Living in ‘Silicon Valley’ is interesting for many reasons, not the least of which is the zaniness of the housing market. Having grown up here in the 60’s and 70’s, I was oblivious to this phenomenon, thinking that it was normal. That is until I moved to Arizona for more than a decade and returned. When we returned in 2014, we knew that we were in for a shock. When I moved...
Approaching the end of my fourth week with the Instant Pot, and it is time to revisit with some observations.
First, my initial observation that it is stupid easy to use is still accurate. It really is almost impossible to screw up. Yes, I know that if you don’t have enough liquids it will fail to come to pressure, and that you can burn things in it, but I haven’t experienced that yet.
I have mentioned a few times that I am a sucker for ambitious music projects. A few months ago, Amazon Music turned me onto Arjen Lucassen, and then I found his projects, Ayreon. I bought the latest, The Source on vinyl, and holy hell, it was amazing. I bought a few more of the Aryeon project albums (on CD, as the vinyl versions had sold out, and the offered sale versions were for more than $200).
As I had bought the trilogy, and gone through the effort to rip them for my Plex server, I feel like I should watch them all. For some reason, I didn’t watch Star Wars: Episide V – The Empire Strikes Back in the first run. In fact, I think it was 2012 or so, when I finally watched the middle episode, having seen both the first and the third in the theater.
A fond memory of my youth was watching Star Wars in the theater. 1977, and I thought that was the best-est movie EVAR!!!!1!!! Action, great special effects, space scenes, aliens, and the voice of James Earl Jones as Darth Vader. What was not to love about it. I watched it a few times afterwards, but unlike some people I know, I moved on, and into other pursuits. I probably hadn’t seen the...
Around Christmas, I began seeing all my friends on Facebook posting show they got Instant Pots for Christmas, and I was intrigued. Having never heard of the device before, my instinct was to dismiss the hype. But, when I was browsing Amazon, a recommended book was “Indian Instant Pot Cookbook” by Urvashi Pitre, and for 8 bucks, it jumped in my cart. A lark. Reading the recipes more...
I have been a life-long, avid consumer of Science Fiction. The bug really took root when I was in high school, and I was bitten hard. Heinlein, Asimov, Herbert, and other titans of the genre were my apetite and I voraciously devoured them all. There were some authors that I attempted to get into, but at the time, and for many years after, I struggled to appreciate. One was John Brunner, whose...
Last year, one movie that I really wanted to see was Valerian (full title: “Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets”), a film by Luc Besson, who made one of my go-to SciFi movies, “The Fifth Element”. Known for making movies that are visually stunning, blending humor and action, and a penchant for strong female characters, I thought this couldn’t go wrong. Alas, I didn’t make it to the...
Bagging on netflix is becoming a recurring theme, but alas, I need to circle back. When Netflix streaming began to take off, it was pretty much the only game in town. At the time, the catalog was far from complete, but Netflix got in at the ground floor, and all the content owners pretty much granted access to their catalog. Not complete access, and there were significant holes, but the selection...
More Funnies. Not sure where I harvested this, but every time I re-discover it, I get more than a couple chuckles, and remember to share it with a friend. Now I am sharing it with you. AT&T Customer Service Memorandum Please stop submitting compliants. This is our system. We designed it, we built it, and we use it more than you do. If there are some features you think might be missing, if the...