Colossalcon Cooking Show in Post Production

In a bout of compromises, as I have yet to get to an anime convention in
the US that allows for actual cooking at a Japanese Cooking panel, a
friend and I did the production shooting for a "virtual" panel as a
video, a show about an hour long, 2 days ago. Yesterday I did the rough
edit down to around an hour or less, with room for commercials.
Commercials I culled from a bunch of off-air Japanese TV videotapes I've
managed to collect. Video that my Maggie DVD recorder restored to
viewing near-perfection. I retrieved a couple Marumiya Sailor Moon
commercials, Magic Knight Rayearth toy commercials, some Kaitou Saint
Tail toy commercials, a few Akazukin Chacha toy commercials. And an
assortment of Japanese food commercials which I find most entertaining.
I want to try some of the stuff they advertise! Plus a commercial for
Shabon American style coin laundry - complete with bunnygirls. ^_^

The ending credits feature the ending theme and animation from Tokyo Mew
Mew, a reasonably good quality clean no-credit version found on Youtube.

I handed off the copy of the raw video to be massaged off to a friend of
ours who's got the software to do the job. ^_^

I was pleasantly suprised by my friend's videography of what we were
doing. Really nice shots and very little of me.

I might have gotten it just in time?

I probably mentioned I got the external backup HD for the Dell system.
This morning my nieces come over and the oldest turns on the desktop. It
freezes at some point during bootup on that little animated progress bar
screen. So in a panic like I always do when something acts up other than
expected behavior, I take the seat and figure out what to do. Which was
hold the power button in and force it to shut off. Then I get that
screen that XP brings up when the last start up wasn't completed and I
tell it to start normally. It comes up this time.

It was the first ever time the 'puter did anything like that. It's
always started fine. It could be that with Road Runner light and the
computer being on for longer periods that it's affecting the system in
some way. Some research turned up that it's possible a cable to the HD
might be a little loose. If the startup freeze happens again, I will
certainly check that. I should check it for dust anyway about now.

I did make sure it wasn't anything else, and a couple warm restarts and
one cold start showed it does work like it should. So I'll say shrug and
wait until it happens again. I think the drive in there now is a Western
Digital drive. The designation in the hardware specs show WD so it could
be one. I'll make sure to replace it with something else. Maybe a Maxtor
or Seagate anyway.

I'll have to find our Dell reinstall CDs to make sure I can make a
complete system reinstall when I need to. I did it for a bro in law.
(Except he didn't like me putting one piece of software on there that
would NOT have affected the use of Kodak's bloatware. Sheesh, some
people.)

XP desktop backed up

Well, I hope this is how things work in stuff like this. I finally got that external hard drive, a small 120G Seagate model on clearance. After about 2 hours, I managed to make a backup of everything not in use by the system and therefore allowed to be copied. I even exported a copy of the current registry. I may go back for the other cheap Seagate drive for use with the Win98SE system if I can find drivers for it.

I hope that all I need to do with the backing up the desktop is to copy everything off, and when time comes for re-installing the system on a new hard drive, just copy everything back on and import the registry. (shrug) We'll see.

Sometimes life is sweet

Today while doing some errands, I ran into one of the people I used to
work with while at the restaurant. She was one of the few I miss working
with because she is nice.

I found out my former boss from there retired.

I'll bet he felt lucky he didn't get fired because of my webpage about
stupid customers. I might have brought that back by now. Heh. I never
really deleted it; if anything I just set to non-public. I can do that
to pages on WebTV without deleting them.

I would just like more of the story behind how corporate YUM found my
page, who that was, and how that communication filtered down. I never
promoted that page except among my friends and it was my personal way to
blow off steam from a job I was burning out doing. It was done on my own
time using my own resources. I feel it was just an excuse they wanted to
use and could because of it being non-union for a reason why I shouldn't
work there anymore. Then they had the nerve to violate my privacy and
start going through my blog. I have a disclaimer on it about that now.

William Gibson, may you rest and wonder.

Funny how he's got the same name as the famous author.

A shame I never learned of Gordon Ramsey until long after I departed
that place.

Sailor Moon DVDs from Pioneer

I bought my first Sailor Moon DVD from Pioneer that covers 6 episodes
(yeah!) from SuperS. It was pretty clear at the time these were being
released that Pioneer wanted fans to buy the DVDs since the VHS releases
were 3 episodes each, as I recall.

They also seemed to want fans to watch the uncut dub more than the uncut
sub. Why is the sound on these for the Japanese audio so muddy? I
realize it's probably due to the original being mono, but the same music
for the dub is crystal clear. I'm pretty sure the audio was better on
the LDs of the same material.

I bought this DVD at flea market for $4, and might have to find a DVD
polish kit to clean it up a little but it's not bad as it is now. Or I
should look into replacing the Cyberhome player because it's been
getting pretty lousy playing pressed and burned disks. It might need
cleaned, I dunno.

I think it's time Sailor Moon fans start searching thrift stores and
flea market for Sailor Moon video releases and save them from being in
those places. I bought the edited dub of the SuperS movie at a Goodwill
for about $3, and one edited S VHS tape at a flea market for 50 cents.
And now this DVD which covers material I didn't already have. I'll
probably end up piecing together a Sailor Moon DVD set sometime.

I felt it necessary to buy it because Anime North is going on this
weekend. While I do miss it a lot, I realize nothing could be done about
it. I finally got my checks this week, a bit late. I also have a
replacement refridgerator in the works.

The home page of WebTV was saying something about rushing to save the
memories of WWII vets. Among the things my grandparents left and I ended
up with were the letters my grandfather got and sent when he was
drafted. Dec 14, 1942 was when he got his notice. He wrote back to his
wife (both my mom's parents) Dec 22 1942 on the back of the other sheet
of his draft notice:

Dear ---,

I am sending you these papers. I didn't need the marriage license. I
kept one pair of underwear and hankies and the towels and wash cloths. I
guess these dam fools have got me. I had 2 shots in the arms today,
pretty sore right now. Every dam thing you do hear you have to run.
Don't write to me here as I may be shipped out anytime. Don't know
whether I will be home for Christmas or not. I don't know whether I'll
get what I wanted or not. I sent my clothes in a box, the handbag I sent
by express. I don't like it at all but guess I will have to stay for the
duration. I have my uniform now. Well, honey, this is all I have time
for. Take care of yourself now. With lots of love, your hubby ----
xxxxxx.

----

And to think he wanted me to enlist in the services when he didn't like
it himself? Hypocrite. I don't have any other later letters that say
anything if he eventually liked what he ended up doing, but I'm pretty
sure he didn't see combat action. I was told he ended up with some desk
job in the Army-Air Force while in England. He could have ended up with
a similar job when he got out (with decent pay), but ended up working at
the wax paper company in town. It wasn't a bad job, as I'm sure he was
paid OK, but not as much as the desk job would have been. His retirement
pay was very nice, having been born at the time just before they changed
the pay rules at Social Security.

I also have somewhere his medals in a display thingy, and I managed to
work out what he got from extensive net searching. I have a bunch of the
German military script he managed to collect and some other currency
that might be worth something for all I know.

He never really talked much about his time in the service and we don't
know why. One friend's father used to talk alot about his time in the
Navy during WWII, so perhaps he had a better experience.

Grr Grr and Double GRRRR

ARGH!!! I'm trying to convert a bunch of FLV files to something I can
put on a DVD. FLVExtract is missing a DLL file. AVI2DVD refuses to work
with an AVI file I have now - a 330MB monster which is a converted
Playstation STReam Video file which plays at 15 fps. BBMpeg or whatever
it is doesn't convert it right. SuperC won't even play the FLV files in
spite of having Flash Player installed, but methinks I don't exactly
have it installed right and I don't know how to get it to install right
and work as a browser or system plugin. (Super(c) that I'm working with
is a July 2007 version but I can get my hands on an earlier version). I
can't get Super(c) to play the AVI either with or without Direct Show
checked.

I'm hoping putting VLC on there will enable my Win98SE box to do
SOMETHING with these files.

I also tried MediaCoder, but it turned its snob nose up at me, expecting
a newer OS.

AVISynth I also can't get to work with that one AVI, complaining that
Interface was not supported. Doesn't exactly explain the problem, maybe
the 15 fps file is the problem. I can't help that.

Then I tried to copy one DVD a friend burned for me, and it's like
fighting the system. However, a different brand DVD he burned for me
read nice like I expect a disk to read, so who knows.

GRRRRR... Really making me mad.

Oh geez...

So today I get another SocSec letter still in regard to SSI. I thought
this was finally done with the one guy I spoke to and sending in a copy
of a letter he needed to see. This time it's some other guy. This time
they want me in person in their local office in 2 days, 10 am. They want
me to bring the letter I got today along with some folder I don't have.
Then there was supposed to be a list of documents they wanted, but
there's no list. I have NO idea what they want, and I called the guy's
extension and left a message to that effect that I didn't have any
folder. I go back through remembering all the documentation I've
received from SocSec, and I'm pretty sure this folder they want is
something I don't have. I've not received any benefits at all so far.

I'm getting annoyed by all this irregular stuff.

Days when you get stepped on, others when it falls on you

OK. So anywho, I finally get a #1 6 inch philips screwdriver and get
inside the Right Speaker of the Cambridge SoundWorks speakers we got. I
had to reattach the sound input as well as fix the bad power switch. I
ended up wiring in a bypass power switch and it works again. Most people
would say why not buy a new pair? I don't have the money and I don't
believe in disposable technology. These speakers also sound pretty good,
good enough to fix and keep them.

OK so back in March or thereabouts, I signed up for help through the BVR
office. They supposedly sent out forms for Dr. Z and the counselor I was
seeing there as well as the guy I see now, but it seems none of them
have sent anything back. I owe money to Dr. Z so they may not even
respond to that. So I get a call today from a guy at BVR still telling
me they've not received replies from anyone. So I call Dr. Z's office
and the lady sees that my file was closed in February because I owed
them so much and I've been trying to pay them whatever I can. She also
doesn't see any BVR forms so they either didn't get them or they got
them but threw them away. I dunno. I don't understand why the guy I see
now hasn't replied already.

I have my disability award, and I got this Ticket to Work thingy. But if
it's going to be a big freaking hassle all around to get BVR help, I
might as well not even bother trying to work!! It's not worth it!!!!! I
should pursue studies at Kent State, which seems less a hassle but still
annoying.

How to use a Bravetti deep fryer with success

After my dinky Europro deep fryer I got at Big Lots proved too small for our recent upswing in the use of deep frying thanks to Angel Food Ministries orders, we decided a bigger model was necessary. Mom found one on eBay, but bid on it before doing research on it. Lots of consumers of similar Bravetti models (a lot of them Canadian owners) had the misfortune to run into these fryers and lots of people reported bad things happening. But there were some who reported good things and nothing but praise.

So far, a model we got with electronic temperature control has worked fine in the 4 times so far we have used it, and from my extensive 10.5 year experience around deep fryers, I have some things to offer other owners or future owners of Bravetti deep fryers. (Ours is a 3 liter model.)

When using the fryer, do not use the timer! You're trying to get this thing to heat up, and you don't need it on a timer when you're getting it up to speed. I don't use the timer anyway.

When you first turn it on, set it DOWN to the lowest temp it will go. It will heat up, but it will get there and not put a strain on your electric box. From my past experience, the huge commercial deep fryers would gently heat the shortening in small short bursts instead of just going all the way through. You should do the same. Get it up to that minimum temperature (about 150 degrees F), then step it up 10 to 20 degrees (when the green light goes out). If you have trippy weak breakers (like we do) we put the fryer on a low-use circuit and try not to blow a breaker. I've been able to step the Bravetti up to 350 degrees successfully without tripping a breaker in about 30 minutes or less.

One thing to look out for before using it for the first time is the position of the temperature probe. I think the most trouble people got from the Bravetti is due to the placement of the probe. Again, from my EXTENSIVE experience, you should not have any temperature probes near your heating elements! When we got this out of the box, I noticed the probe was snack up against the heating element! Bad! I noticed that the metal bracket that held the probe extended across the heating elements and had a spot in the middle with nothing in it. So before I turned this unit on for the first time for cooking, I worked the probe out of the bracket it came in and put it in the middle between and away from all heating elements. So instead of detecting the heat of the elements, it would be able to tell the true temperature of the actual oil.

Considering how well this fryer has cooked and produced not-greasy results, this was the right modification to make.

Ours has a black reset button in the back, and other people who reported problems noted that even after utilizing this button, their units stopped working completely. Another owner noted that there's a thermal fuse inside the control panel as well. I will keep that in mind should our unit fail to heat up.

The manual recommends not using solid vegetable shortening, but if you really want to, melt it ahead of time before putting it in the fryer. Not a bad idea, but I think we'll stick to liquid vegetable oil.

So there you have it, some helpful tips for you in case you want to consider a Bravetti fryer.

Fun with photography

	Someone give me a Lolcat for this.
	First time trying to put more than one picture in one post. Across the street, the people got some sort of notice and they kinda disappeared in January or February. Last month, the owner finally came around to see a mountain of garbage left outside. This past week, it finally got cleaned up.
	Does this look like Jimmy Hendricks? If the locals have this kind of talent and skill, I'd like to see more creative things. ^_^