Die Verwandlung
New Year’s Resolutions:
- There’s talk about a new food (cooking/eating out) blog with several friends. I want to participate actively.
- 2010 is the year of not eating fast food. The only exception will be the occasional visit to Subway. The list of non-allowed places includes Zaxby’s and Moe’s. The list of allowed (but largely avoided) places includes Hot Dog King. Here’s to healthier eating.
- In addition to the fast food fast, I’m also going to avoid soft drinks in 2010. In this context, soft drinks includes sweet iced-tea but not hot tea, even sweetened and creamed.
- Resume walking to work consistently - at least 3 days a week. I’m willing to give that up for a few months in the summer, but …
- Save and spend my money more intelligently, allowing me to purchase a bicycle and go on my mom’s birthday-bicycling-trip to Europe this spring/summer.
- Have people over for dinner/games/coffee/whatever else regularly.
- This will be the hardest of these. At no time during the 2010 football season will I start a sentence with: “If C.J. Spiller were still here, …”
One thing that I have discovered about myself is that if I attempt to impose a “personal” discipline, I’ll keep it up for a week or two and in a weak moment, give in. However, if I’ve told anybody about it, that weak moment loses most of its power over me.
There are several expected benefits to keeping these resolutions. The amount of money I throw away on fast food terrifies me. The amount of fast food that that means I consume is even more terrifying. Walking/biking to work is “automatic” exercise. Success in these resolutions should have me leaving 2010 happier and healthier than I entered it.
Heart of Darkness
IE6 is the Heart of Darkness.
Enough said.
But, for the sake of anybody who finds this by searching, the reason. Internet Explorer 6 (IE6) does not seem to take kindly to using jQuery to show and hide floated elements. I don’t know if it’s a general JavaScript bug or a jQuery specific bug.
<html>
<head>
<script src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.3.2/jquery.min.js"
type="text/javascript"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8">
$(function() {
$('span').click(function() {
$('div').hide();
$('#'+this.id+'_content').show();
});
});
</script>
<style type="text/css">
div {width:100%; float:left;}
p {float:left;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<p>
<span id="tab_1">T1</span>
<span id="tab_2">T2</span>
</p>
<div id="tab_1_content">
<p>1</p>
</div>
<div id="tab_2_content">
<p>2</p>
</div>
</body>
</html>
This code has a very simple display with a very simple functionality. Two tabs (T1, T2) toggle the display of two divs (#tab_1_content, #tab_2_content). On click of a tab, ALL DIVs are hidden (css display:none-ed). Then, the div associated with the clicked tab is un-hidden (css display:block-ed).
Simple. One (and only one) of the divs is showing all the time. Great. Except in IE6, when the first div is hidden, it still “takes up space”. The first div is hidden, display:none-ed. It isn’t supposed to affect flow. It isn’t supposed to take up space. It isn’t supposed to do ANYTHING. It’s GONE. Only it’s not. Because in IE6, the newly shown second div sits down below where the first div was.
Apparently, IE6 doesn’t handle hidden floating things well. It’s not universal (the page this code was distilled from had the exact same block repeated above it without the issue appearing). It might only break for the LAST floating element. I’m not sure. Clearing the floated elements fixed it in the real-life example this code was distilled from, but it doesn’t fix it here.
For anybody who doesn’t care. I understand. All I ask is that you upgrade your browser if you’re still using IE6. My recommendation would be Firefox. Google’s Chrome is nice also. If you’re attached to the Microsoft native browser, IE8 is bearable. Mac users, you can’t accidentally use IE6. Congratulations. If I catch you using IE5Mac, I will find you, and you will pay.
Pilgrim’s Progress
This evening, I had the distinct pleasure of frying a turkey. I had never before undertaken such an endeavor, and I can only say that I am completely satisfied.
For any of you aspiring cooks out there - in addition to a turkey-frying setup, you’ll need one (1) large pot in which to “brine” the turkey. I have talked to other turkey fryers, and many of them choose not to brine. I choose to brine.
Add almost enough hot water to submerge the turkey into the brining pot. Mix in one (1) pound of salt and one (1) pound of dark brown sugar. Yes, it sounds gross. Yes, it looks gross. That doesn’t matter. It will smell and taste delicious. Your turkey will turn out amazing. Heat the oil in your fryer to about 375ºF (this will take about twenty (20) to thirty (30) minutes), and then immerse the turkey fully. You’ll want to dry off the turkey first, to avoid bubbling and splattering, and then gently put it in the oil (safety note: turn off the burner before you add the turkey, and wait for the oil to settle before re-igniting).
Leave it alone for about three (3) minutes per pound (for those of you who aren’t good at math, this is about forty-five (45) minutes for a fifteen (15) pound turkey). The thickest parts of the turkey should reach about one hundred fifty-one (141º) degrees, which will reach about 161º thanks to carry-over cooking. Remove and allow to rest for about 30 minutes, and enjoy.
Simple. Delicious. Done.
Special thanks to John Breitmeier for pointing me to the Good Eats episode where Alton Brown discussed deep frying a turkey. For the most part, these directions follow his. Special thanks also to Alton Brown for making the Good Eats episode.
A Farewell to Arms
I just worked backstage for my first touring Broadway show (Hairspray) at the Brooks Center. We started the load-in at 4:30am and finished the strike and theatre restore around 10:00pm. That was only two days after a 9:30am call for the North Carolina Dance Theatre that finished around 11:00pm. My work for the majority of both of those calls was pulling linesets on the fly-rail - to the tune of 13 blisters on my left hand. It’s been a long weekend/week.
In other (even better) news, I played my first game with The Dead Presidents yesterday, after feeling “safe” playing since I finally have some timesheets in from my work at the Brooks. In my first game, I had one bad throw and one catch for a touchdown. We won the game about 14-6, and should make the playoffs. Hail to the Chief !
There were a couple of fairly small changes made to the layout/content with this update. First, there are now links to “tags” that I have made, and second, whole posts show up on the main page instead of just the first 100 words of each post. It just seems easier. Also, Jeromie (and maybe others) will appreciate that WordPress features a Comments RSS feed (that keeps track of recent comments) in addition to the Posts feed.