Lake Rebecca singletrack mountain biking footage!

Some of you may know I have been a fan of the bicycle since I was 2 1/2 years old (heck, see the picture here to prove it!), I've virtually done it all. From at first being a basic rider then graduating to BMX freestyle in elementary school (and breaking my arm off a half-pipe), to having a bike as my main mode of transportation throughout the first few years of college at Winona State and then on to mountain biking (MTB) as well as road cycling, I've almost done it all with a bicycle!

Well, after going over the handlebars a few weeks back, I said t the guy I was riding with, Pat, that I should have had that on video. Well, the next time I went out, I figured I'd strap my GoPro 5 to my helmet and take a ride! I went out on Saturday, July 27th with a different friend, John, out to Lake Rebecca along with a few others from my local bike shop, Michael's Cycles.

I didn't crash, but a few (including John) did! Sorry I don't have those on video, but you can see from the below, I was on my own for a good portion of the 2-hour ride. I only got about 40 minutes of it on video and even then, I sped it up and clipped out most of it to about 4 minutes.

See below for that video (or click here to download). Enjoy!

It's ALIVE! The light and dark side of kombucha.

I figured I would make a post about this topic as I appear to have several friends and/or family members interested in kombucha via my picture posts on Facebook.

To do a quick, description in layman's terms, kombucha is a fermented beverage made from sweetened black or green tea. It is produced by a "symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast" (aka SCOBY).

This is where most people get turned off. The SCOBY (pictured here above and to the right)

Again, to put things in simple terms, a SCOBY is gelatinous 'blob' that is made up of bacteria and yeast... and visually looks disgusting. Kind of like a jellyfish or layer of slime one would find in a swamp or something. If you are able to get past 'the dark side', and look at the 'light side' (the healthy aspects of this probiotic drink), kombucha is truly a tasty, thirst-quenching, refreshing drink! I think the main reason it has been on a-lot of people's radars lately is because of the reported health benefits of consuming it. As reported in this WebMD page, kombucha is claimed to help your digestion system, boost energy level and help the body get rid of toxins... all of this is scientifically un-proven (just so you know).

My wife got me turned onto this drink many years ago and we both went though a phase where we purchased  several bottles a week. GT's was probably the biggest brand that came into the market (at least in our area) and came in a variety of flavors. Unfortunately, just like some exotic coffee brands, purchasing this at ~$3.00 a bottle, certainly added up quick! That's when I started looking into making it myself..

Being a homebrewer of beer for many years and the result of various Google and YouTube searches  about making kombucha, I realized that it didn't appear to be hard to do. As long as you had some basic equipment, the time and patience, anyone could do it. All you need is a few things - vessel to hold 1 gallon, a piece of cloth to cover during fermentation, tea leaves, sugar and a SCOBY. To simplify the process, this is what you would do in a nutshell:

Basic Brewing Instructions to make kombucha:

1. In a pot or kettle, bring 1/2 gallon of water to about 180° F
2. Remove from the heat
3. Add in ~35grams of loose leaf tea (you can use store bought tea/tea bags if you want!)
4. Let the tea leaves steep/sit there for ~4 minutes
5. Strain out the liquid into another container, removing all the loose leaf tea bits
6. Clean the pot/kettle, pour the tea you just strained/made back into it
7. Add 1 cup of sugar to the newly strained tea. Stir to dissolve completely
8. Pour the now sweet tea into a glass gallon jar or vessel you are going to let things ferment in.
9. Add the remaining water to bring it up to 1 gallon; approx 1/2 gallon. NOTE: I'll often add ice cubes to to ensure the temperature is down to 70-75° F
10. Once the temp is below 80° F, add the SCOBY!
11. Cover the vessel with some cheesecloth or other clean piece of cloth and secure it with a rubber band
12. Store it in a warm dark place; wrap it in a towel if you'd like. Temps should be in the mid-70° F's for it to ferment
13. In about 5-7 days, sample the liquid to your taste (should have a mild vinegar essence to it). If you want to get more precise, take a pH reading using test strips; it should be in the the 3's). You can leave it go for longer if its not ready.

Secondary fermentation: 

This is what I have always done, but you don't have to. Secondary fermentation is the time you remove the SCOBY and pour off the kombucha into bottles (or a secondary vessel) to add flavorings and let it carbonate and get fizzy.

I like to add ginger paste tagged along with some fresh/frozen/dried fruit pieces or fruit juice. This stage is all about your making something you like! You'll have to play with the amount of juice or pieces of fruit to add (depending on the size of your vessel or bottle). Personally, I use cleaned out, de-labeled, GT's bottles that I have accumulated over time along with some 38mm growler caps purchased from my local homebrew shop. I often let the fruit meld with the kombucha for a week or so; that give it time for the solution to become fruity effervescence!

Equipment and setup:

For me, I started out with the simple 1 gallon glass jar for my fermentation vessel, some store bought tea bags, some organic sugar and a scoby purchased through Amazon (see below for some links of things I have purchased). Over the years, I've added on to the setup to include a heat-wrap with temperature controller and most recently moved to a continuous brew system like this one from Midwest Supplies.

Anyway, I could go on and on about this, so I will wrap this post up with this - for those of you who are looking for resources and places to go for getting into the kombucha game, check out these links that I have either used or purchased things through. Best of luck and feel free to hit me up if you have questions!


The starter kit I bough back in 2014! - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00LW7OR4A/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Scoby(s) I have purchased - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009ZW8RP4/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Tea blends that I have used -https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008OHZ1C8/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01M0TPAVM/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Kombucha Revolution book - https://www.amazon.com/Kombucha-Revolution-Recipes-Homemade-Elixirs-ebook/dp/B00H6JHUQA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1520716179&sr=8-1&keywords=kombucha+revolution

Other places I have purchased from -
Kombucha Kamp - I've bought some tea blends form them and most recently a brew stand for my continuous system shown in the picture above - https://www.kombuchakamp.com/

GoPro footage: Timelapse of drive

So just for funsies, I created a timelapse video of a family drive from our home in sweet Carver, MN to the urban jungle of a state called Illinois. OK, it wasn't a drive to the shady area of Chi-town, but rather to the area of Rockford and its surrounding communities (even through there was a shooting in a few miles from where we were at during the time; we went out to eat across from the scenes of the crime).

This was an experiment and a little fun for me to test drive the GoPro Hero 5 action cam. Enjoy!

On the way out (check out G rockin' in the background!):

On the way back (yes we drove past a crash on our way back!):

Retropie HDMI audio fix

Here's a quick fix for those of you scouring the interwebs for a reason (fix) why HDMI audio isn't working on you Raspberry Pi. It looks like some settings need to be configured within the config.txt file within Retropie. Here's the original video that solved my issue, but I'll break it down real quick for ya:

1. Boot up Retropie and exit out of Emulation Station using the GUI. This will get you to the shell/command line. From here do the following:
Type sudo nano /boot/config.txt (this will open the config.txt file in an editable form)

2.Find the following line and remove the "#" to uncomment out the setting (make them live)
hdmi_drive=2
hdmi_force_hotplug=1

3. Add the following (anywhere in the file; I did mine at the top)
hdmi_force_edid_audio=1

4. Save by holding down the CTRL-X keys and type "Y" when is asks you to save and overwrite the current file

5. Reboot Retropie by typing in sudo reboot

BOOM! All should be fixed. Open a game and confirm all is well!

Guitar Hero World Tour!

Ever played it? If haven't, you should. This is probably the best game/toy I've played in many, many, MANY years. Guitar Hero World Tour is one of the latest game put out by RedOctane/Activision. There have been many iterations of Guitar Hero since the first Guitar Hero I. There has been Guitar Hero II, III, World Tour, Rock The 80's, Aerosmith and soon to be released Metallica.

Being a musician, I enjoyed Guitar Hero III (the 1st guitar-based game I've ever played) but hit a plateau after I breezed through the Easy and Medium levels. I found the jump from Medium to Hard level was simply to big and honestly never took the time and dedication to 'learn' the guitar past that level.

World Tour combines the elements of a 'band' into the Guitar Hero platform with a low learning curve.  The 'kit' comes with a wireless guitar, drums and yes, a microphone! With all these elements, it's great for a social/party-type environment. As a matter of fact, within a few weeks of getting this, I convinced asked a neighbor to host a Guitar Hero party...they did and IT WAS A BLAST!

It was all adults and we all took turns singing, drumming and playing guitar and bass. Each person could play at their own level so its became fun for for everyone! There were about of us 5 families taking turns so we ended up playing all night 'till about 1am! Truly a great time.

Months later, I still enjoy the game. I've completed all the songs in 'career' mode on Medium level and am about halfway through on Hard! Some songs are harder than others but I am definitely not getting bored of it. What's even better is the fact that you can download new songs -  so the game stays fresh. My young boys love it and often have their friends over to play on it as well.

Overall, I highly recommend buying or playing this game; the more people the better in my opinion.

Snowboarding Rookies - February/March 2009

About a month ago, I was able to get out snowboarding for the first time this season. It was also extra special because I was able to take my 2 boys out for their first time as well! Last year as Christmas presents, my wife and I bought the kids 'new' snowboards. After much searching and bargain shopping, we were able to get a few used boards and boots off of Craigslist and Play It Again Sports as well as a few helmets and goggles that were on sale off of Amazon.com and Sports Authority. With all things considered, we got all this on the cheap.

After Christmas, weeks went by with busy family & social schedules, other commitments and of course, bad weather. But in February, we were able to get out to Mount Kato located in Mankato, MN for an experience to remember!

Being a long-time snowboarder, I was in the frame of mind to be teaching the kids for at least a few hours (I remember when I learned to board back in the mid/late 1990's and it took me almost a full day!). So I was very surprised when my 7 yr old went down the 'bunny hill' once (yes, once, without falling) and insisted he was ready to go up to the top of their 'bunny hill' via the chairlifts! I was pretty shocked and blown away, I just remember looked to my wife in awe and saying "OK, I'll go with him".  We went up the chairlift leaving my wife to teach my 5 yr old. In hindsight, I feel bad about that, considering my wife did not know how to snowboard and was left trying to teach our 5 yr old how to do something she knew nothing about...

Overall, the day progressed well. There were a few falls, wipeouts and spills throughout the remaining hours but by the end of the day the only one who didn't get the hang of it was my wife. It wasn't fair to leave her to 'fend for herself, but with two boys who were on the go, I don't know what else I could have done. She ultimately gave up after just a few times trying to go down. However, she did say she would do it again if she took lessons or went with someone else that that had never done it before.

We were able to get once once again, this time at Buck Hill. The boys picked up pretty much where they left off before. After a few times down the hill they were getting it. Buck Hill was probably a bit better as they had much smaller practice hills along with a nice conveyor belt to get up the hills.

Take a look at some of the pics below for the family in action!

http://picasaweb.google.com/benducklow/February_March2009Snowboarding?authkey=Gv1sRgCJXekPGr6tbFJw&feat=directlink

Deck Project 2005: Complete!

It's been 3 years, but I just got the deck inspected and approved this morning!

Last Sunday, I buckled down and got to finishing the trim pieces rather than going to the Grand Old Day parade with the family (yes I'm a bad father and husband). After breaking a few Dremel bits, I got into the groove; the final steps of attaching trim pieces to the deck wasn't as bad and painful as I first thought!

I hammered out about half the trim pieces before noon then took a nice beer break (because it was very hot of course). Once it cooled down and the sun wasn't out so much, I finished the rest before supper-time. The reason I was dreading this was because I had to use a Dremel tool and route/drill slotted holes through 2 layers of trim pieces. There's a reason for all this extra work but to make a long story short, my whole deck is made out of composite material (EON decking material) which expands and contracts depending on the temperature outside. I needed to calculate and plan for this throughout the whole build process; which included drilling/routing out slotted holes for nearly every screw I attached to the material.

Overall I am OK with the deck. I've definitely seen some nicer looking material since. And although I am not 100% satisfied with the material I chose (due to the gaps I had to leave due to the expansion/contraction thing as well as scratch-ability, staining and some fading), I am proud to have done with on my own with hard work from some family and friends along the way.

I am not sure what project I will take on by my own next; I was thinking of a tree house. Maybe something like this?

"Rickrolled"- Defined.

Have you ever been Rickrolled? Have you ever heard of it? If not, I'll get you up to date. Actually, by the time you read this is probably old news. Anywho, according to WikiAnswers, Rickrolled is best described by the following:

"A rickroll is a prank played on an unsuspecting web surfer. To be rickrolled is when browsing a website (especially a discussion forum or comment board), one comes across a link expecting it to lead to one thing, but finds something completely different when the link is clicked.

The name Rick refers to 80s pop singer Rick Astley. The standard rickroll generally involves someone posting a link claiming it leads to something quite interesting (e.g. hot chicks in panties), but actually linking to a video of Mr. Astley singing "Never Gonna Give You Up." This is usually considered a major let-down."

Just so you're clued in to it (before every Larry, Moe and Curly try to pull this over on you), click on THIS LINK to be officially Rickrolled.

MN Swarm vs. Rochester Knighthawks - 04/19/08

The family and I went to our almost yearly trip to go see the MN Swarm lacrosse team take on the Rochester Knighthawks (whom are also from Minnesota). We scored these tickets pretty cheap as part of a ticket bundle when we went to the MN Wild game a few weeks back. If you don't know about lacrosse, it's a pretty violent and full contact sport! I'd say it combines elements of hockey, football and soccer.

We had close seats (maybe too close) in the 6th row near the corner of the Xcel Energy Center so we were able to alot of action (including some fights) up close. The Swarm lost but we had fun. The kids enjoyed the popcorn, pop, mini donuts along with the shear sight of being in that huge stadium. The next day my littlest couldn't wait to play catch with our lacrosse sticks and ball at home...maybe he'll be a future player?!

Peanut Butter what?!

Have you heard of this place? Its called PB Loco and there is a cafe located in the MOA on the 1st floor near Sears. Well, I saw the cafe while shopping/killing time before a Vikings game last December and it reminded me of a Munchcast podcast episode I listened to a few weeks back. The podcast was about peanut butter (PB) and all its glory (what people make with it, etc). It mentioned this store in it so I decided to stop in and take a look.

After staring at the menu for about 5 minutes, kind of afraid to try one of their samples, I went for it. I samples their peanut butter- curry/thai flavor...Wasn't bad! I then tried the peanut butter-sun dried tomato flaor...Not bad either! Well after debating it in my head, I thought, "what the heck", and ordered a PBBLT which was their version of a PB and BLT sandwich.

The sandwich had the PB-sun dried tomato flor on it with bacon, lettuce and mayo. I took my sandwich to go and sat near the Rachel Ray book signing line. I tried the sandwhich and....thought it wasn't too bad! You could kind of taste the PB and kind of the sun-dried tomato...Overall the sandwich wasn't bad!

PS: no I did not get anything signed by Rachael Ray, I hopped on the LRT to the Metrodome before she came out.

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock!

A nice little b-day gift from my family. Now I have an excuse to throw a party with the guys...It's Guitar Hero III for the Xbox 360!

One of the hottest games to come out this year, the GH3 is a game that allows you to play a very stupefied simplified guitar to some of the hottest hits of the 70's, through today. Basically you have a mini-plastic/play guitar that has several colored buttons on the neck that you press as soon as you see them on the screen/game; those notes are supposed to represent the notes played during a song (After playing it, the 'notes' are a combination of the drum beats, bass lines rhythm or lead guitar parts). In addition to hitting the correct buttons (in-time with the song), you have to hit this 'toggle switch' with your other hand which represents you strumming the strings at the right time.

I've played a few hours of this bad boy and its a blast! I've been playing easy just going through some of the levels and its really fun. I like it because alot of the songs I've actually played on guitar or bass in real life so I know the songs, its just a matter of getting a rhythm and following the screen. I can't wait to bust this out at a party! Overall a solid game.

PS: The real cool thing about it is you can go online and download new songs/albums; there is a small fee but a cool option for down the road!

12/21/07 2:00pm - I just finished the game on the Easy level. Time to pick it up a notch!

Podcast Pick: Joe's Podhole

Here's another one of my top podcasts pick. It one that I have been listening to for well over a year now. It called Joes Podhole and it put out by Joe Barnes, a regular guy like myself who lives in the greater Chicago suburban area.

I like his show because he a guy about my age and is very relateable. Joe holds a normal 9 to 5 job, has a wife and kid and likes his music. He is the self proclaimed 'defender of all music that doesn't suck' so he's plays stuff that I like; mostly rock or metal music. I first heard about JPH through a link from a favorite band of mine, Anthrax. He was interviewing them while they had a show in the Chicago area. Since that point, I listened to all his old podcasts which range from him interviewing some of the biggest rock bands in the world to simply talking to his mom, wife or friends.

This show is uncensored and is not for people whom are easily offended by burping, farting or the occasional swearing.

Halo 3 - Finished!

That's right. I finally finished a game. Its been since 1997 since I've finished a console game. I think the last game I finished was "Streets of Rage" back in college with my roommate.

Anyway, I finished Halo 3 yesterday while I was on lunch break* while I was working from home yesterday. It took me this long be cause I accidentally deleted my game profile while I was about half way through it about a month or 2 ago. I wasn't playing on "heroic" level either (If I had done that I will be playing well into the next year).

Overall a cool game. Alot of stages were hard but the more I played, the better I got with aim, etc. Check this out: Halo 3 is up for one of the top games of 2007 via Game Informer Magazine!

Squirrel Catapult

Now this would be fun!

My 15 seconds of fame on radio

OK. This week is a little weird. I've had a post almost everyday; definitely not typical, but I've got another one! Yesterdays Last nights post was about KFAN this past Wednesday. I listen to the 'Fan when ever I can and had been listening to a newer show via Podcast called Video Games Weekly. This show is geared for some really hard-core gamers but I thought I would call to express my enjoyment of the game from from a 'newbie' perspective (oh yeah I asked about a good game for the kids as well). Click here to listen to the podcast directly from KFAN. My call starts around 16 minutes into the show!

Halo 3

With the purchase of my kickin' TV and my x-mas gift from last year, I went out and 'committed' myself to playing a game: Halo 3.

I purchased a game last January (Tom Clany's Rainbow Six: Vegas) but never opened the darn thing. That was due to a.) my crappy TV and/or b.) lack of time. Well, with the release of Halo 3 exclusively on the Xbox 360, I cashed in my Best Buy Reward Zone credit vouchers and got the soon to be 2007 game of the year.

I'm not much of a gamer but love playing with friends. Its been awhile since I've done it (probably playing Battlefield 1942 on the PC about 2 years ago at a LAN party) but plan on competing/joining some buddies online using the Xbox Live service. Yeah, my Xbox game console plugs into the internet just like a computer and allows me to play other people online, cool!

I have a feeling there are going to be some late nights ahead of me...

The exploding 2-liter.

What a mess! This happened a few days ago when my wife and I were upstairs. We heard a loud noise like something fell or got knocked over. For a second we thought someone was in the house.

We both came downstairs to see that a brand new, never opened 2-liter of Cherry Coke had exploded in our wet-bar area! Soda was everywhere! At that point, I thought about what was happening (which was I was about to sit down and watch Heroes on my new HDTV) so foir asplit second I though maybe someone had telepathically sent brainwaves to bust the thing open. The last thought I had was looking for signs of a gunshot!

We cleaned up the mess and it was everywhere! It knocked over other 2-liters we had right next to it and even knocked a 2 liter of Mountain Dew all the way down to the basement! This was pretty crazy. I've never heard of anything happening like this.

The End.

PS: while we're on the subject, check out this entertainment clip of 2-liters in action.

Operation: Jamaica Vacation 2007

As you can see, I am counting down the days/hours/minutes to the trip we booked recently.After several years of switching jobs, kid in school and other stuff, my wife and I are finally get back to a few of the Sandals Resorts! We'll be splitting out time between the Sandals Negril Resort and the Sandals Royal Caribbean. We've been to the Sandals all-inclusive resorts about 5 times now. Each one of them better than the last. This time around, we are going back to one the first places we've been to in Jamaica; to the beautiful beaches of Negril. About halfway through, we will be heading back to the last resort we were at in Montego Bay.Personally I am looking forward to the scuba diving and snorkeling. But the R&R will be highly anticipated as well. I can't wait!!

Nouvelle Star

OK so I've never watched the show and no, I no its not a typo of Nashville Star. This is rather a cool clip of some dude named Joseph spitting out some need beats using his pie-hole on some French rip-off of American Idol called Nouvelle Star. Check it out!

Fun: virtual Nintendo!

Came across this site the other day; boy this brings me back. Only thing better than this is to get the real thing!

Play some old NES games on your computer by clicking here: http://vnes.thatsanderskid.com/