Food: Shoal Creek Saloon Pork Chop

Pork Chop Dinner @ Shoal Creek Saloon

If there is anything you can deduce from this blog, it's that I like pork products.  I also love beef, although I don't think I've been as outspoken about my love of steak, beef ribs, and brisket in any online fora.

After putting up posts about the pork chop at Perry's Steakhouse & Grille and at The Texas Chili Parlor, I was informed that no survey of pork in downtown Austin is complete without a sampling of said dish at the Shoal Creek Saloon.

I'm already a fan of the Saloon.  I like their étouffée, boiled shrimp, and gumbo.  I especially like to enjoy these items while on the Saloon's back porch (which, appropriately, overlooks Shoal Creek).  And, of course, when crawfish are in season one should make a b-line for the Saloon in order to partake of their delicious boils.

The pork chop at Shoal Creek Saloon is good.  It's juicy and nicely seasoned.  It is one of their signature items (I know this from the mural painted on the side of the building).  I had never eaten one before the chop pictured above as I generally go to the Saloon for the Louisiana-style seafood.  Shoal Creek's pork chop isn't a challenge to one's manliness, like Perry's.  And, it isn't thin sliced for pan-frying, like the Chili Parlor's.  However, as a standard pork chop goes it's pretty damn tasty.

If you decide to get the pork chop at Shoal Creek Saloon, I recommend starting your meal with a cup or bowl of the étouffée.  You really shouldn't eat there without having some.

Note: Apparently, the National Pork Board's new consumer oriented motto for pork is "Pork: Be Inspired."  Pork's former motto, the famous "Pork: The Other White Meat" has been relegated to "heritage brand" status.  If they'd asked me, I would have offered up "Pork: It's Damn Delicious!" along with a "We Make Bacon... You're Welcome" companion website.  

Software: What Fusion Wants

Back in March, I decided to buy a 2011 model 15" MacBook Pro to use for business.  Prism Risk Management provides insurance related and general consulting services, as well as provide management and operational services for the Texas Schools Property & Casualty Cooperative and Oklahoma Schools Property & Casualty Cooperative risk pool programs.  We run the computer systems for the pooled programs, and most of our systems are Microsoft based.

A few months ago, I had VMware Fusion 4 installed on my Mac.  I wanted to be able run the Windows versions of Word, Excel, and Outlook on my Mac.  Most of my research indicated that Office 2010 programs work better with Sharepoint collaboration tools than their Office 2011 for Mac counterparts.  Also, I wanted to be able to use OneNote and Access (neither of which are available for OS X).   Mac OS X offers a lot of advantages, MacBooks are great pieces of hardware, and there were several Mac only programs I wanted to use along with Windows programs, thus a virtual machine system which allowed for the the operation of Windows along with Mac OS X seemed like a best-of-both-worlds solution.  VMware Fusion 4 came highly recommended as the best virtual machine for the concurrent operation of Windows 7 and Mac OS X.

The requirements for Fusion said that 4GB of RAM would be sufficient to run Windows on a virtual environment in OS X.  Unfortunately, when I tried to run Windows in Fusion my MacBook would become  slow and unresponsive to the point of being unusable.  Furthermore, running Windows based applications in Fusion's "Unity" view mode was impossible.

If you aren't familiar with VMware Fusion, Unity is the view mode in which Windows based applications are run in individual windows which look as though they are running natively in the Mac OS X environment.  I.e., you open a program like Access and it looks as though its running in Mac OS X.  It can be launched out of the dock, and it can be minimized to the dock as well.  This is a great feature if you want to multitask with Windows and OS X based applications at the same time on the same screen.  Not being able to use Unity was an impediment to my planned business use for the MacBook.

I consulted with my IT guru, who suggested that 4GB of RAM was not enough for running both Windows 7-64 bit and Mac OS X Lion.  At his suggestion, I ordered two 4GB RAM modules from Other World Computing.  The price for doubling my RAM to 8GB: $50.

Apparently, the lack of RAM was the problem.  With 8GB of RAM, Windows 7 boots up quickly within VMware Fusion 4.  Once Fusion is running, Windows programs open in Unity (from icons on the dock) about as quickly as Mac programs open in OS X.  The system is quite cool, as now I can multitask with the full array of programs I use at Prism Risk Management all on one computer.

Senators propose bill to encourage small company capital formation - ACC Newsstand - Powered by Lexology

Senators propose bill to encourage small company capital formation - ACC Newsstand - Powered by Lexology

Sponsorships: AYLA

I was very pleased to have my company, Prism Risk Management LLC, be included as one of the sponsors for the Austin Young Lawyers' Association holiday party.  This year's event was held at Malverde in downtown Austin.  Malverde is always a good venue for this type of event, and the food from La Condesa was quite popular with the AYLA members.

In addition to enjoying some holiday related good times, AYLA was able to raise a substantial amount of cash to support the annual Holiday Baskets project.  Fundraising was supported in part from a generous matching donation made by The Rubin Law Firm.

Outdoor: Cat Crap Anti-Fog Lens Cleaner

I don't have much to say about EK Eksessories' Cat Crap Anti-Fog Lens Cleaner other than it works and it works well.

I was having frequent problems with my clear Tifosi glasses fogging up during night bike rides.  The good folks at REI suggested that I try Cat Crap to both clean the lenses and to prevent future problems with fogging.  I bought the product and applied it to my glasses.  Fogging problems: solved.

Photography: Nikon fEE Error

Nikon D90 with Nikkor f1.8 50mm Lens

Earlier this evening, I was over in West Lake shooting some photos for the Christmas card of some friends.  I decided to try my Nikon AF 50mm f/1.8 AF Nikkor lens for a couple of shots.  Unfortunately, when I attached the lens to my Nikon D90 the error message "fEE" popped up where the f-stop setting usually appears.  Not sure what this meant, and not in the mood to stop shooting in order to look it up, I put the 50mm away and went on with a different lens.  The message didn't reappear, and thus I figured that the problem lay with the lens and not with the camera body.

fEE Error Message

Needless to say, once I finished shooting the photos I wanted to know what the ominous "fEE" message meant.  It turns out that the message wasn't serious in my case.  The "fEE" means that the camera can't control the f-stop setting on the attached lens.  My 50mm lens has a manual f-stop setting which must be turned to 22 in order for the camera to be able to operate the aperture automatically.  I had accidentally twisted the setting ring to 18.  As soon as I put the setting back to 22, everything was fine.  This was a relief, as I was concerned that a more serious problem might have occurred.  Therefore, if you have seen this error message pop up on your Nikon, try the simple steps of checking to see if your lens has a manual f-stop setting ring and then placing it on the top setting.  If this doesn't help,  the Nikon support page recommends removing and reattaching the lens.  If that doesn't help, or your lens is only automatic and you see the fEE message, then you may have some larger and more expensive problems on your hands.

The 50mm is a great lens for shooting in low light and it can be good for portraiture (when used with a Nikon DX format sensor).  My 50mm f/1.8 is the cheapest lens in my kit (I paid $150 for it at Precision Camera in Austin) but it has proven itself as a great choice for my needs when I want to use a prime lens.  You can use the Nikon 50mm f/1.8 AF lens on auto-focus as long as your Nikon dSLR has its own auto-focus motor.  If your dSLR body lacks this feature (e.g., a Nikon D40 or D60) then you will need to buy the internal auto-focus motor equipped Nikon 50mm f/1.8 AF-S Nikkor lens or a third party lens with this feature.

 

Food: Scallop Taco @ Tacodeli

Scallop Taco @ Tacodeli

Just when I thought Tacodeli couldn't get any better, I rolled in for an early lunch while on my way to the office earlier today.  I had heard rumors of a scallop taco available on Thursdays (at the Barton Skyway location), and the rumor was indeed true.  Here's what's involved:

• pan seared scallops
• red and poblano peppers
• corn
• Mojo Sauce
• a corn tortilla

I can't really say anything else about this taco except that it is exceptionally delicious and that you should buy one next Thursday.  

Also, as a bonus, I found out that I have been accepted into the Austin Bar/AYLA 2012 Leadership Academy while waiting in line at Tacodeli.  Moreover, I was informed by the gf, who is also going to be a member of the 2012 Leadership Academy Class.