Nobrainer’s Think Tank

Well it is a day of highs:

Dow at 6-year high

Whodathunkit.

Anywho, today also marks 365 days since my retirement account opened. How’s it doing? The share price has increased 17.9% in this last year. With a number of dispersed contributions, I’m up $250 on $1700 invested.

And to think that in a mere 40 years or so I can actually claim all my wonderful, tax free profits.

Target retirement 2045 here I come baby, yeah!

Ok my tech savvy compadres. I’ve got burned CDs. They’re not empty. But my computers aren’t finding any files.

Can you help solve the mystery, thereby helping to cement your role a modern day Encyclopedia Brown, or perhaps even a Hardy Boy?

(PS, I’m doing another complete install due to another hardware failure. The JDGA server should be back up in some capacity Thursday night.)

His success at designing cars has gotten him work as a designer with homeland security.

I’ve been looking for a good wing sauce for quite some time. Back before the Super Bowl, Will at Vodkapundit put forth his recipe. It was really not much different from other variations I’ve tried, but this one worked out pretty well. In the past, sauces were always too thin, and basically ran right off the wings. The main difference with this recipe is the sugar.

As derived from the link above and for the record:

2 cups Frank’s Red Hot sauce
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons margarine
a few twists of fresh ground black pepper
some kosher salt straight from the box

Everything was combined in a saucepan and whisked together. The directions said to “simmer” the sauce. My oven goes from “lo” to “hi” with 1 thru 9 in the middle. I kept the temperature on 1. I kept the pan covered for the first 90 minutes, then left it uncovered for the remaining hour, stirring every 20 or 30 minutes. The final sauce temperature was around 175ºF.

When the wings finished baking, I poured the sauce in a bowl and dipped the wings in to coat. The sauce coated better and was thicker than most I have tried in the past.

The wings were pretty spicy but not overwhelming, just about the way I like them.

Next time it may be worthwhile to put all the coated wings back in the oven for a couple minutes, and/or to simmer the sauce down a bit more. Overall this is a pretty good working base.

It’s been a good week for the University of South Carolina.

• The student-body VP freaks out… on tape.
  
  “You’re serious?! ‘Cock-lover’ has a double-meaning?”
• A student newspaper columnist admits USC can’t compete with it’s up-state rival.
  
  “Like, let’s just give up…. or something. Where’s Scooby?”
• And now, the admirable Gamecocks have inadvertently sent out over a thousand social security numbers via email. Fear not, mighty Roosters, by 2007, a non-SSN system will be implemented. As usual, you’ll only be 5 full years behind your “redneck” “ignorant” “stupid” “racist” “not-worthy-of-oxygen” “cow-college” neighbors to the north.

My evidence:

• I became very happy yesterday when I realized that if the Korean and I ever have kids they’ll qualify for minority scholarships. Minority scholarships are stupid, but perhaps the best way to fix the system is to abuse the sytem.
• At least one Gamecock is willing to admit that the Clemson-Carolina rivalry has transitioned form rivarly to dominance. Unfortunately moments of clarity remain few and far between, even for this guy. I suppose surrender is a legitimate strategy. Just ask the French.
• Living wage activists are on campus. Let’s just guess how much I like their message. You see, entry-level workers are earning “poverty wages” and sometimes still have to rely on government benefits, which all of us have to pay for. Obviously it is better to for the University to cut to the chase…. the government funded University, which we pay for…???

Time to throw meat on the Cause-heads I suppose.