You hear “homemade jam,” and you think of grandmas puttering around a kitchen, talking to Tweetie bird and stirring a gently steaming pot, saying “Oh dear this” and “Oh dear that.” But I’ve been there, and I know the reality. I know the sting of hot bubble burns, the throbbing of skin-on-glass doozies, and the adrenaline spike of hundreds of near-misses that could have scarred me for life at the very least. Making jam is entering a world of fiery pain, my friend. Proceed with caution.

OK, so it’s not hard. If you throw berries or most tree fruit in a pot with some lemon juice and sugar and cook them down long enough–say 30-40 min–they will become gelatinous. If you scoop that still-hot substance into a Ball jar, gently screw a lid on it and drop it in boiling water for 5-10 min, it will “can,” so to speak. Pull it out, wait a bit, and you’ll start to hear a popping noise, a sign that you did just enough to make Board of Health officials believe your side of the story.

But in this simple process there’s a lot of weirdness, a good deal of physics, and plenty of peril. Let’s break it down into a convenient 10 steps:

1. Pick your ratios but keep in mind, they’re your ratios. I don’t think everyone who’s ever written a cookbook about jam making was wrong when they said 1:1 berry-to-sugar ratio, but wait, yes, maybe I do. Because I’ve made jam at 2:1 berries-to-jam for a few years now, and nobody ever complained of tartness, or bitterness, or God forbid, microbial funk. I even pick underripe berries to balance it out, like some of the wiser books and websites say. But still man, what the hell with all that sugar? I am not an anti-sugar crusader (Remember that movie Requiem for a Dream? Wasn’t it like totally beyond nuts?), but cutting back on sugar doesn’t hurt. So try like 8 cups berries, 4 cups sugar and a 1/2 cup of lemon juice. Something like that.

2. This whole berry thing–which is what I’ve dealt with most (besides apple butter)–is really about boiling the mushy stuff long enough to get the pectin out. Plenty of recipes say you should add a box of pectin. That is bullshit. Pectin is the key thickener in jam, but it comes from fruits. That’s where they get it from, to put it into the box. So… *shrug* If you’re cooking with raspberries or strawberries, even apples, you’ve got more pectin than you need. (Trust me, I’ve accidentally passed out drunk while boiling down apples, woke up just in time to not burn down the house, and ended up with jars of apple butter so thick it was like eating a paste of fruit leather. Yummm!) Final word: If you buy pectin, the terrorists win.

3. What you do have to buy is a stick blender, if you don’t own one already. I am lucky enough to have a 400-watt job that was a wedding present, but there’s a Cuisinart for like $27 so no excuses. (We tried the Breville cordless and it sucked ass, so avoid.) You need a stick blender because just after you add your berries and your sugar and your lemon juice and you cooked it a bit, you want to break up the berries. We all like a nice jam (otherwise we–meaning you–wouldn’t be reading this) but let’s just chop it into bits with our stick blenders. Some people go so far as to crush and strain half their raspberries to reduce the number of seeds, but seriously why work with raspberries at all if you don’t like seeds?

But stick blending represents the first major danger point, not only because a stick blender has no safety latch, and is the simplest way to cut off your finger. And also not only because it’s a thing you plug into the wall socket and then put into a pot of liquid–pretty sure the Underwriters Laboratory has assured its electrical safety in triplicate. No, the real danger comes when you are waving that magic wand inside the pot and it starts to kick up. You don’t want it too close to the bottom of the pot or it will scratch, or just suction itself down like a pool-cleaning robot. And you definitely don’t want it near the top, where it can jet jammy solids at your face. You want to hold it steady in the middle.

4. Bubble, bubble, boil and boom, you got a third-degree burn. If I haven’t said this already, I should have: Wear long sleeves. At first, it’s just liquid, and you don’t even really need to stir it. Just keep an eye on it. But as you’re nearing the end, it takes on the look and consistency of magma from the hellfires of Mount Doom, and it feels like that too when it slaps against your bare forearms. Why do chefs all wear long-sleeved jackets? That’s why. I like a good silicone glove for my stirring hand. That’s a long last 10 minutes if you don’t wear protection.

5. The freezer test works–or it doesn’t. Every time I make jam, I test it by putting ramekins in the freezer, pulling them out and dolloping on some goo as I near the finishing point. After the dollop goes on, I stick them back in the freezer, wait a minute or so, then just lick the ramekin. If it tastes like jam I want to eat, my pot o’ goo is done. If it runs down the side of the ramekin, or just feels too loose, I keep a-goin’. Still, the test isn’t perfect.

6. There is such a thing as overcooked jam. I know because I almost always err on that side. It’s better than ending up with berry syrup, which is useless except on buttermilk waffles, but it’s still no good. You’re aiming for Bonne Maman (a brand only recognized when it’s written in cursive), so don’t overshoot your mark and get raspberry chew.

7. Jars at the ready. (I don’t know why they call it canning, because you use jars. I guess people don’t say “jarring” because it means “offensive” or “annoying.”) The sport of canning has about 1/10th the microbial concerns of beer brewing or wine making, so I just give the jars a good scrub, and make sure I scoop the jam in when it’s good and hot, leaving about a half-inch up top where the lid lip starts. I like those canning funnels, but only ones that have a lip that only goes down to the “fill line” itself. I noticed lately that some go down too far, and to me that’s bad. Once your jar is full of the hotness, lightly screw on the lid and set it in boiling water.

8. The boil is where the rest of the bacterial massacre hopefully takes place. If you accidentally missed a spot, here’s hoping that 5-10 minutes at 200+ degrees kills any living critters in that jar. But that’s not the only reason these jars are in the water. The other reason is physics. I was a dumbass when I canned for the first time, and I now can’t believe I didn’t know how it actually worked. You might know and if so, skip this part. But if you don’t get it, don’t be ashamed. The people who wrote the books I read didn’t explain it very well, but I will:

You poured in the goo, but you left a half inch of air at the top. That air may be necessary, but it’s bad news, so here comes the boil. The heat from the canning bath excites those air molecules, so they separate from each other, like you learned in school. As they space themselves out, they run out of room, and some have to up and skeedaddle. That’s why you only lightly screw on the lid–you want it to act as a trap door that lets really anxious air molecules out, but refuses entry to less uppity (and bigger) water molecules. Because of this, there will be bubbles. As a fellow bumbler, I don’t know exactly how long you have to leave it in there to become the CEO of the Smucker’s Corporation. I do know that if you keep it in there for 5-10 min, and watch the bubbles come out, you can be confident to yank out the jars without any ill effects.

This is the last of your real danger points, so be sure to get yourself a pair of canning tongs, which come in most canning kits. That and the funnel are really the only two useful pieces of that otherwise superfluous tool kit, but it’s cheap (see below). Just don’t be fooled into buying that giant canning pot, unless you’re going into business.

9. We all know the warning that goes: “If the vacuum seal is popped, do not consume.” Yet here you pull out your jars after 5, 7, even 10 minutes, and the vacuum seal is as outie as outie can be. Again, PHYSICS!!!!!! There are like three air molecules left in there, but they’re still fighting the good fight. They’re crazy, like the soldiers who fought against Rambo in Rambo: First Blood Part II (whose sequel was Rambo III even though it should have been Rambo II: First Blood Part III). But they’ll back off, when the heat–and the molecular excitement–dies down. Yes, if you pull your jars out of the boil then go read a book, you’ll start to hear pop, pop, pop from the kitchen. Those pops are the sound of a reduced number of air molecules retreating from a battle they clearly lost. Like Rambo’s enemies.

10. There’s a disheartening “Oh I totally didn’t cook it long enough” moment that comes that evening, about 4 or 5 hours after you’ve successfully canned. You’re standing in the kitchen, looking at these impressive little jars of professional-looking jam. But you pick one up and its contents are syrupy and goopy and not at all jamlike! What did you do wrong? Simple. You didn’t wait a full day for the shit to set. It takes longer than you think. Stick it in the fridge if you want to expedite. But suffice it to say, that next morning, when you’re making your toast (I actually like putting jam on rye but I am probably alone or in a very small, presumably Jewish minority), you whip that stuff out, and it will be jammy like Sunday morning.

OK, that’s all I can tell you. Go forth, you sons of bitches, and make some motherlovin’ jam.

Still Frightened and Confused?
• Decent canning tool kit
• One of the few-and-far-between recipes that’s similar to mine
• There’s a National Center for Home Food Preservation, believe it or not
• Leave a question in comments and I’ll try to help

Thanks to Liz and Cory for the pics, and the recent jam session

Fue mi psicoanalista Pablicto Muñoz el que me enseñó a moverme por el mundo de los sueños. Nos acabábamos de conocer.  Creo que estábamos en un bar hablando de sueños, de sueños repetitivos, de sueños impresionantes y me contó como era posible moverse dentro de un sueño, dominarlo y hacer lo que uno quiera dentro de el.

No le creí, aunque como siempre me pasa con él, no pude decir que no fuera verdad. Se repite con mis mejores amigos que por muchos disparates que me suelten, no puedo negarles que no sea verdad. ¿Lo se yo?

Y eso da alas.

No fue cuestión de días sino de años, pero al fin y poco a poco, me he ido dando cuenta de que ese bribón enano, no mentía.

Os contaré una de esas últimas experiencias. Una de las mas flipantes.

Mi destino: Alemania. Una de esas convenciones de la asociación de fisioterapeutas Bobath a Alemania con el fin de subir un peldaño mas en mi carrera profesional, como tiene que ser.

Medio de transporte: Avión.

“Buenos dias les saluda el comandante McFoscar …bribribri…    …horas…    bribri…….     la temperatura       …..blabla….          tatata…..    rororor……  buenviajeGoodmorninladiesandgents….sssssss….hhhh…..rrrrr…   farenheit……fffffffff…..ffffff….      you”

Qué mameluco… es increible como cada vez que te subes a un avión y estás a punto de despegar el “comandante” coge el walkie-talkie y al dirigirse al respetable balbucea con sopor pero a toda hostia unas frases (probablemente) leidas lo peor posible que es capaz.

Hagamos un inciso para analizar los motivos:

*1/ Para que parezca que lo tiene todo controlado, que ha volado 3 millones de horas que está sobrado y tu no eres mas que un puto gusano. Que quede claro que tu vida está en sus manos.

*2/ Que sabe mogollón de ingles y ya casi se le ha olvidado el castellano -como a Martín Lopez Zubero- para hacerte sospechar que quizá vive a caballo entre Manhattan y La Moraleja, cuando probablemente vive en San Chinarro.

*3/ Efectos del alcohol, cocaina y Viagra. Too much triqui-triqui con l@s azafat@s. No olvidemos que el jet lag es malísimo.

*4/  Si fuera alfarero, carpintero o campesino sería mas feliz. Si o si.

El caso es que esta actitud -en mi caso- actua como cápsula somnífera, y el único rato que me quedo dormido en un vuelo es antes del despegue.

Momento en el que empecé a soñar…

Aparecí en un sitio precioso. El valle del Azucar (USA) Un bosque repleto de los colores del Otoño atravesado por un rio que discurria por el fondo del valle. Me hallaba en una vieja casa de madera con un tipo que no se quitó un gorro ruso en los 10 dias que duró el sueño, una tía con 2 trenzas que vestía un pijama de rayas y el dichoso comandante McFoscar. La luz era tenue y acogedora, había lucecitas de esas de Navidad por todas partes y calabazas de Halloween con sus diferentes muecas chinescas. Recuerdo estar bien ahí. Sentados alrededor de la mesa de una gran cocina charlamos y charlamos. Bueno… el supuesto McFoscar, comandante del avión resultó no tener ni guarra de inglés como intuía antes de quedarme dormido.

Pero si, allí hablamos sobre el hecho de ser un “Misfit”, el sentirse inadaptado, cementerios y niños, discutimos amargamente sobre si la música de Mozart, la música clásica y los Requiems no eran mas que el subproducto de lo que los monarcas e Iglesia quisieron en su tiempo. Y lo contrapusimos a la música de los negros de Africa, esa de la que tanto os he hablado, la que hizo que la musica americana tenga la piel negra. Nos disfrazamos de Góticos siniestros y salimos a dar una vuelta al cementerio del valle junto a un par de cabras amarradas a una cadena. Vimos antiguas películas rodadas en Super 8 de los tiempos en los que en Central Park había un zoológico. Hicimos música en el salón de la casa transformado en un estudio como el que tantas veces había soñado con los ojos abiertos.

Si, claro tambien nos comimos un cocido. Todo el pueblo vino a vernos, iban todos disfrazados, multitud de niños llamando de puerta en puerta pidiendo caramelos, y juntos cantamos canciones de John Prine al calor de una gran hoguera. Aporreé unos bongos hasta sangrar.

Vi una estrella fugaz, e incluso un cerdo volando, señales de boda.

Soñe con gaitas.

Chocamos las manos de alegría por ser los únicos pirados que piensan que Joey Ramone  ha sido el “Best singer ever”

Soñe con una gran luna Llena. Soñé con las 12 lunas indias.

En este sueño escuchamos blues muy antiguo hecho por gente de la que no existe siquiera una imagen de ellos.

Mucha furia y mucho barro.

En el pueblo unos skaters se enganchaban a una carreta del año 1800 tirada por caballos, en la que iba una familia entera con los trajes y peinados de esa época. Ay si en los sueños se pudieran tirar fotos… Pero los sueños sueños son, y las imágenes quedan en mi cabeza, nada mas. Entre la neblina.

Solo puedo compartir unas canciones, las que me pareció escuchar, solo algunas de las que recuerdo. Este disco que regalo es la banda sonora de este sueño.

Solo espero que algún día pueda yo convertirme en tu mejor amigo y confies en mi de manera incondicional. Los sueños se pueden dominar, porque quien sabe si como me dijo el amigo Segismundo cuando me hallaba en el diván: “La vida es solo sueño” y… Zzzzzz.

“ Es verdad; pues reprimamos

esta fiera condición,

esta furia, esta ambición,

por si alguna vez soñamos:

y sí haremos, pues estamos

en mundo tan singular,

que el vivir sólo es soñar;

y la experiencia me enseña

que el hombre que vive, sueña

lo que es, hasta despertar.

Sueña el rey que es rey, y vive

con este engaño mandando,

disponiendo y gobernando;

y este aplauso, que recibe

prestado, en el viento escribe;

y en cenizas le convierte

la muerte (¡desdicha fuerte!):

¿que hay quien intente reinar,

viendo que ha de despertar

en el sueño de la muerte?

Sueña el rico en su riqueza

que más cuidados le ofrece;

sueña el pobre que padece

su miseria y su pobreza;

sueña el que a medrar empieza,

sueña el que afana y pretende,

sueña el que agravia y ofende,

y en el mundo, en conclusión,

todos sueñan lo que son,

aunque ninguno lo entiende.

Yo sueño que estoy aquí

de estas prisiones cargado,

y soñé que en otro estado

más lisonjero me vi.

¿Qué es la vida? Un frenesí,

¿Qué es la vida? Una ilusión,

una sombra, una ficción,

y el mayor bien es pequeño:

que toda la vida es sueño,

y los sueños, sueños son.”

Demasié bonito

]]> http://esarsea.wordpress.com/2009/11/18/shreds/ Wed, 18 Nov 2009 22:56:28 +0000 esarsea http://esarsea.wordpress.com/2009/11/18/shreds/

The “Classic Kiss Performance” post remineded me of the now almost famous “Shredding” videos on youtube. If you’ve never seen them, they are a riot. There are a bunch of them out there, but here’s a few of my favorites. Enjoy!

so i’ve been back home for a couple of days now and i must say – things have been as relaxed as you would imagine. not just because i’ve not had to worry about anything back in singapore, but also because people here are just so god-dam lazy – i LOVE IT! it took me a while to get back to the whole malaysian timing though; the first day i arrived…the boys were a good 2 hours late before we actually sat down and had some beers…the fools.

anyway, i’ve been attending the royal dj academy the past three days and…DJing ain’t easy man! i’ve actually been using my brain for the first time since i was stolen from this country. i only just started beat-matching on an old mk2 turntable and apparently my teach, BURGER (i have yet to find out if that is his real name) has told me that this is ust the beginning. it took me a good hour to get my first match this afternooon. i was so fucking frustrated but the feeling of actually making it happen in the end was immense. i can’t wait till you guys here me spin!

so apart from that, nothing else has changed here. i pretty much have a routine of waking up late, heading for some delicious grub which mummers never ceases to impress me by, heading to town for the dj class, coming home/heading for a run and then having a drink with the boys. ALTHOUGH i did go jamming with shaam and alex yesterday, and albeit unproductive – it was hella fun. reminded me of the salesmen days!

and today, the shaamil tigers (the very appropriate name i’ve given shaam and kat) and i headed to this flea market in town which was closed due to the rain — well ONE store was open but that didn’t really count – so we’re gonna go check it out tomorrow. i wanna get a leather jacket! and some flannel! i feel like a millionare here!

here are just some pics from the past couple of days. there’ll be more soooon.

For a while now, I’ve been collaborating with someone I went to school with. He plays guitar, and I obviously DJ.

I’ve been trying to get him into the whole social media thing, as I think it’s a great way to get feedback on the stuff you make, plus I find it a lot of fun. We have now created a Spamthrax channel on YouTube.

We’ve had a MySpace for a while where we have a couple of uploads, but I thought it would be fun to have a YouTube channel where we can upload vlogs and also any random videos we make whilst we’re making music. I have an interest in making videos, not in a serious way, but I do like playing around with Windows Movie Maker.

For a laugh, our first upload was a cereal comparison.

Although this isn’t a serious comparison, there are some facts in there, and we did realise that the cheaper option actually tasted the same. That is the other half of Spamthrax in the video, while I am taking care of the (poor) camera work.

Last night I decided to make a video out of all the footage I’ve taken over the past few months, from going to gigs, bowling, videoing a drive as a passenger and at the driving range. It holds personal value so I enjoy the video, but I don’t know what the public would make of it.

I wanted to keep my lilteereviews channel strictly music only, so this Spamthrax channel will see a lot more frequent uploads, they just won’t all be music related.

For all you gamers out there who play Rock Band on PS3 or any other console.

Meet Ava, actually it’s ava, she doesn’t punctuate. She doesn’t! ava is one of my alter egos. She is most like me, except she plays drums in a band called The Stonecold Steve Austins. Yeah. She didn’t make the name up, for one it’s punctuated, for two it’s a guy name, and for three they are not wrestlers. Duh.

The band consists of the leader who is Steve Austin plays guitar. The singer Daisy, blonde hair, zebra pants, with a cute pink halter top (perfect 15yr old rendition). She’s all that. Then the band’s bass player is Jolt, soap star looking blonde with a big tattoo on his chest. The singer really digs Jolt.(Jolt, 16yrs old been dating Daisy over a year) He plays with his shirt off.

Before ava joined the band, the previous drummer was named Jade. Long black hair in dreads, pale skin, big green eyes with a nose piercing. She wore a leather jacket with a hot pink bikini top sporting leather pants. Jade ROCKED. She had a silver drum set. Seriously! She was crazy cool (and sooo unlike me).

See, Jade felt out of place. Everyone else in the band was themselves, or most like themselves. So she left – promising to return and jam again when the mood so strikes – and ava joined. Daisy thought ava looked fat and she can’t stand the fact that she wears a pink top with jeans, and the jeans have a red belt, that doesn’t match. What-evah!

Thing is, whether it’s Jade or ava, neither drummer has ever gotten a 100%, even on EASY. It’s an elusive feat for both of them. And not because of practice either, when Jade started she barely made it through a song without failing out. She just banged away until the song ended if she couldn’t catch the beat. Believe me sometimes her beat was waaaay off.

ava comes along with much more experience, but still misses the mark on 100%, every time. She has made a promise to herself, as soon as she peaks the score, and snatches that 100%. It’s medium all they way baby!

Last night’s JAM, NOT resulting in 100% – again.

Truly, I wasn’t a gamer until I met Jason. I had no idea what I was missing. It is a fun family activity, that everyone can enjoy. It’s also a great way to enjoy music. We don’t just have Rock songs, we have country, Christian rock, and metal. There is a variety. My favorite right now is Kings of Leon.

I don’t let it get me down that I can’t quite attain the 100 score. I just keep playing with all my heart. I keep trying. I love this game. I’ll get there eventually. In the meantime…..I WANNA ROCK!

October turned out to be a busy month, and an un-busy month at the same time.  I had my busking permit, valid for a month, and I played three times in the Murray Street mall before I decided my guitar/amp combo just wasn’t working out.  My battery amp was showing up problems – I reckon it needs a preamp between the effects pedal and the car audio amp, the sound was progressively getting boomier and “fuzzy” in the middle probably due to impedance mismatch.  The guitar was also showing up problems, the bass response was quite poor.

It was a really useful experience though; firstly it proved to me that I do in fact like playing to an audience, and that I have the ability to “muddle my way through” the songs I know (yep, there were plenty of errors, but you just play through).  The “stress test” on using my equipment in a gig scenario showed fundamental problems which I’m on my way to rectifying.

On the home made solar powered battery amp, even after all these years of effort, I decided to scrap it and just buy one from a manufacturer.  5 or 6 years ago when I started this project, you couldn’t buy a battery amp, nobody was making them.  Today you can walk into a music store and test out several all made by different manufacturers, different price ranges, different features – and most cost less than my home made one and sounded better!

On the guitar side, I pulled off the saddle and made a new bone one.  Which made the pickup balance worse!  After trying several different things I decided to give the guitar to some experts and let the professionals fix it.  3 weeks later and it came back much better, but it still wasn’t “perfect”.  After the last year or so of experimenting with sound I know what I expect from a guitar pickup and amp, and now I want what I expect   So I’m still working on it – after seeing what the professionals did and thinking about the physics of the situation I reckon I’m on the right track…

At the moment I’m selling one house and buying another, the big move in around 2 weeks.  I think a combination of that stress, and poor diet – my fingernails have gone weak, over the month I smashed up my thumbnail and middle finger on separate occasions, which for someone who plays on nails is really, really, really annoying.  So in between the guitar being in the shop and having short nails there wasn’t much guitar playing the tail end of the month. (If I crack a nail, I will cut and file it down to the crack, and then cut and file all the others to the same level.  The only thing worse than cracking a nail is having the other fingers with long nails and one with a short nail!)

I think I’ve mentioned it but I have been jamming with a fantastic drummer on a Sat morning while our kids are in music classes.  I play my fingerstyle and he drums along to it.  He’s got a real ear for the drums, once he’s heard a song on the radio he pretty much knows the “feel” of the drumming in that song, so when I pull out a song he hasn’t even heard for 10 years his drumming still sounds just like the original song!  He’s more of an rocker-from-way-back than me; the stuff I play is a bit quieter than what he’s used to, but he puts up with me.

Unfortunately with the house move, there is only two jam sessions left!  I’m very disappointed, it is the guitaring highlight of the week.  It has shown me that solo performances might be well and good, but when you are working with someone else it can be even better.  The chic who teaches our kids has had a listen to us before; in fact she is a singer, last week she came in while we were doing some pink floyd and it turns out she loves Dark Side of the Moon.  I cast out a challenge to her – brush up on “Great Gig in the Sky” and sing it for us next week…tomorrow!  A very challenging vocal solo, I’m looking forward to seeing how she goes.  I will record the session on the iphone, if it comes out alright I’ll put some mp3s somewhere.

Finally, while we are on the subject, I have been putting a bit more effort into my Dark Side of the Moon project.  Once or twice a week I play Breathe-Time-Breathe Reprise-Great Gig in the Sky back to back, ie side A of the album minus “On the Run” which I don’t even know if you could come up with anything on guitar.  Breathe & Breathe Reprise I have been playing for a few years now so they are done and dusted, in fact I’ve tarted up the bassline a bit so it sounds great.  Time I have a good resolve for the intro (not the alarm clocks though!) with some bongo drum playing on the body.  I haven’t bothered with the solo yet; at the moment I’ve cut my DSotM project back to “just the basics”, as the years go by I’ll add to it – for now I think it is better to get stuff finished to a certain level rather than aim for 100% and never actually get there.  Great Gig in the Sky on the other hand needs to have a solo, it is the essence of the song, at the moment I am half improvising but I have the groundwork laid so sometime soon I will complete a near-enough rendition of the vocal solo and call it done.

In the meantime, when I’ve got the guitar pickup balanced and my nails have grown back somewhat, I think I’ll record a video of DSotM side A for YouTube.  It will be rough and a bit unfinished, but I haven’t posted anything for 3 months and my fan base is dropping!

JAW

“In 2007, Ubisoft made a big splash in the handheld music game world with a nifty little program that turned your DS into a fully functioning, virtual acoustic guitar. Jam Sessions was really more of a music making tool than anything else. It turned out to be a lot of fun for gaming musicians who got a kick out of crafting and performing songs on a handheld system, yet some players were left feeling a little lost due to the lack of any solid goals or gameplay in the title. Developer Plato has made a lot of changes for Jam Sessions 2 in an effort to beef up the musical making capabilities of the program while also offering a stronger gaming component to appease the average player who might not be as inclined to dig deeply into the song-crafting toolbox elements.”

Check out the full review here at Cheat Code Central.

It’s been nearly 100 years (I think) since I posted.  So I figured I might as well let y’all know what’s up.   Truth is, nothing much! I checked out a Portugal. The Man gig at Horseshoe a couple weeks ago and that was sick!  Love that band man, so cool. Planning a date with NinjaSpy next week in Oshawa too, that’ll be tits

Fuck, now I have to remember.

You know, I’ve just been fucking around as usual, practicing and jamming with friends and keeping busy, (and I got a new car!)  Nick Enchev and Dan Bugeja have been over to my place to jam recently. You probably have no idea who the fuck they are, but maybe you will eventually   Then I got sick as hell, I dunno if it was Swine Flu, but it was probably pretty damn close.  Fevers suck.  Now I’m getting back into Muay Thai again (yeah that’s right, I break shit son! KRUDAR) and I recorded some stuff.  I’m gonna go out and rehearse with ‘After the Accident’ tomorrow night.  Might end up playing with those guys if we can get some shit going.  I know some of those dudes have mad skills so I’m excited about that!

Snapped a couple pics at home, otherwise I’ve been chilling, watching the odd flick, the odd fight (fucking Machida), taking care of my cat’s broken leg, and living life.  I’m gonna be working on some more covers and chipping away at my own stuff over the next few weeks as well, probably for the remainder of the year.   I’m never satisfied (HA) but I’ll get it together, my rig is still growing at home so I’m a little limited production-wise at the moment.  It’s just the drums.  I’m not great at drumming so I need to either practice, or get some sort of programming going.  Gotta find the right tools and the right budget.  It all comes with time, the only thing you need to remember is to never give up and never get complacent.  Make the most of your time, and have fun!  Why else would you do anything?

Until next time, I guess I’ll post some more stuff of interest soon.  Halloween’s coming! Get your spook on.

New music that kills;

Between the Buried and Me – The Great Misdirect
3 – Revisions
Patton Oswalt – My Weakness is Strong
NIN – The Downward Spiral Live @ Webster Hall
The Arusha Accord – The Echo Verses
Baroness – Blue Record
Austrian Death Machine – Double Brutal
Protest the Hero – Gallop Meets the Earth
Alice in Chains – Black Gives Way to Blue
Pearl Jam – Backspacer
Thrice – Beggars
Muse – The Resistance
Every Time I Die – New Junk Aesthetic

J

time check: 0205hrs

well.. had a wonderful jamming session in church with a number of people..
Musicians: Xuan, Zijian, Tony, Ray, Jon, Bern, Mel, Sop.
*Vocalist: Kit yee, Joey, Serene, Jason, Kim, Debbie.
Jamming sessions was superb.. thou i didn’t really play much.. gave e chance to Zijian to play more.
cuz he long time didn’t play and will get rusty.

well, 1st time Zijian jammed with us, wasn’t bad at all.. keeps his timing and tempo.. Well Done, bro. Keep it up..
We jammed This is Our God, Come Holy Spirit & Free.. all these songs, really nice and wow.. esp Free.. did it within 15mins.. some more its new song to us.. and we all, including mi and zijian. all are well doned..

aft jamming, went to eat.. at Kallang Leisure Park.. foodcourt and guess who we saw? PD and his family at Kallang Leisure Park foodcourt.. haha.. wad a coincidence.. and den we went to had our dinner.. some ordered fishball soup, some ordered deserts.. and tt’s our dinner. aft dinner, hang out at wang jiao.. haiz.. same old place.. haha.. well.. tt’s e place tt can chill out.. heh..
all of us at wang jiao are: mi, bern, jon, ray, tony, zj, sop, xuan, joey, serene and some more and i couldnt rmb.. old liao.. lol.. half of e grp went back and left e rest at wang jiao.. and hanged till 2000hrs.. and guess wad? tony kena summon by carpark enforcement.. haha.. 10bucks..

well, he should learn his lesson.. when need to put additional coupons, just put rather den kena summon.. heh..
den send ray back to take his clothings to tony’s place and i was dropped at J.E mrt station and trained home..
and here am i blogging and very hungry..
anyway, im gonna slp liao.. hope wun wake up in e middle of e night again..

God, bless mi tt i have a wonderful slp.. ZzzzzZzzzZ

ahmeng

*P.S: Vocalist, sorry if i left anyone of u’ll out.. couldnt rmb much..

Presentato il primo prototipo di robot “morbido” che riesce a muoversi su terreni accidentati e a infilarsi nei pertugi più stretti

Per ora si tratta solo di modelli preliminari ma i robot “chimici” o chembot, come li chiamano gli scienziati che li hanno progettati hanno in serbo grosse sorprese. Si tratta di sistemi robotici completamente morbidi, in grado di effettuare movimenti simili a quelli biologici, privi della rigidità meccanica di tutti gli altri robot conosciuti fino ad ora. Un prototipo di robot chimico è stato presentato la scorsa settimana alla IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems da un gruppo di ricercatori dell’Università di Chicago e della iRobot, una compagnia privata fondata negli anni Ottanta da due scienziati del MIT di Boston.

Costituiti principalmente da un involucro di silicone e gomma si basano sul principio del  jamming una tecnica che permette alle diverse porzioni del corpo del robot, passando da uno stato quasi liquido a uno solido, di gonfiarsi e  sgonfiarsi selettivamente in maniera dinamica. Attraverso questo meccanismo il robot può rotolare su una superficie e strizzarsi riducendo notevolmente le sue dimensioni.

Well its been a while since I’ve been on here… but in late middleschool I had too many blogs that failed because I got bored. So I vowed when I started this, to never stop. And of course, that’s what i will stick to. Although, due to overwhelming procrastination and homework, I only make one once in awhile. But last weekend was definately a fun one.

First of all, during December there is too much going on so we moved my bday back to the nearest available month, which is October. It’s great cuz i get all my presents without having to wait 2 months. Anyway yeah me and my friends rocked out and had a great time at my fake bday. Odds are that we’ll have another party on my real one just for the heck of it. pretty sweet. I also skipped a krappy field trip on friday which i have no regrets about.

Then on Saturday i went to the concert called Livefest where like 20 Christian bands played, the only ones that are still in my mind are barlowe girl, superchick, the amazing Pillar, and the best Christian rock band of all time, Stryper. The first too. Man what an awesome concert, Styper definately hasn’t lost it, and they praised God while ripping the fretboard up like four year old with a chinese jig-saw puzzle. Wow that was an awesome comparison. good way to end.

-Calebrentex out-

Yup.  Naughty by Nature…  Taking it way back.  When cool people rode on Vespas.  HA! 

Anyway since I still had 30+ lbs of apples from Aunt Netty and Uncle Vinnie, decided it was time to make some apple jelly.  Recipe as follows:

All you need to make apple jelly is apple juice, pectin and sugar.  So for 10 cups of jelly you need 7 cups of apple juice, 1 box of pectin (plus a little extra) and 9 cups of sugar.  You can either make your own apple juice, like I do here, or buy it.  If you do buy it from the grocery store (I can’t recommend that since I feel the soul of jamming is using fresh ingredients, but I digress) get the Simply Apple bottle that is not from concentrate.

Apple Juice

Wash, core and quarter 15 lbs. of apples and place in your largest pot.  You will probably have to cook the apples in two batches.  Make sure they are sweet apples, not like Granny Smith, as it would make sour tasting juice and jelly.  Some suggestions would be Golden Delicious, Fuji, or Rome.

Bring to a boil and then cook over medium-low heat for about 20 minutes.  Drain the juice from the apples and discard the apples.  After you have cooked all of the apples you will probably have 7 to 10+ cups of apple juice (Depending on your apples, ripeness, etc.).  Place the juice back in the pot and cook over medium-low heat to concentrate it until you have 7 cups of apple juice.  You can stop here and enjoy your apple juice, or continue on for jamming.

Now time to start jamming.  Make sure that all the next steps are ready to go; this entire process from cooking to preserving takes less than 10 minutes.  Quick check list:

1. All jars, bands and utensils are sterilized, dried and ready to be filled 
2. Canning pot is on stove and close to boiling
3. 9 cups of sugar in separate bowl
4. 1 packet, plus 1/4 of another packet of pectin
5. Canning lids are in a pot of hot water, ready for use

Stir the pectin into the juice and bring to a full rolling boil (A boil that doesn’t stop bubbling when stirred) stirring constantly.  When it hits a full boil, stir in all 9 cups of sugar, return back to rolling boil and cook for exactly 1 minute. 

Remove from heat and skim off any foam.  Ladle quickly into jars leaving 1/8 of an inch of headspace.  Wipe rims and place lids on and screw bands on.  Then place jars into canner, the water must cover jars by at least an inch.  When water comes to a full boil, process jars for 10 minutes (You start the time when the water boils). 

When processing time is up, remove and place on cooling rack for 8 hours.  Check the seal by pressing on lid, if no movement then you are good to go.  If the button pops, then place in fridge immediately and eat soon. 

You can store on the shelf for up to a year.  Happy canning! 

Ah, just so’s ya knows me a bit better, here is an example of what I love to do in my free time!  And yes, I do love Eric Clapton.  This song is quite fun.

A morphing robot was demonstrated at the IROS conference this week. This orb has no rigid structure but uses some type of “inflation” system for locomotion. This robot concept is offered up by the iRobot company as part of a DARPA initiative they’re working on. The “inflation” is really a substance in the skin that can be converted from a liquid-like state to a solid-like one. They call this “The Jamming Concept” and give a layman’s explanation in the video we’ve embedded after the break.

When moving, this white ball is a churning, turning, bulging mass of terror. The just-about-to-hatch pods from Alien, or perhaps something from Doom 3 come to mind. The hexapod from IROS that we covered yesterday was amazing, but this really creeps us out. What’s more, this is footage from the iRobot prototypes of a year ago.  The newer stuff can do much more, like having several of these things glob together into one unit.

We’re glad that [DarwinSurvior] sent us the tip on this one, but now we’re not going to be able to sleep at night.

~ Nathan Smith

Totally cool technology called JAMMING. Sweetest robot ever.

You can can, can’t you?

Stretch summer into chilly days by preserving the last of the farmer’s market peaches in this rich jam. The dark caramel base and rosemary add earthy, malty flavors perfect for the fall.

Canning is one of those kitchen projects that’s a bit intimidating. With worries about the equipment, temperatures, amounts of thickener and the actual process, it’s no wonder that canning has such a fraughtful reputation. However, preserving homemade jams, pickles, fruits and vegetables is fairly easy and a wonderful way to enjoy your produce all year round. It’s a good idea to start with small batches(between 3-5 pounds of product) and to make sure you have all the proper tools ahead of time. You’ll need jars with lids and screw bands and a boiling water canner, which you can make by placing a rack on the bottom of a large pot. Make sure your pot is large enough to allow the jars to be covered by one-inch of water.

The last of California’s peaches are still available at a few farmers markets. This jam turns the summer fruit into a fall favorite by adding dark caramel and nutty rosemary. Be careful, as the rosemary flavor can get quite strong, so taste the jam as you make it and remove the sprigs as you prefer.

Rosemary Peach Jam, (makes 4-0.5l jars)
2 quarts of peaches, washed, peeled, pitted and cut into 1/8 inch pieces
7 cups of sugar
50g of pectin
2 springs of rosemary
boiling water canner or pot with rack
tongs or canning tongs
funnel
sheet tray
thick dish towel

1. Fill a large, heavy duty pot with water and place over medium-high heat to boil.

2. Place a second large, heavy duty pot over medium heat and heat for several minutes. Combine 1 cup of sugar with the pectin, mixing completely. Scale out a second cup of sugar and sprinkle enough into the pot to cover the bottom in a thin layer. Allow sugar to melt and turn a golden color and sprinkle more sugar into the syrup. Continue to add sugar, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon and being careful not to let the sugar burn. When the entire cup of sugar is in the pot, cook the caramel syrup to a dark, amber color.  Add the rosemary sprigs, fruit, and last five cups of sugar. This may cause the caramel to harden slightly, but it will melt back down.

3. As you cook the fruit and sugar, mash the peaches against the bottom and sides of the pot. Bring the mixture to a boil and slowly rain in, or sprinkle in, the pectin/sugar mixture. Remove the rosemary, and continue cooking(and mashing), bringing the jam back up to a boil. Allow to boil for five minutes, then turn off heat and let the jam sit while you prepare your jars.

4. Heat the oven to 250 Farenheit. Remove the lids from jars and place the jars in the boiling water for five minutes. Remove carefully with tongs and place on sheet tray. Place the lids and funnel in the boiling water and boil for five minutes, then remove and place on tray. Place tray in the oven to dry and keep the jars warm. This step can be done ahead of time or during the jam making process.

5. Remove half of the water from the pot and place the rack on the bottom or place the water in the boiling water canner. Carefully remove jars from the oven and, using the funnel, fill each jar with jam, being careful not to overfill. Fill to just under the rim.

6. Gently screw on the lids, making sure they are secure but not too tight. Place the jars inside the pot on the rack so they are not touching. Carefully fill the pot with more water so the jars are covered by one inch of water. Do not pour water directly on top of jars, but on the sides.

7. Bring the water back up to a boil. When boiling, cover the pot and start a five minute timer. Place a towel on the sheet tray. After five minutes, use the tongs to remove the jars individually and place them on the towel-lined sheet tray. Do not allow the jars to touch. If the jars have been properly canned, the seal on the lid will be sucked in slightly and will not bounce back when pressed. If the lid is not sealed, return the jar to the canner, repeating the above process.

8. Allow the jars to cool completely at room temperature before moving. When cool, store jam in a cool, dark place. Wrap with ribbon and mark with tags for gifts or enjoy the jam on buttered toast.

Steltz, Erik (iRobot), Mozeika, Annan (iRobot Corporation), Jaeger, Heinrich (University of Chicago) presented this at the IROS 2009 yesterday

A tune from my new record “So What if I’m Nuts?”

A lot of us skip breakfast in the morning, be it because we don’t have time to make something, don’t have the patience, or for some other reason. Yuri Suzuki and Masa Kimura are aiming to make your breakfast a little easier, a little quicker, and a lot more interesting. Their latest project is a Rube Goldberg-like machine that does everything from fry your eggs to brew your coffee. The coolest part about this project is it was built with the help of the public. The two designers put out an open invitation for people to come help in constructing the device at Platform21, a publicly accessible design forum in Amsterdam. Now if someone would tie this into an alarm clock, we could all wake up to the smell of toast and coffee instead of the super loud 140db alarm clock or the confusing (albeit effective) wake up machine.

For over 50 million years, bats and moths have been engaged in an evolutionary arms race: bats evolving new tricks to catch moths, and moths developing counter-measures to escape bats. William Conner, a biologist at Wake Forest University, studies this interaction by filming bat attacks. He and his colleagues report on a new weapon in the moth arsenal: the tiger moth’s ability to make sounds that interfere with a bat’s ability to echolocate its prey.  

Video footage: Jesse Barber, Nickolay Hristov, Science, PNAS, Barber and Conner, 2007. Images: Nickolay Hristov, William Conner, Bryant Deroy.

See the video and learn more at:  http://www.sciencefriday.com/videos/watch/10229