Author: Vid

The entire senior level management staff of the State Department resigned on Wednesday. All of them. It is the single largest mass exodus of institutional experience that anyone can remember. They are kind of important.

Also yesterday, the Border Patrol Chief position was vacated. It hasn’t been specified whether he resigned or was fired, but he is out. This is after an executive directive was issued to hire an additional 5,000 Border Patrol officers. The President of Mexico has already decided to cancel his trip to the White House over the proposed wall between our nations, much to his citizens approval.

As well, the National Parks Service has gone rogue– I am almost certain all of us have seen the tweets –after being issued with a severe and restricting indefinite gag order. Now out of fear for their lives, they are handing the rogue accounts over to activists and journalists.

Some supporters of the Conservative Party ( I will never again call this party the Right ) were absolutely certain that there would be a another civil war if Hillary were elected. That they would take to the streets with weapons and take their country back by force if they lost.

Well they think they have it right now, but this is what a civilized coup looks like in America. Call your Senator. Demand to know which of your leaders stand with you. (202) 224-3121 is the national directory for the senate. Provide your Zip Code and it will route you to your Senator’s staff.

We are not in the final stretch. Not by a long shot. There will be much more of this to come, and the only way to win is to refuse to be worn down. I was told that outrage needs to stay at 10 for the next four years, and at first I didn’t think I could do that, but there’s only one way to put it.

It’s the Right thing to do.

— Vid

A while back I gave mobile posting a shot and deemed it terribly unfit for my musings, but I figured I should give it a second chance. Seeing as I have been going back to old hobbies and habits ( most good ) it seemed like an appropriate test. Last night I spent the evening with my brother and his wife, and we had a good time all told; there was delicious Greek chicken with home made tzatziki sauce, a good beer or two, and the wives were interested in trying a cocktail recipie they had come across.

Considering that I have tried my hand at this a time or two, when they told me what they were making it made my head tilt like a dog that had heard a noise it didn’t understand. The plan was to make a watermelon mohito, but the recipe called for tequila, watermelon, sugar, and ice blended and poured over muddled mint and sugar, and mix with lemon lime soda. I am not a worldly traveled man, but I grew up in a bar and have done my fair share of drinking so I am confident when I say that is not a [expletive] mohito. That is the bastard lovechild of a margarita and a watermelon daiquiris with mint trying to be a mohito at a masquerade party at best. Regardless, the plan was to substitute the tequila for rum and stick to the plan.

…it wasn’t great.

So after the process had been gone through, I suggested a fix! We used a strainer to separate the frozen watermelon slurry into a fresh pitcher, added some more soda, rum, and a bit of sugar to the remaining pulp, pureed it completely and poured the re-blend into the pitcher, tossed in a pineapple core, and gave it a stir before pouring it over whole ice and adding a slice of pineapple as garnish.

It was markedly better, and they were enjoyed all around! I may not be able to cook to save my life, but I can rescue some abused alcohol. With that, I present to you my new recipe. It needs some refining, and a little treatment as you go.

Driftwood

8oz. Rum
16oz. lemon lime soda
24oz. cubed watermelon
3tbs. granulated sugar
Puree in blender
Muddle 4 sprigs of mint with 1tbs. of granulated sugar
Strain blended mix into pitcher and stir
Add pineapple to garnish or taste
Serve in rocks glass over ice

The pitcher served about six, and you could probably stretch it by retouching the strained remainder with ano there shot of rum, half a tablespoon of sugar, a few more ounces of soda, and a touch of mint. Probably won’t need to re-strain at that point, just restrain your evening and enjoy!

— Vid

I am not a man of faith, but may god smite the bastards who deigned it necessary to update the changes I made to the .CSS file completely eliminating the personal touches I put on it. This sort of touches on what I said last time about themes, but the fact is they’re necessary so now I have to actually build my own from scratch. Great. Seems to be a recurring theme ( cyclical pun! ) that I have endless trouble with this part of the site. So goodbye, “Twenty-Sixteen”. Ironically it was the name of the theme I’d been using.

Man, I really don’t want to have to do this by scratch.

Again.

Relevance!
( This really shouldn’t come up this often )

It ate the specific language on my 404 page, on my footer, formatting on my posts, really just just about everything I mentioned last time. So here we go again, time to craft it all and hope it works. It’s been a while since I’ve done solid web design, and correct me if I’m wrong but isn’t the idea of themes and style sheets supposed to make the whole thing easier? I shouldn’t have to go through a whole redesign every three weeks.

On the upside I guess it means It keeps me posting. Ironically I found all this out while getting on to update the archives. Guess that’ll wait a little while longer.

— Vid