and this one for my uncles:

Both from http://damnyouautocorrect.com/

My uncle and aunt in California gave Melissa and I an engagement gift of a credit to a nice furniture store in DC. Used it to get an awesome home office setup. I wish I got to use it more, but today is the perfect day to stay home and do some research.

The monument is sticking out in the background. The view is splendid.

For NYE, we went to Fripp Island, SC with some good friends. I’ll post some pictures shortly. The highlights were a great golf game with Mitch and an Oyster roast on New Years Eve. Regarding golf, let me just say that if Caroline is my scorekeeper, I might make par someday, otherwise there is no chance.

I’m pleased that one of my almae matres made it to the list, Widener Library at Harvard:

But sad that UIUC did not make it with its ingenious underground library.

Did you know that by building the library underground, UIUC was able to keep the Morrow Plots, one of the oldest gardens in Central Illinois, in full sunshine!

Sorry for my lack of posting. I’m busy leading a team here, created and released an awesome internal tool (http://trackconfig.opower.com), and started planning for a big event next yet. It has been busy, but i’m doing ok. Listen to the song and let me know what you think!

 
Click the picture to enlarge. from http://www.xkcd.com

1. Update the Gemfile and Gemfile.lock to use the new version of httparty

2. Started seeing errors like this:

NameError: constant JSON::Parser not defined
/Users/rbanerjee/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.2-p180/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.9.1/rubygems/custom_require.rb:36:in `require'
/Users/rbanerjee/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.2-p180/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.9.1/rubygems/custom_require.rb:36:in `require'
/Users/rbanerjee/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.2-p180/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.9.1/rubygems/custom_require.rb:36:in `require'
/Users/rbanerjee/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.2-p180/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.9.1/rubygems/custom_require.rb:36:in `require'
/Users/rbanerjee/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p180/gems/multi_json-1.0.3/lib/multi_json.rb:30:in `block in default_engine'

and

NotImplementedError: HTTParty::Parser has not implemented a parsing method for the :json format.
/Users/rbanerjee/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p180/gems/httparty-0.8.0/lib/httparty/parser.rb:138:in `rescue in parse_supported_format'
/Users/rbanerjee/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p180/gems/httparty-0.8.0/lib/httparty/parser.rb:136:in `parse_supported_format'

Huh? That doesn’t make any sense: HTTParty doesn’t have a built in JSON parser? What about the dependencies it just listed? Turns out that the second error is a result of the first failure.

3. Did some digging into multi_json docs, which are listed as a dependency. The first example in the basic doc is incorrect and I had to do a little tweaking.

SOLUTION

1. Fix your require statements at the top of your class:
require 'httparty'
require 'multi_json'

2. Inside your class or module,
include HTTParty
include MultiJson

3. Place this near your code, in a place where it’ll effect every function:
MultiJson.engine = :json_gem

Good luck. Drop a note and let me know if this worked / didn’t work for you.

from Slashdot. Turn to high-def mode and full screen for this gorgeous video!

I’m starting with this recipe from the food network:

Ingredients

* 3 pounds very ripe tomatoes, coarsely chopped
* 1 1/2 teaspoons vegetable oil
* 1 small onion, finely chopped
* 1 large clove garlic, minced
* 1/4 cup light brown sugar
* 1/2 teaspoon ground mustard
* 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
* 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
* 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
* 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
* 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
* Pinch ground cinnamon
* 1/4 cup cider vinegar
* Salt

Start by buying the ripest, most delicious tomatoes you can find.

From Hurricane Irene

We got these from a farmer’s market on 14th and U street in Northwest DC. The tomatoes are delicious: we ate one of the heirloom tomatoes destined for the pot in about 30 seconds flat.

Next, chop them coarsely and blend them to a puree.

Pass the puree through a wire mesh strainer and into a bowl or pot.

Use a wooden spoon to mash the paste through the strainer until all that remains is the solids.

Finely dice a small onion.

And fry it up.

Now the cooking begins. It will cook down for over an hour.

And the final product!

So delicious. It is mildly spicy: I will use 3x the crushed red pepper next time. I had no cider vinegar and used ordinary vinegar instead and it added became a little too tart. But man it was good. My cousins came over last night and we put the ketchup on everything from edamame to dumplings.

it was awesome.

1. Ceiling Fan in the guest bedroom. No more steaming while reading, and more comfortable for friends sleeping over

2. Solar Shades to keep the sun out and the place cooler (and let me sleep longer)

3. Home beer brewing. It takes soooo much energy to transport the beer from the brewery to me.

4. More motion detector light switches. Some of the lights turn off when you leave the room. Upgrade the rest of them.

Have to pick one, any suggestions?