I can bake. I make good cookies. My family loves my pizza. My bread is well known. However, cakes have ellduded me.
I can bake a decent cake, but when it comes to frosting them, I’ve always had one issue or another. I once tore apart a cake, requiring a trip to Busken for my daughter’s birthday.
So, I stick to cookies, or pretzels, or bagels. Once in a while, I’ll venture into cupcakes.
But, every year, I have to try again. My daughter’s school is asking for cakes for the school carnival. They are big on volunteering, so I thought I would try. I wasn’t however, sure I was ready to take a chance I’d have to go to Busken again. So, tonight I made a practice cake.
We’ll cut it tomorrow, as my daughter has gone to bed. However, so far, so good.
I’ve been following a blog called The Setup for a few months now. It describes itself as “a bunch of nerdy interviews.”
Basically, it is a series of interviews with various contemporary geeky people, such as Jonathan Coulton (Internet Rocker), Tim Bray (from Google), Bert Kersey (Apple II designer), or Richard Stallman (the founder of GNU), focusing on the tools they use. There are four basic questions:
Who are you and what do you do?
What hardware do you use?
And the Software?
What would be your dream setup?
It provides an interesting look into people and their tools, and why they use what they use. Surprising is how much Apple is in the mix, as well as how many people are more or less happy with what they got.
It also has one of the most cleaver URL schemes out there. The domain is usesthis.com, with the “host” being the name of the person interviewed. So, you wind up with jonathan.coulton.usesthis.com.
I’ve enjoyed the insight into how different people select and use tools. It’s introduced me to some things I hadn’t heard of, and got me thinking about the tools I select. Definitely worth a read.
I always associated Joe Jackson with light pop. In part, it was from my first exposure to him being “Stepping Out,” and”Is She Really Going Out With Him;” in part due to this being tied, in my head, to Donald Fagen’s “The Nightfly,” released about the same time with the same feel.
However, a recent Cover Story on the Coverville podcast exposed me to more of his music, increased my iTunes store bill, and taught me that Joe Jackson rocks.
On September 18, I did the 2010 Hope Ride, in Hope, Indiana. This is my third time doing this ride, and my twenty-sixth century (ride of 100 miles or more).
The ride was, per the web site, “One Hundred Miles of Bull” (everything is cow-themed). However, I clocked 108.75 miles, making it my second longest ride. It’s not uncommon for rides to not have exact milage, though this is one of the more extreme examples.
All in all, it was a good ride. The wind was a big factor, and I could have done without it. There were one set of falls, south of Hope, that we didn’t go to. I was a little disappointed by that. However, there is a strong chance I’ll be there next year.
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