June 2005 Archives
No one,
man, woman, whatever, can pull off a set of leopard skin tights like Aldo Nova does in the 'Life Is Just A Fantasy' video. Of course I love the song from my youth. But this evening Mrs. Oilman had to turn her head in shame. I understand her viewpoint. But I was reveling in the rock excess. Yes. This is rock 'n roll.
The Supreme Court really did it today. Forget that pesky Constitution, forget property rights. They don't exist any more.
Homeowner Loses Eminent Domain Case
So your land really isn't yours anymore. You can pay for it and live on it but only at the whim of Government. How the hell did this happen? Have we really come this far? Utterly disgusting and despicable. Thanks, SCOTUS. You just pissed off about 90% of the country.
I'm writing letters to my Senators and Representatives, locally and at the federal level. Legislation has to be implemented immediately to put a stop to this before the damage is done.
What kind of damage? I live in a part of Houston that is showing explosive growth, just near downtown. Old houses like mine are being squashed and townhouses are being built. Three townhouses on a lot vs. one house. Tax revenue.Guess what. I have a corner lot. I am now a target for this crap.
Even worse, my wife's family has a beach house on Jacksonville Beach. Theyve had it since before WWII. It is surrounded by condos but it is still there. How long do you think it will take before they are kicked off of their family property? I give it 2 months.
Im just furious right now. This fight will be won in the legislatures on the local, state and federal level. Start this fight immediately.
Mad Oilman was minding his own business, hard at work on a road trip in Tulsa when his wife sent him this link:
Of course, she added "We're going, right?"
Well, not one to disappoint my sweetie I emailed her back, 'Yes, sign us up. But. I don't have a rifle for this. I'll have to buy one'.
She agreed.
And now, what to buy? Long range open sight shooting? I was leaning FN-FAL or M1A but I'm fairly ignorant of this type of shooting. So I went to a phenomenal resource to see what would happen.
I posted "M1A vs. FN-FAL for High power rifle competition?" on Kim du Toit's forum. Within a few hours there was a raging debate on this topic. Luckily one of the respondents is a national level competitor. His advice was great and lead to my choice of rifle for our October adventure.
I can use this rifle in any NRA or CMP sanctioned event. I'm pricing it out in my market. Most prices are coming in at least 10% lower than MSRP, and others lower. Cool. It will be fun to break this in.
Well, Mad Oilman thinks it is time for a proper Steak Fiorentina. Tuscan classic. Basically you take a honkin' big t-bone (2-1/2 - 3 lbs), coat it in a dry rub of fresh rosemary, thyme, sage, salt and pepper, and blast the crap out of it on the hottest grill you can muster. 12 minutes side one, 9 minutes side two. On a steak that is nearly 3" thick.
Well, a 2-1/2 to 3" t-bone ain't cheap. But Central Market just sent a $10 off STEAK coupon in the mail. Expensive recipe? Yes. But 10$ off? Time to see how this recipe holds up.
Get to the counter, and of course the butchers have been crushed under steak requests. "Ninety one! Ninety one!" the bloodied butcher yelled. Professional purchaser that I am, I responded "NINETY ONE!" in my most forceful baritone. Taught my fellow meat counter pikers a lesson. You want service? Command service.
I point to the T-bones. " I need a 2-1/2 to 3 pound T-bone". Butcher responds "I'll have to cut one."
What would you say? I said "Excellent. Cut it"
Waiting patiently, several butchers asked if I needed assistance. I just pointed to my new friend at the band saw. "Oh. Yeah." And away they went to serve hamburger and sausage. They were jealous.
My man comes back and displays the majesty of beef. Three of his fellow butchers gathered as he held it above his head and placed it upon the scale. There was a strange silence amongst them.
"That's a beautiful steak" one of them finally exclaimed, caught in the reverie of the moment. Many at the counter stood dumbfounded at the sight of this monster. Final tally? 2-2/3 pounder.
Well, I get it home, prep the rest of the meal and now it is time to prep the meat. Fresh rub, drizzle with oil, an into the hottest pan I have.
First note. That is not a T-Bone. It's a porterhouse. A prime porterhouse. Look at the size of the fillet on that thing. And he charged me T-bone price. Hooray Butcher! Challenge your butcher and he will reward you.
That is a 12" pan. On high heat with no oil for a good 15 minutes before I dropped the steak in. Gotta love cast iron and its heat retention in this case.
Departing from the recipe, I did not coat both sides of the steak before placing it into the pan. Didn't want to waste any of that goodness.
Still fresh in the pan, I coat the other side. Which looks like this:
My spoonholder trout is starting to eye this thing.
The house is really starting to smell good. After 12 minutes, it's time to flip. As I've never flipped a nearly 3 pound herb crusted steak, this was a bit awkward. Luckily, the 12 uninterrupted minutes transformed the herbs into a thick black crust, which separated easily from the pan. A breeze.
9 more minutes and it's off the heat. To rest. As illustrated here:
Rest for 5 minutes. This serves four easily. And it is ridiculously good.
Formally, the chef will bring this entire steak tableside. He will then remove the fillet and the strip from the bone, slice it, and serve each patron a portion of each. I think Ill have to do that in the near future.
And for all the temperature freaks out there, this steak had it all. Near the bone, rare. Progressing to medium rare in the majority of the meat to medium on the extremities. A taste for all.
Lot's of hype about this one. The premise seemed interesting so I bought it.
I'm starting to learn a lesson the older I get. DON'T READ THE FOREWORD! or the Introduction. Jeez! I get set up for failure on so many occasions it's just probably better to start at Chapter 1 and move on. Foreword and Intro after the book is complete. At least that way I can see how well I perceive biases or slant. But I'm off topic here.
As above, great topic. This book is a turd. An utter turd. Fawning praise of the co-author? Yep. Endlessly. Sociology posing as hard economics? Yep.
From the intro we learn that this book was an expansion of a NYT Sunday Magazine story. Book is coauthored by said reporter. And guess what? That's what this book is. An extremely padded large font 'we need 180 pages 'cus the publisher said so' book. And it is really, really too bad. There should be a hell of a lot of material here but any semblance of a proper book is wasted in this vacuous cesspool of a joke.
And given the massive number of blank pages with simple one line sentences fawning over the author, I read this book in about an hour. That's not a book.
Writing a good general reader hard science book is hard. These guys didnt even try.
Don't waste your time.
Working for a major manufacturer, I've seen firsthand the impact of that ill-conceived Sarbanes-Oxley law on our business. To the point that we actually have an officer of the company with the sole responsibility of getting us into and maintaining compliance with that law. My own small chunk of business has been audited twice in the past two years. By utterly clueless fresh accounting graduates now thrust into a job I hope they learn to hate. I have a staff of seven. Good intentions have lead to pernicious, overbearing and quite costly results.
So how does this relate to Amazon? Well, I'm a frequent Amazon purchaser. Mostly books that I can't find locally. In the past, I would be debited immediately upon purchase. But the last few purchases I've noticed that this is not occurring. I'm debited upon shipment. Since I'm a cheap bastard and I use Super Saver shipping, this means I'm not debited for up to ten days after purchase.
And I just put two and two together this evening. Amazon has to deal with Sarbox just like I do. Can't invoice or claim revenue or receivables until shipment. Thus the change in payment for all of the stuff I buy on Amazon.
Saudi Arabia has pledged to increase the production from their oilfields. As many of these fields are veterans and depleting, this requires drilling and infrastructure development. Which costs big bucks. Since this ramp up is occurring now, the Saudis are learning quite rapidly about oilfield economics. When oil is consistently above $50, oilfield manufacturers, suppliers, engineering firms, etc. cannot keep up with demand. And from Econ 101, increased demand and limited supply means prices go up. The initial $12-15 billion project has now inflated to $15-18 billion. As expertly reported in Rigzone:
Costs Rising for Saudi Oil Expansion Plans
And although that is interesting in its own right, the tidbit that Saudi is focusing on a $35 a barrel floor on oil prices is most interesting. Just last year the OPEC basket was targeted roughly between $24 and $30 a barrel. This is a damn good indication that those days are long gone.
