As I browsed the aisles with a 12-pack (of coke...I'm fully stocked with Coors Lites thanks to my brother housesitting a few weeks ago) and a box of hair dye, I decided it was time to go home. As I approached the check out counter, I went to swipe my debit card because with the advent of the debit card, we also all know that I never carry cash. Ever. I will run a debit card on a $2.19 coffee. It didn't go through (which the checker so graciously announced to the line that had formed behind me. I sighed and told her to run it as a credit card instead and as I went to swipe it again, I noticed it. The dreaded expiration date. That said 08/08. Yesterday would be considered 09/08.

To quote Emily: Fail!

Now, I guess I shoulda prefaced this story with the fact that I also do all my banking online. Therefore have zero need for the paper statements, which are still delivered to my parents house, which I inevitably tear up and throw away.

Rewind to Monday night when I was over there having dinner and my mom handed me my mail. I thumbed through, ripped up and tossed in the kitchen garbage.

Bad idea for someone whose debit card, aka sole method of financial dependence is due to expire.

Return to TGT. I sigh again write a dumb check like it's 1987 and take my coke and hair dye and proceed to the car where I try to reach my parents because it has occurred to me that Thursdays are garbage days in the BV and that means the trash gets taken out on Wednesday night so I must catch them before that happens. I had a sinking feeling that what I had ripped up on Monday night was my new debit card.

Of course, no one answered so I drove over and let myself into the empty house and made a beeline to the kitchen garbage.

Empty.

Boo.

So I proceed to grumble all the way out to the garbage can on the side house where the cans had yet to be pulled to the curb.

And it was then that I hit my low and began to dig through the garbage. Classy.

I found coffee grounds (which I later had to clean from under my nails), the old veggies that clearly hadn't made it to the table but had died a disgusting death in the crisper, lots of dryer sheets and old college notes that must have belonged to my brother, which were covered in all of the aforementioned items...it was GROSS.

At one point, my hopes were raised when I saw a magnetic strip. On a high note, it turned out to be a perfectly good Banana Republic gift card. But alas, no new ATM card. As I continued through the second (and thankfully, last) bag, I found the piece of mail I had ripped up on Sunday. Hooray!

It was a statement and not a card.

I dug through the garbage for nothing.

Major fail.

I was so disgusted that after I disinfected my entire upper body just to be safe, I helped myself to icecream and my dad's recliner and watched Baseball Tonight. It made for an interesting story when they walked in and saw me with my feet up and a very large bowl of chocolate chip icecream.

As a side note, icecream can make anything feel better. Whoever invented it deserves a big hug. After I explained to my parents why I had been digging through their garbage, they told me they never saw any mail for me that looked like it might contain a bank card and I had probably dug through the garbage for nothing. Thank you for that insight.

I promptly informed the president of the bank that I was in need of a new ATM/Debit card and vacated the recliner.

]]> http://gianniwise.wordpress.com/2008/08/26/ice-cream-lottery-hyperexperience/ Tue, 26 Aug 2008 23:13:24 +0000 gannaa http://gianniwise.wordpress.com/2008/08/26/ice-cream-lottery-hyperexperience/ ice cream lottery :: hyperexperience. randomised selection of icecream

Well, as i already experienced while dealing with the gcc stuff, compiling takes ages on this little bird.
That's why i thought about using the other machines at home as compiler nodes.

In other words:
How to do distributed computing and cross compiling on Gentoo using icecream and crossdev

I am using Icecream (sys-devel/icecream) and crossdev (sys-devel/crossdev)
The decision for icecream was easy, it supports its own "scheduler" which distributes the compile jobs to the machine which is capable of compiling the required arch and has the least cpu load.
so if you plan on distributing compile jobs across several hosts with different arches, and if you know that your nodes won't be online all the time, use icecream.
if you plan on using machines which will be on all the time and you don't care about the load, you should use distcc.

In my opinion icecream is more simple and "plug and play".
You could just setup icecream on any host, start it, it will broadcast for the scheduler on your net, announce its compiling capabilities and start receiving jobs.
simple as that.

ok, prerequisites:

Some Machines running Linux
Network Connection between every Machine that participates.
Working Compilers on the participating Machines :D

On Gentoo this is really easy:
just type:
emerge -av sys-devel/icecream sys-devel/crossdev

after that you should modify /etc/conf.d/icecream
Modify the Number of Jobs this particular Machine can take (similar to make.conf's -jN Option)
Select wether this machine should run the scheduler which distributes the jobs. (the scheduler should run on a fast machine since it will be preferred when distributing jobs)
Enter the Adress of the Scheduler just in case the broadcasting fails.

add the following line to /etc/make.conf to tell portage to use icecream:

PREROOTPATH=/usr/lib/icecc/bin


start icecream (/etc/init.d/icecream start)

do not worry if you can not see much progress in the logs (/var/log/iceccd and icecc_scheduler)
this is because of the verbosity level of icecream, the default is very quiet.
i recommend switching to -vvv (in /etc/conf.d(icecream) for the first few jobs to observe wether it works to your likes.

if the machines on your net are not using the same arch and/or chost you should now setup crossdev.
do this by simply invoking this command on every host that should do cross compiling:
crossdev -s4 --target #-s4 = stage 4


this will now build all the requiered compilers and stuff to $PORTDIR_OVERLAY
so if you did not specify this in your make.conf you should do this before invoking crossdev:
/etc/make.conf:

PORTDIR_OVERLAY=/usr/local/portage


on your target machine (in my case this is the epia c3 frontend) you should now follow these steps:
(for this example i will use an i586 target since this is what my c3 needs)

cd /usr/lib/icecc/bin
#wrapper to let icecream know which arch you want to compile
echo "\#\!/bin/bash" > i586-pc-linux-gnu-wrapper
echo 'exec /usr/lib/icecc/bin/i586-pc-linux-gnu-g${0:$[-2]} "$@"' >> i586-pc-linux-gnu-wrapper
chmod +x i586-pc-linux-gnu-wrapper
#link to the wrapper script
for file in cc gcc c++ g++; do
rm $file
ln -s i586-pc-linux-gnu-wrapper $file
done


thats it, doing this commands won't hurt:

env-update && source /etc/profile


wether cross compiling messes with the cmov issue of the c3 ezra cpu is unclear.
i will report on that if i run into troubles.

Now Chris is mad as a box of frogs and she told Bob that if i won't leave, she will. Bob said "ok, see ya!". And now she's looking for another job. She'll be gone by the 1st of october.

Now how cool is that?

Al parecer así se llaman en Corea

This past weekend Keith and I spent back in Eureka. It was relaxing to sit around the lake and not in our trailer, which has a tendency to not cool down. On our way back down to Missoula we snagged his parents ice cream maker. We have been wanting to make some chai ice cream ever since we found Silk Chai at the Good Food Store. As it turns out, they were out when we went back for more! Instead, we picked up a carton of Silk Hazelnut Creamer and a dark chocolate bar. I am a hardcore hazelnut fan, I blame it on Nutella.

Nutty Hazel Choco Icecream

1 pint Silk Hazelnut Creamer (Hazelnut Milk would also work, but the hazelnut flavor might not be as intense)

2 1/2 cups plan/vanilla soy yogurt

1/2 cup sugar

1 dark chocolate bar, chopped

Blend creamer, yogurt and sugar in blender. Pour in ice cream maker and freeze to manufacturer's instructions. Add chocolate before ice cream sets.

This ice cream had a very intense hazelnut flavor. I just wish Keith had chopped the chocolate smaller, as he just broke it apart into huge bits. We also added some almonds for diversity, but would be better without it. Next time I would like to make chocolate icecream with hazelnut milk substituted for soy.

...und es gibt immer wieder Menschen die versuchen daraus Profit zu ziehen, aber seht selbst:

<DABEI SEIN IST ALLES!>

With best regards

yours sincerly

:MAD

Alles fertig gekauft :-)

   man gönnt sich ja sonst nichts,

 na dann noch einen schönen Sonntag, wünscht

• 500 ml milk
• 125g Caster Sugar
• 1 Vanila Pod, split lenghways
• 6 egg yolks
• 100 ml Double Cream

1. Put the milk in a saucepan with two-thirds of the sugar.  Add the vanila pod and bring to the boil over a medium heat.
2. Meanwhile whisk the egg yolks and remaining sugar together in a bowl to a light ribbon consistancey
3. Cook over a low heat, stiring with a wooden spatula or spoon until the custard lightly coats the back of a spatula.  When you run your finger through it should leave a clear trace.  Immediately take the pan off the heat.
4. Cool the Creme Anglaise by standing in cold water, and stir to prevent a skin forming.  Pour into ice cream maker.
5. After about 10 minutes add the double cream and continue churning until done.
6. Freeze, and take out of freezer about 10 minutes before serving.

This is a delicious alternative to the heavy nut based raw icecreams and it's super quick and easy to make if you keep some bananas on hand in the freezer. The riper the bananas the sweeter it will be.

Ingredients

1/2 cup frozen organic blueberries

1 frozen organic banana

1/2 organic avocado

1 tbsp organic raw agave nectar

a splash of filtered or spring water

Method

Put everything apart from the water into a blender or food processor and blend until smooth. If it's not moving just add a little water to get it going.

Either eat it right away for soft serve or if you are patient enough freeze for about hour then whisk with a fork before serving. Yum!

TIP: Peeling and chopping your bananas before freezing makes life much easier. Peeling frozen bananas is a surefire way to get a bad case of finger frostbite.

Kate finally arrived and threw my things in the backseat of her green Honda Civic and jumped in ecstatic to see her.  "Holy shit you look like a fucking hippie!"  She was wearing no shoes, a white wifebeater, jean rolled up to her knees, with her hair in pigtail braids.  She laughed it off and gave me a big hug.  Oh well, I guess I was in Seattle.  I felt oddly uncomfortable in my Chanel sunglasses with my Michael Kors bag.  Oh well.

As we were exiting the airport, she began giving me a tour of the city. I pointed at the air traffic control tower and asked if it was the space needle.  As soon as it came out of my mouth I knew I would never live that one down.  I was absolutely correct.  Kate brought it up all weekend and told everyone.  I didn't mind.  It gave everyone something to laugh about.

We met Kate' sister, Kayla, and I decided I wanted some quality Seattle seafood.  We drove around the same block eighteen time before Kayla finally hit her daily quota on U-Turns and found a parking spot on the street.  As we finished eating we went to get ice-cream.  My diet was going great.  I hadn't eat sugar or carbs in eight days now.  Too bad the mint chocolate chip was calling me name.

We sat in Kayla’s car waiting to get on the ferry. It was supposed to leave at 8:10. It was half an hour behind for two straight hours. We kept busy occupying ourselves in the car. We laughed so hard we started crying as we ate our waffle cones. Kate started spilling on herself and we laughed. It was great. We watched an Asian in the ferry line trying to jimmy her car door open. Her and her boyfriend used a steel rod trying to cram it into the small space between the door and the window. They were very unsuccessful. People began to get out of their cars, thinking they knew how to jimmy a lock better than the other person. They all were struggling. This started to get interesting. We laughed, thought about helping them, then decided against it. The guy came up and asked us if we had a hanger. We said no and laughed as he walked away, knowing a hanger would not help them.

The seventh person walked up and offered to help them. I found it hilariou that thse white people thought they could open a card oor with a hanger. Finally the ferry arrived and people started getting back into their car. We pased the locked car and drove onto the ferry.  I had moved on from thinking about the Asian and her key problem. I was just hoping the ferry didn’t blow up like in the last episode of Grey’s Anatomy that I had watched.

...and one of my many vices. I believe with my fingerprints on the frost.

2. Go with boyfriend to goodbye drink at The Soverign- starts at 8:30pm.

3. Meet 2 best friends at 10am on the harbour on Tuesday morning.

4. Sometime Tuesday afternoon me and Dad go for icecream.

5. 10:30am Wednesday morning get picked up by Auntie- moving out!

Tennessee’s name comes from the Cherokee Indians. It got it’s start when the chief of the Cherokee saw a beautiful white woman. He couldn’t think of what to say, so asked her if she was from Tennessee. When she denied the allegations, he replied that she was the only ten he saw. Thus not only did Tennessee get it’s name, the first pick up line was born.

Like many of the other states near Tennessee, it has weather like a woman, it can never decide what to do. Am I right guys? Guys???

There was once this huge storm, but it sort of covered the whole area. Tennessee felt a little left out so it decided to join in and declare that it had really low temperatures during that time. Tennessee residents were forced to put on an extra blanket.

-The Great Smokey Mountains. Come and see the beautiful mountains, stay to see the residents in the rural mountains see a book for the very first time.

-Dollywood. It took everything within me to not supply you with a Dolly Parton boob joke. I am trying to run a mature website here………but wow, how are those comfortable? It’s like she was stung and they became swollen…

-Graceland. This is where Elvis lived, ate, slept, ate some more, did a comeback schedule, then ate some more, then died. Many 45 to 55 year olds flock to this site to remember their good ole’ days of rebellion, when they went against their parents and wore skirts that went up to their knee caps and listened to that blasted devil music, otherwise known as Elvis and Buddy Holly.

-1780: West North Carolina and East North Carolina have an argument. West North Carolina got mad and went to it’s room, drawing a line in permanent marker that North Carolina cannot cross. Thus Tennessee was born. Tennessee and North Carolina still hang out sometimes, though their conversations are mainly filled with many awkward silences and some slight swearing.

-1838: The Cherokee Indians are uprooted. They are promised that if they go, they’ll get a new sharpened stick. Many Cherokee to this day have not received their sharpened stick, but many do not care since they are getting their jollies by watching the white man come to their casinos and push themselves ever closer to a divorce and suicide.

-1920: Tennessee became the 36^th state to ratify the Amendment that gave women the right to vote. Causing many Tennessee residents to declare “Tennessee has women?”

Whites: 65%

Off Whites: 20%

Guys hoping to be the next Brooks and Dunn: 43%

People who claim that “the volunteer state” is a good nickname: 33%

Memphis: The home of something….something has to be there…come on think…I really should of actually done research for this.

Nashville: Where country music lives and where your dog dies, your tractor breaks down, and you push all your friends away with your alcoholism.

85% are able to read

19% think Garth Brooks should be President

-Tennessee doesn’t actually even exist. It’s a figment of your imagination.

-Tennessee is the only state in which you can never find a signal for your cell phone.

-Tennessee claims that even though it’s nickname is “The Volunteer State” that does not mean you can take advantage of it.

-Tennessee is actually a really big fan of the Johnnyism blog, and you aren’t going to let Tennessee be better than you now are you? ARE YOU???

-in a sworn statement at a Tennessee police department, Johnny signed a sworn affidavit claiming that he did indeed not actually know anything about the state of Tennessee and that he’s never even read a book before.

Al Gore: tried to be president once, now spends his free time pretending to save the universe from a more tropical climate.

Morgan Freeman: Hi. My name is Morgan Freeman. I got a cool voice that reminds everyone of documentaries. I’m a better actor than Samuel L. Jackson. Without me, there would be no March of the Penguins.

Miley Cyrus: the fifteen year old with questionable judgment that your 11 year old daughter likes to imitate.

Elvis: The one man who single handedly went against the “man” by shaking his hips. Not only did he invent music, but he is credited with improving race relations. He actually freed the slaves. See Also: Eminem

If you turn this statue on it's head, you can almost hear the ocean. 

This man is soley responsible for how great race relations are right now. 

3 out of 4 residents of Tennessee are involved in a country music band.  If you are not, you are considered scum and not allowed to vote. 

Some think that this is a photo of a football game.  Actually, it's a photo of a riot at a Shania Twain concert.  It's just a coincidence that there are people wearing orange football jerseys. 

This is what most people from Tennessee swear by.  Most residents swear that if this did not exist, then they would move.  Or probably just eat a different brand of ice cream.

If you somewhat enjoyed this blog, then please feel free to vote for it over at http://humor-blogs.com/

By doing so, you admit freely that you are a good person.

" THE  ALL SEASONS GOURMET CATERERS FOR SWANSEA" .

Verdi's is a family run restaurant, and are proud to be able to boast that all their chefs have" FIVE  STAR RATINGS" . It's a combination of the icecream parlour, cafe and a licenced restaurant. It's open the whole year round with ample seating inside and out.

 After a leisurely stroll along the promenade, why not pay a visit to Verdi's and relax in the tranquil ambiance  and very nice surroundings.

In the summer, sit outside with your coffee and watch the world go by! Or simply "chill out" and enjoy the sea views. In winter, castoff the "winter blues", meet your friends and put the world to right!

Images used with permission of Verdi's cafe, Mumbles.

UPDATE: Lost a kilo, so thats all good :D

My top 5 foods that I miss, but won't eat at the moment:

1.  Black forest Cadbury Chocolate

2.  Dominoes Meatasaurus Triple Cheese Pizza - oh the fatty goodness

3. Salt and Vinegar Chips

4.  Dip made out of Reduced Cream and Tomato and Onion Dip (I find it makes a BBQ kinda taste)

5. Orange Chocolate Chip, Gingerbread or Cookies and Cream Icecream

Looking at that list, it is no surprise that I had weight to lose in the first place!

Any fatty favourites? Leave a comment

The best part is that she hates me. And she does anything in her power to make me feel miserable all the time. I don't know why, I guess my personality doesn't suit hers. Probably because I have one. I'd love to go into detail about all the ways she has systematically -through her own uselessness, lazyness and incompetence- screwed me over the past 6 weeks just because she has the "manager authority" to do that, but I should save some of it for therapy.

The only reason she is still alive is that somebody thought about locking the storage room, where all the knifes are, and I couldn't find one in the icecream store (yes, I work at an icecream store). But I found another solution, and I'm pretty sure the next time she decides to get bitchy on me, I'll do something insane, like karate-chop her head off.

The only thing she does when she decides to drop by is locking herself in the backroom and watch the security cameras. And after 15 minutes going out for a cigarette. And coming back when she's done, then lock herself again in the backroom and talk on the phone.  Meanwhile I'm cleaning the machines, moping, serving icecream, making icecream and so on. After an hour she usually comes to point what I'm not doing good enough. And she gets paid twice as I am.

If her friends don't answer the phone when she's calling from her "office", she usually sends me in the back to make wafflecones, while she just seats there and complains about her "busy and stressfull career". If I'm in a good mood and I answer with the appropiate "Yes, Chris, life is so cruel to you and you DO deserve a week off, because things here are to stressfull for a manager from time to time", my ass is saved for the day. If I, however, don't feel like ass-kissing that day, it's going to be rock'n'roll.

Last week she reached out for the bleach. And she "twisted her hip". I was like "YOU'RE KIDDING, RIGHT?!". Wrong. She insisted that she had twisted her muscle and needs a week off. Today she "cut her fingers" while cleaning the icecream machines. Then applied some plasters on her very damaged fingers and amazed me with the remark "Look, these plasters are pink and match my nail polish. Wasn't it smart of me to buy the aid kit with pink plasters instead of white ones?". YES, CHRIS, you are brilliant, why don't you give yourself a raise?

I didn't say that, I was in a good mood today. I just said "I'm sorry for your fingers, Chris".

And what does she reply???

"I cut my fingers in that stupid machine and that's all you can come up with?! I'm sorry Chris?!".

And I'm like..."Oook...I'm sorry, did you want a poem? Cuz if you like, I can compose a song about it later. Bitch."

Anyways...Does anybody, by any chance, have a knife?

Well, almost. The very first thing that happened to us was we got thrown out of Eastern State Penitentiary for taking pictures. Imagine that! Being thrown OUT of prison!

Ok, so maybe the key to a successful engagement session is drinkies at Jack's Firehouse.

Sarah and Matt were great. They did whatever I told them to do no matter how kooky. And sometimes I really get on a roll!

Ahh, great light everywhere! Actually, as I write this, thunderstorms are rolling in so we made out like bandits as far as the weather goes.

Ok, as if all those great photos and the great sunlight weren't enough, Matt tells me that he owns Scoop Deville, an ice cream and candy shop in Center City. How cool is that!

All I seem to notice is what the sun is doing when I shoot. But Matt's got his eye on something else.

I couldn't have asked for a better day or a better couple. And I can't wait to photograph them again at their wedding in October at Sofitel!