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fuggled

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Posts posted by fuggled

  1. Making roux (at least dark roux) from scratch is silly.  I saw a Cajun blog lamenting the lost art of making roux.  Please, there is no art to roux.  It's not like brisket where every piece of meat is different and you have to sense when it's done.  If there's one food product in the world that you could 100% automate with a machine, it has to be roux.  I say this as someone who loves gumbo, who loves spending a Sunday cooking for the family and who would gladly spend an afternoon nursing a pot of beans.  But roux?  There's no magic there and I'll get it off the shelf for gumbo every time.

    Gravy, on the other hand, is a different story...

  2. Oops sorry, it was video from the GA senate.  I'm out of this. I read a few threads before I posted this and knew I would get the extreme left here which seems like 98% pushing back.  Is there not 1 person like me?  Someone that would've voted for Lloyd Dogget and Reagan?  Y'all seen TBH crazy af and no other views matter.  Keep in mind I am a guy that voted for Obama and Trump you crazy fuckers. 
    Ok, I'll play here. When you come post at 4 in the morning, respond to yourself a dozen times and call everyone crazy fuckers, you shouldn't be surprised when there's not a ton of immediate support for your point of view.

    That bring said, here's an explanation of the video with input from the GA secretary of state's office. Pretty much debunks everything claimed about the video.

    https://leadstories.com/hoax-alert/2020/12/fact-check-video-from-ga-does-not-show-suitcases-filled-with-ballots-pulled-from-under-a-table-after-poll-workers-dismissed.html

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  3.  
    El Diablo is right.  You added two of the three things in the plant need axis.  Light, and fertilizer.  The plants have the light to grow and the ferts to feed the growth, but no C02.   That stingray you're using is used on high tech "aquascaper nerd" tanks all the time.  It's very capable.  You could do 50% three hours a day, but I also think you could set it to between 20-40 percent and have the light on longer.  Does that model have the app or are the controls on the unit?


    No remote on this model and the only controls are on, off and night mode. Not sure I'll be able to dim it so may just need to cut back the hours.


  4. Nice to see a few planted tank people commenting, because I could use some feedback/suggestions on an algae problem I'm fighting.  Apologies for the lengthy post.

    I've been keeping a 20 gallon tank with my 4th grader for a couple years with neon tetras, cory catfish, some snails and marimo moss balls in it.  This summer we got interested in live plants and added an anubias nana and vallisneria in early September.  The val was spreading slowly and the anubias leaves started turning light green with dark veins, so in the beginning of October I started lightly adding Flourish and added a decent light.  Throughout all of this the nitrates were increasing steadily, 10->20->30->40 ppm in subsequent weeks with 25% water change.  So I started more frequent changes to keep the nitrates steady.

    At the end of October we were going out of town for 2 weeks.  To make sure the nitrates wouldn't get out of control, I did a series of changes the week before to get them around 10 ppm before we left.  I also setup an automatic feeder and reduced the food (we were probably feeding too much anyway) and had the light on a timer 10 hours per day.  When we left, we had a bit of brown algae that I was waiting for the snails to attack, but nothing else really.  When we got back home Nov 8th the tank was pretty well covered in algae.  Brown algae on the plants, a carpet of green algae on the glass and black beard algae on the filter, driftwood and fake plants.  It looked pretty gross when we walked in.  I tested the nitrates and then were still right around 10 ppm after two weeks.

    After thinking on it, I can only think of a couple things that changed while we were gone.  1) I wasn't adding Flourish those 2 week and 2) I had reduced the food.  Would it make sense that this created a "nutrient deficient" environment that allowed the algae the pop up?  Would algae have stayed dormant when the tank had lots of nitrates, only to attack once the nitrates were lower?  That doesn't completely make sense to me, but it's my best guess at this point.

    So, here's my plan of attack so far:

    • I removed and bleached all the rocks, driftwood, artificial plants, filter (just the intake tube) and the anubias to get rid of the black beard algae
    • The things I couldn't remove, I spot treated with hydrogen peroxide while the filter wasn't running
    • I scraped most of the green algae off the glass (I read later that it may be better to let it mature for 3-4 weeks and then manually wipe it out so it doesn't release new algae spores in the water)
    • I restarted my regular weekly water changes and light Flourish dosing
    • I added a few otocinclus catfish to attack the algae (they've already gone to town on the brown algae)
    • I'm going to monitor for a couple weeks; If things aren't trending in the right direction I'll try cutting the light back to 8 hours a day
    • I also thought about adding some kind of floating plant to block some light, but don't want to introduce too many variables

    Anything else I should be trying to get this under control and balanced out?  Any other theories on what might have caused things to go haywire so quickly?

  5. Am I reading this proclamation correctly?  Abbott isn't saying that state law prohibits multiple drop boxes and he's not saying there is a risk of election security.  He is only citing his authority under the COVID-19 disaster declaration to suspend the election code in order to ensure safety during the disaster.  The stated rationale is that he's banning the drop boxes to protect public health?  What a load of shit.

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  6. 4 hours ago, mdmost said:

    On the tailend of our trip in March, they started closing up the Visitors Centers. The stores are located away from the Visitors Centers and you can get by with masks and social distancing. The crossing was already closed when we went back in March. I'm surprised the Lodge and restaurant are still closed. They were open back when we were there. That was the only sit down meal we had our entire trip and they had the tables spaced apart and only allowed 20 people in at a time. You'll still have an excellent time. Definitely take the river road from Presidio to Terlingua and stop along the way. Lots of great stuff like Closed Canyon Trail and the Hoodoos. If you're a coffee drinker, the little shack in Terlingua just in front of the Far Flung Adventure Tours place is pretty good. 

    Thanks for the suggestions.  On the river road trip, is that drive equally scenic in both directions?  On the day we're travelling from Alpine to Terlingua, I'm thinking we could take the day and go Alpine->Marfa->Presidio->Terlingua.  

  7. 1 hour ago, mdmost said:

    The Visitors Centers are all closed as is the Lodge & Restaurant, according to the Big Bend NP website.  If you go into the park, assume you won't have internet or it will be spotty at best. Boquillas Crossing is also closed. 

    Good call out, thanks.  I saw that the stores are open and assumed that meant the visitor centers.  I see that now. And I don't know how I missed the Boquillas crossing, dang.

  8. Well, our family has decided to take advantage of the pandemic and relocate to Big Bend for a couple weeks while we're working/learning remotely.  The plan is to spend about a week in Alpine and then another week in Terlingua around Halloween.  We already have places lined up to stay.

    Looking for some advice on things to do with a 6 year old and a 9 year old.

    • Balmorhea State Park is closed and the McDonald Observatory is all booked up, so those are off the list
    • We'll probably make trips to Ft. Davis, Monahans and Big Bend State Park
    • During the week the kids will have Zoom calls 8-10 AM and 1-3 PM; Trying to find stuff we can schedule around that or find stuff that's worth ditching a few calls for;  I'll probably try to plan something where we do Zoom in the morning, head into BBNP and have lunch, take a break at a visitor center for more Zoom and then chill the rest of the afternoon.
    • What else is worth checking out in the area besides the National Park?  Anyone ever been to the Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute?
    • In the park it looks like the hot springs are closed, so that's off also.  We're planning to visit Boquillas and thinking about doing a rafting trip.  I need to figure out how well those are setup for young-ish kids.

    Any suggestions are appreciated!

  9. Here in Richardson kids optionally went back to in-person classes 2 weeks ago (my kids are still virtual).  As of this week, our school has had to quarantine one kindergarten class and one first grade class.  This is at a small school where there are only 3 classes per grade.  They haven't given much detail on why or what the protocol is for those classes to return.

    On a positive note, I've discovered that I actually like teaching my first grader (when I have time) and I'm 100% confident that I'm doing a better job than his teacher would.

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  10. I was born in 1981 and graduated high school in 2000. I don't consider myself a millennial.
    You're a "cusper" like me, also 1981. There was no major event between Gen X and Millennials like there was for other generations (Vietnam, 9/11), so there are a blurry few years between the generations. I remember watching the whole first season of the Real World, didn't have internet until junior high and didn't have a phone until after college. I also thought of myself as more Gen X, but it's not black and white. If you can remember the Challenger disaster, you're definitely Gen X. If you can't remember time before internet, you're definitely Millenial. We're in between.
  11. 4 hours ago, B00M said:

    AUSTIN (KXAN) — With active cases of COVID-19 in slight decline around Texas, a projection by modelers at the University of Texas at Austin raises new concerns. It suggests there will be 15,000 more deaths in Texas over the next three weeks.

    The model by UT’s College of Natural Sciences predicts that more than 23,000 Texans will die as a result of COVID-19 by Aug. 31. Currently 8,459 Texans have died since the pandemic began. The predicted escalation would represent a 177% increase by Aug. 31.

    You didn't link the story, but it's pretty clear the modelers think the model could be wrong.

    https://www.kxan.com/news/coronavirus/ut-model-predicts-sharp-climb-in-texas-covid-19-deaths-by-end-of-august/

    Quote

    UT modelers base their projection on current social distancing data they glean from geolocation cell phone data. An anomaly in the data may account for the high prediction. On July 27th, the state reported 1,202 deaths. The modelers believe this may be causing something unusual happening in their model.

     

  12. 2 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

    In other bad news, a UT model is predicting 15,000 more Covid deaths in Texas by the end of August.

    'sip study

    Quote

    UT modelers base their projection on current social distancing data they glean from geolocation cell phone data. An anomaly in the data may account for the high prediction. On July 27th, the state reported 1,202 deaths. The modelers believe this may be causing something unusual happening in their model.

    It's pretty clear from the story that the modelers suspect the model is wrong.

  13. 1 hour ago, Brisketexan said:


    One of the essential facts is going to be breaking down the driver’s actions in turning onto Congress and into the crowd. If it was an aggressive act that meets the legal definition of “provocation” (thanks for reminding us of the right term, 4th and 5), then he the defense of self-defense will likely not be available to him.
    It’s clear that he DID kill a guy, so it’s absolutely homicide. The question is whether it was an act of self-defense as defined by the law. And the law generally doesn’t provide for that defense for the person who provoked the conflict.

    I don’t get to aggressively point a deadly weapon at you, and then shoot you and claim self defense when you draw on me in response.

    Whether that’s what happened here is a fact question. And yes, if there was no provocation, then the dead man was the person who started the aggression, and the driver had a good self defense case.

    How much of this determination will be dictated by the driver's intent vs the perception of the crowd?  Even if the driver had no ill intent and had made the turn without realizing how close the crowd was, it would be easy to understand how pedestrians might feel threatened.  Vehicles seem much bigger, faster and more dangerous when you're standing in the road.

  14. 2 hours ago, Samson's Wig said:

    One option not listed in the OP is to disenroll them entirely and do true homeschooling for the year.  You would have complete control (so no BS zoom meetings and lame assignments that benefit no one to keep track of), and it's easy to find the Texas Teks and even the STAAR test prep information if you want to keep them in line with public school for a return next year. 

    Yeah, we're looking at that as an option for our 1st grader.

    Also, just heard a rumor from a principal up here that Richardson is planning to announce that the first 3 weeks of school will be 100% online.

  15. One other thing I didn't mention before, but I'm really not stressing too much about my 1st grader from a purely educational perspective.  I think a lot of people worry about kids getting a solid head start on learning when they're 4 or 5 years old, but I don't think it matters that much in the long run.  If you're reading to your kid, talking to them and helping them explore the world around them, they'll be ok.  A number of countries (Sweden, Singapore, Finland) don't even have compulsory education until kids are 7, and they do just fine.  Obviously the calculus is different for parents who can't afford to to spend that time with their 4/5/6 year olds, so I don't want to paint with too broad a brush.  Point is, it's easy to worry as a parent, but the chances of screwing up your kid's education in the first year or two of school seem pretty low.

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