I have spent most of the weekend from the use of the internet. I have learned I can bake bread like a boss and that on a cool summer night sitting next to a fire pit not only can be relaxing but uplifting for your spirits. My daily routine is go to work stare at computer screen come home eat dinner and continue to stare at computer screens until I go to bed where I read until I fall asleep. Wake up and repeat. This weekend I wanted to get away from that this weekend I wanted to learn something new and I set out to do that.

I decided to try my hand at making bread from scratch. I succeeded in that task and found it to be quite an easy task when compared to other stuff I have cooked/baked.

My recipe:

Ingredients

• 2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 2/3 cup white sugar
• 1 packet active dry yeast
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 5 cups bread flour

 Directions

1. In a large bowl, dissolve the sugar in warm water, and then stir in yeast. Allow to proof until yeast resembles creamy foam.
2. Mix salt and oil into the yeast. Mix in flour one cup at a time. Knead dough on a lightly floured surface until smooth. Place in a well oiled bowl, and turn dough to coat. Cover with a damp cloth. Allow to rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.
3. Punch dough down. Knead for a few minutes, and divide in half. Shape into loaves, and place into two well oiled 9×5 inch loaf pans. Allow to rise for 30 minutes.
4. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 30 minutes.

While letting the dough rise I had to figure out why one of my modded maverick rev-6 was not shooting like it should. So it gave me time to sit down and crack it back open and find out. In the end I think it is the darts I’m shooting. I need to switch to the suction darts or may be to the stream line darts. Once the bread was finished, tasting time it was awesome!

Bread!

We decided to make kabobs and rice for dinner. After dinner we sat around the fire pit and for once in quite some time I was pretty relaxed and enjoying myself. The night was cool first cool night in quite some time and having the fire was a perfect end to an almost perfect day. There is only one thing to make it perfect but we are not going to go into that.

Fire pit!

some of you may want to know what i have been up well short answer is playing a whole lot of DayZ. what is DayZ? glad you asked!

A 225 km2 open world post-soviet state and one of the areas hit by a new and presently unknown infection which has wiped out most of the world’s population. You are one of the few who have survived and now you must search this new wasteland in order to fight for your life against what is left of the indigenous population, now infected with the disease.

Go Solo, team up with friends or take on the world as you choose your path in this brutal and chilling landscape using whatever means you stumble upon to survive.

Continue reading →

I live and breathe the technology world on an almost daily basis. So needless to say it is hard to escape. I am truly thankful for the advancement of technology and what it has done to make life easier, but I also hope the rate at which we are disengaging from old school communication slows. I will forever be a fan of a solid handshake, eye contact, and a spirited verbal conversation.

There is more to life than flickering pixels and online avatars. More than status updates and Google alerts. There are things that I miss. There are things that are legitimate, like family and friends and loved ones, the chance to talk face to face and not just to a computer screen, the feeling of actually hugging someone you care about and not just wishing that you could.

Our gadgets are the at the centre of our livelihood these days. They keep us connected to the people in our lives, they keep us up-to-date on what’s going on in the world, they remind us of our obligations and they help us pass the time when we’re waiting in line. They remind us to exercise, they entertain us, they play music to lull us to sleep and they capture precious moments on camera. What would we do without them?

When we treat our work as life — instead of a way to live — we fall out of balance and into unhealthy habits. – Jeff Goins

The internet. The thing that is so unbelievably useful in uniting the world, providing communication, tools, knowledge, and more, and the thing that also so easily sucks you into a black hole, eats up your time, and leaves you with strained eyes and the realization that you have just wasted hours on a social networking site. The internet is both what provides me the opportunity to stay in touch with those I love and what gives me the opportunity to hone my procrastination skills. It is amazing and also sometimes terrible. Having the internet at all is a privilege. When we find ourselves upset when something doesn’t load or load quickly enough. It says we (I included) have become too consumed, too obsessed, too concerned with what’s going on every second of every day with everyone else.  I’m guilty of it, and while I love sharing what’s going on sometimes a little respite from the world wide web is a good thing.

Sure, I like being connected. And, yes, I love technology and all the things it does for us.  And I don’t have to feel bad about that!  And neither do you.  But taking a break to take in what’s around you is so necessary sometimes. It’s necessary for our sanity, for remembering that life is what’s around us and not on a computer screen, for realizing that we are privileged, for making sure we value our surroundings, and the people that help make our lives better.

I hate making plans because they always get ruined. they say “the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” No matter how carefully a project is planned, something may still go wrong with it. I should have known better than to have gotten my hopes up. there is always something that happens that does not allow for anything I plan to ever work out. I remember way back I had planned to spend on spring break with my friends camping. I had bought a brand new tent for that week. I bought a new fishing rod and several other camping equipment. well it snowed several inches that week and we did not get to go. that was years ago, I have yet to use that tent. Ever since then anything I plan fails on the epic scale. maybe its the tent! that tent is bad luck and needs to be thrown way!

I very rarely make plans because if I do they always seem to crash. I like getting up and just going, but I never seem to have the time to do that. always working and when I am home I just want to be left alone at times. It is also hard when you have dogs to go places and its expensive to board them. I guess I just need to get use to not going anywhere and guess I should just not make any plans. Someday I will be able too do what i want to do but probably not until I am 80.