Damn it feels good to be a gangsta

Here's a recap of my trip out west.

2006-05-19 : Landed in Vegas around 8pm, checked into the Tropicana. I was hoping to keep gambling to a minimum, so I stuck with quarter slots instead of craps. Won about $40 and called it quits for the day.

2006-05-20 : Football drinks and wireless access at the pool at 10am under a blistering blue Nevada sky was enough to turn me into a lobster on one side. Met up with JQ/J for lunch at Gardunos, just like old times. Headed over to American Shooter to try out some 9mm machine guns. Then off to bbq and play poker with the artists formerly known as the UNLV CRC Strike Force.

2006-05-21 : Mostly recovering from the previous day, took the walking tour of the strip. Briefly stopped at the Hooters casino to check it out. Ate at the MGM Grand buffet. Played quarter slots at the Wynn and Tropicana and came out about $150 ahead for the trip.

2006-05-22 : Took an early flight to Salt Lake City to visit the fam. It was great to see Jonathan, he's a sharp little dude (and chock full of the dickens!).

2006-05-23 : Shopped at Cabela's in Lehi. Across the street at Thanksgiving Point, ran into my former roommate Jeremy (Sugarhouse 1997) in a completely random situation! Very cool. Visited the honkies at the usual haunts, Devin and his young family, Kelly at the FOE, Natron at his joint.

2006-05-24 : Headed up American Fork Canyon to Timpanogos cave with Mom, Dad and Jeff. The water is flowing again in Utah and the mountains are green and full of life. Absolutely beautiful, the kind of stuff that makes me want to move back there. Visited Commander Adama, bound his new poetry book and checked out Rock Canyon. Took the fam for Brazilian rodizio for dinner.

2006-05-25 : Packed up, had lunch with the fam at the favorite Red Lobster and flew out of SLC to merge back into the rat race.

Neswar

In Pakistan chewing tobacco is called neswar.

Apparently, tobacco is chewed in northern Pakistan by the Taliban and Islamic fundamentalist types, among others I'm sure. From my sources, they grind aged tobacco into a consistency similar to the American Skoal or Kodiac brands. Dark, black and placed in the lip between teeth and gum. The finer varieties are referred to as "Virginia tobacco", not sure if they are referring to imported US tobacco or a local cultivar.

In India, it's generally referred to as "pan", though from my research, the word pan can refer to a variety of leaf-wrapped treats, one of which is tobacco.

Queso Habanero del Fuego

You'll need three habanero peppers and a jar of processed cheese. The Tostitos stuff does a splendid job, whichever color you prefer.

Be careful, habaneros are hot. Hot as in if you chop them up and rub your eyes with even the slightest amount of oil on your fingers you're going to be in exquisite pain for a while. Be sure you wash thoroughly before you touch any sensitive area of your body. Trust me on this one.

Chop the habaneros into a fine minced pile of hellfire. I have found this type of device to be perfect for chopping hardcore chilis. The fumes alone will cause a reaction, so be careful. Then just mix the chopped habanero with the cheese and let it sit. The oils will mingle, the endorphins will flow and you'll have yourself a taste of cheesy napalm! Goes well with a hard cider.

Sludge Scraped

I'm sort of obsessive about feeds/syndication right now and I wanted to try my luck at scraping a feed for a site that didn't already have one. So here is my first attempt.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/metalsludgescraped

Another item I've been hacking is folio2rss, which delivers stock ticker data over RSS. I borrowed the initial idea from here. My version will take a superset of the same keywords in the URL. More on the specifics later...