This year has been so different from last year’s very wet spring that it doesn’t seem fair to compare. But compare I will. Last year was wet beyond wet so the lettuce, arugula and broccoli just kept growing. This year all three started bolting about week and half ago. Last year nearly all the peas got washed away. (take a breath) This year we ended up with nearly three full servings of oh so wonderful peas.

Last season (feel like we are repeating?) was year 1 for the strawberries so nothing was expected. This year we were inundated with strawberries for about 3 weeks. It was awesome. We even gave some to a coworker who lives up the street from us. Rumor has it the full serving we gave him didn’t quite make it home. To be honest I don’t fault or blame him. It’s not every day you get to eat minute old strawberries. The other crop that pretty much got wiped out last year was green beans. Last year’s remaining crop never produced enough to create a single serving for any meal. So lets move on to this years changes.

To begin, I’m growing buckwheat in and around my tomatoes this year. If you’ve been reading along, it’s for a number of reasons beyond the obvious mulching effect. First, to smother weeds by out competing for the sun. ie mulch. Next, buckwheat takes nutrients, nitrogen for example, out of the air and releases it into the ground. The tomatoes love this and so far have showed their appreciation by growing very strong trunks. Lastly, when the buckwheat flowers, it attracts beneficial insects. So far I’ve seen a Praying Mantis chowing down, a wasp going to town on a larvae of some sort, and tons of hover flies. Hover flies eat alot of, as my son would say, “Bad Buggies” in both their larvae and adult stages. I”m sorry but I cannot say enough about this set up. God clearly knew what he was doing when he set this whole insect world in motion. From now on, when I plant tomatoes, it will always be with buckwheat. Since we’re on the subject of mulch, ok maybe we glanced by, this years find was Coco Shells.

I normally use straw as my goto mulch but this year had us receive record rain fall to the point of floods and some really nasty damage. The result of this, many fields were destroyed so straw was not available. So off to my local discount garden supply store to see what else I could use. There I found coco shells at a good price. I remembered seeing it on a number of GardenGirl shows and remembered the benefits. Spreading it was beyond easy even around both my onion and carrots so I think I may have jumped the straw wagon.

Also new this year are pole beans, beets, onions, and in Oct ...garlic. The pole beans are kinda scaring me because they are climbing the trellis like there is a prize for reaching the top first. For those of you wondering, the trellis is over 6 ft tall. With more then 6 plants already reaching at least 5 ft, I envision “many a beans filled” meal. The onions on the other hand are a test since it’s their first year. I planted both yellow and red and so far the sprouting rate appears to be equal. That brings us to beets. So far the results are only so so. Given all the landscaping I’ve been doing the weeds did have a period of growth so I might have lost some seedlings then. But the remaining two or three plants look very healthy and I can’t wait to try them. I’m also going to throw some beet seeds in the ground when ever I rip a lettuce head out. What’s the worse that can happen? They grow? ;-)

That brings us to the pepper plants. Last year I grew a whole row with very little results. I had Jalapeno, Serrano, California Green, something Red, and a few others. This year I only grew 1 Jalapeno and 1 Marconi. I started both plants indoors given our short growing season. It’s scary not having a fall back plan but so far it’s worked out. The first Jala is just waiting to be picked while the other pepper plant is starting to flower. The marconi is suppose to have a shorter growing period when compared to other peppers but so far the Jala has outgrown it. If they bare enough veggies then I won’t increase next season. But then again my little voice is telling me I should no matter what, just to be safe.

Finally, for me it’s not really prime growing season until I make a sandwich that contains a slice of fresh tomato, some lettuce and peppers along with some cukes on the side. All from my garden, of course. So until then, get out there and plant something.

Category: Gardening | Permalink | 2 locked comments

I admit that I pick on stupidity especially when it comes from large companies, organizations and such. Oh excuse me while I sync up Digikam with my copied over pictures folder. Where was I? Oh yes, picking on. One fine reader of mine, who really needs a better hobby or a girlfriend, has even taken it upon himself to perform metrics on my site. Heck I don't even do that. Why would I? I just comment on what's in the news that makes me laugh. But he found that I comment on a certain company 24.65434% of the time. Well you can't argue with those types of numbers. So it brings me great joy, sorta, to say that say ...

Linux, specifically Ubuntu, has a root hole.

Aiiiiiiiii!!!!!!!!! Run to the hilllllllls the world is coming to an ....

Oh, appears Ubuntu has closed the hole already.

Well that puts a damper on things. Gee wouldn't it be nice if all software patches were that quick, clean and worked so well. Heck maybe someday they could solve hardware design flaws? Naaahhhhhh.

BTW, so how does this post affect my numbers? 24.65435%.

Oh bother,

p.s. This version of Digikam that comes with 10.04 is a nice step forward in features, setup and usage. Well done guys.

FOSS FTW.

Category: Technology | Permalink | 1 locked comments

Admit it, we all want to go back to some point in our history and change something. Didn't say hi to that gorgeous someone? Would have played the game a bit more aggressive instead you played it safe? That's right, if we all had a TARDIS in our backyard we could go back and change things. (According to the doctor not everything is changeable, there are fixed points in time, so keep that in mind). So let's have some fun looking back, ahead and all around.

1. Do you think time travel will ever be a reality? Why?

2. If you could travel into the future, how far would you go?

3. What movie, tv show or book that uses Time Travel in it's plot is your favorite?

4. What skill/activity did you not pick up, for what ever reason, would you like to go back and pick up?

Category: Entertainment | Permalink | 1 locked comments

When I first learned of Nuun Fluid Replacement tabs I had pretty high expectations. Their premise was simple. Provide only the nutrients that you loose while working out and leave the carbs and such to the user. Simply put they are just one step in your nutritional tailoring. Now before we begin with my review let me state the obvious. Nutrition, all nutrition, is a very personal thing. What works for some might not work for others. So please no emails telling how great this or that product is with regards to your usage, just use what works best for you.

Sunday’s ride was in fact the second test of Nuun but in my opinion a much better one. To begin, the ride occurred in the morning. This meant I was not worn down from the day’s events. I had just finished eating breakfast before heading out so I was topped of with enough calories to just test the fluid replacement nature of the tabs. Another vital aspect of this test was the outdoor temperature. Sunday’s ride was in the 90’s so needless to say it was hot. All perfect for testing a fluid replacement product.

Sadly I cannot add my name to the growing list of Nuun users. To start, the fizzy nature of the product was kinda strange. It was like drinking a flat version of a Poland Springs flavor water. The container said to add the appropriate tab count to your bottle and let it sit for 2mins. My wife commented that it looked like I had dropped an alka-seltzer into my water bottles. I know I waited the 2mins because I got dressed after putting the tabs into the bottles. Next up, the flavor. I’m trying to be nice but for me there really wasn’t any. What flavor was there was just too light. This in turn meant I wasn’t being quenched. I also noticed that I was drinking alot more then I normally do. I remember commenting to myself about more drinking leads to better hydration. But that theory got blown out of the water at mile 25; I had cotton mouth. Worse yet I had finished my first 24oz bottle and was more then half way thru my second. Any ideas of putting in 40-50 on one set of bottles were put aside and I was forced to find a store to get my bottles refilled.

I still have some tabs left in the sampler tube I purchased so I will continue to try Nuun under different circumstances. But as for now, Nuun doesn’t work for me. Maybe it will work for you. Please check them out and give them a try. Nuun

Category: Sports | Permalink | 0 locked comments

Before we begin snickering at them lets go back in time and do a quick review of some of the people who the RIAA have sued for file sharing.

An elderly women who didn't own a computer

A few small children

A person who passed away

...and my personal favorite, a Fax machine.

Yes those wacky folks over at the RIAA, the same ones who have yet to pay the artists from the "winnings" of all their lawsuits, The ones who spread porn (sorry but thongs on tv during the day is porn), violence towards women, and a whole host of other society damaging things, is upset that the courts didn't just givem them a blanket finding.

Come to find out there's this Safe Harbor thing in the DMCA that was upheld. Here is what the courts said:

""The present case shows that the DMCA notification regime works effectively," the court said, pointing to the fact that YouTube removed 10,000 videos at Viacom's request in one day. "General knowledge that infringement is 'ubiquitous' does not impose a duty on the service provider to monitor or search its service for infringements." "

For those of you who are not familiar with the whole safe harbour thing, let me explain. Let's start with the phone.

The phone company is not responsible for anything that transpires over their lines. So companies can use it to do good or to traffic drugs. At no point will the phone company step in. Once law enforcement shows up then the phone co. must comply with local, state and Federal officials.

Technically this is how it's suppose to work for sites that fall under the Safe Harbour. They provide a service, some rules, but pretty much stay out of the way until, UNTIL they are contacted by someone claiming that something on their site breaks the rules. This is how the whole thing is suppose to work. But instead large media companies have been caught countless times using the DMCA to file false take down notices. Don't believe me? Ask Larry Lessig then.

So when I respond with a loud boisterous laughter over this whole incident, you know that means I"m going to sleep well tonight.

Remember the fastest way to get rid of the RIAA is to stop buying all their crappy product. So please do your part and buy nothing, ;-)

Category: Technology | Permalink | 0 locked comments

1. Do you like Soccer/Football?

2. Have you ever played a proper game, full field, offsides and all, of soccer/football?

3. What don't you like about soccer/football?

4. If you were to replace one US sport with Soccer which sport which

you swap?

Enjoy and USA USA USA gooooo Team USA!!!!! ;-)

Category: Entertainment | Permalink | 4 locked comments

Design Room Meeting

Steve: I understand there are people out there that do not understand what it is we are providing. I also understand that not everyone is cool enough to buy our product line. But I don't think we go far enough.

minion #1: We agree 100% with what you are saying and the facts actually back you up. Engineers tend to be left handed. Most real engineers are not overcome by the RDF. They buy things like the Nokia 900 or some Android device.

Minion #2: That's why we designed the new antenna system to keep them from buying our phones so they won't expose all of it's weaknesses.

Steve: And how did you do that?

Minion #1: We made it left-hand proof. Every time they try to make a call, it disconnects. That way they can't call anyone to tell them about our short comings. Isn't that insanely great?!

Steve: (Smacks head) Noooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Category: Technology | Permalink | 9 locked comments

So let's see, we got royally screwed over by a ref that took away a goal in one game and we blasted shots past the open net waaaaay to many times today but we still won our group. Pretty darn cool.

If you haven't figured it out yet I'm talking soccer (football to the rest of the world) and I am realllllly into this whole World Cup thing. With our group win gives the US the privilege of playing in the sweet 16. Let's hope it's not 1 and done.

Would love to seem them reach the finals. Heck I would love to see them win the cup. ;-)

But in the mean time, let's enjoy the group win and start working towards the next game.

Category: Sports | Permalink | 1 locked comments

This week's questions are about missing things. Where did this come from? I'm missing running and it's driving me crazy. ;-)

1. What thing, activity, etc have you not taken part in for a while that you truly miss doing?

2. What have you stopped doing only to find out you really don't miss it?

3. Are you the type of person to miss people or do you move on quickly?

4. When growing up what was the one thing you missed out on?

Enjoy.

Category: Entertainment | Permalink | 1 locked comments

Ladies, Gentlemen, Dogs, Cats and Fish, the time has come to release my first short story. But first, as a parent I feel it is my duty to make you aware that while nothing in my story is vulgar in word, the content and implied situations are not meant for children. Also, special thanks go to Ed Hurst over at Do What's Right blog. He took on the unenviable task of editor and came through with flying colors. Please visit his blog and read what he has to say.

Without further delay I give you: ProcU17 .

Enjoy.

Category: Entertainment | Permalink | 1 locked comments

1. What was your worst job ever?

2. What was your best job ever?

3. What do you think is the best job in the world?

4. What do you think is the worse job in the world?

Now get to wor ....er um ... lets get dem questions don.

Category: Entertainment | Permalink | 3 locked comments

As you may or may not know Gina, my Formula1 podcasting partner's lovely wife, gave me a blogging award. Many other bloggers have demanded a recount so I need to get these out fast before they find out I paid Gina for the nomination. (kidding)

1. I too am Left-Handed.

2. I don't like musicals. I've seen Guys and Dolls, Mame, The Wizz and a few others but have no desire to ever see one again.

3. I can juggle.

4. The longest I have ever cycled in one day is 126 mi. (202.7Km) To this day I kick myself for not going the extra miles and making it an "even" 150.

5. As a young child my parents talked me out of a career in astronomy and I'm glad they did.

6. I completed a life long goal during my honeymoon by surfing in Maui; there is video evidence to prove it.

7. Every car I have own has been a manual/standard/Clutch transmission.

Now for my nomination. I here by nominate BlueSwirly in hopes that my doing so will jump start her blog again.

Category: Entertainment | Permalink | 1 locked comments

Before we start lets get the obvious out of the way. People write code, code has problems, other people find problems, problems get fixed. Depending upon your QC department will depend upon what types of issues get released. So repeat after me, "Mark is not picking on the error itself, only how the fanboys are reacting."

On a personal aside, I do admit to having a small chuckle when I read it was a linux machine that found the issue. Next this issue really doesn't bother me all that much. To be honest, releasing a brand new product with known wifi issues is more of an issue for me. But given the company's sales figures I guess spotty wifi really isn't an issue given their phone on the att network has taught users not to set expectations too high on the connectivity front.

So if you're in the mood for a good laugh at people feeling the need to defend their favorite company, head on over to Engadget.

Category: Technology | Permalink | 0 locked comments

That's right, another garden update so run to the hills.

All but the pepper plants are in the ground. Last year I went kinda nuts with seedlings so this year I pulled back a bit. We'll see but I may have pulled back just a bit too much. Last year I had small plants for everything while this year I have 1 Cuke, 1 Tenderpick Bean, 1 Jalapeno, and 1 Marconi pepper. Last year I spent days digging holes and planting plants. This year it's some plants and alot more seeds. Adding to the mix was the milder weather so I was able to start things like radishes and peas earlier. Like I said, we'll see.

This year I'm getting more into companion planting. So my experiment this year will be planting Buckwheat around my tomatoes. For more details head on over to G H Organics. I want to try a few other pairings but I haven't decided yet.

I got the drip system installed and learned from last years mistakes. All seeds and plants are positioned right near an actual drip location. No more dry plants between two holes. If my soil wasn't so clay like I wouldn't care but it just didn't work last year.

To end, we are giving beets a try. If you've read along you'll know that if it comes out of the garden my oldest son will eat it. So adding beets will only help to expand his veggie intake. In that same vein, I am going waaaaaaaaaaayyyyy over board with beans. If everything comes up, I'll have 5 plants of Tenderpick and 5 of a pole bean. Last year Zack wanted more beans so Dad is making absolute sure he gets as much as he wants. Lord knows when the winter months roll around he'll be back to hating them.

Well that's all for now.

Category: Gardening | Permalink | 4 locked comments

Download: mp3
Show Notes via Del.icio.us

Featured artists: Stripe, JigKorova, Ben Rusch, Etesii. Please send all feedback to atrfeedback@gmail.com.
Enjoy

Category: Entertainment | Permalink | 0 locked comments

...I'm even less impressed.

Category: Technology | Permalink | 3 locked comments

Have you ever tasted a radish minutes after being picked? How about a strawberry, or a carrot? Or better yet, create a salad, yes those bland things that come before your meal at so called restaurants, by picking the stuff you want. Pick two or three types of lettuce, grab a cuke, tomato, some spinach, zucchini, and what ever else suits your fancy. Go on, get out there and pick it. Then sit back, on your deck, porch or front stairs and eat. Eat with the birds singing and the real smells of flowers and dirt all around you. Because that is eating. And it doesn't stop at fruits and veggies, no no no. Real meat that comes from animals, that actually live a real life with walking around and eating real foods taste like no other. Or better yet (didn't I say that before??), head down to your local docks, if that's possible, and grab yourself some fresh fish. Maybe a little haddock, fillet of sole, scallops or shrimp that was brought in that day.

But for the love of God, don't do any of what I said if you think the current process by which the "food industry" gets you your food if fine. So on one hand, I love having a garden because everything tastes beyond great. I had a strawberry today that was like no other. The flavor lasted for at least 10minutes. Then I think back to the strawberries I've had at parties and other places where people just bought what ever was in the local supermarket chain. Bland, dull and without complexity. So on that end I get annoyed because I know what this stuff should taste like.

So you have a choice, pick the red pill and you'll be taken back to what ever supermarket supplies you've had in the past and not remember anything. Or take the green organic freshly picked pill to experience food like you never had before.

Either way it's your choice. Now if you'll excuse me I need to plant more veggies and herbs.

Category: Gardening | Permalink | 4 locked comments

I just installed Scribus to see if I can use it to add the final touches to my first short story. Overall I'm pretty happy with it. I'm hoping Scribus helps me make it look like a "real" book. I'd like to release it in PDF, some open format for the Kindle, and maybe even the Android System. We'll see.

Stay tuned for the release. You'll know when it's out when you hear the world's Eng Lit teachers all screaming out in pain.

Bwwwaaaaaahahahahahahahahha.

;-)

Category: Entertainment | Permalink | 3 locked comments

Sometimes all I need to do is re-post to get my point across.

Mr. Jeff H take it away.

Style over substance.

For those of you who wish to fill my comment area with "ease of use, elegant design, blah blah blah" arguments I don't want to hear it. If you want to buy the iT thing right now, by all means go for it. Just don't expect me to stop laughing at you behind your back. ;-)

Category: Technology | Permalink | 5 locked comments

Between late night driving, staying up to cram for a test, to a bazillion other reasons we don't get enough sleep. With that said let's find out the hows and whys.

1. Have you ever stayed up all night? If yes why? If no what's the least amount of sleep you have ever gotten?

2. Have you ever slept in your clothes?

3. Have you ever slept on the mattress w/o sheets and such?

4. Where is the worse place you have ever tried (and succeeded?) to fall asleep?

Enjoy and sweet dreams.

Category: Entertainment | Permalink | 2 locked comments