I started my fermentation experiments a week or so ago, a can each of frozen grape and frozen apple juice. When reconstituted, they about filled two quart-sized Mason jars. I had them sitting on my kitchen counter with an old shirt covering them. Nothing happened for day after day.
Then about 2 days ago, I found my dish rinsewater all dark, almost black. Then I saw the dead mouse in one of the two buckets, and then the mason jars on the floor. Somehow the mouse must have gotten into one of the jars while I was gone, and furiously splashing around trying to get out, knocked everything off the shelf, landed in the rinsewater, and drowned. Luckily, one jar of apple juice was left. It started noticeably fermenting (some yeasty-looking bubbles on top) yesterday, and today is starting to taste a little cidery. Maybe it helped that I drank some of it two days ago, some beneficial bacteria could have entered it then.
I'm playing around again with the French butter dish concept, this time using lard instead of water. Hope it works out better than my last try, over a year ago IIRC, in which the butter and water mixed and got moldy.
Over the last few weeks, I've been dropping my asking price on Odesk, from $100/hour to $60 to $40 and finally to $20. Now I'm scheduled for my first two interviews. Looks like I found the price point where buyers are willing to go with American coders rather than outsource. I'm sure some coders somewhere are still getting 6-figure salaries -- even 7-figure at places like Microsoft -- but I think I can live on $20/hour if it means I can work from home and on my own schedule.
last updated 2013-01-10 21:21:01. served from tektonic.jcomeau.com