Gnubbs Blog

Just wanted to post a bit about how to get syncing of OmniFocus 1.1 working with the WebDav that is available on Joyent shared Accelerators. It is pretty easy, there are just one or two gotchas.

First: Getting Webdav configured on your server

1. Email Joyent support and ask them to enable WebDav on a subfolder of your server. I.e. www.example.com/omnifocus
2. Once they have done that, go into your VirtualMin panel and edit your server configuration. Enable WebDav.
3. Finally, go into the user configuration portion of VirtualMin and allow Dav logins for the username you would like to use.

Second: Configuring OmniFocus

1. You will need the beta version of OmniFocus 1.1
2. Go into Sync preferences and choose Advanced
3. Put in your Dav location. This is the first gotcha — you need to use www.example.com/dav/omnifocus. Don’t forget that “/dav/” portion or it won’t work.
4. Try and sync. Second gotcha - your username is “user@example.com” not just “user”

That should be it. I haven’t bought OmniFocus for my iPhone yet, but will update this if I run into any issues configuring that to use my dav.

This past Friday I had what I would describe as the second worst beer I have ever had.  Steel Reserve 211.  How could I resist it at the liquor store — $1.19 for a 24 oz can of 8.1% beer.  I had to try it.  It was terrible.  Truely terrible.  Second worst beer ever.

This beer is just a tad worse than Schlitz.  Schlitz is bad, but has kinda a clean disgusting taste.  This stuff is like the worst beer in the world, with a kinda furry disgusting taste.

For the record, since I am sure that you are wondering at this point, the worst beer in the world is Old Chub Scottish Ale.  Terrible.  Profoundly terrible.  Really beyond description.  At least Schlitz and Steel Reserve are cheap — Old Chub is $8 a six pack.  Thats fucked up.

This past weekend was Stephanie’s birthday so I went out and bought her a bottle of champagne to go with her chocolates and roses. I buy champagne from time to time and thought I could share some pointers to make it easier on everyone out there.

First, if you are trying to impress someone make sure the bottle is actaully from the Champagne region of France. There might be some great sparkling wines made in other parts of the world, but unless you are a wine snob and are trying to impress another wine snob don’t waste your time trying to find them. Actual champagne is impressive for a lot of reasons, one of which is the romantic idea of champagne.

Second, this is going to be expensive. You don’t have to take out a loan to get good champagne but you are going to be spending something in the range of $30-50 for a bottle. It really is worth the money. The difference between a cheap sparkling wine from california and even a bottom of the line bottle from Verve Cliquot is incredible. Remember, you are trying to impress someone here.

Third, ask the salesguy for help. Go to a good liquor or wine store and ask for help. If the guy doesn’t seem like he knows what he is talking about find someone else. Trust in experts. There are a lot of choices here ranging from $30 - $300 — you need someone to help you figure this all out.

Forth, use decent glasses. A set of nice champagne flutes is ideal. If you really want to impress swing buy target and pick up some Riedel glasses. It will set you back about $40 but they are real crystal and are very nice. Lacking that, I have drank a lot of champagne out of simple wine glasses. This is fine.

Fifth, know what some of the strange words mean. From dry to sweet there are: Brut Absolut, Brut, Extra-Dry, Sec, Demi-Sec and Doux. I think that I have only ever seen Brut, Extra-Dry, and Demi-Sec at my wine store. A Rose (there should be a decoration above that ‘e’) is, well, pink champagne. These tend to be a bit more expensive than thier non-rose equivelent, but are supposed to be very flavourful. Crystal means that it comes in an actual crystal bottle. Think big money for the real stuff.

Finally a bit about vintages. Almost all champagne that is within a reasonable price range is labled NV. This means no vintage. France is kind of crazy about vintage champagne and a lot of years there will not be any vintage bottles made. The year has to be special. In wine talk, anytime someone mentions that a year was special think big money. I have never had a vintage bottle. My liquor store currently has some bottles of 1999 Moet and Chandon Brut Imperial for about $80 so I have been toying with the idea of trying it out.

The important thing to remember with champagne is that you are trying to impress someone. People, generally, are not impressed when you try to be a cheap dork. I haven’t bought enough champagne to make detailed recommendations, but I can tell you what I have bought or would buy in the future.

1. Verve Cliquot Yellow Label ($30) — This is actually very good and cheap.
2. Moet and Chandon Nector Imperial ($50) — This is an incredible demi-sec. This is as sweet of a champagne as you are likely to find.
3. Moet and Chandon Brute Imperial Rose ($65) — This is sitting in my fridge at home waiting to be drunk. This is supposed to be an incredible wine so I will let you know what I think.
4. Perrier Jouet Fleur de Champagne ($130) — You have probably seen this bottle before. It is the one with the flowers painted all over it. I don’t know how it tastes, but it would make a very impressive presentation.
5. Dom Perignon ($100+) — This is what everyone thinks of when they think of fancy champagne. I haven’t had any Dom, but again this would make for a very impressive presentation because of the name recognition.

However, don’t let those expensive bottles scare you away. You really can get some very good champage for around $30-40. Think Verve Cliquot Yellow Label, Moet and Chandon White Star, or Mumm Brut Cordon Rouge. Most of my friends think of that stuff that is used to toast at weddings as champagne. You know that yeasty tasting, nasty cheap california sparkling wine you can get for $8 a bottle. That is a far, far cry from even cheap real champagne.

Trust me on this one, it is impressive.
gnubbs

[Update on 1/24 to add] Stephanie and I drank the Moet Chandon Brut Imperial Rose this weekend and it was very, very good. A little bit citrus at first, then strong berry flavor. You could drink it and tell me that it tastes like fish, but that is what it tastes like to me. I would take this over Moet Chandon Nectar Imperial, but Stephanie prefers the sweetness of the demi-sec.

Last night while cooking dinner, I tried with all of my heart to cut off my left pinkie at the base. I didn’t succeed, but did some real damage trying.

In the end I got to see one of my tendons, got 5 stitches, a month off climbing, and taco bell for dinner. Not a great night, but I was pretty sure I was going to have to see a hand surgeon, so it could have been worse. It does not appear that I have done any serious damage, but it has now taken me about 5 minutes to type this with only my right hand. Not sure how long it will be before I do any long posts again.

gnubbs

I got his bottle about a week ago from the West End Wine shop in boulder. At $18 it falls into the moderately priced category for me. The wine is from Burgundy but not one of the more famous villages or wineries. The guy at the wine shop thought that it was a good value.

The first bottle we got was bad, all vinegar. We took it back and they replaced it without a hassel. When I got the bottle home I was a bit disappointed. It was a very blah wine. Maybe someone who drinks a lot of burgundy could have pointed out it’s strenghts to me. I just thought that it was a very bland wine. Not much of a body, no distinguishing flavors. It wasn’t bad but I don’t think that it was good enough to cost $18.

This is a wine that I would not buy again.

gnubbs

A nice, moderately priced light medium-dry red wine.

I am going to start posting simple wine reviews here so I can remember what I have been drinking. I used to have a little journal thingy, but I got drunk and lost it. Must have been a good wine that night…

This wine is a Barbera from Monferrato in the Piedmont area of Italy. Or maybe not. I haven’t been able to make heads or tails out of what the lines on this label mean. The vintage i have is a 2002.

Now for impressions. It is good. Not full bodied, but not hollow tasting either. It is fruity, which could be mistaken for sweetness, but it is definately mostly dry. Overall this is just a nice wine and I would recommend trying it.

Prall demanded while I was in Cleveland that I start blogging about my cooking. This post is for you, Prall.

First, a disclaimer. If you somehow are reading this and you do not know me, I am a vegan. Not some crazy gun-toting, level 5 vegan. Just a nice, simple jack-vegan. Yeah, I eat honey. If you have a problem with that then fuck off. I kill mosquitos, killing bugs is killing bugs so I might as well get some sweet, sweet, honey from bees.

Second, another disclaimer. Don’t use cooking wine. Ever. It is simply never acceptable. If it is not good enough to drink with dinner, than it is not good enough to cook with. For this dish I am using a 2002 Barbera from Maraia in the Piedmont area of Italy. Not expensive (~$14), but pretty nice. Review to come.

So, I decided to cook my wife dinner on Saturday night, but I haven’t been to the grocery store in about a week. I have to wing it. I look and see that we have pasta shells, canned tomatoes, and that is about it in the cabinets. So, here goes nothing.

Caper Marinara and Shells:
3 Tbs Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 Large Peppercini, Diced
1/4 Cup Assorted Olives, Diced (I prefer a mixture of black and green)
1 Tbs Capers in Sea Salt, Rinsed
2 Tbs Balsamic Vinegar
1/4 Cup Dry Red Wine
1 Tbs Vege Buillon (I use a paste, but cubes would work)
1 Can Whole Stewed Tomatoes, Mushed up by hand
1 Small Can Tomato Paste
Dried Basil, Garli Powder, Salt, Pepper, Dried Crushed Red Pepper to taste

Okay. You probably noticed that there are not onions or fresh garlic in this recipe. Well, I was out of onions and burned all of my garlic. I said this was going to be interesting.

Take the Peppercini, Olives, and Capers and saute them in olive oil for a minute or two until the scent of olives becomes noticable. Take off the heat, add the Balsamico, and replace on the heat turning it down to Medium-Low. Allow the Balsamico to reduce and glaze the ingredients until there is not much Balsamico visible in the olive oil arount the perimeter of the pan. The ingredients should be coated in a brown-black reduction.

Add the wine and bring to a low boil. Allow the wine to cook for several minutes, then add the Tomatoes and Tomato paste. Stir and allow to cook until the paste has disolved into the rest of the sauce. Add the vege bullion, garlic powder, pepper, dried crushed red pepper and basil. Be careful adding the salt because both the Tomatoes and the bullion are salty. Allow to cook covered, stirring occasionally. After tasting mine needed a bit more depth, so I added additional wine at this point.

Bring a pot of water to boil, add pasta…. Well, if you can’t take care of the pasta part of this you need help. Serve the pasta sauce generously over the pasta, and garnish with a tsp of Capers or so and some cheese if you do that.

The sauce should be very earthy with strong caper and olive flavors, and a bit of heat to it. Good capers are what make this sauce. This is one of the richest pasta sauces I have come up with, and was very good with a relatively light, dry red wine.

Eat up fatty.