Making the Triple Digits

Using skills I aquired in elementary school, I have determined this is my 100th post on Somewhere West of The 405.

To celebrate this I made a picture. I used Wordle.net to create a word cloud. This is the result for all my posts here previous to this.

As I have mentioned before, this is not my only blogging experience. I made approximately 144 posts for the Patriot. Those focused on news and politics, while my current endeavor centers on my personal life.

Thank you for reading!

Long Islands and Small Celebrations

I was at BevMo last week. The trip was to restock on many good things that were dwindling if not completely gone from my residence. I also checked if there were any good wines left at the end of the 5 cent wine sale.

Aside from the alcohol, one item I purchased was a double jigger. This is used to measure ingredients for cocktails. Normally I use a shot glass labeled with half ounce increments for measurements, but I wanted to upgrade to a classic jigger and avoid using a breakable shot glass.

The packaging for the item was labeled as measuring 3/4 oz on one side and 1 3/4 oz on the other. This was surprising to me as I would expect one side to be twice the size of the other from the name jigger and double jigger. I did a test when I got home and discovered the item actually measures 3/4 oz and 1 1/2 oz. The packaging lied to me.

On the topic of using 3/4 oz as a measurement, I have a recipe.


Long Island Iced Tea

0.75 oz Vodka
0.75 oz Gin
0.75 oz Rum
0.75 oz Tequila
0.75 oz Triple sec
Cola

Mix equal parts of the five alcohols and then top with cola.

There are many different variations with different liquors or sour mix instead of cola, but this is the only version I have made at home. Whenever I go to Las Vegas I like to order a Long Island at every different casino they offer me drinks at. While I did not write down what place used which mixer, I enjoyed all of them. I think the Bellagio and Wynn used sour mix, while the Las Vegas Hilton used cola. You should know a Long Island Iced Tea is one of the stronger drinks you can order.

One of the many liquors I bought was Pimm's No. 1. This is great for a summertime drink popular in the UK.


Pimm's Cup

1.5 oz Pimm's No. 1
Ginger ale

Mix the two ingredients and enjoy. The ginger ale can be replaced with lemonade or champagne (becoming a Pimm's Royal Cup). A little history of Pimm's Cup is available from the Unnamed Geniuses. Pimm's No. 1 has a base of gin and is infused with spices and stuff. There are also a few variations listed at the Webtender.

Drifting from drinks to a dessert, my neighbor sent me the following recipe from an email. I tried and enjoyed it.


5 Minute Chocolate Mug Cake

4 Tbsp flour
4 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp cocoa
1 egg
3 Tbsp milk
3 Tbsp oil
3 Tbsp chocolate chips
Small splash of vanilla extract

Add the flour, sugar, and cocoa to a large microwave safe mug and mix well. Add the egg and mix thoroughly. Pour in the milk and oil and mix well. Add the chocolate chips and vanilla extract and mix some more. Put the mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts. The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don't be alarmed! Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired.

This is perfect for any occasion you want to celebrate at the last minute. If you can't think of one immediately, my next post will give you a reason to celebrate.

Games, Rides, Los Angeles, and Physics

The past couple of weeks have been interesting. I will cover my adventures from this past weekend in Virgina in a later post. Until then, this is what I did for the previous couple of weeks.

Games
I went to the house of my former AP Government teacher Mr. Mulholland. There I played games. Specifically, I played two games each of Dragonmaster and Settlers of Catan. Normally I play Diplomacy, but that always takes several hours lasting into the morning and we do not actually finish a game. Now I will spend a few words talking about how these games work.

Dragonmaster is a card game that reminded me of Hearts. If you are not familiar with Hearts, in Windows go to the Games menu and play some of it. There are four players and there is a deck of cards that contains a King, Queen, Prince(ss), Wizard, Duke, Count, Baron, and Fool for each of the four suits: Warriors, Dragonmasters, and two others I do not remember.

Every player is the Dragonmaster for one cycle. In each cycle there are five hands. The Dragonmaster gets to decide what game is played for each hand. The games have different objectives like do not take any tricks with Wizards, do not take the Prince of Warriors, or do not take the first or last trick. Any player who takes the aforementioned cards for a game has to pay the Dragonmaster a certain number of crystals as a penalty. After every player has been the Dragonmaster for a cycle, the player with the most crystals wins. I came in second place (123,000 vs. 146,000) for the first game and was declared winner of the second game (the game was not complete, but I had a large lead). None of us had played the game before, except Mr. Mulholland who often stepped in to help his child (she was in elementary school while the three of us were college graduates).

In Settlers of Catan players build settlements and roads to extract resources from the board to build more and bigger settlements and roads. I will invoke the Unnamed Geniuses for a more complete description. I have played the game a few times before and so had the other people. The odd part of the gameplay for me was following the standard rules. When I play with the Vietnamese Crew they play with rules that allow anyone to build and use ports between turns. That night I felt very accomplished, as I won one of the two Settlers games. Usually I am far removed from first place.

Disneyland
On Saturday I went to Disneyland. Ann Marie (who I know from BCR and the Patriot) made a road trip and drove from Modesto to Anaheim. I saw her and a few other people I knew (or did not know) to varying degrees.

That day (July 17th) happened to be the 55th anniversary of Disneyland. The original rides we went on included the Jungle Cruse and Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. The idea of going through Hell in Mr. Toad's enamored Fr. Charlie. Even though he never went on it, he mentioned it in one of his homilies (he did not remember the ride's name, so I had to shout it out to him).

With the exception of Star Tours, we hit all the major rides and even went on Space Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain Railway twice. Something in Indiana Jones broke down and we had to exit our jeep and walk the last dozen feet of the ride to the loading platform. The strangest thing happened on Space Mountain. We loaded into the car and then it went forward to where it stops before turning right and starting the ride. However, instead of going right we went left and then stopped. A person came over and told us we had to exit the vehicle. He rolled up a two step platform and helped all of us get off and then walk back to the platform where we got in another car. Apparently we managed to break one of the cars.

We ate at the ESPN Zone and the Rainforest Cafe in Downtown Disney. Below is Spencer and me on the Buzz Lightyear ride. Instead of selling you this picture, they let everyone email it to themselves for free.


In the ride people are in a spaceship that makes its way through a shooting gallery. Everyone has a laser gun to hit the targets and gets a score at the end. I am proud of my score because I usually do not break 100,000. On a related note, I would recommend Toy Story 3 if you have not seen it. The Evil Dr. Pork Chop makes an appearance.

Boys, Girls, and the Salesians
Monday I drove to East Los Angeles to see Sean. I know Sean from Newman and taking some Physics classes with him. He is in the process of becoming a Salesian, which is a religious order started by St. John Bosco. His current ministry is planning and leading a summer camp for kids at a Boys and Girls Club. The current theme is superheros so I got to met Batman. I also joined the community for a picnic in the park and then played Poker with a few of them.

As a summary, Sean and me took 111 (Physics Lab) together where we had the wonderful Eric as a GSI for the BSC section (the same semester the three of us were planning the retreat at church) and then were lab partners for the Advanced section of the lab. We were in the same 105 (Classical Mechanics) class and both of us skipped most of those lectures.

One thing we talked about was Physics thought experiments. One problem Sean was explaining to one person went like this:

A pole that is longer than a barn is accelerated to very close to the speed of light. Since the pole is going very fast, it undergoes length contraction and can fit into the barn. However, from the frame of reference of the pole the barn is moving and contracting so the pole cannot fit into the contracted barn. What actually happens?

The Unnamed Geniuses can help us again with the problem using a ladder and garage instead. I have not thought about this problem enough to understand it, but if you want to know about twins I can help.

When I was at Disneyland a fellow Physics graduate told me Physics majors have no social life. I like to think I did have a social life in college, which would explain why I was not a very good Physics major.

What we Leave Behind

Freshman year of college I went back to visit my high school. I wanted to run into a few friends and see how things had changed. The changes were minor, nearly everything was expected. I looked into the clubs, organizations, and even what some of my friends were doing. The E.A.R.T.H. club I used to be co-president of was having events. The JSA chapter I served as vice president of was humming along. The Academical Decathlon team was well, but they had the advantage of topics many times more interesting than I had the previous year. Plays were still being put on.

Everything was going well and I felt empty; I felt insignificant. All of my work and contributions to the groups seemed to have no impact because they all managed to get along without me. It was as if the world had moved on and forgotten me.

Fast forward four years and I had recently graduated from college. I looked into what the groups I was involved with in college were doing. Things at Newman were going well, except for the stay at home retreat and a couple of other cost cutting measures. However, things at the Patriot were not so good. (I explained my work for the Patriot earlier.) The quality of the magazine had gone down, there was only one person who made changes to the website (me), and things were less than ideal.

A few months later the blog I had made over 100 posts for stopped working. When a new version of Wordpress was installed, no one could login to make any new posts. Multiple things were wrong and nothing beyond the front page could be accessed. The blog I had worked so hard on died. The 133 posts I wrote could not even be viewed. If you want to see sadness incarnate, scroll down and click on the next page link after the last post. Also in the sad website development column, the main website of the magazine does not even have links to the archives of old issues. That means the 20+ articles, 3 front covers, dozens of pictures, artwork, and issue I finished laying out are no where to be found.

I felt something worse than the emptiness and insignificance of four years before. I felt failure. I had failed to create a strong group and find capable people to lead it. There was no trace of anything I had done for the blog or the print edition of the magazine.

A new Light at the End
I bring all of this up now because there has been a promising development. When I was the Online Editor I used a Blogspot blog to make posts anytime the main website was giving problems. Considering our domain problems, hosting problems, and my non-existent experience handling websites this separate blog was a good idea.

A few weeks ago the incoming Managing Editor Andy asked me if he could use that blog account. He has made some layout changes, composed a few posts, recruited some people to blog with him, and earlier today debuted the site. If you check it out make your way to the 2006 and 2007 archives and you will see a few posts I made complete with pictures and tales of a place called Berkeley. Looking at them today I answered one of my own mental questions from yesterday, "Why are there turkeys at Disneyland?" (Answer)

I cannot say things are back to the way they were when I was a student, but I can say they are getting better and I am getting better.

Enjoy a Belmont Breeze at the Stakes

This post is over a month late, but I want to complete my series talking about the Triple Crown and the races' drinks (here are the first and second parts). The Belmont Stakes is the longest of the three Triple Crown races at 1.5 miles (12 furlongs). This year was the 142nd running of the Belmont Stakes and occurred at Belmont Park in New York. The Run for the Carnations as it is called is older than either the Derby or the Preakness.

Official Recipe
This is the recipe as it was listed on the official website and the way it was made at 2010's Belmont Stakes.

1.5 oz Woodford Reserve bourbon
2 oz Lemonade
1 oz Pomegranate juice

Shake vigorously with ice and serve in a rocks glass with ice. Garnish with red cherry or lemon twist.

Original Recipe
The recipe above is not the original recipe for a Belmont Breeze. The drink was originally created for the race and debuted at the 1998 race. The recipe below is from Kingcocktail.com, the website of Dale DeGroff. I am inclined to give this recipe creditability, since Dale did invent the Belmont Breeze.

1 1/2 ounces Makers Mark Bourbon
1/2 ounce Dry Sack Sherry
1/2 oz fresh lemon juice
1/2 simple syrup
Splash fresh orange juice
Splash cranberry juice
5 mint leaves
1 mint sprig
1 orange zest

Assemble the first six ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice and shake well. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with orange peel and mint sprig.

Another Variation
Somehow people have contrived another recipe. This is copied from another site. When I made the drink last year at home this is how I made it.

1 1/2 oz. Seagrams 7
3/4 oz. Harveys Bristol Cream Sherry
1/2 oz. Fresh Lemon Juice
1 oz. Simple Syrup
1 1/2 oz. Fresh Orange juice
1 1/2 oz. Cranberry juice
1 oz. of soda
1 oz. of 7up
fresh strawberry
lemon wedge
(you may substitute 1 oz. of Sweet & Sour mix for the lemon juice and simple syrup although fresh ingredients are best)

Shake first 6 ingredients with ice and top with half 7up and half soda, approximately one ounce of each. Garnish with fresh strawberry, a mint sprig, and a lemon wedge.

I have not tried all of these variations. If you are interested in a Belmont Breeze I would suggest you go with whichever recipe you like best. As long as you understand the origin (original recipe, one used in 2010, etc.) it should be fine.

White Carnation

This was the official drink of the Belmont until it was displaced by the Belmont Breeze in 1998. The great thing is almost everyone agrees on this recipe.

2 oz Vodka
1/2 oz Peach Schnapps
1 splash Cream
2 oz Orange Juice
Club Soda

Stir and pour over ice. Garnish with orange slice.

Things to do Over Summer

It is summer and for many people this brings time. Now, what to do during that time.

Reading
On Tuesday of this week I joined the summer reading program at my local library. The program is very similar to last summer's so I will direct you to that post for details. The theme this year is Water Your Mind. I will file the same complaint I did with last year's program; they have taken the reading out of the summer reading program. Check the earlier post for details.

Also in the reading front, I am in a book club. This name to be determined entity includes people such as Amanda and Shauna. We had our first discussion on the book On Beauty by Zadie Smith yesterday via Gchat. Based upon the first third of the book, I would not recommend you read it.

Being in a book club, I am reminded of the Seinfeld episode ("The Couch") where George joins a book club. "I just joined a book club." George tells Jerry. He then adds "Soon I will be a lot smarter than you."

Television
If you like watching television shows I have a few suggestions. All of these are available (or at least a lot of the episodes are available) to watch for free anytime on hulu.com.

• Stargate SG-1 - If you like science fiction you should watch this. I explained my feelings on Stargate earlier and I stand by my high level of enjoyment of the show.


• Arrested Development - The first of three seasons is currently available online, though in the past they have made other seasons available as well. The show takes place in Orange County, which makes for some very funny things. I have heard people say it is necessary to see three or four episodes to understand the characters enough to enjoy the show. However, I liked it from the first episode.


• NewsRadio - I just started watching this on hulu. Like Arrested Development I laugh out loud watching this. Many episodes are available online. The character of Bill McNeal portrayed by Phil Hartman is my new comic hero.

If you have any recommendations on what to do during the summer make a comment. Road trips are always fun and I will direct you to a few I have done. It is also the season for county fairs and their fired goodies. I am looking forward to the chocolate covered bacon.

A Yee Tenement House Moment

This is one of those posts I conceived and mentally drafted a long time ago. It only made it to the computer yesterday.

Senior year of college I lived in a memorable place. It was a triplex house where each level held a different apartment unit. I lived on the first floor with my wonderful apartmentmates. The owner of the building was Mr. Yee. He was a landlord who did not like spending money unless he had to. This lead to some cheap repairs and neglect. Derek started calling our living place the Yee Tenement House. If you are not familiar with a tenement house, check out the Google image results.

Below are some examples of what we dealt with.

Smoke Detectors
To celebrate end of classes, Rohit and I obtained some cigars. We sat in the living room of our apartment as we enjoyed them. About half way through my cigar I glanced up at a corner of the room. Through the smoke I noticed there was a smoke detector in the room. I realized the combination of smoke, a smoke detector, and silence was cause for concern. Rohit checked it out and discovered there was no battery in the detector. During our initial walk through 11 months earlier, Mr. Yee had demonstrated the smoke detectors worked by pressing the test button. Unknown to us, after he did this he removed the batteries from both of the smoke detectors.

Fire Extinguishers
There was a fire extinguisher in the kitchen next to the sink. A week or two after we moved in, I took a close look at it. The gauge on the extinguisher very clearly pointed to REPLACE. Considering the state of the smoke detectors explained above, if there was a fire no one would know about it and hence no one would reach for a fire extinguisher.

Towel Bars
The towel bar in one of the bathrooms was broken by an earlier tenant. Instead of replacing the metal towel bar with a new one, Mr. Yee wrapped the broken part of the bar with aluminium foil. It could not support the weight of even a small towel.

Falling Ceilings
Once the ceiling above the bathtub started cracking and breaking. A few pieces dropped from the ceiling and the bar holding the shower curtain rod fell. Luckily Patrick was not hurt. However, after the near death experience of my Associate at his apartment Mr. Yee's bathroom seems safe.

Yee Tenement House Moments
Since I moved out, certain situations have reminded me of my stay at the Tenement House. For example, the last time I saw a smoke detector surrounded by smoke and no alarm from the detector I remembered my earlier experience. I call these times which generate flashbacks Yee Tenement House moments.

While the above list is a start, it is by no means comprehensive. Other things which can lead to Yee Tenement House Moments include non-flushing toilets, leaking roofs, missing floorboards, and broken big screen TVs. If you can easily enter an apartment through the closed and locked window next to the door that also counts. Peter easily got in once when he forgot his key.


We are smiling because all five of us survived the Yee Tenement House, even if Derek is not pictured above.