NOVEMBER 2013

Wednesday 2013.11.27

Happy Thanksgiving Tomorrow

Thanksgiving is a USA holiday, celebrated every November on the fourth Thursday of the month. I used to have a routine each Thanksgiving, as it was a four-day weekend away from work. I would re-load my two computers. A typical re-load takes two days, so the holiday was perfect. Additionally, each Thanksgiving my Norton Antivirus program expires. Rather than renew for another year (about $50), I buy the latest version at the warehouse store when it goes on sale for half price ($25) each November.

So that is what I am doing this week. I don't need a four-day weekend, being retired, but it still takes plenty of time. I fact, I started on Monday, but Microsoft's update system is painfully slow right now (they're aware of it and they are supposedly fixing it). I let the update run overnight and received four updates. I know I need a lot more than that. This is going to take a while. I'm only doing the one computer because this one works very well.

Another issue is on the horizon. If I read correctly, Microsoft will finally cut the cord permanently with XP in April 2014. There won't be any updates. This might be the last re-load I every do. I have Windows 7, and it's a decent product. The problem is that I have a lot of older legacy software, all of which I use a lot. I don't know which applications will or will not work in Win7.

There is hope. I'm thinking of doing an image of the computer after all the re-load is done and I get all my uploads. An image is an exact copy of everything on the hard disk. You save the image somewhere safe and when it comes time to do a fresh re-load, you simply use the image to restore the computer back to pristine condition. It isn't a permanent fix, but it should help me to limp along a little longer after Microsoft abandons XP forever.

As a little aside, I think Microsoft could have made good money if they had created a Legacy Division and kept older operating systems supported. However, to get updates beyond a certain date, people like me, unwilling or unable to part with the past, would need to subscribe to their update service, giving them a credit card and accepting a revolving charge of about $10 per month—sort of like Adobe's Creative Cloud subscription service. I would gladly pay the $10 each month. If there were a million people out there with XP and a credit card, that's $10 million dollars each month. If I were president of Microsoft…

THIS JUST IN: I just saw on my computer that all the updates I've been waiting for are ready for download. It took longer than 24 hours, but at least I'm making progress. Download went okay. There are 130 updates in this batch. That's more like it! Later, I'll continue to install software and utilities, and configure my firewall to prevent some programs from "calling home." Some of my software is too old to register and if allowed to try, the program is disabled to force me to buy the newest version.

Hopefully you all have a pleasant holiday weekend. I have no plans, but often I receive a last-minute invite to dine with friends.

Sunday 2013.11.24

Rekindling the Passion

No, I didn't see a doctor about low T. My passion for cooking and building this web site is healthy again.

First, the web site: A few elements have changed already. I have to work with the recipes, all 173 (so far) of them, so I am proofreading them again. The earliest recipes didn't have metric equivalents. I fixed that issue. They also had some spelling errors or typographical errors. I didn't have automatic spell checking turned on back then. So far I have about a third of them corrected and I uploaded new PDF files to the Recipe Archive.

Other changes are not available yet. I have a lot of testing to do. I'm hoping to have the upgrades ready by the beginning of 2014. When they are ready, they will simply be enhancements.

One challenging issue is fixing the HTML code. Most of the changes are done on the WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) screen, but along the way some codes linger, even though they are no longer used. More and more I am finding that I need to go into the HTML to look for and clean up these orphaned codes. The advantage is that I am learning more about coding. The same is true for the CSS (cascading style sheets). Although you will never see the (because they are behind the scenes), I was able to create some new layout classes that will make the recipe pages, when they are published, look right.

Meanwhile, I have been cooking. In Wednesday's blog I wrote about a pork and white bean chili. For that recipe I used only a small part of the package of "country style boneless pork ribs" (strips of pork shoulder) I bought at the warehouse store. I used the remainder to make braised pork with a reduction sauce, which I served over my favorite three-rice mix. The video wasn't long enough to fill an half-hour TV show, so I used the leftover cooked pork, which was really tender, to make pulled pork sandwiches. The video and the recipe will be available on YouTube and this web site in future weeks.

I have not yet heard from the TV station, asking whether or not I wish to renew my contract for another three seasons. I am starting to feel like I can do another year. I have seven shows complete and ready for broadcast. An eighth show is videoed; I only need to do the editing.

Yet another project working at the moment is a repair/replacement to my lavalier microphone. The wire near the plug is breaking. A replacement microphone would be about $140 dollars. I ordered another brand that is supposed to work for about half the price. I also found a connector for $24 on Amazon. I put that on my wish list. It will probably be a tedious little solder job, but it might spare me a more expensive replacement. Meanwhile, I carefully cut off the stress relief portion of the plug (a lot of good that did) and wrapped the area with epoxy putty. It will be a stiff connection, but hopefully strong enough to hold together until I can fix it better.

Finally, there is one looming project that will take me away from working on the web site this week: Every Thanksgiving (the fourth Thursday every November here in the USA) I reload my computers. That means doing full backups, formatting the system hard drive, and then starting with a fresh load of the operating system, followed by all my software applications and utilities. It typically takes two days to load each computer. I'm looking forward to it. My computers are running sssslllllooooooowwwww and this should make things better. It always does.

Wednesday 2013.11.20

The Fans Have Spoken

Since Sunday, I heard from a few more fans of this web site. They don't want me to change this web site. Again I say thank you. This takes a lot of pressure off me.

The one idea for change they like is my plan to break up the Recipe Archive into separate content pages, each built around a theme or category—one for Desserts, another for Breads, that sort of thing. I've already got about half that work done. It won't show up yet because, as I said in Sunday's blog, I am working in parallel, doing all the design work locally and testing everything before I put it on the Internet.

One new feature to which I am really looking forward is the inclusion of recipes on their own HTML page, in addition to the PDFs I have here. The pages allow me to include a photograph. In my 11/6 blog I asked, "How many people know what arancini are?" The only way to find out was to download the PDF. When the new Recipe Archive pages are available, one click will display a simple recipe with a picture. From there, visitors can choose to print the recipe, download the PDF (which has all the step-by-step photographs), or watch the YouTube video.

Without having to spend time working on a new web site, I now have free time to cook. This week I made Smoky Pork and White Bean Chili—my first time in front of the camera in over a month. The recipe came from a restaurant trade journal. I've written about those before. They are magazines that go exclusively to businesses and industries. You don't see them on the magazine rack at the grocery store because they are not written for the average consumer. How many of you are interested in buying a commercial grade steam table or walk-in freezer? Do you purchase ketchup in five-gallon drums, with pumps?

I like those magazines because the recipes are written by chefs for their own restaurant. The recipes work, and they taste good, because what chef would write a recipe for something that tastes awful?

Case in point: The Smoky Pork and White Bean Chili. Absolutely one of the best dishes I ever tasted. Every winter I make Texas Chili at least once, often several times. It's cold weather comfort food. The smoky bean chili will very likely take its place as my favorite wintertime chili. I might experiment with the flavor a little. The smoky taste comes from smoked paprika. I'll probably substitute with regular paprika occasionally. Look for the recipe and vide here in coming weeks.

The video timed perfectly—29 minutes, 32 seconds. That's another potential TV show. And speaking of TV shows, this week I received my first email response from the show. My show has been running for 11 months and I wondered if anyone even watched it. I have at least one fan. She watches it every week. So now I'm thinking seriously of doing a second year—another contract for 45 shows. Daunting. I have seven ready for the first season. I'd like to do eight more before the end of December. That's a lot. Even if I don't achieve that goal, I can submit the shows that are ready and deliver the remainder after the season starts airing.

So, I can say that things are getting back to normal. The usual grind grinds on—send the car in for repairs and a smog check ($700), lunch with friends, pay bills. All the usual stuff. But one less burden is having to build an entirely new web site from scratch. That idea is history.

Sunday 2013.11.17

What a Difference a Little Perspective Makes

I heard from a few fans—and I can't thank you enough—regarding my plans to change this web site. There is a fan base, albeit a small one, and they are loyal. Their comments can be summed up simply as: "Don't change a thing. We like your web site the way it is." That makes me very happy. It also makes things a lot easier. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Since Wednesday's blog, I did more work on the new design. The frustration level subsided considerably. I know from experience that I always get frustrated as I climb a new learning curve. After I master the few bits of code I struggle with, things proceed smoothly and I actually begin to enjoy making the changes.

For those of you who might be wondering why you don't see anything different: I work in parallel. All the changes are being done to a copy of this web site, all stored on my home computer. No "Under Construction" sign. No "Please Pardon My Dust" requests. It's all being done locally so that you won't need to deal with broken links or other bugs in the design.

Where am I now? I'm leaning heavily toward doing nothing. Just leave the web site as is and continue to add to it. The frustration and depression I dealt with a few weeks ago was probably mostly due to diet. I know I need my vegetables everyday. I was eating mostly ramen because a root canal in a tooth put me on a soft foods diet. Now that I am back on my veggies—I am eating a large salad almost every day—my mood is much better.

Another option under consideration is to go live in parallel—keep this web site, but also create a new and separate web site with all the same recipes and blogs. It would have the added feature of recipes on HTML pages rather than just PDFs. I would then simply wait and see what happens. Watch the web traffic like I did when I started this site. This option, however, is not looking likely. I'm trying to simplify, not maintain two web sites—double the work I do now.

One problem with having only PDFs is that my recipes don't show up in Internet searches, such as with Google or, my favorite, Bing. According to the stats I looked at for this web site, the traffic has been almost flat for two years. The popularity has crept up by a minuscule degree. That was one reason why I wanted to do a new site, something more upscale, more modern. Adding HTML recipe pages to this site is possible, and definitely under consideration.

There are a few simplifications you can see already. The Blog Archive pages all have the same header at the top. The month and year for each archive is now at the top of the text content rather than in the header. That's one of those "Doh!" moments. Why hadn't I ever thought of that? It will simplify maintenance of the blog archives. Gone is the "About the PDFs" page, because there wasn't anything said there that wasn't already said in About the Recipes, and gone is the "Product Reviews" page, because many of those products are no longer available.

The bottom line, so far, is to listen to the fans. Keep the current design and maybe add a few new features. One change I definitely need to make is to the Recipe Archive. There are too many recipes in there now. I want to create archive pages for each of the categories—Soups, Desserts, etc.—and then sort all the recipes into their appropriate category. That should make it easier for visitors to find what they might be looking for.

Wednesday 2013.11.13

A Wrench Thrown Into the Works

On Monday evening I invited my tech savvy friend over to see my designs for the new web site. With delicate diplomacy and carefully worded tact, he tore everything to shreds. If you know the cooking term chiffonade, that's what he did to my web site.

Basically, it came down to, "Make it look like everyone else's web site." While I agree that visitors to my web site should feel immediately comfortable by seeing a layout with which they are already familiar, the problem is this: The latest web sites use all kinds of fancy stuff based on java and other jiggly-giggly code that I know nothing about. I looked at him in dismay. "I'm 62 years old. I can't start all over again, hoping to learn all that stuff." I used to program, half a lifetime ago. I programmed a very sophisticated database system, much of which needed to be written in structured code. But now, making my morning cup of coffee and getting it right the first time is a major accomplishment. (Okay, I'm not that decrepit, yet, but still…)

Then there's the PC stuff. "You shouldn't call them Lazy Man Meals. Most visitors to cooking web sites are female and you don't want to alienate them. Name the meals something non-gender specific." Lazy Person Meals? Is Lazy too derogatory? Industriousness-challenged?

"Make things more interactive. Rolling the mouse over certain features should present the visitor with options they can click. For example, use a Spry menu system rather than 1980's style buttons." Silly me. I thought my buttons were retro chic.

"Rather than a static header at the top, create dynamic headers with scrolling or dissolving images, maybe displaying the last five of your featured recipes, for example." Cool, I like that. But how? (More jiggly-giggly code.)

"Don't just provide a link to your YouTube videos. Open them in a Lightbox element." Yeah, I tried to read about those. I got a book. It had something to do with something called jQuery. I forgot how many pages I read before I forgot everything that I read earlier.

"Learn Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, and any other social media you can use to promote your web site." I coped with Facebook. I'm pissed off at Google+ because they keep changing things and then I lose some of the work I did earlier. And I don't care how many times they ask for it, I am not giving them my cell phone number.

"I can help," he volunteered. Nice, but he talks for three hours, then does something for 15 minutes, and then starts talking again. I have never met a person who so loves having someone listen to him talk. A phone call is rarely shorter than 60 minutes, and three hours—really—is not uncommon. In September he talked 802 minutes. It was on my phone bill.

I filled nearly one side of a sheet of paper with notes—things to work on, numbering a few items by priority. After he went home I went to bed and lied there for hours, wondering what to do. To be honest, I'm about 80% certain I'll let everything go at the end of December. Not renew my subscription with my web site's hosting service (which means this web site will disappear) and then decide what to do, if anything, about all my YouTube videos. Maybe 19% wants to make a few minor cosmetic changes. That 1% wants to do nothing at all—just leave everything as is. I don't know if it is despair speaking or the voice of reason.

To have a really upscale web site with all the latest features requires hiring a team of milenials (and their helicopter moms, evidently). I can't afford that. I'm just me. I write the recipes, cook the meals in front of my video camera, frame and focus all my shots, edit the video and audio, encode the various formats, and then send them out into the wide world of the Internet or TV. From start to finish, it's only me. At the end of every video there is only one name in the closing credits. How much can one person do without being paid?

I want to enjoy my retirement. But suddenly, it isn't fun anymore. I won't make any rash decisions. There is still time to think about it.

Sunday 2013.11.10

Proceeding Apace

With nearly 180 recipes to convert to the new web site, I gave myself a personal goal of 10 per day. That might not seem like much, but each recipe gets proofread again. There are mistakes that were missed the first time. Then a new PDF is generated. After that, two version of the recipe—one as a regular HTML web page and another as a printer friendly page—are created. Finally, all the links are hooked up. To do everything takes from one half hour to one hour per recipe.

I started on Wednesday. Today is Sunday. I have yet to begin today's conversions (which will start soon after I upload all my updates for the week), but 50 recipes were converted so far.

In the meantime, I contacted my hosting service. There will be no charge to take down the current URL (white-trash-cooking) and replace it with the new domain name. I haven't actually decided on the new domain name yet, but one in particular is growing on me and it is currently available.

To ease the transition from old to new, the new home page will have the new masthead banner at the top, but the little camper trailer will be near the top, providing a familiar look to those who don't know about the upcoming changes. The one or two of you who read this blog won't be surprised. You'll be anticipating the changes.

Visiting all the old recipes again (these are the ones I created back on 2010) is giving me some good ideas. For example, I never did a video on making vegetable stock, although I use it every winter when I make some soups, Pasta Fagioli in particular. That recipe and video gives instructions for making a vegetable stock, but I think a dedicated video with more information would be better. It's on my list of future projects.

And it's amazing what home projects get done when there is a repetitive, tedious task to do. This week I disassembled the drain unit for my reverse osmosis system under my kitchen sink. I never liked the way it drained, but I put up with it for nearly 18 months. Using a piece of bicycle inner tube to make a proper gasket, I rebuilt the drain connector and now the system drains perfectly.

I still haven't returned to cooking. It has been nearly a month since I shot my last video. I feel like a truant. However, I have enough video projects done and in the vault to cover all my uploads through the end of the year.

Finally, yesterday morning at about 6:00 I was awakened by a loud noise that sounded like a plane going overhead very close. It lasted only about a second. The digital clock next to my bed was off, but it came back on quickly. I got dressed, walked around outside, and looked at the transformers on the utility poles on the streets near my home. Although I could detect a slight odor of smoke in the air, there were no smoking transformers. The generator at the telephone substation, however, was running. That's the best indicator of there having been a power outage affecting more than just my home. Just to be safe, I checked the breaker switches on my home's electrical panel. All was well. So I jumped on my computer and made all of today's changes to my web site, expecting the power might go off at any moment. The last time the power went off, there was no electricity all day. I wanted to get my updates done before anything like that happened again.

During the morning the lights flickered. There wasn't enough electricty to power the kitchen's overhead light and eventually I couldn't run my computers. I turned off all my power strips and I unplugged my stove. Although the stove is on a surge protector, I take no chances. The computer panel that runs everything is no longer available. If that blows, I have no choice but to buy a new range. Then around 10:30 all went dark for an hour. After they replaced the transformer the electricity came back on and I was able to continue working.

The event did give me an opportunity to visit with neighbors—checking that everyone is okay.

Wednesday 2013.11.6

Wasn't It Supposed to be Easy?

It's funny how a simple little project expands to become a huge monster.

On Sunday I blogged about some changes I want to make to this web site. We (a friend and I) thought it would be good to start off 2014 with a new brand. Something upscale. Throw out the trash and go gourmet. After all, nearly all my recipes are gourmet anyway. First to go will be the little camper trailer up in the left corner. I rather like that little trailer. I drew it myself. But it is part of the old white trash image and we agreed a new look was necessary.

Then the electricity went off Sunday morning. Thankfully, I had gotten out of bed early and completed my YouTube upload and all the updates to this web site. The power was off from 8:30 in the morning until 3:30 in the afternoon. (A utility pole on the side street adjacent to the trailer park needed to be replaced.) Needless to say, nothing got done.

Tasks completed for the new web site:

On Monday all the major pages were created, along with the navigation buttons. The structure will be the same. Just the look will be different.
Templates were created for the HTML recipe pages, one for a web site look and one that is printer friendly.
On Tuesday all the navigation pages for the new Recipe Archive were created.
All the pages for the Blog archives were created, with all the navigation links connected—three years of blogs, 42 HTML pages. That's a big task out of the way, but I'm not done with the blog pages yet.

Still to be done:

I still need to connect all the internal content links in all those blog pages, but first I need to create all the content—the HTML recipe pages.
Start filling the HTML recipe pages with content, including a picture of the food. How many people know what Arancini are? The pictures will help. 180 recipes, each getting two HTML pages. That's 360 pages to build—this will take some time.
Encode all new PDFs, all 180 of them, with the new look.
Add links to the new PDFs and the YouTube videos.
Create an archive for the food photos to go with all the recipes and then fill with photos.
Not cast in concrete, but I'm thinking of a Recipe Index page—all the recipes listed in one place, in alphabetical order.

A couple things will be gone. The "About the PDFs" page will go. There isn't anything in there that can't be said on the "About the Recipes" page. Gone too will be the Product Reviews. Many of those items are no longer available anywhere. So there is no point to the reviews.

The plan is to have everything ready by the beginning of 2014. My goal is to complete all the changes by the end of November and then test, test, test during December.

Is there a good reason for all this? No, not really. There is the possibility that a better web presence could generate some revenue, but the probablility of that happening is maybe 1 in 10,000. Maybe the real reason is to become excited about it again. I've been losing interest.

Of course, I can always change my mind. I did that with another web site I built. I worked on it for about a year and then decided it would never fly. I erased everything after saving a backup copy to CD. Today my friend is coming over to examine everything I created so far and give me his input. Hopefully he won't find any huge monstrous mistakes that force me to start all over again.

Sunday 2013.11.3

Some Changes Coming

2014 is looming on the horizon. On January 2nd I can, if I want, renew my subcription to the hosting service for this web site. That makes me start thinking about changes to improve my site and make my life easier. Here are some of the changes I plan to implement at the beginning of the coming year.

1. I will disable all YouTube comments. With my videos nearing 200 and the subscriptions now over 2,000 (and views nearing 300,000) I am beginning to feel overwhelmed with the questions and comments. I feel obligated to answer the questions, but I also need to free up some time to pursue other creative projects that interest me.

2. I might not upload as often. Creating videos and writing recipes is a lot of work, almost a full time job. No one pays me; so, do I really need to push myself this much? I am, after all, comfortably retired.

3. I plan to restructure the Recipe Archive. I have nearly 200 recipes in there now, all on one page. I want to create separate pages for Basics, Breads, Soups and Salads, Main Courses, Desserts, etc. That should make it easier for visitors to navigate and help me keep it better organized. The Recipe Archive page will then contain links to the other pages.

Other changes are planned. There could be an entirely new web site with a new brand. All the recipes and videos will still remain in place.

Some Things Staying the Same

I want to maintain my blog, although I might not get to it twice a week. Writing keeps my mind healthy and I enjoy it.

I also want to maintain contact with the people who communicate with me regularly. The "Contact" button on the left panel of this page (and others) will remain functional. However, I probably won't answer all questions.

I will probably maintain the Facebook and Google+ fan pages. They don't require much effort.

I want to continue making videos, but at a more relaxed pace. I have about $12,000 in audio/video equipment, and I really love using that stuff. I bought excellent equipment. How many people shoot YouTube videos in 1080p on a professional XDCAM? I'd hate to see my stuff languish, gathering dust.

Why the Changes?

As mentioned above, I've been feeling overwhelmed lately. I do everything myself, alone. There is no staff to assist me. I couldn't pay them, as I do all this without compensation.

So a scaled cutback seems the best way to proceed. 2014 is looking better.

Finally, did you set your clocks? In many parts of the USA we are switching to Standard Time today. Spring ahead, fall back. Set your clocks back one hour today.