Author Archives: AiXeLsyD13

Beer Cheese Bread & Beer Cheese Dip! 🍻🧀🍞

Posted on by Standard 4

Apparently beer & cheese have been on my mind lately. I saw a post by @swampmuse on threads of some cheesy beer bread and it looked awesome. She was cool enough to share her recipe. That got me thinking about beer cheese dip because of the shared ingredients. I was in a cooking mood last night. I’ll definitely be making the bread again, and the cheese dip would be great for pretzels… so maybe new years or a cold October night?

They were good together. I wonder if beer cheese bread in beer cheese dip is meta, or merely going hard?

Cheesy Beer Bread & Beer Cheese Dip on a white plate.

I hardly drink any more, and the big bird was out of Yuengling bottle six packs & only had Straub Amber can 15 packs… so, I ended up with 2 big-ass 24 oz. cans of Yuengling Traditional Lager.

Cheesy Beer Bread (recipe by @swampmuse) 🧀🍺🍞

Ingredients:

  • 3 cups of flour
  • 1 cup of shredded cheese
  • 2 Tablespoons of sugar
  • 1 Tablespoon of baking powder
  • Pinch of salt
  • Parsley to desired taste
  • 1 can of beer (12 oz. or 1½ cups)
  • 3 tablespoons of melted butter
  • 3 tablespoons of melted butter for the top later.

Instructions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
  2. Mix all ingredients gently.
  3. Bake for 45-50 minutes.
  4. Brush additional melted butter on top @ 35 minutes.

Notes: I’m a dumbass, I left all the butter for the end when I should have mixed it in. Next time! I may have went heavy on my pinch of salt, too. I did brush all the butter on at 35 minutes, & it went for another 15 minutes, & was perfect. I think I will also sprinkle some additional shredded cheese on the top at the 35 min. mark… because, I mean… why not?

This would be great with a hearty soup. Broccoli Cheese Soup, Potato Soup, Chili, or Nine Can Vegetable Soup perhaps? Or a nice meatloaf. (Or a crazy meatloaf.)

My 10 year old said he “thought it was going to be gross because it looked all bumpy” but was an immediate fan upon tasting.

Cheesy Bear Bread - in a glass loaf pan on a stove top that needs cleaned.
Cheesy Bear Bread - a slice on a plate

Thank you so much to @swampmuse for the original post, the inspiration, and the recipe!

Beer Cheese Dip 🍺🧀

I had this on my mind, looked at a bunch or recipes online, and just winged it.

Ingredients:

  • 1 16 oz. block of Velveeta
  • 1 8 oz. block of cream cheese
  • 1 cup beer
  • 1 cup shredded sharp cheddar
  • 1 cup shredded Gouda
  • ground mustard to taste
  • white pepper to taste
  • yellow mustard to taste

Instructions:

  1. Cube up the Velveeta & cream cheese, put it in a crock pot on high.
  2. Toss on the mustard powder & white pepper to taste, add a dollop of yellow mustard.
  3. Stir it every 10 min. or so until it’s melty.
  4. Add in the beer, stir.
  5. Add in the shredded cheese, stir.
  6. Stir.
  7. Be incredibly patient.
  8. Stir.

Notes: It takes longer than you think & looks weird until it hits that “just right” point. This is probably a different time estimate for every appliance. You could obviously do this in a sauce pan or double boiler if that’s what you’ve got. The mustard is an emulsifier and helps with smoothness. I picked white pepper over garlic or hot sauce as other recipes noted. I also skipped Worcestershire sauce as some recommended as it can contain anchovies, and weirdly anchovies can trigger shellfish allergies. Dropping some jalapeño or poblano from the garden into this also would have been pretty killer.

If I ever make pretzel bites again, this is a must.

Beer Cheese Dip - gooey melty goodness too close for comfort.
BEER & the Star Wars Mini Crock Pot

Overall, these recipes are just a guide, and you can go all anarchy on them. What kind of beer do you like to cook with? What kind of cheese or spices would you add or swap out for? And, what would you dip in it? Would you did the cheesy beer bread in the beer cheese dip? Got any recommendations on either recipe?

🍻🧀🍺🍞🍻

While you’re making or eating these, consider rocking out to these playlists…

I was jamming out to this one.

Playlist | Proto-Punk 🧷

Posted on by Standard 7

Inspired by the comments on a reddit post, I wanted to dig into some pre-“punk” proto-punk. I set Gemini, ChatGPT, Perplexity, & Copilot to the task as I’m fascinated by their ability to parse & compile information if prompted accurately. (I’m also fascinated my their penchant to provide completely incorrect or even made-up information. Some time I will have to blog about my experiment in having them search restaurant menus in an area to see if they serve shellfish. Copilot recommended some seafood places, so clearly it wants to kill me.)

I added my own stuff that some of them disagreed with, but it is my list after all. 🤣 Going back to little Richard and including Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid” were points of contention, as I would expect from a conversation with people.

Music snobs aficionados, audiophiles, and punk rock gatekeepers will argue all day every day about the origin of punk… but for me, to be clear, it’s the moment that the Ramones’ self-titled album dropped. So, with that in mind I gave the language models this prompt:

There is and always will be constant debate, but if we agree for the premise of this exercise that the Ramones self-titled debut album was the first punk album… What are 25 songs that should belong on a proto-punk or punk precursor playlist?

I would assume bands that get mentioned as the progenitors would most likely include The Kinks, the Sonics, Link Wray, The Stooges, the MC5, the Velvet Underground, New York Dolls, & more I’m sure to be missing. Maybe even the band Death who hailed from Detroit MI?

All songs on the list should have been released before April 23, 1976… and be listed in order if release date by single or album, whichever dropped first.

This has been corrected for my typically egregious spelling/typing/lack-of-proofreading errors. After tossing the rules to the wind, keeping to the spirit of punk rock, we arrived here:

  • “Little Demon” – Screamin’ Jay Hawkins (1956)
  • “Tutti Frutti” – Little Richard (1955)
  • “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” – Jerry Lee Lewis (1957)
  • “Rumble” – Link Wray (1958)
  • “La Bamba” – Ritchie Valens (1958)
  • “Love Me” – The Phantom (1958)
  • “Louie Louie” – The Kingsmen (1963)
  • “Surfin’ Bird” – The Trashmen (1963)
  • “Baby Let Me Take You Home” – The Animals (1964)
  • “House of the Rising Sun” – The Animals (1964)
  • “I’m Crying” – The Animals (1964)
  • “You Really Got Me” – The Kinks (1964)
  • “Gloria” – Them (1964)
  • “I Can’t Explain” – The Who (1964)
  • “Dirty Water” – The Standells (1966)
  • “My Generation” – The Who (1965)
  • “Strychnine” – The Sonics (1965)
  • “I’m a Man” – The Yardbirds (1965)
  • “We Gotta Get Out of This Place” – The Animals (1965)
  • “96 Tears” – ? & The Mysterians (1966)
  • “Wild Thing” – The Troggs (1966)
  • “Complication” – The Monks (1966)
  • “Psychotic Reaction” – Count Five (1966)
  • “Pushin’ Too Hard” – The Seeds (1966)
  • “7 and 7 Is” – Love (1966)
  • “I’m Not Like Everybody Else” – The Kinks (1966)
  • “You’re Gonna Miss Me” – The 13th Floor Elevators (1966)
  • “Talk Talk” – The Music Machine (1966)
  • “I’m Waiting for the Man” – The Velvet Underground (1967)
  • “Doctor Please” – Blue Cheer (1968)
  • “Sister Ray” – The Velvet Underground (1968)
  • “Fire” – The Crazy World of Arthur Brown (1968)
  • “Jigsaw Puzzle” – The Rolling Stones (1968)
  • “Kick Out the Jams” – MC5 (1969)
  • “I Wanna Be Your Dog” – The Stooges (1969)
  • “Little Doll” – The Stooges (1969)
  • “TV Eye” – The Stooges (1970)
  • “Paranoid” – Black Sabbath (1970)
  • “Get It On” – T. Rex (1971)
  • “School’s Out” – Alice Cooper (1972)
  • “Suffragette City” – David Bowie (1972)
  • “Raw Power” – Iggy & The Stooges (1973)
  • “Search and Destroy” – The Stooges (1973)
  • “Personality Crisis” – New York Dolls (1973)
  • “Jet Boy” – New York Dolls (1973)
  • “Urban Guerrilla” – Hawkwind (1973)
  • “Violence” – Mott the Hoople (1973)
  • “Cum On Feel the Noize” – Slade (1973)
  • “Editions of You” – Roxy Music (1973)
  • “Ooh La La” – Faces (1973)
  • “Subway Train” – New York Dolls (1974)
  • “Hey Joe” – Patti Smith Group (1975)
  • “Piss Factory” – Patti Smith (1975)
  • “Roxette” – Dr. Feelgood (1976)
  • “The Next Big Thing” – The Dictators (1975)
  • “Chez Maximes” – The Hollywood Brats (1976)
  • “After Eight” – Neu! (1975)
  • “Ghost Rider” – Suicide (1977)
  • “Little Johnny Jewel” – Television (1975)
  • “30 Seconds Over Tokyo” – Pere Ubu (1975)
  • “Burn My Eye” – Radio Birdman (1976)
  • “Politicians in My Eyes” – Death (1976)
  • “Cherry Bomb” – The Runaways (1976)
  • “Roadrunner” – The Modern Lovers (1976)
  • “She Cracked” – The Modern Lovers (1976)
  • “Shake Some Action” – Flamin’ Groovies (1976)
  • “Blank Generation” – Richard Hell & the Voidoids (1977)
  • “Anarchy in the U.K.” – The Sex Pistols (1976)
  • “Sonic Reducer” – Dead Boys (1977)
  • “Neat Neat Neat” – The Damned (1977)
  • “Chinese Rocks” – Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers (1977)
  • “Psycho Killer” – Talking Heads (1977)

I used Tune My Music to import it to Spotify from a text file, then copy to Amazon Music from there. I tried to go to Amazon first, but it messed up quite a bit of the songs. I did have to add “7 and 7 Is” by Love manually as it shows as “Seven and Seven Is” on Spotify. It weirdly plopped a Bob Marley song in that spot. Amazon was full of weird covers and the wrong songs when trying to import from text.

So, what do you think of the list? What’s missing? What needs added? Are my parameters skewed? Do you not accept anything past the date of what parameters were set? What obscure band that 14 people heard at the time is missing from this list? Don’t come at me with the Sex Pistols over the Ramones. Should we whittle it back to 25? Only have 1 song per artist? Come at me with healthy discourse.

Looking for a video of that one time I sang “I Turned Into a Martian” on stage with the Misfits.

Posted on by Standard Reply

Every once in a while, I just throw this into the æther just to see if it gets any response. One time, I got to pop up on stage and sing “I Turned Into a Martian” while Jerry Only played bass, sang, & Doyle Wolfgang Von Frankenstein played guitar, & Goat (a.k.a. Eric Acre, a.k.a. “Chupacabra”) played drums. I’d love to find a video of it if it’s out there.

We take for granted that everything is recorded these days, but back then it wasn’t. Misfits bootleg videos were a hot trade commodity at one point online. I’m pretty sure this show was recorded, because Crowbar had closed-circuit TV’s that were displaying the show as it happened. It may have been deleted or not recorded, it may have hit a personal private collection. Someone else may have been in-house recording. Not sure if Doug Evil was there?

Thanks to Misfits Central & Concert Archives, I now have a specific date: Sunday, November 5, 2000. It was at the now-defunct Crowbar in State College, PA.

Actually, thanks to the Wayback Machine, I found some old photos form the show! Problem being I guess that I took them, but did not hand off my camera while I was on stage.

An-Die & I road-tripped to State College several times with several different groups to see the Misfits in several iterations in addition to seeing them a bunch in Pittsburgh… so my memories may be conflated. I know Russ from TVCasualty.com was there!

I’m pretty sure Murphy’s Law & Impotent Sea Snakes also played. I only remember this because Goat was pulling double duty, and our friend Laurel was apparently hit in the face with an… adult toy… during the ISS set.

I remember An-Die telling me that I had stage presence, and obviously Jerry Only has a huge stage presence, and it did not jive. Ha ha. I’m sure I looked weird, but holy shit it was fun. (I always feel weird signing without a guitar in my hands anyway.)

Another fun fact, this was after I had broken my nose, and i was wearing a bandage covering most of my face. I know I have photos of that somewhere but I cannot find any.

The Misfits - 11/05/2000 lineup @ Crowbar in State College PA | Jerry Only, Doyle Wolfgang Von Frankenstein, Eric Goat/Chupacabra Acre, & some random a-hole.
The Misfits – 11/05/2000 lineup @ Crowbar in State College PA | Jerry Only, Doyle Wolfgang Von Frankenstein, Eric Goat/Chupacabra Acre, & some random a-hole.

Oh yeah, I broke my nose stage diving at American Music Café. Who’s set was it? I think it was Third Place, Tybalt, or maybe even Ten Pounds Lighter/Secrets Lie Within. I just remember someone fake kicking me that ended up not being a fake kick, a weird celery crunching noise, and my nose being mostly under one eye. I ought to try to chronicle old show stories some day.

I was the Fiend Club “Chapter Head” for a minute in the late 90’s early 00’s, so I got to see the band when they were in & around town. I think Jerry & Rocky sort-of kind-of knew who I was, but I always tried to not be a pain in the ass & ask for stuff or to get on the Turbo Die or anything. It was a fun time in life.

If you have the video, or have info that could help me track it down, I’d really appreciate it! Feel free to help by sharing this in fan forums & what-not online. We Are 138!

You can hit me up at the contact form here, on Threads, on FB, on Instagram, on BlueSky, TikTok, YouTube, or even X.

For more Misfits content here at the blog, check out:

Zucchini Two Ways

Posted on by Standard 1

Like everyone who has a vegetable garden, or even just one potted plant, we have an abundance of zucchini. I was asking AI language models for casserole cooking times & temperatures based on what I had around & could easily grab from the store, and I sort of picked a hybrid of all of them. I used ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, & CoPilot. Originally I had been asking about zucchini bread recipes, then asked about the casserole. It is interesting to bounce ideas off of them.

Zucchini Casserole & Pizza-ish Zucchini Things on a white plate.
“Zucchini!” (But, say it like a Jawa yelling “Utini!” in Star Wars.)

I had the idea for the lil’ zucchini things last time I made breaded zucchini & ran out of breadcrumbs before zucchini.

Zucchini Ditalini Chickpea Chikini

I hesitate to call this a casserole, because the kids are on a brainrot social media kick where they have been informed somehow that Crock⬩Pot meals & casseroles are bad. The best part is they both ate & loved it… one even went back for more. It was a hit with the wife too, and I’d eat it again.

Zucchini Ditalini Chickpea Chikini - the top of a casserole dish just out of the oven, with a nice brown crispy breadcrumb topping over gooey melted cheese.
Zucchini Ditalini Chickpea Chikini

I felt like making a casserole, but not making a mess by pre-cooking/par-cooking or measuring anything. So… I ended up making two 9″x13″ casseroles. Here it is to the best of my memory.

The ingredients:

  • 1 ridiculously large zucchini from the garden.
  • 1 Spanish onion
  • 1 orange bell pepper
  • 1 pack (1½ lbs.) of chicken breasts
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 (16 oz./1 lb.) box of Ditalini pasta
  • 1 (15.5 oz.) can of garbanzo beans
  • 2 (8 oz.) blocks of cream cheese, softened (Leave it out for a bit, nuke it, or cradle it in your armpits.)
  • 1 (2 cup) bag of shredded white cheddar cheese
  • 1 (2 cup) bag of Havarti cheese
  • 1 (1½ cup) bag of Gouda cheese (Same damn size bag – thanks, shrinkflation!)
  • 1 (32 oz./4 cups) box of chicken stock
  • 1 stick (4 oz./½ cup) butter.
  • Breadcrumbs – Maybe 3 cups?
  • 2 Tbsp. minced garlic from a jar because elicits unwarranted hate.
  • Seasonings to taste – I used Rotisserie Chicken seasoning, Mrs. Dash’s Table Blend, Black Pepper, White Pepper, Onion Powder, Garlic Powder, Paprika, & dried parsley. Ain’t nobody measuring all that.

I was going to include some “bacon pieces,” but I must have left them in the store, or they fell out in the car, or I put them in a weird place or threw them out, because they absolutely are in what may as well be a pocket dimension.

The Method:

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 375°
  2. Grease apparently two 9″x13″ glass baking dishes with a stick of butter.
  3. Get two mixing bowls. In one, whisk the egg, then fold in the cream cheese, the chicken stock, the garlic, the (drained) chickpeas, about half of each of the shredded cheeses, the dry Ditalini, and spices in one mixing bowl.
  4. Slice up the bell pepper, onion, zucchini, & chicken in consistently sized cubes. (If you left the zucchini in the garden too long like I did, cut out the spongy center.) Put all that in the other mixing bowl, toss it with some more of all the spices.
  5. Mix the contents of the two bowls together as you string together new swear words and wish you have an even more ridiculously larger mixing bowl.
  6. Put those into the baking dishes. Or one big one, or a casserole dish, or whatever you’ve got. Cover with foil, place in oven, & bake for 45 min.
  7. Melt the remainder of the stick of butter in a microwave safe bowl. Or a microwave unsafe bowl if you’re an agent of chaos. Dump in some breadcrumbs and toss them in the butter, so the breadcrumbs are coated but not all gross. I used a mix of panko & regular. I did not measure.
  8. Pull from the oven, but leave it on, remove foil.
  9. Spread the remaining shredded cheese on the top of the casseroles, then the buttery breadcrumbs… and put it back in the oven. I swapped it to 350° on a convection setting at this point for 15 minutes… but you do you.

Notes:

  • YOU DO NOT NEED TO PRE-COOK THE CHICKEN, PASTA, OR VEGETABLES. You certainly can, and it may deepen the flavors and reduce baking time, but I wanted to do this all in one go. I checked the chicken in a few sports with an instant-read and it was a bit over the USDA recommended 165°.
  • I was going to mix the cheeses together at the end, but why dirty another bowl? I dumped them on almost somewhat evenly.
  • Obviously, cut out what you don’t like, add what you do, skip stuff, or add stuff.
  • I may try this again with bacon or ham… but there was a good bit of salt in all the cheeses already, and probably the chickpeas.
  • I may try this with shredded zucchini and maybe leaving the chicken breast cutlets whole on top. Maybe.
  • Ricotta instead of cream cheese may be good too.
  • Use chicken broth, bone broth, vegetable broth, milk, water, or whatever… just give the pasta enough liquid to absorb.

Pizzucchini Teeny Mini

Again, this was a quick idea I had last tame I made air-fried breaded zucchini and ran out of bread crumbs because the zucchini multiplies as I sliced it. I did it in the oven quick after I yanked out the “let’s not call this casserole a casserole.”

Melted cheese, some toasted breadcrumbs, & pizza sauce over a round slice of zucchini.
Pizzuchini Teeny Mini

Ingredients:

  • 1 normal-sized zucchini.
  • 1 (2 cup) bag of “pizza cheese”
  • 1 (15 oz.) squeeze bottle of pizza sauce
  • a bit of EVOO
  • Maybe ½ cup of breadcrumbs

The Method:

  1. Do you really need instructions here? I put the oven on 400° on the air-fryer setting. I didn’t pre-heat it because it was already running.
  2. I sliced the zucchini about ¼-inch thick, and put it on the baking sheet over a bit of EVOO.
  3. I dropped on some sauce, some cheese, and a tiny bit of breadcrumbs.
  4. I put it the oven for 15 minutes.

Notes:

  • What the hell is “pizza cheese?” It said that on the bag. I guess mozzarella & provolone? Please tell me in the comments that it is all plastic & slowly killing me. Maybe I should have read the bag.
  • I will probably skip the EVOO or get a cooking rack for the air fryer setting.

~🧀~

OK, so that’s it. Hit me up with suggestions, questions, love, or hate in the comments! Share your zucchini recipes, too!

Stolen Mazes! (Someone took my art.) 🤬

Posted on by Standard 7

So, I recently got an interesting message via my contact form:

Hello, I bought a book in germany and in that book a "Kurt Heppke" from "Norderstedt : Books on Demand" is using your artwork. Did you ever give permission to that? I can send you more information if needed. Greetings from Germany, Hamburg

I did write back, but have yet to receive a reply. I would like to thank you Jakob, for reaching out! Not sure how you found me, but then again maybe I am sure as the one stolen maze is kind of highly specific in subject matter, but we’ll get to that.

I did do some light Googling though, like a modern-day super lazy Sherlock Holmes (or at least Dick Tracy). The ever-so-helpful auto AI summary was actually kind of enlightening…

An AI summary via Google about some weenis that stole a bunch of mazes to create print-on-demand books.

Yeah. That one past stuck out.

“He finds inspiration for his books by browsing graphic portals and libraries.”

I take that to mean “Bruh finds shit on Pinterest or Google image search and steals it to put into his books.”

Cover of Labyrinthe: Leichte Schwere und ganz ganz Schwere by Kurt Heppke, stealer of images.

I did find a book creatively titled Labyrinthe: Leichte Schwere und ganz ganz Schwere, which according to Google Translate says Labyrinths: Light, heavy, and very, very heavy. It luckily had a link that looked like a preview link, and I was able to see inside part of the book.

Mr. Heppke has a website, and apparently several books. I know that print-on-demand can be looked down upon by “real” publishers, and these are considered “low content” books, but theft is theft.

I have been drawing mazes since I was a kid, maybe 4th grade or so? I have put a bunch up on the internet (especially at this blog among other older sites) for free over the years. I don’t need this dude or anybody stealing my stuff, taking credit for it, or making money off of it. Oh yeah, taking credit? Dude has stones. That sure looks like a © 2022 to me by his name in a book full of mazes that he didn’t draw.

Two of my mazes appear to have been pilfered:

Bruh took a bunch of mazes, but these are mine,

The original posts can be found here:

Help AiXeLsyD get to the AmericanMusic Café!
✍ Today’s Maze ✍

I know I have pinned them in the past, so they may be floating around there too. There are probably about 100 people on the planet who have heard, saw, heard about, or remember my old punk band, AiXeLsyD. Why take that maze? Our logo is right there beside a terrible drawing of my 1986 Buick SkyHawk. Weird. Also, it name drops Sheetz & Wendy’s as places to not stop (as well as a nudie bar). They may have a harder copyright infringement case than me? 🤣 I’m sure the maze is much older than 2012. The quality of the scan & the coloring is BAD.

The AiXeL-Mobile (1986 Buick SkyHawk)

I have thought about collecting all my old stuff for a book… but the thought of checking to see if they’re passable & providing solutions is overwhelming, and now that I put out You Can See Yourself Out, I feel like I have a level of quality that I need to maintain. Drawing the mazes & posting them has always kind of been a creative outlet & stress relief for me. I think I’d need to re-scan the pile of stuff that I have, and the stuff that I just posted to social media with phone pictures if I were to do it right… and include solitions.

I’m not doing art to get rich, or even make a living… but if I can fund keeping this blog AiXeLsyD13.com, and buy some art supplies, that would be awesome. I have made tens of dollars off of my books and merch. That’s not a complaint by any means, but some dude across the globe shouldn’t be making money off of my art. (As an aside, check this shit out! Art theft is rampant, and following @kilkennycat_art on Threads has opened my eyes to it.)

Which brings me to the other mazes here. I’m sure just by looking at the style, there’s a few mazes by renowned cartoonist, maze artist, & educational television host Joe Wos. I think there’s at least one by Sean C. Jackson. The cover appears to be by Brian Hilbert (Check out his Pittsburgh maze!).

Maze artists: Is your maze art here?

An index of stolen mazes assembled & being sold by Kurt Heppke.

I have tried to lift up other maze artists here. It’s a weird little niche. We gotta look out for each other, in my opinion. I did post about this issue on r/mazes, too.

I’m unsure of my next step. Is reaching out directly to Norderstedt Books on Demand and/or Kurt Heppke directly via email with some sort of cease and desist the way to go? Is that at all official? Is Google Translate even gonna get it right?

I don’t have any written verbiage here about my mazes being copyrighted, but I do have dated posts, and I think copyright is implied with any created works… no? I have no idea how any of it works really within the US, let alone internationally & specifically in Germany.

It also looks like this damn thing is available on more than a few sites:

…and so many more.

At any rate, I implore you to by mazes (or any art) from the artist through their official channels… or enjoy the many free mazes that are put out there by all of us.

So, Cease-and-Desist email or letter? DMCA Takedown? Both? Lawyer up? I’m assuming there is not much to financially recover with print-on-demand sales. I just don’t want anyone making money off of my art other than myself.

<shameless plug> Speaking of that, you can support your favorite punk rock letter-writing goofball maze artist by buying a copy of So I Finally Made a Maze Book or You Can See Yourself Out, or getting some cool swag from my TeePublic or RedBubble stores. </shameless plug> If you’re not inclined to make a purchase, that’s cool too. Maybe share the links, or just enjoy all the free mazes here, & check out all the other maze artists?

I look forward to your thoughts & advice in the comments!

The Birdfy Feeder Ebony | Yeah, I got another one.

Posted on by Standard Reply

So, I have been testing the Birdfy Feeder Cyan & Birdfy Nest Cyan (both Walmart exclusive) for a while, and the Cyan feeder’s built-in solar panel recently popped out of the roof. I’m guessing a raccoon was trying to open the lid. I posted about it in the Netvue Birdfy Community Facebook Group, and Birdfy reached out right away to offer a replacement. The Cyan and the nest that I had been testing had the Birdfy 2 camera installed, Not sure if the replacement has that, or a camera more like the original Birdfy Feeder or Birdfy Camera.

Birdfy Feder Cyan - Test Model with Popped Solar Panel
WANTED: 🦝

They sent a Birdfy Feeder Ebony as a replacement, and the construction is notable better than the test run! This one has a magnet mount so you can access the camera without having to have an empty feeder (which is one of the issues that I had reported to them on the test run), and this solar panel mount can swivel and it’s hinged so you can find the best angle for your location. This feeder is great if you’re looking to test out Birdfy products. It has a matching Birdfy Nest Ebony too!

Birdfy Feder Ebony
Birdfy Feder Ebony
The Naughty Gnome Noshery
The Naughty Gnome Noshery
Birdfy Feeder Ebony & Birdfy Camera pointed at the squirrel feeder.
Birdfy Feeder Ebony & Birdfy Camera pointed at the squirrel feeder.

That’s a Birdfy Cam behind the ebony feeder pointed at my squirrel feeder picnic table.

Birdfy Feeder Ebony Close-Ups
Birdfy Feeder Ebony Close-Ups
The Naughty Gnome Noshery
The Naughty Gnome Noshery – Sign on the perch & the gnomes it’s named after.

I already got a Cardinal visiting:

Tell me about your setup! Do you have a Birdfy or other camera feeder? I have been looking hard at the Bamboo Feeder & Polygon Nest, the Metal Feeder, the Hummingbird Feeder, & the Bird Bath. Although, maybe I should slow down.

I currently have up & running:

Full disclosure, I get a small comission if you make a purchase using my affiliate link. I have been very fortunate to be able to test & provide feedback for Birdfy products. I also have a bunch of blog posts about Birdfy… like So, I guess I’m a birdwatcher?, I got to test a new camera bird feeder, & More Bird & Squirrel Videos. Of course there’s my YouTube playlist too.

If you have any questions about any of the products that I own, pop them into he comments and I will do my best to answer. I may even be able to help with mounting or what kind of seed mix. I can’t offer support or how to be a product tester, you would have to contact Birdfy for that.

🐦🕊️🪶🐦‍⬛🦜

🌱 Round 2? | Garden 3 : Slugs 0

Posted on by Standard Reply

Die, slugs! Die! Recently I had an issue with what appears to be slugs going to town on the bean & pepper plants in my vegetable garden. It has been rather wet lately. It certainly could be other nefarious garden pests, but I may have a prejudice for these creepy little mollusks thanks to my shellfish & mollusk food allergies.

In with the shellfish thing, I’m weird about diatomaceous earth. It; seems like breathing it in can be sus, and it can be harmful to bees. I have crushed up some egg shells and strewn them about, but I’m not certain how effective that is. I try to always rinse them well & add to my compost anyway.

I decided to make some slug traps out of stuff from the recycling bin & a PBR. It was weird to buy 1 can of beer. I rarely drink any more & didn’t need a case or a 6-pack. I did finish off what was left of the 24 oz. can after I baited the traps though.

Slug Traps made from garbage and baited with beer.
🚫🐌

I used two empty sour cream tubs, an empty cottage cheese tub, an iced tea jug, & a coffee container. We are perpetually excepting rain, so that’s why I made the covers. I made the cuts very quicky & very sloppy with my pocketknife because I’m impatient at times and of course decided to do this as the sun was going down.

I probably should anchor the covers somehow… but they have not blown away yet.

This morning, I counted 3 slugs overcome by a compulsion to consume delicious fermented hops.

Can you find the 3 dead slugs?
Can you find the 3 dead slugs now?

So, there you have it. Something that works. Unlike the supposed magical marigold repellant.

Pour one out for the dead slugs, and drink to their memory as you listen to my Beer 🍻 playlist. Or, if you wanna get crazy, I have a Pabst Blue Ribbon 🥇 playlist. Why are there so many songs that name drop PBR? All I can think of that mentions Yuengling is Nerf Herder’s “New Jersey Girl.” Do any songs mention Straub?

What has proven to work well for you to repel garden pests? I have a small garden this year. I do like to keep the pollinators happy, and the birds n’ squirrels too.

AiXeLsyD13's Vegetable Garden 2025
Pollinator Flowers Around the Yard
Pollinators around the yard this summer.
AiXeLsyD13's Garden 2025
The 2025 garden the day it went in.
Slug Damage
Leaf damage from those damn slugs.

🍻🐌🍻

Rock N’ Roll Movies 🎬

Posted on by Standard 3

I like rock n’ roll movies. I’ve seen a bunch. I still need to see a lot of them, or it’s been too long to remember what I thought of them.

What are your favorites? Mine are noted below: ★★★★★ is good ★☆☆☆☆ is bad. I just threw them in a table, then sorted by rating then title.

Please don’t say Rock of Ages. I have no interest in musicals. 🤣

I used AI to partially successfully create a table with as-of-now correct IMDB & RT ratings. I’ll copy & paste it below, & link to my spreadsheet.

AiXeLsyD13’s Rock N’ Roll Movie List!
Movie:My Rating:IMDB:RT 🍅:RT 🍿:Category:
A Mighty Wind★★★★★7.287%82%Comedy
Airheads★★★★★6.222%57%Comedy
Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure★★★★★7.081%75%Comedy
Boom: A Film About the Sonics★★★★★8.9n/an/aDocumentary
Empire Music★★★★★6.831%84%Comedy
Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga★★★★★6.563%81%Comedy
Fat Kid Rules the World★★★★★6.484%61%Drama
Heavier Trip★★★★★6.091%n/aComedy
Heavy Trip★★★★★7.094%85%Comedy
Honeysuckle Rose★★★★★6.360%74%Drama
Josie and the Pussycats★★★★★5.653%53%Comedy
Lemmy: 49% Motherf**ker, 51% Son of a Bitch★★★★★7.789%88%Documentary
Mad Tiger★★★★★6.767%57%Documentary
Mission to Lars★★★★★6.781%70%Documentary
Pick It Up!: Ska in the ’90s★★★★★8.0n/an/aDocumentary
Ray★★★★★7.780%87%Biopic
School of Rock★★★★★7.292%64%Comedy
The Other F Word★★★★★7.278%82%Documentary
The Punk Syndrome★★★★★7.894%87%Documentary
This Is Spinal Tap★★★★★7.995%82%Comedy
Turn It Around: The Story of East Bay Punk★★★★★7.882%93%Documentary
Walk the Line★★★★★7.882%90%Biopic
Willie Nelson & Family (series)★★★★★8.386%100%Documentary
8 Mile★★★★☆7.275%54%Drama
Anvil: The Story of Anvil★★★★☆7.998%89%Documentary
Beware Mr. Baker★★★★☆7.698%81%Documentary
Bill & Ted Face the Music★★★★☆6.082%65%Comedy
Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey★★★★☆6.356%56%Comedy
End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones★★★★☆8.190%91%Documentary
It Might Get Loud★★★★☆7.680%84%Documentary
Muscle Shoals★★★★☆7.797%90%Documentary
Ordinary World★★★★☆5.553%46%Drama
Searching for Sugar Man★★★★☆8.295%92%Documentary
Sound City★★★★☆7.8100%90%Documentary
Straight Outta Compton★★★★☆7.889%91%Biopic
The Blues Brothers★★★★☆7.973%87%Comedy
Wayne’s World★★★★☆7.079%84%Comedy
Whiskey on a Sunday★★★★☆8.9n/an/aDocumentary
A Complete Unknown★★★☆☆7.4n/an/aBiopic
Almost Famous★★★☆☆7.989%92%Drama
Metal Lords★★★☆☆6.762%84%Comedy
Metallica: Through The Never★★★☆☆7.182%74%Drama
Once★★★☆☆7.897%91%Drama
Rock ‘n’ Roll High School★★★☆☆6.781%70%Comedy
Rockstar★★★☆☆6.352%57%Drama
Some Kind of Monster★★★☆☆7.589%86%Documentary
Studio 666★★★☆☆5.756%80%Horror/Comedy
That Thing You Do!★★★☆☆6.993%82%Comedy
The Rocker★★★☆☆6.241%57%Comedy
The Runaways★★★☆☆6.570%66%Biopic
Wayne’s World 2★★★☆☆6.260%61%Comedy
CBGB★★☆☆☆6.67%39%Biopic
Hired Gun★★☆☆☆7.240%72%Documentary
Rock ‘n’ Roll High School Forever★★☆☆☆4.6n/a55%Comedy
SLC Punk★★☆☆☆7.463%89%Drama
The Dirt★★☆☆☆7.039%94%Biopic
Hysteria: The Def Leppard Story★☆☆☆☆6.6n/a57%Biopic
Becoming Led Zeppelinn/an/an/an/aDocumentary
Bohemian Rhapsodyn/a7.960%85%Biopic
Cadillac Recordsn/a7.066%68%Biopic
Elvisn/a7.377%94%Biopic
Gutterdammerungn/a7.6n/an/aWeird
Heavy Metal Parking Lotn/a7.583%78%Documentary
High Fidelityn/a7.591%90%Drama
Jimi: All Is By My Siden/a5.768%41%Biopic
Junen/a7.5100%83%Documentary
Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Parkn/a4.8n/a60%Action
La Bamban/a6.991%78%Biopic
Metal: A Headbanger’s Journeyn/a8.090%91%Documentary
Punk’s Deadn/a4.6n/a36%Drama
Punks Not Deadn/a7.090%76%Documentary
Rocketmann/a7.389%88%Biopic
Sid & Nancyn/a7.088%84%Biopic
Sound of Metaln/a7.797%90%Drama
The Buddy Holly Storyn/a7.1100%82%Biopic
The Decline of Western Civilizationn/a7.5100%83%Documentary
The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Yearsn/a7.276%76%Documentary
The Decline of Western Civilization Part IIIn/a7.2100%80%Documentary
The Doorsn/a7.258%83%Biopic

As I have finished up, damnit I forgot Filmage, Tenacious D’s Pick of Destiny (& the TV show), Crossroads, Purple Rain, Frank, CB4, Big Money Hustlas, Salad Days, Pump Up The Volume, We Are Lady Parts, Popstar, Beavis & Butt-head, Breakin’, Pirate Radio, & more. I’m gonna have to do a part 2. Or maybe this is part 2 or 3 already? I blogged about rock movies back in 2012 a bit, & about rock docs.

Yinz like weird playlists?

Posted on by Standard Reply

I have been making goofy ones lately.

The latest one is Contradictions / Companions and it’s made up of songs that contradict or compliment each other. I mainly listen to Amazon Music, but this one was fun so I copied it to Spotify too.

Contradictions / Companions | Amazon Music

Contradictions / Companions | Spotify

I have a bunch more weird ones. Sometimes I reach out to Oddly Specific Playlists on Facebook or r/punk for help. Some have a specific order, some are designed for chaos goblins who always choose random.

Here’s some fun ones if you listen to Amazon, let me know if you want me to copy them to Spotify! (I usually do that with Tune My Music):

And there are plenty more weird ones. Lemme know if you check one out and think I’m missing some good obvious tracks that fit!

S.O.S. | The Recipe!

Posted on by Standard Reply

…—… Shit on a Shingle …—…

10/10, would recommend.

Shit on a Shingle
Shit on a Shingle
  • ½ lb. of Pastrami
  • ½ cup (1 stick) butter
  • ½ cup flour
  • 3 cups milk.
  • Toast.

I know dried chip beef is the norm, but it’s so damn salty. If I use that I rinse it off. The jarred stuff is wildly expensive & the lil’ Buddig packs have like 2 slices of meat. (This “½ lb.” was only 7 oz., thanks Hillshire Farms & shrinkflation!)

I added black pepper, onion powder, Mrs. Dash table blend, paprika, & ground mustard. Of course. You do you & add what you like.

  1. Melt your butter on high in a pan on the stove top.
  2. Chop & add the beef as it’s melting.
  3. Crank it down to medium-high.
  4. Toss in the flour, brown it in the butter to cook off the flour taste.
  5. Add a cup of milk, stir until thick.
  6. Add the 2 leftover cups of milk, cook until it thickens… it will thicken more upon standing.
  7. If you need instructions for toast, please Google it.

🍞

I put the recipe before the story for all you “I DoN’T WaNt tO ReAd yOuR LiFe sToRy, JuSt gIvE Me tHe rEcIpE!” people. Fancy people call this Chipped Beef on Toast and polite people call it S.O.S., I call it “Shit on a Shingle.”

I think traditionally, shit on a shingle is served with dried chipped beef. I have used the jarred Armor or Hormel and the packet of Buddig stuff in the past. I like the pastrami, but corned beef, roast beef, or whatever you want would work. Go crazy with ham, turkey, chicken, venison, bison, elk, rabbit, squirrel, or whatever tickles your tastebuds.

I use the term traditionally loosely, as I have heard others claim it should be made with ground beef. It seems to be a military thing. It may change depending on your branch of service, the time when you served, and the region?

Some unhinged people may even add cheese… and someone on threads said they add peas. I like creamed peas, so why not? We used to have creamed canned asparagus over toast. Sometimes the asparagus was fresh and we used cream-of asparagus condensed soup to make the sauce.

This really isn’t much different from sausage and gravy over biscuits. I prefer bacon to sausage… so I have made bacon in the oven, collected the drippings, & used that instead of butter or sausage drippings to make the gravy for serving over some biscuits.

Perhaps the term shit on a shingle may be like “pigs in a blanket” and mean vastly different things to different people.

I would guess you could make the sauce from corn starch instead of flour if you wanted to have a gluten-free or wheat-free option or alternative? This seems easily adaptable to vegetarian or vegan needs subbing in peas or asparagus.

How do you do your shit on a shingle?