Category: All-Posts

Rum + Cream + Stuff = Awesome!

I was experimenting in the kitchen with the aim of making a Baileys substitute, as it’s well known that Baileys contains LOTS of sugar… And I’m a rum drinker, not whisky (But I dare to say this would work with whisky) 🙂

This recipe made me just over a litre, the only sugars came from the Evaporated Milk (44g), and a tiny bit in the Vanilla – a tiny amount compared to Baileys, which according to the Interwebs is around 25% sugar.

So… Get the following ingredients together:

  • Evaporated Milk (400g tin)
  • Double (Heavy for the Americans) Cream – 600ml
  • Rum – (I used Mount Gay) – Fill half the Evaporated Milk can.
  • 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
  • 1 – 2 tablespoons Stevia (You could probably use Splenda in a pinch)
  • 1 heaped teaspoon of Instant Coffee granules
  • 1/2 a flat teaspoon of Coco Powder

Right, now for the method:

  • In a small bowl, place the Coffee, Vanilla Extract, Coco Powder, and Stevia, stir in just enough (perhaps 15-20ml – NOT a lot!) boiling water to dissolve all ingredients in the bowl
  • Pour the Rum, Cream, and Evaporated Milk, plus the first mixture into a blender
  • Blend. Carefully and slowly, perhaps on pulse mode. Don’t blend aggressively otherwise it’ll be nasty
  • Try to put in a container in the fridge to cool. If this fails, pour directly into a glass with ice and consume 😉

I think the next time I make this, I’ll be using thicker cream, and more rum. This is a great drink, but could possibly be even better!

How to 7Zip up a bunch of folders into individual .7z files.

Ever needed to zip up a bunch of folders into individual filenames? Not found it easy in the GUI? This is the solution.

Install 7Zip if it hasn’t been installed already (You can download it here.)

Click for a full size illustration of adding 7Zip to the path
Add 7Zip into your path.

  • Hit Windows Key + I on your keyboard”
  • Search for “environment”
  • Select “Edit the system environment variables”
  • Select “Environment Variables”
  • Select “Path”…
  • Hit “Edit”
  • Hit “New”, and type in c:\Program Files\7-Zip
  • “OK” all the way out

Save the code below into a batch file, e.g. ZipMe.bat. Move the batch file to somewhere in your path

@echo off
for /d %%i in (*) do (
echo processing "%%i"
7z a -mmt12 -mx6 -pSecretPassword -mhe -r "%%i.7z" "%%i"
echo ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
)

Open a CMD prompt, change folder to the level where all the folders you want to zip are present, e.g. if you had a bunch of photo shoots present in your d:\Photo_Shoots folder, and wanted them in individual zip files (You’d saved the batch file as d:\Zipme.bat):

d:
cd \PhotoShoots
\ZipMe.bat

An explanation of the batch file

  • for /d %%i in (*) do (stuff happens here)
    • With the For command, everything inbetween the brackets (stuff happens here) is executed for every directory /d in the mask (*)
      So for example, you only wanted it to apply to directories containing the word cat it would be (*cat*) or directories starting with the letter a (a*)
  • The echo command just prints whatever is after it to the window
    • The echo command is quite dumb. If you wanted to print Cat to the window (Technically this is known as the console) it would be echo Cat. To include a variable %%i in this example, it’s just the variable name %%i
  • 7z a -mmt12 -mx6 -pSecretPassword -mhe -r “%%i.7z” “%%i”
    • This is the 7Zip commandline, the payload which does the work:

      7z is the program doing the work

      a is for add, so in the example, you’re adding to a file

      -mmt12 is the number of processor cores to use, 12 in this example

      -mx6 tells 7Zip to use almost maximum compression – see the 7Zip manual for more details

      -pSecretPassword password protects the archive with SecretPassword

      -mhe makes 7Zip encrypt the filenames inside the archive

      -r is recursive – it will go into the sub folders and include them in the zip

      “%%i.7z” is the filename to add to, it’s enclosed in double quotes to ensure that it gets passed to 7Zip as a whole filename, otherwise filenames with spaces wouldn’t work

      “%%i” is the directory to zip up, again in double quotes as it may contain spaces

Spabbitisms… Expanding the language in all the wrong ways!

Following on from the “Bit of a shitty post“, here are some of the more used Spabbitisms, those made-up words (Aren’t they all?)

  • The Snottening – this is what happens when you wake up with a cold, and snot flows from every unplugged hole in your head. “Oh fuck! I just had the snottening!”. Fucking manbola!
  • Squbes – Food substance – small 1cm by 1cm cubes of potatoes, coated in herbs and sugar, deep fried. Delicious!
  • Libarder – In a residential setting, where the house is only so big, there is only one room available to be both your Library and Larder… Libarder. Always good to have a reading room where there is a cold beer in the fridge 🙂
  • Snirty – Dirty & Stinking – Look at that lout, doesn’t seem to have washed in a week!
  • Binch – For when the insults Bitch and Bint fail individually, and both are required. Binch – A binty-bitch. Also Fucking binch, Binchbag… you can guess the rest…
  • Snart – When you sneeze and a fart is forced out as a result – often stings in the anal area. Always check for afterburner marks when this hits. Also applies to Cart – a fart forced as result of a strong cough – has been known to make people cry 😉
  • Mouse-Miles – When looking on Google (or other) Maps, and the distance seems to be a few miles, but when you get there in reality it’s only a few hundred yards Mouse-Miles.
  • Sea-maggots – Prawns or Shrimps – they look like curled up maggots and are equally nasty!
  • Holinobs – A more cheerful word for Holidays, and a mutation of the better known Holibobs – I’m going on Holinobs tomorrow!

Useless public servant!

“A list of rules has been sent to Jacob Rees-Mogg’s staff asking them to stop using words such as “hopefully” and demanding that they use only imperial measurements and give all non-titled males the suffix Esq.”

Many thanks to the Guardian for raising the issue that this overpaid (supposedly) public SERVANT is wasting tax payers money by being bloody USELESS. Another example of the public servants turning into civil masters. I know this is an example low down on the scale to say the least, however it is a particularly irksome one.

Spabbit comment on this one: STOP trying to police something which doesn’t need policing. Get on with your job. Leave your staff alone to do their jobs and make the country a little bit better.

Seriously… who on this planet gives a flying one if they use “is” too much (Or whatever other bullshit rules he imposed)? Surely the staff have more important things to do? What kind of leader or manager does this make – a piss poor one in my opinion. Again, my opinion only – if these rabid controlling impulses can’t be curtailed he should immediately be fired for wasting public time & money. Remember Public – you’re paying for such acts of blatant stupidity!

I ask a simple question: Would this behaviour be tolerated in a regular workplace? No, of course not – people have more important things to do!

I’ve resisted swearing so far, but the whole thing can be summed up as a pile of fucking wank.

Spabbit’s Music of the moment.

Here are a few of the artists I’m listening to at the moment. The first is The Hillbilly Moon Explosion, a rockabilly band guaranteed to wake you up – a lot of original works and a fair few covers. I’ve bought into them with 4 albums, and I just can’t stop listening!

Here are a couple of vids from Youtube, plus a link to their stuff on Amazon – If you like, go buy 🙂

The Hillbilly Moon Explosion – Down On Your Knees (Official Music Video)

The Hillbilly Moon Explosion – Call Me (Official Music Video)

Some of the The Hillbilly Moon Explosion albums:

  • Buy Beg Or Steal
  • My Love for Evermore
  • The Sparky Sessions
  • With Monsters and Gods

Amazon links:
The Hillbilly Moon Explosion on Amazon (US)
The Hillbilly Moon Explosion on Amazon (UK)

The next artist is Haley Reinhart.

Not being American, I didn’t see Haley on AGT, but instead encountered her as a guest of Postmodern Jukebox, and I’ve been hooked ever since 🙂

Haley Reinhart – Lo-Fi Soul (Official Music Video)

Postmoden Jukebox – Black Hole Sun – Vintage Soundgarden Cover ft. Haley Reinhart

Amazon links:
Haley Reinhart on Amazon (US)
Haley Reinhart on Amazon (UK)

Finally, Pomplamoose!

❤❤❤  Pomplamoose!

Video Killed the Radio Star – Pomplamoose

Pomplamoose on Patreon – If you like what you hear why not go support ’em in making more excellent sounds 🙂

You Fucking What!? & The Colour of Fuckery

You Fucking What! WTF is this all about? Does Fuckery have a colour? In today’s bout of brain dump to keyboard, I’ll point at the insanity of the world at large in order to maybe answer back.

“You Fucking What!” is a phrase I seem to utter with an increasing rate of abandon as the world is plunging into an infinite sea of Fuckery. I imagine the Fuckery to be coloured purple with an orange edge (don’t ask me why), kinda like peeking through hippy lenses of the 60’s. What Fuckery? Oh that’s a question and a half! Hummm… fucking all of it, the straight line Fuckery munching away at the heart of Humanity.

Just open your mind a moment, raise the semi permanent blast shutters for a moment and reveal the abject horrors of times present:

“You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don’t ever count on having both at once.” — Robert A. Heinlein. His books, his world were based in a sexist little side universe where things were slightly more black and white than ours. He was correct, you can’t have them at the same time. We’re not free, none of us (and by Us I refer to my frames of reference of the so-called-news, and my own personal interactions). We’re all penned in, penned in by laws made by our civil masters, by debts we take on, monetary and others, locked into an ever decreasing circle of Fuckery where Humanity is heading straight down the shitter.

We have an out of control petulant public schoolboy about become the leader of the country (UK), a man with one of the worst haircuts in the world, and he’s 7 seconds from pushing buttons which will have a direct impact on everyone (Brexit sandwich anyone?). Not to mention the Americans with their deeply divided society, where Trump is as black and white as they come. Trump = Borris. Are they interchangeable? Yes, No, Maybe. You Fucking What! Getityet? Horrifying isn’t it? And that’s just the larger picture!

Focusing on the smaller, more intimate picture of life at the moment, we have peace (mostly), but do we have freedom, or the illusion of freedom? Is freedom = anarchy? No and No. Society is on the edge of something new, we’re falling into the abyss in slo-mo and nobody is aware of the fact. Do I care? Well…. the immediate thought is that I’ll be dead by then, and no, but I can’t help be interested in what’s going to happen (the Human Condition, bright enough to know what’s going on, too dumb to do fuck all about it).

We don’t have freedom, we’re limited by taxes, laws, and common conventions of society. Most of us have bought into the idea of following the rules, obeying the laws and paying the taxes – that same “most of us” seem to form up in unison and frown at the others outside of our little circle of nice. Mentally at least I have an attitude of rule-breaking where the rules are just silly. Am I freer than the average person? No, of course not – I like not being in jail too much, money is a nice to have, comfort is even nicer. We’re all exchanging our freedom for comfort – it’s that simple. Can we all afford our comforts, as a state, a nation, and a species? Fuck-knows.

Are we living in They Live? Do we all need those sunglasses?

7.3
They Live (1988) 1h 34min | Action, Horror, Sci-Fi | 23 June 1989 (UK)
Director: John CarpenterWriters: Ray Nelson, John CarpenterStars: Roddy Piper, Keith David, Meg Foster
Summary: A drifter discovers a pair of sunglasses that allow him to wake up to the fact that aliens have taken over the Earth.
Countries: USALanguages: English
Source: imdb.comDisclaimer: This plugin has been coded to automatically quote data from imdb.com. Not available for any other purpose. All showing data have a link to imdb.com. The user is responsible for any other use or change codes.

You Fucking What!?