well, it was smoked and the heat source came from the fire box on the side.

Hmmm so no direct heat?  Weird.  How hot were you running?

Personally I don't actually long smoke tri tip, so I don't have a ton of experience with it other than general experience with things I do smoke (ribs, shoulder, brisket, etc...).

The outside looked a bit dark than what my friend did with the same recipe.  But it was pretty good.  The outer part was a little crunchy (fat side) where his isn't.  I think where I went wrong is I put it fat side down for 30 minutes and then flipped it for the rest of the time time 3.5 hours or so.  I think next time I'm just leaving it alone.  Everything else under the layer was great.  I now need a meat slicer

Overall turned out great!  Not as good as my friends (who I think makes the best tri-tip I've ever had anywhere) but it was close.

If there's too much bark, you probably had it too close flame.  You want more of an indirect heat than a direct heat.

I'm still waiting for the 'yeah, you won't have any issues' stage before buying.

Ugh, as much as I hate myself for it... I will watch it.

Way, way more than I was expecting.  Happy for the 49ers and for Smith, who at least goes to a decent situation in KC.

Only my own personal numbers and my pre cell-phone day numbers.

So:
Mine (cell/office/virtual)
Girlfriend Cell
Girlfriend High School House (not at all useful!)
House I grew up in (still useful!)
Mom's office #

Annnnd that's it.  I probably remember a dozen or so numbers that are also no longer useful nor do I remember who/what they are. 

This:



And this:

The right to purchase Superbowl tickets at face value.

Today off, but worked MLK day.  Girlfriend gets both days off.  Life isn't fair, man.

I've learned from you that being an "independent" is actually just a cheap way of setting yourself above being wrong in any political discussion. 

Correct!  Independent here as well.

This just in: American politics are very partisan.

I honestly don't believe Arclight is a bigot in the traditional sense.  I'm confident that he wouldn't treat someone who is gay badly.  Unfortunately, the religion he chooses to follow is letting him down by not being as good as he is.

As a Christian, I do not condone the gay life style.  That does not make me a bigot nor does that make Arclight.

Actually, it does.  Not that there's anything wrong with that, but by definition you are.  We all have our bigotries and prejudices, this just happens to be one of yours.  It's fine.  But don't say you aren't bigoted towards gays just because you don't like the word bigot or because it's what your church told you.  It is what it is.  I mean I'm bigoted towards the poors and in some cases religious people.  We all have our prejudices.  Find me a poor religious person and I will show you someone I am predetermined not to like .

For reference in case it was necessary:

Condone: to regard or treat (something bad or blameworthy) as acceptable, forgivable, or harmless <a government accused of condoning racism> <condone corruption in politics>

Bigot: a person who is obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices; especially : one who regards or treats the members of a group (as a racial or ethnic group) with hatred and intolerance

As an American, though,  I feel there is no way to restrict gay's right to marry. This will all be moot by the end of the summer when SCOTUS rules that way as well.

Agreed.

Less than 50 years ago, many white churches wouldn't even allow black worshipers to enter their building. At the time, they used similar arguments as to why blacks couldn't worship with whites.  While there is still a racial divide in congregations, most (if not all) faiths have acknowledged they were wrong to exclude people based on their skin color. 

I'm betting that 50 years from now, someone will be writing something similar about some Christian group's treatment of gays.

The problem with this argument is that racism is not supported in the Bible, but being against what God deems as immoral is.  I understand why you make that argument as the precedent was set with 'Christians' acting unbibically so it is easier to cast stones now that they're trying to act bibically. 

People tend to get a bit confused between racism and slavery, in that the bible was totally cool with one of those things.

The fundamental issue is that many people have been using religion/spiritualism (not just Christianity) as their justification for doing all sorts of bad things since the beginning of time.  From the crusades to slavery to segregation to jihad to this and all manner of other things, it's just a part of our history as human beings.  It's a crutch we use when normal logic is against us.

Very early contributor at three separate startups that eventually sold to Microsoft, Cisco, and Symantec.  Someday I'll find my next one and try to go 4 for 4.

How or why are you still working and not sitting on a beach everyday?

I have very expensive taste in shoes.

Very early contributor at three separate startups that eventually sold to Microsoft, Cisco, and Symantec.  Someday I'll find my next one and try to go 4 for 4.

It's been a long time since I've attempted multiplayer on the PS3, but for me it's all the little things that made it inferior to XBL.  Just about every single thing was just... more difficult to do.  Anything from adding friends, seeing if friends are on, meeting up with friends, switching games to one your friend is playing, sending messages, seeing that you have pending messages, initiating voice chat...

If they've improved things in the past couple years, though, my impressions are dated.

I have the same experience, but I find it incredibly hard to believe that by the time the next consoles come out, Sony would not have been able to directly copy (or perhaps better) the XBL user experience.  It's not rocket science.

Agreed with both of you.  A new PGR is pretty much the only driving game I would buy at this point.

Great, now they just need to get rid of the other five days as well.

While I personally don't have much of a problem with it, I can definitely understand the point of view of those who do.

Tough, tough loss but I do feel the Ravens deserved the win. Flacco was incredible.

BTW- if you ever get the opportunity to go to a Super Bowl, absolutely do it. Even with the nutpunch of a loss, it's one of the best experiences of my life.

BUT MUSLIMS, YOU GUYS.

I assume for any of that to work, you actually have to have dedicated space.  I work from home now, but seeing as the laptop sits directly between the keyboard and monitor of my personal machine, that trying to deduct any expenses would be futile.

Yes, dedicated space is a technical requirement.  It also has to be your primary and sole office for doing work.  Right now I am in my home office most of the time, but the fact that there is an office with my name on it 30 miles down the peninsula from me means I can't deduct the space.

I play less and less over the years, but I can't see a scenario where I don't own at least one of the consoles.  Most likely the Xbox, but if the next Playstation continues with the Uncharted franchise then I suppose I'll have to buy one of those too.

It's only trolling because most of you are too delusional to realize how ignorant you are in regard to this issue. 

Let me help make it more clear for you.

Our country, that has over 16 trillion in debt, has given billions of dollars and aircraft to a Muslim Brotherhood administration in Egypt whose first order of business was to seek the release of Omar Abdel-Rahman and followed that up with a dictatorial power grab.  This only scratches the surface, and instead of admitting that its a travesty, you all attempt to divert attention to spelling errors and punctuation and schoolboy insults. 

Exactly what I expected to happen though.

Holy fuckballs.

I did until I had my first startup liquidity event in 2005, resulting in a bunch of stuff that confused the ever loving crap out of me when I tried to do them myself.  Since then I've had an accountant do it (and the same accountant since 2007), even if the taxes for that year would have been relatively simple.  This year it's probably not at all worth it to have him do it, but there's so much forward momentum down that path that I don't think I'll back off of it.  Besides, I like the guy and like to think I'm supporting small businesses this way.  At least that's how I partially justify it to myself.

My girlfriend on the other hand does her own taxes.

Sure it's a troll thread, where I point out what should be blatantly obvious with anyone with a brain.  This country is run by idiots on both sides of the isle and if you aren't concerned by the severity of the spending issue we have than you're an idiot too.  This is the only place where I can actually witness firsthand people that feel differently on this issue.  Notice I didn't say converse.  Nope, not interested in that with you all in the least.  New Year's resolution to stop giving bullshit outlandish libs the time of day. 


I typed the other post as quickly as possible on my iphone while waiting to see the eye doctor without concern for punctuation or the trollful nature of the post. 

Next on this fool's agenda, immigration reform sans border security.  Still hoping he'll see the error in his ways with this one.  Not holding my breath though.

not sure if anyone here remembers (and I don't care about Eco's opinion on this) but didn't unbreakable get banned from R&P for stuff like this?

There are people who have the innate ability communicate and people who cannot.  I don't see the need to ban those who cannot from bringing up somewhat interesting topics, and he has stated he does *read* the responses to him, he just doesn't respond to them.  I don't have a problem with that and so long as the people responding to him realize that they aren't going to get discourse, I don't see there being a problem.  I don't believe intelligent discourse is a requirement for posting in any forum.

Government, red or blue, spends money on shit I don't give a fuck about.  I'm taxed ridiculously no matter who is in office.  We are in debt no matter who is in office (sans Clinton, I guess, but that was more due to luck and timing than anything else).  My life is still pretty awesome and has continued to become more awesome over time.  There is no correlation about that and who is in office.

Since the amount of fucks I give is not at all correlated to the amount of fucks they give about the amount of fucks I give (or the shit I give a fuck about), the net outcome is the amount of fucks I give is zero.

The only area where I do care is in civil rights and religion in politics since there is a very clear wrong side on that bitch.

Anyone else outraged that over the past couple of years we've given Egypt over $1 billion and 20 F16's.

No.

I can honestly say the amount of fucks I give about Egypt (positive or negative) on a daily basis is zero.

I've been trying to find a way to post in this thread for a few days... but I guess I just don't really have a 'usual' nightly routine.

Given the full backstory on the awful, borderline racist article about his tattoos on said biceps and his initial response (kissing them in celebration after a TD the first game after the article was written), I fully endorse Kaepernicking.

Huh?

Without even checking, let me guess...Jason Whitlock?

Some nobody:  http://aol.sportingnews.com/nfl/story/2012-11-28/colin-kaepernick-tattoos-49ers-qb-start-alex-smith-stats-contract-draft

I totally just bought this shirt

Just on principle, I can't bring myself to root for any guy who kisses his own goddamn bicep.

Given the full backstory on the awful, borderline racist article about his tattoos on said biceps and his initial response (kissing them in celebration after a TD the first game after the article was written), I fully endorse Kaepernicking.

Sooo... apparently my group of STHs for the 49ers got selected to purchase two Super Bowl tickets.  I just booked a flight to New Orleans.  There's a lot of detail to work out still... but there's a greater than 50% chance of me actually going to the Super Bowl.  WTF.

Nice article, guys.

Yeah you get your team to the Superbowl for the first time in nearly 20 years after taking over midseason and playing like that... hoopla's coming whether you like it or not.

Woooooo!

I am spending an exorbitant amount of money to watch a piece of cloth be raised to the roof of a building on Saturday.

Can't wait!

How's that cup defense going, Kings?

I don't think I've ever cared about the result of a regular season hockey game less than I did about this one:

https://www.evernote.com/shard/s15/sh/bd7936d6-996d-4e22-828a-b296878f04b0/80b4a320be1ce431c505e9ba71f05799

That being said, at least we aren't the Wings or Canucks!

Fresh blood will only make it more interesting and bring more posts and more comments...We need to entice folks to post as well to keep the place alive.

Not necessarily.   GT is a very unique and (imo) rare gaming community.  For the most part, we are mature, respectful, literate, knowledgable, etc.  That's not something you see every day, especially among a gamer crowd.

Been to most of the big gaming sites' forums lately?  I'd prefer we never need have to deal with sort of ridiculous fanboy bullshit here.

Right. But why are the oldheads no longer involved?

Frankly, I post less because there isn't a lot of stuff for me to post about.  My gaming, like others, has slowed down considerably and even then I didn't post a lot in those threads.  Interaction in Off-Topic for me requires new and interesting viewpoints to interact with, which we have a a dearth of.  Having the same interactions over and over again does not often motivate me to post. 

Same could be said about all top level motorsport really.  F1 is all about it.  It's part of the game.

Then again these are mechanical devices we are talking about and not human beings.

I could dope, even in my cycling prime, and still struggle to do one mountain stage of the Tour.

And?  I could break every F1 rule in the game and yet to field a car that would start or run, even if I was an engineer.  I'm not sure what your point is (but am genuinely curious).

Same could be said about all top level motorsport really.  F1 is all about it.  It's part of the game.

Then again these are mechanical devices we are talking about and not human beings.

I thought carrol called the TO and they went ahead and snapped and kicked. That happens pretty often.

Yep; that's why he was so pissed. Carrol called the TO early enough so that Bryant shouldn't have been able to get a practice kick in, but he did it anyway.

Is that against the rules though?  Or is Carrol just upset that they did it? 

I'm not sure if there's technically a rule about it, but Carrol said that they refs came up to the coaches before the game and clearly stated that they would not allow kickers to have those practice kicks.

No idea how you stop that though.  If I was a kicker, even if the whistle blew 5 seconds before... I'm having my center snap the ball and I am kicking the fuck out of it.

I am spending an exorbitant amount of money to watch a piece of cloth be raised to the roof of a building on Saturday.

Can't wait!