Ziploc Omelets

These are so good, and simple to make, that you will find yourself in ‘omelet burnout’ before you know it (as a friend of mine can attest). You have been warned.

Ingredients:

Ziploc Bags (Quart size freezer bag suggested)
2 Lg or Extra Lg Eggs (per serving)
Cheese
Ham
Onion
Green Pepper
Tomato
Hash Browns
Salsa
Seasoning (salt, pepper, etc.)

Directions:
(If you have a group then write the person’s name on a Ziploc bag with a permanent marker)

Crack 2 eggs into a bag (I also added my salt, pepper, and seasoning) and shake to combine

Put your ingredients into the bag and mix it up

Get all the air out of the bag and zip it up

Place the bags into rolling, boiling water for exactly 13 minutes

Once you have finished cooking them just open the bags and the omelets will roll out easily.

A couple of notes:

*Be sure to not put more than 2 eggs in a bag. More eggs changes the cooking time and I ran into consistency issues with 3+ eggs.

*I didn’t see a gain by scrambling my eggs in a bowl compared to shaking them in a bag. Basically, I just wound up with a dish to clean so I’ll stick to ‘bag only’ for now.

*While a quart size freezer bag was used in the original recipe, but I used some large sandwich bags and mine were fine.

*The original recipe didn’t call for any seasoning (salt, pepper, etc.). I season my eggs before cooking because it tastes better to me than after cooking.

Hello. My name is Preston and I’ve been slacking…

Alright I admit it. I have not updated my website(s) in quite a while. There’s no one to ‘blame’ for this but me. While I haven’t actually been slacking around it probably does look that way. Truth to tell I’m working on a few different business websites and also trying to keep up with things at work.

That said, I have several tutorials that are almost finished ranging from file recovery to creating ‘ghost’ images. Couple that with updates to several posts that will bring the info current and my own spin on a few netbook configurations that should be interesting whether you prefer Linux or Windows.

Crystal Clear

Over the years of using various Linux distributions I’ve come to enjoy GUI’s (Graphic User Interfaces) that are simple, responsive, and clean. If I can get some eyecandy to go along with that criteria then I will gladly give it a shot. To that end I found FVWM-Crystal.

I liked how the GUI would do some transparency effects without any noticeable performance loss and the drop down “Quake style” terminal was a definite plus since I use a terminal a great deal.

I won’t go into a great deal of detail about how to configure FVWM-Crystal in this post, but will instead just post up some screenshots that I took (almost a year ago) with it running on my Toshiba laptop.

with ROX Filer, XFCE4-Terminal, and minimized programs

Quake Terminal showing

Menu and Sonata

Currently there are no Compiz-Fusion effects for FVWM-Crystal, and that’s alright with me. FVWM-Crystal fits nicely on many systems with its’ small footprint, nice configuration options, and good speed. In fact it is the default environment on several older machines I use.

For many years Fluxbox was my fallback GUI environment, now it has been replaced and the reason should be… “Crystal” clear.

Seeing Red

I took a little time tonight to start my base coats for my wine bottle and glass. I’ve decided to go with A LOT of red(ish) colors on this piece and that’s a first for me. It’s also a bit of a learning experience.

So far the main elements in this piece are the crisp glassy edges of the glass, the deep rich wine bottle with it’s old label, and a backdrop of a soft, vivid sky at dusk.

(I really need a good camera)

The sky was simple enough to accomplish with a shift in my palette, but individual effects are making me have to “think around” the canvas more than I had initially wanted. Things like deciding how much transparency I want the bottle to have as compared to the glass are distracting me from getting more accomplished.

LOL, have I mentioned I think oils are both wonderful and frustrating at the same time? Without a doubt, my starting to paint again has been one of the single best activities I could have done to strengthen my patience.

Encode (or Re-encode) Using Razorlame

I helped a friend through creating and re-encoding some mp3 files so I wrote a little tutorial to help them out. I hope it will help others out as well.

First you need to download RazorLame from their website. RazorLame website

I like that it doesn’t require you to install anything, just unzip to a folder. Now download LAME (the actual encoder), put it into the same folder you unzipped RazorLame. Then just run “RazorLame.exe” from there.

Once you have it unzipped and you open it up here is what you will see.

You will need to configure your encoder options so go here.

It will (probably) default to 128 which is decent for everyday listening, but for smaller sizes I drop my encodes down. Try 80 kbit and even 64 kbit for portable devices that you listen to with headphones. The sizes will be much smaller and they will sound close to “radio quality”.

Be sure you tell the encoder where you want your new files put. I would suggest a “Converted” folder or something to keep the lower quality stuff separate from your better encodes.

I choose “Speed” for the Optimization. This is a personal preference, but (again) we are talking about headphones/portable so…

I also use VBR to make the files smaller.

Click “OK” because you are finished with the settings.

Note: You can save different settings for various encodes by using the “Save options…” box in the top and naming the settings “portable” (I have ones set up for “standard”, “portable”, “archive”, etc)

Now just add the file (or files) you want

and press Encode…

You will see the progress window pop up and if you are doing a lot of files you can “Send to tray” to get it off your desktop.

A couple of things to keep in mind. If you re-encode an mp3 you are going to lose some of the quality. It’s always best to encode to the bitrate you want from the original CD although I usually just re-encode from a higher bitrate for convenience sake. (Remember, most of my listening is on a motorcycle or at work via headphones so the lower quality doesn’t much affect me)

That’s pretty much it for the simple walk through.

Progress (more oil and water)

I stained my easel to black to help it match the furniture in my apartment. I like the look and it is easier to clean off the little paint marks I have a tendency to put on it.

I really do need to get a decent camera. Using the one on my cell phone is awful. The painting on the easel looks like the sky is black when it is actually several different shades of blue. Even the masking doesn’t look quite right.

The painting on the easel is acrylic and the “red” on the floor is oil. I’ve finally got the acrylic to flow like I wanted and it has really helped to get more of a “slick” finish that I appreciate in my oil… with far less drying time. The “red” on the floor has been drying for over a week! If I am going to keep doing oil then I will have to pick up the volume of work in order to keep from being so impatient.

Oil and Water

Over the last few months I have started getting back into painting. As with many things in life, I dropped it in order to commit more time to “more important things”. I am wishing now that I hadn’t. It’s not coming back to me as quickly as I think it should.

All areas of my skill set are in deep need of revitalization. I find myself in a horrible cycle of inspiration, attempted application, followed by frustration. I have decided to devote a fixed amount of time per week (if not daily) to practicing and researching techniques. If I’m not painting or drawing, then I will either watch some painting demonstrations or read a bit of my art theory books. At the very least I can gesso some canvas and have things prepared so when I do get around to painting all my minor tasks will be completed.

I have started taking photos to use as reference material and using the GIMP to create a composite image to use for a reference. I am supremely grateful for the Meet the GIMP website and the podcasts provided. Without them I would not have the understanding to effectively use this wonderful program which has been extremely helpful in imagining how I want things placed on canvas.

At this point I haven’t been satisfied with showing my work to anyone, but I hope to have some pieces displayed on the website in the coming months. I tend to be a little impatient with myself on things so this has also been a great way to try and find my “comfort zone” again. I am making headway and am starting to find it more relaxing the more I do it.

Of course the wine doesn’t hurt either…

Sandbox

I have started another WordPress blog that will be mostly Sport Touring centric called “Where the road takes me“.   I did this to test how I could string different types of tech together in order to have an almost effortless way to do travel documentation.

Basically my upcoming trip will be my test bed for these things and my hope is that I can have everything worked out before the Spring riding season comes around.

Of course I will be doing a full tutorial on how this is setup and what programs I used so others can join in on the fun.

Be sure to check out my site and give me your feedback.

Trip (updated)

With some suggestions from board members that live in the area my trip is up to about 954 miles
http://tinyurl.com/42nnb6

here are some of the links for the various destinations:
Sharp Mountain Vineyards
Amicalola Falls
Blood Mountain (Wiki)
Blood Mountain
Henderson Falls Park
Biltmore Estate
Bridal Veil Falls
Cherohala Skyway
Tail of the Dragon

Big Plans (Part 1)

Now that my motorcycle is back together I am in a big hurry to “catch up” on lots of riding I have missed since it was in the shop.  Firstly I will test my bike over the next couple of weeks to verify that everything is mechanically sound and also to get used to some upgrades I am having done.  When I am satisfied with how it performs on some small day rides I will head out for this one which is going to be (roughly) 800+ miles.

This is the rough draft of the trip which is currently slated for the 2nd weekend in November.  You will notice that the second half has more stops which are closer together.  I figure I might be a little saddle sore the second (third?) day so I am allocating extra stops to lessen my fatigue.

I put in some scenic places and avoided major highways and cities (like Chattanooga).  I plan on doing a “Tennessee – Kentucky – Virginia” ride to tour around and see some of the distilleries along with the mountains so I didn’t put a lot of those places in this trip.

I did find several wineries along the way (coincidentally before a waterfall or two) which I think will be nice to stop and rest at.  I think it will be nice to stop and enjoy the falls, sip some wine, and relax a bit.

There plenty of room is left for deviation if I see something along the way that looks interesting.  I figure that I will hit the Biltmore Estate on the second day so I am rested and can enjoy it.  They are supposed to have their Christmas decorations up at the time of my ride and I am looking forward to seeing them in person.

I am planning on something like three 6-8 hour riding days to cover the (roughly) 800+ miles.  This will mean two nights lodging which shouldn’t be expensive since I am getting in contact with some members of my “Hayabusa Owners” group and they are offering me either a place to stay or insight on places that are reasonable and safe.

I figure that gas for the trip is going to be pretty reasonable also.  I am going to be conservative the numbers and plan on the bike getting 35mpg (guessing on mountain and highway mpg).  With that in mind I will use about 30 gallons so my fuel cost will be about $120.00 (this is figuring on $4 / gal average).

Granted the current gas price is roughly $3.55 and I have got 45+mpg (closer to 50) on my bike on long stretches so if I am easy on the throttle and take my time it could cost as little as $65

If you would like to take a look at my (initial) map of the trip click here:
Biltmore Trip

This might change depending on scheduling conflicts and such, but currently this is what I have in mind.