Jason Copenhaver

I am well on my way to being an amateur book collector of things no one wants. I have started collecting antique books on mathematics. I am not at all sure if I’m buying books that well one day be worth something or not, but really, I don’t care. I enjoy it and they are usually pretty cheap. I was able to pick up 6 new books today for nothing at an estate sale in Venice. I figure now is a good time to list what I’ve got and then I’ll make updates as I find new stuff.

My wife and I went to the Whole Foods Market wine and Cheese tasting this evening. They had a selection of 12 wines and the best part was they were all reasonably priced. The following are the notes, in order of tasting, my wife took and what I can remember.

Cristalino Cava Brut & Guffanti Robiola Due Latti
Saprkling, Clean, Brings out tangy finish
Soft, creamy, tangy finish, earth falvors throughout

Rex Goliath Pinot Grigio & Taleggio
Sweet, ultra smooth with light body, no bite (Whole Foods only)
ultra smooth, creamy, very mild taste, “lightly firm” soft cheese
(I liked this one a lot)

Bonterra Organically Grown Chardonnay & Basitaansen Organic Gouda
Fruity, plum notes, Oaky, medium body, smooth with some assertivenes to take on the gouda
more earth, less cream, smooth and salty, weel rounded

Morro Bay Chardonnay & Ossau Iraty
More vanilla, oak, less fruit, but somehow sweeter, and stronger, not ove of Jason’s (thats me) favorites
Dry, not creamy but with a lovely soft gouda flavor

Rudolf Muller Pfalz Riesling & Vermont Butter and Chees Co. Creme Fraice with Strawberries
Sweet , not sugary, with very little tang, but smooth and light enough for creamy, fruity dessert pairing
wonderful as always, unique pairing, the dessert shouldn’t be sugary and light, tang is good ( e.g. sour cream or creme fraiche)

Blackstone California Merlot & Fromager D’Affinois
Great merlot, of course (Jason spotted it!)
cheese, very soft, mild tasting and creamy until you sip the wine! Then that farm-house cheese taste assaults you!
(I started dirnking this a couple of weeks ago and really like it)

Malenchini Bruzzico Toscana & Naked Goat Cheese
nothing special red, dry, but nothing to make that up, little body
too dry and waxy, not enough goat flavor

Tres Ojos Old Vine Garnacha Tinto & Forme D’Ambert
Sweet and somewhat fruity ( berries? ) with oak, dry, medium bodided, liked it.
Strong blue, sour cream and cheddar (very salty) taste, Excellent
(I’m gonna have to add this to my selection)

Bleasdale Langhorne Crossing Cabernet/Shirax & Aged Mahon
Like Blackstone, warmer flavors, less fruity, more assertive, brings out the cheeses
very dry, almost crystallized, tangy, salty, assertive spanish cheese

(at this ponit we realized that we couldn’t really tell the finer points of what we liked about the wine we were drinking anymore)
Rodney Strong Sonoma County Cabernet Sauvignon & Wisantigo Stravecchio

Full Circle Organically Grown Zinfandel & Emmi Gruere Reserve
Good, sweet, full bodied
more like a gouda, very good

Block No. 45 California Petite Sirah & Borough Market or Neal’s Yard Dairy Traditional Cheddar
dry finish, but sweet/dry start, assertive, thinner.

Good strong wine, excellent with parmessian

And on suggestion of Robert Morgan, the wine guy there, we purchased a bottle of Cream Napoleon Vinicola Hidalgo S.A. Sherry. Which is pretty good. Not as good as the Texas stuff, but a decent substitute for half the price.

If you are a software engineer you must read “No Silver Bullet” by Fredrick Brooks. If you have “Mythical Man Month” sitting on your shelf and haven’t found the time to read it yet. Pick it up and read chapters 16 and 17. It is only about 40 pages and it is worth it. It organizes some thoughts that I had been leaning toward after a discussion with a coworker a year agao. The difference between “accidental” and “essence” problems in software engineering. These two categories are what any change in software development, tool, methodolgy, language, process, anything should be measured against.

I’m too cheep to get HBO so I had to wait until they came out on video. Now that they are out I don’t think I’ll get much done until I finish them. I’ve seen the first 6 episodes so far. 7-10 are waiting for me now!

After spending a day with CFormView I finally got the scrollbars on CFormView to appear in the XP Style. I had a CFormView in a MDI app (and I tried an SDI app with the same results) that when I shrunk one of the child windows the scrollbars that automatically appeared were not drawn in the XP style. If I clicked on the slider or the arrow that portion of it would be redrawn in XP style but as soon as the child window size was changed they would be drawn in the old style again. This was VERY annoying. The fix turns out to be incredibly simple. I went into the resource editor and set the Vertical and Horizontal Scroll styles. Poof, everything worked like it was supposed to. With such a simple solution I almost feel like the day was wasted. But now I know.