Sean Henderson Dot Com

"this was observed and worthy of mentioning"

The Adventures of Chuck and Don S01E01

* Now talking in #poker
* Topic is ‘Welcome to #poker… we know things. <@RedMagic> yall making me nervous with all this knowledge’
* Set by vale!vale@censored.com on Sat Dec 27 03:38:05
<DoN> fuck headaches
<CHuCK> fuck the jail
<DoN> they should have some shit
<DoN> that you can just do online
<DoN> and it unlocks the cell
<DoN> e-bail
<DoN> ebail.com
<CHuCK> you know, thats an idea
<CHuCK> fuck
<CHuCK> lets build, patent, and market that shit. noone wants to drive to the jail to deliver cash. especially when its located in a ghetto ass neighborhood where the probability of getting robbed is high
<DoN> it’s flawed by design though
<DoN> niggas don’t use credit cards
<CHuCK> well today, we here, are bailing out a white boy
<DoN> yeah
<DoN> but your primary population
<DoN> just like the prison system
<DoN> would be blacks
<CHuCK> true kid
* theOB sets mode: +b *!*@censored.com
* DoN was kicked by theOB (racist fucker)

* You were kicked from #poker by SNguyen (Banned)

<B|RDMAN> haha
<B|RDMAN> niggas dont use credit cards
<B|RDMAN> well not their own

The most exquisite seafood and Italian dining isn’t in the heart of Italy or in the Mediterranean. It’s in the middle of the desert! Look no further than the Wynn.  Bartolotta Ristorante di Mare at Wynn Las Vegas,
winner of the 2008 Ivy Awards, features a whole galaxy of rare upscale Mediterranean seafood and authentic Italian cuisine prepared by Chef Paul Bartolotta.  I was most impressed by the scenery.  The entrance invites a prospective diner right down a winding staircase with crystal chandeliers hovering above and a lower level with a dark carpet with a vast array of colored shapes and patterns.  From there, the restaurant extends out to an outdoor patio with a series of cabanas surrounding a decent size pond complete with fish and chrome spheres.  I chose to dine out by the cabanas.  The sun was at such an angle so as to provide me with a unique view of the pond.  My waiter Chris was very professional.  First he brought out a tray and explained the fish in severe detail.  Since I am not privy to seafood, I cannot recall most of what he told me.  What surprised me though was that the fish are flown in daily from the Mediterranean sea.  So all that lay on the plate before me swam in the sea half a world a way just hours earlier!  The idea is that Bartolotta wanted to recreate authentic Italian food, but could not do so with American fish.  This was the first time I had experienced such fish.  I had no idea what to do, so I ordered the tasting menu.  The octopus salad had a chewy rubbery texture with a very nice lemon flavor.  A certain cheese slice graced the top of seared sea scallops; I nibbled on the cheese slowly as it was cut extra fine, extra thin, and it was extra tasty.  SweetSicilian langoustines were added to the tasting menu for $20 extra.  My favorite, by far, was the sheep’s milk ricotta ravioli with Tuscan pecorino cheese and Marsala wine-reduction glaze.  I wished that Todd Wilbur would create a clone of this secret recipe.  I would and probably will drive all the way back to Las Vegas just to have this ravioli again!  The desert featured a chocolate cake and three servings of gelato.  One of the servings tasted as if it were made from a fine champagne.  Another serving tasted like a sour passion fruit puree.  The bill tasted like two Ben Franklins for one person.  The dinner overall was a great experience that left a bittersweet taste in my mouth.  I loved the scenery and the pasta.  I was a little afraid of the fish because I’m not too big on seafood.  Overall I was very impressed.

Standing at the Top of the Staircase

Looking Down from the Staircase

Outdoor Patio

Fresh Seafood Selection

risotto ai frutti di mare

risotto with clams, scallops, shrimp, lobster, calamari, mussels

piovra alla Ligure

warm Ligurian octopus salad, potatoes, lemon, olive oil

cappesante dorate con porcini

seared sea scallops, imported porcini mushrooms

scampi Siciliani

Sicilian langoustines

alici marinati

marinated Mediterranean anchovies

penne con scorfano e melanzane

penne with Mediterranean scorpion fish, eggplant, tomato, basil

ravioli di ricotta con caciotta Toscana

sheep’s milk ricotta ravioli, Tuscan pecorino cheese, Marsala wine glaze

risotto ai frutti di mare

risotto with clams, scallops, shrimp, lobster, calamari, mussels

pescato d’amo al forno

whole roasted line caught Mediterranean fish of the day

sinfonia di dolci

symphony of desserts

The Bill

about $155-200 for one Gran Menu di Mare (family style Grand Seafood Feast)

Dining at Bartolotta was the most memorable experience of the places I dined at in Las Vegas.  The cuisine is a bit pricey and a bit fishy.  I recommend it to anyone that enjoys seafood or great pasta and isn’t worried about price.  If the food doesn’t impress you, I guarantee that the scenery will.  So at the least, stop on in for a drink at the bar.

Bartolotta Ristorante Di Mare
3131 Las Vegas Blvd S
Las Vegas, NV 89109
(702) 248-3463‎
Google Map

On our way out of Chicago Sunday morning, my cousin Errol and I stopped for breakfast at Chris’ Pancakes & Dining in St. Louis, Missouri.  Parking was difficult as the place was packed.  This can be expected from what might just be the best breakfast for under thirty bucks in St. Louis.  I ordered a Sicilian Omelette on the recommendation of one of the locals.  It was something more like a pizza with red sauce omelette.  Errol ordered the buckwheat pancakes.  Service was quick and friendly.  As we were leaving, the waitress ran out to the car with some books that she thought we left behind, but they were actually someone else’s.  That shows that they really care about their customers.

Sicilian Omelette

Italian sausage, onion, mushrooms, green pepper, topped with marinara sauce and Provel cheese

Cinnamon Roll

This shit is the shit!

Errol & his buckwheat pancakes

Does this look like the face of a happy man?

Errol said, "there isn’t an inch of uneatable bacon on this bacon!" (referring to that nasty white stuff typical of bacon at many places)

If you’re ever in St. Louis for breakfast, eat here.

Chris’ Pancakes & Dining
5980 Southwest Ave
St. Louis, MO 63139-2761
(314) 645-2088
Google Map

I burned my first Blu-ray disk the other day using Nero on a Sony VGN-FZ283BN laptop.  I wanted Fear & Loathing, but it’s only offered in HD-DVD at this time.  Fear & Loathing is owned by Universal which only supports HD-DVD.  Stupid format wars! Whatever.  I just tested the drive to see if it worked and it was slow as hell right out of the box!  What a great way to waste a $30 disc.

Special thanks to A.J. Pietraszewski for sponsoring this useless blog post.

I was asked the other day to write a program to scrub some 50,000 Microsoft Word 2003 documents of hidden data.  I was surprised at first because I had no idea that Word secretly tracked changes in documents and who changed what.  Apparently this problem is dangerous to companies in particular.  Imagine writing in a Word document something that says, "Mike is an asshole."  Then later you realize Mike might see this document so you delete it.  If Mike finds this document and he knows what he is doing and you don’t know about this, Mike can see that you wrote this and deleted it.  It’s logged, but hidden.  I looked on google for about an hour but came up with a lot of crap I didn’t like.  I thought I had a winner when I landed on Doc Scrubber, but all that did was remove document properties.  Then I landed on Kim Komando’s page which suggested downloading something called the RHD tool from Microsoft (Validation Required).  Upon further inspection of this tool, I found it to be a pain in the ass for the purpose of scrubbing multiple documents.  I kept getting the error, "Protected Document failed. Reason: This document contains protected information. If you are not the author of this document, contact the author to obtain permissions." whenever I ran the OFFRHD.EXE program located in the RHD thing.  I grew impatient with these weak methods and decided to write my own program.  The concept is simple: open a document, select all, copy, close the document, create a new document, paste, save the new document in a different folder.  I noticed that by doing this, some documents decreased quite a bit in size.  On one test of a document that was edited by dozens of people, this method shrunk it from 3.03 MB to 2.01 MB.  They seemed happy with it, so I just used VB6 and Word 2003 to automate this on a lot of documents.  Mind you, I had to spend some time learning how to automate office because I never did this before.  Why the hell does Word put all this bullshit in documents anyway?  My program is called, "Word 2003 Document Bullshit removal."  I welcome any and all comments or suggestions.  This is not meant to be a commercial end all solution but rather something for other programmers to look at.  Use at your own risk.

Example Document before scrubbing

I had to sensor the screenshot because too much data was exposed.

Example Document after scrubbing with my code

 

My Code:

Private Sub cmdRemove_Click()
Me.MousePointer = 11

MsgBox "Finished removing bullshit from all Word 2003 documents!"
End Sub

Let me know what you think.  It’s Friday and I’m going home.

Download the source code and program here

Love Actually (2003)

"…let me say, without hope or agenda, just because it’s Christmas (and at Christmas you tell the truth) to me, you are perfect. and my wasted heart will love you, until you look like this…"

Looking for a smash on South Wabash?  Look no further than Tommy Gun’s Garage in Chicago.  You must have a reservation and a secret password to gain access to the backdoor of the garage.  The inside is a well done replica of a roaring 20’s gangster speakeasy in true pristine form complete with old pictures, a full service bar of "hooch", a 1929 Model A Ford, a stage, and a whole crew of gangsters & flappers.  The ceiling is lit by what appears to be hanging Tiffany lamps.  The event begins with dinner, starting with a salad or Al Capone Minestrone soup, followed by an entree (Lasagna, Chicken, Prime Rib, Pork Chops), and finished with a scoop of rainbow sherbet.  Shortly after, a hilarious comedy musical show begins during which time you may order as many drinks as you like.  Be careful though, this is prohibition.  If you get caught, the cops will raid the place with sirens, flashing blue lights, and drag you on stage for a sobriety test.  Also, cell phones and digital cameras are not invented yet, so be careful or you will be shot if caught using them! Rat! Tat! Tat!  I couldn’t tell you about the music because I wasn’t born yet, but the brochure says that "da mugs and da dolls dance and sing da Charleston and udder musical selections from Cole Porter, Fats Waller, George Gershwin, Duke Ellington, and many more… played by Chicago’s own sinfully orchestra." 

The Bar

A full service bar that you can’t sit at.  The flapper waitress will take your order.

The Salad

(I missed a picture of the soup… oops)

The Bread

Very soft and tasty bread with spices

Big Jim Colosimo

Baked Lasagna with beans, mixed veggies, a beet, and a sausage.  Anna Marie, who is Italian, says the sausage is "excellent" and she’d rather they gave her three pieces than the lasagna.  I don’t eat sausage but somehow I believe her judging by her facial expression when she said that.

"Frankie’s Feast"

Prime Rib with beans, mixed veggies, a beet, and a potato

Don’t Call Me Chicken

Boneless Breast Of Chicken With Marsala Wine Sauce, veggies, a beet, and a potato

Da Show

I almost got shot sneaking this picture of our very own Groucho Marx dressed in Bill Cosby’s sweater wearing glasses with a nose.

Foxy Roxy

Devon Davis and I with Foxy Roxy

Overall I enjoyed both the food and the show at this venue.  We went with a large group Christmas party on Wednesday.  For everyone else, they are open Thursday (6:30pm), Friday (7:30pm), Saturday (6:30pm), Sunday (6:00pm).  Then dinner lasts for about a half hour followed by two hours of hilarious entertainment.  I also recommend this to anyone looking for an entertaining Friday night dinner with a date or a group.

Tommy Gun’s Garage is an audience interactive "Speakeasy" which offers a musical comedy revue wit da gangsters, da flappers, and you!

Tommy Gun’s Garage
2114 S. Wabash
Chicago, IL 60616
(773) RAT-A-TAT
Google Map

One bright Thursday morning, a young business man fixes his suit and tie as he enters an upscale office building in New York City, the kind of building where minimum wage is 10K per week (in pre-911 dollars).  He fails to notice however, due to one too many glasses of Macallan Fine & Rare the night before at his penthouse suite that he put on the wrong set of shoes.  Upon entering the office, a certain scent catches his nose Ratatouille style.  As if in a trance, he proceeds to steal some catered food from a venue he was not invited to.  There a classy woman approaches him in executive attire.  She is what club trash junkyard dogs might label a "nine point five."

Miss 9.5 : One too many drinks last night huh?

Jon      : Ex-squeeze me? Baking Powder?

Miss 9.5 : Why are you wearing two different shoes? (laughs)

Jon      : What the… (looks down)

They talk for a short while before Jon scurries to his office to figure out what to do about this embarrassing situation.  He later realizes that this mishap is a form of peacocking which caused the woman to open him.  Though it is fashionably stupid, it is in fact humorous.  The Shoe Opener is born.  Don’t try this in public!

(Jon, why the fuck does your office have green floors???!)

High Fidelity (2000)

Last Tuesday, Chris Ohara and I visited the upscale steakhouse, 437 Rush in Chicago.  We arrived at 8:00pm sharp, but despite having a reservation, were not seated until 8:20pm.  This leads me to believe the place is extremely popular due to the volume of customers.  I used the extra time to observe the venue.  Most of the patrons appeared to be older accomplished business men and women.  We were but a pair of kids amongst a high class refuge of big spenders, (perhaps media and advertising moguls); both the bartender and our waiter carded us.  We sat down at the bar for a moment, and this was funny:

Chris: "You have to see our ID’s just to sit at the bar?"
Lady bartender walks off with our ID’s for a moment, and returns.
Bartender: "That’s how old I’m getting.  I don’t have a clue anymore."
She returns our ID’s.

The first thing I noticed was the full bar.  It is packed with bottles from A to Z like spelling bees surrounded by a curvy mahogany bar which wrapped around the wall.  At the corner of the bar stands an interesting tower light in the shape of octagons whose diameter increase with height.  The mural above the bar suggests a classy, jazzy, old-school setting.  The floor made of large black and white tiles was dimly lit by yellowish ambient ceiling lights in the shape of a slice of the bottom half of a sphere.  I suggest checking out the virtual tour of the bar on their website.  After a brief delay, we were seated.  Our waiter, Miguel Munoz deserves a commendation for five-star service in my opinion.  He was very attentive and explained everything in great detail.  Most notably, he brought out a plate of some of the finest cuts of meat in Chicago and explained each piece.  He cleaned crumbs off our table as we ate.  The portions, though intricately decorated, are rather small in size.  I’m most impressed by the steak and the dessert.  Both desserts had a hunk of thin orange caramelized twigs amalgamated together.  The salmon crumbles like 15 year old aged cheddar.  The filet is better than most, charred and crunchy on the outside and extremely tender on the inside.

The Bar

 

Bar Corner

The part where the bar wraps around the corner

Complimentary Bread

 

Rush Street

Grey Goose Vodka, Limoncello, Peachtree Schnapps, Cointreau, and White Cranberry Juice served in a martini glass garnished with a lemon wedge; sweet and strong well defined hint of the Goose

437 Rush Cocktail

Ketel One, Campari, grapefruit, pineapple and cranberry juices served in a martini glass garnished with an orange wedge; a bit tart, but sweet

Dining Area

Dimly lit ambient lighting

Bruschetta al Pomodoro (Appetizer)

Toasted Italian bread topped with oven roasted cherry tomatoes and capers

Tomato and Mozzarella (Appetizer)

Three thick tomato slices wedged together with mozzarella globs and splattered with a light pesto sauce

Meat Selection

a carefully wrought display of some of the finest prime steaks and chops on a bed of lettuce

Wine Rack

fine Italian wines everywhere.

White and Red Wine

Sonoma Cutrer Chardonnay, Russian River white wine (left) to go with the salmon and Folie A Deux Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley red wine (right) to go with the filet

Roasted Red King Salmon

Roasted Red King Salmon in a Yukon potato crust, served with a potato puree, caramelized shallots, toasted bacon and a 10-year aged balsamic vinegar reduction

Filet Mignon

Charred on the outside, severely tender on the inside; best steak ever!

Sauteed Mushrooms (Side)

typical sauteed shrooms; nothing special here

Pineapple Carpaccio

Super thin pineapple slivers marinated in pink grapefruit juice and fresh ginger, served with mango sorbet covered by a carmelized sugar artpiece, garnished with Vanilla seeds and powdered sugar dots

437 Tiramisu

Lady Fingers soaked in espresso coffee, Mascarpone creme cheese custard within, flavored with brandy, Sambuca, Kahlua…

Cheers!

Cheers to another ad-sponsored dinner done right!

The Bill

$187.55 with tip

I liked the Tuscany when I visited there in the past.  I knew that if I liked that, then I knew I would like 437 Rush.  Janelle Dole initially recommended this place to me as a spot for a special Italian-style dinner date, so I tested it out.  437 Rush exceeds my expectations in quality of food and top notch service for an upscale place (with the exception of our not being seated on time).  The steaks seem flawless.  The portions are a tad small, but then again, I guess that’s one way to bait a customer:  Give them a little tiny taste of the best, and they will come begging for more.  Overall I am satisfied with the experience.

Phil Stefani’s 437 Rush
437 N. Rush St.
Chicago, IL 60611
(312) 222-0101
Google Map