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Journal dexterpexter's Journal: Football, Gardening, Health, and State of the "Circle" 52

Journal by dexterpexter

Football

I haven't watched hockey in ages, whereas I used to be a huge fan. Given that I don't see many games on television and horse racing season has a few months before it really kicks off, I decided to get back into football (that is not to say that I ever understood the game)...just in time for the last couple of games of the season. It was surreal watching one of my old favourites--Green Bay--play because Brett Favre is still in the game, which was a pleasant surprise. Needless to say, I was disappointed when they lost the game to New York, especially during such a cold game where they usually dominate. I guess then that I will be rooting for New York in the Super Bowl, although I am not at all confident that they can win. In fact, I will be surprised if they do. Anyone have any good, possibly unusual dip recipes that they would like to share? I don't think that I am going to host a Bowl party, but I would like something that would go well with my margaritas. :)

Gardening

Do we have any gardeners in the Circle? If not, then I will spare you my tales and hopefully triumphs this spring with trying to liberate myself from my local grocer's produce (and $4 a pound tyranny.) Otherwise, if anyone has a favorite place online to get their plants and seeds and would like to trade tips (I will probably be more on the receiving end of those), I would love to spark some conversation in that direction. In particular, I am thinking of trying tomatoes and peppers in containers this year (which may not produce much), and then lots of random veggies and herbs (to see what works) in a square foot garden. I am also interested in picking up a Meyer Lemon tree, and need to find a good place to purchase one. My real triumph would be if I could harvest the seeds from one year, and be able to produce comparable plants the next--such a hard thing these days. Also, has anyone here successfully canned their fruits and veggies, and would you share some tips? I have an embarrassing, growing collection of Mason jars (I can't explain some of my weird collecting habits) that would be up to the task.

Kicking the Pepsi Habit

I still drink sodas (now happens to be a particularly bad several-day run), although I would consider my "kicking the habit" endeavor successful since I do not drink Pepsi every day and I do not need caffeine as I did before. No more horrible headaches from caffeine deprivation. Although I am particularly bad about requesting Pepsi when I dine out or attend a party, it is a vast improvement from where I was; whereas previously I would drink nearly half a case a day, I can now go several days (and sometimes a week) without any at all. Likewise, I haven't indulged in my daily donut in a while, either; I have instead substituted oranges. I have started drinking a lot of cow's milk and orange juice (healthy in moderation, but my indulgence in both have been very much not moderate), so just tonight I tried Plain soy milk to try balancing out the equation. I was sure I would hate it, but its actually pretty good for a drink made from beans. I am still looking for good drinks without an unreasonable amount of (refined? processed? unnatural, I mean) sugar or high-fructose corn syrup--unfortunately I get bored with water easily, lemons aren't always accessible to dress it up, and I don't think that hot tea would stay very hot if I carried it in a thermos. I am open to recommendations. I think that I am slowly getting onto a healthier kick, which is a very good thing. Now, I just need to push myself to go for a walk every night again, and resume my rowing, and maybe I will get somewhere!

State of the Circle

How is everyone? I am particularly sad to hear that GeckoFood is feeling a bit disillusioned with the frequency of journal posting on Slashdot these days, and may be taking a break. He isn't wrong; those of us who have stayed seem to have become suddenly busy (or perhaps we were always occasional-posters, and our slow posting habits were mitigated by the frequent posting by others who have sense migrated to Multiply.) Regardless, I enjoy his entries (much as I enjoy the entries of most of the people on my Friends list), and am sad to see people fading away. I still believe that patience may eventually win the day. People are slowly trickling back to here from Multiply, so I hope that eventually we strike a nice balance.

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Football, Gardening, Health, and State of the "Circle" More

Football, Gardening, Health, and State of the "Circle"

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  • But I am going to sit back and lurk for a bit. I still plan to comment when something catches my eye, and should the group reconstitute itself I am not far away. I do think I have given up on Multiply, though - it amazes me to no end that posts about *nothing* seem to be the bread and butter there, and posts that are worth the read quickly become page 2 material.

    My frustrations *here* are that there just is not much to read anymore. There's the occasional outburst, and sometimes really cool people (yourse

    • You caught me sitting on the couch, so you get a long response. My feelings won't be hurt if you don't want to read all of this. ;)

      I do think I have given up on Multiply, though - it amazes me to no end that posts about *nothing* seem to be the bread and butter there, and posts that are worth the read quickly become page 2 material.

      Reading some folks' commentary about Multiply, it appears to be a pretty unhappy place for some, and just a "place to go" for others; however, people (like Sam, for example) al

      • You caught me sitting on the couch, so you get a long response. My feelings won't be hurt if you don't want to read all of this. ;)

        I read every word, very intently. You've always been pretty sharp so I have always paid close attention when you have chosen to speak. Now, rather than quote big chunks of your comment and respond to points, I am going to cover most of it at once. I am stuck in the office between builds, so I am at a point where I can reply, though not to the extend to which you did.

        There

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Tet ( 2721 )
        Heck, we even had a devastating suicide in the Circle.

        We did? Oh. Apparently not so devastating to me, then...

        "I hate your religion and here is why I am better than you for believing differently," or "If you're part of such-and-such party, then you're dumb/a hick/naive, but I am above all of that because my extremist politics are clearly moderate," [...] I don't know if that sort of thing still goes on at Multiply in the way that it did here.

        Yep. It's still there on Multiply. I'm not sure it's quite a


        • I wasn't close to the person either, but there were some people here who were apparently very closely touched by the person's death, and there was a run of sympathy and condolence entries. Regardless, suicide is one of those uncomfortable things that leaves people wondering what they could have done.

          As for my examples, they were meant to be hyperbole, and were impolite at that. I am trying to sum up the feeling of a collective of entries into two or three examples, and this was the best that I could come
  • My lack of commenting is two-fold. First, I would say I am not a frequent commenter or blogger. The second, as you know, is due to my crazy travel schedule. Though as a side note, my travels have landed me in Schererville, Indiana, this week. I got to meet up with a friend tonight who I have been "pen pals" with via the internet (IRC, emails, instant messenger) for about ten years now. And I must say, she is an interesting person. Intelligent, but with just enough crazy mixed in to make things really intere
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • My lack of commenting is two-fold. First, I would say I am not a frequent commenter or blogger.

      I think that describes most of us left around here, with exception of Pudge.

      The second, as you know, is due to my crazy travel schedule.

      It is a shame that the job in Florida didn't work out as you had hoped. I wish you the best in finding something more fitting to your goals.

      Though as a side note, my travels have landed me in Schererville, Indiana, this week.

      Brrr...I will bet it was cold. :) I admit it. I look

      • Though as a side note, my travels have landed me in Schererville, Indiana, this week.

        Brrr...I will bet it was cold. :) I admit it. I looked it up in Google Maps!

        Yes, it was a white out my first night here. AMAZING wind here. It only snowed 3", but the wind blowed it into drifts leaving just an icy layer on the road and just enough snow to cover the painted lines (making navigation in an unfamiliar area... interesting). The wind felt like -20F to me! When I tried to open the door of my rental car, the win

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by pudge ( 3605 ) * Works for Slashdot

        My lack of commenting is two-fold. First, I would say I am not a frequent commenter or blogger.
        I think that describes most of us left around here, with exception of Pudge.
        Hey, I resent that!!!
  • I know that I haven't posted much, but I still check my amigos page as part of my morning routine. Maybe I'll start posting more often again and get out of my apathetic rut.

    I too tried to look at Multiply, but it was just a bit too much to keep up with. And I didn't like the format. So I'll stick to /.

    • I have thought about emailing you to see if you were still around, but I did not want to intrude...

      • Thanks for the good thoughts. I've been keeping myself busy with things like buying my first place and starting up a side business making roller derby apparel.
  • Otherwise, if anyone has a favorite place online to get their plants and seeds and would like to trade tips (I will probably be more on the receiving end of those), I would love to spark some conversation in that direction.

    1) I don't know about best sources, but the route *not* to go is loss-leader plants from Home Depot and the like. They grow poorly and saving a few dollars on plants into which you're going to put hundreds of hours makes no sense.

    2) At the other extreme of hippiness, "heirloom" plants ar

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • the route *not* to go is loss-leader plants from Home Depot and the like.

      You're absolutely correct. I would like to eventually identify a more reputable source, not just for better quality plants but to get more variety. That is why I hoped to find some good recommendations for an online nursery, since I am more likely to get the variety and reproducibility that I seek. I suspect that I should instead hit-up the hardcore gardeners and farmers in my family and arrange for a seed exchange.

      Over the last bi

  • I'm around, though only check /. once or twice a day, as I'm usually over at multiply...

    As far as gardening, tomatos will do nothing in a pot... you need to put'm in the ground, let'm grow until they are giant, then they'll start sprouting fruit[1]. Keep in mind that fruits need as much sun as possible. Tomatos are easier cause they get so big, but if you wanted to do strawberries, or blueberries, etc, then you'll need a place that gets full sun, all day.
    Herb gardens you can do in small pots and such.

    • As far as gardening, tomatos will do nothing in a pot...

      I know, I know, hehe. But I am going to be hardheaded about experimenting with containers this year and will probably fail miserably as a result. :) I am going to go fairly large with my containers (possibly a halved rainbarrel), at least for the tomatoes, and use heavily amended soil. For the pepper plants, I probably will go with medium-to-large sized pots. I will probably double-up and put some in the ground as well. Instead of using tomato c

      • Peppers you can do from pots, but the tomato plants I've been growing tend to get 6-8 feet tall. Granted, I don't do nearly enough pruning... so I suppose if you prune every few days when its really growing, you can do alright. The cages only work to a point... I eventually have to switch to wooden posts or it'll just take the cage down with it.
        This year, I think I'm going to try corn...
        • Oh, I also wanted to mention that the red peppers I grew took FOREVER to turn color. No idea what took so long, but I ended up picking some at the end of the year that still had green in them. I'd love to get anyones help on getting them to turn faster.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Abm0raz ( 668337 ) *
            Put a very ripe banana near them. Even on the vine, they'll start to turn and ripen faster.
            • I want the sugar in there along with the color. I like the taste of red peppers, not a green pepper that is red... The banana trick is basically what grocers do with green tomatos.

              • Re: (Score:2)

                by Abm0raz ( 668337 ) *
                My understanding is that if you do this while they're still on the vine, the starch will convert to sugar. If you do it off the vine, basically just the color changes.
          • I've grown peppers for the last several years so I ahve some experience, but some varieties of peppers take care longer to ripen than others. Most take at least 90 days from going into the ground, and some can take as long as 120 days. Other factors are soil temp and sunlight. They like as much sun as you can give them, but if the soil gets cooler it will retard the process as well. They are also more susceptible when they first go in, too. So if you have a drop in temp right after you plant (not that
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • You might try 'Propel', a lightly flavored water from Gatorade. It's not too bad for you, and has a light taste. You can find it in bottles, or in powder form.

    Grape is my favorite flavor of Propel, but Kiwi-Strawberry, Lemon, Lemonade, and Berry aren't bad. Black Cherry is brutally bad, though.
    • Thanks! I appreciate the recommendations! A shame that black cherry tastes bad; I am a huge fan of cherries. Unfortunately, a lot of cherry drinks are unbearably bitter.
      I would have to check and see how much high fructose corn syrup is contained in the drink, though.
  • perhaps we were always occasional-posters, and our slow posting habits were mitigated by the frequent posting by others who have sense migrated to Multiply

    I think that's exactly it. Looking at who's left, none of us were really frequent posters anyway, even when the circle was at full strength. The only frequent poster left on my friends list is johndiii, and even that's cheating (if there can be such a thing as cheating when posting to a blog!). Everyone else is on Multiply. I'm also on Multiply, but it'

    • Yeah, I think you're on to something. Johndii is min-maxing his char^Wblog.


    • Yes, Johndiii is certainly cheating! :)
      • Yeah, he hasn't even wrote about meeting me in real life.
        I did.. a blurb... and joked that he was probably disappointed since I didn't do anything \m/ metal \m/ like try to order a decapitated bat for an entree...

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Tet ( 2721 )
          I didn't do anything \m/ metal \m/ like try to order a decapitated bat for an entree...

          You didn't? I don't know about John, but I'm disappointed!

          • You live on the wrong side of the pond.
            On April 15th, Megadeth is in town. I'm probably going to go, I haven't seen them live since 1998 on the Youthanasia Tour.
            • Slashcode ate my smiley face after the word "pond". D'oh!

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by Tet ( 2721 )
              You live on the wrong side of the pond. On April 15th, Megadeth is in town.

              February 24th here. It's sold out (impressive, given that the venue is over twice the size of the last place he played at over here), but I think I can probably still get tickets from somewhere.

        • Yeah, he hasn't even wrote about meeting me in real life.
          Well, the lawyers warned me about that. Apparently there's still the question about damages to the restaurant, and the manager is claiming total hearing loss in his left ear. I told them it wasn't your fault, but you know how lawyers are...
      • Cheating? How so? And:
        1. That's easy for a lurker to say.
        2. It's getting hard to find appropriate poems that I've not previously used. You could at least appreciate the cultural edification!
        :-)
  • Hey dex... thanks for the JE post. It was a little nostalgic for me. I'm still lurking on slashdot! I don't get on near as much, but I usually read posts that seem mildly interesting. This one caught my attention, especially with some of the old circle members chiming in. I figured I'd say hello too... It's probably about time for me to cough up another journal entry!

    I lurk on Multiply but it does seem like there is a lot of tripe on there. I also started something on facebook where a lot of my friends fro


    • Hi! It is nice to see you around. :)
      It has been so long since you've journaled that I admit that I had to go visit your page to remember the last time you journaled. Imagine my surprise when I see (did I miss it the first time?) that you were expecting a baby in April. Congratulations?! You simply must update us! :)
  • Took a couple days, but I wanted to add some of my thoughts, too...

    Football

    I will be rooting very mcuh for the Giants. I do not like the Patriots and i am skeptical of their success because of Belichek's cheating. I have had some unfortunate experiences with people of that personality type and, IMHO, it is far more likely that he's simply cheating in a different, and probably bolder way, than to be now playing clean. I realize that it probably doesn't give a huge edge, but with all of their SB victor

    • On football, I'm with you on the Giants. The cheating bothers me as well, particularly the fact that they destroyed all of the evidence without showing it to anyone. And people generally do run true to form.

      The last time that I had a soda (other than club) was coming up on three years ago, and I believe that I'm much the healthier for it. The last one that I had was a Coke, and my stomach reacted badly to it, so I decided to go with my gut reaction. :-) Coffee, tea, water, and non-JFCS juices are it. W
      • I haven't been that fortuante yet, but I am happy to have met those who I have. The only time I've ever spent in Texas was at DFW, and then only for a few hours here and there;-) One of these days though I would very much like to meet you and RG.
  • I'm around, though I only check /. a couple of times per week. I do my journaling and such entirely on multiply now, but there are enough awesome people left on /. for me to come back and read.

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