Starcraft 2

I’ve generally liked Blizzard Games.  They seem to take forever to get to the stores, but when they do … Woot!  The original Warcraft was the first game whose storyline I finished (Myst came out first but I think I bought it after Warcraft).  I don’t know how many hours I spent on Diablo and Diablo 2.  Starcraft and Starcraft Broodwar were the games to play for quite a while at our LAN parties.  Since moving to Australia, I haven’t played all that many boxed computer games, but I’ve been plugging away on the World of Warcraft, using it to help keep in touch with my friends back in Madison (I’m on the Shadowsong server).

I’m excited to see Starcraft 2 finally coming out.  I think it was 2007 when I saw a game video talking about some of the new options available for the Terrans and Protoss.  It looks like the most recent gameplay video on their website is over 2 years old.  With most companies I’d wonder what was going on, but with Blizzard I just anticipate the game will be 2 years more awesome!  I may need to start saving up for some hardware improvements – a new video card at least.  My Athlon-64 processor has held up pretty well over the years but it’s my lowest score in my “Windows Experience” rating.

Random Joke – Biker Bar

I called your house the other day and was told you were down at your favourite biker bar with some friends. I wasn't sure where that was, but was told I wouldn't have much trouble finding it. Sure enough, I drove just a couple blocks and there it was...

Sunday Blasphemy: Susej

I’m sensing a theme… god backwards is dog, Jesus backwards is sausage… Yes, it’s clear the canines have enslaved the humans to do their bidding.

My first night out

We’ve been in Sydney now for about 3.5 years.  I think I’ve been to 2 other bars.  One was a bar close to Hyde park that we stopped in shortly after going to the Mardi Gras parade the first year we were here.  The second was a spot called the Tilbury back in July 2007 for a gathering of Sydney area bloggers.  This was my first trip to a gay bar in Australia

I don’t know how it rates compared to other regional pubs but it was nice in many ways.  It wasn’t dark.  They had the standard throbbing dance music but it was almost not too loud.  To be honest I’m not sure if my difficulty understanding people had more to do with the noise or their level of inebriation.  It also wasn’t too crowded, so you didn’t have to nudge your way to the bar for a drink, and you could easily drift from one area to another to talk to different people.

I was playing designated driver, so I only sipped diet cola all night.  We thought about getting a ride in and taking a taxi back home, but I figured if I actually drank, I’d get tired a lot sooner and want to go home around 1:00 am.  Around 4:00 am the more lubricated people started to really annoy me. Around 6:00 am we finally started home.  By the time we dropped off our passenger, it was light out.  By the time we got home, it was time for the dogs to get breakfast and the lorikeets to get their honey-bread.

Happy Mother’s Day

Making Sausage (no, this isn’t about sex)

I’ve mentioned the difficulty in finding certain foods or products that we’re accustomed to here in Australia.  For some of the items, it’s about finding alternatives or the same basic thing with a different name (like using treacle instead of molasses).  For some things its a matter of hunting down a specialty shop that carries the item – like Liquid Smoke, or masa harina. (and yes, with Fireworks Foods I’ve found a source for all kinds of habaneros).

I made my first batch of sausage for Mardi Gras because I couldn’t find a local source of andouille sausage.  It was simple since I just mixed the ingredients and cooked the sausage loose.  This attempt was to make some bratwurst so I’d be stuffing the sausage into casing.

I took several shortcuts since I didn’t want to spend the whole day.  I bought the meat pre-ground (I’ve used my grinder to make my own hamburger on several occasions but this wasn’t going to be one of them).  I also got the spices pre-mixed from Country Brewing, where I also got the collagen casing.  Sorry, I know they clean natural casing thoroughly, but I’m still grossed out at the thought of making sausage with real animal intestines.  You can find recipes for just about any kind of sausage you like online.  The ingredients are usually simple.  I didn’t realize that so much liquid was added to brats.  3.5 lbs of the 5 lbs was meat.  The recipe called for 2 cups of water, so I added beer.

One thing I hadn’t thought of was tying off the ends of the sausage.  They recommend getting some butcher’s twine.  I suppose you could try knotting the starting end by tying a knot in the casing, and just twisting the spots between – but string will make it much easier.  Since I didn’t have any, I used dental floss on the ends and just twisted the between parts. The biggest problem was gas.  After mixing everything together, the meat mix is a little on the sloppy/sticky side, so as I’d push the meat into the grinder, it would form a vacuum on the pullout.  Pushing more meat in would create bubbles.  I’m assuming this is a common issue since I’ve noticed they have caulk-gun type devices for sale that look like they’d do the job a lot easier. 

I made about a dozen, then decided I’d make some patties for “brat burgers”.  The meat mixture wasn’t a consistency that would make easy patties, but I could form the basic shape and separate the patties with butcher paper – then off to the freezer.  I fried up the remainder to use with eggs in the next few days.  I’m not sure how quickly I’ll try to make links again…  I think I’ll need to get the gun before I go back to the casing, but I’m sure I’ll be looking up recipes for sausage patties.

If it’s free, it’s for me!

They were getting rid of the mini-fridge they had at work (they got a bigger one), so they asked if anyone wanted it before they arranged to have it taken away.  I figured what better place to keep my homemade beer and age my homemade cheese!  I knew John would put on a show about my bringing home more junk (i.e. anything he hasn’t picked out).  Sure enough, when he saw it he ask what that junk was doing in the back of the SUV.

Not to be outdone – he decided to go pick up a new Blu-ray player with a new copy of Avatar.  I had about the same reaction – why the hell did you think we needed a blu-ray?  .. and you better not give me any crap when I order a $30 item from dealsdirect or crazysales.  I have to admit it’s a nice unit for the price he paid.  It’s regionless so it will still play our old DVDs from the States and it has wireless internet access so it can receive updates from the internet and display shared media from our computers.  We have one odd issue where the sound isn’t passing thru one of the HDMI connections to the stereo, but I eventually got that sorted out.

I like it – now you can feel free to send me Blu-ray movies.  I’ve added a couple to my wish list, but I can’t say there are a lot of movies that I have a strong urge to get right now.

More spaghetti please!

I picked up a tweet linking to a really beautiful stained-glass image.  It’s the perfect proportion for my new monitor.  May you be blessed by the noodly appendage of the FSM.