Step 1: Put down the sauce, vegan pepperoni, and olives

Step 2: Add the vegan cheese, some more vegan pepperoni, and a little more sauce

Step 3: Take some dough and cover the toppings, pinch the edges together, and spray the top with some cooking oil

Step 4: Spray the Perfect Pizza Press with some cooking oil, and press into the dough and toppings. Put into oven along with the Perfect Pizza Press.

Step 5: Once the top is a nice golden brown, remove from oven

Step 6: Remove Perfect Pizza Press to create the eight separate “calzones”.

Step 7: Serve and enjoy!

As I said, it was a much bigger success than I expected. Next time, I will add more sauce on the top, and maybe a little more cheese. I don’t know of any other cooking utensil that can do this and make the pre-sliced pizzas.

My first impression with the Nexus One was the display is amazing. The graphics are bright and crisp. The extra resolution over the iPhone is definitely noticable. The speed as great too. Upgrading from a G1, i was impressed with how fast everything ran. I was up and running on the new phone after less than a half hour. But I don’t want this to be about specs, so I’m going to just talk about some reasons I really love this phone.

Google Integration

If you use Gmail or Gmail Apps a lot, you will love how smooth the integration is with Google’s mail. There really isn’t much to say. I have four gmail accounts setup, all syncing and letting me know when I have mail. Only your main calendar syncs directly, but there are ways to work around that. Google Voice works well for calls, and ok for SMS messages. Some people I know have complained about the Google Voice SMS integration but I don’t use it enough to really know. Google Maps, Google Buzz, Google Reader, etc, all work great.

Corporate Integration

My G1 didn’t have native Exchange support, so I had to use a third party app. I ended up using NitroDesk’s Touchdown software. I’ve seen this app really grow over the last year, from a really basic mail only viewer, to a fully integrated productivity app. One feature I’m really getting used to, is having my mail read back to me. It’s pretty neat.

Android 2.1 has native Exchange integration, but I’ve heard some complaints about it. I would recommend Touchdown to everyone. I have an iPod Touch which I hooked up to our company’s exchange server, and I can tell you Touchdown blows it away.

Battery Life

The first couple days when I was playing with every gizmo on the phone, batter life sucked. Once I settled down in my normal daily routine, the battery life was fine. It runs all day just fine. There are third party batteries already that increase your battery life as well.

Google Maps Navigation

It plain rocks. I’m waiting for the car dock’s to come out to have the full on GPS experience. I’m hoping the dock will allow me to use my bluetooth headset to use as a phone as well as audio. Listening to podcasts with 1 year while I drive would *rock*.

Camera

I’m not a big camera person, but the camera on this phone works nice and I’ve been happy with the speed and clarity of taking pictures. When the weather gets better and I take some trips later this year I expect it will work out pretty good.

App Store

Apple likes to point out how many apps they have in their store and it is indeed impressive. However, I’m of the opinion that most people will use 10 apps for 90% of the time, and that the functionality of these 10 apps is duplicated in the Android Market. Because the app store is open, eventually they will probably be pretty equivalent when you look at the short tail of apps sold.

Intangibles

I wanted to have integration with my company’s Cisco vpn, but this isn’t one of the vpn types supported by Android 2.1. So I took the plunge and put on the Cyanogen Mod on my phone. Yes, I violated my warranty, but it was definitely worth it. I found a vpnc client for the phone, and *viola*, I have Cisco vpn capability over WiFi/3G/Edge. I also have full shell access so it really feels like a real little netbook. When I use my iPod Touch, I feel like I’m back using a PalmOS era OS. Multi-tasking isn’t the end all be all, but I can download a podcast, while I’m calling my wife, while I have GTalk running.

For me, and I know this isn’t the same for everyone, I like the ability to change things about my phone, I like having an open app market, and I like being able to download the source code to my phone and make changes (and I have some on the way). Not everyone likes or wants that much freedom. Maybe there are some rough edges on Android, though I think many complaints are simply due to what people are used to. I’ve used both the iPhone and the Nexus One and I think I have a good feel for both.

The Nexus One and, hence, Android is a great phone platform. They allow me to work, play, and communicate almost anywhere, and I expect to enjoy both for the foreseeable future.

One reason I always rooted for McGwire is that I could relate to him as a ballplayer. Oh, by no means did I have his talent or skill, but what he did best, hit for distance and walk a lot, is all I was ever good at as well. We were both big clumsy first baseman (don’t believe his Gold Glove) with almost no foot speed. I was not a good baseball player, however, but I always could hit for distance and for what few memories people have of me as a ballplayer, they always revolve around how far I could hit a baseball.

I became a ballplayer pretty much by accident. When I was eight a neighborhood kid told me he was going to join Little League, so I joined as well, even though I had never shown an interest before. I remember having a pretty good arm, but I was a very clumsy hitter. My brother had a nice natural left-handed stroke, while I had a big looping almost out of control swing that often caused my head to pull off the ball. One skill I did have early on though, was walking. It was highly underrated in Little League then, much like the Major Leagues as a matter of fact. But if one were to evaluate my performance now, I’d look better since I could get on base a lot.

I became a pitcher on a horrendously bad team my second year in Little League. I could strike out a lot of hitters, throwing slurves, curves, and sinkers, but I could be wild as well, because I was also a headcase. I’d lose focus, get into snits when my team would miss grounders or pop flies (which happened often). But, I had no choice to keep trying to get better. I’d throw every inning of every game I played in practically, god knows how many pitches I’d throw as a ten, eleven, and twelve year old. My last year I finally got my head together during my second game, and I was pretty good the rest of the way out. My hitting was better, but I never really developed into a real power hitter. Never could get my swing consistent enough to really hit home runs, but I’m pretty sure I could hit farther than most if not anyone else. Alas, I also hurt my back that year, and it meant that I couldn’t do much in the last game of the season, and my All-Star appearance (if we had played any games) would have been limited.

That summer, after Little League, I joined some local youth summer camp type thing. I wanted to play on the softball team, but my back wouldn’t allow it, so I just sat and watched. The next year I attempted to move up to the Babe Ruth league, which would be the first league where I played on a regular sized diamond. I misunderstood the tryout process, left early, and while I had just assumed I would make it, I in fact did not make it on my first try out. I thought I did ok at the time, but in retrospect, I probably looked like a big uncoordinated mess out there. I had grown nearly 6 inches in the previous school year and by the time try outs came around, I was just about six feet tall, but extremely uncoordinated. It was extremely disappointing to not have made it, and I considered strongly quitting. I had started to really get into computers and thought maybe I should dedicate myself to that. In the end, I decided to join the “practice squad” so to speak, and eventually someone left the team, and I was a full member of the team.

I’d have to say my Babe Ruth years were very disappointing. My first year I didn’t play much, not showing I could hit, and not sure I even had a position at the time. I did pitch well in one game, but lousy in the next, and I don’t think I had the makeup to really be a closer. Our team did win the championship, but I didn’t have much of a connection to it, since I hardly played. That summer I returned to the youth summer group determined to play on the softball team and hit home runs. For about a month before the season started, I did nothing but swing a water logged wooden bat. My forearms got almost as big as my biceps, and I felt like I could really do some damage. The first swing I took in a game I hit a home run to dead center field. It felt so ridiculous easy, the swing was so natural.

I had an open stance now, with my feet wide apart. The bat was held about 6 inches from my right ear, so that if I took a quick glance back, I could just see my hands. Bat straight up, with my left pinky wrapped around the knob. I later learned that’s how Mickey Mantle also held the bat. For me, it’s just natural. I ended up setting a new record for homeruns in that youth camp thingie. I think I doubled the previous record. If it was 12, I hit 24 for example. I have no idea how long it stood or if whoever broke it was as young as I was at the time, but for a time, I had smashed the previous record. I remember the first home run I hit, and another shot I hit, that while I was able to run home before someone could get the ball back to the infield, I only received a ground rule double because it rolled into some weeds, god knows how far away. As I trotted back to second, the umpire just shook his head, I assumed because he didn’t believe I had hit it so far. Like many home runs I hit over the years, I never saw it land.

My next year in Babe Ruth was a little better, but still without a consistent position, and still not hitting well, I played only a bit. I only got one hit. I might have walked a lot though, so maybe I did better than I remember. My last year I played every inning of every game we played. I think I did okay at first base, but then was moved to third base because of another player’s injury. Let me tell you, I played an awful third base. It was terrible, and I became a head case again over it, and it made me play worse. My one highlight was a long home run I hit to break up a pitcher’s no-hitter. I never saw it land so I have to trust other people who told me where it landed. I remember rounding second base and they were still chasing it, I remember nearly tripping coming around third, and getting to home to a crowd of my teammates congratulating me. Everyone on the opposing team complimented me except for the pitcher and his dad. A few years later I was told that they were both extremely pissed that I broke up the no hitter. I found out that my home run came up as a topic of conversation recently, which is nice to hear. Still wish I had seen it land though.

I still considered myself a pitcher all those years in Babe Ruth, but lack of practice, weight gain, and I suspect a change in my frame as I hit puberty, left my arm and shoulder feeling lifeless. Something changed and I never felt the same fluidity and power out of my arm that I felt before puberty. All my speed and movement left me, and I was left with not much. Perhaps if I had been more serious about it, I could have worked my way back, but computers really started to take over a lot of my time, and it wasn’t like I was going to be a major league baseball player. When I walked off the field of the last game of the season, I thought to myself I was “retiring” from playing competitive baseball, that I would remain a fan of it, but my interests laid in the statistical arena of baseball.

I did try out my senior year in high school for the baseball team, after a year off. I was out of shape, but my swing did start to come back I thought. However, I didn’t like the way the baseball coach coached, and while I would have made the team, actually gotten some decent playing time as a DH perhaps, I quit because I wasn’t having fun, and if I wasn’t having fun with it, there was no point to me playing. I don’t regret it for a second. I went on to go to college for computer science as planned, and what distracted me from baseball ended up being my career.

I’m still a baseball fan to this day. I’m a big sabremetrics guy too, which combines my love of math and baseball into a powerful analytical way of looking at baseball players. It’s why I know Bert Blyleven should be in the Hall of Fame, and not Andre Dawson. It’s why Dwight Evans was a better ballplayer than Jim Rice, even though he won’t get even a sniff of the Hall of Fame. I’ll always be a fan of baseball, and it’s why hearing about Mark McGwire was such a downer. As a fan you want to believe that the players you love watching are as above board as possible. I don’t know if we’ll ever know for sure if Mac could have broken Maris’s record without steroids, but I do know I can’t look at 70 (or 73 for that matter) as a valid number. There will always be some taint to it. I look forward to the next player who comes close, the next great power hitter that challenges Maris again, even if that would only place him seventh on the single season record. I can’t wait to see who breaks 755 without the aid, as far as we know, of PED’s.

My memories of a baseball player, while most are memories of not succeeding, still are very important reasons that I follow baseball today. Even if I wasn’t particularly good at it, I understand how great a game it was, is, and will be. As soon as I’m done writing this, I will be turning on Sirius XM’s MLB Homeplace channel to get my fill of the hot stove league. It’s such a great sport that even my memories of failing at it, are good memories to have.

P.S. A few years ago, almost ten years after I last played any sort of organized baseball or softball, I played for my companies team for a few games one season. In my first game back after many years, I hit a home run out of the field and got to do the trot around the bases again. Head down, quick pace, with a little stutter step around the base to make sure I hit it. This time, perhaps for the last time, I got to see where it landed.

Does anthropogenic climate change exist? After years of being somewhat of a skeptic on the subject, due to what I feel were some real issues with the concepts of “urban heat isles” and the non-change in the temperature of the upper atmosphere, I believe those issues have been resolved and it’s clear to me that we have had an effect on the planet’s climate. I hesitate to use the phrase “global warming”, because it’s an awfully imprecise phrase. Will all parts of the planet warm? No. Can we predict with any certainty which parts of the planet will get the warmest? Nope. We have models that make general predictions, but the actual effects can be tempered or exacerbated due to local environmental situations or unforeseen events like the Mt. Pinatuba volcanic explosion in 1991. Anthropogenic climate change, though, is real, and regardless of what your political alignment may be, you have to accept that fact. I remain skeptical of most the pronounced solutions and the overall mindset of those who are the most vocal about climate change, but that discussion will have to be for another day.

Back to my original point:

Dear “Journalists”,

Just because there is a warm spell during winter, it doesn’t mean it’s because of climate change. Just because there is a heat wave during the summer, it doesn’t mean it’s because of climate change. Report the weather how it is, and when we have events outside the average, do some actual work and explain how, if at all, it could relate to climate change, hot or cold, wet or dry. There is a great disservice to the country and the world, by only reporting on climate change with a thin veneer of research.

Thank you for reading, now back to the subzero temperatures.

My entry came tied for second…in a field of four. No one suspected it was vegan, though. I got a couple of really nice compliments from co-workers, and I let them in on it the subterfuge. One co-worker asked me for the recipe, and so after too long, I’m writing it down. I should also add, that my chili cooking is more like a process, than a specific recipe. I’m writing this down the best I can recollect and I hope that someone gets some use out of it:

Ingredients you’ll need

6 Boca ™ Burgers
3 cups textured vegetable protein
6 14.5 oz cans of diced tomatoes
2 cans Light Red Kidney Beans
2 cans Dark Red Kidney Beans
2 cans White Kidney Beans (also known as cannellini or fazolia beans)
12 chopped jalapeño peppers
3 sliced Bell peppers, any color and spice level will do
2 cans stewed tomatoes
1 small can tomato paste
1-2 cups bread flour
2 medium onions, diced (i prefer white)
brown sugar
mustard
paprika
chili powder
cumin
black pepper
salt
garlic powder
Predator Great White Shark Hot Sauce

Cooking Process

* Cut up Boca Burger into small chunks and with diced onions, fry in olive oil
* Put all tomatoes and beans in a large pot and slowly bring to boil, using all liquid
* Once at boil, turn down heat to low, and add peppers
* Slow cook for a couple hours before adding textured vegetable protein
* Add spices, hot sauce, and brown sugar to suit tastes
* To thicken chili, add bread flour to thicken to preference
* Slow cook until consistency and taste are both at desired levels

For the record, my version of this was called “Sweet & Spicy” in the contest, and I think it lived up to its name. I like a very spicy chili with an undercurrent of sweetness, and I was very happy with how it came out.

Well, that’s it, I hope someone gets something out of it.

1) No standing up during the last hour of a flight. Why? Because the attempted bomber was sitting down when he attempted to trigger the bomb.

2) Nothing in your lap the last hour of a flight. Why? Because the attempted bomber had something sewn into his crotch

3) International flights should consider no longer allowing electronics during the flight. Why? Because the attempted bomber used a non-electronic device.

This is in addition to the, possibly more inane, rule about scanning your shoes. Eight years ago, Richard Reid brought explosives aboard a plane via the soles of his shoes. So now we all have to take our shoes off so they can go through an x-ray that can’t detect explosive residue. We’re limited to a 1 gallon bag containing as many 3 oz bottles of liquid that can fit, even though no such chemical tests are ever run.

None of this makes us safer. We have to accept that in a free society there’s going to be a body count. We will have to accept the fact that there will be terrorists attacks against the United States where we might lose a couple hundred to a couple thousand people at a time. These attacks will kill less people than the flu, car accidents, alcohol, and murders against our own citizens by ourselves. We will have to accept that there is a 1 in 10 million chance of being killed aboard an airplane due to terrorist attacks.

Once we finally accept this as a fact of life in the modern, free world, we will have taken away the *real* terrorist weapon, which is not a bomb, but instead, simply fear. I’m personally already there, and I hope that more people can join me.