If you’ve been following my blog for a while, or know me, or get within 100 feet of me you’ll know that I’ve become addicted to snow boarding.  I’ve been about 12 times in the last 7 weeks and have been getting pretty good at it.  Saturday I had my best day yet.  Got first tracks on 4 runs at Eldora and was in control and fast all day long.  Sunday unfortunately didn’t go so smoothly…

I got to Eldora late, about 11:15 (decided to go at the last minute).  On my thrid run down (on my way to Corona lift) I ate it.  Hard.  I was near the bottom of a black (Mule shoe) and was going the fastest I’ve ever gone.  I pushed too much and caught my toe edge.  I went flying forward at 25 mph at least and slammed my left should right into a big patch of ice.  I separated my left shoulder and am borderline for needing surgery (although tonight it’s feeling quite a bit better).  This finally leads me to my point…

During this terribly painful event something entirely unexpected happened.  I met some of the nicest, friendliest, genuinely kind people I’ve ever met.  From the guys that stopped to help me (Jamie, who I hope to buy a beer soon, spent at least 30 minutes helping me get on my feet), to all the snow patrol volunteers and pros.  They had to sled me down to the bottom of the run then tow me behind the snow mobile all the way back to base (oh it was fun being the spectacle at lunch time let me tell you!)  Then the medics at Eldora and the paramedics in the ambulance (oh yeah, left in the ambulance so I could get the “good” drugs) were more of the same; amazingly friendly, helpful and genuinely good people.

I hope to have beers with Jamie sometime soon to repay a little of the kindness he and his friend Adam showed me (I sat there for at least 5 minutes before they came by).  I’m also trying to think of an appropriate gift to take up to the guys at Eldora (thinking something like muffin, etc).  If you’ve got suggestions please post them, I’d love the input. 

Just had to share this story, it sure is making my shoulder feel a lot better…

I’ve written before about installing a Windows Image version of Vista onto a MacBook Pro using imagex.exe so I figured I’d write an updated post on doing the same with the Air.  It’s fairly straightforward, and I’ve found what I think is the fastest (or at least sure fire) way to get it done.  Here’s how:

• Create a partition for Windows using Bootcamp (I created a 55GB one since I’m going to use Windows 90% of the time)
• Reboot from the standard Vista install DVD.  Format the partition you created and complete a normal Vista install.  You’ll need to do this so the boot sector is written properly.  I’ve tried stopping right after you format it, and have even killed it right after the file copy starts (neither worked) so I’m guessing the boot loader gets written at the end of the process.
• When you reboot be sure to press and hold the mouse button after the Mac bootup “ding” sound.  When the disk ejects quickly put in your WinPE DVD with imagex.exe and the image you’d like to install.  You may have to boot back into OS X first.  If so restart the Bootcamp assistant and choose install Windows.
• Pay close attention as it boots so you can “press any key” to get WinPE going.
• Once you boot into WinPE you’ll need to reformat the disk (which doesn’t mess with the boot sector).  So run the following commands:
  diskpart
  select disk 0
  select partition 3
  format fs=ntfs quick
  assign letter=c
  quit
• Now you’re ready to put the image on the machine.  For this you’ll run:
  imagex /apply IMAGENAME.wim 1 c:
• Now go get a cup of coffee (or several) while it puts the image in place.  When that’s done reboot and go get dinner (and then maybe breakfast) as Vista starts up the installer for the image.

That should do it.  If you’re not experienced with imaging technologies like this, and you work in a corporate environment you should start reading about it.  We may only have 11 employees but given the amount of times I’ve used my image (easily 100+ times) the amount of time it has saved me is staggering.  Also the added benefit of all my users being on the exact same platform with the exact same tweaks is, well, huge.

Last night my streak of great dinners continued nicely.  I really enjoy anything that’s stuffed with cheese (well I am a guy after all), and since I also like sun dried tomatoes and artichoke hearts I knew this one couldn’t miss.  I was worried it would be a bit heavy and while it was a little on that side the roasted asparagus I made on the side balanced it out nicely.  Oh and did I mention each serving is under 500 calories?

What you need
12-ounce jar marinated artichokes, drained, chopped coarsely
1 cup grated Fontina cheese (or other semi-rich cheese)
1/2 cup (packed) drained, coarsely chopped oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes
2 tablespoons fresh chopped basil
4 5-ounce skinless boneless chicken breast halves
2 tablespoons olive oil

What you do
Preheat the oven to 375. Mix the artichokes, cheese, tomatoes and basil with a liberal amount of salt and pepper.  Cut a slit running down the side of each chicken breast to fold them open.  Stuff as much of the mixture into each as you can, leaving enough space so you can close them up.  Place them in a very hot cast iron skillet (with the oil) for about 2 minutes a side (turning carefully).  Using the rest of the mixture top each as best you can and move the skillet into the oven for about 15 minutes.

Nope, that isn’t a typo in the subject, I’m running andLinux, a new distribution of Linux that I read about today. I use the term distribution loosely, it’s much different than that. In short rather than using emulation like say Parallels does (where one OS is running on top of the other) andLinux loads the Linux kernel beside the Windows one, like any other program. So in essence Linux (Ubuntu based) applications can run natively on top of Windows. And it works. It works VERY well.

So here’s what I’m doing right now. I’m writing this blog post inside Firefox. Firefox running inside the Linux kernel. It’s running on my XP desktop which I can’t see because that’s running inside Parallels on my MacBook Pro. But you can’t really tell. It just works. Linux apps work. Windows apps work. OS X apps work. No rebooting. No switching windows. No switching displays. It just works. Oh and did I mention that I just ran a simple installer to get it all going? Yeah, when I say it works I mean it really works.

So holy shit is this cool but how useful is it? Well so far I don’t think very (or rather not for that many). There are very few people that have a must have application for each major platform. It will be huge for software testers for sure, being able to test on multiple platforms all at once and all on one machine. Oh and did I mention the performance is great. Everything I’ve done has been very usable.

It really is amazing where virtualization technologies are heading, and while this isn’t virtualization in the traditional sense it’s easiest to think of it that way. Each day we inch away from the importance of the operating system. I’m looking forward to that inch changing to a crawl…

I’ve had this recipe on my list to try for a while and have twice put it off, making something else instead. Well finally last night I got around to making it and wow, it was amazing. Amazing. Not only one of the best dishes I’ve ever made (if not the best) it’s up there with the best dishes I’ve ever eaten. Highly recommended, oh and it’s easy and healthy too!

What you need
1/2 cup canola oil
1/3 cup finely chopped green onions
1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
3 garlic cloves, pressed
1 tablespoon seasoned rice vinegar
1 tablespoon grated peeled fresh ginger
2 teaspoons Asian sesame oil
12 uncooked deveined large shrimp, shells left intact

What you do
Mix all above ingredients in a small mixing bowl and add a liberal amount of salt and pepper. Be sure to really chop the onions and cilantro very fine, this should make a very thick sauce (almost like a thin salsa). Place the shrimp in 3 rows of 4 each into a 8×8 baking dish and cover with remaining mixture, spreading it out as much as possible. Bake at 500 for 15 minutes. I served it with roasted asparagus (lightly drizzled with olive oil and salt/pepper) – roast for the same 15 minutes.

If you’ve been following my blog lately then you’ve no doubt noticed I’ve been on a big cooking kick. I’ve also been thinking a lot about how to make my blog better so I put two and two together and created a cooking section. It’s very new right now but I plan to keep a list of my various forays into the culinary arts.

So be sure to check out the new section, I even created an RSS feed specifically for the section. Enjoy and bon appetite!