I DID IT. I got third place in the barbecue competition somehow. There were about 15 people competing. It was really intimidating; I think was the only one under 30 there. Everyone had their fancy equipment; someone brought a stainless still carrying case with his own grilling utensils. They all knew what they were doing.

My ribs were so tender that every time I moved them on the grill they fell apart: bones fell right out of the meat and into the fire. It didn't help that my grill was uneven in heat. There were really hot areas and areas that weren't even warm. That meant I had to move my ribs around a lot, which is the last thing I wanted to do. It got so messy: there was meat everywhere, bones were all over the place, and burnt sauce covered every inch of the grill. I looked around and everyone had their beautiful ribs in one piece cleanly cooking.

My ribs ended up almost being pulled pork. I just put a bone on the plate and surrounded it with meat so that it looked like a rib. They were actually pretty good: they were waaaay too tender from my earlier preparation, so I tried hard to make the outside crispy. I brushed butter and sauce on it to get some caramelized sugar crispiness.

And then I got 3rd! I guess they were pretty good after all. I won $50, just enough to cover my time, labor, and money spent preparing them.

Posted by Terence! at 12:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What crazy activities am I doing at work now? Well, I am barbecuing ribs for a barbecue competition tomorrow for work. We are provided with 5 slabs of ribs and we feed our coworkers (and judges!) The winner will get $200. I'm not sure why I signed up. I enjoy cooking but I have never really done serious barbecuing before.

I found a recipe for a nice marinade. It had a lot of acid (vinegar, lemon juice) and was therefore supposed to make it really tender. I figured, well, I'm going to marinate it for like 2 days and it's going to be really tender! But apparently there is such a thing as too tender. After I baked it a little bit, a light pass from my basting brush tears the bone right out of the meat. I can't pick up a slab without it falling apart. To top it all off, it tastes really sour.

I found this out today at 2am. The cookout is tomorrow at 4pm. I had to think of a way to fix this fast. I ran to Giant Eagle (closes at 2:30am!) and decided to sweeten things up. I replaced my other sauce with honey barbecue sauce. I am soaking it right now in melted brown sugar water. I guess I'll call it sweet and sour ribs? That wasn't my original intention. This is either going to be delicious or lethal.
I guess we'll see!

Posted by Terence! at 4:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I came down from Cleveland to go home for the weekend, and I stopped by Columbus to pick up my football tickets. I'm in a bit of a dilemma. First, a confession: I have never been to an OSU football game. It's going to be my senior year next quarter, and I've only been in the Horseshoe once. These are the first set of tickets that I've purchased. I understand that this is a great sin, but that's why I've come here to confess.

Now everybody knows that tickets can be sold. For a lot of money. That was my original plan for getting these tickets, but I know I couldn't live with myself if I go through OSU without going to a single game. I've never been extremely into football, but going to a game is a unique experience that's hard to come by. The Michigan game will be very exciting as always, but: the tickets for that game can be sold for over $1000 apiece. That's a lot of money. I could buy like, 5050 and a half chicken nuggets from Wendy's. The ticket cost me $62 to get.

Now there are mindsets I can approach this with:
The first: I have the chance to easily get over $1000 without doing much work; am I going to pass up on this opportunity?
The second: I managed to get $1000 tickets for only $62. This is my chance to experience something awesome at a bargain price.

It's a tough choice, but I'm leaning towards the second. $1000 is a lot of money but I'm not in any financial crisis. I don't want to miss out on a great experience like a classic OSU vs Michigan game, but $1000 could give me a pretty good boost in some areas of my life.

Posted by Terence! at 1:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here are some photos from the previously mentioned event at my place of work, Hyland Software:

(Right Click->View Image for large pictures)

"Are you not entertained?!"

The gray platform was a bit wobbly.

Human bowling? YES.

Let me assure you that this is very safe. I mean, look. There's seatbelts and stuff.

There was only 1 strike in the 20 or so attempts. The first guy stuck out his feet and kicked down the remaining ones, although that didn't count, since that's incredibly dangerous (the ball with person inside weighed at least three hundred pounds).

These fearsome siege engines were actually more scary to the people launching them, as they would almost tear themselves apart under its own forces (that's like 25lbs of sand in that bucket), unleashing a torrent of duct tape and PVC shards.

We even got real metal medals! Our team (Peru) won second, only because our catapult fired backwards. Also, we won Best Buy gift cards.

Finally, an action shot! This is me defeating a fellow intern in an honorable duel.

Not shown in these pictures: water balloon toss (I won), electric car racing, beer, giant rib feast, Rock Band, Poker tournament, Lan party (I spawn killed our CTO a few times, I think I made him mad).

It was like a summer camp mixed with a carnival. But then you see 40 year old computer programmers hitting each other with giant sticks and you realize that software companies know how to have fun.

IN CONCLUSION: I am glad I went to the OSU Career Fair and nabbed this job!

Posted by Terence! at 10:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yesterday at work I played beer pong. Today I built a 10-foot tall catapult, jousted on a foam gladiator arena thing, had some alcoholic beverages, played some Rock Band, and played a Battlefield 2 LAN tournament. All of these events included cash prizes, of which a few I won. Also, we had a free catered rib dinner. Lastly, I am paid an hourly wage to participate in these activities.

I am Terence Lee and I work at Hyland Software. My internship ends in a month, and I am doing all that I can to stop time.

Posted by Terence! at 2:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)