Wednesday, October 21, 2009

The best way to make Skittles Vodka

Are you interested in drinking alcohol that tastes exactly like liquid Skittles?

If so, you have come to the right place.

There are a lot of different Skittles Vodka recipes out there on the net. I had researched at least a dozen recipes, each having minor variations and took what I thought was the best parts of each recipe to produce the best tasting, easiest to make Skittles Vodka.

Here we go...

Step 1: Get Supplies

5 Pints of Vodka
1 Large Bag of Skittles
5 Glasses
1 Funnel
Filters
Mixing Stick/Spoon

I suggest using Gordon's Vodka. It's a mid-grade vodka that's meant to taste good in mixed drinks. Don't think that spending a lot of money on vodka is going to make this drink taste better. Don't waste money buying vodka that's meant to be drunk straight, when in the end you don't want any vodka taste at all.

For the glasses that you will use to dissolve the Skittles, the rule is: The wider the glass the better. You can also use bowls. You want to maximize the amount of surface area that the Skittles are exposed to the vodka. This way, the Skittles will dissolve faster. If you have them, what is also nice is putting the Skittles into bottles you can shake.

For the filters, most recipes tell you to use coffee filters. Well, to put it bluntly, coffee filters suck. I started out this latest batch with coffee filters, but knew there must be an easier way. So after some experimentation I found that paper towels work great (I used Bounty). So, don't use coffee filters! Use a clean, white paper towel. In the pictures below, I was using coffee filters and I don't have a picture of the paper towels, but trust me, you will want to use paper towels, not coffee filters. It will save you at least an hour of time and aggravation. I have also read that Cheesecloth works good as a filter, but I tried it and it doesn't work well at all; cheesecloth is not fine enough and the waxy goo just goes right through it.

Note: Cleanliness is key! Always wash your hands before handling anything and make sure the equipment is clean. You never know who may be drinking this when you are done, so you want to be as clean and professional about it as possible.

Step 2: Separate the Skittles and add vodka

Pretty self-explanatory.

Step 3: Mix and Store

You will mix each glass for at least one minute, then wrap up the glass and let it sit. Repeat the one minute mixing every 8 hours, or whenever you get the chance. After 24 hours, give it a final mixing and it should be ready to go.

Step 4: Filter


So, you just dissolved the Skittles in the vodka, and are getting excited and ready to drink it right? Wrong! Now it's time for the most un-fun part of the job: Filtering. The dissolved Skittles leave a residue that you should remove. As mentioned above, do not use coffee filters. The use of coffee filters is so annoying that it's enough to make many people never want to try again. I found that using good quality paper towels works much better and faster.

Place a paper towel over the opening of a container and pour the vodka over it slowly. Let the vodka drain through the paper. If it goes too slowly (which often it does near the end) you can wrap up the sides of the filter, hold it in your hands and squeeze down to force the vodka through the paper faster.

The pictures above show coffee filters taped onto glasses, but this is not my recommended way of doing it. It takes forever. Next time, I'm just going to use paper towels, which is what I resorted to after waiting several hours.


Step 5: Use the funnel to fill up the bottles



Step 6: Drink!
This part is a tad trickier then you think. You will be tempted to drink a shot of this delicious smelling concoction. However, drinking it straight is pretty nasty. What you have on your hands is concentrated Skittles/Vodka syrup. To bring out the perfect Skittles Vodka taste, you need to pour it over ice and mix it with something. I mixed mine with Upper 10 (it's like Sprite) and it worked perfectly. It tasted like I had stuck a straw into a giant Skittle and drank it. Sprite should also work very well as a soda in the drink. I have heard about others mixing Skittles Vodka with Mountain Dew, 7-Up, Coke, Diet-Coke, Red Bull or fruit juice.

Good luck and enjoy!

Monday, March 23, 2009

Pinball Wizard


I was recently at a place that had my Harley Davidson pinball game that I programmed when I worked at Sega. I put in the lines of code that place me "MAT" as top score #3 :)

Thursday, February 5, 2009

25 random things about me

Someone sent me this chain-letter. My response to it is below.


Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you.
At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.

(To do this, go to “notes” under tabs on your profile page, paste these instructions in the body of the note, type your
25 random things, tag 25 people (in the right hand corner of the app) then click publish)

1. I had my 15 minutes of fame and enjoyed being flown around the world for gigs. The best DJ gig I had was headlining an event in Tokyo, Japan. Second would be a big party in Dalton, IL where I opened up for Green Velvet, playing on a stage for 3,000+ people. Having people ask for autographs was really cool too.

2. I wanted to be a computer programmer since I was a little kid and always thought working with computers was exciting.  

3. If crème brûlée is on the desert menu, I try to save room for it.

4. I still don't have sport cars out of my system.

5. I think it would be great to write a book some day, but never make the time for it.

6. No kids yet, but want some one day. EDIT: Got one now :)

7. New York, New Orleans, and California (any city besides LA which I hated) are the only places in America besides Chicago I've been to that I would consider living in.

8. The thing I think most people want are just to feel wanted and needed.

9. Nothing quite sooths my soul better than a ride on a motorcycle on a beautiful day.

10. Tattoos are cool, but I only want the one I have.

11. I think nose piercings look nasty, like someone has a bugger on their face.

12. I would really like to go back to Japan or Italy some day.

13. I really admired my grandfather on my mom’s side.

14. I feel very fortunate to be one of the first in my family's history to go to college.

15. Almost died at child birth. Dr's gave me a 50/50 chance to live. Said it was up to me if I wanted to live, so I consider this life a gift.

16. I'm not a hunter or much of a "gun-nut", but I'll fight for your right to keep and bear arms.

17. I have a large movie collection and don't watch a lot of TV.

18. I get my news off the web.

19. My favorite Color is Orange, followed closely by Black.

20. Although I find some of it interesting, I am a big skeptic of anything supernatural.

21. Before I got into DJing, I was a magician and the biggest show I ever did was for a grammar school. Also did some block parties and birthday parties.

22. I used to be friends with Penn & Teller, and would e-mail Teller back-and-forth to his private e-mail.

23. I have had several articles published in newspapers such as the Chicago Tribune and Sun Times.

24. Pool is my favorite sport, and I am one of the few in America who really likes watching it on TV, which is hard to find these days.

25. I like dragons and yes I used to play D&D when I was a kid.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Why 1984 was the best year ever

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of 1984, I finished this article which I had been meaning to complete for quite some time.


Why 1984 was the best year ever, by Matt Wilson.


Something special started in America in late 1983 and carried through all of 1984. You couldn’t quite put your finger on it at the time, but you could feel it.

I'm not sure why it happened, but it did. Perhaps Orwell's book 1984 inspired some people to greater deeds this year, and/or the current political climate that frequently repeated the message that Americans were the best, most capable people in the world. I can't say for certain what all the inspirations were, but this year was a great year to live in America.

Many years may have some positive events, but in 1984 it was like one grand-slam for us after another.

I think people can regard this year as the cultural peak of the "80s".

Below, I've listed some of the reasons why 1984 is the best year of modern American history, however it can all be summed up by saying:

• 1984 was the greatest year that American arts (music, art, film, etc.), technology, innovation and popular culture coalesced to yield the most fruitful year than any other.

I was nine years old for most of this year, and how lucky I was to be the perfect age to take advantage of most of the best of 1984.

Some Examples:

Groundbreaking Movies
• The Terminator
• A Nightmare On Elm Street
• Police Academy
• Ghostbusters
• Gremlins
• The Karate Kid
• Purple Rain
• The Never-Ending Story
• Revenge of the Nerds
• This is Spinal Tap
• Sixteen Candles
• Romancing the Stone
• Indiana Jones & The Temple Of Doom
• Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
• Dune
• Amadeus
• Splash
• Beverly Hills Cop
• Breakin' and Breakin' 2 "Electric Boogaloo" (Two movies in the same year)
• Children of the Corn
• The Last Starfighter
• Johnny Dangerously
• Top Secret!
• Ninja III: The Domination (Ninja's were in their prime in 1984)

Groundbreaking Music
• The first explosion and embracement of Hip-Hop music in the main stream
• Run DMC produced the very first Hip-Hop gold record
• Van Halen released their best album ever, entitled "1984" (they were on to something by pointing out the year!)
• Prince released Purple Rain
• Madonna was at her peak, released "Like a Virgin"
• Weird Al gained stardom with his hit video parody of Michael Jackson's "Beat It"/"Eat It"
• Corey Hart released "Sunglasses at Night"
• Yes released "Owner of a Lonely Heart"
• Lionel Richie released "Hello"
• Cindy Lauper released “Time After Time”
• Tina Turner released “What's Love Got To Do With It”
• Wham! released “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go”
• Bon Jovi released their debut album
• Megadeth released their debut album
• Skinny Puppy released their debut album
• Dead Can Dance released their debut album
• KMFDM released their debut album
• MTV launched the Video Music Awards
• '80s college music took off -- The Cure-Smiths-REM-Depeche Mode-New Order
• Synthesizers and electronic music started to get popular (Herbie Hancock & others)
• You weren't cool in school unless you knew how to Breakdance.

Groundbreaking TV
• Basic cable expanded
• The Cosby Show debuted
• Miami Vice debuted
• Night Court debuted
• Jeopardy! debuted
• V: The Series started on TV (alien invasion series)
• Voltron debuted
• The Transformers debuted
• NBC's Thursday night lineup: "Cosby," "Family Ties," "Cheers," "Night Court" and "Hill Street Blues."
• The A-Team was the No. 1 TV show in America



Groundbreaking Comics and Books
• The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles made their debut.
• Marvel Super Heroes "Secret Wars" came out.
• William Gibson started the cyberpunk genre by releasing the book Neuromancer.
• FASA debuted the board game BattleTech; Mech-Warrior was born.

Groundbreaking Toys
• Transformers came out
• Care Bears came out
• Cabbage Patch Kids came out in 1983, and hit sales peak in 1984 (parents started riots in stores all across the country)

Amazing year in American Sports
• Four once-in-a-lifetime athletes hit their primes: Bird, Gretzky, McEnroe, Montana.

• Great year to be a football fan.
o The Bears had Payton and Ditka
o The Dolphins had Marino and Shula.
o The Niners had Walsh and Montana.
o The Bronco's had Elway and Reeves.
o The Raiders had Marcus and Al Davis.
o The Redkins had Gibbs
o The Rams had Dickerson

• The Summer Olympics were in LA with Carl Lewis, Edwin Moses, Mary Lou Retton and Michael Jordan!

• The Milwaukee Brewers and the Chicago White Sox played the longest baseball game in MLB history, 25 innings over two days for a total time of 8 hours and 6 minutes (Sox won).

• "The Wave" began.

• Hulk Hogan won his first WWF Championship, pinning The Iron Sheik, and Hulkamania took off.

• Cyndi-Lauper hooked up with Captain’ Lou Albano.

• Roddy Piper started Piper's Pit, where he once slammed coconuts into Jimmy Snuka’s forehead.

Groundbreaking Science
• Space Shuttle Discovery took its maiden voyage.
• Apple released the first Macintosh computer (advertised in the Super Bowl).
• IBM's AT computer was introduced.
• IBM introduces EGA Graphics (16 colors!).
• The 3.5-inch floppy diskette was introduced.
• The Tandy 1000 personal computer was introduced and becomes the best-selling IBM-compatible computer of the year.
• Sierra released the first of a popular game series; Kings Quest 1: Quest for the crown
• Dell Computer was founded
• Richard Stallman started developing GNU.

Year of Politics
• Reagan wins reelection in a landslide.
• The Supreme Court made it legal to tape TV shows with a VCR.

Biggest downside of 1984
• Crack cocaine appeared for the first time in Los Angeles and soon spread to the rest of the country.


Feel free to comment on more reasons why you agree or disagree that 1984 was the best year ever!