holiday | Madarame's Blog of musings

Florida Graduation trip Summer 2017

Posted on July 23, 2017 by Madarame-Harunobu

What up peepers? I decided to blog after the trip back from Florida for a our girls Vacation. It was a great time, 2 days at Disneyworld. We got to see Pandora the Avatar Theme area, including the mecha Exo suits by the Eatery and Gift Shoppe. We checked out the animal preserve there as well. I did get some great pictures of the animals despite having a shitty iPhone 5C and its shit connection.

It was super humid there as well. The humidity was great for the girls and completion but the heat combined was awful. Ronda and I did escape from the girls for a day and went to Nasa Space Center there at the same time Mike Pence decided to show up and give some little speech on how cool it was that we finally got SpaceX launched finally have 2 horrible tries before. We even got to sit in on a talk with Ken Cameron Three time Space shuttle pilot and a Photo Op as well.

We went to Universal got some nice photos and some Video Footage of Diagon alley. I was able to get some of my butterbeer addiction going as well. The girls got some new wands and we did go to Honeyduke’s and The 3 Broomsticks got some new items for the Hogwarts section of our book case in the office downstairs. Funny thing though, Disney and Universal both having Marvel licenses neither one had anything with Stark Industries on the gift items. No Window Decals, no backpacks, nothing. I was sorely disappointed. I did however get a patch from NASA, which will go on my at some point leather jacket that I would wear during fall and winter, along with some of my other fandom fictional Corporations.

The flight back as a bit bumpy and instead of arriving early as predicted we ended up being 15 minutes late due to some light malfunction. Part of our larger luggage got slightly damaged nothing too noticeable. We ended up crashing when we got home. I ended up going to work instead of staying home and sleeping and a good thing too as I didn’t know this but my paid time off had ran out. So I ended up that week working 82+ hours and sleeping that Saturday in a bit till nine am in the morning. Well business is back to normal; Ronda’s watering the lawns while we try to recover them back to a nice green shade rather than the dead hue of fried hay. I was checking craigslist and ran across an excellent find. A 42 inch Plasma screen Video Panel with s video and rca hook ups no HDMI though. Figure that would go great with my oldest’s console rather than that busted up 50 inch Sony with a busted color wheel in it. I will find a way to get rid of that TV.

I also got a Nokia Lumina 512 to replace that shit iPhone of mine. It is a Windows 8 as well. I decided to try that out for a bit before going back to Android. Now have to find a replacement monitor for myself something nice 32 inches or more would be ideal, anyways that is all for now till Aug.

A Nice Garlic Turkey Recipe for the Holidays

Posted on November 23, 2015 by Madarame-Harunobu

If you were to do a Turkey? Best to Baste it every hour on the over with a 2/3 Foil cover on it. Keeps it nice and juicy while roasting, and if you want a excellent stuffing use some stovetop and FRESH Garlic sliced wedges chopped in with the stove top or within the sides of the turkey. EDIT and I’m giving you a great recipe here.

12-14 lb. turkey make your adjustments as you see fit.

1 stick butter, softened

¼ cup olive oil

3 Tablespoons assorted herbs (I used basil, rosemary, and parsley)

Zest of 1 lemon, plus the lemon itself

1/4 a yellow onion

One head of garlic, peeled

About ¼ cup kosher salt

Take your turkey out of the fridge; allow it to come to room temperature for half an hour and then skin it completely or as much as possible. Set the oven to roughly 450 degrees.

Prep your dry ingredients. Use medium sized bowl, stir together softened butter, olive oil, herbs, and lemon zest. Place the salt and pepper in a bowl and lay out all the other ingredients so they’re ready to go.

Do a thorough rinse the turkey under cold water and make sure to remove any gravy packets and the giblets. Place the turkey on a roasting pan and pat dry with paper towels. Make sure to dry the top, inside the cavity, and the underside of the turkey. Use a hunk of the butter mixture and rub it all over the turkey, over the wings and breast, underneath, and in the cavity. Then take your fingers and work them under the skin (I told you we were going to get up close and personal, right?), and rub some butter under the skin of the breast as well.

Sprinkle the salt and pepper evenly all over the bird and inside the cavity. You may not need the full ¼ cup, but the bird should look like a light snow has fallen all over it.

Stuff the onions, garlic, and halved lemon in the cavity, and then place the bird in the oven.

Roast the turkey at 450 for 30 minutes then turn the heat down to 350, tent with foil, and continue to cook for 1½ – 2 hours. Take your Turkey out after 1½ hours and using a thermometer into the thickest part of the thig you want the thigh to register 165/170 before removing it. If it’s at 150, you know you’re getting close so check every 10/15 minutes at that point. Remove the foil for the last 30 minutes of roasting, unless it’s getting too browned then remove the turkey from the oven, and allow standing for 30 minutes before carving. Take to the Table and enjoy! The left overs make awesome Sammwitchs with Swiss.

PS If anyone does use the recipe? Post up let me know how it turned out for you.

Steve 😉

Holidays……-_-;

Posted on December 23, 2014 by Madarame-Harunobu

Do I have issues? Yea I have a whole list, am I going to let it bug me or rule over me? Fuck no.

I let it flow with a restrain valve, I know when to leave matters alone and just walk away and attempt not to be pulled back into situations that I should just leave be. I wished however I was more clueful (Is that even a word?) I’d like to be a bit more mindful of myself, people say write it down, wife says keep a small notebook with you write things down.

I am of the mind of why? I don’t want to think of myself as absent minded. I want to be able to do Christmas shopping and have it feel like Christmas, not some rushed feeling like “OH MY GOD ! It’s Christmas have I gotten every one something, did I miss someone, did I buy enough and evenly for everyone to be happy?

I don’t care about presents for myself much, I have pretty much resolved myself to say to others”Don’t get me anything, I’d rather just have my steam wallet fattened with the ability to get a game or two or some type of electronic doodad I can tinker with for a prop or two.

update

Posted on August 12, 2014 by Madarame-Harunobu

Hello again readers, and to myself as well. It’s Aug 12th and just past 20 years of happiness with my beloved. Twenty years? Wow that just bellows your mind when you think about that. The events you’ve shared there turmoil and joys and with kids as well. The braces, the emotional rollercoaster fits in some cases and the moments where they need you to just hold them and let them know it’s ok or it will hurt less as time passes and they grow. Well me and the Mrs. went to Las Vegas spent our 20th anniversary at The Hilton Grand (Marketing Compound) Hotel and had a great time exploring the Strip/Casino areas.

We checked out the hourly fountain shows in front of the Bellagio and The Mirage which at night are absolutely wonderous with the colored lights and the musical sequence. We also took in The Blue Man Group Show at the Monte Carlo as well as a DVD set and audio CD of the show which was also great, save for some small back pains which seems to have traveled back with us and has decidedly hung around with me for the past 4 days since our return. I finally got one of those “Keep Calm” shirts, although it says “And get Drunk” I still like it, it’s not torchwood or reminds us of the tardis, it is still a “Keep Calm” shirt. Took some photos from the trip

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Meanwhile after the return home.

PC had an issue where the o/s would freeze and lock up and out forcing the system to be softbooted. Well there is a shop that I took it to have the issue confred that it was CPU causing the issue. I got it back with the owner saying it was infected with several viruses and malware and that my thermal paste had been dried up for sometime (Which that I could see maybe happening) funny thing is AVG and Mcfee scanned the system and found nothing save for some info tracking cookies. Malware bytes didn’t detect anything either, so I’m a little hesittant to believe my freezing and lockup of the O/S was due to undetected viruses and/or malware. I can see maybe a CPU overheat whch they said they did apply some gold thermal paste at no charge. next step, I will then hook it up and fire up #Titanfall and see how it stands up now and whether or not I freeze up again.

Soon, I’ll be 47 and I’m still nowhere close to where I’d like the game project to be. so many setbacks still much to do and its mostly programming I think at this point. Still have a unfinished map, got a decent and talented yet untapped artistic resource, just waiting to see what she has in store for us. Bruce is doing well but super busy on his side of the west coast BUT! he will be coming to #SaltlakeComicon and this will be a 1st time meeting 3 of the Team Jade Phoenix will be at one place at the same time!

And we’ll be doing this the entire time! PARTAAAAAAY!

Salt Lake City #FanX!

Posted on April 21, 2014 by Madarame-Harunobu

Hello Readers,

I’m back from #FanX and it was for the most part really cool as an event. I worked about 2/3^rd of it at my group’s Booth site #ErtGB . I did however get to do the following things which may be a small and hollow victory but I guess I will have to take it. But here are the following things I did get a chance to do while there.

Spend time with my wife admiring the vendors and celebrities that were there.
Get Michael Stackpole’s Autograph in my copy of Wolf and Rain. One of my Fave Shadowrun Novels and a photo as well with him too boot!
My Wife and I love The Crow, we have a print by James O’Barr entitled “Absolution” which he signed back in 1994 on the eve of our Wedding, 20 years later 2 states away at #FanX who is there at #fanX none other than the man himself and at his first Utah Convention! What surprised us was he remembered us, and was more than happy to sign the print again with a 20 year signature and I got another great photo with James O’Barr himself.
I did also procure a copy of #MagneticByNature for steam by one the local game studios at the University of Utah #Tripleslashstudios those guys just rock and we’re hoping to have them on the podcast again soon or at least before #Saltlakecitycomicon 😉 .

What I didn’t get to do while I was at #FanX because of certain obligations it seemed and also missed events.

Seeing and talking with Karen Gillian and attending her Panel
I never did get the chance to find the cHair booth for Infinity Blade that Epic had there.
I didn’t get Patrick Stewart’s Autograph at the end of Saturday night due to working with my group’s booth I MISSED PATRICK STEWART –CAPTIAN “FUCKING” PICARD- PROF. XAIVER FOR FUCK SAKES …….*Deep breath* because I was 3 mins late out the gate.
Didn’t get my pic with the Bridge from the NCC1207D (The Enterprise from TNG)
Didn’t get a chance to meet up with #JulieBenz The Mayor on #Syfys #Defiance
Purchase the sonic screwdriver from the inter dimensional Time War.
Didn’t get the Zombie/Ghostbuster Vinyl Window Decals for my vehicle’s back window either.

I did get a number of great shots of some of the coolest cosplayers there. Speaking of Cosplay, the cosplay contest was very cool and our own “Utah Loki of Asgard” Aaron was there as one of the judges (You locals will know of who I speak for the #AnimeSaltLake and #AnimeBanzai Peeps crowd). I loved the Suckerpunch Samurai crew that was there I even got to take two pics afterwards of them. They say they will be going to #AnimeBanzai as well this year, especially with it being the 10 Year Anniversary of #AnimeBanzai.

Here are some of the photos that were taken from the booth of the cosplayers I was able to capture with my phone. Including #Ert ‘s new mascot Slimer.

Day after Christmas

Posted on December 26, 2013 by Madarame-Harunobu

Well, Happy Day after Christmas everyone.

So the wrapping paper stuffed in the recycle bin, leftovers from last night from lunch, wreaths wilting outside on the door with snow melting quickly down the road. I seriously need to get off my duff, and steam da carpet like I said I would for my wife, get the office straightened out and looking good again. Returns to the store while I was away and replacements made. A Daughter who knows her way around a console hard at work getting it ready for her and her sisters to do battle on.

A Car frozen this morning outside as well as inside, needing a good defrosting for like 10 minutes almost cost me my clock-in time. Still wanting to build that droid I wanted. Now though I think I will lean towards a Raspberry Pi and use python to code what I can and see if I can get a hand thru a friend or two that knows python as well. Especially since there are modules I can buy for what I need for the droid. Example is a 5 MP Camera Module built especially for R-Pi as a plugin module, same goes for the Wi-Fi module as well. Still need 2 to 3 more servo motors just to be safe.

The 12th Doctor is gone and we now have a 13th in his stead and does not remember how to operator his own TARDIS? Bollocks I say! And everyone is freaking out on how the Christmas special went, well Frak off! If you didn’t like it no one forced your eyes to watch it all either! I found the story line to be acceptable if not a bit quaint on how the doctor gets to age, how he passes on from this generation to the next regeneration btw, how do you drive this thing?  For those that are big #Starwars fans, Pete Mayhew AKA Chewbacca will be at SLC EVE for the New Year’s Eve Cosplay Party/Contest! Check it out on Facebook and see for yourselves.

The weekend update

Posted on May 6, 2013 by Madarame-Harunobu

What’s up Party People? So yea this last week was semi cool in regards to seeing Iron Man 3 as a Company outing Friday morning, no spoilers will just say you HAVE to go see this movie and stay till the very end. My twins turned 14 over the weekend as well, lots of girls and nails and hair-do’s and sleep over, then a party on Saturday for the other twin and she had *GASP* 2 boys over at her party (Because 1 of the boys is her BFF) and that went well w/o hardly any incident oh and her softball team won their 3^rd game since the season started recently WOO!

Saturday was also Free ComicBook day, and Haustur’s had a number of titles out even some of the “old” favorites such as Prince Valiant, and Buck Rogers, with some new titles especially from one of my favorite comic publishing houses Antarctic Press Owned by Ben and Joe Dunn and their excellent creative team roughly 30 years in business now says they have that magical quality a American Manga Publishing house should have.

No podcast this weekend though, sadly those that were to show had issues on their side and were unable to make it. We will however be attempting to record again sometime this week. This coming Sunday however we will be having a special Podcast regarding “Cosplay is not Consent, and Respect for Cosplayer in today’s Comic Society” we will have a number of speakers on the show to discuss certain happenings that have slowly been cropping up at events/con/expos and not in a positive light either.

Farcry 3 Blood Dragon, what can I say in regards to it? Oh I know it’s like Captain Powers and The Soldiers of the Future mixed in with street fighter and Robocop throw in a kickin “80’s” musical score and it’s like Saturday morning with Mt. Dew and Doughnut back when I was a kid. It’s got some very cheesy moments and the dialog is hilarious to say the least I got to throw Props up to David for gifting me this on Steam over the weekend, it was great.

I’ve also started back to sketching things and people again. I’m considering doing an ArkHunter this time from Defiance, with a write up and bio set as well. ACK Back to work for me! TTYS

Madarame’s Baconized Ranchtastic Foil Sliced Spuds

Posted on April 3, 2013 by Madarame-Harunobu

Baconized Ranchtastic Foil Packet Potatoes

3 sheets of heavy-duty foil
10-12 baby red potatoes, sliced
6 slices of cooked and crumbled bacon (Turkey or Canadian)
1 packet ranch dressing mix
Seas Salt and pepper to taste
3 tablespoons butter
Sour cream for serving Optional

1. Spray each sheet of foil with cooking spray.
2. Top each piece with equal portions of potatoes, bacon, and ranch dressing mix.
3. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add 1 tablespoon of butter to each serving. Wrap securely.
4. Grill for 20 to 30 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before serving. Serve in foil, topped with sour cream if desired.

Perfect for an afternoon snack or early Dinner side dish when BBQ on a nice sunny afternoon.

Enjoy!

An End to the old and a beginning for the new!

Posted on December 31, 2012 by Madarame-Harunobu

Ok, well as I’m typing this out I’ve restructured the podcast, have registered or at least applied for a press badge for AnimeSaltLake on March 23^rd & 24^thwhere we’ll be covering panels and events from salt lake’s 2^nd Anime based Convention. What was received from Christmas and St. Nicholas? I received few pair of jeans, and a nice button up shirt, an omnibus of Genshiken covering issues 4 5 & 6, I also got those great Gashapon figures from Genshiken 2 sets as a matter of fact. So I have 2 Madarames I can build into a set of Genshiken Bookends for the office!

I’ve also reconnected with someone I didn’t think would still be around from the old community I hung out a few years ago. It seems that real life had got their meat hooks into him and made him get a social life somehow. Well he’s clipped those hooks and seems to have got back on track with writing and such and doing the net shtick again, which is cool because I’d like to see how the web comic he was doing before the meat hooks into him and tore him away from that. I really hope he picks it back up, the story plot was good, had some pitfalls which gave the story some attention grabbing.

We’ll be rearranging the office and moving it downstairs soon while at the same time rebuilding the old office back into a bedroom. We want to get a futon for our eldest so she has something to sit on in her new room downstairs since she’ll have room in there for one and she can have friends camp out in there as well if need be. Anyways, I’m currently at the office enjoying the 1^st Genshiken Second Season Volume One and it does indeed have a slightly different translation than the scanlations, but it keeps pretty much to what I have read fan wise, which is what prompted me to buy the 1^st Vol. and cont. to purchase the series as the volumes get released. Other than that, it will be a peaceful transition from 2012 to 2013, I wish everyone a Decent New Years and we will see you in the New Year tomorrow.

Metro 2033 Serial Key Giveaway By Nvidia and Genshiken CH. 82 Reviewed

Posted on December 20, 2012 by Madarame-Harunobu

Hey everyone, we’re down to less the 10 hrs before the supposed Mayan DOOMSDAY OOOOGA BOOOOGA! SO THQ/PCGamer/Nvidia is handing out keys for the steam edition of Metro 2033 <—- Click there for it. I’m not going posting till after Christmas so for some you there is a lucky break for you. In the interm though, I did hear recently from a friend I haven’t heard from after a few years. It is good to hear that he’s still among us out here, and has taken to getting out and having a social life and getting involved in the world.

My hope is he’ll be getting back to the webcomic he’s authored. I think it could actually make a decent Graphic novel once completed. As far as the podcast goes its on Haitus till Jan 2013 for transition period and the fact that it is the christmas holidays. But we will pick back up around Jan 5th. We’ll have few guests on that show and I’m prety sure you will all get a kick out of it. Some musical cuts and voice actors galore will be part of the podcast off and on all 2013 and as always we promise to make them not only interesting but fun as well.

Now, to Chapter 82 of Genshiken Nidaime. I found this to be quite comical due to the discussions that happen between Yamacchi (Mirie) and Youitake and Hato-kun with regards to Yamacchi’s birthday and a odd item they think is one thing but in reality another. *Don’t believe “everything” you read on the internet btw*
-_-; some of the topics were quite funny, especially when Ohno and Sue coming searching for said item JUST before Yamacchi takes it upon herself to ask Hato if the item in question was his in the first place. LOL

Anyways, CH. 82 was indeed a laugh-o-matic chapter and we enjoyed reading several times and I have to say I almost blew chunks my sides hurt so bad from laughing, which hasn’t been that much lately. Ok everyone, this is me signing off the blog till 2013 and I hope everyone one and all has a decent Christmas spending time with the ones you love family and friends alike. And to those trolls out there, yea even you, have a safe, friendly holiday season and I know we’ll be seeing you as well in the next new year, but till then take care of yourselves and Happy Holidays to you from me.

Madarame………