZilla. The closest Firefox relative to this is probably Tabbrowser Extensions (commonly referred to as TBE).


Since they've stopped all updates to the Mozilla Suite, the final version is and will be 1.7.13. I'll probably have to eventually switch to SeaMonkey (which used to be Mozilla Suite's codename).