Smoking a Fattie!

I've always been fond of grilling on the weekends. Maybe its the manly man in me or the fact that you get to play with fire! I love flipping burgers to feed friends, trying new spices, and the smells that come from the grill on a hot day (cold beer in hand) are incredible. I wanted to take it to the next level so a few weeks ago I bought a smoker!

I've seen tons of tutorials on the web urging me in that direction. "How to make a smoker", "Build a smoker with a 55 gal drum" even one using a galvanized trash can! Every time i went to Lowes the grills lined up in front of the store would seem to taunt me. Smokers there ranged from 150$ to 400$. I was not about to purchase one for that price! I started pricing the parts keeping my eyes open for the pieces to put together my own smoker. My wife was less then thrilled. In fact I think she said I was Freaking Nuts.

After a few weeks of looking around I happened across a mini-smoker at Walmart. It was 30$ (end of the season I guess) I was puzzled and excited. First off after pricing all the parts I would need for my home made smoker, it would still come to about $40. This was a savings. ;) It was a little smaller that what I was planning to build but I figured 30 bucks .... this will be a pretty good trial. I took home and had it built in less than an hour.

Then next weekend we fired it up. Ribs! .... not bad either for my first attempt. My second would be pork tenderloins with a Seattle Rub! That was amazing! I just read a recipe for Fatties and my mouth is watering! This weekend I'm smoking fatties! (or sausages) ;)

Any way http://www.brinkmann.net/Shop/Detail.aspx?category=Outdoor+Cooking&subcategory=Charcoal+Smokers+%26+Grills&sku=810-5301-C&id=288

That's the smoker I bought. I highly recommend it. If you've never had smoked meat before you gotta try it. It's expensive at all. If you want a slightly different grilling experience then give it a try. There are tons of websites out there that you can pick up the little knowledge you'll need to be smoking on the weekend.

I give the Brinkman Smoke'n Grill Charcoal Smoker a big thumbs up and a WOWTHATSGOOD!

Bayside.... best band Ever!

For some people music is in the background of daily living. For others, we live it, we feel it, we're passionate about it. I'm all of the above and I play it too. ( I play bass in a band) One band I highly recommend is Bayside.

First off because I'm a musician, you don't get points in my book unless you're good live. I've seen Bayside multiple times live and they totally kicked butt! Damn those guys are good. Secondly the lyrics of the songs a well written. If you cant write a thought provoking song then you won't hold my attention long. Third the guitar work is great. Nice driving rhythms and cool leads. Everything a Punk Rock band needs!

If you have an opportunity to see them live go! Tickets to the shows are not typically expensive and it will probably be the best 13$ you ever spent. Want more proof? check out these clips.

this is a cover of a Sean Kingston tune. lol


This is more the rockin anthems i like!

2 thumbs up and a WOW thats GOOD!

Amazing Read!

Wholly $%!#T !!!!!!
Just got done reading Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell. That is one hell of a book. Probably the best book I have ever read. It's about a US NAVY SEAL Team and the hunt for a Taliban Leader in Afganistan. The story is sad yet very inspiring. My daughter is currently reading the book. It's not a book she would typically read but she said its fascinating what Seals go through during training. She says she has a whole new respect for people in uniform and even more for SEALs. I've taken tons of inspriation from this book. It should be a mandatory read for kids in school.

WowThatsGood! Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell get it. Read it. You won't be disappointed.

Mozy on over... Online Backup

A few weeks ago I was called to do some Computer and Network consulting for a local engineering firm. After meeting and greeting and getting a tour of the office one of my first questions was, "what are you doing for backups?" He replied "every once in a while we copy data to an external hard drive". My next question was "When was it done last and are you taking this device off site in case something happens to building?" The answer was "uhhhh... hmmmm, I think the backup is a few months old. " And "We keep the device in a closet near the server." I said "So what happens if the building catches fire and the device is destroyed?" A light came on and he said "lets make that a priority"

I spent the next half hour backing up the server to his external hard drive. I then began researching some online backup solutions. These have become pretty popular lately and I can understand why now.
1. The backup is typically scheduled at night when the network is relatively inactive. After the initial backup it's like "set it and forget".
2. In a small office where "Tech People" are scares it's pretty easy to install and configure.
3. The backup is off site, safe from natural disasters, fires and lots of other bad things that can happen to an office building.
4. It's very cost effective. For a small office with one or two servers Online Backups are well worth the money.
5. Should anything happen to your physical building most online backup sites offer a way or a service to put your data on media like DVD's or CD's and will send them to you via snail mail.

So I did the reserch and found that Mozy.com had some pretty good reviews. The price was acceptable and I felt fairly confident they would be a good fit with my client. I wasn't wrong. After downloading and purchasing the software the install was pretty quick. The configuration was easy and strait forward as well. The service has been running now for a few weeks. The history log is helpful and easy to ready. I have not yet tried to restore a file but I intend to do so in the next day or so. (just in case) It's always good to verify that your backup are good and in case of an emergency so you'll have a usable backup. My client also likes knowing his data is protected and he doesn't have to remember to change tapes or make backup copies daily. I'm not sure all online backups are created equally but I'm pretty happy with Mozy so far and I give them a solid "WOW that's Good!"

Oh btw, Mozy also has a personal backup option for the home user. If your not backing up your home pc's you should be! ;) price starts at just about $5 (us) I think it's unlimited data. They also have a free service that allows you to back up 2 gb for free. Hope this review helps someone out there!

freaking kids...

Wow I forget how funny kids are. I had a day off from work today and took the kids to Tim Hortons for a little breakfast. Actually I was just in no mood to make coffee and feed them myself. We were sitting, having a good time and my youngest son Sean (8yrs old) says "why do big people like coffee?"
Without skipping a beat, my older son Steve (age 10) says, "It makes them feel young! ... It gives them energy like young people." I almost shot coffee through my nose. Wow that's good!

I love those goofy bastards!

RSS is good!

On the list of WOW that's Good, I'm adding RSS Feeds and Readers!

Don't know what they are or how to use them? Well let me explain. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary. The icon for RSS looks like (displayed above) an orange tile with a white dot and 2 curved lines. If you find that on a website it indicates the site has an RSS Feed. Websites that have an RSS feed publish their data in a format that can be read by simple means. Usually its published in an xml format but I don't want to get to technical. ;)

"Ok, so my favorite site has one of those RSS thingies. Now what do I do?" If a site you frequent has one of these it means they post their articles in a summary with a link to the main story. You can copy and paste the RSS URL into a RSS Reader. If you click on the sites RSS icon it will take you to the page that displays the summaries. Some sites like CNN have multiple Feeds. They have feeds for Crime, Health, Politics and many more!

An RSS Reader allows you to subscribe to multiple Feeds and keeps your collection of feeds all in one easy to manage place. Using your Reader you can have subscriptions to many sites, and that's not even the best part. The best part is they're free! :D and there's more! They update when a site publishes new content. You can track the latest news from your favorite sites without having to surf to them. It's kind of a faster way to surf the web. And its all customizable so you only see the content you want.

I have one to ESPN but just to the NFL specific stories, I also have one to the Urban Dictionary. I have a few more of them to various DIY websites and even one to a grilling site. heheheh! I use the Google Reader as my RSS Reader it becomes another little snap-in feature with your Gmail account.

Ok now for the Ultimate in WOW Thats Good! I was at the vacation lake camp this weekend. I awoke before anyone else and didn’t grab my laptop before heading into the bathroom and then to the living room. Not wanting to wake anyone else up I made the coffee and started messing with my phone. I checked my Gmail and returend to the main Google Mobile site. I was amazed to see Google has a Mobile Reader!! Thats right you can view and read all your feeds from your Phone! It knows what I'm Subscribed to and I was able to read all the new RSS Feeds on my phone with a nice hot cup of coffee, even before anyone woke up! :D

WOW THATS GOOD!

Good Mail System gets Better! Gmail

Yeah I'm tooting the Gmail horn here! I love Googles Gmail. They have tons of great features and this morning when I logged in I found that they added another long awaited feature. Labels!

I guess the best description would be what Outlook calls folders but on Steroids. Organization for the mailbox is a must, and it just got easier in your Gmail.

Simply click on the "manage labels link" Or look under the "4 More" link then click on the "Create new Label" Text box. Type in your new Label name and hit the create button.

Now you have the option to Move Mail to these Folders. To add your mail to the newly created folders open your messages, click on the dropdown called "Move to" and pick the folder or label you created.

A slightly easier alternate method; you can checkmark the message click on the "Move To" and move the message that way.

Labels can be color coded! That's right, you can select the label and pick a color for it. You can then checkmark a message, click on the label dropdown button and select your label. The message you selected is now color coded in your Gmail in Box. :D

Wow Thats Goodl!

Power Tools!!

As a Home Owner/DIY'er/ManlyMan! (hehehe) where would I be without some power tools? Btw Tools make Great Gifts! My top 3 list looks like this:

At number 3
The Circular Saw! Portable and powerful. I bought one of these when I first built my pool deck a few years ago. It's only a 7 1/4 Task Master but it works pretty well. I think at the time it was on sale and around the 30 dollar mark (US). I was with my father-in-law when I bought it. I couldn't make up my mind whether I should drop real money and get a name brand, big heavy duty saw. He said, "how much will you use it after this project?". I said "prolly not much". At the time I had no idea. Boy was I wrong. However... This thing has taken some abuse and still cuts like a champ. Just remember to change the blade every so often.

Number 2
The reciprocal saw! I'm just a DIY'er not a pro but this tool Rocks! I've used it to cut over grown brush and small trees in the backyard. I've used it to cut small logs for my fire pit and I've used it to tearing out plaster and lath walls in my old house. After borrowing a friends for a few months I new I had to have one of my own. My wife bought me a Sears Craftsman for Christmas. (yeah she rocks!) It was a smaller one but works great! The one I have even has a small LED light which is pretty handy when your cutting in the basement or into walls where its dark.

And the Number One can't live without it tool
The Cordless Drill! I love this thing and I use it all the time. I own a DeWalt 18volt. The spare battery pack is a must. Also I highly recommend the Rapid Quick Change Accessory Kit. Go from screw driver to dill bits in only a few seconds. What a time saver!


Other tools I highly recomend.
Prybar! Remove nails and molding or push decking into place. I've pulled apart old windows that were painted closed with this guy. I only wish I had a better tool belt that would hold this guy on it.

When I get the chance I'm adding a Nail Gun and Compressor to my list of tools. Talk about time saver! wow!

If your looking for a gift for Dad or your husband or brother, tools are a great gift!

So what if your on a limited budget?
Look into Accessories for these tools or smaller tools in general. Pliers, Wire Cutters, Tool Belts, Hammers, Stud Finders and Levels. The list it to many to mention but the point is all of these are low budget and can make great gifts!
;)