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I had occasion to be in San Antonio, Texas attending a technical conference earlier this week and was fortunate to have an opportunity one evening to take a few photos of the San Antonio skyline at night, from my hotel room. I even got a few good pictures of the lightning storm on Tuesday!
More (and larger) photos are available at my Flickr San Antonio at Night set.
Once again this year I'm doing the publicity for Lindsborg's annual Midsummer's Celebration. To help get the word out, I've setup a website called Midsummer's Day Festival. There you can find the latest schedule updates, press releases, and photos of past years Midsummer's celebrations. If you have any interest in this very popular Swedish festival that celebrates the beginning of summer, check it out!
I came across this recipe almost two years ago and finally got around to making it last weekend. It was so good there's no way I'll wait another 2 years before making it again! In addition to being very tasty, it's also an easy recipe to prepare.
French Onion Soup
2 Tbs olive oil
3 Tbs butter
6 C thinly sliced onions (2-3 onions, depending on size)
1/2 tsp sugar
2 1/2 quarts beef broth
1/2 C dry white wine
sprig fresh thyme (optional)
salt and pepper to taste
4-8 slices French or toasting bread (amount depends on number of servings)
1-2 C grated Gruyere cheese (amount depends on number of servings; Swiss cheese may be substituted)
Heat the oil in a heavy 5-6 qt. pan. Add the butter. When the butter has melted, add the onions and cook slowly, covered for 10 minutes. Add the sugar and salt. Cook onions slowly until onions caramelize and turn to a rich brown color. Do not let them burn! This will take 45-60 minutes.
Add the wine and cook 5 minutes, still over low heat. Add the stock and check for seasoning. Simmer uncovered for 30 minutes.
To serve:
Toast the bread slices until golden brown. Ladle the soup into an oven-proof bowl, add the toasted bread and cover with the cheese. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 20 minutes or 5 minutes under a hot broiler.
Original recipe That's My Home!
I've had this queued up for a couple of days, with no time to view/listen, but when the link came through my RSS reader, via Ronni at Time Goes By, I took the time.
If this doesn't put a big smile on your face, I don't know what will. My generation, indeed.
Here's a link to find out more about the remarkable Zimmers.
I heard Dan Bern's song, Kid's Prayer, two times today while listening to KPIG. I've heard it before, and hadn't paid a lot of attention to the words; hearing it twice in one day caused me to take another look.
Though almost 10 years old, the song could have been written as a direct response to the tragedy at Virginia Tech yesterday. See for yourself (I located a version of the song recorded in KPIG's studios back in 1998; give it a listen):
Dan Bern - Kid's Prayer
So sad, so sad the news
Come our way this morning
Like a bad bad dream
A dream that you’d never even talk about
In a school, a school
A place where we send our precious children
The only place of innocence the world might ever let them know
And barely aware of the odds against existence in the first place
Of love and fertility and risk of a baby being born
And of clothes and food and fear and maybe relocation
Of sickness, recovery, of music lessons, painting the bedroom
And lingering over eggs and thoughts and sleepy conversations
And plans for the weekend
One last pause to say goodbye
And a glance at the clock
And the grabbing of the sandwich and the notebook
Confident of nothing but the unbroken days that they've been granted
But comes a child
A child so full of anger and hatred
Barely aware of the genesis coursing through his veins
With a gun, a gun
Deaf and blind deliverer of madness
Skilled beyond his own unformulated brain
And with his hand in a fist
And his soul in a knot
And his heart racing
And his mind sick with images
His slim shoulders finally feeling tall
And his fellow creatures
Students and their crushes and their daydreams
Struggling to unwrap the ancient secrets of geometry
He pulls from his coat the instrument to shatter all forevers
In a random blaze of insides and blood and endless now
And noise and flash and more and not even when it's over
Can any so much as summon up the sanity to scream
Then on the floor his classmates blown down and choking
As he lays his weapon on his desk, hardly sure he isn't dreaming
And all the world descends and offers up their condolence
And offers up their theories what went wrong
And who and why and when and how
It's all the killing day and night on television
It's all the movies where violence is as natural as breathing
It's guns and bullets as easily obtainable as candy
It's video games where you kill and begin to think it's real
It's people not having God in their lives anymore
Or it's all of it, or none of it, or some of it, or various combinations
And all those theories sound pretty reasonable, I guess
Though I ain't no scientist
I ain't no figurer of statistics
I ain't no theologist
Or psychologist or biologist
All I can do is offer up a prayer of my own
Talk to your kids
Play with your kids
Tell them your dreams
And your disappointments
Listen with your kids
Listen to your kids
Watch your kids
Let your kids watch you
Tell your kids the truth
Best as you can tell it
No use telling lies
Your kids can always smell it
Cook for your kids
Let your kids cook for you
Sing with your kids
Teach your kids the blues
Learn their games
Teach them yours
Touch your kids
Find out what they know
Be sad with your kids
Be stupid with your kids
Learn with your kids
Cry with you kids
Be yourself with your kids
Be real with your kids
Embarrass your kids
Let them embarrass you
Be strong with your kids
Be tough with your kids
Be firm with your kids
Say "No" to your kids
Say "Yes" to your kids
Take it easy on your kids
You were a kid
Not so long ago
There are things you know
Your kids will never know
There’s places they live
Where you will never go
So dance with your kids
Paint with your kids
Walk with your kids
Tell stories to your kids
Watch movies with your kids
Eat popcorn with your kids
Tell secrets to your kids
Stop for rainbows with your kids
One day your kids
Won't be kids
And maybe they'll have kids of their own
Let’s hope they talk to their kids
Play with their kids
Tell them their dreams
And their disappointments
Inspired by the reports of severe weather in the Dallas region today, I created a YouTube account, and uploaded a video I shot of a major wind storm as seen from Coronado Heights back in August 2005.
Here's a link to my original post about the storm, and here's a link to the video, which is also embedded below (breaking validation, I know).
A powerful bit of writing, excerpted from Lee Iacocca's new book:
Had Enough?
Am I the only guy in this country who's fed up with what's happening? Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder. We've got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we've got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can't even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, "Stay the course."
Stay the course? You've got to be kidding. This is America, not the damned Titanic. I'll give you a sound bite: Throw the bums out!
You might think I'm getting senile, that I've gone off my rocker, and maybe I have. But someone has to speak up. I hardly recognize this country anymore. The President of the United States is given a free pass to ignore the Constitution, tap our phones, and lead us to war on a pack of lies. Congress responds to record deficits by passing a huge tax cut for the wealthy (thanks, but I don't need it). The most famous business leaders are not the innovators but the guys in handcuffs. While we're fiddling in Iraq, the Middle East is burning and nobody seems to know what to do. And the press is waving pom-poms instead of asking hard questions. That's not the promise of America my parents and yours traveled across the ocean for. I've had enough. How about you?
I'll go a step further. You can't call yourself a patriot if you're not outraged. This is a fight I'm ready and willing to have.
My friends tell me to calm down. They say, "Lee, you're eighty-two years old. Leave the rage to the young people." I'd love to—as soon as I can pry them away from their iPods for five seconds and get them to pay attention. I'm going to speak up because it's my patriotic duty. I think people will listen to me. They say I have a reputation as a straight shooter. So I'll tell you how I see it, and it's not pretty, but at least it's real. I'm hoping to strike a nerve in those young folks who say they don't vote because they don't trust politicians to represent their interests. Hey, America, wake up. These guys work for us.
Who Are These Guys, Anyway?
Why are we in this mess? How did we end up with this crowd in Washington? Well, we voted for them—or at least some of us did. But I'll tell you what we didn't do. We didn't agree to suspend the Constitution. We didn't agree to stop asking questions or demanding answers. Some of us are sick and tired of people who call free speech treason. Where I come from that's a dictatorship, not a democracy.
And don't tell me it's all the fault of right-wing Republicans or liberal Democrats. That's an intellectually lazy argument, and it's part of the reason we're in this stew. We're not just a nation of factions. We're a people. We share common principles and ideals. And we rise and fall together.
Where are the voices of leaders who can inspire us to action and make us stand taller? What happened to the strong and resolute party of Lincoln? What happened to the courageous, populist party of FDR and Truman? There was a time in this country when the voices of great leaders lifted us up and made us want to do better. Where have all the leaders gone?
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Finish reading the excerpt, and find out more about the book.
Thanks to boingboing for the link and photo.
I found these over at Beauty in Art and wanted to share. The first quote is generally applicable to all of us, though reaching the stated ideal is a life-long challenge.
After 33 years of marriage, I can personally vouch for the 2nd quote.
Spread love everywhere you go: first of all in your own house. Give love to your children, to your wife or husband, to a next door neighbor ... Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression kindness; kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile, kindness in your warm greeting. -- Mother Theresa
The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them. -- Thomas Merton
For some time I've been wanting to upgrade the firmware (built-in software that controls most modern electronic devices) in my wireless router. I use a Linksys WRT54G, which is a typical wireless router that acts as a wireless access point, 4-port hub and internet router, all in one small package.
To some degree the reason for performing an upgrade like this is simply because it's possible, though there's no doubt that the new firmware does offer a much cleaner design than the factory default software; almost every interface screen is improved compared to the original. In addition, there are bug fixes and new, advanced features such as the ability to increase the transmitter's power, more informative status pages and the ability to manage bandwidth usage by application (so that bit-torrents don't consume the entire network, ahem).
Additionally, while on vacation I haven't checked my work email (not even once) for the past week (a true rarity for me!) and this mini-project (3-4 hours last evening) provided a bit of a technical outlet for me. Also, I suppose this report is related to the concept of experiential learning we've discussed at work; I hope it's useful for someone contemplating upgrading their router.
I began by refreshing my memory about the topic of wireless router firmware upgrades and found an excellent article that provides a good history and overview of the subject: The Open Source WRT54G Story.
The Linksys Routers Tricks, Tips and Firmware page provides some very useful background information.
A variety of firmware upgrade options are available, and this 3rd Party Firmware Comparison provides details about 4 of the most popular choices.
After a while I began zeroing in on a selection, and this first-hand account of someone's experiences upgrading their own router helped solidify my choice: DD-WRT.
I quickly found a great (clear and accurate) set of WRT54G upgrade directions and shortly thereafter was back on the internet via a router that had just had the electronic equivalent of a brain transplant. After I finished my upgrade I found another page with upgrade directions that looks pretty informative and includes a photo gallery of screen-shots taken during the upgrade process.
Just in case there were any problems, I had a great router firmware upgrade troubleshooting page open for reference; thankfully it wasn't needed.
Overall, while this wireless router upgrade isn't necessary, it isn't terribly hard to perform (though carefully following the instructions is important), and does provide both a better interface and some extra new features, including the ability to increase the transmitted power (useful if you have a computer that is a bit too far away from your wireless access point).
One caveat if you've read this far: only a few modern routers support this type of upgrade, so carefully read the above pages to ensure you have (or purchase) a model/version that will work with these router firmware upgrades that are available. If you have a newer model, the DD-WRT "micro" distribution is said to work, and if so is still likely better than the default software provided with the unit.
What a difference a couple of days can make! On Sunday and Monday we were basking in the hot sun of the Imperial Valley desert near Blythe California. We arrived home early yesterday evening, and what a welcome home; it snowed a bit over 6 inches today!
Today was already slated to be a special day, as Sheryl and I happily celebrate 33 years of marriage, but the unexpected snow made it an anniversary we'll never forget.
Here's a couple of photos of today's snow storm, and of course there's more at my April Snow Flickr set.
I always take a lot of pictures while traveling, and have been too busy to do much more than simply download the images from my camera (and make backups!)
Nonetheless, I was able to sort and process yesterday's desert photos so will post them now and work on the others as time permits. I did post a nice image of some yellow-headed blackbirds on luminosity.
Sheryl and I went out exploring in the desert near Blythe yesterday, looking for rocks and minerals as well as good photo vantage points. We were successful on all counts; a few photos are shown below and more are available at my Flickr Desert Near Blythe set.
Wiley Wells Road is a normal two lane gravel road. We took it down to Black Hills Road, which veered off to the soutwest. It sort of looks like a road, more so than some of the trails we encountered.
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Though a very dry spring, these flowers and trees seem to be doing well enough.
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This is looking down one of the many washes that cross the desert. Though drivable, we stuck to "roads" this trip.
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Overlooking the desert floor from one of the many small peaks in the area.
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We just love these kind of roads.
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This is a brief glimpse of the Bradford Trail, a historic path across the desert.
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