Kek Lapis Kacang Merah (Red Bean Layered Cake)

 I made this cake in July but thought will share in this blog only after the publication in the magazine - this is one of the cakes featured in Aroma magazine recently in September issue. It is actually just a plain simple cake but enriched with red beans.

By: Roz@HomeKreation
Size: 9"x4.5" tin
INGREDIENTS:
225g Butter
140g Sugar
6 Eggs
140g Self-raising Flour - sifted 
1½ cup Boiled Red Beans
1 packet Coconut Cream Powder
Pink/Yellow Coloring, Pandan Paste

METHOD:
1. Beat butter & sugar until fluffy.
Add in egg one by one until well mixed.
Fold in flour until well mixed.

2. Divide into two portions.
Add red beans into one portion.
Add coconut cream powder into the other portion and divide into two portions and colour each yellow and green with pandan paste.

3. Heat up steamer and steam the red portion for 30 minutes.
Pour yellow portion on top and steam for another 20 minutes until cooked.
Pour the green portion and steam for another 30 minutes or until well done.
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BAHASA MALAYSIA VERSION
Assalamualaikum dan sebagai pembuka bulan September, di sini Along kongsikan satu lagi resipi yg menarik. Kek ni mudah jer nak buat dan rasa nya pun agak simple. Along buat ni dah lama dah special untuk majalah Aroma. Bila Aroma isu September dah di siarkan barulah Along kongsikan resepi nya di sini.

By: AlongRoz@HomeKreation
Saiz: tin 9"x4.5"
BAHAN-BAHAN:

225g Mentega

140g Gula

6 bj Telur

140g Tepung Naik Sendiri – di ayak

1½ cwn Kacang Merah yg telah di rebus

1 bungkus Santan Serbuk

Pewarna merah jambu, Kuning, Pes Pandan

CARA-CARA:

1.    Pukul mentega dan gula sehingga kembang dan putih.

Masukkan telur satu persatu sambil di pukul sebati.

Masukkan tepung dan di gaul sebati.

2.  Bahagikan adunan kepada dua bahagian.
Satu bahagian di campurkan dengan kacang merah.
Satu bahagian lagi di campur santan serbuk & di bahagi dua - di warnakan setiap satu dengan kuning dan pes pandan.

3. Panaskan air kukusan sehingga menggelegak.
Kukus adunan kacang merah selama 30 minit sehingga masak.
Tuangkan lapisan kuning dan kukus lagi selama 20 minit sehingga masak.
Akhir sekali, tuangkan lapisan hijau dan kukus selama 30 minit atau sehingga masak sepenuh nya.

Unemployment Falls in 305 of 372 Metropolitan Areas

Unemployment in America is slowly improving.  The Bureau of Labor Statistics monthly report on metropolitan area employment and unemployment shows that from July of 2011 to last month, unemployment rates decreased in 305 of 372 metropolitan areas.  The number of areas posting over 10.0 percent unemployment nearly halved from 112 to 67.  Overall, the unemployment rate was 8.3% in July, illustrating a comeback – albeit a sluggish comeback – from when unemployment topped off at nearly 10.0% nationally.  Still though, just 18 of the 372 metropolitan areas registered unemployment rates of less than 5.0%.  To put that figure in perspective, before the recession, the national unemployment rate dipped below 5.0% for over a year.

AlongRoz & Friends in Sep12 Aroma

I'm still in Hari Raya mood and just return to work today... There were many missing baking and cooking during Ramadhan & Shawal that I would like to share but didn't have opportunity to do so. Hopefully will be able to catch up back soon despite returning to busy routines again at home and office....

Sharing herewith my appearance in September'12 Aroma issue with 13 recipes of my own creation in it. One of the recipes was specially created for Aroma and not yet shared in this blog but will do so at later opportunity. For the readers who have been requesting for my hard copy recipes, here is your opportunity to get one (the publication is in Malay language).
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Salam sejahtera buat semua pembaca dan kenalan. Seronok nya berhari raya sehingga tiada kesempatan untuk Along ke udara.... Setelah dua minggu berhari raya di Taiping bersama sanak-saudara Along kembali bertugas seperti biasa pada hari ini. Masih keletihan dan teringat2 suasana kemeriahan di hari raya..... seronok nya tiada terhingga....hahaha. Bila Along ada kelapangan, Along akan tayangkan kek2 & biskut raya tahun ni ok... Nanti Along blogwalk kendian, tq kekawan & sud singgah & tinggalkan jejak.

Sebelum ini, ada pembaca yg mencadangkan Along mencetak resepi2 Along supaya mudah rujuk oleh mereka tetapi Along belum ada kesempatan utk berbuat demikian. Di sini Along ada berita baik untuk mereka kerana boleh lah dapatkan naskah majalah Aroma keluaran September'12 yg mana Along kongsikan 13 resepi istimewa. Salah satu drpd resipi2 tu belum Along kongsikan di blog ini sbb Along buat khas untuk Aroma. Ucapan terima-kasih pada majalah Aroma yg sudi menjemput & menyunting resepi2 daripada HomeKreation.

Kesemua resipi2 yang Along kongsikan di situ adalah sumber/ hasil kreativiti Along sendiri tanpa ada isu ciplak atau republication tanpa izin. Sebelum ni ada juga terjadi pada Along sendiri yg mana resepi yg di kongsikan di cetak semula di media tanpa izin sama sekali sebelum atau pun selepas cetakan. Along hanya dapat tahu apabila terjumpa di kedai buku tapi Along tak mahu perbesarkan hal tu, jadi Along diam sahaja lah. Di harap kekawan ambil prihati hal2 sebegini supaya tidak menyentuh perasaan kekawan yang telah ikhlas-hati berkongsi ilmu tetapi di ambil kesempatan begitu sahaja. Hakcipta adalah peraturan biasa di global ini dan bukan perkara baru - sila rujuk "Rules" yg Along letak di sebleah kanan tu kalau kurang faham ya. Harap tiada yg kecil hati dengan teguran ikhlas dari Along... luv u all.

 Formal nya ada panggilan "Puan" lak....hehe, panggil Along jer lebih mesra gitu.... TQ Emak, hubby and my family for the support they have given me in my blogging activities. Tak lupa juga kesemua pembaca dan rakan2 blogger yang amat Along sayangi.... tq atas sokongan dan persahabatan.

p/s Pembetulan: Along anak ke6 drpd 11 org beradik bukan anak sulong seperti tertera dalam profile di atas. Along anak perempuan yg sulong selepas 5 anak lelaki. Buat pengetahuan pembaca, nama timangan "Along" adalah dari sebelah suami (anak sulong 8 beradik). Along ada mengajar memasak kepada orang2 kampung nya bila ada kesempatan sewaktu khenduri-khendara dan "Along" adalah panggilan mesra oleh adik2 ipar dan juga orang2 kampung nya.

 Kek Lapis Kacang Merah ni Along belum kongsi kat sini lagi.... nanti senang2 Along update kendian k...

Ini antara resepi2 Along yg popular kat alam blogging so far.....

Rakan2 yg mengiringi.... Ryo, Juwita dan juga Izzah turut sama memeriahkan Aroma pada bulan ini.... Nak tau resepi apa yg mereka kongsikan, cepat dapatkan naskah Aroma..... koleksi berharga daripada blogger/kekawan kesayangan semua kan.

2012 Convention Exposes Corruption of GOP, Romney Campaign

Found in the backpages of the mainstream press, a profound act of blatant tyranny in our elections occurred yesterday at the Republican National Convention. My goal is to explain the event using a simple analogy the complex corruption miring the hands of both the GOP and the Romney campaign.

Imagine if you will for a moment a NCAA football team trying to qualify for a bowl game. Let's furthermore pretend that the rules say that in order to qualify to play in a bowl game, you must have at least 5 wins. Your team works extra hard against pundits who claimed your team was so bad you wouldn't even win 1 game. Some of the games played--most notably one game played in Maine, but others as well--you were clearly the winner but the NCAA told you you lost the game because they didn't like the outcome. The NCAA's decision so outraged the Governor of Maine, he actually boycotted the games despite personal invitation to attend.

And all this notwithstanding, by some miracle grace of God your team wins SIX games! It serves as an amazing victory for the team and reason for celebration. Yet just in the act of winning the last win at the completion of the season, the NCAA votes to up the ante to EIGHT games in order to qualify. Thus has been the treatment yesterday at the convention with those within the GOP who support nominating at the convention someone other than Mitt Romney. Here is evidence of the 225 votes cast at the RNC yesterday for someone other than Romney: video tally count

The problem facing the GOP is not only is this corrupt, but illegal. While the GOP is a private organization, it received $18 Million in taxpayer funds for the purpose of holding a fair convention. Changing the rules at the final moment from 5 states to 8 states is antithetical to the democratic process and should disqualify the GOP from being considered a venue promoting fair, democratic process. Just as the birth certificate issue clouded the validity of Obama's election in the minds of many, the abrupt rule change now clouds the Romney victory. That is, how can Romney legitimately now claim to be the GOP nominee when the rules were changed at the last minute to disallow the nomination of another candidate at convention?  Would we allow a last minute change in the voting process?  What if we changed election rules at the last minute in 2000 and tell Bush that we were no longer counting electoral college but popular vote?  The nation would be in outrage.

 In an article of interest, US News quoted one of the Maine delegates as saying:

"We would have probably stood in line and voted for Romney in November, but not if he's going to do this for us," he says. "Not if he's going to disenfranchise the voters of the state of Maine. If you're going to do that, I will not stand with this party. This is ridiculous. These people were elected by the state and they're not allowed to be on the floor."

This video highlights the contention, including the shouts to seat the Maine delegation.  Does the Romney campaign and Mitt Romney himself really believe that using the tyranny of the majority to squelch dissent and disenfranchisement is the means to victory?  Can there be freedom or Constitutional government when the rights of the minority are disrupted?

Romney has been negligent in standing for freedom. Most likely through his heavy-handed campaign, he has been complicit in the disenfranchisement of the non-Romney delegates, although when questioned by Fox News' Ben Swann, he claimed ignorance. Ignorance-at-best is hardly a trait we can afford from a country quagmired in debt and a far cry from the leadership Romney professes.

Both the RNC and candidate Romney have lost the moral highground. There can be no long-term victory for them when this happens. Indeed it reminisces of the salt works scene from the movie Ghandi. The beating of those in favor of someone besides Romney has gone on and on. The bodies of the wounded have been carried off and whatever moral ascendancy the GOP held was lost today.  The tyranny at the GOP convention yesterday will be remembered always.

Assets of State and Local Pensions Recover to Pre-Recession Levels

The Census Bureau's report on the status of state and local government pensions shows that pension assets have recovered to levels seen in 2007.  In 2011, the holdings and investments of these pensions totaled $2.5 trillion.  These pension systems maintain large investments in financial markets; consequently, the funds' successes and failures are largely dependent on market performance.  Thus, just as the stock market suffered a substantial setback from 2008 to 2009, state and local pension funds experienced a similar loss and bounceback.  In 2011, earnings on investments were $410.6 billion, 2.3% higher than in 2007, and much improved on the $71.7 billion and $511.5 billion losses in 2008 and 2009 respectively.  California's pension system is the largest of any state with over $433 billion in assets, over 8 times the holdings and investments of the average state's pension system.

Health Spending Represents 17.9% of GDP

The California Health Care Foundation recently released its 2012 report on health care costs.  The report illustrates how America pays for its health care, as well as how these costs have evolved over the past half-century.  In 1960, health spending represented just 5.2% of GDP.  By 2010, that proportion ballooned to 17.9%.  Per capita spending has experienced an even more dramatic increase.  In 2000, health spending per capita was $4,878, but after just a decade, that figure rose to $8,402.  Compared to other countries, the U.S. spends far more on health care both per capita and as a percentage of its GDP.  Switzerland’s $5,270 spent on health care per capita makes the nation a distant second to the U.S. in health spending.

Over the past 50 years, the question of who foots the health care bill has constantly changed.  In 1960, the bulk of health care funds came from out-of-pocket spending. Today, however, government programs like Medicare and Medicaid along with private insurance cover the majority of costs, and hospital care, physician and clinical services, and prescription drugs all necessitate far less out-of-pocket spending.  For instance, in 1960, nearly all of the money for prescription drug costs (96%) came from the consumers’ pockets.  In 2010, out-of-pocket spending accounted for just 19% of the expenditures. 

Be Graceful Under Pressure

By Virgil R. Carter

Being a senior staff executive or chief staff officer in a non-profit organization often means dealing with pressure-packed situations, right?  Sometimes the situations can be anticipated.  Sometimes not!  For example, you are 20 minutes into your on-stage presentation and it’s going great.  Without warning the computer crashes, the screen goes black and you want to fall apart!

What to do?  In an article, in Owner’s Manual published in Inc., author Jeff Haden writes, “Some people do seem naturally confident and poised under pressure. But poise isn't natural. Poise is a skill that some people develop… And that's why the key to maintaining your poise during even the most stressful situations is to gain experience. Not just any experience, though; the right kind of experience, the kind that builds confidence.”

Haden offers these tips for staying cool—no matter what happens:

Practice the basics:  Run through your demo a number of times. Smooth out the kinks. Make sure you know it cold.  Then think about the most likely questions or interruptions. Make sure you're ready to present the demo as a conversation rather than a presentation.

Then rework the basics:  All your initial practice will result in a set of logical steps: 1, 2, 3... To really know your stuff, change it up. Start with step 5. Rehearsing a different order helps reinforce your knowledge of your material and also prepares you for those inevitable moments when the client says, "but what I really want to know is this." 

Practice the "What if?":  Once your presentation is in good shape it's time to prepare for things that could cause you to freeze. What if your software locks up? Figure out what you'll do. What if your client is delayed and you only get 10 minutes instead of 30? Decide how to shorten your presentation so you still hit key points. What if you get questions you aren't able to answer? Go crazy. Think of some outlandish scenarios and decide how you'll handle them. It's actually kind of fun.

Rinse and repeat everywhere:  You can apply this approach to almost any situation, whether business or personal: Giving feedback, pitching investors, disciplining employees, dealing with confrontation, playing a sport, starting and building relationships... it doesn't matter.  You don't need to be brave. Just take a systematic approach to developing skills and gaining confidence.  Do the work and bravery, composure, and coolness under fire are unnecessary.  They're automatic.

For the full article, go to http://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/how-to-be-graceful-under-pressure.html?nav=next

Tabernacle Landscaping

I went to the Tabernacle this morning to find the landscaping virtually complete.  All the sod has been placed, and there are only a few bushes to plant and the landscaping should be done.  Someone at church today said they would take down the orange barriers tomorrow.  I hope they are right.

I think the temple and tabernacle will look a lot better when the barriers are removed.  Also, many folks don't know that the Tabernacle is open for tours, also.  The barriers keep visitors from entering in the West doors, but if you are interested, walk over to the Tabernacle and go in the side doors for a tour.  They would love to have you.

Open House from the Air

These photos were shot Thursday evening.  The buses are visible in some of the photos at the temple and also at the Autoliv parking lot.

The nearly completed landscaping at the Tabernacle is also visible.

"Man on the Moon" Packager release

Today I'm releasing a preview version of the BennuGD Packager for Windows and MacOS X. It works in Linux, too, so even though I haven't packaged it yet you shall soon be able to install it from my PPA.
The Packager should ease the packaging of your games for Android.

The icon was made by Javis Arias, from Pixelatom

Please be sure to first follow the pre-install instructions for Windows or OSX as those describe what you need to do to get the program working.

When launched, it looks like this:

It looks very simple and you'll notice that it includes a couple of disabled items: (right now you can only package your games for Android and you cannot change the app descriptor).

So, basically you must enter the directory where your game's data (including the game's main DCB file), the name and the icons that you want your app to show when installed.
If you've got a phone or an emulator instance running, you can choose to directly install the APK.
Also, when done packaging, the program will let you specify where you want to save the resulting APK.

The resulting APK will be usable in ARM or Intel based Android devices running Android 2.3.3 or later. Just one caution: ensure that your game's DCB file is named "main.dcb".

If you tested it yet, I'm telling you: the Android port is not yet done. scale_resolution, for example, doesn't work as expected. Still I consider that you can already use this program to get going and start porting your games to Android. I'll update the binaries and let you know when I publish new binaries so that you can update the Packager.
I'll publish some more notes on what works and what doesn't at a later time.

As a last note, you'll notice that you can launch the main Android SDK tools (SDK Manager, AVD Manager and DDMS) directly from the BennuGD Packager, it should also detect any AVD you have created and allow you to launch it directly from the GUI.

Keep an eye on the blog in the following days, as I'll post some more detailed info about how to use all the capabilities included.

<<Get the current binary version for Windows here and for OSX here>>

Humbly dedicated to the memory of Neil Armstrong.

Recreating your NotesPlus notebooks from backup

When I bought my iPad (thanks to you!) I started to use the very good NotesPlus app. It's really good and -amongst other things- it lets you annotate your PDFs.
After someone stole my iPad they also took my notes from me. Hopefully NotesPlus includes an option to automatically backup your notes to Dropbox.

Fortunately, the backup format that the app uses on Dropbox is pretty simple: it stores the background PDF you've used and a SVG file per each page with your annotations (and a lot of metadata I'm deliberately ignoring).
I've created a simple bash script for Linux/OSX (anywhere you've got BASH+ImageMagick, really) that uses the wonderful ImageMagick to extract the pages of the PDF one by one, overlay the SVG over it and then convert everything into a single PDF file once again.

Obviously it only covers one of the many use cases for NotesPlus, but it did the trick for me.
I leave it here in case it's ever useful to anybody:

#!/bin/bash

# Clear environment, just in case

export DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH=""

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=""

# Determine my running dir

MYDIR=$(dirname $0)

cd "$MYDIR"

MYDIR="$(pwd)"

# This'll save us a lot of headaches

SAVEIFS=$IFS

IFS=$(echo -en "\n\b") 

# Iterate on all the notebooks found

for NOTEBOOK in $(ls | sort -n); do

    if [ -d "$NOTEBOOK" ]; then

        echo "Processing '$NOTEBOOK'"

        echo "=========================="

        cd "$NOTEBOOK"

        FILES=""

        # Do this thing for each page found

        for PAGE in $(ls | sort -n); do

            # Make sure the directory's name is an integer

            expr "$PAGE" + 1 &> /dev/null

            RETVAL=$?

            if [ -d "$PAGE" -a "$RETVAL" -eq 0 ]; then

                cd "$PAGE"

                echo "$PAGE"

                # The number of the page-1

                PAGE_1=$(expr $PAGE - 1)

                # Make the background of the SVG file transparent

                sed -i '' 's/fill:#FFFFFF;  stroke-width:2.0;/fill:#FFFFFF;  fill-opacity: 0;  stroke-width:2.0;/g' page.svg

                # Convert the background and the foregroung to PNGs

                convert -antialias -background transparent -resize 826x1169 page.svg page.png

                convert -density 400 -resize 826x1169 ../background.pdf[$PAGE_1] background.png

                # Compose an output PNG from the background+foreground

                convert -flatten background.png page.png $PAGE.jpg

                FILES="$FILES $PAGE/$PAGE.jpg"

                # Remove unneeded files

                rm -f background.png page.png

                cd "$MYDIR/$NOTEBOOK"

            fi

        done

        cd "$MYDIR/$NOTEBOOK"

        

        if ! [ -z "$FILES" ]; then

            echo "Creating final PDF for $(pwd)"

            IFS=$SAVEIFS

            convert -compress JPEG -adjoin -limit area 1 $FILES "$NOTEBOOK".pdf

            IFS=$(echo -en "\n\b")

        fi

    fi

    cd "$MYDIR"

done

Obviously, you must install ImageMagick on your system if you haven't already done so.

Tabernacle Landscaping

As of Sunday, August 19th, the landscaping at the Tabernacle was as follows:

The sign has been recycled as shown here.

 The North half of the project is complete.

 

 I suspect the South half will be completed this week.

 I really relish the thought of walking around the completed Tabernacle landscaping and admiring the temple.

Don’t Ever Put These on Your Resume

By Virgil R. Carter

Most of us have prepared and distributed resumes.  Resumes are important documents that may lead to new and better career opportunities.  As a result, many people concentrate on what they should include in a strong resume.  Do you?  But how much attention do you pay to what shouldn’t be included in your resume?

Dawn Dugan, writing in a recent salary.com article explores things you should never put in your resume.  Here’s a summary:

·        A crazy objective:  You think you want to be the next Bill Gates?  Great!  Just don’t put it in your objective statement.  Outlandish or overconfident objectives almost always ensure the rest of your resume isn’t read!

·        Irrelevant job experience:  Sure, the summer after freshman year you spent as Harry's Hot Dog Hut mascot was the best ever. But unless you're applying to wear the Gorilla suit for the Phoenix Suns, leave it out.

·        Statements that aren’t achievements:  Being nominated prom queen is not an achievement. Nor is belonging to a sorority or fraternity. And that award you won in a competitive eating contest? That's right--not an achievement. Stick to professional and community service awards only.

·        Bad grammar and obscure words:  Describing yourself as a "Very detail oriented multi-taster" is likely to get no other response than, "Yeah, right" before it's passed around the HR department for laughs--and then tossed. And don't try to impress with big words. No one needs to know you are endowed with "sophrosyne," when "good sense" will do.

·        Unprofessional contact information:  If your email address is crazybeerdrinker@dummy.com, don't include it on your resume. Email addresses are free and most accounts allow you to get several, so either get a new, professional address or delete it from your resume.

·        Attention-getting tactics:  Adding non-traditional elements to your resume will make it stand out--but not in a good way. Different font types and ink colors, glitter and other adornments, and brightly colored or perfumed paper--yes, every hiring manager has seen at least a few of these memorable tactics--are all no-nos.

First impressions count a lot.  When it comes to finding the right job, first impressions count a lot. You can ensure your resume gives a good first impression by knowing not only what to include, but also what not to include. Good luck in your job search!  For the full article, go to http://www.salary.com/10-things-to-never-put-on-your-resume/

Church Published Interior Photos

Go here to see some fantastic photos from the inside of the temple.

Brigham City at Night

I took these pictures last night and wanted to share them with you.