October 2006

Thingamablog Commenting

Ok, here's what to do to add PHP comments to Thingamablog.

1. Download this code and put the two files into the 'web files' directory.
2. Modify the 'add_comment.php' file to your e-mail address, if you want e-mail notification.
3. To our styles-site.css (or whatever your CSS file is called), add .comment_sender and .comment_body to the style sheet for whatever look and feel that you want to have.
4. For each of the templates, add the following code whever you want to have commenting:

<?php
$article="<$EntryID$>";
$base='.';
include 'comments.php';
?>

Note that Thingamablog puts the files in different subdirectories, so you will have to modify the $base and include lines to '..' and '../comments.php' in some cases to get the comments to work correctly for some pages. This is because all the comments are stored in the main blog directory (as are the scripts), but the web pages can be stored elsewhere. It is probably best to use relative pathnames (../.., etc) rather than absolute paths in case you want to move your blog in the future.

Note that I am not a PHP guru, so this code is probably not the most secure. However, it works for me. However, I don't have enough traffic to get blog spam (yet).

Pasties 101

Well, I'm not a chef. I'm not even a cook. I can barely order McDonald's. However, a few weeks ago, I got a craving for some pasties, a sort of stew-in-a-pie-package that is a delicacy of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I got a recipe off of this web site, and here it is, with my comments. Note! I have not yet eaten them, so if they turn out terrible, well, here is the proof.

Making the Crust

3 c. flour
1 1/2 sticks butter (cold and cut into bits)
1 1/2 tsp. salt
6 tbsp. water

In a large bowl, combine flour, butter and salt. Blend ingredients until well combined and add water, one tablespoon at a time to form a dough. Toss mixture until it forms a ball. Kneed dough lightly against a smooth surface with heel of the hand to distribute fat evenly. Form into a ball, dust with flour, wrap in wax paper and chill for 30 minutes.

My Commentary

This sounds a lot easier than it is in reality. As far as mashing the flour and butter together, I did this with my bare hands as pressing it around a bowl with a wooden spoon was taking too much time and did not seem to be making any good progress. I also ended up added probably somewhere in the range of 10 tbsp of water since it all kept falling it apart, and forming it into a ball was impossible.

Making the Filling

1 lb. round steak, coarsely ground
1 lb. boneless pork loin, coarsely ground
5 carrots, chopped
2 lg. onions, chopped
2 potatoes, peeled and chopped
1/2 c. rutabaga, chopped (can substitute turnip)
2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper

Combine all ingredients in large bowl. Divide the dough into 6 pieces, and roll one of the pieces into a 10-inch round on a lightly floured surface. Put 1 1/2 cups of filling on half of the round. Moisten the edges and fold the unfilled half over the filling to enclose it. Pinch the edges together to seal them and crimp them decoratively with a fork. Transfer pasty to lightly buttered baking sheet and cut several slits in the top. Roll out and fill the remaining dough in the same manner. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 30 minutes. Put 1 tsp. butter through a slit in each pasty and continue baking for 30 minutes more. Remove from oven, cover with a damp tea towel, cool for 15 minutes.

Milwaukee Journal March 28, 1943 Welsh

Commentary

Well, in writing this up, I realize that I forgot the salt and pepper. I figure that it's not that big a deal as I plan on adding extra salt and pepper at eating time (sorry, I'm a computer geek and talk about run-time and compile-time). I'm also planning on eating them with brown sauce, which is pretty salty anyway.

This is a LOT of food. When I was out buying the food, I didn't realized how much food this is. After rolling out the dough, trying to pack all that food in would be impossible. I got maybe 2/3 of it in, and I'm going to have to figure out what to do later with the remainder.

Rolling the dough turned out to be a lot of fun, but I had to keep the kids away. Their comment about eating uncooked dough: "It tastes like Play-Doh".

I used 3 spanish (yellow) onions, since they were pretty small and the recipe called for 2 large onions. They were pretty strong, and made me cry quite early into the process.

I used a turnip in place of the rutabaga. I picked just a small one. They are tough little vegetables and strong to the taste. I think that if anything fails in the recipe, it's going to be due to not chopping up the vegetables enough.

Well, 45 minutes to go...more later. I'll publish this now to avoid closing this window by accident.

Aftermath

These were, by far, the best pasties I have ever eaten. I'm sure that a good part of that is due to the fact of the work I put into it. However, the really did taste good.

Things to think about in the future: Next time, I have to figure a better way to put them on the plate. I put down wax paper, but evidentally (according to my wife), it was upside down. That really is the worst part of the whole thing. A bit of work, and it came off ok. The salt and pepper thing didn't seem to matter at all.

My son's comment: "Much better than Play-Doh." I'm serious. I'm not making that up.

German Thingamablog Community

Check the German Thingamablog Community out here. Looks pretty good! Even if my German is very poor.

PHP Commenting

I'm busy adding PHP commenting to the Thingamablog templates. This allows a bit more user interaction. I still like Thingamablog and want to keep it running, but now I can get some integrated commentary. This entry will probably be used a lot for comments and testing.

Thorn Resistant Tube Update

So far, so good. I ran over the rose bushes a few times, and no holes yet. Of course, there were no holes in the front tire either, which had the old, thin tube.

Thunderbird - Reject Mail from Unknown People

If you use Thunderbird, here's an easy way to reject e-mails from people you don't know by setting up a filter:

Tools->Message Filters->New->(((Sender),(isn't in my address book),(Personal Address Book)),(Delete the message))

You can tweak it to reject people that you don't know, haven't spoken with, or automatically label the messages as spam.

Calling the World For Free

Ok, I don't understand how anybody is making money again. However, here's how you can call the world for free:

1. Get Skype
   
2. Call Futurephone at +17128588883
3. Press 1 for English
4. Enter the number you want: 011 + Country Code + Local Number

Like I said, I don't know how anybody is making money again, but it's sure fun! Looks like the internet bubble all over again.

Julkalender 2006

After the enjoyment of last year's William and Johanna's Julkalender 2005, I'm currently planning to do a William and Johanna's Julkalender 2006. This time, I'm considering recording their voices so they can play their own parts, and then I'll stitch them together and get a more "radio show" like feel.

A Julkalender (or Advent calender) is where the children listen to a story that starts on December 1st and ends on December 24th. The Julkalender last year was done as a podcast...I'm looking to do the same thing this year, but put it together earlier this time so to avoid the rush. Kind of like Christmas shopping.

I still don't know what the theme is going to be yet...either the theme of the Julkalender, or the music theme...we'll see!

Stay tuned.

My Bike

Found a picture of my bike...at least an old picture of an "adequate representation" of it. A 1996 (?) Crescent Lodur, built in Sweden. I found this picture a long time ago, haven't found any similar pictures lately (and I have been looking).

Mine is slightly different. I put on a different water bottle cage, added a quick release lever for the seat, and changed the back tire. Amazingly enough, I'm still running with the original front tire from when I bought it (though not the original tube). Still haven't upgraded either of the tubes to the thorn resistant type. I'll probably do this if (when) I get my next flat.

I bought a padded seat from Nashbar. It's one of those gel type seats. The original one (pictured above, a Vectra, I think) was getting hard and my butt was getting sore.

Looks like the pedals are somewhat different as well, at least as far as the color goes.

Well, somewhat offtopic, Thingamablog (the program I use to do this web site) is being a pain. I was hoping that the picture would stay in the appropriate section. Unfortunately, it seems to flow down into the following article. Interesting, but not what I wanted. Instead, I need to add a bit more writing. Blah blah blah. There. I hope that's enough.

Map of Erie County

Looking for a nice map of Erie County (Pennsylvania)? Here's one in PDF format. Other maps of Pennsylvania can be found at the Department of Transportation website. Posted date is June 2006.

First Trial With Thorn Resistant Tubes

Ran the first trial with thorn resistant tubes. Due to heavy rains, most of the trails were muddy, and I totally avoided the thorny section of the trail that has been causing me most of my problems. I didn't seem to notice any difference due to weight of the back tube. My daughter is getting heavier, and the mud bogging down the bike cause most of my difficulties. I was pretty exhausted by the time I hit the thorn section of the trail, and avoided it completely, choosing to bike on asphalt and road instead.

Note to self, really crank down the seat post.