Tonight, my wife and I met up with a few friends for our usual dinner date. Although this time the after dinner entertainment was a bit different (normally it’s just a movie). We went to Ocean Springs Skate Zone to see the Mississippi RollerGirls take on the Panama City Roller Derby in a nice clean match of RollerDerby!

I wasn’t quite sure of what the scene would be like or even what the sport would look like up close having only seen it on TV with the the Thunderbirds being my main reference point. First things first, walking into a skating roller rink again for the first time in what would have to be 20 years or so, was a blast back to the past and memories of Red Ropes, tables and chairs bolted to the floor, rows of yellow lockers, and of course wall-to-wall shag carpeting. This place had all of that and then some. For a bit, my wife and I felt like we had fallen back into our childhood and were waiting for the next couples-only skate session to begin. We talked about doing the Hokey Pokey and of course the music being spun by the DJ that was mostly 70s Donna Summer and the BeeGees.

Well, reality snapped back into place with a thunderous meeting of Marilyn Manson vs Joanie Love Chachi. Everywhere there were straight edge and hardcore people who were usually sporting tattoos and lots of metal piercings. The outer appearance of our dreamlike state while walking into the rink was quickly changed to gawking the fashion statements being made by the local roller derby fan club.

It was like nothing we’d ever seen before. Here were groups of sweaty, tattooed women often wearing nothing more than a short skirt or kilt, with knee high stocking and tight t-shirts that often had vulgar sayings on them that would make most people blush just viewing them. These women were on old school 4-track skates, doing circles around a flat track and truly trying to beat the crap out of each other. Most of them had their “stage” names plastered on their clothing and gear and most were just hysterical comedy gold. I especially liked “Tink Again”, “Ivanna Bruiser”, “Militia Vandal”, and “Tru Shenanigans”. But “Edie Coli” was just too good to be true. I also thoroughly enjoyed the Head Refereee “Ref Hefner”.

We ended up having a great time as the beer was flowing and while we were enjoying the skaters thrashing about and beating the hell out of each other, there was tons of people to gawk at. A few years back while attending an LPGA tournament in a nearby city, we noticed how much the sport had been followed by the modern lesbian crowd. A few years later we noticed that particular crowd had started to disappear from the golf followers, but now I know where they have been. It was a veritable smorgasbord to behold as they have found a new sport to follow and this one seems to truly be well-suited for their tastes.

After quite a few beers and many photos ops, we decided we’d seen enough and to call it a night. We did end up having a great time and really enjoyed the spectacle. Would I go again? Probably not. But I can now check one more thing off my list of things to do before I die list. If you want to see more about the girls of RollerDerby or even find out about the next event, please visit mississippirollergirls.com.

I am what many would consider a power mac user. Not one that uses a Powermac, but one who uses Macs religiously and tends to know a lot about them. I have been using Macs since the beginning, in fact, before they were even called Macs. I started on an Apple II and actually began my graphics and web career on an Apple Lisa.

In all that time I have used thousands of different types of software. I’ve used everything from 3-D software to Photoshop and the Terminal. One of my favorite catgories of software is called “Free” software. I like it because it is FREE! This differs a bit from other types of Free Software that is more like free speech than just free as in free beer.

Today, I will be listing some of the Free Software that I have found and use and that in most cases beats out non-free software for just being best in the field. Some of these applications I have used for a long time, while others I have just recently discovered but quickly grown to love.

WhatSize

Download WhatSize

The first application I am going to highlight is called “WhatSize” and it is one of my favorites. WhatSize is an application designed to one thing and it does it flawlessly. From the developer’s own description: WhatSize is a simple tool that allows the user to quickly measure the size in bytes of a given folder and all subfolders and files within it. You would be surprised at how many useless files might be laying around on your hard disks. The files and folders are automatically sorted by size, with the biggest sizes first.

This application is nearly identical to the non-free software called Omni DiskSweeper except that the price is much better; Free! I can’t say enough about this simple program – it just works. It is helpful to find hidden files on your system that are needlessly taking up valuable space.

RSS Menu

Download RSS Menu

This is one that I use on a daily basis and I love it for its simplicity as well. I have tried almost all the RSS feed reader programs available today and while some of them are wonderfully overstuffed with features and whiz-bangs, they lacked what I was looking for: a simple, menubar based RSS reader. RSS menu delivers just that. It has everything I need, all in one small compact menubar item or menuling. The developer seems to keep it very updated and the program is super lightweight and takes up very little resources. It’s also running all the time, so I don’t have to worry about checking for news, it just gets it for me.

Serverskine

Download Serverskine

This is a newer application in my list but one that I am quickly finding hard to live without. It is developed by a fellow web development team and is designed for web developers who need to keep track of lots of information regarding servers, customer login information, and other daily details that can often overwhelm. There are tons of PIM programs out there, but very few that are as well-done and thought out from a web developers point-of-view.

Gawker

Download Gawker

Gawker is one of those applications that bears out of necessity but then shines showing that software doesn’t have to cost a lot in order for it to be valuable. I started using Gawker to access my iSight camera and record movies. I have been having trouble with my puppy (or so I thought) and I wanted to record the times that I am away from home to see what is happening and by whom. Apple requires Quicktime Pro in order to be able to capture movies with the iSight camera. This is just dumb and another reason why I think Apple needs to do away with the whole “Pro” registration racket that it uses, but this is material for another post, another time.

Gawker also offers something that is absolutely vital to what I needed, which was time elapsed videography. Who wants to sit and scan through hours of video watching to see what dog does what and when. Gawker lets me record every 5, 10, 30 seconds or any time value I wish. It also displays a timeclock onscreen which really helps a lot. Overall, Gawker is almost so good, that it really should be distributed with iSight to begin with, although it works with other cameras too.

There you have it, four applications that are free, yet immensly valuable. Hope you enjoy them and if you do, reward the developer by sending them a free beer or by donating to them through Paypal.

[Homer] Mmmm, Free Beer…

Yes, that’s right, I’ve recently begun brewing again after a much too long hiatus. Brew day came and my anticipation of all of the wonderful things that makes brewing fun had me so excited. It was a feeling I had not had in quite some time. The eager feeling you get Christmas morning or the bubbly feeling in your stomach before you embark on a plane trip – that’s what I was experiencing again. I love to brew beer. It seems to put things right and align the stars in my neck of the universe.

I had not been able to brew since Katrina, because most of my brewing equipment had been lost or damaged by the hurricane. I needed new supplies, and since I first discovered that there are no brewing supply stores within three hundred miles of me, I had to ship everything in and that was just too damn expensive. I had done it last time about five years ago when I first got to the gulf coast.

So, I went online looking at supply shops and trying to determine what I needed to get started again, when I noticed it. Right there, on my 4th Firefox tabbed window was the address to a place called the “Wine Smith” in Mobile, Alabama. Mobile?!? Heck, I had driven to Mobile for work for almost three years! Mobile was like a hop, skip and a jump away from me! How could this have happened and how did I miss it? Could it be true that brewing on the gulf coast had taken a quantum leap forward from when I left it last?

I quickly called the phone number to make sure that it wasn’t some cruel joke or to find out that they had gone out of business three years ago or something like that. A friendly gentleman name Dennis answered the phone and I just about wept out loud. I couldn’t believe that I was talking to a man that is a mere hour away from me and that had fresh cascade hops and liquid yeast cultures sitting in his refrigerator waiting for me!

Off I went to The Wine Smith and to meet Dennis Smith the owner, so that I could personally thank him by giving my credit card and doing some much needed damage on it. Over an hour of time, spent browsing the inventory and picking up things such as hops, yeast, malt, bottle caps, a new bottle washer (I had lost mine after several years of trusty service), brew buckets and finally, a new brewing spoon!

I scampered home (did I actually just use the word “scamper”?) to start my first batch of beer in almost five years. My first batch was to be an India Pale Ale since I am big fan of hops and an IPA is always a decent place to start. I also got ingredients for my next two batches which will be a Stout and Brown Ale, but more about those in a later post.

A Watched Pot Never Boils Over!

Todd’s World Famous Wort Chiller 2.0

After a few hour’s time, it was all coming back to me. I was remembering the small tricks of the trade and learning some new things too. After no time at all I had a big steel pot on my electric stove and I was brewing again! Then I remembered why I hated my electric stove again, almost having a very nasty boilover because regulating the heat on that thing is just awful. I had also forgot one of my best brewing tips: Always have a spray bottle with water next to the brew pot to help knock down the foam and prevent boilovers. I did not have this essential tool so I had to try and quickly move three and a half gallons of piping hot wort off the burner. After that little episode things went on much smoother and before I knew it, the wort was traveling through my new wort chiller, a design that I have been making for quite some time now (although they’re getting much more expensive to make now because of the cost of the copper tubing).

Last things last, I pitched the yeast into my cooled wort and sealed things up. I took a beginning specific gravity reading that read 1.051 which was spot on for the recipe I was using. I also siphoned off a small taste sample and let it cool. I then tasted the most early concoction and decided that is was up to the high level of quality set forth by the newly formed “Biloxi Brewing Company”.

As for that first batch of Biloxi Brew? Well, put your requests in now for a complimentary bottle and see what all the fuss is about.

My wonderful wife surprised me with a new camera for Christmas! I’ve been wanting a smaller point-and-shoot type of camera that I can take with me more easily than my D-Reb since I’ve been quite lazy and not photographing things because I’ve convinced myself it’s too hard to carry places. So, my wife to the rescue with a Canon SD550 Digital Elph. It’s so small, and takes really good shots. I got one for my Father’s birthday back in August and since then I’ve been secretly lusting after one of my own. Kim apparently caught wind of my desires and took care of me as she always does. Thanks Hon!

I’ve also got lots of different types of beer for Christmas, from Jill and Graham and from Keith and Denise. Jill and Graham brought some down from their parts (Portland, Maine) and I have thoroughly enjoyed it. Keith and Denise brought me some beers from their recent travels in Gatlinburg. I love beer. Thanks Guys!

There were two Casino sponsors who won a “Team Spirit” award, where both teams’ members actually acted as if they could care less about the entire event. One gentleman from a large casino down here, actually sat in a chair, and gave dirty looks to people who had the audacity to actually want to have some of his chili. Well, I did have the audacity, and I did get some of their chili. It was plain, boring, and was quickly dumped into the BFI dumpster next to his stand.

Speaking of BFI, they won third place, and I felt they should have actually won. Their chili was the best I had tasted and their attitudes and humor went beyond the call of duty. They all were wearing t-shirts that read “Pure Trash – All Garbage” and “BFI – Better Food Ingredients” and they genuinely looked as if they were having a good time.

I then tried the next stand and was greeted by two types of chili, normal and SuperHot. Me, being me, exclaimed “Gimme the SuperHot!” I was given a cup of chili which looked mostly normal, had some larger chunks of beef which were not cooked enough and were kind of “chewy”. I was about to discard the chili when I had my last bite, which contained something that when I bit into it, my face imploded. It was a solid chili pepper about the size of a quarter and made their chili a memorable experience for no other fact than cheating. They should have been disqualified, as that is not how you make chili hot. That is the Chief Wiggum method, and I am not Homer Simpson.

Overall, I thought the event was pretty sad, and I guess we should have gone to the Crawfish Festival instead. Maybe next time I want a good chili cook-off, I will look to Texas, and leave the Mississippi Gulf Coast to doing what they do best, Crawfish and Shrimp boils