Life in the Geek Lane

Greetings fellow lunch eaters,

Many rumours have been circulating around about the hungry jacks ‘Quad
Stacker’. A mysterious burger capable of ceasing the arteries of any man
willing to risk his life in the pursuit of burger heaven.

I am here today to debunk these rumours and reveal that the quad stacker
is nothing more then a mutated bacon deluxe not even capable of
approaching the Ultimate double whopper in terms of artery ceasing
goodness, let alone the legendary XXX burger
(http://www.triplexrootbeer.com).

I had originally thought that the ‘double/triple/quad’ stacker promotion
allowed you to increase the meat patties on ANY burger. This is
incorrect as the stacker burgers are in fact separate burgers in their
own right.

The burgers are on the same bun as the bacon deluxe and are made up of
the number of meat patties of your choosing, separated by slices of
cheese. On top of the ’stack’ is bacon and bbq sauce.

As expected, the burger tastes meaty and actually overpowers the bacon
taste quite considerably. I find this a major downfall in the stacker
burger as one of the major features of the Ultimate double whopper and
the XXX Burger are the added ingredients which provide a much more well
rounded taste sensation.

All in all I was quite disappointed with the Quad Stacker. No stomach
ache, no increase in my heart rate, no sensation of passing out. I would
compare the ‘fullness’ value to that of a bacon deluxe, without the
taste.

I consider the legendary stacker burger rumours to now be debunked and
would recommend staying clear of them.

Just back from food shopping at the local IGA.

Found this bargain while I was there.

There was actually 3 of these ’special’ tags and I was kind of wondering what the point of them is.

Having a saving of 0c is strange in itself, but I really gotta wonder what the person who put it up was thinking.

Emu Park, QLD

So my New Scientist subscription is up for renewal. I’m still way behind on my reading, something like 6 months or so but it’s not from lack of reading. The topics are just so interesting that I find myself re-reading certain articles which really slows me down. Then there is also the website access as well with extra stuff to read.

Anyway, an ‘incentive’ to re-register is a chance to win a trip to Borneo and also a free Orang-utan adoption from the Australian Orang-utan Project. It had never crossed my mind before that you could adopt an Orang-utan, but I think it is really cool. You get sent a photo of it and can get regular updates and also feel good that you have helped these little creatures. Very nifty!

So, even thought I’m behind, I think I will end up renewing again. I really enjoy the magazine and find it really interesting plus I can adopt an Orang-utan!

or not to blog. That, is the question.

Lest We Forget

During the Easter long weekend, Melanie and I went to Surfers Paradise to meet up with Melanies Aunty Tammie who was over visiting from America. We were lucky because we got to stay with her at the Marriot which was really nice.

We spent the weekend walking around looking at various things. I was hoping to check out Ripley’s Believe it or Not, but it was closed while the shops where being renovated.

I did get to go to the wax museum though. The same one I remember going to when I was a kid and went to surfers with my mum, dad and sisters. As expected, it wasn’t quite as good as I remembered when I was younger, but still interesting.

Some of the wax models where really lifelike, while others were actually really laughable. The Whitney Houston one looked like some generic dummy they are put clothes on and labelled “Whitney Houston”

Sunday we got to spend with Tammie and we went to Tropical Fruit World which was about 30mins drive from Surfers. It was pretty cool and we got to do a fruit tasting which was interesting.

The drive was pretty long, but not too bad. The traffic on the drive back was the busiest I’ve seen while driving that road, but we never got held up in any traffic jams or anything like that which was good.

It was a most enjoyable weekend, and was good to see Tammie again.

I find myself taking a lot of random landscape photos. Tonight when I transferred pictures off my camera I found these two. I can’t actually remember where they were taken, but it seems to be on the side of the road somewhere.

The sunsets this time of year in Rocky are always so vibrant and colorful. My camera really doesn’t do it justice but I try.

I guess the afternoon showers we get helps. Either way I love it.

Speaking of stinking hot days in the last post, the stench hanging around Rocky lately is overwhelming. The flood waters in the river have dropped, and we are left with stinking mud and other stuff which seems to hang over Rocky.

The closest thing I can compare it to is the smell from a pig stye, the wet mud with pig poop and rotten food all mushed together. It’s crazy.

So that’s another reason I am liking the rain at the moment. When it’s raining that smell goes away.

So it’s the wet season at the moment, and it sure has been wet. There’s been mild flooding due to heavy rainfall up north, which of course has to flow somewhere but Rocky managed to get out of it pretty well.

The general pattern seems to be a patch of rainy days, followed by days of showers in the afternoon, followed by stinking hot and humid days.

As an example, the weather last Thursday was as follows:

Rockhampton, Queensland Current Conditions - 7:00 AM EST Feb. 7: “Temperature: 75°F / 24°C | Humidity: 94% | Pressure: 29.59in / 1002hPa | Conditions: Partly Cloudy | Wind Direction: NNW | Wind Speed: 5mph / 7km/h | Updated: 7:00 AM EST”

(Via Weather Underground - Rockhampton, Queensland.)

So at 7:00am, we were 24°C with a sweating hot 94% humidity. It doesn’t get that hot in Rocky, but the humidity is a killer. It literally gets hard to breath.

At this time of the year, I think I much prefer it to be raining then sunny and humid.

The new Redhill homemaker centre in rocky has this huge sign on one of the shop walls.

Perhaps someone needs to enhance their spellchecker?

When it comes to beef, I was a “well done” person for a long time. I think this was mainly because “well done” is the easiest way to cook beef because all you have to do is throw it in the pan and take it out when it is smoking / burnt.

Strangely enough though, whenever I go out I always order medium / medium well because well done in restaurants tends to be charcoal.

This past week I’ve been fiddling with cooking my own beef to medium / medium well grade and I’m actually quite impressed with my efforts.

The beef definitely tastes better as well when it has some juices left in it. Not “sitting in a pool of blood” juices, but just enough to keep it moist and chewable.

Also, as I posted in a previous entry, marinating the beef in lemon and pepper before cooking is really nice. It seems like the beef doesn’t need to be marinating in the lemon for a long time, even popping it in and turning it around a few times before putting it in the pan gives it a nice taste.

I’ve had a strange craving for lemon since I got back to Rocky.

I marinated steak with lemon (which was really really nice), had squeezed lemon juice in water numerous times and just ate a lemon straight.

I’ve got no idea why.

Another year over, and a new one just beginning.

Will be a very busy year. I have much planned.

Resolutions to come later, I have a fair few things that I want to narrow down.

I spent christmas at home in Inverell again this year. Melanie went home to her parents in America.

I got to see my nephews in the flesh again, and it was a lot of fun. Little people are very cool and watching their mannerism’s and the way they view the world is enjoyable. I definitely need to make more time to see them this year, they grow up way too fast and they need to know who their Uncle Brett is.
Christmas was good, we had a small gathering at home with the usual food and laughs. I enjoy spending Christmas with family and friends.

My last living grand parent died recently. I was home at the time for xmas and got to see her a few days before.

It’s sad to say, but I don’t feel at all sad. The Grannie I like to remember died many years ago and I feel like I’ve done my mourning. I have fond memories of both her and Gramps which will stay with me forever.

Really makes me stand back and look at how I live my life. I hope I never become a bitter person. Life is too short to hold grudges and it seems like such a strain to be always fighting and bickering with people. I guess I made the decision a while ago that I wouldn’t have any part of it. Some people might take the wrong way, but I really don’t care.

When it comes down to it, it’s far to easy for people to stand back and make judgements without actually being there and knowing what really happens.

Hopefully Grannie has finally found real peace, she will be missed.

We get a lot of tele-marketer calls during the afternoon, usually between 5pm - 7pm. Usually I like to answer them to hear what kind of deals they are doing on whatever the heck it is that they are selling.

Anyway, today the phone rings and it was one of those annoying automated services where as soon as you answer you are put on hold. So I’m on hold for maybe 5 seconds when it switches me through to a really cool sounding guy who informs me that I have been selected to get a heavily discounted price on a stay at their resort.

So he continues on with his memorised sales pitch when I interrupt him with

>”I’m not interested”

He replies with

>”Is is because of the location?”

To which I reply

>”No, it’s because I was put on hold as soon as I answered the phone, which I find very rude”

He went silent for a bit, then told me that it wasn’t his fault. I told him I knew it wasn’t his fault but if he could pass the message on to his supervisor I would be grateful.

He then started talking about how he didn’t know it did that, and how he would have to have a word to his supervisor about it. I agreed then thanked him, he thanked me and we hung up.

So fun talking to tele-marketers!

Why don’t people use turning lanes?

The shopping centre close by here has a separate turning lane for cars to merge into then turn into the shopping centre. It’s meant to allow for traffic to continue to flow even if someone wishes to slow down and enter the shopping centre.

Everyday I see someone who refuses to use the lane, and instead, stay in the ‘through’ lane until the last minute then turn. why?.

I really don’t understand it. There is plenty of room in the turning lane for the car to enter and turn into the shopping centre. People seem to think they are driving semi-trailers and cannot turn that sharp.

I can understand delivery trucks and possibly large four wheel drives having trouble turning that sharp, but not small cars, which seem to the the usual suspects.

So, Why don’t people use the turning lane?

Cooked up a roast for tea tonight. Picked it from IGA earlier in the week. I’d never seen marinated ones at IGA before so thought I’d try it out.

Only realised after I got it home that it had no cooking instructions, so I had to kind of wing it. Turns out I went pretty well. Took about 2.5 hours to cook, and it was awesome.

Didn’t bother with baked veggies this time, it’s too hot here anyway, so I went with just a plain roast beef sandwich.

Also means I’ve got enough leftovers for the rest of the week!

yum!