Dual Tone Spooky Cakes: Quick Halloween Idea

This bundt cake looks a little a ghost.

I used to make rainbow cupcakes when I was a kid, similar to these.  We would get bowls of cake mix and dye them colors and make a big mess, but they'd turn out cute anyway.  I was reminded of this the other day when I surfing the web and saw a black and orange cake.  The author made black cakeballs and put them in the middle of a cake pan.  She then covered the balls with batter and baked it.  It made very neat circles in her cake.  Mine are more random, but I think they look sort of oozy and spooky.

This is a simple half/half dual tone cupcake

For these, I separate my cake batter and dye each part a different a color, but you could use separate cake batters too.  In the cupcake, I dyed one half of a vanilla cake batter orange and the other half black.  For the bundt cake, I used one of those "12 cupcake" devil's food mixes for the black, and a whole white cake mix separated in half.  I dyed one half green and the other half orange.  The cupcakes require a little finer hand.  You spoon one color into your cupcake pan, then put the next color down.  You can swirl them if you want.  If you use a piping bag, you can get intricate layers by piping a small amount in the middle of your paper cups and piping the same amount of the next color on top of that layer and repeating (that works well with rainbow cupcakes).

The cake is a lot easier, even if you want to make intricate layers, but it's the same concept.  You can do as many layers as you want, or just make one black spot in the middle, etc.  This would be a fun activity for kids.  The rainbow ones are awesome for Easter.

The icing for the cupcakes was just a can of icing dyed orange.  For the bundt, a regular icing wouldn't be drippy enough.  I made a glaze and dyed it in two colors.  Here's the recipe for the glaze.

Check out that owl platter. Isn't it adorable? I love Halloween.

Bundt Glaze:
4 ounces softened cream cheese
1 to 2 tablespoons milk
2 cups powdered sugar

1. Blend all the ingredients together in a food processor, mixer or blender.  I normally start out with 1 tablespoon of milk and add to my desired consistency.
2. If the glaze is too thin, add more sugar.  If it's too thick, add more milk.

Once you blend it, you can separate it, dye it your colors and drip it on in whatever pattern you want.  You have to wait until your cake is cooled or it will all melt off and not look pretty at all.

Sodas Make Kids Aggressive? This Study Sure Makes ME More Aggressive

If you've turned on the news tonight, everyone is talking about a study that says soda makes kids go crazy!  It actually says 15 percent of teens who drank little or no soda reported violent behavior toward a partner, compared to almost twice that number among those who drank 14 or more cans per week.

This means soda is making kids go crazy, right?  Not really.  I think this study is really flawed.

First of all, the kids who drank the most soda drank five can per week or more.  That's almost every person I know.  Secondly, they only asked minority kids and the data was collected via a survey given to the kids:

“The new study was based on answers to questionnaires filled out by 1,878 public-school students aged 14 to 18 in the inner Boston area, where Hemenway said crime rates were much higher than in the wealthier suburbs. The overwhelming majority of respondents were Hispanic, African-American or mixed; few were Asian or white.”

I don't understand why they didn't have a more robust sample, which included rich, white soda drinkers.  Would the data be the same?  How can it be a "marker" if they didn't even sample a random group?  I also wonder how well kids keep track of how much soda they drink.  It would have been slightly better designed if they asked the kids to record what they drank instead of recalling their past consumption. 

Scientists flash around "correlation doesn't equal causation" a lot.  That's akin to asking, "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?"  Does soda cause kids to become violent or do violent kids drink more soda for other reasons?  The study doesn't tell us that. 

For example, maybe kids with overall poor diets also drink more soda and it's their overall diet that causes them to be aggressive.  Even poor sleeping habits can cause kids to be aggressive and pick up caffeine.  Maybe kids with less educated parents (who allow them to drink more soda) are more violent.  Maybe kids with less parental supervision (who wouldn't be there to tell them not to drink soda) are more violent.  Maybe kids who are already depressed and bullied drink soda to self-medicate.   You see where I'm going?  Is the soda the cause or a result?

I hate when poor studies like this get picked up by the media.  It's a pet peeve of mine.  This study shows us nothing.  It's cocktail party trivia.  Yet the media touts, "sodas cause kids to be aggressive."


What could be bad about the media getting people to drink less soda?  I believe that sugar and caffeine are bad for kids (they're bad for adults too), but this study doesn't prove it.  Would getting rid of soda make America healthier? Probably.  However, I don't think we should aggrandize claims that aren't true, even if the end result is positive.  That's why the true things get ignored so much.  The media hops on this and that, and then when something real comes up, people ignore it.

I always say that if it comes from the media (or Dr. Oz), it's probably not true.  If it is true, it's probably only 10% true.  The media either doesn't know how to read journal results or, the reality, likes to report the most sensationalized version of journal results.

It just makes me mad, so I guess sodas make me more aggressive too.

Once you Pop, You Can't Stop: Pumpkin Popovers

Delicious and halfway healthy

It's still fall so I'm still all about the pumpkin and squash. Popovers are an eggy bread, similar to Yorkshire pudding.    They've been around since the 1800s. Yorkshire pudding was one of the first breads developed when wheat became popular.  To me, they taste highly reminiscent of French toast. They're called popovers because the steam from the eggy bread causes the crust to rise over the pan, hence they "pop over" the pan.

French toast has 36 carbs.  Popovers have the same amount of carbs as a dinner roll (both have 14 grams of carbs).  It's still not low carb, but it's a decadent treat that would pair well with a low carb meal.  To me, a popover is a lot more filling than a roll, and it has more protein.

I have made them with Atkins flour mix (you could probably use CarbQuick too, but I have no experience).  I think they turned out better than some breads.  Atkins mix tends to make really dry breads, but popovers are already moist because of all the eggs.  My Atkins popovers didn't pop as much as ones using regular flour, but they did pop a little and tasted great.  Just sub the flour in the recipe below for equal parts of Atkins mix.

For my recipe, I ground my own wheatberries in my Vitamix.  I feel like I get the consistency of white flour that way, but the fiber of wheat (less net carbs).  I'm probably deluding myself.  You can use wheat flour, but they will pop less.  They will probably pop more with conventional flour.


It amazed me the first time I baked a popover.  It seems like they don't have any leavening ingredients.  How the heck do they rise?   Unlike quick breads or yeasted breads, it's the steam that makes them rise. When you make this batter, you'll notice that the batter is thinner and runnier than most breads.  The liquid content of the batter produces lots of steam.  Eggs act as part of the liquid, but that's not the only reason there are so many eggs.  The egg protein also acts an emulsifier, protecting the batter from tearing when it stretches.  The egg protein and the gluten in the dough act like a balloon, stretching and filling with the air from the steam.  The middle of a popover is air, so it's mostly hollow.    Eggs help create a nice brown crust on top too. 

Knowing that, you can see that gluten is important in making the pop of a popover.  That is why low carb or gluten free popovers taste ok, but don't pop as high.  The gluten helps create the "balloon."

This is what a popover pan looks like

Heat is also important, as it develops the steam.  I use a specialized popover pan.  It looks like an elongated muffin pan separated with rods.  Those rods allow lots of space between the popovers so heat can move freely around them.  You can also use ramekins or regular muffin pans.  Just be sure not to fill whatever pan you use more than 1/2 to 2/3rds full of mix.  These things will make a mess in your oven.  I put a cookie sheet under my popover pan just in case.

Pumpkin Popovers
3 eggs
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup pumpkin
2 tablespoons butter
3/4 cup milk
1/4 teaspoon salt

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees.  Grease your popover pan, ramekin or muffin pan.  Use whatever kitchen oil or spray you like best.
2. I always put my pan on top of the oven while it's preheating.  They pop better if the pan is warm, but I haven't really found much of a different between setting my pan on top of the oven and "preheating" the pan as some recipes suggest.
3. Put all of the ingredients in a food processor, mixer or blender (I use a blender) and mix until smooth (easy).
4. The pumpkin popovers don't pop as much as plain popovers, so fill your cups 2/3 full of mix (should make 6 if you're using a popover pan).
5. Bake in the oven for 50 minutes. Remove the popovers and pierce each in the top with a knife to allow the steam to escape. 
6. They should be easy to remove from the pan, and they are best served warm.

Want plain popovers?  Alton Brown has the recipe I always use as a base. These can made sweet, savory or whatever.  A little cinnamon in them makes them taste almost exactly like French Toast.  I bet cinnamon  would be good in these pumpkin ones too.

Plain popovers pop even more than this.

Nutrition Facts for Pumpkin Popovers

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Amount Per Serving (makes 6)

Calories:  150

Total fat: 8 g

Protein: 6 g

Total carbohydrate:  14 g

• Dietary Fiber: 1 g
• Sugar: 2 g

Halloween Costumes: The Same but Much Less Awesome

This costume is from the 1950s. I'm not that old.
But, most of my costumes where this type.

I work a Halloween event year that requires me to judge a kid's costume contests.  Last night, as I was saying to kids, "I was [character] when I was younger" I suddenly realized that kid's costumes haven't changed. 

This will be telling my age, but I saw all sorts of characters from my youth last night.  There was a Strawberry Shortcake, several Star Wars characters, Yoshi and Mario and a My Little Pony.  Most others were classic characters like Spiderman and other superheros, the Wizard of Oz, cowboys, army men, police, zombies and aliens.  There were a few modern characters.  No Hannah Montanas so far this year, but she was popular a few years back.  There was a Commander Cody, some of the Incredibles.  It just seems like modern characters don't stand the test of time.

Some of my memorable Halloween costumes as a kid were some of the same costumes I saw last night.  The first costume I remember was either ET or Casper (I can't remember which came first).  I haven't seen anyone as ET in a long time, and I don't think Casper would be popular these days.  I was Firefly, the My Little Pony, one year.  I was Princess Leia.  I was Scooby Doo (I see a lot of Scooby Doos today).  One year I was a punk rocker.  Rockers are common today, but I was inspired by Jem and Holograms (I was truly outrageous).  I'm sure no little girls have even heard of Jem today.  I can't believe the Ninja Turtles are still popular.  I wanted to be Michaelangelo, but mom said it was for boys.  That still makes me mad. 

Then vs Now

The biggest difference I see is the quality of the costumes.  The costumes we used to wear were far from creative.   Most of them were the plastic masks with the plastic "apron" costume that had the show logo plastered across it.   Kids today wear makeup rather than masks.  The My Little Pony I saw was not exactly like the one pictured.  She had a wig with a unicorn horn and purple makeup.  If kids of my day had had Angry Birds, we would have had plastic masks.  The Angry Birds this year were wearing makeup and feather hats.

Back in the day, I remember not being able to see well out of those hard plastic masks.  At the end of the night, the mask would have made an imprint in your face.  The string would have cut into the back of your head (or broken).  In general, those aprons would rip or tear before the night was over.  We didn't care.  We had candy.  We expected to walk in horrible, painful costumes for it.  That's probably why kid's are such pansies today.  Seriously, you have to be able to see to cross the street? Please!  You want to be comfortable on Halloween? Whatever.  We had to work for our treats.

You guys may steal my generation's costumes, but you'll never steal our awesomeness.  Strawberry Shortcake isn't quite the same without the plastic mask.  Ok, even as a kid I called BS on Strawberry Shortcake.  She's a human (kind of).  I'm a human (kind of).  Why do I need a mask to be a human?  I wore the costume anyway, but even I knew it was weird.  I guess it was easier than keeping a wig and hat on kids.  We were still awesome.

This is what a REAL costume looked like.

Build Me Up Buttercup, Squash Broke My Heart

That's a weird looking pumpkin.

To try to be a little bit healthy, I've decided to sample all the winter squash I can find this year.  Someone told me they all taste the same.  Doubtful.  The local grocery is full of them this time of the year, and they come in all shapes and sizes.  They had one that weighed almost as much as I do.  I'm not sure what variety it was, but it was larger than most jack-o-lantern pumpkins and bright green.  Since they were charging by the pound, and it was more squash then I'll probably eat my lifetime, I passed.

I did buy a few other varieties.  One was buttercup squash. Most squash are low fat and good sources of vitamin C.  Buttercup has vitamin E and some B vitamins too.  It's a low calorie, filling food.  The downside is that each cup has 14 grams of carbs.  It's a bit sweeter than other winter squashes.  Most of the recipes I've found for it call for dousing it with even more sugar.  That's one way to make a healthy food bad.

Buttercup squash should be firm, heavy for their size and have an even cream color.  The ones at my store were quite large, probably about twice the size of an acorn squash.  They look green, squatty pumpkins. 

Buttercup squash taste similar to acorn squash, but are a bit earthier and creamier.

Seriously.  All this work for that?!

I have to be honest.  My experience with this squash was not that great.  I found buttercup squash to be almost impossible to cut into and peel, or at least not worth the effort.  Acorn squash is hard to cut too, but once you cook it, you can easly remove the flesh.  I found this one was even difficult after it was cooked.  I spent a few minutes cursing the squash, but finally got some flesh out.   After all that trouble, there wasn't much flesh.

Maybe I'm a lazy cook.  I preferred the creaminess of buttercup squash to acorn squash, but I think I'll stick to butternut.  It's creamy too, but has more flesh and less problems.

Simply prepared

I roasted it simply with some butter and a bit of cinnamon.  I left the sugar out.  It was good, but not really worth all that effort.  I did have some leftovers.  I think I'll make them into a soup and see what that tastes like.  The creamy nature of this squash should lend itself to soups really well.


With just the butter and cinnamon, 1 cup of buttercup squash has 116 calories, 3 grams of fat, 22 grams of carbs and 4 grams of sugar and 7 grams of fiber.

Broken Glass and Chocolate Pumpkin Cupcakes

Bloody glass cupcakes

One of my guilty pleasures is Martha Stewart's living.  I don't think I've ever done one of her arts and crafts or even made a recipe straight out of there, but I love to look at it anyway.  Her Halloween edition has always been one of my faves.  This year, I saw her broken glass cupcakes and had to emulate it.

Similar to Martha's

I can't find them on her website.  Her website is notoriously hard to navigate.  The article in the magazine (the Halloween edition with "Mothra" on the cover) just had a photo of the cupcakes, and not even a how-to.  I went to the website to find out how she made her sugar glass, but no such luck.  I swear, you can search for the exact recipe title on her website and not find something.  She is pimping a new book on holiday crafts and baking, so maybe it's in there.  Who knows.  This is why I rarely visit the website or make anything she has in her books.  I did a Google image search for Martha Stewart broken glass cupcakes, and the ones pictured to the right look the most like them.  The shards of glass were clear and the "blood" was coming out of the cupcakes.  They're ok, but they don't look gruesome enough for me.

Sugar glass is easy to make, and lots of fun (but it can be dangerous), so I went to town.  Sugar glass is basically just a hard candy, spread out.  Since it's supposed to look jagged and broken for this, it's super easy. I have a low-cal version of a cupcake recipe too, but we'll do to the sugar glass first.   You can make sugar glass just as many ways as you can make sugar candy, so no recipe is incorrect.

Sugar Glass 
3 cups sugar
1 cup water
1 cup clear corn syrup
Red food coloring

You can tell my sugar wasn't heated smoothly,
but dirty glass works for this.

1. Before you start, get everything together.  Sugar glass comes together pretty quickly and once you start pouring, it's over in a second.  If you're making broken glass, get a baking sheet ready (either spray it with some cooking spray or rub it down with some oil or butter).  If you're going to do something more elaborate like a mold or form, get the materials you need ready.  For my prep, I also got the food coloring and a paint brush.  You'll need to spray a spatula and some spoons with some cooking spray too, to help you smooth out the glass.
2. Combine all the ingredients except food coloring (unless you want solid red glass) in a sauce pan and cook on medium heat until the mixture reaches 300 degrees on a candy thermometer.  If you heat the liquid too fast, the sugar won't be as clear but it's not that big of a deal in this prep.
3. Poor the liquid on the prepared surface and quickly spread out. This is the dangerous part.  Remember this sugar is 300 degrees! Don't touch it.  Use your tools to spread it out, but work quickly.
4. While the sugar is still a little wet, splash or paint the red coloring on to resemble blood drops. You should have the "glass" spread out and painted within a few minutes.
5. Let cool.
6. Crack into shards (this is the fun part).
7. Decorate as you wish.

Easy Vegan Cupcakes
Let's talk about doctoring up a cake mix.  For these, I used a whole can of pumpkin in a chocolate cake mix instead of the oil, water and eggs. So, you just take the dry cake mix, mix in the pumpkin and bake.  People love it, and it's an easy way to make a cake mix vegan.  Just make sure your cake mix is vegan.  Most are. Store bought icings are mostly vegan too, but read the label.  Let's be honest, these mixes and icings aren't animal or vegetable foodstuffs.  They're mostly fakey fakey processed ingredients and oils. But enjoying them every now and again won't kill you, just don't eat the whole dozen yourself.  

I think I stole the pumpkin idea from Hungry Girl (I saw it on a talk show), but it tastes better to me than a regular cake mix anyway.  It only works well with chocolate cake mixes.  You can barely taste the pumpkin in a chocolate cake mix.  Pumpkin and chocolate go well together anyway.  If you use pumpkin in a white cake mix, you'll have pumpkin cake.  It's good too, but people can tell it's pumpkin.  In chocolate, I normally get, "This tastes like something, but what is it?" 

According to Hungry Girl one cupcake made this way has 181 calories, 3.5g fat, 37g carbs (eep), 2g fiber and 2g protein.  I just think they taste better that way (they seem to be richer).  

You can make a homemade cake and icing and decorate it too, but I'm going to be honest again here.  If I'm going to make a cupcake for kids or people who I know will care more about the decoration and icing than the cake, I'm not going to go to all the effort of making the cake taste like the best cake ever.  It's like the time I slaved over a stove for hours making homemade pasta sauce one week, got rave reviews.  A few weeks later, I didn't have time so I brought in Prego ... also got the rave reviews.  Seriously, most people don't care, and if the cake is a box cake, I'm less likely to eat it all.

I'll have some healthy food next week, and maybe some unhealthy ones too. I'm thinking about making more Halloween treats.  I have several Halloween events to go to, and sometimes I like to bring snacks.  We'll see.

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls: Fall Faves

Unhealthy, but delicious

 It's fall, so I'm probably going to get a little unhealthy here.  I've been personally trying to avoid carbs and sugar, but those are required baking for friends around this time of the year.  With the holidays season coming up and my favorite goofy holiday, Halloween, it's hard to avoid carbs and unhealthy things.  At least if you do the baking yourself, from scratch, you're less likely to eat too much (that's what I tell myself anyway).

There was a pumpkin recipe contest at a local festival this past week, so I threw in my hat with some delicious pumpkin cinnamon rolls.

Here's a tip about cinnamon rolls.  They are almost always softer right out of the oven.  The main reason is the sugar in the cinnamon filling.  Sugar is hygroscopic, so it sucks moisture out of the dough.  My favorite way to combat that is just covering them in more butter and sugar (icing), or popping them in a microwave for 10-15 seconds.  Yum!  If you're looking for a lower calorie way to combat hard rolls, just use plain cinnamon and butter for the filling.  The rolls will still be good, but less sweet.

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls
Dough
1 cup pumpkin puree
2/3 cups milk
2 tablespoons butter
1 egg
1 package yeast
2-3 cups flour
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp salt

Filling
1 stick melted butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup white sugar
2 tsp cinnamon (sometimes I use more, I like cinnamon)

Cream Cheese Icing
4 ounces cream cheese
1 stick of melted butter
1 tsp vanilla
2-3 cups powdered sugar
1-3 tablespoons milk

Carmel Glaze
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon milk
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup powdered sugar
Pinch of salt

The dough

1. Prehat over to 350 degrees.
2. Heat pumpkin, milk, salt and butter on stove until all are warm and butter is melted. It should be warm to the touch, but not hot (lukewarm)
3. Add pumpkin mixture, yeast, egg, pumpkin pie spice and 2 cups of flour to mixer bowl.  You can use a stand mixer or bread machine or just do it the old fashioned way.  I use a stand mixer.  Adjust flour until you get a dough that is smooth and somewhat sticky.  Knead that dough for about 6 minutes (with a dough hook or bread machine, this is easy).
4. Cover dough and let rest until it doubles in size (about 1 hour).  Prepare filling while you wait.
5. To prepare filling, just mix the melted butter and sugar together in a bowl and mix well.
6. After dough has rested, roll out into a 15 by 10 inch rectangle. 
7. Spoon or brush filling on the rectangle.

   

   Roll the dough (this is for smaller rolls)

8. Roll the rectangle up tightly.  If you prefer more, smaller cinnamon rolls, roll along the 15 inch end.  If you prefer larger, thicker cinnamon rolls, roll on the 10 inch end.  Along the 15 inch should make 12 rolls.
9. Cut the cinnamon rolls, the width depends on your tastes.  I normally make mine 3 fingers wide.  Use a serrated knife for best results (some people use dental floss or string, but being careful and not exerting too much pressure with a serrated knife works).
10. Place either on a baking sheet or Pyrex dish.  Some people like to bake their cinnamon rolls so they touch (like in a Pyrex dish).  Personally, I like mine to be separate and round.  I normally bake them on a baking sheet and spread them apart while they rise and when they bake.
11. Let the rolls rise for 1 hour, until doubled.  At this point, you can also put them in the fridge and let them rise overnight.



Roll size.

12. I sometimes brush the tops of cinnamon rolls with egg yolk, but I don't always. It makes the top shiny.  If you're planning to use a lot of icing, this is a wasted step, but sometimes I just want a drizzle.  For the pumpkin ones, I skipped this step.
13. Bake for 20-30 minutes, or until the center of the cinnamon roll reaches 190 degrees and the tops are golden brown.
14. While they cook, you can make the icing. I used two icings (one is just an accent drizzle).
15. Cream cheese icing: mix cream cheese, butter, vanilla, lemon, milk and 2 cups powdered sugar in a food processor and mix until creamy.  You can add more milk if it's too thick and more sugar if it's too thin.  I like my icing drippy.
16. Caramel drizzle icing: Heat butter, sugar, milk, vanilla and powdered sugar on stove.  Cook for about 8 minutes, until the sauce is a caramel like consistency (about 235 degrees or so).

    

    These rolls are touching, obviously.  They don't form perfect circles.

17. When cinnamon rolls are finished baking, let them cool a little bit before icing.  They should still be warm when you ice them.  I poured the cream cheese icing all over first, then drizzled with the caramel.
18. Enjoy (just not too much, these are very unhealthy).

 

These rolls form more perfect circles

Nutrition Facts for Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls (It's bad)

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Amount Per Serving (makes 12)

Calories:  486

Total fat: 22 g

Protein: 5.4 g

Total carbohydrate:  73 g

• Dietary Fiber: 1.4 g
• Sugar: 47 g

On the other hand, a Cinnabon is 730 calories and 114 grams of carbs.  Those Pillsbury canned cinnamon rolls are much better.  They are 145 calories and 23 grams of carb.  A McDonalds cinnamon roll is 340 calories and 52 grams of carbs.  

You could cut the calories considerably by limiting the icing.  With no icing, it's just 304 calories, 18 grams of fat, 32 grams of carbs (7.5 sugar and 1.4 grams of fiber).  Since it's still not healthy, where's the fun in that?

RIP Steve Jobs

When I was a little kid, I begged my mom for a computer.  We had one (just one) in school and I would play with it whenever I had a chance. My mom didn't even really know what a computer was, She just know they were expensive.  She got me a subscription to 3-2-1 Contact (I used to watch PBS all the time and I LOVED that show) in hopes that it would be enough.   I used it write BASIC all the time and then try to run it through the computer in school.  Can you believe a kid's magazine used to actually teach to code?

For Christmas that year (sometime in the late 80s, 87 or 88), I got a shiny new Tandy 1000HX: the cheapest thing Radio Shack had.  I was so excited.  It probably took her 10 years to pay it off.  I played with that computer all the time.  I was a giant dork, and I named him Edgar.  Don't ask me why my mom let me watch Electric Dreams at the age (I was probably 8 or 9, which seems old for a first computer these days). 

The Tandy HX was probably the best thing that ever happened to me.  It didn't have a hard drive, it ran MS-Dos and Deskmate disks (word processor and some other things).  It could do a lot, but everything was command line.  It had a huge manual (actually it had several) that I would read all the time to find out what I could do.  I used to accidentally format that damn DOS disk ALL the time.  My mom would cart me down to radio shack and they'd put it back on the disk for me.  I eventually learned to make backups (and I still have one).  Aside from those disks, I had a few games. I used to play Kings Quest all the time, and the guy at Radio Shack told my mom Leisure Suit Larry was a kid's game so my niece and I would play that.  We soon found out it wasn't a kid's game.  We neglected to mention it to my mom.  Even in the 80s kids were doing bad things on computers without their parents having a clue.  Leisure Suit Larry was my Grand Theft Auto.

Eventually, I got a piece of crap of laptop from a pawn shop.  I don't even remember kind of computer that was, but it had a hard drive.  It had an external modem with it and could log into GEnie.  I used to play on the BBS a little, but most of the people were older and, while I thought it was cool, it was kind of boring.  My next computer (many years later) was an Internet ready Packard Bell. Seems like this was around 1995, and I wanted to sign up for Prodigy.  I had seen ads on TV.  They needed a credit card, and my mom didn't have one (this was before debit cards were credit cards too).  So, I researched and found about CompuServ.  They would take a check.  We paid for dial-up by the hour (yes, people used to do that), so I could only get on a few minutes a day.  Whenever I could I would be on CompuServ CB chatting with people.  People who I would never talk to in real life.  I never talked to much of anyone.  I would read at recess, only had a few friends.  Online, I got to tell everyone what I thought!  And so, it started.  Soon I would be designing websites and earning  money for college, writing for the web and developing databases for the state.

If it weren't for people like Steve Jobs, I don't know what I would have become.  I don't credit Steve alone, but he dominoes he put into motion have touched almost every part of my life.  Even more directly, I use an Apple product everyday.  I can't even begin to express how much he's touched my life.

Fifty-six is too young.  Thank of all the innovation he had left to give. I don't mourn most celebrities, but you were different.  Sometimes I didn't agree with your business tactics, but I always agreed that you were an visionary and almost everything you did (was he responsible for the Newton?) changed the way we looked at technology.

Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

No one wants to die. Even people who wanna go to heaven don’t wanna die to get there.