2012 Consumer Electronics Show

Ford EVOS-  Electric Concept Car

Earlier this month I was given the opportunity to go to the International Consumer Electronic Show (CES for short) in Las Vegas.  For those of you who are not familiar, the CES is the show where most of the big name brands roll out their new technologies and updated models of their product suites.  It is the show where you can glimpse into next generation technologies and find trends in mainstream consumer products.  It is the show where everything from $10 headphones to $10,000 personal home servers are on display for all to see.  It is quite simply THE Show.

It is the largest convention of the year in Vegas.  There are nearly 2500 companies presenting, over 15 miles of booths and aisle ways, in 5 huge convention halls.  It over runs the entire Las Vegas convention center and spills over in to The Venitian and The Las Vegas Hilton.  Throughout the whole town surly yet appreciative cabbies line up by what seems like the hundreds just to move the 159,000 industry affiliated attendees from place to place.  Maybe next year they will invent teleportation, but as it stands now it is a huge mangled mess of droves, flocks, and gaggles of people.  All bustling about to see "the next big thing".

The difficulties associated with attempting to take it all in are fairly obvious.  There is simply too much to see in 4 days.  And I am sure there are some fascinating stuff that I just wandered by in a mid-afternoon daze of over-stimulation and malnourishment.  But I will do my best to cover some of the highlights and give you a few thoughts.  First off, some mechanical issues, the CES is simply too large to cover in one blog post, so I am going to cut it up in to a couple different bite sized entries.  Second, I am not an industry technician, so I don't have all the specs, requirements, and analysis of "This" vs "That".  What I do have is a four day experience seeing myriad competing technologies and thoughts and observations of what I saw.   So, without further ado...  Let's get to it!

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White Chili Recipe- "White Lightning" wins the 2011 Chili Cookoff!



2011 Champion- White Lightning

 Each year The Girlfriend and her friends have a Chili Cook Off.  This year I was lucky enough to be invited to enter a chili.  And guess what?  That's right!  The Polymouth's very own "White Lightning" won the 2011 Chili Cook Off!!!  Woo-hoo!  And along with it there is a killer trophy, which now will, as is customary, receive an addition of some sort before being put on the line again next fall.  There were 11 entries in all, and some very creative competition.  We had meaty chilies con carne, luscious vegetarian chilies, firery super spicy chilies, other wonderful white chilies, and another top contender was the delicious and exotic pumpkin chili. 

I've never really entered a cooking competition, even one as relaxed and friendly as this, so there were some butterflies and excitement that came along with entering.  Our entry was quite tasty, but it certainly wasn't easy.  Not that it was difficult, it just had several steps, and took most of the day to make.  As usual I had a general recipe in mind, but I was cooking "Iron-Style" and kept tweaking and adding ingredients up till the final moments before we left for the party.  There is no way to know exactly what the final recipe ended up being, but I will do my best to explain the process and steps that went into this tasty dish.

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Arrested Development Returning for a 4th Season

In case you have fallen in a "Sudden Valley", or are forced to live in an attic since your escape from prison and the Polymouth is your only source for current events, do we have good news for you!  Arrested Development, AKA the funniest sit-com of all time, is returning for a truncated 4th season to set up the long awaited feature film.  They are expecting a 10 episode mini-season catching fans up on "The Lost Years" since the premature cancelation of the cult classic.  This is all hearsay and rumor, but here are some links to some sites that seem pretty certain, including some tweets from the cast confirming reports.

http://bluthfamilyreunion.com/41/arrested-development-to-return-for-4th-season/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/celebritology/post/arrested-development-will-return-with-new-episodes-and-the-movie/2011/10/02/gIQAMszQGL_blog.html

http://news.yahoo.com/arrested-development-announces-4th-season-movie-230333253.html



We're gonna get "Hop-Ons"...

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Uncle E's Hip-Hop Anthology: Vol. 7- Pass Tha Mic

Ok, so this might be a little confusing because I haven't posted any of Uncle E's Hip-Hop Anthology previously, and this is Volume 7.  But think of it like how Star Wars started with Volume 4 (Episode IV: A New Hope).  This particular mix is just fun to talk about, so we're starting here.

A few years back I started putting together mixes for my nephew that included some of my favorite tunes from Hip-Hop's "Golden Age" (generally considered the early-to-mid 90's, after "Old School" but before every record label had to have a Hip-Hop act and sort of ruined the spirit of the genre).  This became a larger task than I initially thought.  It grew from a couple mixes into a multi-disc anthology.  There are some well known classics, but there are a bunch of hidden gems that are hard to even find anymore.  With that said, here is the first installment of Uncle E's Hip-Hop Anthology:

Volume 7: Pass Tha Mic

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Fantasy Football Cheat Sheet 3.0 (Top 250 Update)

Most drafts will be over the next week or so.  Here is the Top 250 players taking into account Fantasy Value, Average Draft Position, Strength of Schedule, and Free Agency Aquisitions.  Best of luck this year...

1. Adrian Peterson- RB, MIN
2. Arian Foster- RB, HOU
3. Chris Johnson- RB, TEN
4. Ray Rice- RB, BAL
5. Jamaal Charles- RB, KC
6. LeSean McCoy- RB, PHI
7. Andre Johnson- WR, HOU
8. Maurice Jones-Drew- RB, JAX
9. Roddy White- WR, ATL
10. Darren McFadden- RB, OAK

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127 Hors (D'oeuvres)- (Dish Made for 127 Hours for the 2011 Oscar Party)

127 Hors D'oeuvres

As I was trying to come up with a dish for 127 Hours (you know, the movie about that real guy Aron Ralston who was trapped by a rock and ended up cutting his own arm off to escape to rescue) I felt like I might need to gnaw MY arm off.  For some reason every year there are a couple movies that just don't lend themselves to making dishes about them.  Granola or Power Bars crossed my mind.  There was talk of chicken wings...  but that seemed a bit morbid.  What ended up winning out was a play on the visual look of the name itself: 127 Hours.  Just drop the "u" and you get 127 Hors.  Add some fancy French stuff and you get 127 Hors (D'oeurves).

127 Hours mural in the 100 Mile Hallway


This one is actually more about the total items than any specific recipe.  It is made up of 5 different little appetizers.  3 of them in a 25 count and 2 of them in a 26 count.  25+25+25+26+26= 127.  You can really make any hors d'oeuvres you would like, but here are the five that were served at the 2011 Oscar Party: Fried Olives, Pita Chips with Hummus (topped with a slice of Kalamata Olive), Bread Rounds with Rondele (topped with Pimento and Chives), Caprese Bites with Baby Heirloom Tomatoes, Basil, and Fresh Mozzarella, and Prosciutto Wrapped Asparagus.

Most of these are pretty basic, 2 of them are a cracker/spread type snacks, and 2 of them are small skewer types on toothpicks.  But, the Fried Olives are a dish I had never made, and in fact had never even tried.  But I saw this demonstration and wanted to try the recipe.  I skipped the cheese, and used Panko bread crumbs instead (if you are not yet aware of Panko bread crumbs, do yourself a favor and give them a shot, your taste buds will thank you),  but I basically stuck to the technique.

It actually came together nicely, and they were some of the most popular bites of the night.  It was unfortunate that as soon as one person tried any of the dishes it threw the number off and the whole effect was lost.  But just getting something pulled together had me feeling like James Franco's character must have felt like once he saw that med-evac helicopter landing.

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The End of an Era (Many of TVs Best Shows are Nearing Their Finale)

***SPOILER ALERT*** (see bottom of page)

There are few things filled with more disappointment and anticipation than when a popular TV show decides to call it quits.  After all, fans nearly regard the characters of their favorite shows as friends and family.  Successful shows often run for the better part of a decade, and they become ingrained in our lives and daily routines.  Finales in particular are able to gather crowds, the M*A*S*H finale is still the most watched broadcast in American history (of course M*A*S*H wasn't only well done and incredibly popular, but it had the advantage of limited competition because few homes had cable at that point, and the big 3 networks still ruled the day).  Everyone wants to know "how it ends", whatever "it" might be.  Finales can create quite a buzz, Seinfeld, The Sopranos, and Lost all made big news and water cooler chatter when they came to their end.  There is usually a big finally every few years or so, and there is a built up to the main event.  But this year there is an inordinate number of fan favorites and critically acclaimed programs that are winding down.

For some reason 2011 will be the end point for 4 shows that in one way or another have shaped television and pop culture over their run.  This summer is the last season for The Closer, Weeds, Rescue Me, and Entourage.  DVRs across America are going to have plenty of free space with these massively popular shows leaving a huge vacuum behind.

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What's in a name? (who to pick, and who not to pick in your 2011 Fantasy Football Draft)

We've all done it.  At a cocktail party, or in class sometime, or just bumping in to someone at the mall or on the street.  You search back through your entire memory and you simply can not remember the other persons name.  It is one of those moments that has the unique ability to make you feel stupid, thoughtless, and rude all at the same time.  It's a bummer man.

When it comes to your fantasy football draft* this simple mistake can not only be embarrassing, but it can spell disaster for your team before kick off of the first game.  There is no worse feeling than realizing that your latest pick not only retired 3 years ago, but the guy you thought you were picking was selected 3rd overall and you never really had a shot at him in the first place.  Basically, you need to know who is on your players list, and the differences between players.

But they don't make it easy.  There are 5 guys named Ryan in the Top 250, and 4 of them are running backs.  Who ever thought there would be deux hommes named Pierre in the NFL?  Why are there more players named Jacoby than the more traditional Jacob?  Is it any wonder that over two decades after everyone wanted to "Be Like Mike" there are 3 dudes named Jordan on the list?  And let's not forget there are 2 guys named Steve Smith, and another 2 named Mike Williams, and all 4 of them are wide receivers.

So, here are a few things to keep in mind to hopefully differentiate between certain players you do or do not want on your team:

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Fantasy Football Draft Cheat Sheet 2.0 (Top 250 updated 8/9/11)

Well, we now have the lockout officially behind us.  And we are now hours not days away from actual live action football (if you consider pre-season actual football).  We now know where most free agents are going to be playing.  And for a few unfortunate injured players (10 blown achilles so far), we know who will not be playing this season.  There is still a long way till the season starts and injuries, free agency, and depth charts are all going to change...  but here is the latest Draft Cheat Sheet as of 8/9/11:

1. Arian Foster, HOU- RB
2. Ray Rice, BAL- RB
3. Chris Johnson, TEN- RB
4. Adrian Peterson, MIN- RB
5. Jamaal Charles, KC-RB
6. LeSean McCoy, PHI- RB
7. Andre Johnson, HOU- WR
8. Maurice Jones-Drew, JAX-RB
9. Rashard Mendenhall, PIT-RB
10. Aaron Rodgers, GB- QB

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Oscar Party 2011 (Menu and Recipes for the Academy Awards)



Mural of the 10 Best Picture Nominees

The last few years I have thrown an Oscar Party.  Who knew that if you got tasty food, cocktails, and (ahem) some friendly wagering all in one place you could get even the most hardened anti-award-show types to have a great time?  I will eventually go back and post recipes and some pics from previous parties, but lets begin with the most recent.

The main components to the shin-dig are threefold: A dish for each of the movies nominated for Best Picture, fun decorations including the free hand Mural in the 100 Mile Hallway, and the Oscar ballot game where everyone guesses who wins for prizes at the end of the night.  Throw in some top flight movies, some over priced fashion, and some mediocre comedy and you gotta party baby!  Let's roll out the red carpet and take a look at the nominees...

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