Joe, I'm not saying this would or would not be useful, I just found it with a search... http://www.bbcode-to-html.com/ Personally though, just because I like to do things the difficult way I'd probably throw copies of all the text files containing the bbcode into a folder and attempt to develop a script to convert them all in one go. I'm not saying I could do it, but I'd likely try. For instance, this rough beginning using "sed" works on the bbcode you posted above. It's missing a bunch of tags, even the regular [URL] one, but maybe it wouldn't be that difficult to extend. Or maybe it would, I don't really know. sed -e 's/\[b\]/\<strong\>/gi' \ -e 's/\[\/b\]/\<\/strong\>/gi' \ -e 's/\[u\]/\<u\>/gi' \ -e 's/\[\/u\]/\<\/u\>/gi' \ -e 's/\[url=\([^]]*\)\]/\<a href="\1"\>/gi' \ -e 's/\[\/url\]/\<\/a\>/gi' \ -e 's/\[img\]/\<img src\=\"/gi' \ -e 's/\[\/img\]/"\>/gi' Running the bbcode you posted above through that script yields this HTML: Download Autoruns for Windows: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx No installation required. Simply unzip <strong>Autoruns.zip</strong> file, and double click on <strong>autoruns.exe</strong> file to run the program. Go <strong>File>Save,</strong> and save it as <strong>AutoRuns.<u>txt</u></strong> file to desktop You must select <strong>Text</strong> from drop-down menu as a file type: <a href="http://s175.photobucket.com/user/ZEP516/media/p4436801_zps3defde9d.gif.html"><img src="http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w159/ZEP516/p4436801_zps3defde9d.gif"></a> Upload the file(s) here: http://www.sendspace.com/ Click on <strong>Browse</strong> button and navigate to the file you want to upload. Click on <strong>Upload button.</strong> Click on FIRST <strong>Copy Link</strong> button and paste the link in your next reply. Which when posted here gives: Download Autoruns for Windows: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx No installation required. Simply unzip Autoruns.zip file, and double click on autoruns.exe file to run the program. Go File>Save, and save it as AutoRuns.txt file to desktop You must select Text from drop-down menu as a file type: Upload the file(s) here: http://www.sendspace.com/ Click on Browse button and navigate to the file you want to upload. Click on Upload button. Click on FIRST Copy Link button and paste the link in your next reply. The good thing about it is that once written, it would just as easily handle five hundred files as one. The bad thing is, I don't know "regular expressions", although I wouldn't mind learning. Actually, I did learn a wee bit just now. Thanks. :) Edit: line-spacing This post was edited by chuggerguy on Fri, Jan 24, 14 at 16:46

Photography: If you are in NYC and you want to visit the Empire State Building and you have a map. It will not be difficult for you to find the place. And if you don’t have a map, you can drive for days and still not find the building. Is the person with the map a better driver? I am not a good photographer. I use extremely simple methods (the map). I use one light, one tripod and the camera on automatic for the same shots every time. Plating: I have been told that I have a unique style. I don’t know what that means. I do find it interesting that all food by nature have God’s given colors and geometry. So I try to take advantage what nature has to offer. There are many plating styles which I don’t practice, for many reasons, mostly because I don’t have the time to perform intricate carving and stacking. I don’t have the patience to take food to a presentation plate, arrange, assemble, move, sculpt, tweezer -----. compose, compose and compose---tasting menu style ----- then relocate the food on a serving plate, reheat and serve. The dishes that I take pictures with are the same dishes that go on the dinner table. I think there is no style that will please all, which is very interesting to me. I learn a lot from good comments and very critical comments. I find age differences, culture, geography, etc. have a lot to do with perception of and preference to aesthetics. After all, if you go to a fine arts museum, chances you will hate at least half of the “art” there. Sleevendog, everything you have said has been said to me by more than one person more than once. I have no disagreement with your thesis. I can see that you have some background in artistic training. I certainly do not think you are being critical at all. You have made valid observations from your perspective and I do appreciate them. I assure you each time I create some dishes, I will be thinking of your comments before I click. The important issue in discussion here is really for those who have some degree of photophobia. Taking good food pictures and creating good plating while not that important, but if you want to add additional joy to the eating experience, it is much easier and cheaper than you realize. A while back, I decided to send a couple of pictures and entered in a cooking competition sponsored by a major publication and some food companies. I was immediately qualified just by the pictures I sent. During the actual cooking, the appliance which was given to me (All finalists cook with the same appliances) failed. I was unable to fully execute my recipe. However, the picture of my plating was used in the centerfold by the publication and also the Facebook advertisement for the sponsoring food company. Then recently I entered another competition sponsored by a food forum. I won the competition just by the photos I submitted. I did post those pictures here in this forum. Those were a lot of fun to brag to my friends and family. And the equipment used for the photos? As I said nothing more than one light bulb, and a broken kitchen container. Lighting is very important, for instance, the same picture of the artistically plated dish up thread by Sleevendog would look totally different if it were taken with better lighting; No shaking, no bad lighting, that is the “Map” to good photos even with cheap cameras. Just do it. Plate, click, plate, click ------- Small investment in learning time for a life time of amazing food fun! dcarch

Did you know bottled water can be much worse than tap water? I watched a program on TV(Discovery Channel, I think) about a natural pet food producer in California. They are a small(as in size to Purina/etc.), but have a loyal following. Do you know what the only ingredient---ONLY----is in their food? Cow stomachs. They really like cow stomachs filled with grass on top of that. They throw all the stomachs into a giant grinder and almost puree them. That's it. Look at what the natural diet purists say about the offal(what they call guts/by products) manufacturers put in pet food. I just saw an ad for vegetarian dog food. Nothing but fruits and vegetables. How bizzare is that? My point is still. Pet food manufacturers have a huge customer base. In order to get a share of that customer base, each company has to market in such a way to attract people to their product. Dogs/cats/rabbits/horses/etc. cannot read. So, the advertising is directed at people who need to purchase food for their animals. Very often the actual composition of the actual dog/cat food is not really what the animal needs or can be detrimental(as in feeding dog food to cats) I owned horses for twenty years. I bought a lot of feed and hay. The feed always had corn in it. Know what too much corn will do to a horse? Can easily cause an upset stomach. Know what usually happens to a horse that has eaten too much corn? It founders or dies unless successfully treated by a vet. Too much alfalfa hay will do the same thing. Too much feed of any kind will do the same thing. Not enough exercise will do the same thing. Being too thin or too fat will do the same thing. That situation is not as prevelent in dogs/cats, but damage can occur because of incorrect diet. Beef dog food would have eventually killed Molly, due to the symptoms it caused(severe diarreha) which prevented her from maintaining her weight and also dehydrated her. That is the fault of people. People bred her breed improperly, as has happened to numerous other breeds. One side effect was food allergies. I keep both dogs on the low side of acceptable weight. I feed according to how much exercise they get. When we have days of multiple play/work sessions, they get more food. On very hot days, when they spend most of the day indoors, they get less food. In fact, sometimes when I miscalculate, they do not finish the amount when it is too much. A dog that weighs 40 pounds is much healthier at 37 pounds than 45 pounds. People need to feed dogs like dogs need to be fed, not the way misinformed people think dogs should be fed.

I have one cast iron kettle that I use as a deep fryer, trsinc. I use shortening in that one (Crisco, that is) and it works out just fine. It keeps through many uses before needing to be replaced. For non-deep frying the way Bumblebeez does, I've usually used peanut oil. Lately I've been using the Palm Oil shortening for those applications. But long term that can get expensive (cost me almost 7 bucks for a 24-oz tub). Once I use up what I have I will most likely not replace it. I'm surprised you can't find peanut oil. It's one of the commonest. Most supermarkets carry it. Is there a Walmart or Kroger near you? I know you can get it there. Barring that, however, you can use corn oil (the #1 oil sold in America). Until Canola started making inroads, corn oil was the most likely vegetable oil on grocery shelves. If you're eliminating the use of Canola, do not buy any of the ones that say "mixed oils" or "blended vegetable oils" or something like that without first reading the label. Most of those blends are Canola and something.