Friday Grab Bag

A relaxed and empathetic-without-being-uncomfortable Good Morning to you, or a warmer-than-merely-civil Good Afternoon for our friends in the South Pacific (Ohayo!). We're counting down the top few unrelated things today, and we won't stop 'til we get to number ONE, so fasten your bucklebelts!

1. I tried a few other beers without blogging them all over the place, so here's a recap:
   
1. Arcadia Scotch Ale Arcadia Brewing Company, Battle Creek, MI I put off trying Scotch ales for awhile, because I'm not a huge fan of Scotch whisky. No, I'm not an idiot, it's merely a matter of word association. If you handed me a beer and said that it's Stewed Cauliflower IPA, but that it's not actually made from cauliflower, I would politely decline. Anyway, at Jon and Kerrigan's wedding, some fellow homebrewers were taken with the weissbier that we brought (Jill's brew), and offered up glasses of their Scotch Ale. It was fairly amazing. So, since I've been impressed with Arcadia's offerings to date, it made a lot of sense to pick this up. So the pocket review goes like this: molasses color; malty aroma; syrup-sweet, mega-malty flavor; medium-light body; slight bitterness from a minimalist hops approach and from darker roast grain; wonderful finish; maximum drinkability is about 3 per session (lightweight here gets toasty after 2). Final analysis? It's in my current top 10. Nummmmmmm.
2. Dubbel Ale Allagash Brewing Company, Portand ME
   I bought and tried this at the same time as Railbender Ale. I'm unclear as to whether or not this brew has any hops at all. There was a big empty feeling in the middle to back of my tongue (sorry). It was like part of my mouth was tasting beer and another part was drinking water. I chalk it up to almost no bitterness. The pocket review: Golden to Maple syrup color; slightly sour, trub-like odor; dry, light, and sweet flavor, light body with a bit of carbonation burn; the aftertaste starts out slightly bitter and quickly turns sour; quite drinkable, but in the 6-7% abv range. I tasted this once more to be sure of my analysis, and it was much sweeter, so I think that there's some variability from bottle to bottle, or one of the bottles that I tried was bad. I would like to try more from this brewery. Check out their website.
2. I printed off my thesis last night to take to the Graduate school for my post-defense meeting this morning. It's a rather modest volume of 130 pages, counting the fluff at the beginning and the bibliography, but I think that it is of decent quality. There's a few additions that I would like to have made to the introduction, but it's fairly focused as it is, and I like that. Greg, my boss, signed off on it yesterday, and I've been busy filling out paperwork and making sure that I've met all of the requirements. So today, I turn in an unbound copy of the thesis to the grad school, and arrange for the binding of another copy to be sent to the Graduate Library. This will fulfill my obligations to the university, and I will receive a certificate stating my eligibility to graduate in December, which also enables me to start working as a post-doc. Then, I need to get another 6 copies of the thesis bound -- one for me and one for each member of my thesis committee. So, I'm pretty happy and relieved at this point. I just hope that my margins are all correct...
3. I'm going to see Battles at the Blind Pig in November, and I'm planning on getting my tickets in advance. Anyone else who wants to go, let me know by Monday at the latest. I've got a feeling it's going to sell out.
4. As I alluded to last Friday, I totally would have won that prematurely-ended game of History of the World two Sundays ago. Not that I'm the sort of person that would dwell on such matters. I'm quite content to leave it all on the table, as it were. But I can hear a faint challenge to my claim humming through cyberspace with a Turkish accent, so here we go. If you'll observe the following image......you will notice that my yellow forces have been pushed back into Northern Europe and North America by the sequential uprising of the Huns (Jonathan, purple), and the Mongols (Tony, blue). You will also notice that I am in a very tight race for 1st place despite having used the least strength to get there. This is the board at the end of Epoch V. I would be selecting the first Empire in Epoch VI, and the odds dictate that I would get one of the middling to better ones. I also had two lesser events that I was going to play on my next turn: Sub-Saharan Migrants, which would let me place two armies in Africa (on those two resource lands, enabling me to build a monument), and another card that lets me place an army and a city in Palestine. So there's 8 extra points going into Epoch VI, and I'm spread out again. Also, I'm not a huge target as the 3rd place guy. Finally, I had the Japan Major Event card for Epoch VII, so I'm getting bonuses again, and probably the highest total strength for that round, without incurring the penalty that high strength brings. So, thanks for playing, and I'll just assume that you're all congratulating me from home.
   
   Have a great weekend!