Smoking is GREAT!

Um... what did I just say? Sorry about that. That's a totally misleading title to this blog post. When I said "smoking," I didn't mean cigarettes, cigars, pipes, vapes, and the like. I meant smoking as in a method of cooking. No nicotine patches required, just wood chips and patience... although this can be quite an addictive habit!

🦃 Turkey vs. 🐖 Boston Butt: The Smoker’s Showdown

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the backyard arena! In the left corner, weighing in at a deceptively lean 16 pounds, the Turkey. Known for its dry personality and tendency to panic under pressure, this bird requires hours of therapy in the form of brining (dry only, please! I need to probably do a whole article on the benefits of dry brining, especially poultry for a juicy, not-dried-out poultry outcome — no foul fowl or fowl fouls, please!), butter massages (ok, I didn't actually do that for yesterday's bird), and constant reassurance that yes, it is the centerpiece of Thanksgiving (we have tended to start branching out of "typical" Thanksgiving/Christmas/Easter meals, but come on, Turkey Day earned that nickname for a reason!). One wrong move and it turns into sawdust with drumsticks.

In the right corner, lumbering in at a marbled 8–10 pounds, the Boston Butt. Don’t let the name fool you — this cut is all shoulder, all swagger. It’s the heavyweight champion of low-and-slow cooking, forgiving mistakes like a benevolent uncle who’s seen it all. Too much smoke? Still delicious. Forgot to spritz? No problem. This pork practically wants to be smoked.

My App Got Downloaded in Turkmenistan. Now What?

I didn’t think I’d be writing about Turkmenistan today, but here we are…

I built a dog whistle app. I expected a handful of downloads from fellow Americans with barky dogs and questionable ad tolerance. What I didn’t expect? A download from Turkmenistan. Yes, Turkmenistan. When I saw that in the play console, I didn't even know where Turkmenistan was (geography was never my strong suit... I still have to ask my wife how to get places around here where we've lived since 2008! Then again, I do work from home, so I never go anywhere...). If you want to know, here's a google map link to it. It's near all the other "stan" countries: Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, if that helps you out. I wonder how many men are named "Stan" over there. Anyway, here's proof of the Turkmenistan download from the Play Console:

And, yes, Georgia is both a state in the US and a country in Eastern Europe or Western Asia (maybe Middle East? Possibly even Middle Earth?). And, yes, there's an install of my app there, too.

My First Google Play Store App!

Recently I started on a journey... from the comfort of a chair in front of my computer desk. I have a dog - a cute "little" pup, 50+ pounds now (just over a year old), a mix of Weimaraner and Golden Doodle. She loves to run and play and chew everything around her. She is a sweet thing - doesn't even realize her size is potentially hazardous at times - and generally just enjoying life. She often spends time in the back yard , unfortunately a necessity while I'm at work, since she'd otherwise terrorize our cat - in the most loving, friendly way - and chew up everything in the living room. (Our cat is pretty old, almost 17 years, and, much like me, pretty cranky; she doesn't want to have to break in any new members of the family!)

cute "little" pup!

Anyway, our dog generally just runs around chewing up things and chasing dragonflies, but sometimes she wants to alert us to something - like the kids coming home from school. And, sure, one or two warning barks are not a problem, but she's started continuing that "warning" into the "nuisance barking" territory, continuing to bark until someone has responded. So, I was looking for a "dog whistle" app, something that can emit a high-pitched frequency tone to distract and interrupt her "nuisance barking." (Hoping to get this curbed before it becomes a real nuisance.) There are several apps for that on the Google Play Store, but they all either require payment or have ads - including video ads that play about the time you want to tap the "emit tone" button (and also play loudly since you have to have your volume up for the whistle tone to be of any use). Definitely NOT a good user experience.

So, I thought, "Hey, I'm a Software Engineer... let me do my thing!" And voila: My Dog Whistle - available on the google play store! (Unfortunately Android only for the moment.)

As a side note: the app was predominantly coded by AI. I was the designer, QA, etc., but almost all of the code was created by AI. As was that cute icon above, as well as the web page where the app "lives" (aside from the Google Play Store). Maybe I'll expand on this process in a future post, hoping not to give away too many secrets so that you go build your own! ha. According to the play store console, it's been installed in Turkmenistan of all places.

Why this? Because, unlike other dog whistle apps, this one doesn't do any full-screen video ads! It's ready to scream when you are. And, to boot, it has some really handy features, like an adjustable frequency (either in increments of 100 Hz, the default, or you can uncheck that and go in 1 Hz increments), selectable "push to whistle" vs "tap to toggle whistle on/off," and a quick "volume max/reset" icon that allows you to crank your phone's volume all the way up in a single tap, use the whistle, and then reset it back exactly where you had it in a single tap - no fiddling with the volume buttons on your phone, forgetting exactly where you had your volume set, or having to wait while you turn up the volume before you can use the whistle.

cute app icon, yeah?

And did I mention it has ZERO FULL SCREEN VIDEO ADS? On top of everything else, it was a fun foray into the realm of app development, and I have a few more ideas on the way. This one just happens to be first. So go on, download it, give it a try! Surprise your dog, annoy your kids, find out what your upper hearing range is (one friend downloaded and did that, determining exactly how high a frequency he can detect with his ears!), enjoy the ad-free experience (ok, it does have tiny banner ads at the bottom, and so far I've made a whopping two cents from this app!). Enjoy!

GeminAI ... in the Kitchen

Ever wondered what happens when you let an AI boss you around in the kitchen? Read on...

So the other day I was thinking, "what do I want to make for dinner?" My wife was going to be working aftercare at the preschool, so I figured I'd work on dinner while she worked on getting kids out the door. I knew we had something in the fridge, which turned out to be chicken thighs. I asked Alexa for a chicken thigh marinade, and the one she gave me included Worcestershire sauce. I went in search of the unpronounceable condiment (just kidding, I actually went to Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, MA for a year... I know how to pronounce it!), and couldn't find it, but ran across a "honey-garlic marinade" bottle in the pantry. Opened it, smelled it, and went with it. I also knew we had an onion on the counter and some green peppers in the fridge, and noticed a can of pineapple rings in the pantry as well, and though they would make a good addition to the chicken thighs that I planned to cook in the oven in a casserole dish. I started the marinating process: stab the thighs a bunch with a fork, put them in Ziplocs (we only had quart-sized, so it took two; I'd hoped for gallon size, but alas, none to be found), and went back to work.

After work, I was thinking about the cooking, and asked Gemini what temp and how long to cook chicken thighs (she suggested 25-30 min at 400), on a baking sheet. Wait, what? A baking sheet? I asked about the casserole dish, and she said, "no, you'd be braising the thighs then instead of roasting them." OK, Gemini, a baking dish. I mentioned the onions, peppers, and pineapple, and she said they would cook perfectly alongside the chicken on the baking sheet, just don't let the pineapple touch the chicken while cooking because it can give a bitter taste. She suggested tossing the veggies in a little oil with salt and pepper (I also added some garlic seasoning), and that it sounds like a good dish that would work well with rice - so I pulled out the rice cooker and got that started, too.

I also asked (toward the beginning) whether I should discard the marinade or pour it on the chicken (when I was thinking casserole dish) - she said we could boil it into a glaze if we wanted, so we did, with the expectation that we'll put it on the chicken thighs after about 15 minutes of roasting.

I asked about side dishes, maybe corn, and she said, no, not corn. And I asked about broccoli or a vegetable medley - she said not the vegetable medley, because that would be a "mushy" side that would conflict with the crisp, roasted vegies and chicken thighs. So we agreed to do broccoli, which she said would cook along w/ the other things - just put them on the outside of the baking sheet to keep them further from the juices as the chicken roasted (so they would stay crisp). Unfortunately, my baking sheet wasn't large enough for the chicken, the original vegies, and the broccoli/cauliflower (I had missed that it was a broccoli/cauliflower mix, not just broccoli), so I asked Gemini if I should just cook that in the microwave.

Some AI-titude!

Gemini immediately replied, in bold: "Please, do not microwave it!" Followed by "You are putting all this effort into glazing the chicken and roasting peppers—microwaving that frozen mix will turn it into a watery, sulfur-smelling pile of mush that will clash with your nice crispy chicken." A little AI-titude, GeminAI? :) We agreed that I would roast the broccoli/cauliflower mix on a separate, smaller baking sheet, tossed in oil, salt, and pepper.

I also added some "Japanese seasoning" to the chicken (don't recall whether I did the original veggies), it was a garlic/ginger/soy (?) seasoning. While that was roasting, I took the leftover marinade, along with a little of the pineapple juice, and boiled it for five to ten minutes in a small saucepan, allowing it to 1) kill any bacteria through the boiling; and 2) thicken up (Gemini had suggested using cornstarch to help thicken it, but I didn't do that; instead, I just boiled it longer, figuring that would help ensure any bacteria was killed off). She did say to watch it carefully, as the honey in the marinade can easily burn (and it may also boil over easily, too). When the fifteen minutes had elapsed, I opened the oven, and wasn't quite sure if the chicken was ready to glaze, so I opened up Gemini in video mode (like they do in the Pixel commercials) and asked her thoughts. She said maybe give it another five minutes, so I did.

After the extra five minutes, we checked again, and it looked good, so we went ahead and brushed the glaze on the thighs, and kept the remainder to add to the final serving (over rice), and cooked it another ten minutes. At that point, it seemed good, and my wife was on her way home (the rice had been done for a bit, in the rice cooker, fluffed and sitting on the "keep warm" setting), so I asked Gemini if I could just turn the oven off and leave the chicken & veggies in there to keep them warm, and she said that was a perfectly acceptable plan.

When my wife arrived, we plated up the chicken thighs and veggies over the rice (well, the broccoli and cauliflower was to the side), and it was... DELICIOUS! Even forgetting to add the extra glaze/sauce over the rice and chicken (I did add that when I got seconds). 

All in all, a very enjoyable meal, and the kitchen still smelled good the next day, too! It was just as enjoyable reheated (not quite as crispy, as I didn't ask Gemini's thoughts and just went with the microwave instead of the air fryer to reheat it). And Gemini was a very helpful assistant chef (maybe kitchen manager?) as we were preparing and cooking dinner. Just gotta watch that AI-titude! haha