Suitcase Full of Tears

Uncle Daddy’s Burnt Bottom Chili 2.0

1 Large Skillet
2 Gallon Chili Pot
2 Cans Pinto Beans
2 Can Black Beans
2 Cans Diced Tomatoes
1 Red Bell Pepper
1 Green Bell Pepper
1 Yellow Bell Pepper
1 Yellow Onion
3 Cloves of Garlic
1 Cube of Unsalted Butter
1.5 lbs. Lean Ground Beef (Not Extra Lean)
1 Chili Spice Mix (or make your own:)
1 Tbsp. Olive Oil
1 Tbsp. Salt
1 Tbsp. Pepper

In a Large Skillet place Olive Oil, 1 clove of chopped garlic, and just a pinch of the diced onions. Add the meat and leave in large chunks as you brown. Strain the grease from the meat. Add 1 cup of Water and Chili Spice and let simmer 30 minutes.

At the same time…
In a 2 Gallon Pot, place Butter, Chopped Onion, Chopped Bell Peppers, 2 Cloves Chopped Garlic. Let Sweat until Onions are clear. Add tomatoes.

Add Beans and bring to boil.

Add The Meat.

Turn down so the bottom don’t burn and simmer until you just can’t take it anymore.

Ok here it is.
Next to the secret of my (Mom’s) Homemade Tacos, my Chili recipe is next on the list of requests. Here is the first version of what I hope will win me a Chili Cook Off somewhere, someday.

Uncle Daddy’s Burnt Bottom Chili 1.0

1 Large Skillet
2 Gallon Chili Pot
4 Cans Pinto Beans
1 Can Black Beans
2 Cans Diced Tomatoes
1 Red Bell Pepper
1 Green Bell Pepper
1 Yellow Onion
3 Cloves of Garlic
1 Cube of Butter
1.5 lbs. Lean Ground Beef (Not Extra Lean)
1 Chili Spice Mix (or develope your own:)
1 Tbsp. Olive Oil
1 Tbsp. Salt
1 Tbsp. Pepper

In a Large Skillet place Olive Oil, 1 clove of chopped garlic, and just a pinch of the diced onions. Add the meat and leave in large chunks as you brown. Strain the grease from the meat. Add 1 cup of Water and Chili Spice and let simmer 30 minutes.

At the same time…
In a 2 Gallon Pot, place Butter, Chopped Onion, Chopped Bell Peppers, 2 Cloves Chopped Garlic. Let Sweat until Onions are clear. Add tomatoes. Add Meat. Add Beans and bring to boil. Turn down so the bottom don’t burn and simmer until you just can’t take it anymore.

I’m saddened to degrees of pain beyond tearfullness.
Our friend and local legend U. Utah Philips passed on to his reward.
I’m crying, I’m laughing, I’m crying.

Bruce Philips passed away of congestive heart failure on Friday, May 23, 2008
<moment of silence>
I believe it was in 1995 when Utah found out he was gonna have trouble heart wise.
He’d been fightin that particular demon for a long time and gave him a good go ’round.
I first heard Utah Philips on that crazy UC Davis radio station in 1978.
Moose Turd Pie cracked me up and I had to find out more about this folk music scene.
What I found out was that it ain’t to eveyone’s likin’
It’s good though.

Mick

Quoted from http://www.woodheat.org/fire.htm:

A fabulous fire

This is what a clean burning fire looks like

This is a photo through the glass of an advanced technology wood stove, one that is EPA certified. Note that the flames are big and lush and semi-transparent, much different from the dark, opaque, ragged flames you would see in an open fireplace. The small jets and feathery flames at the top of the image are flowing downward from the tiny combustion air holes at the top of the firebox.

Not only do these stoves burn much cleaner and more efficiently than older conventional stoves, but the view of the fire is just spectacular, well worth the price of admission. Those of us who study woodburning for a living claim it is the best looking fire in the world. By upgrading to one of these stoves, you can save wood, reduce smoke and enjoy the view all winter long.

Minor Greek Gods and Goddesses
Erinyes – Furies

In Greek mythology the Erinyes or Eumenides (the Romans called them the Furies) were female personifications of vengeance. They were usually said to have been born from the blood of Uranus when Cronus castrated him. According to a variant account, they were born from Nyx. Their number is usually left indeterminate, though Virgil, probably working from an Alexandrian source, recognized three: Alecto (“unceasing”), Megaera (“grudging”), and Tisiphone (“avenging murder”). The heads of the Erinyes were wreathed with serpents, their eyes dripped with blood, and their whole appearance was terrific and appalling. Sometimes they had the wings of a bat or bird, or the body of a dog.

One myth had Tisiphone fall in love with Cithaeron. She caused his death by snakebite, specifically, one of the snakes from her head. Another myth says that the Erinyes struck the magical horse Xanthus dumb for rebuking Achilles.

The Erinyes generally stood for the rightness of things within the standard order; for example, Heraclitus declared that if Helios decided to change the course of the Sun through the sky, they would prevent him from doing so. But for the most part they were understood as the persecutors of mortal men and women who broke “natural” laws. In particular, those who broke ties of kinship through patricide, murdering a brother (Fratricide), or other such familial killings brought special attention from the Erinyes.

It was believed in early epochs that human beings might not have the right to punish such crimes, instead leaving the matter to the dead man’s Erinyes to exact retribution. The goddess Nike filled a similar role. When not stalking victims on Earth, the Furies were thought to dwell in Tartarus, where they applied their tortures to the damned souls there.

The Erinyes are particularly known for the persecution of Orestes for the murder of his mother, Clytemnestra. Since Apollo had told Orestes to kill the murderer of his father, Agamemnon, and that person turned out to be his mother, Orestes prayed to him. Athena intervened and the Erinyes turned into the Eumenides (“goodly ones”), as they always did in their beneficial aspects.

Many scholars believe that they were originally referred to as the Eumenides not to reference their good sides but as a euphemism to avoid their wrath by calling them by their true name. This is similar to the taboo on speaking the names of certain spirits in many cultures. The Erinyes were also known as Semnai (“the venerable ones”), the Potniae (“the Awful Ones”), the Maniae (“the Madnesses”) and the Praxidikae (“the Vengeful Ones”).

The Furies (their Roman name) or Dirae (“the terrible”) typically had the effect of driving their victims insane, hence their Latin name furor. Virgil VII, 324, 341, 415, 476.

Got this from an old friend and thought you’d all appreciate it!
 
In the 1400′s a law was set forth in England that a man was allowed to beat his wife with a stick no thicker than his thumb. Hence we have ‘the rule of thumb’
Many years ago in Scotland , a new game was invented. It was ruled ‘Gentlemen Only…Ladies Forbidden’…and thus the word GOLF entered into the English language.
The first couple to be shown in bed together on prime time TV were Fred and Wilma Flintstone.
Every day more money is printed for Monopoly than the U.S.Treasury.
Men can read smaller print than women can; women can hear better.
Coca-Cola was originally green.
It is impossible to lick your elbow.
The State with the highest percentage of people who walk to work: Alaska
The percentage of Africa that is wilderness: 28% (now get this…)
The percentage of North America that is wilderness: 38%
The cost of raising a medium-size dog to the age of eleven: $ 16,400
The average number of people airborne over the U.S. in any given hour: 61,000
Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.
The first novel ever written on a typewriter: Tom Sawyer
The San Francisco Cable cars are the only mobile National Monuments.
Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history: Spades – King David Hearts – Charlemagne Clubs -Alexander, the Great Diamonds – Julius Caesar
111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321
If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle. If the horse has one front leg in the air the person died as a result of wounds received in battle. If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.
Only two people signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, John Hancock and Charles Thomson. Most of the rest signed on August 2, but the last signature wasn’t added until 5 years later.
Q. Half of all Americans live within 50 miles of what?
A. Their birthplace
Q. Most boat owners name their boats. What is the most popular boat name requested?
A. Obsession
Q. If you were to spell out numbers, how far would you have to go until you would find the letter ‘A’?
A. One thousand
Q. What do bulletproof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers, and laser printers all have in common?
A. All were invented by women.
Q. What is the only food that doesn ‘t spoil?
A. Honey
Q. Which day are there more collect calls than any other day of the year?
A. Father’s Day
In Shakespeare’s time, mattresses were secured on bed frames by ropes.
When you pulled on the ropes the mattress tightened, making the bed firmer to sleep on. Hence the phrase……… ‘goodnight, sleep tight.’
It was the accepted practice in Babylon 4,000 years ago that for a month after the wedding, the bride’s father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer and because their calendar was lunar based, this period was called the honey month, which we know today as the honeymoon.
In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts… So in old England , when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them ‘Mind your pints and quarts, and settle down.’
It’ s where we get the phrase ‘mind your P’s and Q’s’
Many years ago in England , pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the rim, or handle, of their ceramic cups. When they needed a refill, they used the whistle to get some service. ‘Wet your whistle’ is the phrase inspired by this practice.
At least 75% of people who read this will try to lick their elbow!

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh?

YOU KNOW YOU ARE LIVING IN 2007 when…

1. You accidentally enter your PIN on the microwave.

2. You haven’t played solitaire with real cards in years.

3. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of three.

4. You e-mail the person who works at the desk next to you.

5. Your reason for not staying in touch with friends and family is that they don’t have e-mail addresses.

6. You pull up in your own driveway and use your cell phone to see if anyone is home to help you carry in the groceries.

7. Every commercial on television has a web site at the bottom of the screen

8. Leaving the house without your cell phone, which you didn’t even have the first 20 or 30 (or 60) years of your life, is now a cause for panic and you turn around to go and get it.

10. You get up in the morning and go on line before getting your coffee.

11. You start tilting your head sideways to smile. : )

12. You’re reading this and nodding and laughing.

13. Even worse, you know exactly to whom you are going to forward this message.

14. You are too busy to notice there was no #9 on this list.

15. You actually scrolled back up to check that there wasn’t a #9 on this list.

~~~~~~~~~~~AND FINALLY~~~~~~~~~~~~

NOW U R LAUGHING at yourself.
 
 
 

I have suspended my Will and poured every bit of Capital I could raise into what I consider a Vital Community Service.

The Dock a Loogee Campaign

The Dock a Loogee Campaign is raising funds to help police the porn industry. Someone needs to do something and do something fast about porn stars and their lazy attitudes towards lubrication. The Dock a Loogee Campain intends to promote the replacing of Squirt Gun weilding Sound Technicians for Jettisoned Saliva. The charter also provides for a first time offense fine of $1,000. Multiple offenders being charged double for launching loogees, on camera, in the direction of their co-stars.

Thank you for your support…

I’m not sure where infrequent posted this review, but it’s a great review of Soldier of Fortune Payback.
I’m a huge fan of sof2, so, I bought a copy of this turd, and I agree with just about everything he says below. THX infrequent!
U.D.

SOF Payback Review
by infrequent
17-nov-2007
Noone loves SOF more than me. I played SOF1 but mostly SinglePlayer. I’ve played SOF2 since the year it was released and played it at least 5 days a week. I’ve modded for it (ReFrag and ReFrag:2). I’ve made tools for it (infrequents Name Editor) and I’ve tried to entertain people with hundreds of pictures based on the game and the community around the game. In short … I LOVE SOF2.
I’ve jumped to attention at every rumour of a SOF3 over the years – but every time it turned out to be just that … a rumour. When a rumour started spreading again here I summer/autumn 2007 I had a hard time believing it and it was not until the first video footage appeared that I started to believe.
The game looked rather good and seemed true to the SOF legacy with more gore than in other FPS games. Other than the videos there was not much info released about the game…. and now I understand why ! More info would have revealed that SOF Payback if not even close to what most players want or what most players expected ! In the following I’ll refer to SOF Payback as SOF3 for convenience.
SOF Payback is an Activision game developed by Cauldron and is released as a value-title so it’s unfair to expect it to be a rival to COD4 or Crysis but I’ll give you my opinion anyway. SOF Payback is released for both PC and for consoles such as Xbox and PS3.
Let’s take a look SOF2 was not just SOF1 with upgraded graphics so we had no right expecting SOF3 to be SOF2 with everything made better. What we did not expect was that SOF3 would be SOF2 with everything made worse.
It’s actually not fair comparing SOF3 to SOF2 because apart from the “Soldier of Fortune” part of the names and the same gametypes in multiplayer (apart from INF which is missing in SOF3) they have nothing in common.
Installation worked without any problems and I soon had Payback up and running.
Ooops… first surprise. The interface is very simple. Not “simple” as in easy-to-use. It’s more “simple” as in does-not-have-many-features
And with BIG easy-to-read-on-a-TV-screen letter. Unlike SOF2 it’s the same game you run no matter if you want to play SinglePlayer or Multiplayer.
The game starts up in 640×480 which is way too small for my 22” widescreen. So the first I do is go into options to correct that. Second surprise ! Not many options available AT ALL ! You can adjust resolution and it does have widescreen resolutions but other than that there is nothing you can adjust about the graphics. So if your graphics card has problems running Payback then there is nothing you can adjust or turn off to make it run better. The picture below shows your limited options.
I don’t use standard controls when playing so I have to set that up too. The setup works ok except that it does not prevent you from using the same key for multiple actions. On the picture below you can see both Melee attack and Throw Grenade bound to Q. I didn’t see that at first and was surprised when I drew a knife every time I tried to throw a grenade.
Want to set up a nice multicoloured playername for multiplayer ? Just as in SOF2 ? Forget it ! Names cannot contain color … and not many character at all besides letters and digits. And the way you write your name is a joke – You have to write it using an on-screen-keyboard and cannot just write it using your normal keyboard. This does more than anything show that the PC version is a direct port of a console game.

Let’s play
I started out with a game of Singleplayer just to see how it worked (no reason to embarrass myself on multiplayer yet). Into the game and … whooooaaaa ! Just a little movement of the mouse and I made a 360 turn. Back into options and turn mouse sensitivity down from the normal 5 to 0. After that the mouse is still way to sensitive for my liking but at least I have some control.
Ok, scene is starting with me behind a car. I run forward and two badguys jump over the wall and I aim for one of them and prepare to send him to hell. Luckily for him the game now crashed and I had to do a CTRL-ALT-DELETE to get back to Windows. It seems the game has a problem with Windows Vista (which Cauldron apparently has not tested the game on). Luckily a patch to v1.1 has been released that fixed that problem. Apply patch and now it works – the badguys are nor dying like flies. They are pretty easy  on normal difficulty but never mind that.
I play through the first level and shoot down enemies and have a little fun shooting off heads, legs and arms of both live and dead enemies. Let me warn you here … don’t die ! There is no Save feature and when you die the game decides how far back you have to start over. It’s is really fun playing the same sequence over and over again and hearing your partner saying the same things over and over again – NOOOT !
When in the game you are normally walking and when you jump it has a slowness to it like if you were in low gravity. You can sprint but your player is in very bad shape and can only run about 60-70 meters.
Another thing about running is that you cannot turn while running so you have to aim where you want to go before you start running … or you’ll end up running into walls half the time. You cannot shoot while running. Movement is generally very different from SOF2 as you cannot lean and the crouch key toggles so you have to press it again to stand up. Thus there’s no jump-crouch combination to give higher jumps as in SOF2.
When you reload then things in the distance gets blurred as if you’re focusing your eyes on your weapon. Some will be annoyed by this but I kind of like it. Your crosshair grows when you move to indicate less accuracy. This has been seen in many other games too but many hardcore SOF2 players will miss their unchanging dot-crosshair a lot.
You have no health bar and you can only judge your health by the color of the screen. There are no healthpacks lying around but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. When you’re seriously hurt the screen turns more or less red and if you keep out the fire you’ll soon return to good health. I didn’t get all the way through the Singleplayer part and probably never will – it’s seems like nothing but
killing the same enemies over and over again. [SPOILER] At the end of the first level your partner turns out to be a traitor and instead of killing you he runs away 100 meters and wait for you to hunt him. When you try to kill him it takes a ridiculous
amount of bullets to do so [/SPOILER] Cauldron have really saved time on this game by skipping scenes. In the second level you have to take an elevator and the scene just fades out and when it fades in you’re somewhere else and not in the elevator.

Let’s go Multiplayer
Multiplayer is where I spend my time on SOF2. Multiplayer is where you kill your buddies, annoy your enemies and try and come out on top. But SOF3 multiplayer is not like SOF2 multiplayer. SOF3 has the same gametypes except INF. I have so far only tried a few gametypes simply because there are so few servers online.
Next bug I found was on the server list. I can move the mouse to any server but I cannot enter it by doubleclicking on it. There’s a “Join game” button at the button of the screen but if I move the mouse down there then SOF3 automatically selects the last server on the list. So no matter how many servers  on the list I have not found out how to join any except the last one. At last I found out that I have to select the server I wanted and then press ENTER to join it. That means that the “Join game” button is useless.
Notice that there’s no ping in the serverlist so you have no way of knowing whether you’ll have lag on the server or not !
Although you can set your multiplayer name before entering a game you cannot select or modify your weapons or select your player-skin until you have the server.
SOF3 comes without any CD-key so it will be difficult if not impossible to enforce any kind of banning online and anyone can pretend to be anyone. There’s also no anti-cheat software such as Punkbuster.
You cannot record demos in SOF3 !!! You thus cannot record a game with the purpose of showing it to other to determine if someone was cheating (what would be the point – you cannot ban them anyway).
You cannot record a game with the purpose of later making a movie showing your skills. These features have existed in FPS games the last 10 years but not in SOF3. No ReFrag:3 coming for SOF3 !
SOF3 have often crashed on me when I’ve tried entering a server.
So now you enter a server. If you’ve expected to start off by asking the other player what they think about SOF3 then think again. THERE IS NO CHAT IN SOF3 !! You cannot chat with anyone and you cannot coordinate a teamgame through chat. You’re on your own and can do nothing but shoot. There’s no spectator-mode either.
You cannot setup a dedicated server ! All servers have to run on someones own PC so when that player leaves you’re simply thrown out of the game. There seems to be no way of setting up a map-rotation so you just play the same map. In fact there are very limited options for setting up a server and you cannot not allow more than 12 players in the server. If you set up a server then you cannot even enter it yourself until someone else comes along.
The scoreboard only shows your kills – not how many times you have been killed and not how long you have played.
Even in deathmatch there’s a spawn delay when you die and you have to press ENTER to spawn.

Other SOF2<->SOF3 differences
There’s not the beloved fragsound in deathmatch so you don’t always know when you kill someone with a grenade.
There’s a knife in the game but you cannot throw it. Throwing grenades is also very different from SOF2. In SOF3 a grenade is thrown immediately when you press the key.
You cannot assign a weapon directly to a key but have to scroll through weapons to switch weapon. There’s no console in the game and no commands and settings that you can use in a console anyway.
Multiplayer Bugs Encountered in a Short Time
There seems to be so many things for Cauldron yet to fix.
- I frequently crash when entering a game.
- I’ve experienced spawning without weapons and just running around like an idiot.
- I’ve seen players appearing out of nothing and disappearing too (not disconnecting)
- I’ve seen players die and suddenly their bodies jump up and just stand there without a head.
- I’ve seen teamdeathmatch game without empty scoreboard after 8 players had played for almost an
hour.
- Animations seem to sometime happen in instantaneously like players going to and from crouch in no time.
Final words
As mentioned I’m a huge fan of SOF2 and SOF Payback does in no way satisfy my thirst for a successor. I’m my opinion Cauldron has to perform miracles for this SOF Payback to become a game worth playing. They have to get rid of the console-port look and feel and the have to start adding features that the PC community cannot live without.
The initial videos of Payback indicated that the developers had listened to and cared for the SOF community. My hands-on experience shows that they have not.
So for now don’t look for me in the SOF Payback server (there’s no player-search feature anyway ;-)
infrequent
LINKS:
Developers Site: http://www.cauldron.sk/
Activision support site: http://www.activisionvalue.com/
SOF Payback official site: http://www.mercenarieswanted.com/
SOF Payback forum: http://www.sofpayback.com/
Infrequent’s site (SOF2): http://infreq.vores-web.dk/

It was my extreme pleasure to meet one of the gifted artists in this film this weekend. I find this short film fascinating. Do Enjoy! 

This might be the best picture ever, right?