Our First Freschetta Pizza

We are not frozen pizza people, but we do love mushrooms and spinach.  Last night, my wife saw a commercial for Freschetta Portabella and Spinach Pizza.  She thought it looked good, so we decided to give it a try.

It was our first time trying Freschetta pizza. The box says, "New Look! Same Great Taste!"   When I opened the package, the first think I realized was there was no tomato sauce.  My first question was, "Where's the tomato sauce?"

My Bad! I made the mistake of not looking closely when I picked it up.  I'm not a fan of white pizza.. My taste buds were primed for tomato sauce and I knew that would effect my evaluation of the taste.

The  second question that came to mind was, "Is the new look a pizza covered only 3/4 with spinach and mushrooms?"

I seriously doubt that is the cases, but it certainly is a quality control issue.  In this case, does it mean I have 25% less topping than I should have or does it mean that the rest of the pizza has more topping than it is supposed to have?  Not knowing the answer to that question, I put it in the oven and prepared to sample the "Same Great Taste!"  

The instructions said 15-19 minutes.  I set the time on 17 minutes and started to write this blog.  After getting pulled away, the next thing I knew, the time went off.  When I took it out of the oven, it was obvious, that I overcooked it.  It wasn't burned, but it was crispier than either of us would have like.  Once again, my bad!

It's difficult to evaluation on an overcooked pizza, especially not knowing whether it had the right amount of topping on it.  That being said, the "Same Great Taste!" was pretty good.  It was better than many frozen pizzas we have tried in the past, but it was still obviously a frozen pizza.

My wife is much more of a garlic person than I am, and the garlic was obvious from the moment I put it in the oven. The 25% of the the pizza that didn't have much in the way of spinach and mushrooms was obviously not as good as the rest of the pizza.  The garlic and onion sauce took over that portion of the pizza.

As I said before, we are not frozen pizza people and Freschetta Roasted Mushroom and Spinach Pizza did very little to convert us.  We'll  stick to fresh cooked pizza.

Upon re-reading this entry, one more thing is obvious.  I obviously use obviously too many times, but I'm obviously not going to go back and fix it, because clearly I'm to lazy. (Bet you thought I was going to say,  Obviously, I'm too lazy."

Remembering Ernie Kovacs at 3:00 AM

At 3:00 AM, I woke up to something that smells like old socks in my CPAP mask.  After taking it off, I realized the smell was the result of my forgetting to put water into the humidifier.  Not being able to go back to sleep, I headed to the sink to clean it with soap and water.

From there I sat down at the computer and saw that someone had put a comment on my YouTube video of my grandmothers Hungarian stuffed cabbage recipe. She mentioned that her mother was the "Capusta Queen", capusta being the Hungarian word for cabbage.

That brought back a flood of memories of my youth and growing up in a Hungarian home.The first memory was of the Ernie Kovacs show and one of my favorite segments, the Kapusta Kid in Outer Space.  Here, right after the Sid Cesar commercial., is one episode.


But that was just one memory.  My mother went to Trenton High with Ernie and as I got older, she would let me in on the secret of why the family would laugh so much at things I didn't understand or see as funny.

Being Hungarian, Ernie would sometimes include references that only the Hungarian community would catch.  The Kapusta Kid (Cabbage Kid) was just one innocent reference.  Others were not quite as innocent.  Take for instance, the episode where Kapusta was asked were he had been and responded that he was around the corner at the curve house. I think there were probably three cracked ribs in our family as they laughed hysterically.

Year's later it came up in a conversation and I asked what was so funny.  Everyone remembered that episode.  Mom explained that when Kapusta said he was around the corner at the curved house, it was a play on the Hungarian words kurva haz.  I'll let you check out Google Translator to see the Hungarian to English translation and understand what kind of things were often going on between the lines on the Ernie Kovacs Show.

Ernie was a genius and a classic!

Sniper Chris Kyle Killed on Gun Range

Anti-gun advocates are going to try to make fodder out of the fact that America's top sniper was killed on a gun range, but if I'm correct they are as inaccurate in their assessment as Chris was accurate in his sniping. There are no details of the shooting, but I'm going to speculate that Chris never saw what was coming. 

I belong to a gun club where the range safety rules are CLEAR and STRICT. When on a rifle range, there is always a range officer in charge.  If an official club officer is there, they are in charge. If a club officer is not there, the first person on the range becomes the range officer. Every member of the club is trained in range safety rules and procedures before they are accepted into the club.

The range officer declares the range either hot or cold and there is a red and green light that is used along with the verbal commands.  When a range is hot, there is no one down range and people can load and shoot.

A range is cold when it is time to set and/or check targets. At that point the range officer declares the range cold and tell as shooters to cease fire and make guns safe.  He is responsible to make sure all people have stopped shooting, removed their magazines, cleared the chambers, and placed the guns on the table next to them in an open, safe position.  When the range is cold, you can't even handle ammunition to load a magazine.

Only then does the range officer declare that it is safe to go down range to check targets.  Those doing so, go down range unarmed.  My guess is that Chris Kelly and Chad Littlefield were going down range, UNARMED, when the alleged murderer, Eddie Ray Routh, opened fire in violation of gun club safety rules, as well as state and federal laws.

I would not at all be surprised to find that one or both of them were shot in the back.

Once again, this is NOT a gun control issue. It is a MENTAL HEALTH issue. 

Just my two cents!

UPDATE 2/5/13 - As I speculated, this appear to be more of a mental health issue than a gun issue. Kyle was trying to help a PTSD victim, something he had done in the past.  As a sniper, his kills of insurgents most certainly saved hundreds of U.S. lives. To try to use this tragedy into an anti-gun agenda item does a disservice to Chris and all those who serve our country.

What Passes for Journalism These Days

Now that you've read the topic, you can breathe a sign of relief, because there many others who are far more qualified and well written on this topic.  I won't bore you with a long winded or rambling opinion.

I make it my point to read opinions and news reports on all sides of an issue and come to my own conclusion as to the nature of the truth   However, in today's Union Leader, John DiStaso write an article that criticized a remark made by Rep. Cynthia Chase. I couldn't simply let it pass, because the way he did it was to me, an example of how to lose credibility in a single sentence.

Click here to read it for yourself and see if you picked up on the hypocrisy that passed as journalism. I did post a written response to the Union Leader website, but then I remembered that humor can make a point and a picture is worth a thousand words.  So I created this little opinion piece of my own.

How to Protect Your Privacy on Facebook

Well Facebook had made another change!  This time they "simplified" their privacy settings and in doing so, caused confusion and a new round of ill informed posts.  One that is going viral right now talks about having your friends do things to make sure the world doesn't see what you wrote.  While it isn't entirely false, following the guidelines will NOT ensure your privacy, but limit what YOU can see, thus providing a false sense of privacy.

The Snopes.com article about this is here, but they don't provide the details you need to keep yourself private. I'll go through the settings in a bit of detail, but here's the privacy picture in a nutshell. 

I can't begin to tell you how many people have lost friends, been arrested, lost jobs, college scholarships, or their jobs because the THOUGHT their post was private.
IF YOU DON'T WANT FRIENDS OF FRIENDS OR THE PUBLIC TO SEE WHAT YOU ARE DOING, DON'T DO ANYTHING ON FACEBOOK BUT READ!

Now let's take a look at what you need to do to theoretically limit your activities to your friends.  I say theoretically, because it is never as simple as it seems and there are way that your posts could be seen, especially if you are tagged on a photo and then comment, but I digress...

Now you can check and change your settings!

Below, you can see four of the five setting you should change based on you desired level of privacy.  I'll address number 2 in more detail in below.

 So far, the simplified settings are simple, but here's where it can get confusing. Clicking on "Review all your posts and things will you're tagged in" will show all your activities and, to some extent, who can see them.

 

When you click on it, you will be able to scroll through all your activities.  I've chosen three below to help you understand what this means and what you have to do to protect your privacy. By no means, is this a comprehensive explanation!

 

1) First, you see I commented on Jimmy's post.  There is no icon, before the pencil icon.  Because there is no icon there, I know that the people who see it are determined by Jimmy's privacy settings.  If he makes public posts, the world can see it.  

2) The pencil icon indicates that your settings allow this to show up on your wall.  If you don't want it on your wall, you can go to your wall and Hide it.  However, it will still be on Jimmy's page where you placed the comment.

3) The globe shows that the world can see that I "liked" Sandy's status post.  Sandy is a friend of mine who is technically sharp, has chosen to make her posts public, but lives my my motto, "Never post anything online you don't want to read in the NY Times tomorrow morning."

4) The silhouette indicates that only my friends can see this post, because I have chosen to be more private than Sandy.

So there you have it in a nutshell.  As I said, this is by no means all there is to know about privacy settings on Facebook.  Even if you NEVER post, your privacy isn't secure.  You can be tagged on photos and friends who are careless about their privacy may share things about you that you wouldn't want shared.  Not even quitting Facebook can prevent that sort of thing.

The best thing you can do is to follow the idea of not posting anything you don't want to be public and to help educate your friends.

Be safe!

It's Even Worse Than It Looks

I started writing this post almost two months ago, but for some reason, I never got around to posting it until today.  The title of this post is part of the title of a book I was then reading. The rest of the title is, How the American Constitutional System Collided with the New Politics of Extremism. The authors, Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein provide a detailed account of where this uber-polarization got started and why we are where we are today. They squarely put the blame on the Republicans. What makes the book so powerful is that Ornstein and Mann are two of the top congressional scholars and have made their name by being scrupulously nonpartisan.

Much of what I read, I already knew in general terms, but it's the specifics and the behind the scenes maneuvers that are on one hand interesting and ingenious, but on the other hand depressing, disgusting, and down right alarming. According the book, it basically started with Newt Gingrich and the Gang of Seven. Newt came up with the idea that the only way Republicans were going to get back into control was to get the general public so disgusted with Congress that they threw out the party in power.

The idea of throwing the American under the bus by ignoring what is best for the country and blocking every move the Democrats made was his brain child. I hadn't realized it started back in the early 90's, but that maneuver was hardly enough. The book goes on to detail Newts exploits, some of which backfired, the actions of those who followed, and what the Democrats did to make things worse. I urge you to read the book for yourself, but I'll offer you one example of interesting and and alarming action.

Not too many people watch CSPAN. If you do watch as the camera pans around the room, you'll notice that just about all of the evening speeches are delivered to an empty room. That's because they are usually mundane and unimportant, given solely for the purpose of getting entered in to the congressional record. However, the camera work wasn't always thus, and it was this fact that allowed Newt to come up with an ingenious strategy.

When CSPAN first started, in order to prevent political advantages, the rules stated that the camera had to be fixed on the speaker and not pan through the audience. It occurred to Newt that this safeguard could be turned on its ear. He realized that the American public had no idea the speakers were addressing an empty room and he, along with his colleagues, began giving speeches that attacked the Democrats on all fronts.

Of course CSPAN was not watched by millions of viewers, but those who turned in saw Republicans accusing Democrats of all kinds of improper behavior and callous actions. They waited for some sort of reaction from the Democrats in the room, but had no idea that the room was empty. Not hearing any reaction or rebuttal, people came to their own conclusions about the charges being made. This went on for months until a good deal of damage was done. By the time the rule was changed to pan the camera around the room, so that viewers could see they were speaking to empty chairs, a great deal of damage was done by the unfounded and unanswered attacks.

This is indicative of many of the actions taken by the Republicans to thwart and forward progress by the administration.  Remember, these authors built their reputation as being non-partisan.  Read the book and make up your own mind.

Online Communications and Asbestos Suits

I began my online life in 1980, long before the Internet. Chat rooms and discussion forums were available on computer bulletin boards that were accessed via dial-up modems. Over the years, I've administered dozens of Internet mailing list, web forums, online classes and just about any type on interaction that takes place online.

While there is a great range in the way the technology delivers the communications, there is one constant, namely the human one. When people first get online, they don't understand that online communication is different from face to face. The impact of the written word doesn't always convey the sentiment or intent of the words. Thus, the internet has its own set of standards know as  Netiquette .  Each mailing list, discussion forum, or online community has its own special set of rules that fall under the Netiquette umbrella. 

The lack of understanding of newbies can lead to all kinds of problems. My view of netiquette is a little like my view of etiquette. I really don't care if you use your salad fork for the main course of if you sit with your elbows on the table. I overlook the little things. On the other hand, I don't want to see you lick soup out of the bowl or pick your nose at the dinner table.

 I wager that everyone reading this has, at one time or another seen or been involved in a Flame War. Flame wars can destroy a group or make them stronger, depending on how they are resolved. As I said, I was online in 1980. Getting online then meant you had to be a geek. When you came online you were known as a newbie. It was, and still is wise for a newbie to lurk before posting.

Unfortunately, some people just don't get it. Flame wars broke out shortly after the first modem went online. Sometimes is was because some people don't care, sometimes it was the result of a newbie mistake mistake such as breaching a serious point of netiquette or posting a private message to a public forum. Then again, some people are natural born trolls and love the flames. They are like Internet pyromaniacs.

As an online administrator, I've witnessed 100's flame wars and mediated more than my share. In the early 90's CompuServe and AOL, both closed communities, opened the Internet flood gates by giving thousands of netiquette ignorant newbies access to the Internet. It was the electronic version of Smokey the Bear's worst nightmare. Everywhere you turned another conversation thread would burst into flames.

That same year, I began doing volunteer work for WiredSafety.org and began actively trying to educate others about netiquette and online safety. I was also the leader of a group of folks who created the first Internet online tutorial specifically aimed at teachers and students.  While it is considerably, because technology has changed so dramatically, except for one broken link that can be replaced by this one, the section on netiquette remains viable, because it deals with the way people should conduct themselves online.

1) Once you post something, you lose control of it. Whether it is a comment or a picture, anyone receiving it can grab it and do with it as they please
2) Think before you click. If you send a rant about the boss to a co-worker, make sure it is going to your co-worker, not the company mailing list.
3) Never post ANYTHING online that you don't want to read in the New York Times on Monday morning.

That doesn't mean you can't express your opinions about your boss strongly. You can still do so effectively.  You might tell you friend your boss is inconsiderate and ill informed rather than calling him a %$%&# idiot. That way, if your private email does make it's way to the boss, instead of getting fired on the spot it might lead to a rational conversation between you and your boss.  Or not...