Black-Eyed Peas, who knew!?

I grew up "Yankee" as they say here in the South.  That means I grew up eating pork, sauerkraut, and hot dogs for New Year's.  But, in the South, they have a tradition of eating Black-Eyed Peas for luck.  My Aunt sent out a neat story about the tradition, and I started checking it out to get more info.  Well, that opened up a whole can of, er, well, peas I guess.  Here are several takes on the tradition of eating BEP:

From my Aunt:

"The Real Story is much more interesting and has gone untold in fear that feelings would be hurt. It’s a story of war, the most brutal and bloody war, military might and power pushed upon civilians, women, children and elderly. Never seen as a war crime, this was the policy of the greatest nation on earth trying to maintain that status at all costs. An unhealed wound remains in the hearts of some people of the southern states even today; on the other hand, the policy of slavery has been an open wound that has also been slow to heal but is okay to talk about. The story of THE BLACK EYED PEA being considered good luck relates directly back to Sherman 's Bloody March to the Sea in late 1864. It was called The Savannah Campaign and was lead by Major General William T. Sherman. The Civil War campaign began on 11/15/64 when Sherman 's troops marched from the captured city of Atlanta , Georgia , and ended at the port of Savannah on 12/22/1864. When the smoke cleared, the southerners who had survived the onslaught came out of hiding. They found that the blue belly aggressors that had looted and stolen everything of value and everything you could eat including all livestock - death and destruction were everywhere. While in hiding, few had enough to eat, and starvation was now upon the survivors. There was no international aid, no Red Cross meal trucks. The Northern army had taken everything they could carry and eaten everything they could eat. But they couldn’t take it all. The devastated people of the south found for some unknown reason that Sherman ’s bloodthirsty troops had left silos full of black eyed peas. At the time in the north, the lowly black eyed pea was only used to feed stock. The northern troops saw it as the thing of least value. Taking grain for their horses and livestock and other crops to feed themselves, they just couldn’t take everything. So they left the black eyed peas in great quantities assuming it would be of no use to the survivors, since all the livestock it could feed had either been taken or eaten. Southerners awoke to face a new year in this devastation and were facing massive starvation if not for the good luck of having the black eyed peas to eat. From New Years Day 1866 forward, the tradition grew to eat black eyed peas on New Year’s Day for good luck." (Source: email, unknown origin)

According to TexasScapes.com, the tradition was invented by Elmore Torn, Sr (who happens to be the dad of Rip Torn).  It is rather lengthy, so I'll just provide a link.  In essence though, he invented the story as a way to sell a product no one wanted.(http://www.texasescapes.com/CFEckhardt/The-Great-Blackeyed-Pea-Hoax.htm)

Still, someone else wrote the following on a discussion board about the subject:

Not true. The "good luck" traditions of eating black-eyed peas on New Year's Day are recorded in the Babylonian Talmud (compiled ~500 CE), Horayot 12A: "Abaye [d. 339 CE] said, now that you have established that good-luck symbols avail, you should make it a habit to see Qara (bottle gourd), Rubiya (black-eyed peas, Arabic Lubiya), Kartei (leeks), Silka (either beets or spinach), and Tamrei (dates) on your table on the New Year." A parallel text in Kritot 5B states that one should eat these symbols of good luck. The accepted custom (Shulhan Aruh Orah Hayim 583:1, 16th century, the standard code of Jewish law and practice) is to eat the symbols. This custom is followed by Sepharadi and Israeli Jews to this day. The first Sepharadi Jews arrived in Georgia in the 1730s and have lived there continuously since. The Jewish practice was apparently adopted by non-Jews around the time of the Civil War. (Posted by pippinsrosy on http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/584205)

Still, another person responded with the best reason anyone does anything because of "tradition:"

People invent traditions because they have hope... they believe and want future generations to carry on these things.
My Great Grandmother was born in 1901 and told me (before she recently passed) that EVERY New Year's in her life included blackeyed peas... for luck in the new year. One pea for every day of good luck in the New Year. Unless she didn't start getting lucky until '47 (and she had two teen daughters by then, so I'd say she got a bit lucky) then I'm sticking with her rendition. And I have at least two hundred blackeyed peas as leftovers to eat tomorrow. :-) Happy New Year, everyone! (Posted by Ideabaker on http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/584205)

  Well, whatever reason you have for doing it, I still think Black-Eyed Peas are nasty.  However, I did eat two over-sized spoonfuls. Just in case.  I also had my dawgs and kraut!

The "Un-Internet" and educational application

I posted this to a statewide edu-tech list to which I belong.  I thought I would post here for another avenue of discussion.  This is in response to (or rather, a sharing of) an article published yesterday (Jan 2, 2012).

This article (linked below) is mainly about business practices, but I can see some of the same discussions surfacing in education circles regarding content (bandwidth not withstanding and bandwidth quickly becoming a non-issue), blocked sites, etc.  Sure, we have CIPA and COPPA to contend with, but the days of "Network Nazism" are quickly coming to an end. As well they should be.  I enjoy seeing the emergence of actual Technology Committees at various districts: Administrators, teachers, community members all reviewing sites submitted by teachers and students to be reviewed for educational use.  This has worked very well in the district for which I am one of the "community members."  In fact, we recently blocked one site and opened another based on that group's input.  We have to protect our students, but we also have to realize that our teachers and students *ARE* the users/customers, and unless we work WITH them, they will find ways to work around or without us.

 

http://www.webmonkey.com/2012/01/the-un-internet/

Welcome to 2012

Happy New Year!

First, a look back and then a look ahead.

On January 9 (just a few days away), Commodore revealed the Commodore 64.  The computer cost $299, which was not horrid back then, but not exactly peanuts either.  The real downside was that EVERYTHING was extra - floppy storage was another $179 for the original 1541, if you could find one.  Most folks started off with the $99 tape drive.  Yes, kiddos, before games came on DVDs (or there was anything remotely referred to as 'the cloud,'), we had games that were stored on cassette tapes.  Oh, wait. You might not even know what cassette tapes are.  Yeesh.  Before MP3s and CDs, we had these plastic cases with a think ribbon of 'tape' that held our music.  Well, the same technology to store music was used to store data.

Aside from the affection Mac owners are known to have for their computers, Commodore owners probably 'loved' their computers the most.  No other company (again, aside from Apple) garnered such admiration for a line of computers as Commodore.  Even today, you can ask people about their old '64s and watch as their eyes glaze over, their head tilts slightly to one side and their mind wanders back to a time of 8-bit wonders.

Some time ago, several years actually, several groups/companies came up with C64 emulators that would run on PCs.  Now, you could have all the nostalgia running in a window on your computer while you surfed the web, played other games, or did just about anything else you wanted to.  The entire C64 collection of games fits on a series of DVDs.

And then, Commodore was reignited and a new company brought forth a C64 clone.  The new machine is a PC running the emulator.  It also costs over 3x as much as the original, listing for $999 from CommodoreUSA.  No thanks.  Even if I bought the emulator and the DVD series, I'd still have change left over for my card hobby.  So it wouldn't LOOK like a C64. Who cares. I digress.

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As for looking ahead, I managed a paltry 80 posts in 2011.  I posted more than that during my first year of blogging when I really had no idea what I was doing or why.  I am not a "resolutions" kind of person, but I absolutely resolve to post more in 2012.  What accounts for the lack of posts?  I'm ashamed to admit it, but Facebook and Twitter have become my main outlet streams.  That's not a bad thing, really, but I am a huge proponent of blogging, especially in education, and so I need to champion that which I, er, champion.

Of course, the first round of solid postings will come from the annual "American Idol" rundown.  I also plan to post some of my more in-depth musings on here and let those take on a life of their own here and in the social networking realms.  For instance, my thoughts on public breastfeeding sparked quite a conversation on Facebook.  It would have been fun to start that here and then follow it in both circles, possibly cross-posting back here as to additional comments, etc.

I have been putting off two novels as well.  I don't mean reading them - I mean writing them.  So, the next "resolution" on my list: Write 'em.  I've actually decided that "Summer Breaks" will become a larger version of itself to be entitled, "Extended Summer Breaks."  It will be cleaned up and several elements expanded based on feedback I've received from friends and reviews.  The other novel, "Somewhere Main and Maple Meet," is already 2/3rds complete in first draft, so I'm looking to finish it up and get it published as well.  In fact, I plan to shop that one through Christian publishing circles to see if I can get a tradition publisher to pick it up.  I'll keep you posted.

My final "real" resolution relates to my bucket list.  I am picking one item to cross off the list and will focus my attention throughout the year to make it happen.  Not sure which item yet, but once I choose, that will be the one I try to knock off.

Thanks to everyone who comes by to read my ramblings and musings, and I hope to provide you much more entertainment in 2012 than in 2011.

Fixing "Blindsighted" in Skyrim

Good heavens. Skyrim is full of as many glitches as it is guards who have taken an arrow to the knee!  The latest 'discovery' is during the Blindsighted mission where you finally face off against Mercer Frey.  In some circumstances, he never shows up at the 'final' showdown!  He speaks for a moment, but is not there and the player cannot move anywhere.  Enter the console yet again.

I have heard of two ways to make this work: 1) Bring Mercer to where you are, 2) go to where he is and follow him until he gets to where he is supposed to be.

As for (1), I did not try that.  I read too many people having no luck with it.

As for (2), here is what you need to do:  Once you enter the room where Mercer says something about getting the drop on him, your character is frozen. Sorta.

1. Press the tilde (~) to open the console and type: epc 
2. Press ENTER. This will free you up to move freely.
3. Type: player.moveto 00022651
4. Press ENTER (the game will load to where Mercer is in the world)
5. Follow Mercer until he he gets to the right room *OR* until he suddenly disappears from you
6. *IF* he disappears from you while you are following him, type: player.moveto 00022651 and press ENTER.  This should teleport you back to the room with him and the other NPCs and start the dialogue.  Be sure to get to where he can see you so the auto-conversation can take place.  Once it does, finish out the scene as you wish.

This is one of the most ridiculous glitches out there.  How he goes from one cut scene to being totally removed from the quest area is beyond me.  That has got to be some kind of scripting glitch.  In any case, the fix above worked for me multiple times.  I repeated the steps a couple times from older save games just to be sure it worked.  NOTE: You may have to fight several things along the way.  One "option" is to put yourself into "god" mode until you get back on task.  I don't generally suggest going into "god" mode because it is too far down the cheating path, but since the is a glitch in the game, I see no problem using it to avoid getting killed while chasing doofus around the map.

Keywords: Mercer Frey, Blindsighted, "get the drop on me", glitch, bug, Thieves Guild

Review: Need for Speed The Run

One of the video games I received for Christmas this year: Need for Speed-The Run.  I had seen several previews, videos, etc for the game, and being a fan of the NFS franchise, I had to put it on my Christmas wish list.  I got the Limited Edition, which gives access to a bonus set of cars and Challenge Tracks that the "regular" edition doesn't.  I put regular in quotes because I have yet to see an edition with the words "limited edition" printed on the box.  I digress.

The game has three modes, basically: The Run Storyline, Challenge Mode, and Multiplayer.  I'll start with Multiplayer because, well, I haven't used it yet.  It connects to EA's AUTOLOG system for game matches.  You race against your friends. As I understand it, you can jump into games at any point - no more of the Autolog lobby.  I'll play with that and let you know.

The Run Storyline is the main game.  You play a scruffy nerfherder named Jack.  You have to race across the country in order to win a boatload of money to pay off the mob.  It's Rat Race meets Cannonball Run meets... I dunno.  During the game, there are cut scenes and screenshots featuring various characters that really have no bearing on the game at all.  In the midst of your racing across the country, you are tossed into these weird mini games where on-screen prompts show you when to hit the space bar, arrow keys, enter key, whatever.  During one scene, you jump from building to building, avoiding helicopter gunfire.

The mini games, to me, are a waste.  I came to race, not play some loosely constructed story.  I know, many people like having a backstory to go with their racing. I am not one of those.  I came to race my car.  And, HOLY SMOKES do you race!  Now, this is not the "simulation" style that many NFS games are known for.  This is arcade racing.  If you slide off a mountain while driving through Colorado's beautifully-rendered high country, you get a RESET to try again from your last checkpoint. You get 4 or 5 (I can't remember just now) resets per section before you have to start the section over from the beginning.  Let me tell ya, it can get VERY frustrating: To be on the last leg of a section only to miss a turn with no resets left will have you screaming at the monitor.  I kept running into/off of obstacles that caused resets on some levels but not on others.  It was hard to figure out where I could scrape some paint and where I had to stay between the lines.  This especially held true where my car would slip off the road into a patch of grass only to have the screen go black and the dreaded "RESET" appear. The other area to watch are telephone poles.  In some areas, you can blast right through them, while in others, they are as solid as a building.  And, you have no idea which is which until you run head-on into a pole.

The handling is pure arcade, and once you get the feel for controls, you can drive any of the cars because they all drive the same.  At least, it felt that way to me.  Some people have posted that they hate this and that it is unrealistic.  LOL, "unrealistic."  It's a GAME, people. Of course it isn't realistic.  Would you realistically be driving half these cars in your life, ever? Nope. Anyway, there are sports cars, exotics, and racers.  It doesn't matter.  Hop in and drive.

The biggest complaint I have about the game: I can't enjoy the views.  You race from San Francisco to New York via Las Vegas, Colorado, Chicago, Cleveland, and other locales that fly by at 240+ mph and you don't get to enjoy the nuances that make those places what they are.  I would love a free-roam mode where you could grab a car and just drive around.  Ah well, this *IS* an arcade racer, after all.  I will say, though, that driving through the subway is one of the coolest sections of all - sightseeing or not!

The game progresses through 10 levels.  You have meet certain goals to continue: beat 8 racers, beat 6 time trials, whatever.  You cannot progress without beating the goals, and it only takes a few tries to beat the goals.  A couple levels are harder than others, but once you've "Beat 6 Racers" once, you've done it a hundred times.  I did not realize this was how the game was played.  I was hoping you started off the race and then tried to beat everyone to the end - open-ended style: that is, whatever position you were in at the end of each leg, that's the position you started the next one.  I think that would have added so much more to the game. They didn't ask me.

You eventually win the race - because you have no choice, really.  Oh, wait, is that spoiler? Of course not - you eventually (hopefully) win any racing game, right?

Challenge Modes are unlocked as you progress through the story.  Each Challenge features several tracks/goals for you to beat.  You get to race the same locales you did in the story mode, but with different tracks, different goals, etc.  You can also try to best your Autolog pals.

The game is a lot of fun, and can be extremely frustrating.  For me, that's what I like about it most - figuring out just what's going on. Now, I think I'll go back and play through the story and locales with some sightseeing in mind.  Who cares if I win or not.  I want to see some sights.