Insights and Thoughts from My Perspective
May 3rd, 2012 at 6:24 pm

Baking and Cake Decorating

I'm excited to try baking a cake with my wife and two year old. My wife will need to have more patience than she's had to endure in a very long time, if not ever. First, because anything done with a two year old requires maximum patience. Second, because adding me into the mix is like throwing napalm on the bon fire. It just doesn't work out if you're trying to roast marsh mellows... right? So me baking is an interesting concept. I'm way too analytical, or as my wife says "you're anal!", but basically I jus twant to know what's going on and why. Is that so much to ask for? Probably. But that's part of this package, and it's not a dealer option. So I start with "what are we baking?", and find out it's a basic one layer chocolate cake. Mmmmmm, both my son and I are licking our lips. Then I ask "what do we need and where do we get it?", and the answer is typically vague, "blah blah blah, from blah blah and blah". Maybe she said something else, but that's what we both heard. So we're tag teaming the kitchen cabinets, my son Luke taking the lower shelves he can reach and I the upper ones because I'm too lazy to bend down. I don't see anything like a box of cake mix or canned frosting. Neither does Luke, but not because it's not there, more because he's got no clue what he's looking for until he finds it, and "it" is usually something other than what he starts out searching for. So.... "gummy bears? Yes, those are good, Luke. Sure, you can some." I turn to my wife with an obviously puzzled look. She says we need to go to the cake decorating supplies store, to which I say "What? Cake decorating supplies store? They have those?" "Yikes" is the look on her face. Well let me tell you, they have those stores. In fact, those stores have everything you can imagine for baking and way more. I was simply, incredibly amazed. Cake decorating, it turns out, is big business. I think to myself "when did this happen and why didn't I know about it?". Then I said that to my wife, and she told me I watch too many reruns of Two and a Half Men so I wouldn't know anything about what's going on anywhere. It's true, I concede that. You see, I record everything I watch so I don't have to sit through the commercials. I just fast-forward right past them. Apparently I fast-forward past most of what's going on in the real world. The cool thing about that is almost everything is shockingly new to me. Okay I'm way off track now, need to get back to baking a cake. We're at the cake store picking up some cake supplies. We have the ingredients for the cake now, but we're still looking for the frosting. Or so I thought. What I learned pretty fast after I asked about a tub of chocolate frosting is that I'm not going to find that stuff there. I am told either make the frosting myself, or buy fondant. Making chocolate frosting sounds incredibly awesome to me, but I'm lazy (in case you forgot), and so the idea is actually awesome, but doing it is not awesome at all. I don't want to make chocolate frosting. You see in my head I'm recalculating everything about this project. Originally I was think $10 bucks and 30 minutes, now I've got better data and I am seeing this project in a whole new light. I was off about the cost in dollars, $10 bucks is too low. More like $20, plus ALL the other stuff which brings it to $150.00. Disgruntled I start kerchunking the time to completion, which is already way past 30 minutes. I'm looking at the rest of the afternoon and part of the evening, plus. Yeah I know. I did not originally add in clean up time and my son is not going to take any of that burden on. So it's up to me, as I found out. So back at the cake store I learn all about the gazillion things available for baking, cake decorating, and making candy. It's really incomprehensible to me how there could be this giant industry based on baking a cake. Well, that and cup cakes. And Cake Pops. Yes, I'm hip to it now. But then something truely incredible happened. Right when I thought I was ready to go to the bar and get drunk, the owner told me I could get all this stuff online from their ecommerce website and have it shipped right to my home. Hmmmm. WOW. You would think I would have thought of that, right? Nope. My light bulb takes a while to start up, but after it's warmed up it's really bright. "So I can order all this and you will ship it to me?" I said, and he repied, "indeed". I like that idea. So I ask my wife "Why don't we just go home and order all of this online", which was met with immediate disapproval. In fact I didn't even get to finish my sentence before the look was fired across the room making direct impact. Normally at that point I shut up and pull out my wallet. It's the number one method for getting me outta trouble. It literally never fails. You know why? Because, I think I figured it out... My wife is not actually mad, but she likes my wallet and knows I will cough it up with the slightest indication of trouble. Now some friends of mine don't think this is right, they think I should keep my wallet right in my pocket and leave it there just to see what happens. They tell me I just need to "weather the storm" and once I do that it'll be clear sailing. The problem with their advice and counseling is that their lives suck. When they get in trouble with the wife, it can last weeks, sometimes months. That's not how I get along. I have a very good, understanding and easy-going wife. She does things for me, like brings me coffee in the morning, makes breakfast for me, etc. My friends wives don't do that stuff. In fact, my friends wives give my wife a hard time because she does these things for me. What none of them seems to get is we are happy. My wife would be happy whether I pull out the wallet or not. I would be happy getting my own coffee, sometimes I do, and I get her some too. But we have certain expectations of each other and keeping each other happy is a big part of that. So I just gotta do it, and life is good. I won't ever test it either. Never. Anything that works 100% of the time will always, and I mean as long as I'm living, be in my arsenal of responses.

 

Seems like I went way off track now and I'm not sure where to pick it back up. I can tell you this much, I forked over the wallet and loaded the car, then drove home. We baked a cake and later we decorated that cake. We had a good time, too. We ate the cake and it was pretty good. Next time we're ordering all our baking supplies and cake decorating supplies online and having them shipped to us. Unless my wife and son want to go to them store. :)

 
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May 3rd, 2012 at 5:00 pm

Protecting Your Electronics

Most people pay a lot of money for their electronics. We love our electronics a great deal. We depend on them for so much and we enjoy using them. But we tend to treat them with far too much disrespect. Our expectations are high, these things should work when we ask them to, right? But then we're ticked off if they don't. "WTF!" is the first thought when the printer doesn't print, or the camera is doa, or the TV, DVD, or gaming equipment has taken a dump. We just are beside ourselves, because dang it we need that stuff to work whenever we want it to work. It simple has to, or we are upset. Well being upset is normal when hundreds of dollars in electronics is shot. But to blame the electronic equipment? My first question is always, "Did you have a good surge protector and a battery backup?" And the answer is nearly without fail, "what the?!" Why would I have that?". That my friends, is what they call irony. You pay huge money for your electronics, but do you ever even think about buying a quality power surge/battery back up solution to protect the stuff? So being angry about it is okay, but direc tthat anger at yourself! THINK!!! And then buy yourself some good protection. For anyone looking to save a few bucks, but still wants a the best battery back up solutions, I've posted some links in the following sentances. These are high end, refurbished battery back up units. The batteries are new, and tested. Protect your valuable electronics with an APC Back UPS. Don't let power outages ruin your computer, use a computer battery backup. APC UPS can be used for all your electronic battery backup needs. The APC Matrix and the APC Smart UPS are two great battery back up systems. Protecting the electronics is really just about being street smart. I have a friend who, when I was a young un of about 26 years old showed me some of his rifles and hand guns. He took me to his basement, where he had a large safe, opened it up and there before my eyes was an excellent, organized collection of fine firearms. The first thing I blurt out is "wtf? Why do you have this safe?". He just looked at me and with great patience, he said "These firearms are worth thousands of dollars. For the price of the least expensive one, I have protected all of them from fire and theft. This safe even controls the humidity and prevents corrosion. Anyone who has firearms should protect them.", and his words burned themselves into my brain instantly. It was more than a light bulb that turned on, it was THOUGHT!. I actually understood and agreed. It makes sense to spend that money on a safe so you can protect the things you work so hard to get. It's not just about being paranoid, it's about being proactive and doing something which will actually save a great deal of heart ache later!
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May 3rd, 2012 at 4:56 pm

So what? You think you know it all? Maybe you do. But that doesn't mean everyone else wants to sit and listen to everything you say every day, all day.

 

Part of living is learning and part of learning is making mistakes. You learn really fast when you make a mistake about something and it effects something you care a lot about. Unfortunately, the more something matters to you, the harder is hits you when you make a mistake. The worst is when there is no way to fix the result of a mistake. Like a car accident, because you were fooling around with your radio or cell phone. No way to you can change that, but then again that's still just a material thing. What if you injured yourself severely, changing your life forever? You look down to return a text, and BAM! You are in a huge smash up and when you come out of coma you find yourself paralyzed. Doctors say 99% chance you will be like this for the rest of your life. Now that's hard learning right there. No going back. No way to fix it. What could be worse? Well if you're a good hearted human being, there are plenty of things that could be worse. What happened to the other drivers and their passengers? Did you kill anyone with your blatant disregard for safety? That would certainly be worse. Try to imagine how hard everyday would be, if you knew you cuased the deaths of others and destroyed your body all so you could send a stupid text message while you were driving. Simply devestating.

 

So somewhere in between being told everything you have to do everyday and learning entirely from poor judgement and mistakes, there's the middle ground. This is a magical place, if you can find it and make use of it. Everyone has to want to find this place and accept a little of the dirt from both sides. It's way better than either alternative, trust me. Being told everything to do and when to do it by somebody who's been there, done that, well that can get old, right? Eventually you begin to wonder if being afraid to make a mistake is simply used to scare you and keep you doing what somebody else wants your to do. There's great risk in that situation because one could venture out thinking nothing could possibly happen, then get hit by a train because nobody said not to stand on train tracks when observing trains. You see? You need to make mistakes when you're growing up. Parents rightfully protect and provide everything a baby needs, and sometimes that carries over into the childs developing years. A two year old needs a great deal of sympathy, patience, and some disapline. At two, the toddler has very little understanding of consequences of decisions. So a lot of protection is required. Parental supervision is simply mandated at all moments. But that doesn't mean a parent has to hover over the two year old and do everything for him or her. It can be done in a subtle manner, from a near distance, where quick reaction can still be performed. I pick my battles and I allow my two year old to make mistakes, at the right times, when the mistake results in minor penalties. My two year old does not get to make mistakes in parking lots, where running away from me while laughing can result in tragic death or severe injury. That mistake cannot be allowed.
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Protecting Your Electronics

Most people pay a lot of money for their electronics. We love our electronics a great deal. We depend on them for so much and we enjoy using them. But we tend to treat them with far too much disrespect. Our expectations are high, these things should work when we ask them to, right? But then we're ticked off if they don't. "WTF!" is the first thought when the printer doesn't print, or the camera is doa, or the TV, DVD, or gaming equipment has taken a dump. We just are beside ourselves, because dang it we need that stuff to work whenever we want it to work. It simple has to, or we are upset. Well being upset is normal when hundreds of dollars in electronics is shot. But to blame the electronic equipment? My first question is always, "Did you have a good surge protector and a battery backup?" And the answer is nearly without fail, "what the?!" Why would I have that?". That my friends, is what they call irony. You pay huge money for your electronics, but do you ever even think about buying a quality power surge/battery back up solution to protect the stuff? So being angry about it is okay, but direc tthat anger at yourself! THINK!!! And then buy yourself some good protection. For anyone looking to save a few bucks, but still wants a the best battery back up solutions, I've posted some links in the following sentances. These are high end, refurbished battery back up units. The batteries are new, and tested. Protect your valuable electronics with an APC Back UPS. Don't let power outages ruin your computer, use a computer battery backup. APC UPS can be used for all your electronic battery backup needs. The APC Matrix and the APC Smart UPS are two great battery back up systems. Protecting the electronics is really just about being street smart. I have a friend who, when I was a young un of about 26 years old showed me some of his rifles and hand guns. He took me to his basement, where he had a large safe, opened it up and there before my eyes was an excellent, organized collection of fine firearms. The first thing I blurt out is "wtf? Why do you have this safe?". He just looked at me and with great patience, he said "These firearms are worth thousands of dollars. For the price of the least expensive one, I have protected all of them from fire and theft. This safe even controls the humidity and prevents corrosion. Anyone who has firearms should protect them.", and his words burned themselves into my brain instantly. It was more than a light bulb that turned on, it was THOUGHT!. I actually understood and agreed. It makes sense to spend that money on a safe so you can protect the things you work so hard to get. It's not just about being paranoid, it's about being proactive and doing something which will actually save a great deal of heart ache later!

 

 

 

 

 

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