Iowa-licious

Bill Maher, host of Politically Incorrect, has issued a statement apologizing to the mentally retarded.  I was watching the other night when he compared them to dogs, and from the reaction by the audience, it was apparent he'd gone a little too far over the edge of Political Incorrect-ness.

My grandmother just e-mailed me her recipe for "Iowa Chocolate Cake".  I'll have to try that out this weekend with my new mixer.  I'm not sure what makes it "Iowa" chocolate cake, as opposed to just chocolate cake, but I'm not about to argue with her.  Perhaps it is because Iowa is kind of a boxy looking state, and if your 13x9" pan is really old and battered, it could resemble our state.  I take no responsibility if you get out a ball-peen hammer and attempt to modify your cake pan as such.  Here's the recipe, as typed up by her:

                                IOWA CHOCOLATE CAKE

3/4 C. shortening 

2 C. sugar

1 1/2 C. boiling water

2 C. flour

1 t. vanilla

2 t. soda

1/2 C. cocoa

1/2 t. salt

2 eggs, beaten

 

    Put shortening and sugar in a bowl, cover with the boiling water.  Sift dry ingreds. together and add to the hot mixture.  Add eggs and vanilla.  Batter will be very thin.  Pour into greased 9 by 13" pan or 2 layer cake pans.  I make them into cupcakes, too.

 

350 degree oven.  For the long cake pan bake approx. 35 min.  Layer cake pans and cupcakes about 20 to 25 min.

Darty Vader in the Field of Dreams

The Register is running a bit about Microsoft advertising that people should upgrade to Windows 2000 for increased uptime.  No shit.  The only reason I reboot my Win2K machines is to add hardware, or the annoying software packages that actually require a reboot.  They don't crash very often at all, and any crashes that I do experience are almost always a single application crashing, not the entire OS.  Unless you do what I did the other day, plug your webcam into a non-powered USB hub.  That crashed my box, but plugging it into a powered hub quickly corrected the problem.

I just stood in line for half an hour to get two tickets to see James Earl Jones when he speaks/performs here on Monday.  They were free, and available only to students.  Fortunately, my dual student/staff status pays off for things like this.  I'm not really sure what the performance is going to consist of, maybe he'll just walk out and say:

"THIS... IS CNN"

and

"LUKE, I AM YOUR FATHER!"

And walk offstage amid cheers from the crowd.

I figure if anyone talks in capital letters, it's James Earl Jones.

Here's the press release:

James Earl Jones to speak at the University of Northern Iowa

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa — The University of Northern Iowa will host internationally celebrated actor James Earl Jones at 7:30 p.m., Monday, Jan. 22 in the Great Hall of the Gallagher-Bluedorn Performing Arts Center.

The Tony award winning actor will discuss his life and career -- from his stuttering problem as a youth in Mississippi to a Tony award, Oscar nomination and roles in blockbuster films such as Star Wars and Field of Dreams.

"An Evening with James Earl Jones" is free of charge, but tickets are required. Current UNI students will have first chance at tickets. Remaining tickets will be made available to the public at 8 a.m., Friday, Jan. 19 at the following UNI ticket offices: Gallagher-Bluedorn Performing Arts Center, UNI-Dome, Strayer-Wood Theatre and UNI Conferences and Visitor Services. Limit two tickets per person.

For more information, contact Guy Sims, UNI assistant director of student activities at (319) 273-2683. This event is funded through student activity fees and is sponsored by the UNI Speakers Committee in conjunction with the UNI Entertainment Committee, Student Life Team and the Office of Student Activities.

Update: John sent me an e-mail pointing out that today is James Earl Jones' 70th birthday.  I confirmed it at the History Channel even.

1931 - James Earl Jones (actor: Star Wars [Darth Vader], The Hunt for Red October, The Lion King, Sneakers, Roots, The Great White Hope; "This... is CNN")

Pop Quiz

Susan pointed at this test, which should tell you whether or not you're over 40.

I scored 18 out of 20, it told me I'm over 40.  I'm only 24!!!  I do watch the History Channel constantly though, that must be it...

IT

In case you haven't noticed, I added a small version of the web cam I set up yesterday to this page.  Click on the image, and you'll be taken to a much larger version of it, on a page that reloads every thirty seconds.  I can pretty much guarantee that this will not be exciting at all, especially since it's only on while I'm at work.  But, if you've got some morbid curiousity about what IT people do all day at work, feel free to watch.  If you catch me doing something funny, send me the file, and I'll put it up here...

Okay, since everyone else is doing it, I went ahead and made myself a little avatar also:

Update:  My girlfriend made one of herself for me to post as well.  The cat is just wishful thinking on her part:

Yesterday, I asked what "Ginger" was, and speculated it was perhaps an alternate form of transportation from the description that had been given.  Macintouch has a link this morning, showing a patent application from the inventor.  It looks like I was right, though I'm not sure if this will catch on or not, it all depends on range and speed.  If it can do better than 10 miles an hour, I'd ride one to work...

Balmy

Now this is a strange article.  Apparently, there's something incredible coming from this inventor, but we can't tell you what it us until next year.  Hmm, based on this description, I'd guess it's some type of alternative transportation, or perhaps some improved method of tele-commuting, but that's just a hunch:

According to Dean Kamen, the inventor of "Ginger," his device will be an alternative to products that "are dirty, expensive, sometimes dangerous and often frustrating, especially for people in the cities."

This is from the same guy who invented the wheelchair that could go up and down stairs.  Apparently Steve Jobs is impressed with whatever it is, as is Jeff Bezos.  So, anyone got any guesses as to what "Ginger" really is?

Based on Dan's suggestion, I picked up a copy of David Farquhar's book, Optimizing Windows.  It just arrived, and it already looks pretty useful, with a lot of stuff that really makes sense when I read it, but that I wouldn't have thought of on my own.  The book is of limited use for those of us running Windows 2000, but, as I have to support dozens of old Windows 95 machines still, this will help in wringing a little extra performance out of some of them.

Bookpool had the best price on the book, as Amazon.com was apparently out of stock.  It's the first time I've ordered from them, and I've got to say that I love the way they display the shipping choices.  They have like 7 choices, and they display the price right next to them.  That's the way it should be, I'd probably opt for quicker shipping from more sites if it was done in this manner.  When I can't see, I figure I'm likely to get screwed, so I just got with the slowest and cheapest.  But, if I can see the prices ahead of time, I'm pretty likely to bump it up, as I did in this case, since moving from UPS Ground to UPS 2nd Day Air cost me only 85 cents or so.  Amazon, are you listening?

The ol' referer log shows that I've got a new reader.  Welcome Angelo/Preben Arentoft!  Good luck on that lotto ticket...

You can tell it's been cold here lately, everyone's walking around saying "What a nice day it is!" and it's only 34 degrees outside.

My new hard drive and copy of TurboTax showed up already!  That's one thing I like about Buy.com, and why I'm starting to order more stuff from them.  Even though their prices are generally quite close to Amazon.com, Buy.com has a tendency to get things to me overnight, even though I just opt for the standard shipping.  A lot of their stuff ships from just across the Mississippi river, rather than from Kentucky, Kansas, or Nevada, where Amazon apparently keeps its warehouses.