Since I haven’t been able to get up as early as I like to hit the gym I have been getting there around 6:45 to 7:00 AM or during my lunch hour. So that limits me to a 30 to 45 minute workout. Yeah not too happy about myself getting to the gym so late or using my lunch hour. So I have made a quick 30 minute play list for inspiration and why it lives on this play list.
Redefine – Soil
Why am I going to the gym? Yes to redefine myself.
Prison Song – System of a Down
Have you heard this song? It pushes you. The PRISON SYSTEM!
Pathetic – Five Bolt Main
I’m feeling pretty pathetic because I have been lacking on my gym time.
Pushing Through – Mudvayne
Middle of the playlist, am I getting tired? Keep pushing dood!
Walk – Pantera
Only my favorite Pantera song. You can’t be something you’re not….RE! SPECT! WALK!
Fully Alive – Flyleaf
Ok, a chick singing with some sweet riffs. The workout is fully alive.
Black – Sevendust
The riff at the beginning at the song keeps me going. It’s a straight pump to get me through the last of my workout.
Reborn – Drowning Pool
Finishing up my workout. My day has been reborn.
Any thoughts? Suggestions? I am looking for about 3 to 5 more songs to make a 45 minute list. But I believe I have found the perfect 30.9 minute (according to iTunes) workout play list to push you through it. Enjoy.
January 10th, a dear friend of mine was murdered in a murder/suicide by her husband in which they were in the process of going through a divorce. I am posting this here so that I will have Jennifer’s letter on hand at all times. It was published in the Columbus Packet and she also sent the letter to the Daily Journal in Tupelo and to the Daily Corinthian in Corinth. I know for sure that the Daily Corinthian has failed to return phone calls and emails back to Jennifer about her letter as of January 29, 2010. I am not sure if it was ever printed in the Daily Journal.
Editor’s note: Jennifer Smith, who wrote the following letter, included this note with it.
Roger,
Many people in Columbus and Starkville know the two people that the attached letter is about as they both lived here and in Starkville for years, which is why I found it hard to believe that Tupelo covered their deaths but not Columbus. Amanda was a graduate of MSU and her husband Brad was a graduate of MUW.
Thanks for your time,
Jennifer Smith
Ms. Smith’s e-mail was the first I had heard of the murder/suicide.
Editor:
I am writing in response to the January 10 murder/suicide of Amanda Millsaps and Brad Johnson in Corinth. Their deaths did not garner much attention here, but they had resided in the Golden Triangle area for the past two years, up until last June. While living here, Amanda worked at a Columbus bank and taught water aerobics at night at the W. Brad graduated from the W in May with a business degree. Amanda was my college roommate and best friend. The news of her death devastated me, but the resulting news coverage on WTVA angered me. It was insinuated that this came out of the blue, that no one could see this coming. That is, in fact, horribly wrong. Brad had been stalking, harassing and threatening Amanda since their separation in October. He even went so far as to follow her 120 miles from Corinth to Columbus, where he stalked her all night and then physically assaulted her when she was separated from her friends. I took her to the police station that night where she filed a report against him. I will forever feel guilty that I did not push her to press charges against him that night.
Amanda sought protection from Brad, but the system and everyone involved failed her. Amanda sought a restraining order in Alcorn County, but the judge would not listen to her—too busy on his cell phone to listen to a woman who feared for her safety. He would not grant her an emergency restraining order but instead told her to bring it to open court. This means that Brad would have to be served and then face her in open court to defend himself against the protective order. Please explain to me how it makes sense that a woman who fears for her safety would want the person doing this to her to know the exact date, time, and place (the courthouse) where he can find her? Brad’s counselor hung up on her when she called to report that Brad had threatened both Amanda’s life and his own. Her divorce attorney did not return her calls when she called for weeks seeking advice on what to do. The people in his camp (I will not name names as you know who you are and will have to live with that) told her she was a liar and that Brad would never do those horrible things when she sought for the people close to him to help her by encouraging him to seek help and move on.
I know rationally that Amanda’s death is no one’s fault but Brad Johnson’s, but I am so angry that no one with the power to help her even listened to her, much less actually tried to help. I hope in the future that judges take the time, and have the courtesy to hang up the cell phone, to listen when a woman comes to them fearing for her safety, especially as she already had a police report from Columbus where he had followed her across numerous counties and miles and physically hurt her. I hope in the future that counselors/ psychologists listen that a man has threatened his life and others. I hope in the future that attorneys take ten minutes out of their day to return a call. I hope in the future that friends and family of a man take seriously that the man is threatening harm against someone and actually get involved instead of sitting on the sidelines.
Evil presides when good people do nothing. But, most of all, I hope that women will take seriously any threats made on their life. Amanda feared that Brad would harm her, but she never believed that he would kill her. She was tragically wrong. Nothing will bring back this beautiful, warm, vivacious lady whom her family and friends loved and adored, but I hope that we all can learn something from her death. I believe that this case shows how and why we need tougher laws on domestic violence in Mississippi and more protection for the women in danger. Let us never allow this to happen again.
This past summer I was in Kansas City with some family. And my last evening there we got to brew some beer. After trying Fat Tire in Colorado years ago and then discovering it in Memphis last Christmas, a recipe for the Fat Tire clone was found and we decided to recreate it. After reading the recipe I was floored at how precise things were listed on it. Steep the grains at a 154 degrees, put so many ounces of this into it. Well after discussing this I learned the main part of brewing your beer is keeping everything sanitized. Sanitizing the carboy, the bottles and so on. I have been itching to get myself a brewing kit so I can start the brewing here in Starkville. So I kept getting updates from KC on how the beer was coming and of course I couldn’t wait to get there to try it. So finally October rolled around and we were able to get on it and was it good. Really smooth and the flavor of it was right on point. Didn’t have that bite that Fat Tire does. I think tonight, a side by side comparison is going to happen. I’ll update this post with pics.
Wick's Pick Home Brew
If you have any suggestions on where to purchase home brewing kits/ingredients, let me know. I have had suggestions and am always looking for the better deal.
As I was watching Mississippi State play Vanderbilt Saturday in a grid iron showdown, something had dawned on me. We sit around and watch 18-23 year old guys (on the average) play football. We let it control our emotions and even our schedules, but man I sure do I love it.
So pondering thoughts about how football came into play in my life. I was in the band in high school and so we followed the football team to every game, unless it was more than a two hour jaunt. We didn’t travel to Corinth our Senior year, but a few of us went to the game anyways. Then came my decision to go to college. With about two months left of my high school career I was gung ho Mississippi State bound. Then came the band director from East Mississippi Community College and she offered myself and a hand full of my friends scholarships to come to Scooba, MS. We adventured down to Scooba and there is football again, but I always watched to see what the MSU Bulldogs were doing. It was the winning days of the 90s. So of course I followed, because I was just about my way to MSU to finish off my college career.
So in comes the Fall of 1999 and I am full force at MSU. Then is when I got my first set of football season tickets. Three dollars a football game. Wow! How can you pass it up. In the student section, you stand up on the bleachers, not in front of them. You must stand tall if you want to watch the game. If you aren’t at least two hours early you are in the steps watching the game. It was an experience in the student section that will not be missed, but never forgotten. I have gotten season tickets every year since then. I sure do miss that student ticket price (even those MSU has raised the student ticket price to $5 a game).
As you can see I have a love for football. The game. The players. The pride. The joy. The heartbreak. It’s all apart of the game. Is my support for Mississippi State football my support for the State of Mississippi. I am proud of my MS roots. I have roots in the Columbus/Caledonia area, but now planting roots firmly here in Starkville. I’m not an advocate for MS, but I do have a love for my state. The state in which I have lived for 30 years (minus the time I lived in Birmingham to fulfill my co-op while in school). Can the love of the sport be a love for the state? MSU is a land grant institution, funded by the state, so there for MSU = State of Mississippi? Probably not. When I travel, I usually try to take garments to show my support of MSU. You wouldn’t believe the how many people say are you from Michigan State? WOW! Seriously? Green does not equal maroon. It’s the maroon and white I cheer for.
So this is pointless blog entry, just an opinion and observation on my point of view. My perception of my affinity for Mississippi State football. So as we plan our tailgate for the LSU game this weekend, I’ll be wearing my MSU colors with pride. We bring in the #7 LSU Tigers into town, which is going to be a tough test for this young coaching staff. Go Dawgs!
Testing out a Firefox plugin called Deepest Sender. Maybe can submit quicker blogs and try to keep things more up to date. I have been slacking and it is just going to get worse probably. I have started back into graduate school, but only taking one class along with full time here at the university. Gah! I have to remember things from my Engineering Statistics class? Seriously? Yeah that is what I’ll be working on this weekend.
Have a great weekend and hopefully I’ll be around more.
Well after my trip to Kansas City a little over a month ago and learning quite a bit about barbecuing meat, I wanted to try my hand at smoking a brisket. Learned some tricks, got some tips and also ate some good food! Well here is my first attempt.
Sweating in spices. My first attempt, just salt and heavy pepper.
After about 4 hours on the smoker, only 10 more hours to go!
Almost to the 12 hour mark. Wrapped in foil to limit burning and keeping meat's juices.
Here it is after 15 hours on the smoker! Good things come to those who wait.
Here is my homemade BBQ sauce. I believe this cooked about 8 hours. Needs some more vinegar, but its a good base. This will be perfected soon.
I will document more smoker action soon, I hope. Next up is a pork butt. Yessir!
So for about the past year or so I have gotten random emails sent to my Gmail account. Anywhere from car purchasing information, soccer pictures, family pictures, asking to have a day off, trying to reset my Gmail and Netflix accounts, and much more random stuff. So check this:
Hi Jessica,
As discussed, I have attached a candidate Registration pack for you to complete prior to coming into the branch to register with us.
Your Appointment is scheduled for Friday morning the 7th of August at 11.30am.
We are located at unit 3 – 4 Albatross street, Winnellie. (Next to the ANZ Bank)
Peter Remfrey | Branch Supervisor – Darwin
0417 ### ### (I took out the #, just in case)
KI Recruitment CMYK
First of all, I’m not Jessica. This is a new name that I have seen. I have seen Jack multiple times, James a few times, but this the first instance of a female. I think this is from What is the dealio? So I thought I’d share. Maybe I’ll see if I have archived the emails and that’ll be a whole other blog.
This is the omelet I wanted. Stuff with alligator and andoullie sausage, topped with the crawfish and mushroom sauce.
So it has come to our last full day in the New Orleans. The ole lady and I woke up with breakfast on our minds and no one else in the group seemed to even want to go eat. So we got dress and decided that Petunia’s was on our agenda for breakfast. Yes, this was suppose to be one of those places that you go eat and tell everyone that you’ve eaten there. So we take a stroll on down to St. Peters and walking up to it, it looked all vacant. Hmmmm, as we walk up to the door there was a piece of paper taped to it and told us that Petunia’s was closed and that the chef has opened up another restaurant called the Ole Nawlin’s Cookery on Conti. (Side note– after doing some searching on the internet, Petunia’s permanently closed their doors on June 1, 2009. Wow, was so close. Will someone every try to reopen? What happened? I will try to find out more.) Well, we were ravenous at that point so we just well, lets just try it anyways. So as we are walking those few blocks down to it we get hit up by people trying to pull ya into their restaurant to eat. We simply ignored the guy and came in the Cookery. As we were seated we saw the guy from outside doing the pulling of customers. Well we were rightfully confused. It so happens that this place has three names it goes by, Oceana Grill, Petunia’s and the Ole Nawlin’s Cookery. So the menu was set down in front of us and boom there ya have it, Petunia’s was the name on the menu. Was this Petunia’s menu? I don’t know, but after talking with some people, no it wasn’t. But it had some good ole cajun breakfast items to choose from. The ole lady tried to tell me she was getting the country breakfast and I promptly told her that wasn’t on the menu and no need into coming to New Orleans and ordering something we can make at home. She tells me she was kidding, but I do not believe that! But anyways the first thing that caught my eye was this omelet with alligator and andoullie sausage, but then there was the kicker. Topped with a crawfish and mushroom sauce. Stupid shellfish allergy. Well, my second choice was the Cajun Omelet that has tasso and ham. Yessir it was mouth watering good. See for yourself in the pics!
The Cajun Omelet
Well, the omelets were so big, we didn’t finish them and plus we had gotten text messages about them wanting some food, so we didn’t finish the omelets, and so we took them back to the room, after a few stops of course. Ha! So on the way to back to the room, we came across a store that we wanted to check out. It was the New Orleans School of Cooking and General Store. Come to find out, they do a cooking demo and then you get to eat it! Woah! I wish I new about this before hand, I woulda came here for lunch! But hind sight, ya know and we were leaving the next day so we couldn’t handle doing that then hitting the road. So it is on the list for the next trip. So then we venture back to the room and give the peeps the omelets. I dunno if they liked them or not, but ya know what, they were just good and we enjoy them.
Cooking demonstration
So we all rested a bit and then decided to go hit up the Creole Tomato festival again. I got in touch with my friend that lived there and she was gonna walk from her place to the festival and our room was on her way so we met up with her. So we roamed on down to the French Market, taking a detour down Royal to take in some more sites. Well, we were about hungry again because it was around lunch time. So I hit up a booth that had alligator sausage on a stick. The ole lady tried a shrimp remoulade stuffed tomato. Mmm. That sounded so good, I wanted someone to try it so they could tell me how it was. Curse the shellfish allergy! Then there were other parts of the festival we didn’t see from Saturday. We were so thirsty we needed something to drink, so I stopped at one of these homemade lemonade stands. It was refreshing and hit the spot. Good stuff! Then we came across a cooking demo and the people doing it weren’t keeping my attention away from being so HOT. So I got up and checked out the other booths. Fresh creole tomatoes galore! Then I came across a basil and tomato crepe! And ya know what it was the longest line, but it was well worth it and I got to see how they made them and yes, I’ll recreate them soon.
So part of the group wanted to hit up the Crescent City Brewhouse, but I wasn’t done trying some of the local foods. So we went towards the back of the festival and then hit up GW Fins to try their bananas foster. Yes, bananas foster, created by the chef at Brennen’s (the original) restaurant. It was my first stab at a bananas foster and I must say it was mighty tasty that I am sitting here thinking that I want some more. Well, my local friend needed to get going, she was wanting to see a play called Shotgun, which it was about race relations and hurricane Katrina. I do believe that is what she told me. Well, we met up with the rest of the traveling crew at the Crescent City Brewhouse. We walked up to the bar with everyone else and I was talked into trying their beer sampler. Quick evaluation. The pilsner is pretty much like any domestic beer. The red stallion was really hoppy, but was a good amber beer. The black forrest was ok. I’m not much of a dark beer drinker. It was very malty. The Weiss beer is their wheat beer. I have been found of a wheat beer. So I must say it was my favorite as it had a smooth and sweet finish. I can’t really remember the special. It wasn’t my favorite so I’ll just say, go try it. Well, we head on back to the room to scoop up my dad who was studying since he has gone back to school. We all agree on a place to eat for dinner and also we decide to ride the street car down to the end of the French Market as this is where the restaurant was. Coops Place was a small little restaurant/bar. Only had a couple people in there working and to say we scooped up the last table which made us think this was a good place. My friend recommended it, so I took her word for it. After studying the menu as much as I could, I went with the Rabbit and Sausage Jambalaya. Oooh this was a mighty tasty dish. So tasty that the ole lady googled to find the recipe. Yessir! Will try to recreate as best as I can, but with probably a chicken as I don’t think I can pick up rabbit at my local grocer.
Well we met up with a friend of a person of the group, she came to dinner with us at Coop’s and then took us to a bar that locals go to. Well, if you were a tourist and came across this bar, you would probably not go in there AND its right off of Bourbon St. Well, next time I’m in the NOLA area I’ll be going to Johnny White’s as it was just a quaint little bar for the chillin experience. It was wasn’t over the top expensive or anything, very reasonable. We all really enjoyed ourselves there. So it will be a destination once again.
This is the end of the trip. We came in around 1 AM, caught some shut eye and then woke up to start our adventure back home. We were back in the StarkVegas around 3:30. So it was a very enjoyable trip and I had fun. I would like to go back soon, because my list of things to do in New Orleans just got bigger.
So we wake up all cramped in our presidential suite Saturday. Lets just say some people are not morning people, myself included, but I have gotten better. So we start venturing into the quarter and if you’ve ever been to New Orleans you’ll know their marketing ploys. Have people outside trying to drag you into their establishments. Well, we weren’t even in the quarter and we got pulled into this lil whole in the wall joint to have breakfast. Dixie’s Gyros had two ladies in there whipping up a home cooked breakfast. Which was a cozy little hole in the wall and it wasn’t too shabby. We did save a few bucks going to that joint.
This book grabbed my attention and I it is on its way!
So now that we are all full, I want to head on over to the French Market. Hearing nothing but good things about it, I wanted to check out all of the fresh produce and what not that would be available to buy. Well we didn’t get till around 10, so I was wondering if there would still be produce to buy. Well, with many, many stops on the way to the market I finally arrived! Well only the first booth was fresh produce, the rest of the market was more of a flea market than anything. LOTS AND LOTS of STUFF! Yeah, there wasn’t any junk that I saw was really worth anything for myself, except for this book, which with my trusty iPhone, I took a picture of and check it out on SnapTell and found it on Amazon for $25.55 instead of the $35 they were charging at the booth.
So now I wanted the Creole Tomato Festival to get started. Hear some good music, eat some good food and all that. So about the time we were getting hotter than everything and ready to go scoop up some lunch, the festival was starting to take shape. A little jazz band was marching through the market and into the festival area. Here is a little video I uploaded to YouTube:
Well, with everyone in our group is hotter than three levels of hell, its time to venture off to scoop up some muffaletta! Yes I was mega excited about this. Muffaletta from Central Grocery. It was an experience I must say. They had all of these import foods to buy and what not. Could probably spend some major bank in there and they had some cool foods in there. But with the line going out of the door, there is no time for shopping, cause everyone was hungry. Well, lemme tell you about the experience. Have you ever seen the “Soup Nazi” episode of Seinfeld? Yessir! It reminded me of that, and he got especially grumpy when we bought some olive salad on the side. Knowing they were busy, but 15 seconds ain’t gonna hurt him for us to grab that. As we were walking out of the door a delivery guy from Leidenheimer’s was bringing in sackfuls of Muffaletta buns. Yes Leidenheimer’s is a local bread in New Orleans and it was mighty tasty. Too bad I left the leftover muffalettas in the cooler. Hope mom and dad enjoyed them! Sigh!
Well after eating that lunch a nap soon hit us. We slept for a few hours, enough to to drag on back out into the quarter. I thought I was feeling this twelve dollar burger from Dickie Brennen’s Palace Cafe. Well come to find out, the dinner menu didn’t sound very appealing. So onto Bourbon because Dad hadn’t walked down there yet. So we come up on to Dickie Brenne’s Bourbon House and yes the menu sounded like we wanted to try it out. I was worried cause I saw white table clothes, but oh well, its my birthday and I wanted a good meal!
Cool Fans in Dickie Brennen's Bourbon House
The fans were really cool, but I didn’t like the single point of failure. Being a techie person, yeah we tend to worry about points of failures, but it was might cool how the one motor and a really long belt ran the fans. So back onto the menu. There were two things that really peaked my interests, the Pork Porterhouse and the Pan Seared Tuna. So after the ole lady ordered and the waiter said to her, “Look you are at the #7 rated seafood house in the country. I would order seafood.” So she ordered the Redfish on the Halfshell, which was pretty tasty! Oh you probably wondering what I ended up with. Well after the waiter’s spill, I ended up with the Pan Seared Tuna. Which was might, mighty tasty. Was leery about ordering something that would still be cold in the middle, but it had great flavor and was just plain ole good.
The uber chocolatey cake.
Well, so dessert time came around, which surprisingly I still had room for it. After much debate I ended my meal with the Bourbon House Milk Punch. Yessir! It was lovely and the ole lady (I think she really likes it when i call her that. haha!) got herself a piece o chocolate cake with ganache. If you know her, she loves that ganache!
Sometimes listening to jazz makes me wish I still played my trumpet.
Now since we were in New Orleans, we couldn’t go there without kicking it at some jazz bar listening to some good music. I can’t recall the name of the bar, but I can recall the prices of the drinks! A bottled water was $6.75. UNREAL! I know you need to pay the musicians, but wow! $6.75! My draft beer was that price, and yes that was the cheapest drink(s) on the menu. But the music was good! That’s why we went to the place.
Well after taking in a few songs, we decided to just roam up and down Bourbon. Lets just say on a Saturday night you see some characters! The latex guys was a sight. But I didn’t get into anything too crazy. Oh yeah, we ended the night at Cafe Du Monde with some beignets and cafe au lait! Man that stuff is SLAMMIN! So back for another jaunt to the room for a night sleep, then one more day in the Big Easy.
