Evil Adventure and Experiment Log

CodeStock 2011 - Adventures in Speaking

2011-06-12T20:07:00.001-04:00

Adventure 20110603

CodeStock 2011 was fantastic. Once again Mike Neel out did himself and set the bar higher than any other local code convention has any hope of reaching. Unfortunately for the poor attendees he did make one mistake. He let me be a speaker. ^_^ So Friday at 12:30 PM I presented a short session in the general track titled "A Knoxville Hackerspace - What do you want to build today?". Despite some issues with swapping rooms at the last minute I did manage to draw eight people in for what turned into a pretty good discussion on what exactly is a hackerspace and am even hopeful that one or two might come to check out the local Knox Makers group. I will note that even though I got flustered by the room change and ended up speaking and going through my slides far too quickly I think I may be hooked. Presenting a session was exciting and I felt much more involved in the convention itself. I think I'm going to have to see if I can come up with another topic for next year.

Aside from speaking I also got to attend several great sessions:

The Geek's Guide to SEO by Jay Harris. Walked out with a half-dozen links to hit up for more info.
Kinect Hacks 101 by James Ashley. Unfortunately, now I have to go buy a Kinect to play with.
Introduction To Ruby On Rails by Rod Paddock. Goes under my "nifty toy I must find time to play with" category.
The Open Spaces discussion on how we learn and the future of publishing with Charles Petzold was fascinating. It may simply be time for tech authors to reach directly out to their readers and skip the publisher entirely.
Open Spaces discussion about the Netduino with Brady Gaster. Of course I had to go and back-order a Netduino Plus as soon as I got home that night....
I shared an Open Spaces session with Thomas Langston discussing gameful ways to build developer communities. I really think that a coding based version of the Chore Wars website has a lot of promise. This discussion also helped me make the mental shift to start thinking about team leadership and the Agile Scrum Master role the same way I think about the Dungeon Master role when setting up a pen-and-paper RPG for my friends. Saving throw versus deadline!
Eulering up your coding skills by Matthew D. Groves. Project Euler is now in my "must play with" bookmarks folder.
Arlene Gray led a great Open Spaces discussion about what it would take to hold a SQLSaturday here in Knoxville. Can't wait!
Why aren't women speaking at CodeStock? (and other WiT issues) by Mike Neel and Jennifer Marsman. Very thought provoking.
Your OS is going the way of the dodo by David Smith was a good intro to Google’s Chrome operating system.

My top pick for "Best of CodeStock" this year has to be the Open Spaces discussion on how we learn and the future of publishing with Charles Petzold. Although the Open Spaces session with Thomas Langston discussing gameful ways to build developer communities and the over-the-top buffet at the Keynote tied for second place. ^_^

Greg's Peanut Butter Tardis Birthday Cake

2011-06-12T18:23:00.002-04:00

Experiment 20110521

For Greg's birthday this year I wanted to try something a little different, so I came up with a new Peanut Butter flavored cake recipe. It turned out well if not as strongly Peanut Butter flavored as I would have liked. For a decorating theme I used Greg's interest in Doctor Who and one heck of a lot of blue dye to create the dreaded Peanut Butter Tardis. Powered only by Peanut Butter it travels through Time And Relative Dimensions In Space! Next step, Daleks out of Nutter Butter cookies. ^_^

Photo Album on Picasa

Douglas Adams themed 42nd Birthday Party

2011-06-12T17:58:00.000-04:00

Adventure 20110430

For my 42nd birthday party this year I decided to go with a Douglas Adams Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy theme. I even went so far as to hold a "Worst Dressed Sentient Being" contest so I suppose I can only blame myself for the pictures below....

Photo Album on Picasa

KMG Meetup with Hacker Consortium and Midsouth Makers in Nashville

2011-04-17T19:20:00.001-04:00

Adventure 20110416
The Knoxville Makers Guild had an impressive turnout for our trip to Nashville with all nine of what are quickly becoming our "core" members able to attend. It was an awesome opportunity to get to see what the Hacker Consortium has been able to do with their space, and Mudflap, Seeblind, Skydog and the rest of the HC folks were fantastic hosts. It was even better that three members of Midsouth Makers were able to come over from Memphis as well and Joe, Dan and Mary had lots of great information for us to use to get our group up and running. You hear that Knoxville? Nashville and Memphis already have their cool maker/hackerspaces up and running. ^_^ What are you waiting for?

KMG Old School Blacksmithing Workshop

2011-04-03T12:11:00.001-04:00

Adventure 20110402
In an effort to expose the members of the Knoxville Makers Guild to some old style making I asked my friend and neighbor John Enloe of Art In The Burrow and the Clinch River Blacksmith Guild to hold an old school blacksmithing workshop for the group. The session was well attend with a crowd of ten very pale geeks exposing themselves to the dangers of the dreaded day-star to have a chance to pound hot metal and create hand-forged wall hooks and railroad-spike knives. I personally discovered that it is quite possible to make steel burn, which is frankly pretty darn awesome.

Photo album on Picasa.

OLCF/NICS Spring Training

2011-03-27T13:00:00.000-04:00

Adventure 20110307
One of my buddies from the Knoxville Makers Guild clued me in on an opportunity to attend a week-long training workshop for the world-class Cray XT5 systems, Jaguar and Kraken, hosted by the National Institute for Computational Sciences and the Oak Ridge Leadership Computational Facility at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. I've gotten a lot of strange looks for spending some of my vacation time to attend what was basically a "beginning programming for Science Doctorates" workshop, but I had a great geeky time. Always having been on the commercial software side of the house, getting to visit ORNL was kind of akin to a trip to Hogwart's minus the brooms and owls. Instead of the normal treatment of being pushed into the background, fighting for the bare minimum hardware and getting squeezed for every last penny it was a great change to get to see a place on the forefront of technology focused on what computing can do to improve the world. After some quick refresher sessions on UNIX, the vi editor and basic C programming we moved into some fascinating discussions on parallelization, MPI, OpenMP and debugging with DDT. Great stuff and really gave me a lot of notes for future topics to research. I have to say that the high-point of the workshop for me was during the tour on the first day when our guide actually was able to let us go in and actually physically lay hands on and get pictures of the Jaguar, Kraken and Gaea super-computers. Yeah, I'm a geek, but that was frakking awesome! (Shame I only had my crappy cell-phone camera with me.)

Carrie's Chocolate Hazelnut Birthday Cake

2011-03-27T12:05:00.000-04:00

Experiment 20110226

My friend Carrie requested a chocolate hazelnut cake for her birthday this year, so this experiment was all about exactly how much hazelnut I could cram, shoehorn or inject into a single cake. The cake itself was a basic chocolate Dream Whip recipe that I added four shots of Frangelico Hazelnut Liqueur, then filled with Nutella hazelnut spread, and finally topped with Lindt Hazelnut Chocolate Lindor Truffles.

Con Nooga and Biltmore weekend

2011-02-20T19:09:00.000-05:00

Adventure 20110219

A hint of Spring is in the East Tennessee air so this weekend I tried to pry myself out of hibernation and engage my sense of adventure.

First up was a Saturday trip down to Chattanooga with my Step-Dad to day-trip Con Nooga. This was the first time we have had a chance to attend Con Nooga and I was very impressed. Lots of costumes, a good sized crowd without it being difficult to get around, a wide selection of programming tracks, and a very friendly atmosphere. I particularly enjoyed the Ms. ConNooga contest, and you could tell the ladies were having a great time and enjoying being silly and putting on a show. We will definitely be back next year.

Next up, Kathy and I drove over to Asheville on Sunday to visit Biltmore. I can't say that I was very impressed personally, I kept noticing signs of maintenance issues like cracks in the ceiling and cobwebs in the windows. Also, the sense of scale was off for me, huge cold and drafty rooms were offset by small cramped corridors. I felt more like I was visiting an old bank than anything else. Although impressive architecturally, I certainly wouldn't want to live in it.

2010 Thanksgiving Spread

2010-11-28T20:41:00.003-05:00

Experiment: 20101125

Here we have a few snapshots of the massive feast that Kathy, my Mom, Step-Dad, and I had for Thanksgiving this year. 0_0 Yeah.... We barely touched all this food. My Mom and I have these images stuck in our heads of what a Thanksgiving meal should look like and we just can't quite get that to line up with the fact that we are only feeding four people. Leftovers anyone?

Dubious Chef Episode Seven: Scallops!

2010-10-10T22:01:00.000-04:00

Dubious Inclinations is the name of the pen-and-paper role playing game group I belong to, and a couple of months back we decided to try something a little different and have been playing our own home version of a cooking challenge show that we blog about under the name of The Dubious Chef:

In an odd turn of random chance I (Sam) won the die roll for this week's Dubious Chef with Greg providing the secret ingredient. Apparently Greg and I have decided that we need to monopolize all the attention since we didn't get a turn until after everyone else....

My featured ingredients were:
Cheese, Cottage cheese, or Cream cheese
Eggs
Mollusks (Clam, Oyster, or Scallop)

I started the week with a very strong idea of what I would like to focus on because the night before I won the die roll I had noticed that my local Walmart had scallops available for just under $5/bag. The Epicurious app on my iPad quickly pointed me towards an excellent Seared Scallops with Creamy Noodles and Peas recipe that I felt could be easily adapted to use cream cheese, would look attractive garnished with boiled eggs, and that I felt had a good chance of allowing for the incorporation of whatever random ingredient was presented. As luck would have it Greg happened to choose lemon juice as the secret ingredient this week and it quite handily complemented the dish.

Seared Scallops with Lemon Cream Sauce Noodles and Peas
8 ounces medium egg noodles
2 eggs
1 cup frozen peas
1 pound bag small bay scallops
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 package cream cheese
1/2 cup white wine
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup chopped fresh chives
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

Bring a large pot of salted water to boiling and cook noodles until almost ready then stir in peas and cook about 3 minutes more. Drain in a colander, then coat bottom of pan with olive oil and toss noodles and peas to coat until ready to plate.

In a second small pot hard boil two eggs, then set aside in sink under cold water.

While water is boiling, rinse and pat scallops dry and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Heat butter in a heavy skillet over medium-high heat, then add scallops. Increase heat to high and sear scallops until golden brown and just cooked through. Add wine to skillet and deglaze by boiling, stirring and scraping. Stir in cream cheese, chopped chives and lemon juice and boil until slightly reduced and then pour sauce over plated noodles. Garnish with slices of hard boiled eggs and chives.

Final Score:
Creativity–9
Presentation–10
Taste–9

Items Purchased:
Bag of Bay Scallops - $4.97
Cream cheese - $1.98
Half dozen eggs - $0.59
Egg noodles - $1.75

Total: $9.30

Did not use:
Half the cream cheese
Two thirds of the eggs
Half the egg noodles

Brought from Home:
White wine
Olive oil
Fresh chives
Frozen peas
Half stick of butter
Salt & pepper

Dubious Chef Episode Five: Cherry Ham Holidays

2010-09-12T13:41:00.005-04:00

For our fifth episode we decided to skip our random die roll to determine who would be next, and instead I (Sam) won a coin flip with Greg to be the next Dubious Chef.

My featured ingredients were:
Oatmeal, Cornmeal or other Cereals
Cheese, Cottage cheese, or Cream cheese
Apricot, Cherry, Peach, Plum/Prunes or other Stone fruits
We did go ahead and randomly roll to determine that Ken would be the Mystery Ingredient provider for this episode, and much to my consternation he brought, drum-roll please.... Flour tortillas.... .... .... Yeah, I was so totally expecting THAT to be an option....

I actually had several false starts while planning because of the "Oatmeal, Cornmeal or other Cereals" selection. Immediately after the roll I thought I'd go with something breakfasty, but despite the fact that I almost always have oatmeal for breakfast myself I couldn't really come up with an idea "fancy" enough that I could see getting decent points for the creativity category. Once I had discarded breakfast as a theme I moved on to the concept of using Cornmeal and Polenta as my foundation. Unfortunately I've never made Polenta before and the couple of quick trial batches I made did not turn out well at all. About mid-week I was discussing possible options with my friend Miki and after he suggested a Roasted Peaches with Honey Mascarpone Cream recipe he was fond of my entire concept suddenly formed up as a holiday meal. Once the flour tortillas were exposed as the secret ingredient I was pretty sure how to incorporate them into the main dish, but failed rather poorly in an attempt to also include them in the desert. A quick experiment with the heat gun and some Cinnamon Sugar showed that I wasn’t going to be able to create anything similar to a cinnamon churro so I tossed the experiment and proceeded with what I had.

Roasted Peaches Flambe with Honey Nut Cream Cheese
2 peaches, halved and pitted
2 tablespoons butter, softened
2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
4 tablespoons Philadelphia Honey Nut Cream Cheese
2 shots of Grand Marnier
Preheat oven to 350F.
Mix the butter and brown sugar together to form a paste.
Place the peach halves, cut side up, in baking dishes. (I used small cast iron cauldrons for extra presentation points.) Place a large spoonful of the brown sugar mixture into the center of each peach half.
Put the dish in the oven and bake for 35 minutes.
Allow to cool at least 5 minutes.
Top with a large spoonful of the Honey Nut Cream Cheese, insert a cinnamon stick for garnish, and add a half a shot of Grand Marnier to each dish and ignite.

Cherry Ham Steaks with Sharp Cheddar on a Flour Tortilla
1 pound fully Cooked Boneless Ham Steaks
1 can Del-Monte Dark Sweet Cherries
2 cups Kraft Shredded Sharp Cheddar Cheese
1 package Flour Tortillas
Dash of Liquid Smoke
Dash of extract of Cinnamon
Salt and Pepper to taste
In a small saucepan bring the cherries to a slow boil, add dashes of Liquid Smoke and extract of Cinnamon. While liquid in cherries is reducing by half, brown the ham in a large skillet then add the reduced cherries, lower heat, cover and simmer at least 10 minutes. In a another skillet brown the tortillas and melt the cheese.

Cornbread Stuffing with Pine Nuts
Stove Top Cornbread Stuffing Mix
1/2 stick of Butter
2 tablespoons Pine Nuts
Prepare stuffing per box directions substituting real butter for margarine and adding Pine Nuts while fluffing.

Final Score:
Creativity–9
Presentation–9
Taste–9

Items Purchased:
2 peaches $0.79
1 box Stove Top Cornbread Stuffing Mix $1.42
1 pound fully Cooked Boneless Ham Steaks $2.98
1 can Del-Monte Dark Sweet Cherries $1.00
2 cups Kraft Shredded Sharp Cheddar Cheese $2.00
Philedelphia Honey Nut Cream Cheese $1.86

Total: $10.05

Did not use:
Half the Cream Cheese
Half the Cheddar Cheese

Brought from Home:
Half an airplane bottle of Grand Marnier
stick of butter
brown sugar
Pine Nuts
Cinamon Sticks
Cinnamon Extract
Liquid Smoke
Salt & Pepper

CompuLounger 1000

2010-09-03T14:22:00.000-04:00

Experiment: 20100903

It’s been a point of geek pride for me to be able to say that except for my very first (A Power Macintosh 6100 bought in ‘94.) I’ve always built my own home workstations. That being said, in recent years I’ve noticed a trend in my improvements where I have been moving away from attempting to build high-end computers, and focusing more on comfort and usability. I believe I may have reached the culmination of this trend with the build I have dubbed the “CompuLounger 1000”. Over the last several months I have been experimenting with the “living room computer” concept, and thanks to a very understanding wife and the purchase of a few final extended length cables I think I have found the right mix with a Lane Bandit Snuggler recliner and a Easy Chair Mount bolted to the floor for stability.

SQLSaturday #51

2010-08-25T18:35:00.001-04:00

Adventure 20100821

This last weekend I drove over to Nashville State Community College to attend SQLSaturday #51. This was my first time at a SQLSaturday conference and I had a great time. The staff was very friendly and the site was quite comfortable. The drive from Knoxville to Nashville was pretty good, just plugged in my audiobook (The Hero of Ages: Mistborn, Book 3 by Brandon Sanderson, narrated by Michael Kramer) and drove, but I had to get up really early to make the three hour trip in time for the 8:30 AM first session. My timing for the trip also ended up being a little closer than I would have liked as I barely had time to go through registration before the first session started.

Here are the sessions I attended:
XQuery Basics - Allen White
Design and Implement like Edison - Bill Pearson
Fundamentals of SQL Server Internals - Jeremiah Peschka
From Access to SQL Server - Jack Cannon
Fortress SQL Server - Brian Kelley
Introduction to SQL Server Statistics - Andy Warren

My pick for most informative session would have to be Allen White's XQuery Basics. His example of extracting XML mapping data from his Garmin Forerunner was particularly awesome.

I have to say that I was most pleased with my swag from this conferance. Beyond just the normal promotional items I also came home with copies of Being Geek by Michael Lopp and Beginning T-SQL 2008 by Kathi Kellenberger, an Apress ebook gift voucher, and I won a copy of Blueberry FlashBack Pro screen recorder in the raffle.

In contrast to the drive to the conference the trip back to Knoxville in a rainstorm was an exercise in white-knuckle terror. It was partially my own stupid fault though. I actually got ahead of the storm for a while just before Cookeville and made the mistake of stopping at Jack in the Box to feed my addiction to their tacos.

Arduino Dubious Chef Countdown Timer v0.2

2010-08-06T22:01:00.001-04:00

Experiment: 20100806

I have successfully constructed my first “hey, I wonder if I can just make that” Arduino project using a for loop to light LEDs in sequence, then turning them off in 5 minute intervals over a 60 minute period. I’m inordinately proud of myself, despite the simplicity of the project and the fact that I had to toss out the buzzer feature I had first envisioned. (I’m guessing I got the wrong kind of buzzer at Radio Shack as it sounded like a congested squirrel.) My gaming group and I will be using it as the official countdown timer for our home-grown RPG themed cooking show tomorrow.

Shopping List:
12        220Ω Resistors
3        Red LED - 5mm
3        Green LED - 5mm
6        Yellow LED - 5mm
1        Arduino
1        Half-Breadboard

CodeStock

2010-06-29T14:20:00.001-04:00

Adventure 20100625

Time for another CodeStock round-up! I have no idea why I typed that sentence, but it sounds funny inside my head, so I'm going to go with it. Yeehaw! Or some such. Anyway, had a great time at CodeStock again this year. Once again Michael Neel did a fantastic job of leading the effort to keep everything organized. The move to the University of Tennessee Conference Center was a huge success in my opinion, considerably more comfortable and well worth the small rise in registration cost. The sponsor teams were also all very friendly and helpful. Unfortunately due to some timing and personal health issues I only got to see about half of the sessions I wanted to, and didn't make it to any of the after session fun, but I still got to listen to some absolutely great speakers:

How we made Windows 7 Fasterer? - Brian H. Prince
A Little Lean with Kanban - Tim Wingfield
A Field Guide to Moving to the Cloud - Michael Wood
CodeStock Keynote - Rachel Appel
Introduction to iPhone Development - Gun Makinabakan
What's happening on the legal side of technology - John Petersen
iPhone or Windows Phone 7: How Do You Choose - Robert Shoemate
Getting Started with Arduino - Jim Christopher

My top pick for "Best of CodeStock" this year is a tie between Tim Wingfield's session for providing the most useful breakdown of Kanban I've ever encountered, and Jim Christopher's session as the most fun performing as his assistant during the live wiring of his Arduino Build Status Indicator. (Yeah, I'm hooked and next paycheck already know which Arduino kit I'm ordering....)

Jon and Laura's Wedding

2010-06-12T19:52:00.000-04:00

Adventure 20100612
My latest adventure involved driving up to Detroit for my friend Jon's wedding. I moved out of Detroit back in the Fall of 2001 and I have to say I was rather shocked by how much it has changed in the last nine years. Jon is the only friend I have kept in contact with from my time up in Detroit, but a few people remembered me (I tend not to be an easily forgettable person) and other than the driving time itself it was a pleasant little trip.

ScrumMaster Certification

2010-05-14T19:49:00.000-04:00

Adventure 20100514
I was recently lucky enough to be able to attend a two day ScrumMaster certification training session led by Michele Sliger and gain my certification from the Scrum Alliance. Michelle did a great job of making the information interesting and understandable.

Sam and Greg's Birthday

2010-05-07T19:46:00.000-04:00

Experiment: 20100507
Greg and I decided to share a birthday celebration this year. I asked Kathy to make me a huge peanut-butter chip cookie and I made Greg a very colorful Red Velvet Cake. Considering this is actually the first real cake I've made this year I was a little disappointed, but I suppose I've just gotten out of practice.

Carrie's Candy Sushi Birthday

2010-02-26T18:55:00.000-05:00

Experiment: 20100226
Continuing the pattern of my friends attempting to expand the whole concept of "Sam likes baking cakes for everyone's birthdays" my friend Carrie choose "Sushi" as her theme this year.... After extended consideration I discarded the idea of wrapping several pounds of tuna in fondant and instead went for a candy sushi platter theme.

Hank's Birthday Ghetto Croquembouche

2010-01-30T09:04:00.003-05:00

Experiment: 20100115

When I asked my friend Hank if he wanted a cake for his birthday this year he said "HELL YES I WANT A CAKE! As to the kind I am thinking about a chocolate and caramel croquembouche." .... Apparently my friends are trying to get me to expand my Cake-Artistry skills.... However, when I advised this was going to take at least five hours to make, he was going to have to pick a Saturday starting no earlier than 3:00 PM for when we would get together, and that I would not be able to be the Dungeon Master for gaming that day, he started back-pedaling pretty fast. Unfortunately for Hank, the comments from my other friends about his request started giving me ideas. Evil, evil time-saving ideas. And thus, from an unholy collection of Krispy Kreme Doughnut Holes, Zingers, Twinkies, and several boxes of Hostess 100 Calorie Packs of Chocolate Cupcakes, Strawberry Cupcakes, and Twinkie Bites was born the dreaded Ghetto Croquembouche.

2009 Year End Update

2009-12-26T12:45:00.001-05:00

Well, 2009 is almost at an end, and I can't say that I'm too sorry to see it go. The second half of the year has been particularly rough, but new adventures await just around the corner. Since I haven't been horribly active over the last few months I thought I'd finish up the year with a mini-update and a few of the pictures I did manage to take.

Here's a quick snapshot of the Birthday Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting I made for my friend Swain in mid-November. Nothing fancy, but I think the colored coconut is a nice touch.

Next we have a snapshot of the massive feast that Kathy, my Mom, Step-Dad, and I had for Thanksgiving this year. 0_0 Might need a bigger table next year....

This is a set of before-and-after Xmas Loot pictures. As always Kathy managed to find me some really nifty toys to unwrap even on our pretty tight budget. I particularly like the MP3 player upgrade to an 8GB Sansa Clip. I've really gotten addicted to audio books over the last half-year.

And finally, for an extra dose of uber-cute we have a picture of our pet ferrets Floozie and Mozilla.

Happy Holidays Everyone!

DragonCon 2009

2009-09-08T15:53:00.001-04:00

Adventure: 20090904

Another DragonCon has come and gone, and unfortunately I think this will probably be the last one I attend. Frankly, I think DragonCon has just grown too large for my tastes and admittedly rather hermit-like tolerances. Luckily I did manage to get to see Pete Abrams (Sluggy Freelance), Jennie Breeden (The Devil's Panties), Ryan Sohmer and Lar Desouza (Least I Could Do and Looking For Group) as well as attend the live recording for Sword and Laser with Veronica Belmont (This WEEK in TECH). I unfortunately made it to nothing else I wanted to see because of the ridiculous crowds and lines. (I think the most annoying failure was my attempt to see Randal Schwartz (FLOSS Weekly) which involved getting a cab to drive back to the con from the hotel, showing up a half hour early, and finding that although there were still seats they were all "saved".... I nearly blew a gasket.) Kathy did manage to get some pretty decent pictures and I think this collage pretty much conveys the DragonCon experience.

I think I did pretty well for loot though. My favorite is the 2d20 damage flail. ^_^

Gaming table UPGRADE

2009-08-19T20:23:00.003-04:00

Experiment: 20090715

Under the heading of "better late than never" we have the entry of a much delayed blog post about the new downstairs gaming table. Over the winter it became very obvious that the old gaming table with it's covering of five year old shelf-paper needed a major over-haul so after the removal of the two middle legs (much hated and always in the way) all of the old shelf paper was painfully striped off first by hand, then by razor blade, and then finally (because I was about to take a hatchet to the whole thing and start over) by use of a wire paint-stripper cup brush. Once the basic structure of the table had been laid bare I slowly built the finish back up with three layers of latex base, a massive amount of sanding, four layers of white board paint, and three layers of very nice green semi-gloss latex. I think the final product turned out rather well.

G-FORCE

2009-07-11T14:00:00.001-04:00

Adventure 20090711

Kathy and I were lucky enough to be invited to an advance screening of Disney's new movie G-FORCE 3-D, and I have to say that I was quite impressed. I'm not a movie critic, and frankly would never want to be one, but what I look for in any movie is a sense of immersion. It seems to me that too often the gimmicks available to the movie industry distract and subtract from the experience rather than draw the audience further in. I generally gauge a movie by how often my attention wanders from the screen and using that measure G-FORCE did surprisingly well. Now don't get me wrong, this is definitely another movie targeted at the family audience with the intention of making large profits off of toy sales, but is that really a bad thing? Frankly, my life is complicated enough right now, and a little break for some mindless entertainment was greatly appreciated. My suggestion is that you see this one in the theater, pay the extra for the 3-D, and let yourself revel in the ability to take your mind off of the hook for two hours.

What I learned at CodeStock 2009

2009-06-26T10:47:00.002-04:00

Adventure 20090626

One of my recent long term projects has been an attempt to upgrade my programming skills to "Developer" level, and during one of my research session for that goal I stumbled across a development conference being held here in Knoxville less than a half mile from where I work. I really enjoyed CodeStock and thought that I would share which of the sessions I attended and the links to the nifty tools everyone provided

Friday Sessions:

Mindstorming 101 by Nathan Blevins. Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio 2008 R2 is definitely under the "Cool Tools" category and is what I will be using during the design phase of creating my robotic minions.

A Developers Guide to SQL Server Integration Services by Robert C. Cain

Open Spaces track facilitated by Alan Stevens and the Friday lunch discussion of "Job advancement that doesn't suck"

5 Classic Patterns in Everyday Code by Brian H. Prince

Back to the Basics: A Programmer's Primer Programming in C# by Keith Elder

The Basics of ASP.NET by Jeff Blankenburg

Saturday Sessions:

Getting started with WPF by John Kellar

Regular Expressions Revisited by Colin Neller. Regulazy by Roy Osherove is an excellent free mini-tool for working with and testing Regular Expressions. The Added Bytes Regular Expressions Cheat Sheet is very nicely formatted and is now hanging on my cubicle wall.

Be a Better Developer by Michael Wood. Mike Wood was by far the best speaker of the convention, and during his session I ended up taking dozens of little TODOs for books I need to read or re-read, lectures I need to watch, and better habits I am going to try and develop going forward. Some of the highlights are re-reading Getting Things Done and making a habit of re-reading it again every year, reading How to Think like Leonardo da Vinci, reading Code Complete, watching the Last Lecture series by Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch, making a habit of finding and using one new keyboard shortcut combo each week, and making a habit to do a "Better than" Google search review of all tools every half year or so.

jQuery 101 by Rod Paddock

How to make your application awesome with JSON, REST and WCF by James Bender

Greg's Birthday and Thermite Experiment Part Two

2009-05-15T16:11:00.001-04:00

Experiment: 20090515

When I asked my friend Greg what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday this year he said "You make great Red Velvet Cakes with the White icing... (yeah, I'm in a predictable rut...). As for shape, well feel free to think Steampunk." And thus, as foretold in the prophecy, his doom was sealed.... Err.... I mean, so then I made him a perfectly nice and normal cake with lots of Steampunk-ish flourishes.

After the cake had been devoured we headed out into the backyard for a second try at the Thermite Experiment. This time we increased the quantity, mixed the ignition mixture in with the thermite, wrapped a full coil of magnesium ribbon around the two iron bars, and used plastic army men to show the extent of the heat.

Here's a quick video clip showing just how much more energetic this attempt was than the last one.

And finally, just to add a finale to our geek extravaganza we finished the day with a Diet Coke and Mentos fountain.

Hank's Graduation

2009-05-10T14:54:00.003-04:00

Adventure: 20090509

This Saturday Kathy, Carrie, and I went to watch Hank graduate with his second Associates Degree from Pellissippi State Technical Community College. Luckily they have professional photographers for these sorts of things because out of just over a hundred shots I got two that didn't end up completely a waste and a brief segment of fuzzy video footage....

Sam's Thermite Birthday Experiment

2009-05-02T08:36:00.004-04:00

Experiment: 20090501

This year was my 40th birthday and I asked for just two simple birthday wishes:

A home-made carrot cake with cream cheese icing.
Some thermite to play with. ^_^

$40 for 20 seconds of concentrated awesome. Seems like a deal to me. Plus I only used about half the bottle so I think the rest will be going into a small casting experiment.

Carrie's Choco cake o' DOOM!!!

2009-03-02T06:29:00.003-05:00

Experiment 090227

My friend Carrie had some pretty definite ideas on what she wanted for her birthday cake:

I have considered my impending birfyday cake...and I want...
*drumroll*
A cake that is so chocolate-y it oozes chocolate-y goodness.
I want a chocolate cake so chocolate-y that there's no possible way we can accuse Sam of ruining chocolate.
I want to see through time *bwahahahahahaha!!!* (and throw all the diabetics into coma's of dark brown delight!)

And hence the "Choco cake o' DOOM!!!" was born in a ritual involving four pounds of chocolate, a perfectly innocent double-layer Dream Whip chocolate cake frosted with a double batch of chocolate butter-cream, and about an hour and a half of careful candy-bar and chocolate chip placement.

Liz's World of Swirl Birthday Cake

2009-03-01T12:52:00.007-05:00

Experiment: 090220

My friend Liz requested a yellow cake with chocolate butter-cream frosting for her birthday this year and left the theme and design entirely up to me. Since I had free reign I decided to go for something a little "prettier" than normal and made a Wilton method World of Swirl cake. For future reference I would like to note that this cake took most of four batches of chocolate butter-cream and ended up with so much frosting on it that the cake layers inside actually fell and ended up looking like half layers when we cut it. Another item to note is that the "Bakery Crafts" brand Sparkler Candles I used have a very clear warning on the back instructing that "TO EXTINGUISH, PUT CANDLES IN WATER".... It would have helped a lot if I had read that in advance. On the plus side I got a pretty amusing video sequence out of it.

Jungle Love at the Knoxville Zoo

2009-02-14T22:02:00.003-05:00

Adventure 090214

This year I was lucky enough to be able to take Kathy to the "Jungle Love" event at the Knoxville Zoo for Valentines Day. This was a wonderful adults only evening which included a cocktail hour with the Red Pandas at The Boyd Family Red Panda Village, several close-up animal encounters, heavy hors d’oeuvres, delectable desserts, and a hilarious special presentation about the animal kingdom’s "Mating Game" by Kevin Hils, the Director of Education at the Knoxville Zoo. I got extra husband points for this one and Kathy said she "had the BEST VALENTINE'S DAY EVER!!!!" We are already planning to attend again next year! ^_^

King Tut's Grill

2009-02-01T09:23:00.003-05:00

Adventure 090131

My wife, four of our friends, and I went to King Tut's Grill last night and it was delicious smothered in awesome with a side order of surprisingly cheap! This little place is tucked away in a corner of the South Knoxville community of Vestal in an ANCIENT ramshackle building with parking you have to get to through a narrow ally. Don't bring an SUV, you might not fit.

We called ahead for reservations and showed up real early to grab seats at one of the five tiny booths and tables and were still the second large group there. Once we were seated the owner Mo took our drink orders and brought them back in huge glass vases. My friend Carrie had been there before and strongly advised we share, so at Mo's suggestion we requested two orders of "the best Greek salad in Knoxville", two Egyptian platters, and two of the "Three Chicken" platters. Everything was fantastic and the servings were huge! Mo is a nut and did several slight of hand tricks for us while our food was being prepared. Once we had gotten most of the way through the meal Mo started up all the funky lights hanging from the ceiling, picked victims from the crowd for Karaoke target practice, started handing out masks and props and otherwise went into full fledged hosting mode. It was corny, it was hokey, and yet I couldn't stop smiling! For desert we shared orders of the baklava, basboosa, and the tiramisu. All of which were great. When we finally needed to head out the bill for six over-stuffed big eaters was only $101.

King Tut's Grill
4132 Martin Mill Pike
Knoxville, TN 37920
(865) 573-6021

Hank's Blue Flamey Birthday Cake

2009-01-17T17:07:00.004-05:00

Experiment: 090116

My friend Hank provided three guidelines for his birthday cake request this year:

Blue Cake
Flames either real or fondant
It must be eatable and tasty

Six shot-glasses, a bottle of Everclear, and a lot of blue dye later I presented him this.

Best DVD of 2008

2009-01-02T22:05:00.010-05:00

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

What can I say? If you haven't bought a copy of this yet you need to go do so right now. This is my personal recommendation for the best DVD of 2008. Dr. Horrible has it all, comedy, romance, catchy songs, super villains, and ray guns. What more do you need to know?

Happy New Year

2009-01-01T08:37:00.003-05:00

We survived another year!
Be amazed, be very, very amazed....

Happy Loot-Mas!

2008-12-25T18:44:00.003-05:00

Kathy and I decided to do a more scaled back holiday this year, but I have to say I am married to one of the best women out there. Kathy did a great job shopping within a limited budget. Of course it helps that my tastes tend to have two speeds:

Very expensive high-end tech.
Toys for my inner eight year old.

Ken's Dark Side Birthday Cookies

2008-11-21T13:22:00.007-05:00

Experiment 081121

Come to the the Dark Side, we have cookies! - Anon

This year my friend Ken requested cookies instead of a cake for his birthday. In particular "Dark Side" cookies.... Bwah ha ha ha ha!

(Late addition added on Thu 12/25/2008.)

New Xbox Experience

2008-11-20T06:48:00.001-05:00

Allow me a moment of fan-boyish enthusiasm please. The "New Xbox Experience" Xbox 360 console upgrade is awesome! The upgrade itself only took about five minutes for me and the new Netflix Watch Instantly integration is flawless. The video quality on the copies of "Hellboy: Animated: Blood & Iron" and "Last Exile: Vol. 1: Ep. 2: Luft Vanship" that I watched last night was fantastic. Whee! New toy!

Valkyrie screening

2008-11-19T05:49:00.005-05:00

Adventure 081118

Kathy and I were lucky enough to be invited to attend an early screening of Tom Cruise's newest movie last night and I found myself surprisingly entertained. I personally am not a Tom Cruise fan, and WWII dramas have not generally appealed to me but I found myself wrapped up in the story and the marvelous performances by Tom Cruise, Kenneth Branagh, Bill Nighy, and Tom Wilkinson. I walked into the theater only knowing that Valkyrie was going to be a dramatic retelling of Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg's plot to assassinate Hitler at the end of WWII, but even knowing the story would have to end poorly I couldn't help but be enthralled by how well the characters were portrayed as fighting against their destiny. I was particularly pleased by how the inevitably depressing ending was handled, and walked out of the theater buoyed by the characters strength. I strongly suggest going to see this one on the big screen.

Epic MacBook Pro Cake Failure

2008-11-15T21:22:00.006-05:00

Experiment 081115

After a co-worker saw the cakes I brought in from my Wilton class she wanted to hire me to bake a cake for her husband's 50th birthday. I was feeling pretty proud of myself after the class and decided to break my rule about taking money for my cakes. Big mistake. After sitting down to discuss at work, she asked me to try and make a MacBook Pro cake. "A MacBook Pro cake? Sure! That shouldn't be too hard. I can just bake a normal sheet cake with my Dream-Whip White Cake recipe, then I'll level it and put it on a nice cake-board, frost it with Wilton recipe Buttercream icing, and then use this nifty wax-paper trick I learned in my Wilton class to get really smooth frosting." Pride goeth before a fall.... Or in the case of this experiment it "goeth" before waking up to find a bunch of cracks that appeared in the frosting overnight. Kathy and I tried just about everything short of scrapping the icing off and starting over, which unfortunately we really didn't have time to do. With time getting short Kathy and I went ahead and tried applying the silver dust with both a folded piece of cheese-cloth, and by "painting" the dust on with a small brush. In both cases the silver dust highlighted every crack, bubble, and imperfection. I will note that using a piece of cheese-cloth to "dust" large areas did work very well, and I will use that method again if I can get around or don't have to deal with the cracked icing issue. Once the silver had been applied we added the white chocolate Apple symbol, and started adding the ports, DVD slot, and thumbscoop. I then tried to show a better height match by adding clamshells with royal blue decorating gel dots. Finally I called my co-worker and told her that I would be giving her check back with the cake and warned her that "the cake looks like a ten year old's drawing of a MacBook." Here's what I learned:

"Simple" cakes are harder than cakes where you can hide your mistakes under an extra glob of icing. (Duh. I should know this by now....)
Silver dust highlights every crack, bubble, and imperfection. I just don't think icing is a good choice for a cake like this and need to spend some time to learn how to use fondant.
I'm really not ready to charge for my cakes. Not only are my skills not quite up to the right quality for that, but I'm also apparently completely unable to accurately estimate cost and time. I asked for $30 to create this cake. I used about $15 worth of supplies, I spent about 6 hours of my time, and Kathy also spent about 4 hours helping me. So even if the cake had come out perfectly I would have been charging $1.50/hour for our time....

Additional info: My co-worker Kim met me at my desk first thing Monday morning and insisted that I take her check back. She said she was thrilled with the cake and that it had been the hit of the party. I'm happy she was pleased even if a bit confused....

Villains Halloween Party

2008-11-09T19:48:00.005-05:00

Adventure 081101

Kathy wanted to have a big Halloween party this year and choose a Villains theme. It turned out gorgeous! My pictures are on Picasa and our friends Hank and Jon have posted their pictures as well.

Jennie sketch from DragonCon '08

2008-11-09T19:27:00.004-05:00

Kathy and I were not able to make it to DragonCon this year but our friend Dea did attend and brought back this awesome sketch from our favorite webcomic artist Jennie Breeden of The Devil's Panties.

A week with Social Networking

2008-10-12T12:29:00.006-04:00

Experiment 081012

As most of the people who will read this already know, I work as a project manager for a real estate software company. In the current U.S. recession-enhanced economy, this is very close to working as a piranha feeder for a boss who keeps shortening the handle on the chum shovel each week. As the real estate market continues to worsen, the expectations for what any particular piece of software will do for an MLS board and it's agents expands dramatically, and inversely the expectation of how much these wonders should cost drops catastrophically. As you can imagine, I tend to have trouble sleeping....

Recently I've read several articles suggesting that one of the first steps in recession-proofing your career is to work on your networking. This make a lot of sense to me, as all of the decent jobs I've ever gotten have been through word of mouth, so last weekend I spent time researching and implementing accounts on what I believe are the four major social networking services. Here is what I have found after a week:

#4: MySpace.com

I completed a MySpace page first, but after a week I honestly still don't have any idea what to do with it now. I already have a Blogger account that I'm attempting to keep updated, so the rather awkward MySpace blog tools are redundant. The social networking tools are nearly non-existent, and there seems to be very little interactivity other than a globally shared meta-game of "how many friends can you get". Considering what I am looking for, it just doesn't seem to be a good match. I'll probably leave the MySpace page up and check in on it randomly from time to time, but otherwise it's a dead end for me. (Also, the fact that someone else beat me to the "samthegiant" MySpace URL is annoying. Oh well, that's what I get for waiting so long to try it out.)

#3: Twitter

I really like Twitter. It's micro-blogging boiled down to it's absolute core functionality. Unfortunately, I have two problems with Twitter's minimalism. First, no one I know is on Twitter. Second, the 140 character limit and global broadcast nature of the updates make it unlikely to be useful for the kind of "Hey, I've been laid off, have you got any good leads" kind of networking I am looking for. I'll try and check my Twitter account often enough to keep it active, but otherwise, it just isn't what I'm looking for right now.

#2: LinkedIn

LinkedIn is exactly what I started my search to find. It's professionally oriented, has a fantastic method for making contacts based on what companies you've worked for, and it has what I find to be a much better shared meta-game of writing and requesting "Recommendations". LinkedIn also has a personal bonus for me in that it's an acceptable use of free time at my workplace. (Not that I have much....) I believe LinkedIn is the perfect match for anyone intending on improving their professional networking.

#4: Facebook

Facebook was the surprise find of my experiments this week. I had honestly just avoided all the social networking sites up to this point as being, in my mind, targeted at a much younger audience. I had visions of a target demographic of cell-phone texting tweens and embarrassing party-picture-posting college kids. If that was ever true, I have apparently skipped past that phase because Facebook strikes me as all-grown-up. The application itself is a relatively uncluttered and straight-forward way to keep up with your online social circle. It offers a multitude of options, but the core functionality surprised me by reminding me strongly of the BBS systems that I fell in love with when I first started playing with computers in the '80s. I hadn't been looking for something else to do with my scant free time, but I found one anyway. Of all four services I have worked on this week, I have spent more time and enjoyed myself much more on Facebook.

Bonus: Digsby

As a bonus item I think that anyone who finds this post at all interesting should take a look at Digsby. I've been a long time fan of Trillian for my multi-protocol IM client, but over the last week I've found Digsby to be much more polished and ascetically pleasing. In addition Digsby offers the killer app of integrating all of the four social networking sites I've tried this week seamlessly into the IM interface. I found Digsby an amazingly easy way to provide and keep track of updates.

As a side note I've removed my Twitter and MySpace graphics and links from the left column of the page.

2008-10-05T21:46:00.003-04:00

And last but not least on my whirlwind list of social networking site additions we have LinkedIn.

Twitter

2008-10-05T19:18:00.007-04:00

In my continuing efforts towards creating a social networking presence, I've created a Twitter account at http://twitter.com/samthegiant and added a Twitter image link to the left column of the page.

Facebook

2008-10-04T20:29:00.004-04:00

Now I've created a Facebook page and added a link on the left side of the page. Facebook makes sense to me. It's just a good way to find people. It doesn't try to be anything else. I like that.

MySpace???

2008-10-04T16:58:00.002-04:00

Okay, I've finished creating a MySpace page. Now what the heck are they actually for? No, seriously. The only thing I can actually see it being used for is a very odd form of dating service/bulletin board? My friends Jon and Hank are using it for their blogs, but from what I've seen it really doesn't compare at all well with Blogger or even just a stand-alone vanity page like my old Evil Adventure & Experiment Log. I'm willing to listen to any dissenting opinions. Maybe I'm just missing something here.... In any case I've added a MySpace graphic to the left column with a link to my page. While I was working on that I also updated the blog links for my friends Carrie and Hank, added a Followers display, and put together a RSS feed of the Netflix DVDs that Kathy and I have checked out.

Wilton Discover Cake Decorating – Course 1 - Class 3

2008-09-30T21:42:00.005-04:00

Adventure 080930

Tonight was the last of my three Wilton Method Cake Decorating classes and I'm tempted to go ahead and sign up for the next series right away. Unfortunately even though the class itself is on sale right now I don't have quite enough extra money to buy all the extra course materials. In any case it was a great class, it really filled in several of the basic skills I had been missing, and I had quite a lot of fun.

The class instructor insisted that we write something on our final cakes.... I really am going to have to get one of the letter icing stamp kits Wilton makes.

I am now an officially certified cake decorator and can blame Wilton for the evil I do with baked goods. Bwah ha ha ha ha!

Jennie linked to me!

2008-09-30T07:30:00.004-04:00

W00t! Jennie Breeden linked to me! Excuse me while I have a fan-boy moment. (Happy dance!!!)

Although I do note that her link to me and the time-stamp from her reply to Jon's email are both awfully close to her Friday 20080926 comic....

Wilton Discover Cake Decorating – Course 1 - Class 3 prep

2008-09-28T21:55:00.003-04:00

Experiment 080928

This is the last prep session for my Wilton Course 1 classes and I had to make a few changes from what I had been originally planning. (When I got home from work on the evening of Wednesday the 24th I found Kathy and everything in the kitchen covered in fire extinguisher powder from where the stove had developed a short and tried to burn down the house.... The new stove will be here on Friday the 3rd, but that's a little late for getting a cake baked for my last class on the 30th.)

Rice Crispy treats are the best!

What's even better than Rice Crispy treats? A Rice Crispy treat cake!

This time I remembered to add the correct amount of water thankfully.

First pass at frosting.

I think the best tip I've picked up out of this class has been waiting 15-30 minutes for the icing to harden and then using wax paper to finish smoothing the cake. The results are fantastic.

With friends like these....

2008-09-27T16:31:00.004-04:00

With friends like these.... Apparently my buddy Jon up in Detroit is trying get me into trouble and deserves a horrible evil smackdown....

From: Jennie Breeden
Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2008 1:16 PM
To: Barron, Jon
Subject: Re: Hehehe...you've got to see this

Wow! thanks so much for showing that to me. It's awesome! I wouldn't even pretend to send him a cease and desist order.

That is just too cool

thanks
jennieB
www.thedevilspanties.com
www.geebasonparade.com

---------------------------------------------------
On Mon, Sep 22, 2008 at 4:15 PM, Barron, Jon wrote:

Jennie,

'ello, long time webcomic admirer and got hooked by a friend of mine that you just happen to know. It is this mutual friend of ours that I feel compelled to share something with you that I think you'll get a kick out of.

First, his name is Sam McClanahan and he is the husband of the couple that three or four years ago dropped of that huge freaken basket of chocolate goodies for you at DragonCon that you were so kind to include them in your webcomic doing just that. I believe that your choice words at the time were "Holy crap!" :) In any case, Sam is on this cake making kick now and well...check this out:

http://samthegiant.blogspot.com/2008/09/chocolate-jennie.html

I hope you get a laugh out of it as I did. If you want to play a joke on him, I'm a network admin at a law firm up here in Detroit and I'm sure I could get any number of attorney friends of mine to draw up fake cease and desist orders if you'd like to pull one over on Sam.

Keep up the good work!!

Jon Barron

Wilton Discover Cake Decorating – Course 1 - Class 2

2008-09-23T21:40:00.005-04:00

Adventure 080923

A three hour cake decorating class after a ten hour work day makes Sam a very tired boy, but I'm pretty happy about how my first Wilton Method cake turned out.

Wilton Discover Cake Decorating – Course 1 - Class 2 prep

2008-09-21T20:51:00.008-04:00

Experiment 080921

I made two major mistakes in my prep work for the second Wilton class session.

I forgot the eggs in the Dream Whip cake recipe (with extra 1/4 cup oil) my instructor suggested until after I had mixed the other ingredients.
I forgot that I needed to add extra water to the Class Buttercream Icing recipe to use it to frost the cake until after I had finished.... Despite the fact that it was REALLY hard to frost....

The Wilton instructor suggested using this recipe with the addition of 1/4 cup oil. It turned out very tasty.

Note the lack of eggs. D'oh!

Whee! Vanilla Crisco flavored sugar!

Yes, I have to make sure everything is on the counter before starting. It's a compulsion.

The finished cake looks pretty good but was incredibly time consuming. I'm thinking that even knowing that I messed up the icing, the way to go here is to frost the cake like normal and then use a tub of the Wilton Decorating icing.

Caught up at last!!!

2008-09-20T22:46:00.001-04:00

Double W00t!!! I've uploaded the last of the back-log and am caught up at last!

Move complete!

2008-09-17T20:45:00.004-04:00

W00t!!! I've completed the move to Blogger from my old Sam's Evil Adventure & Experiment Log vanity page! Now to see if the Blogger tools and ease of access will allow me to catch up on the back-log and help me keep this updated....

Wilton Discover Cake Decorating – Course 1 - Class 1

2008-09-16T22:36:00.003-04:00

Adventure 080916

Kathy noticed that the Maryville Hobby Lobby was running a half-price sale on their Wilton Cake Decorating classes so I rushed over and got the second to last slot on the sign-up sheet for the "Discover Cake Decorating – Course 1" series. The first class was really just a basic introduction and review of what we would need to bring to the next classes followed by a quick demonstration of some of the techniques the instructor would be showing us. Not a lot of actual content but the instructor seemed very skilled and I managed to pick up several tips to try out. I'm hoping this class will fill in some of the basic techniques I'm missing and I'll try to post pictures from each prep session and class.

(Late back-log addition added on Sat 9/20/2008.)

Great Island Festival

2008-09-06T22:05:00.000-04:00

Adventure 080906

My Step-Dad Larry, Kathy, and I took a trip out to the Great Island Festival and spent several enjoyable hours wandering around the Sequoyah Birthplace Museum and the Fort Loudoun State Historical Area. Kathy actually spent a good portion of her childhood in Vonore and most of her extended family still lives there so she got to play tour guide. My favorite portion of the day was the mock battle.

(Late back-log addition added on Sat 9/20/2008.)

Chocolate Jennie

2008-08-09T21:30:00.001-04:00

Experiment 080809

While web-surfing I happened to run across an article that showed how to create custom cake topper decorations by using white and dark chocolate. Here are a couple of shots of my first attempt. Yes, I did use a signed Devil's Panties comic for my template. (Note the plastic bag in addition to the layer of wax paper.) Yes, I'm expecting an anti-stalking restraining order from Georgia any day now....

(Late back-log addition added on Sat 9/20/2008.)

Carrie's ITT Graduation Party Cake

2008-06-29T21:03:00.001-04:00

Experiment 080629

In what was probably one of our better experiments in mental manipulation we waited a week before throwing Carrie a surprise Graduation party. I love being evil....

(Late back-log addition added on Sat 9/20/2008.)

Carrie's ITT Graduation

2008-06-21T20:45:00.001-04:00

Adventure 080621

If you happened to be at the June 21st Knoxville TN ITT Graduation ceremony I would like to take a moment to apologize for my friends. They were the bunch of yahoos who screamed "For The WIN!!!" at the top of their lungs. Still, we all are inordinately proud of Carrie, so I suppose a little extra enthusiasm should be forgiven.

(Late back-log addition added on Sat 9/20/2008.)

Greg's Hello Kitty Birthday Cake

2008-05-03T20:11:00.002-04:00

Experiment 080503

For some reason neither Kathy or I can remember now, (It must have seemed like a good idea at the time....) Kathy created a bright pink Hello Kitty Birthday Cake for Greg this year. It was incredibly bright, colorful, and terrifying. I had Hello Kitty nightmares the night after she decorated it. (Shudder....)

(Late back-log addition added on Sat 9/20/2008.)

Marble Springs Living History Weekend

2008-04-19T19:48:00.002-04:00

Adventure 080419

Despite living just under five miles away from the site for the last five years I had never visited the John Sevier Marble Springs Tennessee State Historic Farmstead until Kathy and I noticed that they were holding a Living History Weekend. Marble Springs is a small site but it's obvious that many people have put a lot of love and effort into keeping it maintained. My Mother, Step-Dad, Kathy, and I spent a very pleasant Saturday afternoon wandering around the several buildings that have been moved to the site and restored including a Tavern/Trading Post, a Loom House with a very impressive working loom, the Walker Cabin, and the John Sevier Cabin where some claim that John Sevier lived for the last years of his life.

(Late back-log addition added on Sat 9/20/2008.)

A T. Rex Named Sue

2008-04-12T22:22:00.002-04:00

Adventure: 080412

Kathy and I went to see the Chicago Field Museum of Natural History's traveling "A T. Rex Named Sue" exhibit when it came to the Gray Fossil Museum, and I have to say I was very impressed. Not only was the exhibit fantastic, but I really had no idea how much was going on at the site. I encourage anyone who has the chance to go visit.

(Late back-log addition added on Thu 9/18/2008.)

Carrie's Portal Cube Birthday Cake

2008-02-22T20:45:00.003-05:00

Experiment: 080222

This was a triumph. I'm making a note here HUGE SUCCESS. It's hard to overstate my satisfaction. - GLaDOS

My friend Carrie requested a "Portal Cube" birthday cake this year. The cake itself is loosely based on the recipe from the game and Kathy put together a wonderful mockup of the cube.

(Transferred from the original http://www.samthegiant.com/ website on Wed 9/17/2008.)

Hank's Emo 30th Birthday Cake

2008-01-11T20:45:00.003-05:00

Experiment: 080111

We all enter this world in the same way: naked; screaming; soaked in blood. But if you live your life right, that kind of thing doesn't have to stop there. - Dana Gould

My friend Hank turned 30 this year and requested an "Emo" birthday cake. I doubt this was what he had in mind, but I was pleased.

(Transferred from the original http://www.samthegiant.com/ website on Wed 9/17/2008.)

Kathy, Ken, and Swain's Triple Treat Birthday Cakes

2007-11-30T20:45:00.003-05:00

Experiment: 071130

Three minutes' thought would suffice to find this out; but thought is irksome and three minutes is a long time. - Alfred Edward Housman

My wife Kathy and my friends Ken and Swain decided to ask for one big birthday extravaganza this year with an Oreo pie, banana bread, and a lemon cake. I wasn't overly pleased with how the pie and the banana bread turned out, but the lemon cake covered in lemon jelly beans, fruit gems, and fruit slices was fantastic.

(Transferred from the original http://www.samthegiant.com/ website on Wed 9/17/2008.)

DragonCon 2007

2007-08-31T20:45:00.003-04:00

Adventure: 070831

DragonCon has been my favorite convention for almost two decades, but this was the first year I've tried to Cosplay a theme with a group. My friend Ken, my Mother, my Step-Dad Larry, and I all dressed up as Imperial Orc Marines from the book "Grunts!" by Mary Gentle.

Kathy took a slightly different approach and based her costume on Elwyn from the video game "Shining Tears".

I will note that it was Kathy who managed to get her picture taken with the MythBusters "Build Team"....

While we were at DragonCon we met up with our friend Aldea who wore a very nice "Fallen Angel" costume on Saturday that I sadly did not really get a good picture of.

After the parade we all marched over to Artist's Row to give my favorite webcomic artist Jennie Breeden of The Devil's Panties another basket. That's twice now. Once more and it becomes an official tradition! Jennie immediately tried out one of the odder candy choices in the basket called a "Harry Potter Fizzing Whizbee". I tried one myself and that face she is making is actually a pretty mild reaction....

(Transferred from the original http://www.samthegiant.com/ website on Wed 9/17/2008.)

Tormenting Miki with B5 & Jello

2007-08-06T20:45:00.002-04:00

Experiment: 070806

Imagine my delight and joy at your return. Now imagine that expressed as cash. Being a negative number you now owe me $37.50 - Richard "Miki" Evans

Here's an example of why this webpage is called "Sam's Evil Adventure & Experiment Log". Kathy stumbled on a website showing a prank involving placing a stapler into a Jello mold and leaving it on a co-worker's desk. My thought when she showed it to me was "I bet he just tossed the stapler...." So when we decided to do "evil things" to Miki I knew I would need to find something he would be willing to scrape Jello off of to have. That's a copy of "Babylon 5 - The Lost Tales" in the Jello. Yes, he did scrape it off. No, I wasn't kind enough to leave it at that. The disk in the Jello actually only had a copy of the "sock-puppet" version JMS did for the DVD extras. Yes, I did relent and give him a real copy.

(Transferred from the original http://www.samthegiant.com/ website on Wed 9/17/2008.)

Greg's Red Velvet Chocolate-Seashell Birthday Cake

2007-05-04T21:56:00.004-04:00

Experiment: 070504

The only normal people are the ones you don't know very well. - Joe Ancis

I had liked the chocolates that Kathy had used to top my cake so much that Greg's cake was built around a box of seashell shaped chocolates we found. I'm still vaguely displeased with how my red velvet cakes turn out. They never seem to be as rich as my other recipes.

(Transferred from the original http://www.samthegiant.com/ website on Mon 9/15/2008.)

Sam's Killer Quintuple Chocolate Birthday Cake

2007-04-27T21:51:00.003-04:00

Experiment: 070427

Of course it has civilian applications. You might wanna kill your friends, someday.... - Jim Zelenka

For my birthday Kathy decided to turn the tables and make a cake for me. I think I may have hovered a bit.... Or at least that's what I think the threats and screaming was about.... In any case she did a fantastic job. My request was for "Chocolate cake, frosted with chocolate icing, topped with chocolate, and with a side of chocolate." That's one of those huge novelty Hershey Kisses behind the candles, and those are Bailey's filled chocolates on the edges. Extra yummy!

(Transferred from the original http://www.samthegiant.com/ website on Mon 9/15/2008.)

Carrie's Chocolate-Strawberry Birthday Cake

2007-03-09T21:42:00.006-05:00

Experiment: 070309

We are not gentle tolerant people. We like drastically effective solutions. - Steve VanDevender

I still feel vaguely guilty about this one. I'd had a rough week and was not coming up with any really great ideas. I have to say though that for a basic cake it came out pretty well.

Also under the header of things to feel vaguely guilty about we have this entry. I present to you the "Sam's Wood - Mark II". I wasn't the only one who had a bad week, so after we were all sugared up we retired to the back yard fire-pit to play with napalm made by melting a huge Styrofoam fake fireplace that Kathy had made for her and Ken's Pirate Birthday party in gasoline and then we rode this contraption down the hill. In the dark. While wearing the helmet to give ourselves the illusion of safety. My favorite quote of the evening was "It's very important to wear protection while riding Sam's Wood!"

(Transferred from the original http://www.samthegiant.com/ website on Mon 9/15/2008.)

Liz's Birthday Turtle Cake

2007-02-02T21:32:00.004-05:00

Experiment: 070202

Why trouble your friends and make them morally liable for your strange doings? - Roger Zelazny

For this cake I overcame my inherent distrust of anything like fondant and we used a batch of home-made modeling chocolate for the shell. The result was surprisingly tasty, easy to work with, and reminded me of a Tootsie Roll. Once I had the basic shape put together I handed it over to Kathy for the sculpting and design work.

(Transferred from the original http://www.samthegiant.com/ website on Mon 9/15/2008.)

Hank's Birthday MeatCake

2007-01-04T21:19:00.008-05:00

Experiment: 070104

Human evolution is directly related to the consumption of meat. When we started eating flesh, we started getting clever. - Ted Nugent

Yes, you read that correctly. This is a four layer meat loaf cake that has been frosted with mashed potatoes and decorated with white cheddar cheese. I made up a double batch of Diabetic Gourmet Magazine's excellent Just Plain Meat Loaf recipe which I then baked in four cake pans. For the mashed potatoes I used instant flakes but altered the box's prep instructions by replacing the water with chicken stock and the margarine with real butter. The potatoes took a long time to whip to the right texture, but ended up being the easiest to use "frosting" I have ever worked with. For the decorations I used a can of Cheez-It White Cheddar Pasteurized Cheese Snack, but I don't think I will use it again because after sitting in the fridge over-night it turned an odd shade of off-white.

(Transferred from the original http://www.samthegiant.com/ website on Mon 9/15/2008.)