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What do you think of this review of The 4th Base?

Sample:

There’s only one place in town with a concept so audacious, so galling.

4th Base doesn’t have a menu you can hold in your hands or a list of prices to stop you from going overboard. You face a cooler full of food, choose the ingredients that grab you (meat, fish, pasta, et cetera), have the chef whip up a dish of your design and then wait till the plates are cleared to assess the damage to your bottom line. Anyone who agrees to such a meal knows the risks upfront.

That said, we’ve heard stories from resentful diners lured in by reports of four-star “gourmet” bar food. Their grudge was a $400 dinner for four or a $170 lunch for two. “Go once and you’ll never return,” says one Base basher. In the other corner, defenders are just as vocal: “Don’t say you weren’t warned. If they don’t tell you the prices, expect anything.”

…

Before the server even leaves the bill, we’ve been preparing ourselves with hypothetical prices that seem at least comparable to other restaurants. The entrées could run in the upper $10s/low $20s, we theorize, but strictly because of the size and quality of the filets, not because either dish was made by an “artist.” Both are cooked as asked - the beef tenderloins to dark-pink medium, tuna to sashimi-grade medium rare - yet despite their sauces (lemon-butter béarnaise and soy sesame), there’s no pizzazz to them. Most of the prices are in line - tuna $18, beef filets $24. The salad is $5, the two veggie sides are $6; they even charge a few bucks for the sesame sauce. The bill for two amounts to almost $100, bar tab included. The bread is free, as far as we can tell, but get a load of the stuffed mushrooms - $20! Maybe a $400 dinner for four is plausible if you order lobster tail and keep the bartender busy, but sheesh! Fans of this place call it a once-a-year splurge, and yet would you want to spend that hard-earned cash at a bar?

Fair/unfair? Did you feel ripped off? Are they right on the money here? I’d be interested in your opinion. Mine: I think they serve really good food. The price is steep for a bar, but you get to eat exactly what you want and the service and food quality are excellent. Don’t want to pay that much? Head over to Prime Quarter and burn yourself a NY Strip.

RAJ OUT.

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Due to the Scoop At Any Cost mentality and lax ethics of the news industry these days, major events are always misreported initially as networks attempt to one up each other to be the first to scream “AMERICA UNDER ATTACK! 50,000 DEAD AT WORLD TRADE CENTER” or “NEW ORLEANS WILL BE WIPED OFF THE FACE OF THE PLANET!” The “reporting” then enters its second stage: vastly under-reporting casualties or focusing on not-quite-the-point issues such as “MANY MAY HAVE GOTTEN OUT BEFORE BUILDINGS COLLAPSE” and “LOOOOOOTTTTTTIIINNNGGGGG!”

One such issue which is either cresting right now, or is the tip of a massive wave of We’re-Fucked, is the result of the massive oil refinery shutdowns in the Gulf of Mexico. Apparently, gas is now $3/gal in and around Milwaukee and since wholesale prices are still climbing consumers could see $3.25 to $3.50/gal at the pump soon.

A couple of weeks ago I spent some time on a post talking about the Oil Outrage captured on film around the country. With prices slowly creeping up over the course of the summer, consumers were starting to bristle as their belief in a god-given right to cheap fuel was starting to shaken. At the time, I said:

I should note that the oil shock he describes is not what we are experiencing right now. Oil today stands at around $65 per barrel, which around here roughly translates to $2.85 per gallon. Assuming a linear increase of gasoline prices compared with crude oil prices (which is a best case scenario,) imagine what it would be like if oil went to $100 per barrel or $300 per barrel in one day due to a terrorist attack on a refining facility or a hurricane wreaking havoc on the platforms of an offshore oil field.

Imagine what would happen, realistically, if gas were $5 per gallon or $10 per gallon TOMORROW. How would your life change?

At the time, people were pissed off and wanted answers. Now, however, as prices jump to over $3/gal people are just outright calling the police on gas station owners.

Deputies called

One irate driver still waiting to fill up at the Clark station called authorities, and several Milwaukee County sheriff’s deputies and Milwaukee police officers arrived to keep the peace. Budzynski managed to pay $2.68 a gallon for the nine gallons he pumped into his Buick. His wife told him when he got home from his trip to the gas station that he had been gone two hours.

Motorists didn’t simply call the police, they also complained to state consumer protection officials. More than 30 people called the consumer protection hotline on Tuesday to gripe about snowballing prices. Some watched the price change by 30 cents a gallon while waiting, and fuming, in line.

State weights and measures inspectors were monitoring gas prices at stations across Wisconsin to ensure prices are not illegally changed more than once in a 24-hour period. Though there’s no gas gouging law in Wisconsin - gas stations can raise prices as much as they want - it’s also illegal to change prices for motorists waiting in line because consumers are entitled to the lowest advertised price.

According to some recent news reports I’ve read, the Administration is going to release oil from the Strategic Reserves to ease the price pressure. Apparently, a run on gas is already under way in Southeastern Wisconsin; I wonder how long until the reserves usage offsets the decline in refinery production?

Check out the JSOnline article for an interesting look at the developing Oil Outrage.

RAJ OUT.

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My brother called me while I was taking a nap late yesterday afternoon and asked if I was interested in going to Lambeau for the Packers v. Patriots preseason game. Hell yeah I was interested. We left the house at 4:30pm with Aaron’s girlfriend, Jane. Jane’s grandmother lives half a block from Lambeau Field (the Mills Fleet Farm Gate, to be exact,) so we got free parking 2 minutes from our seats and 2 free tickets, 25th row on the goalline. Awesome. The Pack stunk up the joint but it was awesome to be at Lambeau Field, in great seats, watching Brett Favre play football. Even when the skies opened and God Himself expressed His displeasure at the godawful football He was watching, we still stayed in our seats while others fled the monsoon. We stayed til then end and got some pictures down by the field. I’ll upload the pictures when I get back to Cali.

Up for tonight: casual drinking in Racine and maybe poker later this evening. Also, a cookout at the parent’s house. Cross your fingers…

RAJ OUT.

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Played some golf yesterday with my brother for his birthday. Johnson’s Park is as shitty as I remember it. Today, however, we’re going old school — this afternoon we’re going down to Washington Park Golf Course for a nostalgia round. Tonight is full of question marks, but tomorrow is the big cookout/Racine bar spree/Racine Open poker tournement. The Open players right now are probably Wirkstew, the Maaaaaaadd Scientist(maybe?), myself, and Ben Moneypenny. Updates on the situation as it develops.

RAJ OUT.

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Via EvilAntnie, I implore you to check out the band TreeWave’s website. It is a band that makes music entirely from old computers and dot-matrix printers. In particular, I encourage you to check out the mp3 for Sleep. Hear that? Hear that printer going “rehhh-rehhh-rehhh” in the background? Wrap your noodle around that. Plus, for any Scientists out there, check out the ~SWANK! ASCII website.

RAJ OUT.

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Take a look at today’s Tom Tomorrow. Pretty good stuff.

RAJ OUT.

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On a whim I purchased the two back issues (volume three is either already out or set to come out soon) of Make Magazine. I’m hooked now, and there’s no going back. There’s a few projects in there that I want to do, like the Atari 2600PC and I’d like to try to make my own PCB just to say I did it, but moreover it got me thinking about the mother of all project opportunities: The Whazz Machine.

I’ve got a few ideas rattling around up here (*taps brain*) that involve switch boxes, fabrication, ROMs, a brain-on-a-platter, Street Fighter II, and playing what I am going to call the nine-course MaxiRound of whazz.

Anthony graciously offered to help me toward the General Project Goal (”Make the thing awesome.”) Due to the numerous online Jamma resources and the existence of Happ Controls I don’t think it will be too much of a problem. Fabbing out the PCBrain will probably be the toughest part.

We’re in the planning and research stages right now. Pictures and updates too come when we start it.

RAJ OUT.

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Man, you guys are dodging shit left and right. If you go by Journal-Sentinel coverage, Wisconsin is flying apart at it’s Wal-Mart-stitched seams. You’ve got gas prices so, so very high. You’ve got the outrage over Drew Rosenhaus. And now you’re being chased down I-90 by tornados. Jesus, I should bring a survival kit back with me next week.

Oh yeah: I’m taking a vacation from work next week. Wednesday, August 24th through Monday, August 29th. I’ll be catching up with family plus a Brewer game on Sunday. I’m bringing my golf clubs; anyone interested in playing Thursday, Friday, or Saturday morning give me a ring.

By the way– did you hear that Mike Jones got hit with a $250,000 Sprint PCS bill?

2 8 1, 3 3 oh, eight zero zero fo’
Hit Mike Jones up on the low cause Mike Jones about to blow

Awesome.

RAJ OUT.

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