Weekend: 25th of Thrimidge 2014

Weekend update and thoughts:

I'm not one to get all up in arms about where things are made in the world.  If the quality is there, I don't mind if things are made in China, Argentina, Czech Republic or whatever, as long as the people are doing good quality.  There are some exceptions, however.  One: I will never buy anything knowingly made in Indonesia.  The level of corruption in the government, the acceptance of inhumane bullshit that is glorified on their 5 o'clock news, I just will no longer do it.  Fender and Lakland both now do their overseas budget lines in Indonesia, meaning Squire and Skyline branded equipment comes out of this horrible place.  The other is Vietnam.  The music brands Ampeg and now Marshall do business out of Vietnam for their budget lines.  This means I will not purchase anything from the DSL line of Marshalls, and pretty much everything from Ampeg is off the table.  There are some heroes that have come out of these practices though.  Blackstar is a newer brand and is made up of ex-Marshall employees using their contacts in South Korea to continue making good stuff there.  Dan Lakin, the originator of Lakland basses, also left his company instead of work with Indonesia, to produce better instruments elsewhere.  These people can't come right out and say that it has to do with business deals in these shitty countries, but I applaud them anyway.

When I do my final research for PC builds, I tend to do several steps and builds.  The most fun one is the "what I want" set of course, where I go within reason, picking the parts I would like to have.  This is not a "no holds barred" list, however, this is still on the edge of reality.  I also do a "10% less power" build, where I spec out how much it will cost to do just 10% less power(which I estimate is 2 years off the usable gaming lifespan of a PC).  I still do the bells and whistles, I just ramp down the power.  There are hard choices in this one, but its not all that hard to do.  The one I hate... that I hate so very very much is the "Same Power, lower price" build.  In this build, it is the SAME power as my "what I want" build.  You will not see 1 less frame per second in a game.  But all my bells and whistles are gone.  I find it interesting that I am more accepting of less power as long as I get to keep "fun" things like optimized fans, and the case I want, but absolutely hate the "all the power, none of the fun" build.  After I make all my versions, I sit down and write my compromise build that ends up being pretty much my "final" decision.

Grilled out and did jerk chicken.  I do not know why I do not make this often.  When it comes to preparation, its honestly easier than a lot of the stuff I make.  You pretty much want some char and fire on the chicken, so its hard to over season it, and simple to just throw this and that in there and it turns out right.  The main ingredients are lime, nutmeg, ginger, and cinnamon.  I leave the heat out and make a dipping sauce from garlic, red pepper, sugar and vinegar(think Mcdonalds sweet chili sauce).  We have also been eating plantains as of late, as its a new thing for the house.  It goes well with Caribbean flavors.

Watched "The Good, The Bad, and The Weird" which is a take on The Good, The Bad and the Ugly.  The movie is not based 100% on "G, B and U" but takes a lot of inspiration from it.  It is well shot, and done in high quality.  The scenes are created very well, and the effects are all really good without looking too fake.  I can't say I cared for the story, and especially the ending will make you say "what? really?" and not in a cool "that's F'd up" kind of way, but in a disappointing way.

Watching Dr. Who and I quite like the current episode.  It is the 10th Doctor and for the first time there's stuff someone else knows and doesn't let the Doctor in on it.  The Doctor practically makes a living knowing more than everyone else and holding it over their heads to get them to trust him, so it is nice to see someone else doing it to him finally.  Though, I guess it is him doing it to himself... I think?  I haven't seen the later parts of this arc, but it makes sense that he would tell this person to not tell himself about these things.  If you can understand that, heh.

Future posts this week?  Well, I have the list of Fantasy Novels I plan on sharing with my girlfriend as we read them.  I've done posts on Stand Alone novels, and Fantasy Series for me, and so the 3rd one consists of series that I think we both have a chance of liking more.  I may have a few more updates on the bird nest in my truck.  My "Sound Chip" post last week inspired some thinking, so I'm going to do another gaming post on retro stuff.  As for other stuff, I'll just have to see what comes up during the week.