jcole’s weblog

R.I.P. – Linksys WAP11 (Wireless Access Point) and Linksys BEFSR41 (EtherFast Cable/DSL Router). You’ve given many good days of service and I appreciate all your efforts. May you rest in peace.

Lightning seems to have hit something (our roof?) and killed a few small but important electronics. Still investigating, but everything else seems OK.

If you have any sites hosted on my servers, you will need to update your DNS (ask me) as the IP has changed to 69.81.137.61.

Update: The onboard Ethernet controller on my desktop machine can rest in peace as well. Now substituted by a trusty spare 3Com 3C905B I had laying around.

Update: A set of outlets on the kitchen island is also out.

Update: The outlet is fine, the GFCI outlet in the kitchen was on the same circuit and flipped. The TV, however, is very interesting colors.

Tonight we went for something completely different:

As a starter, we had baked camembert with crackers.

As a main course, we had baked salmon with lemon, dill, thyme, salt, pepper, and olive oil. To go with that, some standard Betty Crocker Garlic Mashed Potatoes.

Last night we made something similar to Manischewitz Chicken and Broccoli Risotto. We initially planned to make the recipe as listed, but found out while at Tops that they don’t carry the Risotto mix, so we had to improvise…

We ended up making chicken sautéed in butter with garlic, adding broccoli, and adding the whole mess to orzo pasta. I seasoned the whole thing with some nice freshly ground salt and pepper. We also had Matzo Ball Soup since Adrienne had never had it before, and I really like it.

Last night, we made a dish that I’ll call Rosemary Chicken. We didn’t use a recipe and I made everything up at the grocery store and on the spot.

To go with it, we had Manischewitz chicken flavored couscous and some good pita flatbread.

It was really very good, and I would recommend for anyone who likes chicken to give it a try. I had Turning Leaf 2002 Cabernet Sauvignon and Adrienne had their 2002 White Zinfandel.

Enjoy!

Bush’s word for today must have been “litany“.

Tonight we made Chicken Thighs with Lentils, Chorizo, and Red Pepper. It took about an hour to make, with relatively cheap ingredients. Most of the flavors in it were kind of subtle, although the chorizo itself was spicy. The food was very good, and worth the time!

(N.B., I used fresh chorizo instead of dried, chicken breasts instead of thighs, and left out the parsley.)

Bush and Kerry are at it again, this time with Nader as well. As covered on Slashdot, they were asked a series of questions by young people in a Presidential Youth Debate moderated by Anthony Todesco. One question came from a lead moderator, ten questions were accepted from 18-35 year olds, and one from 13-17 year olds.

Kerry seemed to have a concept of who his audience was, as his answers were all short and to the point, and most of them at least answered the question that was asked. Granted, he didn’t give complete answers, but he gave easily digestable answers that could be understood by 13-17 year olds. If you want the “adult” answers, those are available on various news sites, from the live debates, etc. I felt that the level of language used by Kerry was at least in line with how I’ve heard him speak, if not more simplified.

Bush‘s answers were some excessively long essays, most of them completely dodging the question at hand. I don’t think he answered a single one of the questions as it was asked, and even declined to answer one question at all. It’s kind of hard to tell if he did answer the questions, since most of his answers are 4+ paragraphs of bullshit. Further, I felt that the language used in his answers was far above his own language level as demonstrated during his term and during the recent debates. I don’t think Bush himself had any part in crafting those answers.

Nader seemed to attack the debate with a “nothing to lose” mentality, which is somewhat appreciated. His answers were also excessively long for the audience at hand, but at least they generally answered the questions and seemed honest.

It will be interesting to watch the final Presidential Debate tonight.

Last night Adrienne and I made Chicken Chasseur. It wasn’t too difficult to make, and was very, very good.

Basically it’s chicken, mushrooms, and onions, in a tomato based sauce flavored with garlic and thyme. I used Barton & Guestier 2002 Mâcon-Villages Chardonnay as the wine called-for in the recipe. They recommend a red wine to accompany the food, but I found the white wine I used in making it to go quite nicely with it. (Although, in my opinion, it’s not very good by itself, so drink it all with the food.)

I left out the parsley, as I’m not a big fan of parsley, and it was more of a garnish than an important part of the flavor.

Enjoy!

There are a number of polls asking who won the Presidential Debate last night:

CNN Poll: Who won the second presidential debate?

See the results.

Fox News Poll: Who won Friday night’s presidential debate?

See the results.

MSNBC Poll: Who won the debate?

Vote to see the results. Update: Oops, seems they took it down now…

Update: There seems to be something fishy with the polls, especially on CNN and Fox News (surprise, right?)… When I first checked the CNN poll, the results were something like 75-22 Kerry, and then some hours later, I looked again 55-42 Kerry, and now it’s 57-41 Bush… I suppose it’s possible that such things could happen, but what makes it even more confusing is that I could’ve sworn there were 800,000+ votes when I first checked it (which is consistent with CNN’s traffic, and previous polls).

Later (when it was 55-42 Kerry) there were only 600,000 votes. Now they are at 1.25M votes… if Kerry had 75% of 800,000 votes, that would be 600,000 votes… which is more than he has now (currently 523,644…)

Hmmmmmmmmmm.

Update: Interesting… with some URL twiddling, I found this poll.

The Presidential Debate last night was interesting.

It was supposed to be a “town hall” format debate, with audience members asking the questions. With all due respect, the American public CAN’T READ. I felt like I was back in 5^th grade reading class again, where they force the worst readers in the class to alternate reading parts of a story. Great practice reading, for them, but everyone else is confused as hell about the actual story. OK, back to the debate…

George Bush seemed really angry a lot of the time. He cut off the audience members while they were asking their questions, before they had finished speaking, he would start in on his answer. He made a lot of jokes about Kerry and about the questions. At one point, he cut off the moderator and completely disregarded him.

John Kerry was overall polite, waited for people to ask their questions, thanked the audience members for their questions, and was even polite to Bush. He respected the rules of the debate and succinctly said his peace. He didn’t get upset, didn’t yell, make faces, or interrupt anyone. Overall completely professional.

What a contrast. Bush continues to embarrass me, while Kerry continues to impress me. I don’t know anyone who could stand there and just politely take the lies about themselves from their debate partner, and then just calmly answer them, without getting angry or showing any lack of professionalism.

Bush doesn’t think the rules apply to him, at the debate, or anywhere else. He just runs rampant and does what he wants, disregarding those that are there to mediate (UN, anyone?). Typical, really.