About Me!
Hello, I’m Mike and welcome to my little static Jekyll blog about coding and other things!
To provide some background, I’m an Electrical Engineer and lifelong programmer with a passion for coding and learning new things.
I typically spend most of my working days doing project management, software architecture design, along with platform and application support.
When the opportunity permits itself, I do Python development and typically pair the result with docker and other distribution tools to create scalable applications.
I also occasionally work with C++ along with other “fullstack” languages…
My Background.
At the beginning of my career, I spent about a decade in academia where I both learned and subsequently taught a number of subjects while pursuing my Batchelor’s, Master’s, and Doctorate degree in Electrical Engineering.
During my Bachelor’s I focused on analog circuit design and later transitioned to biomedicine signal processing for my Master’s and Doctorate research. I also dabbled in VLSI and control systems along the way…
After completing my Doctorate, I transitioned from academia into the semiconductor industry, where I had the great fortune of working nearly a decade at a BAW filter startup.
While working at the startup, I had the opportunity to help build all the software and IT infrastructure from the ground up, and I got to learn a lot about RF test and microwave BAW engineering, among other things…
These days, I spend most of my time doing project management, software architecture design, and platform and application support and less time doing just software development…
On occasion, I still get to write code and research new technologies that keep things interesting…
Hobby and Interests.
I have had an assortment of hobbies over the years, including:
- US Stamp Collecting
- an older hobby I shared with my grandmother
- Amateur Radio
- I have an Extra Class License
- Software Defined Radio and Radio Scanning
- 3D Printing
- Both Resin and FDM
- CNC Machining
- Laser Cutting and Engraving
- Raspberry PI and Arduino projects
Recently I have been enjoying playing around with AI artwork and other AI creative activities…
I particularly enjoy the artistic works of:
- John William Waterhouse
- William Bouguereau
- John Singer Sargent
- Johannes Vermeer
- Edvard Munch
- Mark Rothko
I am also fond of a number of contemporary artists:
- Gordon Napier
- I have quite a few of his original pieces, He's a wonderful artist, so check out his Etsy
- Chris Achilleos
- Rest his Heavy Metal soul, I was so close to getting the original Nuria, but sadly, it was sold before I could get it
- Lucio Parrillo
- I'm saving up for an original, I really like Eve and Red Sonja Vol. 7
Why All the Lime?
Honestly, I just like limes and the color green… but I suspect it is a little deeper than that…
Growing up, I always enjoyed sour and citrus flavors… Who here remembers “Warheads” candy?
I also have a vivid fondness for the lime and lemon that my grandmother (rest her soul) used in her no-bake refrigerator cheesecake.
Steak is also great when marinated in lime juice and grilled, also key lime pie is another favorite dessert of mine…
So, I guess you could say that limes are a bit of a theme for me and why I chose the name “Lime Coder” for this blog…
Let’s also not forget that GitHub commits are lime when the number is high… so it all fits together nicely…
Grandma’s Cheesecake Recipe!
Grandma’s original no-bake cheesecake recipe is straightforward and delicious, and like all good secret family recipes…
The original likely came off the pan cover of the “Keebler Ready Graham Pie Crust” or inside the “Philadelphia Cream Cheese” box (thus was the nature of things before the internet)…
Ingredients:
- 1 - 8 oz package of Philadelphia Cream Cheese
- 1 - 14 oz can of Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk
- 1/3 - cup of Lemon or Lime juice
- 1 - Keebler Ready Graham Pie Crust
Instructions:
- Using a mixer, blend the cream cheese until smooth
- Note: go slow to avoid splatter, also the cream cheese is sticky and will wrap around the beaters
- Add the sweetened condensed milk and blend until smooth
- Add the lemon or lime juice and blend until smooth
- Note: the mixture will thicken as you mix, it's like buttercream frosting, so don't over mix, also avoid lumps by scraping the sides of the bowl
- Pour the mixture into the pie crust
- Refrigerate for 2 or 3 hours or until set
Note: if you want to get fancy, you can add whipped cream, cherry pie filling, or other toppings on the top before serving…
I like it plain myself… but we did cherry pie filling one year and it wasn’t bad.
Enjoy!
Mike’s Cheesecake Errata Recipe!
While the original recipe is straightforward and quite delicious, the condensed milk is a bit on the sweet side for me, so I like to make some minor modifications…
Note: while you can find unsweetened condensed milk as a drop in replacement, it’s not as common as the sweetened variety in my local area hence why I make the following modifications…
Substitutions:
- Reduce the sweetened condensed milk by half
- 7 oz rather than 14 oz
- Substitute Heavy Whipping Cream to make up the difference
- you could do 7oz, but I typically do 1 to 2 cups (around 8oz to 16oz) and mix longer to make it thicker
Instructions:
- Follow the original instructions, but add the heavy whipping cream after the sweetened condensed milk but before the lemon or lime juice
- Mix until smooth and let the heavy whipping cream thicken while mixing
- Note: I recommend a thicker consistency than the original recipe since the heavy whipping cream sets up in the refrigerator differently than the sweetened condensed milk, so getting a good thick density out of the heavy whipping cream is key to the substitution
Note: the amount of heavy whipping cream can be adjusted to taste or thickness preference, and you can adjust the lime or lemon juice to offset the flavor as well… I recommend trying the original recipe first before making modifications as heavy whipping cream can be a bit tricky to work with, especially when trying to match the thickness and consistency of the original recipe…
Other cool facts, you can also use this recipe as a base for other flavors (outside of lemon and lime) like orange, grape, etc… as anything citrus will work well with the cream cheese and sweetened condensed milk… (I have heard rumors that Mikes hard lemonade pairs well as well have never tried it myself)…