Do you want to be right?

Here's a thought that hit me. The desire or need to be right can really hurt us. There's a saying, and I've heard it two ways: "Do you want to be right, or do you want to be happy?" or "Do you want to be right, or do you want to be close?" The latter is the title of an article on Psychology Today. As the author points out, that need to be right can destroy emotional connection. It comes about because of our need for control, and we can challenge it so that others don't have to challenge us. 

Prayer

I have been struggling with prayer. I was looking for things to help me understand what prayer means to me now. I found three things that were helpful. 

- A Simple Guide to Prayer. There are many guides like this, this is just the one I came across. The basics of traditional Christian prayer. 

- Some Unitarian Universalist Views of Prayer. How others in the Unitarian Universalist tradition see and practice prayer.

- Heretics Faith:  Prayer, Meditation, Contemplation. A sermon by Rev. John T. Crestwell, Jr. of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Annapolis on prayer, which includes different traditions of prayer. 

Texting Games

I was looking for simple games to play with one of my friends and my friend sent me this link:

35 Fun Games To Play Over Text That’ll Keep You Entertained and Connected to Your Friends

This worked out really well. There are so many sites out there with games that just kill you with ads and such. Games you can play over an existing medium like SMS remove that problem. 

Malcolm X, Alex Haley, Required Reading

I just bought The Autobiography of Malcolm X. One thing that struck me was the line at the bottom--as told to Alex Haley. I generally think of an autobiography as something written by the person themselves, but I understand that this does not have to be the case. I looked at Haley's Wikipedia entry and learned some interesting things:

- He had a career in the Coast Guard

- He wrote for Playboy Magazine

- The aforementioned work was named by Time Magazine as one of the 10 most influential books of the 20th century

That got me interested in the other books. Especially because the Time Magazine article is entitled Required Reading. Wikipedia had a Wayback Machine link, but Time realized the relevance of this article and posted it to their archive. I'll have to add these to my list. 

Interesting recipes

 I came across some pretty interesting recipes--

Croissant Stuffing

Spiced Apple Paloma

Apple Pie Moonshine

Cheddar, Scallion, and Jalapeño Drop Biscuits

Sausage Stuffing

Nice vs. Kind

We got an email at work that encouraged us to be kind. That's a positive admonishment, but it reminded me that in the past I have confused kindness and niceness. I googled and found a post from The Caring Techie Newsletter. The Caring Techie points out that while the terms are used interchangeably, but they don't mean the same thing.  They have different underlying motivations and long-term effects. She has a very nice venn diagram:

Duplicating the Jimmy Dean Eggwich

 Was just thinking about the Jimmy Dean eggwich since I was eating one. I was thinking maybe I could make one and wondering how much effort it was. I checked the internet for copycat recipes. What I found was people using mason jar lids to steam eggs. Or rings. But then someone mentioned english muffin trays. Which made me think about baking. And when you look at the box, it says egg frittatas, which is a type of omelet that is baked. So the thing that's in my head now is a mass production method where instead of using an english muffin pan--which I don't have--I drop a scrambled egg mixture into just a regular pan and bake it, and then cut it into squares. I'm wondering if the sausage can be cooked the same way. I'm sure it can. The trick with the egg would be getting a pan where I get the right dimensions for the number of eggs that I put in. The Jimmy Dean egg mixture includes spinach, carmelized onions and bacon. I don't think I would bother with that last one. 

Contractors in government

Something that has bothered me for a long time is the contractor situation in the government. I could probably lay out what I mean by that better, maybe later. All I will say for now is that it came back to my mind this morning. I decided to look it up, especially after the research I did earlier this week, that alerted me to the fact that having contractors gives the illusion that the government is smaller and mentioned something about the number of civil servants getting reduced. So this Federal Times article stated that the 1994 Federal Workforce Restructuring Act eliminated 273,000 positions. It mentions that this movement began in the 80s, which makes sense given Reagan's policy.  I've seen Donald Kettl's name more than once. It seems that he's an expert in the federal government. I think I also read that he's retired. 

The online publication from the Volcker Alliance entitled The True Size of Government was also enlightening. 

Brown rice revisited

The third time was indeed the charm. I went with 1 cup of rice and 2 1/4 cups of water. I put those in my microwave rice cooker and cooked for 10 minutes at 100%, then 20 minutes at 50%. I was satisfied with the results. The rice cooker comes with a beaker that isn't quite a cup, I think it's 3/4 cup. But now that I know the 2.25:1 ratio, I can go back to that. 

ThinkOrSwim on Fedora

I've been having the ThinkOrSwim blues. I run ThinkOrSwim on Linux. TD Ameritrade provides the platform for Windows, Mac and Linux, but they only provide support for Windows and Mac. Linux users are on their own.

I had an issue around the beginning of the year where ThinkOrSwim stopped working and I eventually called them asking for help. I knew the answer, but I just wanted to confirm that the problem was on my end. I eventually figured it out, and I thought I documented it, but I guess I didn't, because I was definitely reinventing the wheel this go around.

So here's the deal. I said earlier that it's supported for Linux. I do believe that's what their webpage said originally said, but now it is more specific--Ubuntu Linux. And today, in order for SinkOrSwim to work, you need to have the Zulu OpenJDK 11. Therein lies the rub.

One--I am not running Ubuntu, I am running Fedora. I don't know what packages Ubuntu is currently on, but the whole reason for running Fedora in the first place is because of the bleeding edge packages, so it's a safe bet their ahead of Ubuntu. They've been on Java 17 for some time. I'm pretty sure that was the problem before. Fedora moved to Zulu 17 and I had to downgrade back to 11.

So I ran a dnf list installed, which was a lot, so I piped it to a file and looked at it in kate, and I saw that I still had Zulu 11, so initially I was stumped. I've learned that the best thing is usually to come back to it later or the next day, since nowadays I don't usually have a lot of time to troubleshoot before I'm off to the next thing. So today I went through the whole list and saw java-17-openjdk-headless.x86_64. That was the culprit. I installed java-11-openjdk-headless.x86_64, but that didn't work. I had to remove the Java 17 version first, and then install the Java 11 version, so that the dependencies would be correct. Now everything works. 

And then I move to Schwab in less than a month. Hopefully everything is still good.

Wear OS and Oppo Watch

I caught myself going down the rabbit hole and found it was time for a post. Around this time last year I bought an Android watch. I bought it purely for the pedometer functions. I've been wearing a Timex Ironman since I enlisted eons ago, so I needed a watch that was water resistant and I could wear 24/7. I found that there were several cheap options out there, and I bought one. It isn't anything special, but I didn't need anything special. I have missed some of the functions I've been used to for so many years though. Like being able to track seconds when I use the stopwatch or timer. And the watch beeping when the timer ends instead of vibrating. 

I've already lost what brought me back to that train of thought today, but I think what happened was I came across the Wear OS. I thought it was new, but apparently it has been around for a decade. Anyway, I figured that if there was a watch that actually had a Google OS, then it might be better than what I have right now, so I went looking for some. I wandered around, sputtering a bit on Google and Amazon, then I found a list on Wikipedia, which led me to the Oppo watch, which looks quite promising. The one that I was looking at was released several years ago, but it still seems pretty nice, so it's probably worth following up on. 

How do we make the world better?

One interaction at a time. At least that's how I'm thinking to approach it now. I figured I wasn't the first person to have this thought. I found this article on Tiny Buddha by Jason Gutierrez that confirms that theory.

Microwaving brown rice redux

So it took me all this time to microwave some brown rice again. I looked at what I did before, and I almost went with a 2:1 ratio instead, but I decided to stick with the plan. The rice still has a little bit too much water, but I think 2:1 wouldn't have been enough, so now I'm thinking the golden ratio is 2.25:1. I guess we'll see next time. 

Microwaving brown rice

A couple of years ago my father gave me a microwave rice cooker. It has worked like a charm for white rice, but I haven't gotten other rices down yet. I'm trying to fix that now.

I tried these directions from Steamy Kitchen. I had partial success. Previous attempts were undercooked, but this one seemed cooked enough to me. So I think I've got the times down: 10 minutes at 100%, then 20 minutes at 50% for 1 cup of rice. But they called for 3 cups of water and there was still water in the rice cooker when I was done. So I need to work on the ratios. I'll try 2.5 cups next time. 

Pinball PCB Replacement boards

There was discussion about replacement pinball machine PCB this weekend after our weekly pinball tournament, and I think I found the relevant website. It is called LISY Development. He has lots of documentation. He has uploaded Gerber files for PCB assembly that can be sent to companies that perform that type of work. The company that he uses is JLCPCB. 

Texas Tech Online Education Doctoral Programs

Okay, I'm looking at the Texas Tech Website again. I've done this so many times. I need to get this straight. They have several different online doctoral education programs. Let's see if I can get them straight. 

Doctor of Philosophy in Educational Leadership Policy

Designed for research interventionists, policy specialists, and education professionals who use expert analysis to study education policy issues, evaluate education programs, and inform sustainable education policy. The program is designed for educators, counselors, school leaders, district consultants, educational non-profits, regional service center leaders, and educational professionals. 

• Prepares graduates to be critically engaged educational policymakers
• Focus on scholarly practice, research, or teaching at university level
• Practical experiences in research and scholarly communication

Doctor of Philosophy in Higher Education - Higher Education Research

Committed to preparing students for roles in teaching, research and engagement in higher education contexts.

• Prepares graduates for executive leadership roles in higher education and to conduct research
• Designed for full-time professionals, but limited Research Assistantships are available for potential full-time students
• Practical experiences in research and scholarly communication

Doctor of Philosophy in Higher Education Administration

The Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration offers two areas of emphasis: Community College Administration and Higher Education College/University Administration. 

This program requires a blended delivery format. All coursework is completed online, but students are required to attend an on-campus new student orientation session and three (3) summer professional development sessions.

Qualified applicants should have full-time professional experience in either a public or private two-year or four-year higher education institution or state or federal educational agency serving higher education. Applicants must show a clear connection to higher education.

• Prepares graduates for executive leadership roles in higher education and to conduct research
• Designed for full-time professionals, but limited Research Assistantships are available for potential full-time students
• Practical experiences in research and scholarly communication

It looks like those last two might be the same. They are definitely both higher education. The question is whether there's a difference between higher education research and administration. I'm not seeing administration in the handbook. 

Okay, it seems like there used to be an Ed.D. in Higher Education Administration that was very similar to the Ph.D. but it seems like they may not offer it anymore. I see a handbook for it for 2020-2021, but no further. That's probably what's been confusing me. And they also offer 

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) Program, Executive EdD for School District Leaders

The handbook for this program makes it clear that it is only for people in the school districts. 

They ALSO offer

Doctor of Education in Instructional Technology

This seems to be similar to the program at Sam Houston. 

So I think that the problem is that the TTU Online and Distance Doctoral Degrees page is out of date. And that's what I've been looking at. I think the page that's more up to date is the College of Education's listing of Graduate degrees. 

Disabled Veterans Property Tax Exemption

So I went to the Texas Veterans Commission website thinking I would find the info about the tax exemption. Come to find out that the website I was really looking for was the Texas Veterans Portal website. I can't remember if there was a link from one to the other or not. And ultimately, even the Texas Veterans Portal took me to the Texas government website to get the information about the tax exemption--the Comptroller's website. It had the info and the form to fill out, and when I had downloaded the form then I went to see where I needed to send it, and it said to the appraiser for the property, in this case Brazos County. So then I went to that site, and as it turns out, they have an automated online form. So I had to do it all over again, but the advantage is, I was able to submit online, so I was able to check that off my list--my part anyway. Now we'll wait and see what the appraiser's office says. 

I should probably look into that license plate while I'm at it. I'm on a roll!

Bodyweight exercises

Looking at exercises on this page. Like that it shows how all the exercises are done. Contenders for today are 

Jump squat

Mountain climbers

Froggers

I also went and looked for a twisting exercise and found twisting planks. So now that's four exercises. But hey, let's cut out froggers and put in our friend the pushup.

...

Then I thought about making sure I had a back exercise in there. Because I feel like I really need that right now. And my four primary have been upper body, lower body, core and back. I was looking for that info on basic movements and found this. I'm thinking I need to revise my thinking a little. Enough research.

salsa

 I don't remember which dried chile I used last time when I made salsa, but this time I used pasilla.

Southern cornbread and buttermilk substitutes

I think this is the third time I've gone looking for this recipe, so into the blog it goes! My thing is savory cornbread. I can't remember if all southern cornbread is savory or not, but this recipe is. Interestingly, the author--Elise Bauer--mentions up front that sugar shouldn't be in cornbread, but then in the recipe she lists sugar as optional, and goes on to explain in the article that it doesn't make the cornbread sweet. I tried it and was surprised to learn that it was true.

The article also calls for a cast iron skillet. I use my cast iron skillet so much it just stays on the stove. But today I'm going to deviate because the oven is currently in use (roast beef in progress). I'll be making cornbread in the toaster oven for the first time, so I bought a 8" cake pan. We'll see how that works out. At first I thought about decreasing the recipe, but since I'm going to make more than one pan of cornbread, that isn't necessary. I think I'll go for two, so I'll follow the recipe twice and whatever is leftover will go in the third batch.

Anyway, here's the link: Southern Cornbread--Simply Recipes

And while I'm on it, I should include this link to buttermilk substitutes from allrecipes.com, since I rarely keep that around. Since I seem to keep yogurt these days, I'll just include here that 

¾ cup yogurt + ¼ cup milk = 1 cup buttermilk