So, today was (is) Record Store Day. There were some really good releases this year. My day started just before 7am, when I headed out towards Double Decker in Allentown.

Getting an early start

When I got to Double Decker around 7:20, there were some people already in line ahead of me. The kid in front is a senior in high school. He was visiting Muhlenberg for an accepted candidates day, and made his mom leave an hour early from Connecticut to get to Double Decker before his day at college. He had arrived at 5:55am. His mother was asleep in the car.

Double Decker opened at 8 and we all filed to the RSD section to make our selections. When I was paying, I noticed that their copy of the Teen Idles' Minor Disturbance EP was still there. Almost picked it up, but $550 was a little pricy for me.

After Double Decker, I headed over to Compact Disc Center in Bethlehem. I'd never actually been there, and they really live up to their name - it's mostly CDs. Nevertheless, the Dave Brubeck 10" caught my eye. They said they had had the Gorillaz 10", but had run out. Bummer.

Here are some pictures of everything I got. The full list is here. The Flaming Lips album is insane looking and sounds awesome. I'm excited to hear the new material from both The Black Angels and The Hives (that's a throwback group for me). Also, check out my sweet free totebag! I'm still on the hunt for the Frank Turner I Still Believe 7" (which I think may be a UK exclusive) and the Gorillaz 10".

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I was in Orlando, FL for a few days, and was lucky to have a chance to go check out a few stores (thanks for the suggestions!). There’s a Henry Rollins quote about how you can’t really get a good feel for a town until you visit its record stores, so I always try to check them out whenever I go somewhere. This was by no means an exhaustive trip, but it was still fun and I wanted to share my findings:

The first stop on the trip was Retro Records. Maybe it was just that what I’m interested in didn’t really fit in with what he had, but I wasn’t digging this place. Everything is sorted really well, but most used things were either of not great condition, over-priced, or both. Still, he has a lot of stuff, so that was cool. Didn’t pick anything up there.

Next up was Park Ave CDs. This place is amazing. They have a huge selection of new stuff, and 2 categories of used records. One section is cleaned and graded. They have little cards on the top of the racks that explain in detail their grading and pricing procedures. Everything was well-priced and explained (many individual records also say why they were graded in a specific way). They also have a lot of CDs if you’re looking for those. At the front of the store, they have these 15 record grab bags for $12 (you don’t know what is in them). I grabbed one and was pleasantly surprised. Most of the time these grab bags are off-condition, crappy records, but these were pretty much all in very nice condition and not just super common things. My bag was an interesting mix of rock, pop, electronic, jazz, and others. Just really cool to hear some new music (and the Men Without Hats Album was a nice touch, too). The staff here is super helpful and friendly. I asked where the used records were, and rather than just pointing, the guy walked me over to the used section and explained everything to me. I talked to a few other people who worked there and they were really cool, too. The store has a whole box of Third Man Records items and a section of local/Florida bands.
Picked up: NOFX – 22 Songs…, Jack White – Love Interruption, Carl Sagan – A Glorious Dawn, 15 LP Grab Bag

The last stop was Rock and Roll Heaven. This place is huge. Tons of rock, jazz, and a really big rap/hip-hop section. They also have a really large number of 45s. Most things seemed fairly priced. Some stuff was over-priced, but from what it looked like the rare stuff (at least what I knew to be rare) was fairly priced. Another really nice thing is that every genre was sorted by artist. Most stores I’ve been to neglect at least one genre (ie. rock will be sorted, but there will just be a ‘jazz’ section). Here, however, they spent the time to sort every section, and that made it really easy to find stuff.
Picked up: The Don Ellis Orchestra – Live in 3⅔/4 Time

In my house, there are 5 of us – we each take turn cooking one night per week. A few weeks ago, I decided to make chili. My housemates and I are all about the heat, so I really wanted to make something with some kick. The following is based very heavily on this recipe. I didn’t manage to catch a photo of it, but it was super tasty and pretty hot (though not unmanageably so). Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 2 pounds ground beef
• 3 (mostly) seeded habaneros
• 3 cans (16 ounces each) kidney beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 can (6 ounces) tomato paste
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 poblano pepper, seeded and diced
• 2 teaspoons chili powder
• 2 teaspoons cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon pepper
• 3 cups tomato juice

Directions

1. Brown beef in a large skillet and drain. Transfer meat to slow cooker.
2. Add all other ingredients and mix.
3. Set the slow cooker to low. Cook for 5 hours.

Notes

As you can see, this is a super easy chili to make. You can adjust the heat to your liking. And as always, be careful when handling those habaneros – capsaicin will hurt you.

Chez moi, il y a 5 gens. Nous cuisinons à tour de rôle un jour par semaine. Il y a des semaines, j'ai décidé à faire du chili. Mes amis et moi aiment le goût épicé, et j'ai vraiment voulu faire quelque chose avec un “recul.” Ce qui suit est fondé sur cette recette. Je n'ai pas pris un photo du chili, mais c'était delicieux et très épicé (mais pas trop).

Ingrédients

• 2 livres de boeuf
• 3 habaneros, épépinés
• 3 16oz boites des haricots rouge
• 1 6oz boite de la pâte des tomates
• 1 oignon moyen, émincé
• 1 poplano, épépiné et coupé
• 2 cuillères à thé de la poudre de chili
• 2 cuillères à thé du vinaigre de cidre
• 1 cuillère à thé de l'ail en poudre
• 1 cuillère à thé de l'origan sec
• ½ cuillère à thé de la cannelle en poudre
• ¼ cuillère à thé du poivre
• 3 tasses du jus du tomate

Instructions

1. Faites dorer la boeuf et la faites dégorger. Mettez la boeuf dans une cocotte.
2. Ajoutez les autres ingrédients et les mélangez.
3. Cuisinez à feu doux pour 5 heures.

Notes

Ce chili est super facile à préparer. On peut changer les piments à la choix. Comme toujours, faites attention avec les habaneros – le capsaicin est dangereux.

So, as I started collecting vinyls recently, I needed a good way to keep track of them all. Not satisfied with a simple Google Spreadsheet and always looking for interesting programming problems, I decided to roll my own solution. Here were my requirements

• Simple (as always): I wanted the collection to be displayed in an easy-to-follow table, and adding/editing items should be a simple process.
• Fluid Schema: if I want to add/remove attributes, I should be able to do that
• Public: I want to be able to share this collection without worry or fear of other people messing with it without permission.

Enter cataloguais. Built on Sinatra, MongoDB and jQuery, cataloguais is basically exactly what I wanted. This is not my first time working with Sinatra or jQuery, but my first foray into MongoDB. MongoDB gets a lot of flak, but I think this is a good use-case for it. Its in-memory, fluid schema architecture lends itself well to my collection of all-string objects. Plus, MongoMapper makes it easy to manipulate and fetch objects, adding a lot of methods I'm used to using with Rails.

It was an interesting task writing something that I'm going to use specifically to be designed for more general use cases. I wanted to write code that anyone could use to keep track of their collection. Thus, the schema is specified in a settings.yml file and applied each time the app spins up.

To be honest, I'm not exactly happy with the authentication as it stands. It's a plain-text string comparison. I'm thinking of moving over to an Oauth setup/administration, which could be cool. The lock works on a really simple level as-is for now.

All in all, cataloguais has managed to fullfill my needs really well. Check out the code on github and see it in action here.

A cause de ma nouvelle collection des disques, j'avais besoin d'un bon façon à les cataloguer. Je n'étais pas satisfait de Google Spreadsheet et parce que je toujours cherches des problèmes interessantes de la programmation, j'ai decidé à faire une solution moi-même. Mes besoins étaient:

• Simple (comme toujours): Je voulais que la collection serait montrée dans une table simple, et ajouter/supprimer des chose doivent être facile.
• Schéma liquide: Si on veut ajouter/supprimer des attributs, on doit pouvoir le faire.
• Public: Je veut montret ma collection sans peur que des gens traficoteraient.

Voila cataloguais. Utilisant Sinatra, MongoDB et jQuery, cataloguais est exactement dont j'avais besoin. Ce n'est pas ma premiére expérience avec Sinatra ou jQuery, mais c'est ma premiére avec MongoDB. MongoDB reçoit beaucoup de critiques, mais je pense que ce soit un bon emploi de lui. Son in-memory, schéma liquide architecture se confère à ma collection des strings. Plus, MongoMapper la rend facile à changer des objets, avec beaucoup de méthodes avec qui je suis familier à cause de Rails.

C'était interessant à ecrire quelque chose pour moi-même qui doit être général aussi. J'ai voulu écrire du code pour permettre n'importe qui à cataloguer leur collection. Donc, le schéma est spécifié dans un fichier settings.yml et appliqué chaque fois l'application commence.

Etre franc, je ne suis pas content avec l'authentication comme elle est maintenant. C'est une comparasion du texte. Je pense d'utiliser Oauth. Mais l'authentication marche pour maintenant.

Cataloguais me suffit exactement. Voila le code sur github et le produi ici.

So, I guess this is my new attempt at having a blog? Seems like a good thing to do. So, what am I going to post about? I have a few topics in mind: collecting vinyl, cooking, the drinking and brewing of beer, programming, and my life as a college senior. So, I hope you stick around or subscribe! More soon.

Je suppose que c'est ma nouvelle tentative d'avoir un blog. Il me semble que c'est une bonne chose à faire. Donc, de quoi est-ce que je vais écrire? Je peux penser des quelques sujets: ma collection des disques, cuisinant, le buvant et la brassage de la bière, la programmation, et ma vie comme un étudiant. J'espère que vous restez-ici ou vous vous s'abonnez! Plus arrive.