I'm gonna get kicked off the island for this...

... and probably hunted down by lovely women with knives (possibly from a Caribbean island), but so be it.

I was hanging out in an online chat with some rather unsavory characters and they started talking about Post-Lotusphere Stress Disorder, leading to the inevitable top 10 list. I did not participate in the creation of this list, I'm merely the scribe capturing it for posterity. You will notice not every entry is numbered, there are more than 10 entries and there is no number 10. Creativity like this can't be bound by rules. Names have been redacted to protect the oh-so-deliciously guilty.

Top Ten ways you know you have PLSD

1. You have a sudden urge to put up a tent in your backyard, in Maine, in February, so family dinners will feel more natural.
2. You insist that all of you children's backpacks be yellow
3. All of your children's backpacks ARE yellow
4. You insist on rows of uncomfortable chairs in the living room for movie night.
5. You fill out an evaluation form after every television show you watch at home.
6. You fill out an evaluation form for completely inappropriate things. Out to the dining tent for you, mister.
7. You see a tchotke at a neighbors house and ask if you can have it if they swipe your card.
8. You get invited to a party, and don't tell your spouse just in case she wasn't invited.
9. You drink your coffee REALLY FAST so the Disney bots don't take it away mid-swallow.
for six months, every time you leave your bedroom you check to make sure you remembered your badgeholder.
You line up for lunch, even when eating at home.
you think it's normal to show up for work after only 2 hours sleep
You ask your spouse if you can stay in the same room you were in last year.
You are willing to listen to 5 minutes of crap talk just to get a free pen.
You keep asking your coworkers, kids, and spouse where you can get this year's CULT shirt from; they look at you in horror.
You ask the neighbors if it's ok to use their pool without a room key
You ask your spouse if she's coming to your session.
And if it merits a repeat.
You ask your neighbors if it is OK to use their driveway to park.
You ask your kid if he's filming your session
You put RFID badges on the cats.
you mutter "I can't remember if I'm swan or dolphin this year"
and then look for your two huge carp on your roof
you build a 3 stage waterfall from same said roof
In Maine, in February
You scream out SAKE! at the top of your lungs after finishing each drink
you wished they'd put your room number on your key, in case you ever need to go there
You applaud when your wife introduces a new dish for dinner, even though you seem to remember you should have had it years ago.
and you keep asking her, "Can I have this to go in a box, I'm late for my session"
You applaud after sex even if it wasn't that good. Then you hog the microphone for Q&A.
you have a favorite seat in every meeting room in 3 different disney hotels
You knock on neighbor's houses asking if they know where Jamfest (or SpeedGeeking) is.
You walk into your bedroom announcing, "OK, before we begin, please turn off all cell phones and pagers".
11. Every Wednesday night for four months, you randomly get on a bus.
12. You know what CULT stands for
13. You're jazzed because you have a CULT shirt for every day of the week.
you are hard-core because you have the original "Notes World Order" shirt.
14. You go home and claim to your spouse that you're going to be agile from now on.

hmm, "Brokeback Novak"... another CULT theme
beats my original suggestion, FSCK Portal.

Cranberry lambic and root beer braised beef

The young lady who house sits for us loves root beer, so whenever we travel we buy some for her. There is usually some left and I find it too sweet to drink, so I was trying to think of a way to use it. While I was pondering this I remembered Myron bought a sampler of Samuel Adams beers and it included a cranberry lambic. A lambic is a type of beer from Belgium that started out 500 years ago as peasant home brew. The version produced today carries on the coarse and have an unrefined flavor. Fruit is often added to help counter the bitter aftertaste. It is too bitter for me to enjoy, so I wondered what it would be like if I combined the bitter lambic and the sweet root beer. The answer: DELICIOUS!

Ingredients

Preparation

1 12oz bottle of root beer 1 12oz bottle of Samuel Adams Cranberry Lambic 1 – 1.5 lb stew beef 2T cooking oil 1t black pepper (for the beef) 1t black pepper (for the sauce) 1t salt (for the beef) 1t salt (for the sauce) A medium-sized non-reactive pot with a lid in the 4 to 6 quart range. Nonstick is fine, but don’t use unenameled cast iron. A simmer plate (assuming you’re cooking with gas) A bowl or plate for holding the beef after browning.

Toss the stew beef with 1t each of black pepper and salt Let stand 10 to 15 minutes at room temperature Heat the oil in the pot over medium-high heat until you see it ripple, about 60 – 90 seconds Add the beef and brown on all sides Remove the beef to a bowl or plate Reduce or turn off the heat so you can put the simmer plate on the burner, then return the heat to medium-high. Put the pot on the simmer plate and add the root beer and lambic into the pot. Bring to a boil and use a wooden spoon to scrape up the brown bits from the bottom Reduce heat to medium and simmer 15 - 20 minutes, or until the liquid reduces by a quarter to a third Add the beef, cover, and reduce the heat to its lowest setting Leave it to simmer for 90 minutes, stirring a couple of times to make sure there is enough liquid. Add water to keep the beef nearly, but not completely, submerged. Check it for doneness. You are looking for it to be tender enough that it comes apart when you press it with a spoon, but not so much so that you can see the beef separation simply by stirring it. This will take between and hour and a half and two hours, but you need to start checking early so you don’t overcook it. Stir in the remaining salt and pepper, adjusting to taste Serve with rice, pasta – or one of my favorites, Israeli couscous

a change of focus

I started this blog in 2006 mostly to vent about IBM and Lotus and poke fun at the zealot fanboys. In 2007 I was frustrated both with my job and the direction IBM was taking Notes and Domino so took a job doing Access and SQL Server development. I continued doing Notes development as a consultant to keep current with it. That continued until mid-2008. Shortly after ILUG I stopped all Notes and Domino work altogether.

Several things led to that decision. It was partly a final severing of the ties to my old job. It was also an admission that I will never be satisfied with Notes and Domino. The things that are important to me just aren't important to IBM, so it's time for me to move on. And about this time we had the fire at work in and that sapped all my spare time for several months.

We got our new HP blade system delivered at the end of December and I am in the process of learning how that works along with VMware ESX. I am also preparing for a complete rewrite of our internally built ERP software and transitioning to Ruby and postgreSQL.

On a more personal level, I am feeling very strongly drawn toward the culinary field. I have learned to love cooking over the past decade and it has reached the point that I am finding that is where my passion lies. Software development doesn't energize me anymore.

The focus of this blog will be changing. I will be posting about Ruby, postgreSQL, Linux, VMware, HP hardware, and cooking. It's going to be a hodgepodge and you'll never know whether you're going to get programming code or a recipe for soup.

Oh, and for the three of you who might care, I asked Yancy to remove me from PlanetLotus. Since the content hasn't been Lotus related for a long time and never will be from here on out, I thought it was best if I didn't clutter things with my off-topic chatter.

Domino 8.5 hot fix 1

If you're using Domino 8.5 be aware there is a hot fix already available. In a nutshell, adminp may not properly handle renames or deletes. I found a blog with a decent write up about it, including a link to Fix Central where you can drill down through six levels and finally get to the hot fix: http://www.lntoolbox.com/content/view/95/2/.