a personal blog with nerdy bits thrown in
The comic genius George Carlin passed away yesterday at the age of 71. Sad. I’ve been listening to his comedy for 20 years, and am going to miss is musings on society, faith, and everyday inane subjects.
Found this video just now, thought it’s a fitting way to end the post… some of George Carlin’s standup on the topic of death.
Over the past couple weeks I’ve been drinking a lot more beer than I normally would. I’m torn on whether that’s a good or bad thing. It’s good in that I really like beer, especially Guinness, but it’s bad for my waistline. Oh well. The good news is that it’s been 2 weeks tonight since I tapped the keg, and it’s still pouring fine. While I’m not sure how much is left in the keg, I tried lifting it last weekend and I can tell there’s quite a bit left. Not sure what to expect now (given that after two weeks everybody says beer on nitro goes flat), but I hope it last through one more weekend. After that I guess it can be used for cooking (stews and cakes come to mind). Even if the I return a half-full keg of flat beer at the end of all this, it was worth the experiment. Though I’m pretty sure I’m going to move to something on CO2 that I don’t feel pressured to drink (and force on all my friends).
Last Sunday Kelly and I watched the fantastic final episode (of this year) of Battlestar Galactica. To anybody who hasn’t seen the show, watch it. It’s a great reimagining of the original. We’ve also been getting caught up on this season’s Doctor Who, which is also good, if a bit more kid-friendly than BSG or Lost (oh, yeah, it’s season finale was also really good).
Last night we watched the film Jumper, which was also a fun film, despite starring an actor who I will always associate with the horrid Star Wars, Episodes II and III. The effects were well done, the story was interesting, and since I didn’t know much about it before watching it, had a couple twists (and an obvious, made-for-a-sequel ending).
Work continues to be crazy busy, but good. My stress and happiness levels go up and down, but it’s still all good. Lots of stuff I’m working on, and hope to get to do, in the coming months.
Anyway, sitting in my back yard with a beer and thought I’d write (finally). Mmmm… Guinness.
Since the last post, I had a nice end of my two week vacation. A couple relaxing days that allowed me to get back into our timezone. During that time I also discovered that Belmont Station carries the Bruges beer that Kelly and I had much of on our trip, Brugse Zot, so I picked up a couple bottles of that. Hooray!
Last Wednesday Kelly and I had M & B over for dinner, to thank them for watching over our house and our cat, and I figured that would be as good a time as any to tap my keg of Guinness. The countdown begins. Tapping it proved to be more complicated than I’d thought. The first problem was that I hadn’t tightened the stout faucet all the way, and when I first went to lock the tap on, beer sprayed everywhere. Damn! Once I’d fixed that, the tap wouldn’t lock down easily (making me wonder for a bit whether I’d picked up the wrong tap). Finally realized that it just needed a bit more ‘elbow grease’ than other taps, and finally got the delicious black stuff flowing Yum!
Kelly and I went out to my hometown on Friday after work for a belated birthday dinner for Kelly. We went to this newly opened Chinese place, the food was mediocre, but it was still a nice dinner. Afterwards we drove to my folks place for dessert (ice cream cake, yum!) and I got to spend time playing with my rapidly growing nephew, Bart. After getting home I had a couple pints of Guinness (naturally) while getting distracted by this Comcast site Fancast, where you can watch full episodes of TV shows… I ended up watching some of the original Battlestar Galactica. I hadn’t seen it in many, many years.
Last night we went out with Mr. & Mrs. Ghost Dog to the Goose Hollow Inn for delicious sandwiches and beers, before coming back to our house for a bit. Had a great time, and it’d been quite some time since we’d seen the GDs.
Today, finally, the unseasonably cold and rainy weather broke, and Kelly and I were able to spend a few hours outside doing yardwork. Soon, we’ll be grilling some chicken kabobs on the barbecue. Hooray!
Between all this, was a crazy first week back to work. Loads to do in the next few weeks for the next software release. Gonna be nuts.
Oh, also, discovered a new web comic, Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal. Enjoy.
Edited to add one more thing: My friend and coworker Aaron recently blogged about this news site The Big Picture, where I found this photo/article about an uncontacted tribe in Brazil. Really found the photos amazing, imagine not being in contact with the ‘modern’ world and having a helicopter buzzing around your tribe’s camp. What must have been going through their minds.
Since the last recap, Kelly and I got caught up on Lost and Battlestar Galactica (both of which were really good episodes, after waiting through some ‘filler’ episodes recently), and we went to see two movies, Iron Man and In Bruges.
Iron Man was really fantastic. I’d heard good things, but wasn’t expecting it to be quite as good as it was. Not only was it a fantastic comic book film, but it also was a good movie all around. A great mixture of humor, action, romantic scenes, and all around good acting and a fun story. Gorn says “yessss”.
Later that same day (last Sunday) Kelly and I went to Kennedy School to see In Bruges with M & B (who will be watching over our furry black evil, otherwise known as Arthur Guinness, while we’re gone). The movie was great fun. Not only was the setting something which Kelly and I were keenly observing, but the story was fun and the acting was great. Even Colin Farrell, whom I don’t generally like, was likable and hilarious. I couldn’t help but thinking through the entire film “in 7 days from we’ll be there”
Tonight brother T and I went to The Goose (Goose Hollow Inn) for some beers and dinner after work. There really isn’t much better than their reuben sandwich. Yum!
Kelly’s in Chicago at the moment. She had to get up around 4am this morning to fly out with a coworker for a work event, and returns tomorrow afternoon. Then, we pack and get ready, and fly out on Saturday about mid-day. Really looking forward to the trip.
Caught this little gem from Digg just now and had to repost it here, because well, it’s hilarious. And sadly true.
This video represents the downside of being too connected. Sometimes it can be good (yielding some favorable contact with long-lost friends), sometimes it can be awkward and slightly uncomfortable (being contacted and ‘friended’ by people who you might rather not bother with), and sometimes it can be outright weird. I’m sure anybody who’s ventured into the MySpace or Facebook worlds have had all three happen at one time or another. I’m beginning to wonder if I shouldn’t just work towards removing my profiles, and going back ‘off the grid’ and return to relative obscurity. 🙂
Wednesday night Kelly and I went to see the great electro-pop band Hot Chip at the Crystal Ballroom. After work we went to Ringlers Pub for some dinner and drinks before the show, where I had a fantastic brew (which I guess is only being poured at Ringlers), called Liquid Friend. It was a lighter ale, with a very balanced flavor (with a very slight citrus/sweet hint) and was delicious. The server said it was his favorite McMenamins beer, and I think I agree with him. It’s at least up there with their ESB served on nitro.
Anyway, the show started at 9pm, we got in at about 8:30pm, went to the balcony and were able to get a couple seats while we waited for the opening band, Free Blood, who were a kind of quirky. It was a male & female duo who danced around singing to pre-recorded, bass-heavy dance music. At one point I thought I ‘got it’, it’s like some white raver-kid version of old-school rap. Kind of. But in the end, I was like, meh. It wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t great. The songs on their MySpace page sound better than they did live.
Hot Chip however, were fantastic. The whole ballroom became a crowded dance club for an hour and a half. The vibe of the entire venue was good, and even the servers working the bars seemed less hipster-surly than normal. The band played pretty much everything Kelly and I were hoping they’d play from their last two albums. The encore held a couple fun surprises too. First was the hybrid of their track No Fit State and the classic New Order track Temptation, which was a fun surprise (you can watch a version of it here from last year). The second surprise was the band’s choice to finish the show by combining their song In the Privacy of Our Love with Nothing Compares 2 U (the Prince song that Sinead O’Connor made famous). It was really good, and a great way to end the show.
Now on to the really quick update of the past couple weeks: gone out to the pubs once or twice, had friends over for dinner last weekend (Kelly made pulled pork, and hot damn it was good), been workin my ass off, and I finally booked the last of the hotels for our upcoming trip. I think that’s about it. I think.
Update: Oh, I forgot something. The weather here has been schizophrenic. It went from warm and sunny, to cold and nasty (it even snowed briefly a few days ago), and now back to being a bit more consistent with this time of year. Sheesh!
OK, it’s been a bit since my last post, here’s what I’ve been up to:
I’ll close with a video I found yesterday, by Trey Parker & Matt Stone (of South Park fame) featuring an audio clip by Alan Watts.
You can watch more of these here.
For those that remember Dramatic Chipmunk (that’s not really a chipmunk) comes another fine bit of web junk… Dramatic Lemur (requires sound for full effect).
You’re welcome.
Last night I was out with my brothers at Moon & Sixpence for some beers and dinner. Fortunately I got home at a reasonable hour, though I still ended getting to work late this morning, however it had nothing to do with last night. Kelly took today off from work (tomorrow is her last day of school for her MBA, and she has a big project to finish up) and as my alarm went off at around 6:30am, I shut it off, rolled over, and both Kelly and the cat were curled up all cute and warm. I remember thinking awww, and then must have fell back asleep because when I next opened my eyes another hour and a half had gone by. Drats!
After work I got to have a couple beers at the Rialto with my good friend MB. Afterwards he drove me homeward, dropping me of at the local grocery store.
After getting home and cleaning the house a bit, I remembered a song that caught my attention the other day. I subscribe to the RSS feed of MP3’s from Stereogum, and often discover ‘new to me’ bands I like. Earlier this week I ended up with a song by Bon Iver (an alias for musician Justin Vernon) that I liked quite a bit, so tonight I did a bit of hunting. I discovered a good writeup and a site where you can stream the album. After listening to a few tracks (including the one that originally caught my ear, Skinny Love) I decided to see if Amazon’s MP3 store had it available. And they did. So I bought it. It’s really really good.
The album was conceived in a cabin in the snowy woods of a wintry Wisconsin, and the songs seem to capture the setting. A lot of introspective, sad, and beautiful songs, all a bit muted and folky. Just the kind of thing for today’s rainy, cold weather. I can certainly imagine it being the perfect soundtrack to a drive in a snowy landscape, with no particular destination in mind. Check it out, it’s good stuff.
Met my good friend JB at the Mash Tun tonight after work. It’d been a bit since we last caught up, and had a good time hanging out, and I greatly enjoyed sipping on the cream ale the Tun is still pouring. I asked the server (nice fella named Tim) whether he knew if they were planning to keep that particular beer going (as it’s my favorite beer they’ve ever brewed) and he said he wasn’t sure, and didn’t suspect so. It’s the Tun’s habit to perpetually brew new things, and several times since they’ve started pouring their own brews have I found one I like that hasn’t returned. I hope that’s not the case with the cream ale. If you’re into fine (and not stupidly hoppy) ales, I suggest going and having a pint before it vanishes into beer history. (Beeristory? Bistory? whatever)
Quick recap of the past, oh, several days: Saturday Kelly and I spent the evening with some friends for dinner and had a great time. Sunday we got outside and did some yard work, including me climbing on the roof of my shed to trim dead / dying branches from my ailing (and non-fruit producing) apricot tree. Still sore from that day. Monday my Comcast-provided DVR died on me, fortunately, just after finishing last week’s LOST. I have to go swap it tomorrow morning (before LOST tomorrow night, because it’s all about LOST, you know). Watched Elizabeth: The Golden Age, which was good (pretty much as good as the first one, so if you liked that one, you’ll probably enjoy it). Work’s been very busy, but less so than a couple weeks back. Taking next Monday and Tuesday off (yup, the day of and after St. Patrick’s day, so I can really do it up and recover without worry). Whew! And now you’re all caught up.
