geekboy2000

Welcome back

Tue, 09 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I never really got into social networks (other than for work related stuff) - and miss not being able to post anything anywhere.

So, I got on a big nostalgia trip, and decided to find all my old blog and project content from as far back as I could. So far, that is about year 2000 or so, covering my old domains of www.jason-thorpe.com, geekboy2000.com, and sushijunky.com.

I had some older sites before that: winternet.com/~threedy is one I can remember - I think that is where it was, but, so far no luck finding it on internet archive.

I think I will slowly start to post up here again when the mood strikes me… we’ll see how that goes.

Hobbies

Thu, 20 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

☕ Coffee

Roaster: Behomor 1600 - upgraded

Grinder: Baratza Vario W+

Scales: Greater Goods and espresso

Coffee Machines:

Harrio v60
Flair 58 manual lever espresso machine
Yamma Vacpot
Aeropress
Mochapot
Vintage Atomic Coffee Machine - San Francisco version…
Double wall stainless steel french press
Bripe

Wishlist:

Yamma Slow Dripper Tower

🤖 3D Printing (and laser & CNC…)

Snapmaker 2 A350
- Enclosure
- 10W Laser
- Dual high temp Extruder
- Rotary Module
- Emergency Stop Button

🕹️ Games

Pretty big board gamer: Board Game Geek Profile
Casual PC & PS5 gamer as well, focusing on more cinematic games of the sci-fi or post-apocalyptic variety (Fallout! Bioshock!) or simulation variety (Civilization, etc).
Valve Index for VR

🧑‍🍳 Culinary

Thermador Freedom Induction Cooktop (36") - this thing is great. Check it out
Isi cream whipper (chargers: no2, co2, and nitrogen for doing nitro cold press at home)
Immersion Circulators/SousVide: Joul for day to day, and SousVide Professional for big jobs.
Searzall Pro
Drawer full of chemicals from Modernist Pantry
Modernist Cuisine, and 3 bookshelves of other cookbooks

📷 Photography/Video

Online Gallery

Cameras:

Fujifilm XT-4
- 18-55mm
- 10-24mm
Polaroid SX-70
Hansa Canon from my Grandpa (Canon’s first production model from 1936… it’s a literal museum piece)
Hasselblad 500EL (There are 12 of them on the moon!)

Drone: DJI Mini 3 Pro

Odd stuff:

numerous Kinect sensors
Oak-D

⚡ Electronics

Bluetooth, NRF52, ESP32, Arduino, Nvidia Jetson, sensors, etc.

I also have a number of modular synth components to solder… I’ll get to that someday.

🏠 Home Automation

I am a huge home automation geek – going back 15+ years (back then it was using X10, but nowadays I use Z-Wave/Zigbee, and IP based devices) Need help getting started? Need some advice? Want to tour my house (50+ devices and growing) – let me know.

Hue - 40+ bulbs
Lots of AeonLabs devices for the basics (light switches, sensors, etc)
I’ve been a user of Homeseer, Smartthings, and now Home Assistant, which is what I run today.

💲 Crowdfunding

Kickstarter

Patreon

Cooking Issues - https://www.patreon.com/cookingissues
Moleculer framework - https://www.patreon.com/moleculer

Other

searzall pro

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/searzall-pro#/

wonder workshop dash & dot robots

(This was on kickstarter, but they took their post down…)

https://www.makewonder.com/

Stonemaier Games “Champion”

https://store.stonemaiergames.com/products/stonemaier-champion

Cosmos Experience

Fri, 05 Mar 2004 00:00:00 +0000

While taking a client out, I recently went to Cosmos in Le Meridian hotel, Minneapolis, MN.

Overall, one of the better restaurant experiences I’ve had in a while. Read on for pix & the details.

Best things about Cosmos:

The design. Very modern, very clean, calm, and just darn neat. Think 70’s airport, but not cheesy. Tasteful use of chrome, mirrors, and glass. Also great use of various textures & materials.
The service. Attentive to detail, nice, and never once asked “how do you like your food”… big plus in my book.
The music. Whoever did the music the night we were there did an excellent job. Thievery Corporation and the like.
The menu. Somewhat basic, but I sort of like that, everything was very accessible, nothing too strange. Anyone could find something they liked.
The food. Presented very well, cooked to perfection, and served with style. The tuna tartar (appetizer) has just the right amount of wasabi “built-in”. The duck salad (below left) had some of the best duck in it I’ve ever had, very nicely paired with whatever the dressing. The monkfish entree (below right) had many soft flavors and a nearly fluffy texture.

Desert. ’nough said. You could go to Cosmos just for desert. The chocolate torte (below left) I had was one of the most creative deserts I’ve ever seen - it had a “cage” of hardened caramel around the outside… very cool. The chocolate cake (below right) just looked cool, don’t know what it tasted like.

That’s about it. Overall, I love this place, I’d recommend it, and I’ll return for sure.

New York Trip

Fri, 05 Mar 2004 00:00:00 +0000

Going on a trip to new york the last weekend in March. Anyone have any ideas for fun stuff to do?

Good Restaraunts?

Art?

Music?

Why go to St. Paul? Fhima's... that's why.

Fri, 05 Mar 2004 00:00:00 +0000

Fhima’s - this is one well put together joint. If you’re ever looking for a reason to go to St. Paul, or are in St. Paul and not having fun - go to Fhima’s.

They describe their cooking as “French Mediterranean”. I describe it as yummy. Below left, Michelle had the Artichoke Risotto - three cheeses and caramelized onions, very rich. The huge asparagus was very tasty.

I had the Seafood Paella (isn’t Paella always seafood?). Let me start out by saying - I’m a big fan of Paella, and will almost always try it the first time I go to a new place. Let me also say, I LOVE jambalaya - and so it only stands to reason that I think Fhima’s has the best Paella - it’s a perfect blend between paella and jambalaya. Yum. The scalops were cooked just right, as were the shrimp. The seasoning was spot on - spicy enough, but didn’t blow ya away. It was served in it’s cooking vessle - a cast iron skillet.

We had the Crème Brulée for desert - people were getting it all night. They burn it right at your table with a cast iron sort of thing. Smells bad for a second, but the outcome was good.

Overall - 8 out of 10.

Nokia 6600 Baby!

Sat, 10 Jan 2004 00:00:00 +0000

So, I just got a nice little package from Hong Kong today… it had a brand new Nokia 6600 phone in it. I’ve been playing with it for the past hour now, and it’s hands down the best phone I’ve ever owned. No steps backwards this time - everything is at least as good, if not quite a bit better than any other phone I’ve used. Read on for my experience so far…

Size - perfect. Not too big, not too small. Very pleasing to hold, and not too heavy.

Screen - insanely nice looking, very readable, very crisp, very colorful. Like a computer LCD.

Buttons - not too small. Nice click to them. Nice addition of some side buttons (right and left) - and very, very nice joypad (rubbery)

Camera - quite nice, for a phone, it does 640x480, and has a nice 2x zoom (don’t know if it’s optical, probably not, but it’s still a nice feature). Nightmode can even get somewhat decent pics in very low light.

Video - suprised the heck out of me… I thought it was going to be like 1 fps crap, but it’s nice and smooth (albeit low rez) and the sound is well synced. Nice suprise.

Memory (MMC) - finnaly, a phone with expandable memroy (6meg internal, 32meg MMC shipped with phone) I’ve got a 256 meg one on order.

Email Client - so close to outlook it’s scarry. You can put in partial names in to/cc and hit checknames and it’ll fill them in. Multiple attachments, great T9, and it sends really fast. Hooking it up to my IMAP account was very easy, and works flawlessly.

Ringtones - this is the first phone in my recent history to actually come with “normal” rings. Many good “office phone” type rings - no annying songs. It can also do Mp3/wav/etc. ringtons… pretty neat.

3rd party software - I’ve already installed many 3rd party apps - a MAME emulator, NES emulator, and a cool app (MiniGPS) which will switch settings for you when you get to certain geographic locations - very cool. So you can have it quiet the ringer at work, and make it fun at home. MP3 playing (UltraMP3) - it might only be mono, but over the speaker, it still sounds decent (it even handles high bitrate). Last one - IM+ which does MSN/AOL/ICQ chat like a real computer based chat program… haven’t quite got it working yet though…

more info:

http://www.nokia.com/nokia/0,,33210,00.html

http://www.symbian.com

Wanna know anything about sushi?

Sun, 30 Nov 2003 00:00:00 +0000

I just happened upon sushiref.com… if you ever need to know anything about sushi, it’s the place to go. Massive glossary, worldwide restaraunt listings… well done.

Jewel Bako

Sat, 29 Nov 2003 00:00:00 +0000

Let me first start by saying that Jewel Bako is the best sushi place in the world.

Well, ok, so I can’t really say that because I’ve never actually been to every sushi place in the world, but it’s damn near the ideal. Second - let’s talk about Jack. Jack and his wife Grace own Jewel Bako. You couldn’t ask for a more hospitable pair of folks. Grace’s smile will melt your heart, and Jack’s recommendations on fish, pairings, sake, you name it - are spot on.

The atmosphere is warm and inviting. It’s a small restaruant, which enhances the ‘special-ness’ of the experience. I honestly don’t remember if music was even playing - the bliss was too much… if there was music, it was quiet.

Of the four times I’ve been, I ordered the omakase twice, and random things other times. Omakase means “chef, I’m in your hands”, and at Jewel Bako, in the chef’s hands is great palce to be. I recommend the omakase over anything else - the chef will blow your mind - sit a the sushi bar. The omakase ranges from $50-100, and all consist of appetizer(s), fish(s), and desert(s).

If you’re lucky, he’ll pull out his fish book and show you the strange fish he’s brought over from his fisherman cousin in Japan (or was is uncle?). Jewel Bako also has some very rare finds - I’ve had Jellyfish there, baby eel, and young, fresh sardines. I’ve also had the best tuna ever here - it was a cut from between the cheek and belly of the tuna, which I think is pretty rare - it was deep, glowing, red, and seared with sesame sauce and a torch.

Their sake selection is also top notch - my favorite is “clearwater” (a jizake - or non-mass produced sake) It’s fresh taste goes well with just about anything.

In closing, if you’re going to be in New York, and you love sushi - just go there, you won’t be sad.

Nami

Sat, 29 Nov 2003 00:00:00 +0000

Nami is my current favorite sushi joint in Minneapolis. They have a lounge area that’s a super place to chill, have a drink, and nibble on some choice sushi. Music is always good as well - ranging from deep house, downtempo, and jazz, it really helps set the mood of the entire place.

They have consistently decent fish, and have some of the more unique appetizers in town. I especially like their spicy yellowtail roll. The himachi kama (grilled cheek of yellowtail) is awesome, as is the goma-ae (spinich with sesame dressing)

Nami has a somewhat lacking selection of saki, but for Minneapolis it’s pretty standard. I usually go with Onikoroshi. They have all the standard Japanese/Asian beer imports, and great bartenders who can make anything else you’d ever want.

Service is a big plus, they’re very professional and usually have good recommendations. However, on one occasion a waitress did spill on both my date and I in the same night. That’s been the only bad experience though.

251 1st Ave N, Minneapolis, MN Phone: 612-333-1999

African Pineapple Peanut Stew

Thu, 27 Nov 2003 00:00:00 +0000

Source: The Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home

Servings: 4 Preparation Time: 0.75 hours

Ingredients:

1 cup chopped onions
2 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 bunch kale or Swiss chard (4 cups sliced)
2 cups undrained crushed pineapple (20-ounce can)
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 tablespoon Tabasco or other hot pepper sauce
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
salt to taste
crushed skinless peanuts
chopped scallions

Cooking Instructions:

In a covered saucepan, saute the onions and garlic in the oil for about 10 mintues, stirring frequently, until the onions are lightly browned. While the onions saute, wash the kale or Swiss chard. Remove and discard the large stems and any blemished leaves. Stack the leaves on a cutting surface and slice crosswise into 1-inch-thick slices.

Add the pineapple and its juice to the onions and bring to a simmer. Stir in the kale or chard, cover, and simmer for about 5 minutes, stirring a couple of times, until just tender. Mix in the peanut butter, Tabasco, and cilantro and simmer for 5 mintues. Add salt to taste, and serve.

Notes:

Serve on rice, milet, or couscous, topped with crushed peanuts and chipped scallions.

Early 2000's website archive

Sat, 01 Jan 2000 00:00:00 +0000

Web archive of my old brainbench transcript… fun.

My early 2000’s site footer:

homepage from 2003

welcome Welcome. I’m Jason Thorpe - a web application architect from Minneapolis, MN. You can find my resume here, as well as links to some of my projects.

If you’re a ColdFusion MX developer, check out Handy for your CFC testing needs.

If you’re interested in sushi, cellphones, or looking at pictures of my friends and I, check out www.sushijunkies.com

resume blurb: I plan to use my wealth of technical experience to lead a resourceful team of people in building interactive/e-business experiences.

Why am I fit to do such a thing?

I’ve got over 10 years of web experience, and have been developing with interactive tools since the early 90’s.

Currently I’m development manager and lead architect at Tequila\Minneapolis, a part of Martin Williams Advertising. I’m also the key data-design and structured content expert, as well as the go-to guy for any challenging programming problems. I was one of the key players to bring Fusebox & eXtreme programming to our teams.

Contact me at: contact@jason-thorpe.com, or check out my resume.

Thank you blue robot for making my site look nice.

Projects:

Handy : Test framework for ColdFusion CFCs

Cornermaker : Make rounded corner GIFs quickly and easily, using any colors.

www.sushijunkies.com : Site for sushi people.

I’m writing a book entitled “Object Oriented Information Design” in the little spare time I have. It’s about 50% done.