wii

As has been mentioned elsewhere, casa rakkaleff has been wiied. Better late than never, what? Thanks a bundle to nowinstock for giving me the lowdown, twitter style (seriously, I had about a 5 minute window on amazon to make the order).

The wii is all that, I must say. It's the only console I ever bought where the game that came with it was worth playing. And if I want to relive the days of crappy games that came with systems, I can go download Altered Beast from the Wii Shop Channel.

Speaking of Wii Shopping. I quite like it. This is dangerous. I've had the thing a week and I've dropped 30 bucks already. I'm particularly happy with my Paper Mario (64) purchase. I like it so much better than Super Paper Mario. But that's another post.

I'm sure everybody says this, but I'm surprised by how much fun Mii's can be. And this is only enhanced by the Check Mii Out Channel. That's where we found Mr T, who has since been sending threatening memos.

another bit of job related news

I'm on the redfin blog!

It's in a piece about the Real Estate Scientist, a new feature that we just turned on about five minutes ago*.

*when I wrote this, which was last night.

a bit of job realated news

Redfin will be on the Today show tomorrow. If you're around at tv at 7:40 am in your time zone, you should watch nbc. If you're not, or if you're not in the states, I will find you a link. I'm sure one will show up somewhere soon (it's obvious I mean after air time, right? the Today show is live, innit? So I can't get it to you earlier than that, duh. I have little tardis but it's not real).

update: Here's the clip on msnbc and msn.

update 2: Those links are starting to 404. The press page will have the video for a long time though.

our phlows be phresh

A thanksgiving pressie for the feline members of the family.

It's MC fresh flow in the houuuuse!

It comes correct with the water slide.

And unlike the wack water ball thing we tried a few weeks ago, MC Phresh Phlow has Phans.

Ok. Now I'm done with my stupid jokes. Happy Harvest Festival!

why do all video game sites suck?

I mean, they really really suck, really really bad. Have you seen gamespot lately? The freaking nav is buried between adds somewhere below the second fold. I think this is why I don't game much these days.

pootie done did it again!

I know you were all waiting to see when the laptop got here. It was Friday. I call it pootie.

Re: laptop

It's on it's way.

Map by package-tracker

It's in the country I'm getting really excited now!

the plunge

I don't think I'm an awful mac fanboy, but I am really excited about the macbook that I just ordered. It's my first ever apple thing that I've bought with my own money.

I've been on xp for a month now and I really miss some os x stuff. Especially exposé. And to think, when I first encountered that feature I thought it was so much fluff; just a gimmick for the punters. Even though I have a fantastic set up at work (thanks work!) with two 20 inch widescreen monitors, I still find myself hunting for windows. Oh, why can't I just push a button and see all of them?

So the other day, when I was chatting with some coworkers one of them mentioned you can put 4GB of ram in a plain (13") macbook these days. This was the last little bit that pushed me over the edge. I looked around and you can get 2 2GB cards for about the price that apple will sell you a 1 GB card (or about 1/3 of the $500 they want for 4GB).

People have already been criticizing leopard features. The new dock, for instance, is even worse than the old one. But you can get rid of the stupid pseudo 3d with ease, and Quicksilver is around, so who cares about the dock anyway. I'm really looking forward to spaces (virtual desktops, woo hoo!). And by the time it gets here, all the other 3rd party stuff I rely on will be leoparded.

So now I just have to wait for the shipping notice...

bubbo in his new home!

bubbo in his new home!, originally uploaded by Rakka.

Bubbo came home today.

I impulsively bought Bubbo at the Plush You Opening at Schmancy (which was a few weeks ago). Now that the show is over, I get to bring him home. He goes pretty well with Baboo (pictured at right).

config this!

A year or two ago, when I first started getting interested in Ruby on Rails, I would read all the marketing and it kept saying "no config files". Over, and over, and over again. At the time I was working in PHP; all I had to worry about was httpd.conf and php.ini.

Now I'm working on a Java project. It's a big, existing code base and every thing's ready already. Still, it only took about three weeks before the realization hit: "Oh, this is what the're talking about." Cripes, you need to config your config files with config files. Give me RoR any day.

catching up, once again

Oops. I haven't blogged in a while. I've been busy with the new job. It's a good thing really; the job is treating me really well so far. Rakka says it's the first time she's seen me happy since... ever.

The work is fun. I'm learning new things (like JSP). Everybody at Redfin is super nice, even when my check-in breaks the build, which happened Friday; luckily I'm not working on something that's super time critical... yet.

Work isn't the only thing I've been doing. I went to plushyou, and the pike place market ghost tour. But since I did those things with Rakka, and everybody that reads this probably reads her blog, I'm sure you know all about it already.

nwbrick con 2007

Everybody loves Lego, right? Well, some more than others. Those that are really crazy end up with their stuff on display at the NWBrick con. (the moderately crazy just go for a visit). This year was kinda sad, because it was the same stuff as last year, for the most part.

Photo by me

Winter Home of the Happy Sunshine People by Steve Decreamer One of my favorite Lego things in a long time, just because of the awesome craggy rock.

Photo by some nice guy with access behind the rope

Titanic It gets points for being effing huge as eff.

Video by me

Mecha Godzilla Spinning Death Hands!

Video by me

Hydraulics this lego car got bump

pepperidge farm remembers

I am soon going to be macless. I expect this will only be temporary. So before I trade this on in, I'm going to write down all extra bits I can't live without. This is merely an aid to an aging memory.

Quicksilver

The application launcher to end all application launchers. Launchy and spotlight look like the start menu compared to QS.

TextWrangler

Any text editor that is both free and can regex replace, recursively over a directory tree, is a winner in my book.

Adium

It's kind of like Pidgin, but it, you know, works.

Transmission

Dead simple bittorrent client.

SmartSVN

Pretty good GUI svn client.

FileMerge (from Apple Xcode Utilities)

GUI diff on any two files. Very nice. Use it all the time.

Handbrake

DVD backups are really useful. Handbrake takes feckin forever, but it works.

Growl

Pop up notifications. It pretty much comes with everything these days.

instantShot

There are a multitude of "better than default" screen grab utilities. This one works well for me.

iStats menus

CPU and Memory graphs right in the menu bar, where you actually need them.

iStats pro

Super detailed stats about your computer, as a dashboard widget. There are a lot of these too. This is the one I like.

magiCal

Another thing I need in the menu bar: today's date.

Witch

Apple-Tab through windows, not applications. Kind of useful when you have three firefox windows and 10 terminals running, but I still find myself using expose most of the time.

surprise!

Every year the deceptions get deeper and deeper. One day I'm going to catch on. I almost did this time, but Rakka still managed to plan an entire birthday party without me knowing about it. Thanks Rakka!

Photo by Rakka

Dalek Cookies Because there's nothing quite as sweet as a little green blob in bonded polycarbide armor.

Photo by Rakka

CyberManicottie Note to all other pasta: "you will become like us!" or "you will be upgraded!" (depending on what decade you're from)

She also got me this rad Sonic Screwdriver.

Photo by Me

Sonic Screwdriver Also pictured here.

It even came with psychic paper!

There was going to be a tardis cake too, but I ruined it by taking a half day. She tried to hurry and it broke. *frownies*

god, I am such a nerd. I'm ok with it though. And so is Rakka. Thanks Rakka, for enabling me in my nerdery!!!

Heroes is on again

Eppy two is going right now. It's pretty good so far.

*spoilers!!*

I've come to terms, maybe, with the amnesia; this is difficult for me. The Mexican girl's power is pretty stupid. I like Hiro being his own hero, but I hope it doesn't take all season. I'm sort of tired of the cheerleader already. That is all.

update
She's not Mexican, maybe. Her aunt lives in Mexico, but she started in Venezuela, right? Whatever. Wherever she's from, her power is still pretty stupid.

job.shift()

I have been at Treemo.com for two years now. It's been a good time and I've had the opportunity to work with a bunch of great people. But all things come to an end.

Photo by Rakka

Two Eyed Daruma A Daruma gets one eye when a wish is made, and one when it is granted.

Today I made it official. I will be moving over to Redfin.com. It's a really neat company and a fantastic opportunity; I'm extremely excited. I can't say better than that.

stupid mashups 101

Homework assignment for anyone who has too much free time and some video editing software: A music video for My Hooptie using only footage from Keeping Up Appearances.

“Gotta roll this bucket, 'cause my Benz is in the shop”

“It's pronounced bouquet!”

I think it can be done.

my new bag is super cool

It's an Alchemy Goods Urban. It's made out of bicycle inner tubes, and a seat belt. It looks like this.



It's not totally recycled though. That would be difficult to impossible. But AG puts the percentage by weight of recycled material right on the label. The urban is 76% recycled.



That ain't bad. Especially since it's really reused material. 'Recycle' implies a boiling down to component parts; the stuff in this bag was just cut up and sewn back together. No toxic byproducts (as far as I know). Hooray!

But t's not just good because it's recycled. It's a really good bag too.

The silly part was that I had it shipped, even though it's made in town. Intuitively that cuts in to the whole environmentalist point of the bag, but, you know, I don't have a car, so :^P

eating people

I flipped past some crappy samurai documentary on the history channel the other day. It stated that Japanese people think of the belly as westerners do the heart. Like, a "big belly" means "kind and generous" (ref. "big hearted"). The documentary was trying to say that Seppuku (hara-kiri) was like cutting out your soul.

Does that explain, then, things like Hare+Guu, and this video (via)?

Is getting eaten like visiting the soul of the eater? This is the type of question that keeps me up at night.

bitching about free speech

"A New York City lawmaker is pushing to symbolically ban the words "bitch" and "ho" to discourage their use in rap and pop music and among young people."

Oh, thanks for that, Councilwoman Darlene Mealy (D-Brooklyn). I'm not a fan of either word; they are unpleasant and degrading.

But is a ban on them the answer? Can you picture this effort achieving anything other than increasing the use of these words? Is the possibility of a slight bump in women's self esteem worth even a symbolic hit to Free Speech? Would it even solve any problems? Would it make men respect women more? Did Sean Hannity ask you to give him a topic for his show?

crazy with the books

crazy with the books, originally uploaded by leff.

I've been realizing lately that a working knowledge of certain things is not the same as complete understanding.

If, as I seem to have decided, I am going to be a web developer, I need to know my junk backwards and forwards. Even the bits that I don't need to be directly involved in on a day to day basis.

For me a little bit of gap filling means this huge stack of books that makes the table groan under their collective weight.

Right, enough yammering. There's reading to do.

the deathly hallows

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
by J. K. Rowling

Wow. just... wow.

nordic heritage == pancakes

The Annual Nordic Heritage Museum Pancake breakfast was today. Rakka and I went to Ballard to get us summat. Guess what I remembered after we had got there (by bus and foot). I didn't have any cash. Guess what was the only form of payment accepted?

So after a quick, hungry tour of the museum, we headed up to the Original Pancake House. (shameless self promotion link, sorry)

Where I was confronted with a ridiculous volume of yummy, yummy pancakes.

The Museum is pretty cool though. It's in an old school and it has all kinds of stuff, from Lego Valhalla to creepy troll chairs.

fuzz buzz

fuzz buzz, originally uploaded by leff.

This seemed like such a good idea. Mixing collectors edition Simpsons cola with inexpensive vodka.

Turns out, not so much. The first one made me nauseous. *bleh*

If you try it, though, I insist that you call it a "fuzz buzz".

kwik e mart

Seattle got a little slice of Springfield this weekend.



Yep. A Kwik E Mart. It's a big ol' promotion for the Simpsons Movie. It's kinda fun, if you dig on the Simpsons, expensive marketing gimmicks, or both. It's pretty fun to go grab some squishees and buzz cola.

I'm just glad I don't work there. The poor 7-11 guys are tired of it already. And it goes on all month.

More pictures from me and rakka.

oh, rats!

Seattle has rats. Who knew?

They're not very citified though. The ones I ran in to this weekend hardly knew they weren't out in the country. One stuck his head out of the tall grass by the side of the road, realized I was much bigger than he, and stuck hisself back in again.

The tall grass was by this big empty field in the middle of relative nowhere (by the golf course on 15th in interbay). So, you know, the rats can have it. It was just refreshing to meet some wild rats that were afraid of me. As opposed to the Baltimore ones that didn't consider people to be obstacles. Running all over your shoes while you're just trying to walk down the street...

Ug. Have I mentioned I'm glad I moved away?

Hyperion

Hyperion
by Dan Simmons

Dan Simmons has a lot of ideas. He put a lot of them in Hyperion. Some of them are really cool. Some are pretty silly. Some hold up well (it was written in 1989), some sort of... don't.

Hyperion is a frame story. After a brief set up, each of the main characters start telling their stories to each other. It's a great way to illustrate big parts of the hyperion universe. Each person's story is unique, a couple are pretty compelling. The problem is that Simmons voice comes through much too strongly. The setup is that these people are sitting around after dinner telling their story, but it reads like Dan Simmons is writing it, sometimes to the point of being in the third person.

So I like the ideas, and even some of the plots. But the writing wasn't quite there. This is a problem I have with a lot of sci-fi, actually. There are very few people of vision who can really write. I mean, really really write. That's probably why I kept thinking about Banks as I read Hyperion. It has the same scope of vision as a Culture novel; it just didn't have the polish.

non stollen tape measure

non stollen tape measure, originally uploaded by leff.

This pile of concrete was sitting by the side of the road, next to a park that's being renovated, at about 8:30pm.

Anywhere else I've ever lived the forgotten tape measure (pictured) would have been gone the moment the workmen's truck turned the corner. Hell, in Memphis the stack of concrete wouldn't have lasted half an hour.

That plucky tape measure must have sat there for hours. It was probably waiting for it's owner in the morning.

I love Seattle.

driving

pile of donations pic
courtesy of rakka.

We rented a car this weekend. Not for something fun. We just had too many big errands to make any of our friends with cars drive us. We were all over town, dropping off a cubic yard of goodwill donations, recycling monitors, going to the mall, etc.

It was raining. There was the huge UW graduation one exit from the mall. It was, in short, miserable.

It makes me very very glad that I don't have to do this driving thing on a regular basis. But more importantly, it makes me appreciate even more all the rides I've gotten from all my wonderful Seattle friends over the last couple years. I can't thank you guys enough!

say hello to mister june

late again ...., originally uploaded by bunchofpants.

Oh yeah, it's me.
(thanks bop!)

on Rhys, Yppah, and Death Metal

I've been hearing a lot about Gruff Rhys lately. Shed ran in to him at work (he's tall), and Rakka got the cd (CandyLion). So, even though I never listened to the Super Furries, I thought I'd give it a listen. Judging by the huge margin that he beat everybody else by in last week's last.fm, I think I like it.
update: Holy crap, I'm a top listener last week!

Speaking of external influences, coworker matts told me about Yppah months ago. I finally got around to tracking it down. I actually bought it, if you can believe that. matts also showed me bleep.com, drm free albums (mp3) for $10. Not bad. (although the site itself sucks, though. Can't even link you right to Yppah).

This is the song (experimenting with last.fm embed, bear with me):
Yppah – Again With The Subtitles

External influences are good. Without them I end up listening to death metal.
Grotesque – Cannibal Holocaust

Death Metal is always kind of funny. For some reason more so when it's Swedish. It's pretty great, though, for those with ADD though. It's all transitions, and no repetition.

double true

This summer casa rakkaleff will play host to one confirmed set, and several possible sets, of out of town visitors. Partly to aid in their planning, and partly to pretentiously show off my complete world knowledge, I am making a customized Google map. Maybe other people would like to see it too. The url is a bit silly, so here's a tiny one.

http://tinyurl.com/2z5yhn

I haven't been reading as many tech blogs as I once did, so maybe people have talked about "My Maps" ad nauseam. In which case I apologize for what follows.

I've tried out the "my maps" feature once or twice. It's a nice way to give people directions to the office. You can put whatever you want in the location bubbles, so you can make your map link self contained.

But it doesn't end there. You can get really fancy with it. You can use all kinds of different pins, filling each with a hidden meaning. Lines can been drawn. And though the interface for this is incredibly weird, it remains less weird than the interface for shapes. Which is like reverse polish vector drawing; it seems like it's backwards, but it's pretty handy once you get the knack.

All in all, it's a cool feature. I hope somebody got a founders grant for this one.

Rails and Plugins

Rails is great, and plugins make it even better. Except when they don't.

I've been doing a lot with Bookton on the weekends. It's changed my opinion somewhat of plugins for Rails. Today's experience is a good example.

I was adding TinyMCE to the system. The easy way is the TinyMCE Plugin. The only problem is that it doesn't work, at least not in Rails 1.2.3. What probably happened is that the plugin was written several point releases ago, and it just hasn't been updated yet. I could spend a lot of time trying to figure it out...

Or I could just copy the TinyMCE directory in to my project, add a couple of lines of javascript to my main layout and call it a day. This is what I did. This is what I do for about half the plugins that I use. The other half, I have to say, work well with no big issues. (acts_as_ferret is great)

I'm still a rather large fan of Rails, but the rose tint is starting to fade off from the standard issue goggles.

is it just me, or does the whole town smell like natural gas?

As we were arriving home from Uwajimaya I asked Rakka if she smelled natural gas? No she said, it was just me.

So we get home. As we're taking stuff out of bags, she notices that one of the cream cookies she got were durian flavor.

Time passes.

She opens the durian cookies. Hey, she says, these smell like them too. She thrusts the bag at my nose so I can smell. Here is a quote about the odor:

"... its odor is best described as pig-shit, turpentine and onions, garnished with a gym sock. It can be smelled from yards away." -- Richard Sterling

He is correct. Rakka has wrapped it in 7 plastic bags, taken it out to the trash, and turned all the fans on. I can still smell it. She says she's gotten me back for all the kimchi I eat. I think she owes me, now. Oh my god it's bad.

Oh, thanks Joost. This is the latest version. I downloaded it a half hour ago. I've spent all the intervening time using this exact binary. Granted, I was using it to remove the piles of cruft that you so kindly added to "my channels". A process which you make incredibly painful.

You can't choose the item in "my channels" and click remove. The only remove button is on the "Channel Directory" page. While I can search, it doesn't take me to the channel directory page. So I'm left clicking through the entire list of channels trying to find the stuff I don't like. That's not a good position to put your users in.

And then it crashes, and won't start again. You know what? I give up. Again.

There's nothing on there anyway.

laptop a go go

Went to the apple store with the boss today. Finally got the laptop we've been talking about for the last year or so.

15 inch macbook pro. the fast one with the extra ram. Squee! So nice. Now I just need wireless router to make it really fun.

quirks mode: detective robert goren entertains

Rakka has gotten me hooked on Law and Order: Criminal Intent. It's kind of embarrassing. I always thought the L&Os were sort of cliffs notes for cop movies. I still think that, but I don't really care. Once I realized that you're not supposed to watch it for the plot it got much better.

It's really all about Vincent D'Onofrio's character. The tweaky, quirky detective with the funny mannerisms. He's really good at it. It's almost like he's a realistic Monk. There's just something fun about watching it.

The rest of the cast are really good too, don't get me wrong. Kathryn Erbe compliments him perfectly. But she's sort of the Abbott to his Costello. And as important as the straight man is, you always remember the ham.

art star spotting

It's strange. Seeing famous people on the street. The other day I was on my way to the bus, talking to Rakka on the mobile. And there was Dale Chihuly, complete with his trademark blue shirt, eye patch and rotundness. I should have gotten an autograph. But I was so focused not missing my bus that the only thing to come of it was a bit of Newhartesque phone conversation.

me: Hey, I just passed Dale Chihuly!
...
me: No, he's pretty short
...
me: I, I don't know what he's doing in Ballard. I think he was going to radio shack.
...
me: Yes, I think they do have radio shacks in Tacoma.
...

thunderbird contacts import interface

thunderbird contacts import interface, originally uploaded by leff.

I know TB only has a few people working on it, and this is a little used feature, so I can cut them some slack. But this interface is so terrible it's hard to describe.

The left column is the destination (thunderbird address records), the right is the source (in this case, gmail address records). In order to line them up you have to move things up and down in the left column, to match with the right.

It's made especially clunky by the fact that clicking anywhere in either column toggles the check box. ugh.

I'd almost rather they didn't offer the feature at all. At least not until they had time to do it up right.

but if you need to escape

Heroes is a pretty fun way to do it. I've been meaning to watch it for a while now, but I'm not cut out for broadcast television. Never been able to remember when shit is on. Thank the big man man in the sky, by whom I mean Al Gore, for the internet.

Anyway, the point is, it's a good show. I'm on episode 15 already. There's nothing like a good multi-threaded super hero fantasy to take your mind off a long hard week.

Except maybe a nice Tina Fey comedy. Rakka found 30 Rock for me. I'm surprised a show on nbc can be funny. But I'm not surprised it's Tina Fey that does it.

sometimes, work is inescapable

Not my favorite thing to on a saturday. But there it is.

Postern of Fate

Postern of Fate
by Agatha Christie

Postern of Fate was the first Tommy and Tuppence novel that I've ever read. Now I know why nobody talks about Tommy and Tuppence novels.

It's because they just natter on, repeating things to each other and never actually doing anything. There was really only enough material here for a short novella. The rest was just filler.

I suppose the thing had potential. But it had the feel of something Christie just dashed off on the way to the publisher. Like she had forgotten that the deadline was in two days; it was time to get cracking.

I think I'm going to stick to Poirot, unless somebody convinces me that PoF was a particularly bad example of TnT in action.

itunes loves cypress hill today

I don't know why.

freeway park

I was wandering around downtown the other day. I was near the convention center when I noticed this long, unmarked set of stairs leading up the side of a building. I followed them.

Turns out I had found one of the many back ways in to Freeway Park (wikipedia). I had never even heard of it. It is insane.

the scenic freeway overlook

The style is best described as Brutalist, which supposedly is from the French for "raw concrete". I think the literal interpretation is more fitting. This architecture is harsh.

the dungeon

I went down in the dungeon, or main gallery, or whatever the hell they call it. It's only a green tint away from being Minas Morgul, I swear.

Frodo cannot face the traffic window

I don't know what these 60s architects were thinking about. They had all these Utopian ideals and they made most oppressive, inhuman buildings ever. I've never understood why they thought those two things should go together.

the route the Hobbits took

Another really weird 60s thing that shines through, even though it wasn't finished until the 70s, is the love of the car. You thought it was called "Freeway Park" because it's near/over top of the interstate? No. It is in love with that road. There is a window, down in the dungeon, so that you can go gaze out at the traffic. Keep in mind, the dungeon is considered the park's central feature.

Sensibilities have moved on though. There seems to be no attempt to keep the window clear enough to see through anymore.

A window to the fuUuuuUuture?
We've seen it, driven it, spray painted over it.

For all it's harshness though, the squirrels are really friendly and the green parts are really green. It's actually a great little park, right on the edge of everything.

They come right up to you.

animated avatars are awful

I consider them spam. I wish adblock could hide them for me.

Oh! But, once again, firefox to the rescue. I can go to about:config and unanimate them. (search for image.animation_mode and set it to none or once)

...

Ok, that was a boring post. Sorry.

night walks fckin rock

lake union at night, originally uploaded by leff.

Might seem like a weird thing to get excited about. But there's nothing like wandering around some neighborhood after everybody's already turned in.

Except for the occasional car to throw off the illusion it's almost like I'm wandering around after the comet apocalypse. But it's ok. I can handle any attack by any zombies, or vampires, or freaky zombie vampires.

Then you find a view like this, and it puts my head in a whole different space. Makes me channel Shaggy. Like, Wow.

ignite seattle 3

paper airplanes, originally uploaded by leff.

I went, I took pictures of the airplanes. Apparently, some people like them, which is cool (not to self.horn.toot()).

I saw some of the talks too. The one about honey bees was really good.

But it was really crowded, and this massively drunk guy sat right next to us. It was either get passed out on, or leave (it was that crowded). So we left.

Salt Shaker

A Salt Shaker

After much experimentation I've done it. I made a salt shaker! It's my entry for the edible book festival that 826 Seattle is putting on. I'm doing Salt: A World History.

Salt: A World History
by Mark Kurlansky

It was actually much harder to do this than I thought it would be. I thought I could just wet some salt a little bit, shove it in the mold (Rakka already published pictures of the mold making), and it would dry solid. Wrong. It stayed mushy.

So I tried some white glue. Yeah, not very edible, but kids eat paste. Anyway, it didn't work. The salt solidified it in to little balls, instantly. Weird. So I tried gelatin, at Rakka's suggestion, but it prevented the gelatin from setting. Ugh, that one was gross to clean up.

Time to drop a little bit of Science. Salt does weird things to water. I'm not a chemist, so I don't know all the details. But I'm pretty sure that's why the glue and the gelatin failed so horribly. What I needed was a binder with no actual water in it. My next attempt was with corn syrup.

hot hot sugar

Corn syrup is in everything these days anyway, why not salt sculptures? You can get it at any old grocery store; Karo is the brand we get around here. It's pretty viscous at room temperature, but I didn't want to cook the sugar. So I heated it in a double boiler setup.

talk about salty-sweet

This worked well. The salt didn't do anything weird with the sugar at all. It just got sticky. It got very grainy, almost fluffy.

getting fluffy. fluffy salt? weird.

yum?

But it compressed well. I just shoved it in the mold as hard as I could. Then tied up the mold so it didn't move around. A couple hours in the freezer and it was as hard as a rock, though a bit skewed. I squared it up a little bit with a small cheese grater.

it's still crystally

The best part is the salt crystals are still visible. It's exactly what I was looking for.