Mississippi Springfest, Ashland MS BBQ Contest trip report

I spent my Saturday morning judging barbecue in Ashland, MS. This was my second-ever contest and it was a great time. Unlike my first contest in Little Rock, this was a relatively small event. The Little Rock contest had more than 250 teams and is one of the largest events in the country. We had about 40 in Ashland. The practical upshot is that the event had a more relaxed feel and I was able to meet more of the KCBS judges and reps.

The bad: I don't know if it was just my table, but the quality of the barbecue wasn't up to what I had in Little Rock. Not that it was bad, but it wasn't A+ competition quality.

The event is part of Ashland's Springfest which involves a car show and a small carnival. In retrospect, I wish I could have brought the kids; they would have had a great time at some of the different attractions available.

Anyway, if you're interested in good barbecue, visit kcbs.us and look for a barbecue judging class near you. It's a lot of fun.

Everybody Draw Mohammed Day

Yeah, I don't have anything deep to say, so here's a comic strip about Muhammed eating a pulled-pork sandwich.

LOST: The final season: The second to last one

Am I the only one enjoying this season of LOST? Talking to my wife, looking 'round the nets, It sure seems that way.

There are SPOILERS below this in case you haven't seen the ep yet.

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Was there ever any doubt that Jack was going to be the man? Any?

I'm left wondering two things. One, is Jack really going to be the man or is he gonna get wasted and Sawyer will step up and be all emo protector, and two, which reality is going to wind up on top when the two reconcile?

I am really looking foward to the finale on Sunday. Gonna miss the show when it's gone, but I am happy they decided to put a cap on the storyline.

The best fried chicken you could ever possibly ever have

I am not a fan of chicken. I grew up eating it every Sunday if not more often. It took years for me to start eating chicken again. So, trust me when I tell you that Uncle Lou's Fried Chicken is amazing. I didn't just eat this chicken, eating understates what consuming this food is like. A piece of Uncle Lou's chicken is a spiritual experience. It's that simple.

If you ever find yourself near Memphis, you have to do yourself a favor and make your way to Uncle Lou's.

RIP Ronnie James Dio

Well, our heavy metal elf has passed away.

We're all brought down, Dio, brought down:

boPAD (11 March 1952 - 11 May 2001)

Douglas Adams …

I first learned about Adams’ work from a friend. This was, oh, ’86 or ’87. I was at his house and he asked if I’d ever played the Infocom Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy game. Not only had I not played the game, I had no clue what HHGttG was. I quickly learned. After playing the game endlessly at his house, I found the books at the library. Then I found the radio scripts and the radio show. Then I found the BBC miniseries. I was hooked – a fan for life.

Looking back on HHGttG now, there are certainly some dated references. Some of the humor was structured to make fun of things happening then or social mores of the time. But it doesn’t lesson the impact. It’s easy to understand that digital watches can just as easily mean cell phones or tablet computers. The concepts are sound even if the references sometimes aren’t.

Considering the Guide itself, Adams was a visionary. He didn’t just envision the Guide as a tool for his fiction, he genuinely thought about having an electronic compendium of man’s knowledge accessible from portable devices. It sure didn’t take long for that vision to become a reality and every Kindle and iPad and like device brings the Guide closer to parity with the books.

The Dirk Gently books came along shortly afterward and while it didn’t resonate with me like HHGttG, it was still Adams. It was still great. The way he wove humor into plot was brilliant. No one does it quite the same way.

As a fan, you find yourself wanting more. That’s the reason another HHGttG book was published and Artemis Fowl author Eoin Colfer was tapped to write it. This book not only didn’t resonate with me, it just wasn’t the same. The pacing was off, the humor wasn’t as good or too different … It’s just not a world someone can come in and start writing in again. HHGttG was something unique to Adams and unlike the worlds of James Bond or Cthluhu, the adventures of Arthur Dent and crew don't lend themselves to having their torch carried by anyone else.

We fans, we need to be satisfied with what we have. I hope for everyone’s sake that we don’t have another book. Maybe we can figure out a way to make a better movie, but I’m not holding my breath.

P.S. boPAD is because that's what his signature looks like:

RIP Frank Frazetta

Sad news. I mean, it's been a while coming, but it's still very sad news.

What can I really say about Frazetta that other folks haven't experienced? His work is amazing and everyone knows it. There's a great documentary out there about him called Frazetta: Painting with Fire. It was there that I learned he had had a stroke years ago and had to re-teach himself to draw.

Amazing guy who leaves behind an amazing legacy.

The Flood

For those of y'all who aren't my friend on Facebook, I want to let y'all know that we were right in the flood area and survived without getting any flooding at all. Our neighbors across the street from us got six inches in their garage and two inches in their house proper.

Our next-door neighbors got some flooding in their garage only. A friend a few streets over from us had several feet of flooding. I am in awe over how a little distance can make such a difference in damage. I mean, I realize that flooding isn't as arbitrary as a tornado or hurricane damage, but it still boggles the mind how certain areas get hit so hard and other areas escape damage.

The picture here is of of Navy base where I work. My building got about two feet of water in it. So, there's some fun going on there.