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The secret is out:  that is the name of my revolutionary pizza concept.

There are a few tweaks to the dough recipe but it is remarkably similar.  It has to be baked right (i.e., hot) to get that “pizza flavor.”  And to acheive that special combination of chewiness and crispiness it has to be hot and fast, not twice-baked.  Also, in my experience, it should be placed on a hot surface such as a hot pan, stone, or oven.

After many years I have learned that, while it can be done, there is usually no substitute for kneading.  The pizza dough for the above pie was kneaded for almost ten minutes.  This gave it that perfect consistency and I believe helps with the ability to rise properly.  Also, proper kneading allows for the pizza to slide off of a board or pizza peel, thus keeping the bottom of the cooking surface hot.

This particular pizza dough was made yesterday and stored in the refrigerator overnight.  This, an approximately 11-inch pizza, is one-quarter of the three-plus cups of flour recipe.

mgoblogging equals peter; pcpfeiffer.com equals mgoblogging.

 

 

The smartphone is here.  And this is the cracked tablet.    

Regarding the lights, I got another one today.

“So?” she replied.

“I didn’t order it,” I said.

My favorite thing about eBay is there is no bargaining.  There can be bidding, but you can’t make anything go down (“make offer” notwithstanding).  Someone, somewhere is offering something and I assume they are pleased I am buying it.  If it costs $1 with free shipping and comes from China or the Philippines, so be it.

I have ordered maybe thirty lights, cables, or other gadgets for a total cost of about $75.  Part of the beauty for eBay is if you sell things and then buy more through PayPal, well, they like you more.

Especially with ordering a two-watt bulb for a dollar, it is pretty riskless.  I may even get a surprise, and who doesn’t like packages in the mail?

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The hardest thing to understand for me was the concept of ‘we don’t know what’s going on.’  The folks at eBay are really good programmers—everything from logging-in to printing shipping labels is as easy as it can be on the web.  But all they can do is set up flags or blocks and such; it is not monitored real time.  There are many things that do or can happen after the transaction, many of which are for if it does not go smoothly.  These help eBay set up flags and improve.  It is a script, but they actually come out and say it.

The beauty of the concept, and its major risk, is that there is no cost of goods sold.  The system is set up—again, they are good programmers—and in theory runs itself.  Again, when dysfunction happens there are improvements made to the system.  It is almost like artificial intelligence.  Then it runs on again until something in the market or something in the system changes.

The customer experience both as a buyer and seller is it is a set-up system, but you must conform to it. 

 

I really do have something to write here so I’ m just going to do it.  The local world seems to be IT IS IN PLACE AND FUNCTIONING BUT WE DON’T REALLY MONITOR IT.  Is this the way business works today?  If your business is a website, then it acts differently.  But isn’t that the way government operates too?

 

I don’t know about all the laws

 

First there is “I don’t know about all the laws.”  That is a direct quote, I won’t say who said it.  Then there is:

 

We don’t enforce all the laws

 

And finally, if you are really paying attention and are really diligent you get to a point where.

 

We couldn’t do it if we wanted to.  We just don’t have the resources.

 

Maybe business has not changed—they buy a product and if they do not complain you assume they are happy.  (Actually, if that were true I would not have had a job.)  But damn, you sure can do a lot more of it when you have good programmers.  The other day I went to mail one of my trinkets to a friend and it took me three days with the label sizes, FIRST CLASS, and the way I wanted to set it up for my business.  That it cost twice as much to send it to Denver than it did for the whole product to be be shipped from China was not my concern at all.  Okay, a little, given the entire subject of economics.  It took me one minute to buy it on eBay and it arrived about a week later.  You talk about a “market maker,” man ‘o alive.

Oh, and you cannot even buy the light bulbs here in the U.S. because they are made for the rest of the world.

 

P.S.  Overall I have received excellent service from foreign sellers.  A few of the items are the break in your hand variety.  One, a $9 128 GB flashdrive did not work for many reasons and I received a refund.  The really fine print truth is that it does work, it just does not do all the things that a SanDisk will do and that is what I expected.  But I provided useful input to the seller—for anyone smuggling bags full of flashdrives full of HD movies across borders it may not do the trick.  It is mind-boggling to see sellers with hundreds of thousands of reviews.  I think some are still learning the eBay way.  The woman who bought the tablet with the edge to edge crack wanted a refund and I refused; the woman in India who initially paid $200 for the hot (pardon me, hottest-selling) cellphone, but did not pay, maybe did not understand the shipping specifics (or that it probably would not work in India).  I need to do some research into eBay financials.  Did you know you cannot buy something and send it to another address on eBay?

Actually, I think I am ready to move in.  It is still snowing, and it is a holiday, and it is really quiet.  It isn’t even that long of a drive.

Still, I want to watch the movie.  I have never seen it start to finish.

Fergodsakes it was in Friends too!

Do you like horror movies is a mandatory question on OkCupid.  It is the number one matchmaking question!  I don’t remember what the guy who wrote the book said, but…

And thanks to Tr*** I now have a profile.  We’ll see how it goes.  There were a few things removed BECAUSE THEY COULD BE MISINTERPRETED but I am good to go now.

(EDIT:  This was hidden for over a year.)

I “met” this woman online.  You’ve heard of it, but it is still a very small, the western city she is from.  Her profile, sans image, is unusually brief.  The site says we have a lot in common.

She wrote several times.  I recently had another odd experience (the nomad woman) and was leery.  She knew—again the second time—a lot about trees and deer and elk.

It is a small town, which explains her reclusiveness.

She had been married to a guy who had a brief go in history.  He has money and various business ventures and together they left a legacy in the state supreme court.  All of this is no big deal.

There was a previous marriage with children.  And, afterward, there was another failed marriage with children.

Now, deception.

Ninety percent says stay away.  I made the request.  Still, there is suspense.

(This?  I don’t know.  For Sale (el lobo yacht, bozeman, mt) Greenhills Ranch (lonely much?  It has to be a getaway.  I don’t know if I would want to live there.)

How fast they…

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Day 2

She is not going to write back (I think) so I am going to go ahead and write and reveal.  After all, that was my only push of her, to reveal.  I still won’t name names.  And I’ll try to avoid repeating what she wrote to me, although some of those hints may have led elsewhere.

I was wrong about some assumptions so the second day helped.

This picture helped too.  The property, like Kamloops, isn’t exactly…  It is barren land.  Ranching seems to be about making something out of land that is otherwise unwanted.  3000 Miles To…  I now see an example if not the actual thing.  And the site allows for easy scrolling.  If you scroll out, that is elk country.

I’m getting sidetracked.  It is great.  I mean, I’d like to have it.  It is also undeniably ostentatious, particularly because there is more than one.

Still, there are many questions, the kind that are never really answered, because there is an aura of sleeziness.  Maybe that is harsh and the right words are litigious, wealthy, I don’t know.  The self promotion and failure seems to have hit the fan.  This property, usually pictured as this, is all over the web; the Greenhills Ranch Road subdivision seems up in the air too.  Somewhere it says the house was built in 2006.

Lest I forget…  family privacy concerns.  ALSO, Have you seen the movie Girl Missing?

OMG!  Walter Wolf cologne!  I think I actually remember the cigarettes.

As near as I can figure this woman was married to the wealthy black-and-gold marketed man from around 1995/6 to 2001/2.  Are the children he refers to as inheriting the ranch the woman’s who wrote me three times and then split?

I’ll have to read this more carefully.  It is kind of unappealing.  The guy, but her too?  It is weird.  Does it mention the U.S.?  The period between about 1981 and 2003 is not mentioned.  Bozeman, Montana is not mentioned.  Two other ex-wives and a current girlfriend are mentioned.  It is definitely not objective journalism (e.g., no pictures).

I wonder if there are financial concerns, such as losing the $72K.  I would like to write her side of it.

(“Swiss-based multimillionaire tax exile.”)

It is good, but it is more accurate to call it appropriate, self-promotion and all.

This, the top story at ESPN.com this afternoon, is so stupid—it doesn’t say anything.  It seems like a PR piece, which we all know the NFL is good at.  I don’t know that many in the broad Michigan community who would refer to Jim Harbaugh as an “icon.”  He was a very good quarterback on good teams.  The clamor from Michigan folks is based on a staggering need and Harbaugh’s proven ability to win.  The whole thing is based more on what can you do for me now.

This is like predicting a game.  Opinions are fun.  Michigan is in dire need—the Brandon and Hoke fiascos mean that revenue is at stake.  The people in charge know that the spigots are open and the flow is relentless.  These same people  (e.g., Hackett, Schlissel, and the regents) now know, from recent history, that they will be judged by these decisions.  They are going to look mentally challenged if Harbaugh is not the next coach.  Put another way, everyone and their mother knows M is waiting and made a very strong offer.  There is no way Michigan can be waiting in vain.

 

RCA 10.1” Walmart Special

They are now selling it for $129 and “RCA” (whatever that means) lists it as having a $199 MSRP.

Pop-up ads (e.g., Amazon! and chromebook) are bizarre and extremely unwanted.  Even after researching it I still don’t know what VUDU is or why it keeps opening.  These are problems I am used to with Android.  Maybe I can solve them.

 

NextBook 8

Finally, an affordable Windows tablet.  Still waiting for the micro USB cable…  (This one has a micro hdmi port instead of a mini hdmi.  This appears to be a reason almost everything else has mini—the micro does not stay fastened well and this is a drawback for the “computer.”)

It has to be at least #2 because it is Windows.  I know it and prefer it, especially because Android has disappointed me for home use.  With a quad-core processor, 1GB RAM, and 16 GB “hard drive” (careful, Windows is bigger than Android) it is a full-fledged computer and 8.1 is Window’s newest.  Problem with a video or just about any other function?  Import your favorite software from your desktop or laptop computer.  It is still $99 at Walmart.

The market has not changed much and for its features it is still probably the best buy out there.  The 8” screen makes it barely useable in terms of fingers and the many features MS has crammed-in.  Do you really want it for your uses?  For what, to replace a desktop or laptop?  It has bluetooth, HDMI, and USB so that makes it capable of many uses; plus, unlike Android, it easily connects to a Win 7 wifi network.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Visual Land Prestige 7

I don’t know if it is the Android 4.0-ish operating system or what, but this never worked right for me.  Admittedly it was at least half my doing but…

The my-doing part includes trying to use a browser (instead of apps) which the device is not really made for.  Another mistake is downloading and storing files rather than doing things online; this can be overcome with effort, but it isn’t the easiest way to use these devices.  The final thing I didn’t do right was expecting perfect video file playing—size, audio sync, and hiding the screen when connected to a tv all proved to be problems.

That said, this product has been a disappointment.

(more…)

Apparently his severe depression was well known.  So where were his wife, family, and treatment professionals?  His wife thought he was asleep in his (separate) room from the evening before until noon the next day?  His “personal assistant” had to find him.  Gee, I hope my wife is that close and caring.  By all accounts Mr. Williams was a kind yet extremely troubled man.  Why didn’t anyone close to him give a rat’s ass?  And what about the treatment center in Minnesota Mr. Williams recently attended?  Obviously, their treatment did zilch.  Don’t they have any follow-up; in other words, do they really care about their (I assume, well-paying) patients?

Mr. Williams problems seem to have started as a child, with his parents.  He described his father as “frightening” and his mother was distant too.

The other thing that sticks out here is depression.  It can be very real and serious.  Show business—the perceived need to be on all the time and for every project to be adored—really exasperated it.

EDIT/Time-Forward Machine:  There is another aspect to this that strikes me.  Was it Anthony Bourdain, or someone like him, who actually came out about it?  What’s above takes priority.  Maybe it is somewhat about doing it in a better way…

The public legacy is the films and whatnot.  I don’t like them as much.  OK, OK, Okay.   Does a person owe it to anyone how or if or what they…   No.