Tall Tales & Falsehoods

Test

With the fourth of July vastly approaching I wanted to make sure I had everything on hand to have a successful cookout. This year I am going to make a whole mess of ribs and I needed to knock out the dry rub before hand. This is the same dry rub that I use for my Boston butts as well as my new recipe for salsa baked chicken. I highly recommend trying this rub as a base for your own. That’s how this rub came into existence. I am using something that I dug up from Bob Gibson and have made it to my own.

It’s pretty basic but if you have any questions please feel free to email me or leave a comment. Happy grilling everyone!

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Ingredients:

1/2 Cup Sugar
1/2 Cup Paprika
1/3 Cup Garlic Salt
1/3 Cup Kosher Salt
1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
1 Tablespoon Chili Powder
1 Teaspoon Cayenne Pepper
2 Teaspoon Ground Black Pepper
2 Teaspoon Crushed Red Pepper Flakes
1 Teaspoon Oregano
1 Teaspoon Cumin
1 Teaspoon Dry Mustard

Directions:
1) Mix all ingredients in medium size mixing bowl

* You can store the dry rub at room temperature indefinitely.
** Should make enough for 2-3 butts.

Dre's Butt Rub On Ribs

Great as a rub for pork and chicken. Maybe to sweet for beef.

Last night my wife and I had the opportunity to visit the new Freestyle Park in Myrtle Beach, SC. Thanks to my association with the American Advertising Federation of Coastal Carolina, we got to visit for our end of the year bash for free!

I will go ahead and put this out there: Freestyle Park is a top notch park all the way around. They seem to only have one downside - not enough visitors. This becomes apparent just driving into the parking lot and follows you throughout your visit of the park. The park looks like it can hold A LOT of people. In doing so, when it is not busy - you can tell. However this has a major upside to it, you don’t have to wait in line for anything!

In the past few years my family and I have had the opportunity to visit a number of theme parks and think this ranks right up there with them. It is really easy for me to compare the park to that of Dollywood due the fact that we just visited that park not a month ago. Like Dolloywood you can tell that the new owners of the Freestyle Park are in it for the long hall. The small crowds don’t scare them. It seems they have figured out how to scale down without taking away form the overall feel for the park. When the crowds start to come in I can see how they would ramp up with smaller shows, places to explore and new things to eat.

Just like Dollywood there is a good mix between shows and rides. While Dollywood focuses on the mountain lifestyle, the Freestyle Park is centered around different forms of popular music. The synergy of theme and music is there but I think it may have some more appeal if they could add some worldly type music fractions. Song and dance from other cultures may open the fan base up just a bit and give an opportunity to learn while you were at the park. However the Freestyle Park seems to have the pop culture on lock.

The roller coasters were tons of fun and I would rank them above many others that I have ridden. The new “Time Machine” coaster was amazing and Heidi and I had a blast. They seem to be spaced out just enough to get your legs under you before wanting to ride the next one.  Adding small things such as the famous Abbey Road picture spot and moonshine still gives the family fun opportunities to explore and relax.

Unfortunately we didn’t get a chance to check out the show side of the park. I have heard good stuff about them and would love to try and make it back just to see the Ice Cold Country and the Flip 5 Live show. Time was just to short in our little visit.

Call me impressed. The park seems to have a lot going for it. They seem to have embraced the locals (something the former owners didn’t do), understand how to scale the park accoring to attendence and may even know a few thing about how to read market forecasts. Yes sir, they seem to be in it for the long hall and not just a quick buck. I really think the bucks will come if they can just shave off the horrible reputation that the previous owners have bestowed on it. I encourge all locals and vistiors alike to go out and visit. Don’t be scared by the immence parking lot with few cars. Embrace it and have fun.

This was the first large comic book convention that I have been to. I have been to a few smaller ones, but none on this scale.

On Saturday my Wife, Memphis and myself attended Heroes Con in Charlotte, NC. Prior to that day I was excited about the convention. I had rough plans of meeting up with a few people, checking out the vendors and looking forward to the indie tables. While I followed online conversations between Dave Slusher and Derek Coward about their planning and list gathering and nervousness I joked about “Plan, what plan? I am going to have fun.”  I didn’t realize what type of production went into attending a comic book convention.

The day of the convention Heidi, Memphis and myself got to the convention hall around 11:30. We paid our fee and quickly went down to get a lay of the land. Soon after we entered it became apparent that there was huge crowds. I hate crowds. It was also very had to push a stroller trough the aisles and amongst the lines of fans waiting to get autographs. We got a good scope of everything and I stated to wondering around picking through this and that, while the whole time looking for friends along the way. Memphis started to get cranky and I could tell it was lunch time.

My wonderful wife said that she could feed Memphis and that I could stay and look around. This was super cool because to be honest I was a little frustrated with trying to look at things while at the same time making sure Memphis wasn’t eating a $400 comic. So a little time had passed and I knew that I had to get back up to the wife and kid for a bite to eat. Still haven’t seen any of my friends, I picked up the phone and gave Dave a call. He was down for some food, so off we went.

Over lunch I confessed to Dave and Heidi that I thought that I was not the convention type. I am not a star struck fan, I don’t care that much about autographs, I hate large crowds and at best I am a passive reader of books. I was glad to be there, but I wasn’t having that much fun. However there was still some stuff that I wanted to do and check out so after lunch we headed back to the convention for another quick round.

Still huge crowds, long lines and a bunch of people that I don’t know about – plus Memphis was ready for a nap. Once again my great wife to the rescue said that she would take Memphis up for a nap and let me look around. I finally got to make my way around to the indie tables, where I met a few cool people and picked up a ton of books. I figured that I can find most everything else at my local comic book store (who also had a booth there) so why not spend my limited cash funds on some indie comics. It was cool to talk with people, find out where they were from and there creative process. I think I invited everyone that I talked to, to next year’s CREATE South .

By this time it was getting late and I still haven’t met up with Derek or Kreg Steppe . Heidi came back down with Memphis and we went through the vendors long boxes far a few comics that I had on my wish list. However do to the fact that Comicbookdb.com was down for two days prior to the convention and the WiFi in the hall was spotty at best I was limited in my memory of what I wanted to try and find. I didn’t know which vendor was which, who had the better deals and what to really focus on while looking through all of the long boxes. I picked up a few titles and told Heidi I was ready to call it a day.

On the drive home I realized a few things that I leaned from the convention:

1. I had fun. (I know you can’t tell it from my ranting above but I did.)
2. My wife is the greatest.
3. Get phone numbers of the friends you want to met up with.
4. Look over the convention booklet. I would have liked to attended the panels, but I didn’t know when or where - plus Memphis would not have been a huge fan of them either.
5. HAVE A PLAN! - It is a big place so have a plan of what you must see and do. Then if you get that done in enough time do other things.
6. Narrow your wish list and bring a hard copy. I spent a lot of time jumping around from box to box without knowing exactly what I wanted and how much I was willing to spend.
7. Just cause they are indie doesn’t mean that they are good (or bad). I would say that about 90% of the indie comics that I picked up where just plan bad. Supporting people trying to do there thing is cool but  take a closer look before you buy.
8. Try and go for a few days, there was a lot to see and do.
9. Plan on hanging out as much as you can afterwords.
10. Baby’s are super hard at conventions. But I love her dearly.

I had a great time at the convention, but I was also new to the game. I may have been a little too hasty saying that “I wasn’t the convention type.” I think with my new knowledge that next year I can have an even better time.

Last Sunday I went to church for the first time in a long time. I have been disinterested in organized religion for some time, but I had the opportunity to attend a sermon by somebody I deeply respect. The sermon was on 1st Samuel Chapter 15. There was three main points to the sermon.

1. Be obedient.
2. Be truthful.
3. Accept responsibility.

These three points I totally agree with. They are moral grounds and lessons that every body should live by. However it is the source material that I have a problem with.

I went into that sermon with an open mind. I put away my biases and listened intently. After a few minuets I found great faults with the Book and how it fits into my belief system. While I know that many can stretch, distort and construe messages into their own meaning, how one arrives at the point seems to still have a great bearing for me. In my heart I can not agree with the sayings of 1st Samuel Chapter 15 or for that matter many of the things that were said and done in the book. If we take what was said by Samuel to Saw and replay the event it in today’s day and age, we get something along the lines of Hitler speaking to Heinrich Himmler.

While I know this may alarm some, I am not trying to tear down anybody’s belief system. I am just merely stating one of the reasons why I have such a hard time accepting organized religion. There never seems to be a question and answer point in church. The sermon always comes after Sunday school so you never actually discuss what the preacher has to say. It is forced feed upon you and you are merely supposed to accept it. Church seems to always be a one way conversation. If we are trying to instill a moral fiber into people, who is to say that Aesop’s Fables may not be a better teaching material?

Design has become a numbers game lately. As the internet develops and matures so does how we handle advertising. Accurate statistical data can now be gathered to track the progress of an ad campaign, to whom the target audience as and even be assign a dollar value according to how much direct revenue it has brought in. While to most this is great news, to me this is a little sad.

Lately I have been in a design hole lately. Clients want results, they want them fast and they want them cheep. They expect all of this out of 125×125 pixel ads. No longer do I paint beautiful thought provoking ad campaigns across a wide canvas of direct mail, billboards, newspaper, radio and tv. Now I get to test my creative abilities in a 125×125 box. (That is roughly 1.75 inches by 1.75 inches.) I am all for design challenges, but it now has turned into a day-in-day-out thing. If its not 125×125, it’s 800×125, 120×75, 600×100. Email blast, cubes, headers - it is all becoming the same to me now.

Not only that, but clients (as well as myself) want and expect to see results - or at least the numbers of people who clicked on the ad, where the ad was located, where they went to, how long they stayed there, where they went to next - and what I am planning on doing about it. It’s all about the numbers.

Now the internet lets you do some pretty cool little things such as build personal url’s, geo-target clients, have real time conversations and monitor your business in real time. This is all great and I welcome all of it. However most clients are uneducated in the ways of the internet and are feed a lot of half truths from sales reps. (I constantly have to tear down misnomers and flat out lies told to clients form newspaper sales reps in our area. 1) Because they really don’t have a clue what they are selling and 2) they really don’t care what they are selling - “just show the clients big numbers.”) This makes my job even harder. I have to convince clients they they shouldn’t care to much for impressions or any of the other BS feed to them but actual look at the hard numbers (which are really easily found). I expect to see this data because I have taught my clients to see this data.

For me the really challenge is that I wear many hats. I am designer, so I want to do big bold stuff. I am a novice web guy, who knows enough to know that he doesn’t know what he should. And I’m in marketing, meaning I know that the numbers matter. I see the whole picture.

The world of 125×125 is forcing many companies to become multifaceted in number reporting and design. That is where I am at right now. Show me results 125×125, if not start all over again until you find one that does. Don’t become outdated and keep me posted of progress. Oh yeah, since you are so small 125×125, you do not cost much money to produce right?

That is one of the main elements clients do not understand. 125×125 is hard to design for. It takes just as long to knock out an 125×125 online ad as it does a postcard. The client gets pixels in return and doesn’t value it the same way as a printed product. They think that since it is only pixels and so small that it should cost them next to noting to produce. It is even hard to convince them that statistical data is valuable.

125×125 is become the norm. So I better get used to it. I have to reeducate my clients of its value, try and get others to do the same, and be happy about it. I know there is a ton of cool stuff you can do with 125×125 and/or its linking url, I just have to reinvent myself with the knowledge of how to achieve it. The designer inside me may have to step aside for the numbers guy and the programmer hopefully hidden in me.

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I remember when I hated doing 4×6 postcard direct mail pieces, trying to cram all of the clients text into that little space. I whole heatedly outright love them now. Bring them on BABY!

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I read this article in the NY Times that got me thinking about all of this stuff.

Recently I discovered Comixology. It has been a great tool for monitoring what comics that are published from a week to week, what comics that I in my pull list and what comics that I need to pick up from the store. They have even put out a nifty little iPhone application so I can have all of my information with me wherever I go. Their database of comic book covers and information about the comic books looks as if it is coming directly from the comic book publishers themselves. This ensures that the information is correct and that the cover art is accurate.  The one thing they don’t seem to have is a database for your existing comic collection.

For cataloging all of my comic books I use a nifty little website called ComicBook DB. It seems to be self built with a large community or users that help populate the database with comic book covers and information. They seem to have a huge back stock and a direct link with finding missing issues with others within the Comic Book DB.  It has a community like feel that helps itself. However some information is lacking and some is not accurate. It would be a much better service if they could get a pipe of all of the comics directly from the publishers. However they might take away from the community feel that has made it popular. The Comic Book DB also has a very simple iPhone application that taps into you missing issues and your want list.

All this helps aid me in my new hobby of reading comic books. Both site when used together have aided me in discovering new titles and rediscovering old ones.

Until next Wednesday…

There is much more to cooking great BBQ than sauce, heat and smoke. Most are intimidated by it all. To overcome that intimidation I recommend starting off with a much more simple approach.

With this approach you can test the waters while learning some of the simple pleasures of cooking good BBQ.

Ingredients:

1 Boston Butt (Pork Shoulder)
1 Batch Of Mop Bucket Swine Sauce

Cooking Equipment:

1 Crockpot

How To:

1) Place the Boston Butt into the crockpot
2) Pour in the Mop Bucket Swine Sauce to where it covers 7/8 of the meat.
3) Turn the crockpot on high and let it sit for 10-12 hrs. (You won’t burn the meat just make sure you have the sauce in the crockpot. If it evaporates add a bit more.)
4) Turn off the crockpot and let stand for 30-60 min.
5) Remove meat from pot. It should start to fall apart.
6) Pull meat apart. It should be stringy. Make sure you separate it from the fat.
7) And That’s it! You now have some pretty tasty BBQ.
Use the last bit of the Mop Bucket Swine Sauce as your finishing sauce.

My simple notes:

What I do is put in the meat and then pour the sauce where it is covering about 90% of it. Turn on the slow cooker about 9pm and let it cook overnight. Then around 7 am I turn it off. About 8 am I bust it up in the cooker. It should fall right apart. The I shift through the meat taking out all the fat and traying the meat. Toss out all the juices/sauce. You should have some sauce left over from the night before to use as a serving sauce if anybody wants it. You shouldn’t need it but it’s good to have.

It has been exactly one week since I have started a new way of thinking and consuming food. (Some people like to use the word “diet,” but I think of too many negative things when I hear the word diet.) Last Sunday my wife and I stated An Adventure of Food.

We wanted to look at food in a new light and figure out ways of experimenting with it. The main purpose of our Adventure is we wanted to find out creative ways of reducing our body weight while enjoying better foods. We took a base weight of our selves and set goals. From there using a pretty nifty little iPhone application (Loose It!) we calculated our target weight and calorie intake. This gave us a baseline for the experiment with food to begin.

Since last Sunday my wife and I have eaten many more meals together, shared conversation over long walks and developed a new since of family bonding. We still eat what we want, but we control our portions. We now exercise, along with Harley and Memphis, on a regular basis. We even formulate meals that neither one of us ever thought we could. So far the Adventure of Food has been a great success. Even if we do not loose weight, I think Heidi and I both have gain much more out of it.

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For those of you who were wondering:

My Daily Calorie Budget: 1,637

I was 2,162 calories under my weekly budget.

So far I have lost 4 pounds.

At current rate I will reach my target weight July 10, 2009

Favorite meal of the week: Marinated Italian Chicken Breast over a bed of Rotini Pasta Salad

Since CREATE South 2009 I have had a few request for my sauce that I used on the BBQ. While some feel as if your sauce is your mark on the BBQ world I feel as if it is just a tool in the genetic make-up of your meat. So here it goes in full glorious detail!

The Mop Bucket Swine Sauce is used as a both a finishing sauce and as a basting sauce for pull pork BBQ (is there any other kind?) This is a pepper/vinegar sauces that has just the right amount of bite. It is best to make the sauce at least one day prior to serving.

Ingredients

• 4 Cups of Apple Cider Vinegar
• 0.25 Cups of Brown Sugar
• 3 Tablespoons of Salt
• 3 Tablespoons of Crushed Red Pepper Flakes
• 1.5 Teaspoons of Cayenne Pepper
• 1 Teaspoon Ground Black Pepper

Directions:

1. Pour vinegar in large sauce pot and bring to boil.
2. Stir in brown sugar. Let it fully dissolve.
3. Next add salt, cayenne and black pepper.
4. Stir.
5. Add red pepper flakes.
6. Let boil for 3-5 minuets.
7. Remove from heat and let cool.
8. Pour into your “mop bucket” sauce container.
9. Let sauce sit for 6-8 hours.
10. Shake and serve.

Sauce will hold for up to six months in controlled temperature.

* Best to make this sauce one day prior to serving.