blog.circusgeek

a personal blog with nerdy bits thrown in

  • If Facebook were real

    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. 🙂

  • Hot Chip, and general update

    Hot Chip at Crystal Ballroom, April 2008, 1Wednesday 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 at Crystal Ballroom, April 2008, 2Hot 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!

  • Backups

    Yesterday I picked up a 500 GB external hard drive, and connected it to my Airport Extreme so both Kelly and I can take advantage of the OS X‘s automated, versioned backup goodness that is Time Machine. I got my MacBook Pro all backed up yesterday, and Kelly’s is working at it now. It’s pretty nice, specifically because with very little attention, Kelly and my Mac’s will be fully backed up… and, the drive shows up and can be used by my Windows and Linux machines to use for backups too. Nice.

  • My brother’s ‘Golf Hunting’ video

    My brother T and a friend of his created a little video (which he wanted me to blog about, so here I am), a little parody mashup about a golfer, Trip Isenhour, who’s fateful golf ball hit an endangered hawk, and landed him in some trouble. Pretty clever mix of a couple different games. A bit sick in the head, but that’s my brother. 🙂

    Watch the vid at YouTube.

  • Summer day, in spring

    Back yardAfter a couple weeks of dark, cloudy, cold, and rainy weather, Portland was hit with a summer-like day, 76 degrees and clear blue skies. I had a few errands to run (picking up my taxes from the accountant, driving to the Toyota dealership to get some warranty work done) and then finally got home and was able to pull some weeds and mow the lawn. I just got back from a trip to the local grocery store, and everybody else seemed to be there for the same thing I was… BBQ fixins and beer. Well, they were there for beer, I have plenty of that. 🙂

    Wonderful day. Too bad it’s not going to last. Oh well. I’m sitting at the table pictured, waiting for a sausage to heat up. Have it with a bit of sauerkraut and beer. Yum!

  • Liver reprieve, and Kelly’s Travel Hell

    After getting a new Keg on Saturday I decided to give my liver a bit of a reprieve. It needed it, even though the liver is evil. However, tonight I’m left on my own (Kelly left for a work trip to Texas for the next 5 nights) and the keg of Terminal Gravity ESG beckoned. I could no longer resist it’s call.

    I’ve been getting texts from Kelly throughout the day, and sadly, she’s been caught up in the American Airlines flight cancellations that have been plaguing airports the past several days. She and a coworker made it to Seattle, planning on catching a connecting flight to Austin, which ended up canceled. As a result, they had to re-route to Salt Lake City, then catch a flight to Houston, where they’ll have to drive the nearly 3 hours to Austin. Last thing I heard is that they weren’t scheduled to arrive in Houston until 11:30pm Houston time. Egads, what a mess!

    Oh, and we learned yesterday that Kelly’s sister and her family are moving to Salisbury, England for the next two years. Kelly’s brother-in-law is in the military, and is getting stationed there (one of four possible locations, most a great deal less interesting) and they are all very excited about it. And so are we, I think we already know where our next trip will be (after the one we’ll be taking next month). It’s probably going to be a very interesting struggle, moving a family of four (including two boys) to another country. However, I’m a bit jealous of the eldest son, he’ll probably turn 18 over there. PUBS!

    UPDATE: Kelly and her coworker have landed in Houston. Now they just face a long-ass drive to Austin.

  • Terminal Gravity, & more Goose

    Today I went and picked up a keg of Terminal Gravity ESG, a very tasty ale. I was going to get Guinness, however there isn’t anywhere open on the weekends that will sell the nitro/co2 mix (known as ‘brewgas’) tanks I need. Apparently I need a 75/25 mixture (75% nitro) to get that perfect creamy texture, and there’s not many places in town that even sell brewgas tanks. Hopefully I’ll get one over the next few weeks and have it ready. I did however stop off at the local brewing supply store and picked up the Guinness keg assembly and the fancy faucet I need. Time to start hunting for a Guinness tap handle. 🙂

    Tonight Kelly and I met friends at the Goose (three weekends in a row, hooray!). Had fun catching up with J & J, and A & Z. The weather was just warm enough to enjoy their covered and heated patio area, and we kind of had it to ourselves due to the crappy weather outside. The whole pub was fairly slow too, so it meant the service was fantastic. Had a great time out.

  • The saddest sound in the world

    Tonight, after spending some quality time with my friends M and T (not to be confused with Mr. T, though if combined, they would surely rival the awesomeness of that infamous bad-ass, foo!) at Shanghai Tunnel, and then heading to my place to sip off my keg, we were witness to the saddest sound in the world… the sound of a dying keg. Never mind the cry of a hungry child, or the whimper of a puppy left outside on a cold night, that “ssshhhhh-ghllghlllghglg” that signals the death of a keg of beer is far, far worse. Especially when it happens before 9:30pm on a Friday. The horror!

    I guess I know what I’m doing tomorrow.

  • Goose, work, beer & travel plans

    OK, it’s been a bit since my last post, here’s what I’ve been up to:

    • Kelly and I have been to the Goose Hollow Inn a couple weekends in a row, first just Kelly and I, a second time with our friends T & Aymie and Miranda. Good lord I love their reuben sandwich. Mmmmmm….
    • Had an afternoon outing with some co-workers last Friday. The development team at SuperSweetCo were given a few hours reprieve to celebrate the the next big release of SuperSweetCo’s flagship app, and were taken to Grand Central Bowl. And despite my embarrassing high score of 86, I had a good time. Oh, Grand Central is definitely the fanciest bowling alley you’ll ever go to.
    • Still digging on the kegerator, my brother dropped by over the weekend, we hung out in my garage (aka: ‘Ryan N Kelly’s Pub’), had pizza delivered, and generally had fun chatting and sipping beers.
    • Kelly and I have been planning another trip to Europe (Belgium and Netherlands, taking advantage of the direct flights from Portland to Amsterdam)… looking forward to another vacation.

    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.

  • Dramatic Lemur

    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.