The Boyle County Band held their home competition today and did a fantastic job. We only attended for the last portion of it due to schoolwork and other commitments, but everything looked great. More importantly, Boyle County sounded great and performed very well. As the host band, it’s always good to outshine the competitors 🙂 The trumpets did an outstanding job!
Monthly Archives: September 2010
Genealogy Update (Again)
Well, after tinkering with TribalPages.com for a bit, I’ve reached the conclusion that they provide a much nicer family tree (sans adoption records, I guess) than phpGedView, when considering the total maintenance. The online editing feature works very well and for $2 a month, it’s hard to beat. If you visit http://genealogy.marstella.net, you’ll automatically be redirected to http://marstellafamily.tribalpages.com. That was the easiest way to do things at this point. There’s an option to request access, as I really don’t want the scavengers taking data from the system that might be invalid. I will probably open it up a bit after I upload some of the current data that I have written scribbled in various places, but it will probably be around Christmas.
Fairly Simple Skillet Cornbread
We had plenty of soup beans tonight but I forgot to buy the cornbread mix that I normally get, so I went looking for a recipe I could whip up from things already at the house. Unfortunately, nearly everybody puts baking powder (which I didn’t have) in their cornbread, so I made a few changes. The only real problem with the batch I made is that it didn’t taste as sweet as we prefer. Still, turned out pretty good for hybrid recipe taken from 4 others.
- 1-3/4 c corn meal
- 3/4 c flour
- 1 tsp salt (forgot to put it in, but turned out okay anyway)
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp corn starch
- 3-4 drops lemon juice
- 1-1/2 c milk
- 1 egg
- 2 tbsp butter
- a few small pinches of sugar
Let the pan heat up; I used a little more than medium heat. Once it’s hot, I add a little canola oil. I don’t normally put much oil in the bottom of the skillet since it’s non-stick, just enough to get the edges of the “pancakes” to sizzle. Then cook until you can see the cake starting to solidify up the side just a little and carefully flip. Total cook time per “pancake” is about 3 to 4 minutes, maybe less. Once the pan gets good and hot, you’ll have to watch or they may cook too quickly.
The recipe actually turned out a little thick, so cutting in some more milk probably wouldn’t hurt. Also, they rose much more than I expected, considering the way I substituted for the missing baking powder. A little more sugar and these would have been just about right.
Netflix, Silverlight 4, XP, and N8156-6013 Error
Turns out this is remarkably easy to fix. Silverlight 4 apparently has issues under Netflix for users that upgrade after using Silverlight 3. Not sure if this affects users who start with Silverlight 4, but I suspect that it doesn’t. After the upgrade, Netflix is unable to write to a file that needs to be edited frequently. I found the solution at http://www.kristoferbrozio.com/2010/06/25/fix-for-netflix-error-code-n8156-6013/ but not directly in the text. Reading down through several comments, the file name is mentioned that is causing the problem. Simply rename this file .old on the end and you’ll be able to resume playback.
This file is actually located at C:Documents and SettingsAll UsersApplication DataMicrosoftPlayReadymspr.hds on XP with SP3 installed, but could be at other locations for other operating systems. To see this file, you must be able to see hidden files (from Windows Explorer, select Tools -> Folder Options -> View and then click Show Hidden Files and Folders. In order to rename it, make sure all Internet Explorer, Firefox, and other browser windows are closed. From the Tools -> Folder Options -> View, uncheck Hide Extensions for Known File Types. Then if you right-click on the file and select rename, then add .old to the end of the existing filename, you will have a nice working installation again.
BTW, for those that might be interested, I use Windows XP SP3 through VirtualBox on my Linux-fied MacBook 6,1. Works fine with Netflix, although I really hate having the Windows license installed. Still, in my line of work, I have to have access to a full-blown Windows machine as well, so this is a good enough option.