10th Video!

Newest video up, and my tenth one!  Yay for random milestone!  Yet another SCIENCE!!!! one, this focuses on demonstrations and uses for air and fluid pressure.  Exciting stuff, and also my first to include a blooper reel.  With fire.  And pain.  Mostly fire.  Enjoy!

See you next time!

Mmmmm..... Food.....

It's been a fun week of light-hearted general awesomeness, but unfortunately no time for videos.  Instead, we have lots of awesome FOOOOOD!!!!  Yuuuummmm!!!

We decided last Thursday (4/11) that pizza would be fun, namely scratch-made pizza.  Because AWESOME!!!  That's why.  Anyway, the great thing about pizza is that there is a fair amount of our wondrous SCIENCE!!!, as well.

Yeast is frequently used in baking to make doughs (any bread-like dough, including pizza) RISE.  Not zombie style, but literal growth.  The yeast used generates alcohol and carbon dioxide (see below) during anaerobic respiration or CO2 and water during (normal) aerobic respiration.  Any alcohol gets burned off during cooking while the carbon dioxide remains and forms bubbles in the crust.  Hence why breads and pizzas tend to be light and appear to have holes when the crust is cut.  Cakes and most other desserts remain comparatively dense, as yeast is not used and, thus, no CO2 is formed.  Some desserts, such as soufflés  do increase in size, but that's due to heat, not so much air within the product.

Example of aerobic respiration used by yeast and (when oxygen is not available), us.  Though we make lactic acid, not ethanol, as a byproduct.

As a final SCIENCE!!!! note, the same yeast is often used in beer production.  The difference?  Respiration: during dough making, the yeast gets oxygen, so it makes CO2 and water, like us.  Even if oxygen is depleted, any ethanol generated is burned off and the yeast all die during cooking at 425 degrees.  For beer (or any other yeast using alcohol) they are purposely deprived of oxygen, forcing generation of ethanol, and the temperature does not get hot enough to burn off the ethanol or kill the yeast.

Mmmmm.... beer...... Bubbles generated during brewing are from released CO2 from the yeast  S. cerevisiae, aka Brewer's Yeast.  Also used in dough making.  The released CO2 also generates the carbonation for the beer.

So, moving on to the awesomeness.

Mmm... dough ball.  Easy peasy.  Flour, yeast, salt, water, and sugar (for the yeast to NOMS).  Why on parchment paper?  I cooked it on a pizza stone and it would get stuck otherwise.

Flattened out.  Poke holes so the whole thing doesn't become a giant balloon while cooking.

Mmmmm... golden brown.

SAAAAAUUUUUUCE!!!!

Pepperoni and black olives.  Because it is the best topping combination EVER!  Also acts as a lab shout out.  Also have several different cheeses.  Can't beat the little bite of parmesan.

Coming out the oven of awesome!!

Mmmmm looks delicious.

Technically my first attempt.  I like to think of it as the "F you society!!!  We don't need round Pizza!!!!  Also, I can't seem to make a round pizza."

It's the fiancee's approval face!!!

 In other food news, we went to the Poteet Strawberry festival this past Saturday (4/13) with a friend of ours.  I didn't care for the rides, music, or vendors, but the FOOOD.  Oh, the food.

Hanging with the giant strawberry of.... ummm.... strawberry-ness?

Gigantic mother effing turkey leg.  Like OMG.  To be fair, cost $12.  Aka most of the budget.

Why have a fiancee?  To put giant turkey leg to scale, of course!!!!!

The one thing she wanted, strawberry shortcake.  noms.  She look so happy.

So that's it for now, hope that you all enjoyed and that you learned some dough SCIENCE!!!!.  Until next time, later!

A new video!

So, after the rather unpleasant (in the gut feeling kinda way) experience of writing my most recent post, I've got a new gaming video!  Hopefully first of a good number, this one is a top 5 list, in this case games enjoyed when I'm upset.  I hope you enjoy (but not because you're upset about it).

Guns And Abortion - Why Are They In The Same Category?

Not too long ago, I came across this image:

This is comparing the use of abortions with the Sandy Hook Elementary tragedy a few months ago.  So, let's get something clear here before I start.  I have nothing against guns and I don't care a great deal about gun control.  If you want an AR-15 with an extended magazine, laser sight, and silencer, go ahead, I personally do not care.  Heck, I went to a pawn shop a couple weeks ago and saw a bunch of assault rifles (from AK's to AR's and all things around them), handguns, etc. for sale and thought it was pretty cool to see them all.  Do I own any guns?  No, but I have used them and am perfectly fine with citizens of this country owning them.  That being said, let's get started.

The problem I have with this particular comparison is my feeling that this is a comparison of apples and oranges.  Are insane people with guns killing people?  Yes.  Does abortion occur?  Yes.  Here's the thing, though; according to the CDC, more than 91% of abortions occur at or before week 13 of pregnancy.  In addition, of those performed before week 13, nearly 70% are before the 8th week (http://www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/data_stats/).  Brain development doesn't occur into a usable (electrically active) form until nearly 20 weeks (when fetal movement begins).  What's my point?  At the stage where abortion occurs, the fetus is not alive, for all intents and purposes.  NOT, ALIVE.  By any definition of life.  Potentially life?  Yes, but not actually alive at the time.

Gun violence, on the other hand, clearly destroys living, breathing, loving LIVES.  PEOPLE die, not what can only be described as more than a ball of cells.  PEOPLE.  CHILDREN.  Who had lives, families, and friends.  One cannot, in my opinion, compare these two, and it is sickening for people to do so.  It's ludicrous and terrible to compare these statistics.

You can use all the standard arguments for both sides of both things in this argument: life begins at conception/no it doesn't.  Guns don't kill, people do.  Well why do you need such a big magazine?  Then of course the issue of rape babies (with abortion) and the latest "is it mental health or gun control that needs help" issue.  Blah blah blah.  It doesn't matter.  My problem is I feel that these two issues, while both are important, should NOT be compared.  They have no bearing on one another and are not related in any real way.  It sickens me to think that people are taking these issues to one another.  It may be another sad comparison, but the tact of this comparison reminds me of PETA's comparison of farm animal treatment to holocaust victims.  They are completely different and it is a sad fact that they are being grouped together.

Again, I support gun rights AND the right for a woman/couple to choose whether they have a child, but DO NOT say that the so-called 'deaths' from abortion are anywhere hear the same category as those of gun violence.  If you don't like abortion, fine, say so.  But don't say that the lives of 20 American CHILDREN matter less than aborted fetuses that may have been unwanted, forced upon a woman (in rape), or to parents unable to care for them properly.  That is just plain sick.  Again, in my opinion.  But it's my blog, so it's my side of the argument.  Thank you.

A look at the gaming industry big releases

Newest video is all about how big name, major title games seem to be ruining the gaming industry.  Not good for gamers, not good for gaming, not good in general.  From franchises to lack of innovation, I think gamers need to band together and fix this.  First, most of us need to acknowledge the problem.  So says I, anyway.

Hope that you enjoy and see where I'm coming from with it.  Until next time!

Exciting weekend outing!!!

So this past Saturday was super epic awesome s'more brownie day.  Following that, Christine and I decided that we needed to have a 'real' Spring Break.  You know, at the very end of what was supposed to be a full week of break.  Meh.  Anyway, she had the great idea to head up to Lake Travis and do some jet skiing!!!!  SCORE!!!!  For like an HOUR!!!  Cause we got BANK!!  Yea rental fees take both our cards and split that sh$& straight down the middle to not have just one of us taking the burdon of cost!!!  FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY FTW!!!!!!

Also we brought sunscreen.  Cause, you know, the sun was sort of out.  And UV rays are bad.  Have you seen my video on light?  If not, do so.  Talks about that.  Nifty.

Anyway, here you go.

Yea at the dock ready to go!!!  Also, it was kinda cold so she didn't  even take off her jeans.  Weird-o.

Panorama of awesome!!!  Also Christine's weird face.  Whatev.

KING OF THE.... ummmm.... JET SKI!!!  YEA!!!

Awww.... now she's queen of the jet ski.... :(

Yeeeeaaaaaa controls!!!  And some land of some sort.  I think the fastest we went  on the lake was about 64 km/hr.  Not bad, if I say so myself.  Also, got serious air at one point.  Christine did not approve.

The marina we rented from.  This is us actually waiting to return the ski.

Still waiting.

Sign just off of the marina entrance.  Because all water adjacent roads need the 'oh SH$&!!' moment.

After we were done with our awesome hour of jet skiing, christine wanted to go to a really good BBQ place at an outdoor mall (pretty posh place, I might add).  To give you an idea of the poshness, the Austin Martin, Mini Cooper, Ferrari, and Lotus clubs were all meeting together.  Really nice cars, but the people seemed like dicks.  Anyway, we go to the BBQ place and turns out it's closed for the season :( .  What does that mean?  I don't know.  But we can't have briscit.  So I got $10 worth of saltwater taffy at a candy store there.  Noms.  Then we took a couple pictures.  It is a very nice location, overlooks the lake.

All the above are from a balcony-ish thing atop The Oasis.  Gorgeous view and a lot of restaurants that overlook as well, but they're, you know, really pricy places.

Post jet skiing, staying up until 2:30 for the brownies, and no breakfast meant we were hungry, but obviously not BBQ she wanted, so we settled on a favorite of ours, HOMESLICE!  And no, not just because it sounds gangsta, but rather mostly because their pizza is super awesome.

Christine like pizza margherita... nom nom nom.  This pie is, sadly, gone now.

So that was our trip.  It was pretty awesome and, though I almost fell asleep driving on the way back (super jealous of Christine, in that regard) we made it back and had a great time.

Back to our regular grind this week, though, and I'm working on a couple of video projects for various things, hopefully I'll be posting my newest one for this blog pretty soon.  Until next time!!

Weekend Food Om Nom Nom!!!

This past weekend (on Friday, Saturday ish), Christine had the awesomely amazing idea for a dessert.  Are you ready?.......

Brownie S'Mores.

O



M




G.

I was like shea!!!!  Thus we began.

Gram cracker crust (bit of butter and honey added to keep the structure) and scratch made (oh yes) brownie mix

Pour the SCHIZNIT!!!!!  Mmmmm..... brownie.

Marshmallow fluff added atop brownie layer post-brownie baking.

Like a parfait, we have layers.  In this case, layers of awesome.

What's better than a marshmallow?  Yes, toasted marshmallow.  In this case, torched bruleé style.  Part to enhance flavor, but also to give a decent, solid surface to put more brownie on. 

Mmmm.... more torching.  Also angry birds.

Second brownie layer is slightly... ummm.... bumpy, I guess?  Marshmallow fluff does not spread well.  But we'll still try it anyway.... aaaaannnnnddddd

GAAAA!!!!  It's alive!!!!  Literally.  It looks alive.  But no.  It's not.  Fluff expanded and pushed up the second brownie layer.  Not bad, but not great.

In the end, we did still get our layers.  Bottom brownie came out a bit mushy, but still super delicious.  So now we know for next time :D

The torched fluff def. made a difference.  I could certainly taste the awesome, but subtle, camp fire style taste it gave.  Next, we make sure that A) bottom brownie cooks more initially, B) less fluff, and C) more even brownie distribution.  Still awesome, though.