| Bread Mania!

Yeah, it's super easy and really very delicious. I can't wait to try out throwing some rosemary and garlic in there and see what happens, lol. For the record, I don't own a pizza stone anymore and on the second attempt I didn't even pre-heat the pan I used to bake it on, haha.

Here's how it came out when I did the two loaves and then the single loaf. Keep in mind on the second, single-loaf attempt I bent the rules as far as I think they could probably go and still produce edible material, lol. Second attempt, didn't even use an electric mixer, only mixed twice by hand, did not punch it down after resting, did not score prior to going in the oven, the OVEN messed up and didn't come up to temperature so 20 minutes in I had to brush it with butter, kick it back on and shove it in again for 10 more minutes. It came out awesome anyway. I'm convinced that the margin of error on this is nearly idiot proof (hey, I managed to pull it off a couple times now! haha). Anyway, here's the pics (oh, did you do the 1/4 cup of water in the bottom of the oven trick before closing the door? That's so COOL! I have literally no idea how "wet" produces a crispier crust... that's just alchemy to me:

When I saw that bread picture on my little phone screen, I thought you'd posted some poop!

The bread looks awesome once you realize what it is though :)

Arte, my wife wanted to tell you THANKS for turning me on to that amazing bread recipe. I made it today and it was an enormous hit. I didn't do your more simplified version, sticking mostly to the site you linked. That shit was fucking delicious. We had it with some pasta. I made these baguette type things that were too long for my pizza stone, so they ended up being oddly shaped:

Nevertheless, they killed. Thanks brotha!

Had some fun days off. We were back at the Conan studios this week, actually seeing a Conan taping live for the first time. It was awesome! Some of the magic was gone since we'd just been at this studio recently to see the Pete Holmes taping, but it was still rad to see all those great characters he always has on the show. The band was dope in person and played like a 10 minute or so warm-up set. Corny "band" music, but you get caught up in the energy.

JoHn: You're so political! I had to look up what RNC stands for.

Bonus pool pic because having a pool is like the coolest funnest shit ever:

Cute! Wow, second grade! I bet it simultaneously seems like a long time and no time at all, huh? In October it will have been a year since my kid came bustin' out, and it already seems like forever/no time. We were looking at photos from when she was, like, two months old and it's amazing how she totally looks like some random, different kid in those pictures.

Anyone catch Eastwood's chair performance last night? I haven't been able to get through it, I watch a few seconds and then have to turn it off.

The RNC generally seemed like a bit of a clusterfuck. Of course, I'm hardly an unbiased observer, but it seems like between "This is how we feed the animals!", all the creepy women/rape/abortion subtext going on, Clint's performance art/senior moment, and seeming to totally piss off the Ron Paul wing of the party (any thoughts on that fArt? I know you like the man), it was more of a disunity convention than anything else. It really feels like this cycle is kind of the experimental jam session for the Repubs with your up-and-comers like Christie, Rubio and Ryan angling for the main event in 2016. Of course anything can happen between now and November, and the effect of millions and millions of billionaire dollars and voter suppression can't be predicted, but at this point I am confident that Obama will pull out a win.

On a less political note ("Everything is political" - JP M___), anyone a fan of Eastbound and Down? I've plowed through the first two seasons and holy shit, I love it SO MUCH. Danny McBride hasn't impressed me before, but he's so good in this show. His absolutely unblinking, unwavering commitment to every piece of nonsense that comes out of his mouth is what sells it.

iAeryk: see you tomorrow! I forgot to tell you, Enr0n and I are going to shit on your dining room table and punch you in the dick. Happy birthday!

Congrats! That's amazing, time is just flying by.

| Time is rocketing by...

Haylee's first day of 2nd grade today. Madness. How is that even possible that she is going to be 8 here in a minute. So proud of her, too. Super smart, kind and funny. My only chance is if she just doesn't stop growing and winds up being like 7 feet tall. Otherwise, I'm pretty sure I'm going to prison for murdering the fuck out of some little punk ass teenager. Sigh.

/oldmanrant

Also, I was wrong on that recipe, I just went and looked up the one I used. 1.5 cups of water:

Perfect Loaf

I used that as a base and then simplified the shit out of it just to see how idiot proof making bread really could be. I basically didn't do most of the second half of that stuff. Just mixed it up. Let it sit for 5-10 mins. Mixed it again. 5-10 min rest, then shaped and stuck it in a bowl for 1.5 hours and then into the oven (I didn't do the whole punch it down thing, stretch, fold, whatever). On the second attempt I didn't even turn it into two separate loaves. I just put the whole blob into the oven and it turned out great.

Mmmm, salt lick.

Remind me not to eat any bread you bake R00d.

I could have swore it was 4 cups of salt and/or sugar. I must have been baking salt licks.

| Super Secret iBread Recipe

4 cups flour

2.75 cups warm water

1 yeastie packet

2 tsp salt.





Seriously, that's it.

My latest iOS game obsessions:

10000000 - A match 3 with a sort of dungeon crawl theme and some minor upgrading. Really addictive and fun! And kinda hard at first till you get into a grove.

McPixel - OMG this shit is funny and so much fun. Link is to the lite free version - haven't pulled trigger on full $2 version but plan on. Think Wario-ware meets old point-n-click adventures. Just get the demo.

Still playing Summoner Wars all day eryday. And some other shit, but those games are my new faves.

God, I never really go on FB anymore, but I gotta check out Ry's post! Great list Eeeeric. I'll have to think about it myself, because while there is certain cross overs (and you and your gang are probably the main force in introducing me to that kind of music) I probably have some major differences from your list.

Metallica though, I remember somehow finding out about Master of Puppets while I was still at Lincoln and making my dad listen to the tape with me while he drove me to school in the mornings. What kind of cheesy kid thinks his dad is gonna like Master of Puppets. That was an amazing tape.

Okay.  Now you have me thinking, and not about stuff I should be thinking about, like lesson plans and grading.  True, the iJoey iCape list was totally cliche, and I am inspired by your list.  I am going to work on one of my own.

Not sure when I'll post it, but I didn't want to NOT acknowledge your great post.  Fun read!

| In response to iRy's FB post about 11 songs that made Joey Cape fall in love with punk:

This was way more work that I thought it would be, and so many of the songs are sort of cliche, but given they are the songs that made me fall in love with punk, I think they are right on.  Here's a link to a Groovshark playlist if you want to take a trip down my memory lane:

http://grooveshark.com/playlist/11+Songs/76741484

1. Filler - Minor Threat  This was the most punkest song I had ever heard at the time.  Raw, 'sloppy', strong, angry, direct, and catchy.

2. I Don't Need Society - DRI I was still into Metallica at the time and was absolutely blown away that something could be this bizarre, this crappy (at first listen), and this in your face.  I thought Metallica was tough.

3. Wasted - Black Flag/Circle Jerks Two versions of the same lyrics, by the same singer, in two different bands.  I first heard the CJ version at iZak's house, I think one of his friends was playing it, maybe iZion or iClint.  Either way, that was the music that older, tougher brothers listened to and I was totally, totally intrigued and enthralled, but I had no idea how to find this music, where to buy, what it was called...  Is there a better band logo than the 4 black bars in all the world?

4. Anything, Anything - Dramarama I never felt this song was indicative of what Dramarama sounded like, but this was the jammiest of jammy punk songs on a pretty terrible record.  It got mainstream airplay on KROQ (or maybe it didn't, but the song seemed to be everywhere) and it struck a chord with me.  This style of driving, catchy tune with a sort of angry vocal over it made a lot of sense to me.

5. Hope - Descendents  They sang about the stuff I was feeling and thinking, but wasn't doing or acting on.  The soundtrack band to my entire High School experience.  Every song spoke to me.  Totally helped that I ate at the same Weinerschnitzel they sang about and was taught english by the same teacher that taught iMilo at iCosta.

5a. Only of You - Green Day 1,039 Smoothed Out Slappy Hours was lyrically like a juvenile version of the Descendents.  Makes sense since Milo is 10 years older than Billy, and Billy is 3 years older than me, I saw Green Day lyrics about girls a lot more obvious and less clever, but the heart wants what it wants and they spoke to me.  Just another way to connect to a genre of music that became such a part of me.

6. Earth A.D. - Misfits After of course being introduced to The Misfits by the iconic grinning skull 'logo' tattoo on Cliff Burton's arm, I got a copy of Earth A.D. and the first song blew my mind.  Fast, thematic, dark, dirty, radicool.  All of Earth A.D. is an amazing wall of sound, and the artwork and black plastic tape combo made it an instant classic for me.

7. Skulls - Misfits Sort of a realization that aggressive music could be harmonious as well as dark.  It was like when I realized that my metal hair could be tamed in a ponytail and I was no less metal for doing so.

8. Bloodstains - Agent Orange A song that I found on an OOOLD mix tape that must have come from my cousin.  When I heard it a later in life, I knew all the songs and completely forgot how it got into my brain.  It must have been at a super young age and just laid dormant, slowly pushing me toward punk and metal without my knowledge.

9. Modern Man - Bad Religion Harmony, speed, brains, iconography, local - it all added up to an amazing transition in my musical tastes.  Took a large piece of what I was looking for an feeling in metal and made it more personal, worth while, and accessible.  Amazing song, amazing band.

10. Wouldn't It Be Nice - Pennynose I remember hating all the Pennynosers, and justifiably so, before I knew the music.  Then one day iRy gave me his Sony Sports walkman and said "listen to this".  It was the 'wise, and it was this song, and I was floored.  Aggressive, metal-ish, fast, clean, and harmonious, as much as I hate to admit it, The Wise was the right band at the right time for me.  Still think all the fans are douchebags, but you can't argue with their jams.

11. The Death of John Smith - NOFX iMarc at Theologian records blew my mind when he suggested this record to me.  I mean, it seems totally obvious given my age, where we lived, and sort of what was happening all around us, but this song immediately cemented NOFX and punk as what and where I wanted to be - total birth of the awareness of a sub-genre for me.  It was technical, musical, snotty, fast, harmonious, and awesome.  Never got to see them play it live, though.


Honorable Mention - New Direction - Gorilla Biscuits A sort of first introduction to NYC hardcore.  I knew about haadcooah from Anthrax, but this was sort of a first look at a new sound.  Positive, fast, and with these guys a nice mix of screamy/harmony which I think was a first example of the screamcore metal movement, really.

oH, I hate being sick! Hope you and your ifamly feel better! At least you get to finish games! They made a new version of Counter Strike which I'm tempted to pick up. Never got into any of the previous versions, but I hear this one is more user friendly and updated. I don't even know how much it costs but I'm thinking about it.

| Thank you Lord, for giving me the strength to defeat Diablo

I don't think I went to see College Jeopardy with you... must've been some other webjr0n. Actually the only time I remember going to see a show taping was Freshman year of college when my dorm went to go see the taping of a Richard Jenner pilot called "Platypus Man" (that obviously didn't make it to full production). We didn't even get in to the show, though, I think we were right exactly at the cutoff where they told us nobody else could get in and we had to go home. I think that was basically the only social thing I did in college.

I am ill. I may have caught Peter Plague at GenCon. Blackheart had a really bad cold and fever that laid him low the first two days of the convention. He literally spent all Thursday in bed and all of Friday until 8:00 PM when he perked up and was seemingly back to normal. Also the wife and kid were sick with a separate cold. So I was fucked any way you look at it. Friday I started feeling crappy and yesterday and today I have zero energy and mental capacity. Fortunately Diablo 3 fits the bill perfectly for days like this and I beat it!

They added some sort of "fun patch" recently that made a lot of tweaks. I think it's mostly stuff you notice at the super-high, "wahhh-I-played-for-120-hours-and-I'm-out-of-things-to-do" crowd, but I did notice that the rares I got for killing bosses and such became much more useful, whereas pre-patch I think those things mostly went into the trash. The game also got a lot more fun after I switched away from the Witch Doctor to Demon Hunter. Witch Doctor had so many summoned toads, frogs, dogs, zombies and shit on the screen at once that it was total visual overload for me, whereas the Demon Hunter pretty much has one buddy and just goes around shooting stuff. Nice and simple.

| *Applause*

On Thursday afternoon I went to a live taping for a late night talk show. It was the pilot, so it probably won't air, but it was amazing! It's from Conan O'Brien's production company and it's supposed to air after his show on TBS. It will be called The Midnight Show with Pete Holmes. Pete's a really funny comedian that I enjoy who has a great podcast - not so much a ha-ha funny podcast, but more like "conversations with various comedians about their lives and art, etc". Lots of funny stuff but sometimes it can be weird and/or serious.

Anyways, it was shot where they shoot Conan's show on the Warner Brothers lot and it was a fantastic experience. The last time I'd been to a tv show taping was with i-bJorn and the gang to watch someone's college friend on College Jeopardy. It was fucking hilarious, from the opening warm up comedian through all the skits and show parts. It totally has a crazy Conan O'Brien style to it, down to crazy Robert Smigel style puppets and skits involving a lot of the same dudes you see on CoCo's show.

We live around all those tv studios, so we're gonna try to hit up more shows. Great free date night.

I assume it's going to be anal beads if we're talking about iEric (this is my new stealth re-naming mode). One thing baking bread taught me that I was previously unaware of was how much friggen SALT is in bread! And/or sugar? It's been years, but I remember there was a whole bunch of stuff I didn't really realize that made it into bread. I gotta make a low sodium/sugar bread sometime.