November 2016
Wednesday 2016.11.30
Building Rome
The new home theater system is definitely a work in progress — hard work at times, but making progress. It might take a few weeks before everything is in place and configured. Like Rome, I didn't expect it to be built in a day.
Two of the seven speakers arrived this week. I have just enough room, like with a quarter of an inch to spare (actually 3/8 of an inch—I measured), to mount them left and right of my TV, taking advantage of the wall studs. The center speaker, when it arrives, won't be notched for mounting on the wall. I'll need to fabricate something. I've done it before; so I have some ideas.
The speakers that will go into the corners of the room will arrive on Friday. Meanwhile, I bought new speaker cable and this time I'm doing things right. Rather than string the wires along the bottom of the wall and then try not to pull them out every time I vacuum, I bought ten feet of something called a "wire raceway." It's a surface-mount metal tube into which the wire goes, hiding it from view. That was a chore to lay down, but I fastened it in place and it looks better than wires showing.
The new disk player was ordered. That will arrive today. I won't be able to connect it to anything because the receiver hasn't been purchased yet.
The one last piece is the Denon receiver/amplifier. Then, I'll need to get the bills paid and let my checking account recover. One advantage to living in a mobile home in a trailer park under a rent control ordinance is that the cost of living here is low. It might take six months to a year, but my checking account will eventually bounce back.
It seems like I do these major financial outlays once each year. I save, then I get something done. Last year I replaced my old computers. The previous year was my home's plumbing — all new copper pipe to replace the rusting and leaking galvanized pipe. Before that was the landscaping. And before that was the new storage shed. Thankfully, I'm good about saving up for these sudden expenditures. Maybe, just maybe, 2017 won't be an expensive year.
I do plan for these things. Some projects can be predicted (computers), some expenses are unexpected (plumbing). Several years ago a former friend tried to get me to modernize my home theater system. I waited because I knew the TV wouldn't be enough. Everything would need to be replaced.
At 65 years of age, it becomes more difficult to do these labor-intensive projects. Fastening down a wire raceway might be easy for a young installer who does that sort of work everyday. For me, it was exhausting. Thankfully, I didn't hurt my back.
Today's Vlog
There has been talk in the news lately about California possibly leaving (seceding) from the USA to form its own nation. Such a move is highly unlikely, although it is fun to fantasize about it. I'm in favor, if it is done the correct way.
Meanwhile, I must get another cooking video done. There is nothing left to upload. I'm thinking of something easy (for me and for the fans) — homemade Kahlúa, a coffee liqueur. I should be able to get that done quickly.
Sunday 2016.11.27
Boys and Their Toys
This might be the first of several entries I'll eventually write about the new TV and peripherals I am buying. But first, a little background.
As I said in my last blog entry, my TV was old. Very old. You don't want to know how old. Okay, more than 20 years old. Some of you might be too young to know what a picture tube is, the same as some of you might never have heard of a transistor radio or a typewriter. We old people know. My old TV had a picture tube, which is, in my case, a huge and heavy glass thing, sort of shaped like a funnel on its side. Picture tubes are beyond obsolete. They are history, like Washington crossing the Delaware. Today everything is flat screen and cell phones, like Washington texting somebody on the other side of the Delaware to tell them he's cold.
I would still have and be using that old TV if not for one important development — Cox Cable finally went all digital. With the exception of about half a dozen channels, every channel I used to receive with my old cable box (now also history) is encrypted, requiring a new cable box and TV. It's their way of getting you to get something new and pay them more to use it.
There was a time when you could have a telephone for about $40 per month. Now it's $140 per month because you need to be connected to the Internet. There was a time when you could buy your own telephone for about $20. Now you spend $900 on a cell phone and within a few days it bursts into flames.
Here is where it gets even worse. Modern flat screen TVs have a digital tuner. That's the thing that lets you select the channel you want to watch. No good. Worthless. Because the cable signal is encrypted. You will set your TV to only one channel, say 3 or 4, and then leave it there for the remainder of its life. You use the cable box to select the channel you want to watch. Why even bother to make a TV with a tuner? Wouldn't it be a lot less expensive, for the manufacturer and the consumer, to simply build a plain vanilla monitor and let the cable box do all the work?
And here is something you've probably never seen — a Pioneer LD-W1 laserdisc player.
Mine has a label on the back that says "Manufactured October 1988." If you don't know what a laserdisc is, it looks like a CD disk 12 inches (30 cm) wide. The movie was on both sides. Halfway through the movie someone had to open the player and flip the disk over. The LD-W1 had two trays (some movies were long enough to require two disks) and the player automatically moved the laser to the other side to continue playing. No flipping the disc. It was top of the line in 1988. Laserdiscs were only popular among true videophiles. Everyone else was watching VHS tapes. DVD and now Blu-ray replaced VHS and laserdiscs, and the picture quality is a whole lot better.
I'd offer to sell mine on Ebay, but I connected it wrong one time and burned out the digital audio circuit. It only played the analog track afterward.
The only component that is older is my Kyocera CD player. That has a label that says "April 1987." It barely works. The problem with old devices is that the circuitry degrades and that causes more resistance as the electricity flows through. That creates more heat, which degrades the player further. Some of my components get really hot if I use them. My DVD player can play about three quarters of a movie before it starts stalling and randomly switching chapters. It's annoying.
Black Friday
I normally don't do the Black Friday thing. Just because something is a good deal doesn't mean I need it or want it. Case in point: A friend of a friend bragged how he planned to shop at Walmart to buy a flat screen TV for only $400. What is he getting at that price? Old technology? Made‑in‑China P.O.S.? A 42-inch screen? Certainly not a 65-inch 4K Ultra HD TV. Am I bragging?
This year I did the Black Friday thing. All my speakers are old. Some are so old, I had to replace the woofers about ten years ago because the foam that supported the cones had rotted away. Amazon was selling Polk speakers at half price. They're not the same quality as the best Paradigm speakers, but I am not an audiophile. The Polks are good enough. I ordered four floor speakers, two book-shelf speakers, and one center speaker. At $500 for the set, I spent the same as I would have for two decent Paradigms.
Rome Wasn't Built in a Day
The neighbor across the street wanted to see my new home theater system. I told him it's like Rome. It will take more than a day to build. So where am I now?
Yesterday morning the TV was installed, mounted on the wall. During the afternoon the cable guy arrived with the new cable box. I now have TV again. The speakers are on their way.
I am waiting for a rebate reward thing from Best Buy because I applied for one of their VISA cards. I'll get 10% back on the TV and other items I bought with it. The rebate will go toward a Denon receiver. Then I'll probably cut the credit card in half. The interest is 25½%, which is outrageous, even though I always pay off the full balance each month on my cards. That interest rate is too greedy. That leaves one other item, the CD/DVD/Blu-ray player. I found one that plays MKVs, which is a format I use a lot. It's smaller than a Blu-ray file, but still 720p or 1080p. It's an excellent format. I'll probably order the player this week.
So that's it. Within another week or two I'll have a new home theater system, complete with all new components. I'm happy I waited 20 years. And at 65 years of age, this might be the last home theater system I'll every buy.
And one more point worth mentioning. Saturday is typically the day on which I update my web site and then upload the updates on Sunday. But with a brand new TV in the living room, it was not easy to tear myself away.
Wednesday's Vlog
I'm think my vlog on Wednesday will be about the soup someone gave me. My last vlog was less entertaining than I had hoped. Informative, but not entertaining. The soup vlog will be a little different.
Wednesday 2016.11.23
Happy Thanksgiving
Enjoy your Thanksgiving holiday tomorrow. Hopefully not too many of you endured long lines at the airport or long drives along crowded freeways. Relax and enjoy the company of your family and friends.
This might be the first time I won't be invited anywhere to dinner this holiday. The friend who usually invites me is keeping a respectable distance because of what his mother did to me. He did nothing wrong, but his mother hurt my feelings by snubbing me. I talked a little about it in Sunday's blog. Suffice to say that friendship has ended.
I had plans to cook something Chinese tomorrow — my Chicken and Cashews and my Egg Rolls. But that all changed when I decided it was time to get a new TV (see below). My dining room table is stacked with all my home theater components, all old, all on their way out when I can find an electronics recycling place. That will be after the holiday.
Rain
We enjoyed a little rain this week. It was enough for one storm. Too much rain causes flooding and landslides; too little only causes frustration. Where I live, we saw a little less than half an inch. We are currently at 55% of normal rainfall for the season. Nearly all areas are doing better and five of them are at better than 100%. Overall, the county is at 90%.
The reservoir continues to be nearly empty, steady at 7.5% capacity. Even the Washington Post noticed. They published an article earlier this month, reporting the critical condition of the reservoir, not at a record low. All we can do is hope for a normal rain season. Another storm is expected this weekend.
My Kitchen Vlog
Today's Kitchen Vlog is about my experiences trying to create three YouTube videos of potato side dish recipes for the holidays. There were some challenges and a few surprises, and I get to show off the new stool I bought specifically for vlogging. It's a fun video.
I received some positive feedback on the potatoes. One woman wrote to wish me a happy Thanksgiving and to say she is making one of the dishes for her husband of 32 years. He doesn't like potatoes, but she thinks he'll like one of these side dishes. I wish her a merry Thanksgiving too.
Am I Cooking?
No, not yet, but almost. Two of my fingers on my right hand were taped with blue masking tape, holding the bandages in place (they didn't stick very well). I did some work on my landscaping, trimming the Dymondia. It grows over the sandstone and has to be trimmed once or twice a year (far better than mowing the lawn every week). I should have worn work gloves. I didn't, and therefore I caused blisters on the tips of two fingers.
Yesterday I removed the bandages. The fingers don't look bad, except up close. The remnants of the blisters won't show up in a video; so I think I'm ready to start cooking again. They're healed well enough. So…
Planned: A recipe for homemade Kahlúa liqueur. I have some recipes. The flavor is good, but the one characteristic missing is that slight syrupy texture of the original. I've been experimenting with light corn syrup and I think I have a formula. I received a request for homemade potato chips. Those are very easy and fun to do. And I want to do a video for a Moroccan recipe in the archive, Lamb Briouats, along with homemade Harissa (Tunisian) seasoning. The harissa recipe is on YouTube, but I somehow neglected to upload the Briouats video. I did those five years ago; so it's time to give them an upgrade. And still on my list, and probably highest priority, is a remake of my video for Mom's Italian Christmas Cookies.
And here's a tip for those of you who might own a sandwich shop. Mix a little harissa with mayonnaise. It makes an excellent spread for a sandwich like pastrami and Swiss on rye.
The truth is, I really need to get another video done, and soon. Sunday's Feature Recipe, Bourbon Chicken, is the only video remaining. The vault is almost empty.
TV Time
I knew the day would come, eventually. Where I live, Cox Cable finally went all digital, and nearly all channels are now encrypted. My old TV, even with the old Cox Cable box, no longer gets the channels it used to. It gets about six channels in the 2 to 13 range, and that's all.
I'm not without a TV. On my desk in the office is a small TV. It has the "mini box" that Cox sent to its subscribers, free for the first year. It gets all the channels I want.
The other TV I've had for more than 20 years. It is an old Mitsubishi 35 inch CRT picture tube TV. At the rate at which electronics progress these days, that TV is older than the dinosaurs. I got my money's worth out of it. I've seen flat screens come and go in the stores. At one time I was close to buying a 60-inch plasma, but decided against it. Then it was HD, LED and OLED. A former friend tried more than once to talk me into buying something "top of the line" — so that he could come over and watch it. I waited. Now it's ultra-HD 4K. I'm glad I waited.
Best Buy is having their annual Black Friday sales event. A 65-inch 4K TV is on sale. That's the one I'll buy. There are others with, maybe, better features. Do I need a curved screen? No. Do I need OLED at twice the price? No. There are a lot of features I can do without because I rarely watch TV anyway. But I must have something. That old dinosaur has to go. It's a waste of space. So today is the day I will order it.
Of course, the home theater system is antiquated too. Nothing is HDMI. Everything uses the old-style RCA cables. The pieces still work, but they probably won't connect to the new TV. I'll need a new DVD/Blu-ray player, new receiver, and probably new speakers too. I'll start with the receiver. I want a Denon. I like those and Best Buy has a good model. It may not be up there with a Bang and Olufsen component, bit it won't be a K-Mart Blue Light Special either.
Little by little, like I did when I replaced all my lawn with sandstone and Dymondia, I'll build a new system until everything is up to modern standards. It's not like building computers. Everything has to be in the box and connected before the thing will work. With a home theater system, I can add pieces one or two at a time.
Sunday 2016.11.20
Top Gear
I have long been a fan of the BBC TV series Top Gear. I have all 22 seasons, every show, in one format or another, on disc. I have watched every show, more than once, even though I am not a car enthusiast.
If you're not familiar with the program, it's a car show. They talk about cars. They test drive cars. They explain the good, the bad, and the ugly about cars. They do comical stunts with cars, such as equipping one with skis and sending it down a ski jump. And they occasionally drop a piano on a Morris Minor automobile.
The three hosts were Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May. Not only was the show funny, but the three guys genuinely liked each other. Their relationship was the epitome of a "bromance." The chemistry between them was one of the reasons for the show's phenomenal success.
However, toward the end of the 22nd season Clarkson, who was known for occasional fits of anger, lost his temper and slapped one of the staff. That was too much for the producers, who had warned him of his conduct before. His contract was not renewed.
He left for Amazon — the dotcom, not the river in South America. Hammond and May chose not to renew their contracts with the BBC and they faithfully stuck with Clarkson, their friend. The three of them created a new car show for Amazon Prime, The Grand Tour.
The first show was aired on Friday. I don't subscribe to Amazon Prime, but I know where to look. I was able to download the show during the day and watch it, twice. It is wonderful. As much as I enjoyed Top Gear, The Grand Tour is even better.
Amazon evidently gave them a lot of freedom and a lot of budget. They recognized a winning formula. Clarkson's Top Gear shows earned the BBC many millions of dollars. It was their top grossing program. They tried to restore the magic with new hosts, but the chemistry wasn't there. The new host, Chris Evans (more silly than funny), quit the show at the end of the season. He could see the failure. And the future of the show remains uncertain.
The Grand Tour also gave me the pick-me-up I needed. A friend, now a former friend, came into town to visit her son and mother-in-law. Once again, for the third time, she snubbed me. However, every time she called and asked me to do something for her son — jump-start his car or pick him up and drive him home when he was stranded — I dropped what I was doing and went to his aid.
I saw her in Costco on Wednesday. I live within walking distance. She could have called, said she was going shopping, and offered to stop by my home for a cup of coffee and conversation. Nothing. She pretended not to see me in the store. She walked right past me. I stopped in front of her. I waved to her. But she refused to notice me. That was the final straw. I'll never let her hurt me like that again.
So, The Grand Tour was a fantastic respite. I love the show. They are only doing 12 episodes this season. I'll watch every one. I'll watch them many times. And there are two more seasons planned.
All the News That's Fit to Talk About
You might remember I once belonged to a World News Discussion Group. We met every other Saturday to discuss world events and what they might mean for the future of this country, or even the world. I quit before the group morphed into a Liberal Democrats Only group. The moderator — insecure about his height, weight, and lack of hair — needed support for his hopes Hillary Clinton would win the election. Then, when his ego became a problem, more people quit. The group was disbanded.
The exiles are now trying to start their own group without him. It's off to a rocky start. Where people are involved, personal agendas sometimes conflict. That is human nature. It's all part of life. I have no problem with it, but that is simply my agenda. Go with the flow, don't fight the current. We shall see. If we can build it into a lively discussion group, kudos. If, however, it fizzles, failure is always an option and I'm okay with that too. I'll do my part, but I'll also keep my expectations reasonable.
Wednesday's Vlog
If everything goes according to plan, I'll upload a vlog about my recent experiences creating three potato side dish videos for YouTube. I received another encouraging comment. She likes my relaxed voice. I'm not one of those in-your-face YouTube creators. She said she could listen to me talk all day. Thank you for that. Much appreciated.
And I love the Internet, again and again. Some people subscribed to the YouTube channel on which I originally posted by Kitchen Vlogs. I needed to tell them about the new channel. So I created a short video, explaining that I need 100 subscribers to qualify for Google's custom URL. It would make my channel easier to find. I said I already have two subscribers. "I'm almost there. I'm almost there." Within an hour a few did unsubscribe to the older channel and subscribe to the new one. They make having a YouTube channel more fun. Thanks, and thanks again.
Wednesday 2016.11.16
Does My Vote Matter?
No. Here's why (and I was up at 3:00 in the morning writing this because it was on my mind):
I don't vote. I haven't voted in many years. Decades. One reason is because I live in California. California is not a battleground state. Individual votes only matter in battleground states — Florida, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, etc.
So why not here in California? When a state votes overwhelmingly either red or blue, many of the votes don't really matter. 2½ million Clinton voters here in California could have stayed home last week and the state result would have been the same. Clinton would have won California's 55 Electoral College votes. 2½ million votes didn't matter. Some people might bristle at the idea, but it's true. It's because that is the way the archaic Electoral College system works.
I've said this before, many times, but maybe it's worth repeating yet again. The Electoral College system was set up by the founding fathers of this nation. They believed the selection of the President and Vice President was too important to be decided by the people. And that made perfect sense back in the 1700s.
What did the colonists know about the goings-on in Philadelphia? They didn't have instant access to the latest news. They were farming, trading, hunting, crafting, manufacturing. They might get one of Benjamin Franklin's Philadelphia Gazettes once in a while, but otherwise they had very little knowledge of their national government.
Today, even some of the remotest parts of the nation are connected — cable TV, Internet, smart phones, social media — and they are therefore informed. Hell, even their refrigerators and microwave ovens might be connected to the Internet and can therefore call home for firmware updates.
In 49 states the Electoral College system results in a winner-take-all vote. (Maine and Nebraska are the exceptions.) If a candidate wins slightly more than 50% of the popular vote in a state, s/he wins 100% of the electoral college votes. And that is why some candidates get elected even though they didn't win a majority of the nation's popular vote. Do you need an example?
For the sake of simplicity, lets use only three states. California is predominantly a Democratic state. Texas votes Republican. Florida, a swing state, is a battleground state.
Say all of California's 9.6 million voters Tuesday chose Clinton, and Texas and Florida voted for as they did. She would have 9.6 million votes and Trump would have less, almost 9.3 million votes. Trump would still win, with fewer people voting for him, because Florida and Texas combined (38 + 29) cast 67 Electoral College votes compared to California's 55.
That's a very simplistic example, but it does demonstrate the imbalance.
By the way, had the Florida voters who chose Gary Johnson voted instead for Clinton, she would have won the state. The same can be said for Pennsylvania. Had she won those two states, she would have won the election with 277 Electoral College votes. A third-party candidate can often ruin the election for the most popular candidate, and Clinton was the most popular candidate because more people voted for her than for Trump. People should also be marching in protest of Johnson. In fact, he might go down in history as the father of this nation's greatest decline.
That's why Dukakis, among others, are once again calling for the end of the Electoral College system. Hillary Clinton won more of the people's votes. The Electoral College system won't be discarded because it sometimes favors the lesser candidate, as it did when Al Gore won more popular votes than George W. Bush in 2000. For the candidate who might not win the people's vote, the Electoral College still offers some hope of winning the election.
So, getting back to my vote, and whether or not it matters: It only matters in battleground states where a few votes can tip the scales one way or the other. In most states where the population votes overwhelmingly for one party or the other, many of them could simply stay home and nothing would change.
Vlogging Revisited
Okay, it ain't dead yet. I received two good comments from people who enjoyed my vlog. They got me thinking. My Kitchen Vlog channel doesn't need to go viral on YouTube. It doesn't need to be as popular as those featuring practical jokes or scantily clad women. It needs to be an outlet for me to talk about things other than cooking. Rather than trying to find ways for the vlog to be popular, maybe I should think about being sincere and vlogging for my own satisfaction.
The purpose behind this web site was to give me a pastime in retirement. It benefits other too, but it gives something to do, something I enjoy, giving me pleasure in my leisure time. That was the most important motivation for having a web site. So, vlogging might do that too.
It helps to see things from another person's perspective. The comments gave me that. They validated some of what I felt. And for that I am thankful.
Maybe I got too caught up in those YouTube videos that promised millions of subscribers and tens of millions of views. They made it seem like it would be so easy to be a super success on YouTube. But that was the point of that cartoon I included in Sunday's blog — The Coexistence of Art and Commerce. "Pay me a thousand dollars and I'll teach you how to be a millionaire." Trump tried that with Trump University.
So I restored my Kitchen Vlog channel. I added a channel trailer to tell others what to expect and not expect. And I uploaded a new vlog this morning.
I hope you enjoy it. If so, please subscribe.
Sunday's Feature Recipe
On Sunday I will feature an old recipe again, one the might not be received well by my adoring fans — Chicken Liver Pâté.
I've been making chicken liver pâté for many years. It is one of the foods I am known for. I still get requests, though less often, to make it and bring it to a pot luck. It is one of the easiest foods I make, almost a guilty pleasure. Combine Italian sausage meat and chicken livers in a skillet. Cook. Cool. Grind and a food processer. Chicken liver pâté.
I also make my own croûtes, which are nothing more than slices of bread dried in the oven, maybe garnished with a little butter and garlic powder. You can buy croûtes. It's a lot easier, though a lot more expensive.
Although no one is indifferent to chicken liver pâté, and the video will get plenty of dislikes on YouTube (and maybe a vulgar comment or two), I chose to do a new video anyway because the old one doesn't have metric conversions. It might be something someone would want to make as an appetizer for guest to enjoy in the coming holidays. And I like pâté. I love pâté. Give me a plate like the one shown above and I can sit down and make a meal of it. Okay, it doesn't exactly fulfill all the requirements of the USDA's My Plate nutrition requirement, but neither does Kraft Macroni and Cheese (and I eat that too, occasionally).
Which reminds me … one of these days I need to do a video of a really good version of Macroni and Cheese — the gooey good kind topped with bread crumbs and browned in the oven. I'm making myself hungry.
Which brings up another matter … almost a crisis actually. I have only one more video project remaining for upload to YouTube. I was so busy shooting vlogs, I didn't work on cooking videos. I have a couple planned. I want to shoot a new version of Mom's Italian Christmas Cookies. That will be next. And then there is a video I never put on YouTube — Lamb Briouats. Or maybe I removed it. For whatever reason, it isn't there. I have the original video, shot back in 2011, but I didn't pronounce the name correctly. It's "bree • WAH". So, new video.
Sunday 2016.11.13
Trying to Make Sense of it All
In the aftermath of the disastrous election on Tuesday, I, like many others, looked to the media for explanations of what went wrong. Why did a nation select a lying misogynistic bigot to be its president?
The answer appears to be summed up in one word: Anger. I've said it many times. The people don't vote for, they vote against. The voting booth is the Complaints Window in the department store. They register their displeasure at the ballot box. "You didn't give me what I wanted; so you know what? I'm going to vote for your opponent. How do you like them apples?"
There is good reason for the people to be angry. I get angry too. We pay our taxes and we expect to get our money's worth. Instead, Congress sits in their oversized leather easy chairs, sipping expensive imported liquors and smoking expensive imported cigars. They look out of their large penthouse windows at the minions below and believe their wealth and power will keep them safe. Congress shows up, does nothing, then leaves for vacation, collecting a fat paycheck on their way out the door.
What surprised me was that the voters didn't reject the senators and representatives who were up for re-election. They rejected the establishment candidate and voted for the outsider who voiced their rage for them. Hillary Clinton represented what they hate about Washington politicians — wealth, irresponsibility, disrespect for the law, an almost universal disconnect from the American people, apathy, and the status quo. Trump, at least, knew what the people were feeling — anger.
If there is anything positive to say about Democracy, it is that Hillary Clinton won the majority of the popular vote. Unfortunately, the archaic Electoral College, not Americans, selects the President and Vice President.
What's Next
Sadly, the people chose the path of self-destruction. Anger tends to cloud our judgment. The Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, seems destined to be repealed, without a good alternative. 20 million Americans could lose their health insurance. The Republicans won't come up with a workable alternative because that would be expensive and they want to cut costly entitlements. Social Security benefits could be cut. Medicare too. Women can forget about equal pay. Roe v. Wade might be overturned, making abortions illegal again (leading to the return of the cheap and unsafe back alley abortion shops of the past). I've already read that Planned Parenthood appears to be doomed.
Republican party leaders, fearing the rise of an ethnic population, have tried for years to change voter registration laws, making it more difficult for African American and Latino voters to vote. The next effort I expect to see will be against Muslims. To get a legal photo I.D. to use when registering to vote, the conservatives might require Muslim women to be photographed without their head covering.
If the U.S. Supreme Court is stacked with ultra-conservative justices, those anti-voter efforts could be ignored, making it more easy for Republican candidates to be voted into office in their state. Voting could become the right of a privileged and conservative white minority.
The pendulum swings in both directions. Maybe, after four years of the Red majority abusing its power, the people will be more angry and, maybe just maybe, they'll think before they vote. It isn't enough to vote against someone they hate. They need to think about the candidate they are voting into power.
To Vlog or Not To Vlog, Is That the Question?
Like I do before I shoot a cooking video, I did a lot of research. I wanted to know how to make the best of YouTube when it comes to this new idea of vlogging. I learned a lot, but not much of value, at least for me.
One statistic, "Watch Time," is very important on Google. How long can an audience be kept engaged? I looked at the analytics on my most popular Kitchen Vlog and the average watch time was 2 minutes 41 seconds. The video is 15 minutes long. Viewers weren't staying engaged.
I learned something else important too. A lot of the creators on YouTube who make videos to demonstrate channel features use their own channel in their examples. They don't always do a good job blurring out the part of the page that shows which channels they subscribed to. If you pause and look closely, you see channels of scantily clad women. What keeps them engaged? Titties. My vlogs don't have titties.
I'm sure they earn a lot more money teaching people how to make money on YouTube than I earn teaching people how to cook. The whole learning process reminds me of a cartoon I saw many years ago. The point was: You can earn more money teaching people how to make money than you can by actually trying to make money.
Who is going to watch an old man free-associating in front of his video camera? Most YouTubers are young people, kids. They want laugh-out-loud humor and titties. I know such a young guy — my friend's son. He spends a lot of time on YouTube on his smart phone. He tries to get me to watch with him. He likes funny videos.
So, there seems little point in spending time shooting and editing vlog videos. There is no audience. And this was one of the points mentioned by a YouTube teacher. "Know your audience." They want humor and they want titties. I took down my Kitchen Vlog channel.
I feel good about it. There is value in learning I shouldn't waste any effort on something that won't succeed. I saved myself a lot of time, and possibly some frustration. That's the silver lining.
Secession
There's talk. California and Oregon are upset with the election. Will there be a CalExit? Here is what I would like to see:
California, Oregon, and Washington unite and secede from the USA to form their own nation. Let's call it Pacifica. Why all three states? Because that is the entire west coast — all the ports. What do you know about Megiddo (Armageddon in the Greek language)? Not the war between God's forces and Satan's, the plain and mount of Megiddo in northern Israel.
Megiddo was strategic because the most important trade route between southern Europe and the fertile crescent — today's Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt — passed over the plain. The area was easily controlled by any army encamped in the city atop Mount Megiddo. Whoever controlled that plain controlled the prosperity of the nations that relied on that trade route.
Imagine the security Pacifica would have if it controlled all the ports on the West Coast. All trade with Asia — China, Japan, Taiwan, etc. — passes through those ports. The alternative would be the long way around, through the Panama Canal and up the East Coast. Mess with us, we close our ports.
Control of the ports would assure that the remainder of the USA would leave us alone. We don't need them. We have more than enough produce to feed the people of Pacifica. Southern California has oil and refineries, supplying the energy needs of the new nation. The taxes from the population and industries would be more than Pacifica needs — more tax money leaves California for the federal government than California receives in federal projects and services. We have several military bases. At Vandenberg we could have our own space program.
The one critical issue would be water. The Pacific Northwest receives abundant rains every winter, more than they need. Would it be possible to build dams and a pipeline with enough capacity to supply extra water to Southern California when needed during droughts? It might be more cost efficient than building desalination plants, which are not only expensive to build but expensive to run, not to mention how they contribute to the carbon footprint and climate change. The dams could be equipped with hydroelectric power generators, supplying the electricity needed to run the pumps connected to the pipeline, with no pollution.
Yes, if I were king, I would think very seriously about a CalExit with Oregon and Washington.
And What I Would Like to See by 2020
A voter revolt. I would like to see a grass roots movement begin now and slowly build and take hold, such that by 2020 99.9% of the American population stays home, refuses to vote. Rather than wearing "I Voted" stickers, they wear "I Refuse to Vote" stickers. Voting no longer sends the right message to Washington. We need to think of something different.
Wednesday 2016.11.9
Sunday's Feature Recipe
On Sunday I will feature Scalloped Potatoes. This one was kind of odd because I couldn't find a recipe for it in most of my cookbooks. Even my Culinary School of America textbook, The Professional Chef, doesn't list a recipe in the index. That struck me as odd because Scalloped Potatoes are ubiquitous. I had to do more research.
It turned out that there is no one classic "recipe" for Scalloped Potatoes because 1) the name merely means arranging potato slices in a scallop pattern in a baking dish and 2) everyone has their own recipe — no two people agree on how the dish should me made. I did find some recipes on the Internet, but the ingredients varied wildly. The only common ingredient was potatoes.
This week's feature has been Potatoes Dauphinois, a fairly classic standard recipe. I mostly followed a recipe from Julia Child that was in one of her old black and white French Chef shows that she did live on WGBH TV, Boston. I made a few changes. I added eggs for a better custard texture and I baked mine for nearly an hour. She said 20 minutes, which I know isn't long enough — the potatoes in the center would be undercooked. (Actually, I cook by temperature. When the potatoes reach above 190°F (88°C) in the center, they're done.)
No recipe means freedom to me. Without a cast-in-concrete traditional formula, I can do pretty much whatever I want. As I said in the first recipe — Potatoes au Gratin — I was expecting cheese. It had none. The Dauphinois recipe has the option of garnishing the top with Gruyère cheese before placing the dish in the oven. This time, I wanted cheese!
So for the Scalloped Potatoes, I created my own recipe. I started with a roux of butter and flour, to which I added some milk to make a white sauce. Then I added about 2/3 of the cheddar cheese I shredded, making a cheese sauce. I layered the potatoes with the sauce in the baking dish, and then garnished the top with the remaining cheddar cheese. Delicious!
Now the Elephant in the Room
Yesterday's election. There was so much confidence in the USA — until the returns started coming in. State by state, the hope of the Democratic party dwindled. The consequences were felt before the final numbers were reported. Dow Jones futures plummeted nearly 800 points. Nasdaq and S&P futures trading were halted because they fell enough to trigger an automatic brake designed to prevent an uncontrolled crash.The stock market hates uncertainty, and with Donald Trump as president, the future of the country is anything but confident.
This morning I checked the market and it recovered from yesterday evening's scare. I look forward to this evening's market report.
The election result doesn't surprise me. The American people are so fed up with a government that refuses to work, they voted against Hillary Clinton because she is too much a Washington insider. We pay our taxes. People expect to get their money's worth. If you buy a TV and it doesn't work, you return it and get your money back. We don't get a guarantee with our government. People have had enough. They want to see something done for their tax dollars, not constant obstructionism.
Is that the answer? Or were Democrats too confident? I remember reading a news article after England voted to leave the European Union — the "Brexit." The report said there were many Britains who did not want to leave the EU, but they didn't vote because they felt confident a Brexit would never happen. Had they voted, the outcome might have been different. I wonder if the same is true here in the USA. Everyday the news reported the latest atrocities committed by Trump. Maybe Americans believed he would never win; so why vote?
It was amusing to watch the coverage on MSNBC. They started the evening all jubilant and excited to be covering the election. And then, as the results came in, the mood became sombre.
Sunday 2016.11.6
Welcome to Standard Time
If you live in one of the states that were on Daylight Saving Time, that was soooooooo yesterday.
Who Will Win On Tuesday?
I don't know, but I'm fairly confident it will be Clinton. I've been watching the prediction numbers, mostly on the FiveThirtyEight web site because those are the most modest (Nate Silver skews the numbers to reflect what he believes to be real-world trends). Other sites give Clinton 95%, or even 99% odds of winning. On FiveThirtyEight her odds were steady at around 85% during the debates, but the gap has been narrowing. Current probability ranges in the mid to high 60s. If such predictions are reliable, and hold true on Tuesday, anything above 50% is a win.
I've been crunching numbers. Florida, North Carolina, and Nevada have been the three states teetering back and forth between blue and red. Clinton could lose all three states, plus one district in Maine, and still get 272 Electoral College votes (if my numbers are accurate), giving her more than the 270 needed to win. The other states are all so solidly blue, there is virtually no chance of losing those votes. This year Hawaii's four votes might be needed to carry Clinton over the victory line.
Once again, Florida is the state everyone is watching. If Clinton wins Florida, we can all go to bed early Monday evening. If Trump wins the state, or it remains too close to call into the wee hours of the morning, it will be a long night for some.
Of course, anything can happen. Ohio or Iowa, currently among the reds, might surprise us and vote blue. Trump has 23 solid red states, but they don't hold the lion's share of votes. Trump would need to hold all the states currently red, plus take one or more solid blue states away from Clinton — something that is highly unlikely to happen. However, New Hampshire hasn't been solid blue. There has been a bit of a robin's egg blue hue on the map for the past few days. If the unthinkable happens and New Hampshire votes Republican, the unthinkable would happen. Air fare rates would skyrocket — based on supply and demand — as American's move to other countries. But with only a few days to go, I don't think that would happen.
The thing about polls is that they are best guesses. Sites like FiveThirtyEight come up with an aggregate of all polls available to them. Each polls is "weighted" in value, depending on how new or old it might be, or how accurate it was in the past. All the data is assembled and crunched as many ways as possible to come up with an estimate of how voters might cast their ballot on November 8th. And few of the polls seem to agree.
Then there are the holdouts. Most people don't understand the voting system here in the USA. When voters go to the polls, they only register an opinion. They don't elect the president. Only the 538 members of the Electoral College elect the president. Most electors are pledged to honor the will of the people, but that doesn't guarantee they will. The Huffington Post (which gives Clinton a 97.9% chance of winning) reported yesterday that one elector in Washington state, Robert Satiacum, vowed not to vote for Hillary Clinton even if the majority of his state's electorate chooses her. He faces a possible $1,000 state fine for defying the law. (Unlike caucus and primary delegates, all College electors are bound.)
Defiant holdouts are rare. The last "faithless elector" was in 2004. They don't change the outcome. But in such an odd and non-conventional campaign season such as this one, it would not be out of the question for an elector revolution to build between now and Tuesday. And that leads to Wednesday's vlog…
More About Vlogging
I had my next Kitchen Vlog ready to upload. I feel safe repeating some of the subjects I write about here, as so few people read my blogs. But then, I got to thinking I should vlog early Wednesday morning, discussing my experience watching the election results the previous evening. It might be interesting, maybe amusing, certainly a relief that it is finally over. If I proceed with the plan, I'll set up my home for doing a video (mostly covering the windows with blackout fabric so that I am using only studio lighting — it has a constant color value) on Tuesday afternoon, before the poll closings are reported and winners are projected. Then, Wednesday morning, I'll video the vlog while I'm drinking my morning coffee. Otherwise, I have one ready for upload (my experience with the dermatologist).
Wednesday 2016.11.2
Fighting Dust
Today I am uploading my second vlog, in which I demonstrate how I keep dust out of my computers. I actually did the video a few months ago. One of my friends recommended it because he liked my idea of using Swiffer dusting cloths to filter the air going into my computers. However, I didn't know where to upload the video. I've had three YouTube channels, but I hadn't thought of vlogging yet.
The Thanksgiving holiday weekend has been the traditional time for computer maintenance. When I had a job, the four-day weekend was perfect for loading my computers with a fresh version of the operating system, getting all the updates, and then installing only the software I was using (and not the programs I installed but eventually never used anymore). When I was using XP, those fresh loads made everything work more smoothly. This computer, however, has very few programs on it — mostly the applications I use to maintain my web site and create my videos. I'll give the computer a good cleaning inside, but I won't do a fresh load of the OS and apps. No need to.
I've been trying to promote my vlog (now removed). One attempt was to attach a "card" onto Sunday's YouTube recipe upload. It was a good test to see how well YouTube cards work. Out of the first 300 views of my Gratin video, not one led to a view of my vlog — not even the channel. The system must be rigged.
I'll lay the blame on the election. People are watching the news, not YouTube. I'm watching the news too, not YouTube. So, it is understandable. Maybe when a video gets tens of thousands of views a card might be beneficial, but right now there are more important issues. Speaking of which…
The Race — Pant, Pant, Wheeze, Wheeze
In six days, thankfully, the whole furshlugginer marathon will be over, except for the finger pointing (and Donald Trump's possible lawsuits). I'll probably have more to say on Sunday. For now, I look forward to getting past the politics after next week.
F.B.I. director James Comey's sudden October surprise of re-opening the investigation into Clinton's emails will have little impact on the outcome of the election. I wonder who got to him. Paul Ryan? Mitch McConnell? John McCain? There isn't any hard evidence of wrong-doing, only suspicion. The problem with suspicion is that it can work both ways. Trump can use it to cast doubt on Clinton's honesty, but the Democrats can use it to cause Trump's "rigged system" complaints to backfire — the Dems can claim the Republicans are using Comey to rig the election to save congressional seats.
What is most surprising is that anyone is complaining at all. When, in the past 200+ years, has politics ever been honest? Whether it's politics or commerce, even religion (I've seen it first hand) there is cheating wherever there is money to be made. Sounds a bit jaded, I know, but I watch and read enough news to maintain a realistic attitude.
As for the numbers, they don't lie. Florida, and maybe North Carolina and Nevada, might tip red between now and election day. Clinton can lose those three states and, according to my numbers, she would still have 272 Electoral College votes — enough to win. The remaining states are so blue, the probability of losing them is near zero. And that's why the network news programs focus on the popular vote, which is close. It makes much more sensational viewing if they can scare Democrats into fearing that Trump might be the next president. I've said it before: The people don't elect the president. Election day is the final official public opinion poll. The Electoral College elects the president. The founding fathers of this nation set it up that way because they thought the election of a president and vice-president are too important to leave to the people.
A bigger question is this: What happens if Trump wins the popular vote but Clinton wins the Electoral College vote? It happened before. in 2000 Al Gore won the people's vote, but Bush (by hook or by crook) won the Presidency. What would Trump do if he won the majority of the nation's voters but not win the White House? To quote Caitlin Jenner in last Wednesday's South Park, "Buckle up buckaroos."
Goblins and Witches and Ghosts, Oh My!
I made it through another Halloween. We don't get many children around here; so some of us just turn off all the lights and keep busy. One of my traditions on Halloween is to watch the movie Rocky Horror Picture Show. Sometimes I watch a River Phoenix film, such as Running on Empty or Dog Fight, because he died on October 31st. I didn't feel like anything heavy this year; so Rocky Horry was my choice.
That Darned Clock
People like the clock in my videos. It gets me in trouble though. A viewer wrote to ask if it really took nine hours to make something. I had to explain that I sometimes have to shoot pick-ups to cover an error or an omission. If I already took down all the blackout fabrics I use to cover my windows to block the outside light from getting in (the color changes throughout the day — yellow orange at sunrise and sunset, blue in the middle of the day), then I wait until it is dark outside before I shoot the pick-ups. I told her to watch the calendar too. Sometimes it changes months in a video.