So we got a deep fryer for Christmas, and today we bought some food to cook in it. Oh boy, let me tell you it is awesome! Here are the results:

• Shoestring French fries (Giant Eagle brand) - Good.
• Onion Rings (Giant Eagle Brand) - Not Bad.
• Mozzarella sticks (Giant Eagle Brand) - Awesome!
• Strips of Chicken with hacked together breading - Good.

Initial test results confirm, fried food tastes better than other cooking methods. We used Canola oil but I don’t think it really matters, this is a really bad way to eat.

If you are wondering, the hacked together breading was based on a quick search Heather did on the Internet and we improvised where necessary. We took 1 egg and roughly 1/4 cup milk and whisked into a bowl. We took flower and pepper and mixed into a second bowl. We then took 1/2 stack of Ritz crackers, dash of onion powder, 2 dashes of garlic powder, and 4 dashes of season salt in a 3rd bowl for our breading. First we dipped the strips of chicken in the flower, then the egg mixture, and finished with a role in the breading before dropping into the fryer. The first batch we cooked for 6 minutes and was a little over done so we cooked the second batch at 5 1/2 minutes and again it was still a little over done. The next time we try this we will most likely try 5 minutes and look for a replacement for the Ritz crackers.

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I switched my E-mail for my mandato.com accounts to use the Google Apps for your Domain (www.google.com/a/). At first I was using Thunderbird on my laptop and desktop as my primary E-mail client with the Gmail interface as an optional method to retrieve my E-mail. This worked for the past 3 months reasonably well. But since the holidays, the need to access E-mail as I’ve been traveling has changed my additude on the importance of Webmail. I’ve finally decided to now use the Webmail as the primary means of managing and sending E-mail. I still use Thunderbird, but only to send large attachments or send messages with return receipts.

The Firefox Gmail Manager has been very helpful with the transition. Since I have 4 Gmail E-mail accounts that I constantly switch between, this Firefox Ad-on has been a real time saver.

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I just listened to the post on the Geek News Central about how Verizon quoted a Internet Access rate of .002 cents a kilobyte and charged .002 dollars per kilobyte. The customer in question used 71,000 kilobytes of bandwidth. This sounds like a lot but once you translate it to megabyte, we are talking about 70 megabytes. This is the equivalent to downloading 2-3 podcasts, which could easily be done in the matter of a few minutes on a normal Internet connection. With the amount of downloading I do, I would expect a rate of .002 cents per kilobyte, since I could easily go through a Gigabyte of data a month. So, think about this…

1 Gigabyte of data through Verizon at the .002 cents rate, would be $20, reasonable monthly fee

1 Gigabyte of data through Verizon at .002 dollars rate, would be $2000, this is completely unreasonable.

1 Gigabyte of data in a month could easily be used simply by downloading Windows updates, reading E-mail, download and install a large application such as OpenOffice, downloading podcasts, viewing some pictures on flickr, watch a video on YouTube about how Verizon does not understand math and you got your Gigabyte used up.

Read more: http://www.geeknewscentral.com/archives/006671.html

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Check out the last 3 sketches found here: http://www.transamcountry.com/what_if.htm

If you know me, you know I am nuts about Trans Ams, specially the 1978 Trams Am with the WS6 performance package with T-tops, black paint topped with a gold screaming chicken! Now these sketches aren’t bad! I like the look, except the rear window just doesn’t match the sexy front end. I am aware that if GM builds a retro 1969 Camaro, then the Firebird will have to use the same body panels. This is a typical practice for the Big Three over the past 25 years. Their Japaneese counter parts are not afraid to make different body panels and windows for their different brands. If the decision was mine, I would share many of the car components where possible except where it cuts into the beauty of the car. Everyone knows the mid to late 70’s Firebird had a wrap around rear window followed with a steep Ferrari styled rear trunk topped with a whale tail. If GM wants to sell the hell out of this car, they have to keep that styling with a retro touch. Taking the soon to be released 2007 Camaro with it’s retro 69′ styling and throwing a 77′ style Firebird grill on the front will not cut it.
Hopefully Pontiac will get the magic back and soon. My 3rd car is reaching year 7. Let me tell you, these past 130k miles have been great ones and the Civic is as reliable now as it was when I drove it off the lot. GM/Pontiac will really have to work hard to make a car that can win me back. GM, give me a call if you want some design tips/suggestions.

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