Made you look!

Right, so I'm not actually saying anything here...just an update or two. I am now playing D&D, having been generously accepted into a well-established and competent group for a weekly session. Most of my between-session "work" on this is basically done, but I've decided that I'd like to expand my character's back story to practice a bit of creative writing and to get a stronger sense of the campaign setting. I am also At This Very Moment totally procrastinating on preparations for my lab meeting tomorrow. And I've been working on a project for my parents which involves 1)watching over 40 hours of digicam recordings (mostly of Elaine) and 2)cutting and pasting the cute/funny/tender moments into a watchable DVD. I may even use text and music, if it's not too onerous. So I've got a few projects going right now, all of which have a definitive endpoint. My goal then is to get back to nurturing this blog along, with more of an emphasis on good writing. I've been spending way too much time softening my brain online, and not enough time being creative and constructive. This is reason #2 why I canned my Facebook account. Reason #1, of course, is that their dithering made me feel like a sucker for patronizing their services, and reason #3 is that, while addictive, the experience there basically sucks. Anyways, see you soon, hopefully.

A Bevy of Bulletpoints

-Recently tried a Bear Republic Hop Rod Rye. It's my first rye beer, I think, but I'm struggling to get a clear sense of how adding rye malt makes this beer any different from plain old barley beer. It's a very malty beer, but the bittering hops and decent attenuation keep it from being overly sweet. I think that if it was not so heavily hopped, it would taste a lot like a medium-bodied Scottish Ale. On balance, I like it, and would pick it up again.

-I've just begun using Google Reader, and I think it's a great tool. I started with a few webcomics, Geekologie, and some news sites, but took Google's recommendation and added Lifehacker, Slashdot, and blogs like Design Milk and the Urbanist. Also had Engadget, but that was just 50 stories about cameras and cell phones every day. I'm looking at adding more content, but wondering how many more feeds I can add before it just gets overwhelming. Maybe if the sites in question only update a few items per day...

-I lost my iPod Shuffle about 2 weeks ago. Now I have no defense against earworms, which always strike when I'm out of headphone cord reach of my desktop at work. There I am, attempting to be industrious at the bench, when my brain is assailed with such gems as Black Velvet by Alannah Myles (for those in the know, replica plating), some stupid flash meme song called "Amazing Horse", and, inexplicably, the theme to "Welcome Back, Kotter" (what I wouldn't give to identify the trigger for that one). Anyways, it's pretty much a living hell.

-Pet peeve: places that make sandwiches and use the wrong bread. Allow me an awkwardly shoehorned analogy: The star of the sandwich is the inside part, and the bread plays a supporting role. Sometimes, you can get a great contribution from the bread, but you usually don't notice overmuch as long as the type of bread, bun, or roll is appropriate, and it's relatively fresh. What I hate is when the roles are reversed, and the bread is fancier than the filling, or completely unsuited to the task. I would list my recent disappointments in this arena, but I fear I've already lost you.

-Elaine is a trike-monkey now. We made a run to the 7-Eleven on the corner earlier tonight. It was strangely cool to help her pick a spot to park her trike outside. Even cooler for her to suggest that I wanted to get a beer. Turned out I did!

-The wit beer that I brewed a few weeks ago is done. I tried it the other day, and was a little disappointed. Either the orange peel, the hops (unlikely), or the yeast have contributed a sharp bitterness to the aftertaste. Despite the similarity in bitter character to that of orange peel, I have a feeling that it is actually the yeast. It's still plenty drinkable, but is not one of my bragging beers.

I play games!

I played a few new games the other night that turned out to be quite a lot of fun. The first, Thunderstone, is the first big, er, homage to the deck-building mechanic in Dominion. For the uninitiated, you have three virtual stacks of cards in front of you: 1) a personal deck of cards from which you deal 2) your hand, and 3) your personal discard pile. You can use cards in your hand to buy more cards (meaning you use the cash value on the cards to claim a card in the display…you don’t actually spend the cards—they go into your personal discard pile, along with the card you just bought). Thus, your deck grows in size as you seed it with cards that help you achieve victory points. The cards that give you victory points don’t really help you until the end of the game, and so they water down your deck if you accumulate too many too soon. The play in Thunderstone is similar to Dominion, with small exceptions, but it still manages to be its own game.

Unlike Dominion (and Dominion: Intrigue…I have yet to play Seaside), you have three options on your turn. You could visit the Village, which allows you to buy a new card according to the treasure value in your hand, which is really your only option in Dominion. Secondly, you could Rest, which enables you to trash any number of cards from your hand (these are taken out of play for the rest of the game…handy for getting rid of negative cards like Diseases). The third option, and primary source of VPs in Thunderstone is the Dungeon. Here you are trying to defeat one of three revealed monsters using the attack capabilities of all of your heroes, militias, and their weapons and spells. Buried in the bottom 5th of the monster deck is the Thunderstone card, which signals the end of the game.

I like that the VP cards (monsters) are variable (in VPs offered, XP offered, and battle modifiers), and that you can’t just employ a simple strategy like streamlining to have a money-rich hand to do well. You have to have a good mix of heroes, spells, and weapons to be successful in battle. Another cool feature is leveling up your heroes, which can be done in the Village. If you’ve accumulated enough XPs, you can cash them in to convert your Squire to a Knight, and then to a Lord, which can have profound effects on your ability to fight, as well as offering another reason to go to the Village. Another seeming piece of chrome that ends up working quite well is the requirement for a light source in the Dungeon. The deeper you go in the Dungeon, the more light (torches, flaming swords, etc) that you need to avoid incurring a nasty disadvantage in battle. Just one more thing to juggle as you seed your hand with items.

As I said, the system works quite well. The only real niggle I have with the game (aside from the packaging) is that there is no unseen hazard in going dungeoneering. What I mean is that you would never go into the Dungeon unless you had a good enough hand to beat one of the monsters, all of whom have completely revealed stats. There are some monster cards will tell you that you will lose a fighter in a battle with that creature, but such creatures can be defeated with, say, wizards and militia, negating that threat. I would prefer some amount of chance in these battles, despite the certainty that the game would be that much longer.

Desire to own: moderate *** Desire to play again: very high *** Overall: 8/10

After Thunderstone, we played Campaign Manager ’08, which is as fun as it sounds. I played the Obama side against Josh’s McCain. It was quite a blast to play up the quotes and throw around phrases like “Politics as usual”, with mock pathos. It was a little eerie when Josh rasped “I already know how to do that,” with that classic McCain, "I'm not an angry guy--listen to my quiet, pleading voice," voice.. All of the components were top-notch, game depth and game length were completely appropriate, and many laughs were had.

Desire to own: unclear...high, I think *** Desire to play again: high *** Overall: 8/10

The Mystery 5-Pack, Part 2

OK, I'll try to wrap this up quickly.

I'm not expecting much.

First up, by virtue of its likelihood to be as bland as I remember, is...

Alaskan White (ABV ?%)
It pours a cloudy, pale gold, gives off hints of a very faint spiciness, and exhibits light carbonation and a slight head. The first sip revealed more flavor than I was expecting. The light malt is balanced nicely by a judicious use of spices. There is, of course, no hop character to speak of. It's not overly sweet, and is quite refreshing. The problem that I have with most of these Alaskan and New Belgium beers (OK, add Red Hook and many other Macro-microbrews) is that they end up watering down everything to a point where the aftertaste is a sharp tang, likely brought on by the carbonation. A beer that has sufficient mass of ingredients (hops and sugar) can overcome this because those components contribute noticeably to the aftertaste as well as to the main flavor. So this White, while tasty, has that tangy aftertaste that compels one to take another sip, if only to cleanse their mouth of the metallic burn. Which doesn't exactly make me excited to settle into a night of drinking such a beer. Verdict: Who am I kidding? For around $6 per 6 pack, I'd totally buy this on the way to a party.

Finally...

Scuttlebutt Gale Force IPA
Poured caramel-colored, rather heavy-bodied and with minimal head. The predominant aroma is floral hops. Hmmm. Definitely a Pacific Northwest IPA. Just the hops, please. Not nearly enough sweetness to balance the onslaught of hops (ABV 5.25%). It's not terrible, but it's a one-note affair. Verdict: Exactly what I was expecting. I could be tempted to drink another, but my options would have to be rather dire.

Thanks for playing along. I'll have to include some nice beers in the future.

The Mystery 5-pack (Pt 1)

We picked up this intriguing little item on our trip to the grocery store today:

From Blogger Pictures

Intriguing in that I don't know what's in the bag, specifically. The bag is opaque, and stapled shut, and is labeled clearly with the word "Mystery". But there are clues. Clue #1: the $5.99 price tag. Clue #2: the motivation of a store to package a variety of beers in this way is most likely to get rid of slow-selling beers. The combination of the two clues leads to the conclusion that the bag contains slow-selling, modestly priced beers. In short, a gamble. Of course, I took one look at the bag and thought, "Mystery six-pack plus long weekend equals blog post!" and quickly snatched it up.

Here's the contents:

From Blogger Pictures

As would be predicted, IPAs account for half of the beers. I've had the Alaskan White before, and I'm not much impressed with that company anyway. The Caldera is interesting due to the packaging. Two of the IPAs are duplicates, from the Terminal Gravity Brewery in Portland OR, making it a Mystery 5-pack. The most intriguing of the offerings, by far, is the Stone Levitation Ale, so that's where I'll begin.

I've had the Stone IPA and didn't like it, but I've not tried any of their other offerings. The label on the bottle is enough of a pain to read (very tiny, approximately 2 point font, stamped in grey paint right onto the amber bottle) that I just skimmed it looking for some clue of what to expect. It was, unfortunately, about 400 words of blather that basically informs you that this beer is made of the ingredients that beer is made of, and it has wonderful flavor. Can't understand why it's a slow-seller.

Let's pop the cap and check it out...
Stone Levitation
It pours a burnt caramel with very little head. Not a lot of hop character evident from the pour, except for a slight juniper note. Aroma is mildly malty. Huh. It took three good sips before I could begin to define the flavor. For such a dark beer, it's surprisingly light ("Levitation"?). There's a foamy lightness contributed by the carbonation that takes a while to settle out in your mouth. It first leaves behind the malt character mingled with the spruce-like hops, then it slowly turns slightly sour, but mostly clean. But the overarching quality is light. I think they were successful at hitting the fine line between light and watered down (ABV 4.4%). The verdict: I doubt that I'd go out of my way to get this, but if it was on sale, I could see picking up a six.

Terminal Gravity Brewing IPA (ABV 6.9%).
The label says nothing more than "Live Beer Keep Cold". It pours light amber and a little viscous, as you'd expect from a beer with a crap-ton of hops packed into it. Maybe I'm a little stuffy, but there's not a lot of hop character on the nose. That bodes poorly, as I only really enjoy IPAs when there's a strong citrus/floral aroma to fool my brain into liking the astringent hop bitterness. Now, to taste...you know, this is not bad. It's slightly sweet with a clean finish, and is fairly malty. I'd characterize this as an English-style pale ale, not an IPA. Carbonation is on the low side, and the body is fairly heavy. Pretty tasty. Verdict: Work on your branding, Terminal Gravity. That label screams THIS BEER SUCKS. It's a nice beer, but not an IPA.

I think I'll take this downstairs and see if I can catch Apolo Ohno being absolutely OWNED by the South Koreans.

OK, one more before I turn in (you see how I suffer for you?).

Caldera Pale Ale (ABV ?%)
It's pale, I'll give it that. Looks like cloudy Budweiser when you pour it into a glass (the label informs you that it's a "Live Product: Keep cool, just like you". Right on, boss. It has a nice, floral aroma, which is the signature of Cascade hops on the finish. Unfortunately, upon tasting, it's clear that they don't understand balance. I don't mind being hopped through my skull if they do it as the second act, but when your first response upon sipping is "This tastes funny", followed by your tongue shriveling up from the hops, it's a fair guess that the target has been overshot. It really doesn't help that they put it in a can, since they didn't use one of those new sort of cans that keeps the flavor of the can out of the beer. Verdict: I'm not sure that I'll be finishing THIS one (my mouth is angry with me). I'll definitely avoid it in the future.

More to come tomorrow...

In which one vacates?

We took a trip this past weekend! Seeing as we haven't actually left Seattle since Jill's emergency second opinion flight to San Francisco (May 2008), this was a pretty big deal. Jill's dad and Debbie rented a two-room unit in Coupeville on Whidbey Island. This was about a 40 minute drive, 15 minute ferry ride, followed by another hour or so of driving on the island.

Some trivia: Whidbey Island was originally settled by several tribes, before it was discovered on a Spanish expedition. When Peter Puget and Joseph Whidbey were mapping the region, Whidbey was the first European to demonstrate that it was an island by successfully navigating through Deception Pass.

Here's some shots near Deception Pass, which has a bridge to the mainland:

From palm

The water was a beautiful green

From palm

Standing on the bridge, looking beyond tiny Deception Island at the Strait of Juan de Fuca, which connects Puget Sound to the Pacific Ocean.

From palm

We also visited Fort Casey, a WWII installment of big guns, and it was pretty cool, but my phone had died by then, and we had forgotten our camera. It was a shame that we couldn't explore the parks on the island more than superficially, but it's close enough that we could go back for a day trip if we want. Although, honestly, there's so much to do around here that I don't see Whidbey Island as a first choice if we get a chance to get out of town again. Unless it's to get some more Penn Cove mussels (omigod nomnom), or to visit awesome establishments like this one:

From palm

From palm

Facebook ate my blog

Right, so it's a lame excuse, but it's essentially true. I have the ability to sprinkle my pithy wisdoms to the Facebook community (ok, my 50-some friends) in compact little packets, and it kind of fills the same urge to connect that I was getting through this medium. But, NO MORE! There will be discipline, and word counts, and blog angst!

Well, enough about my lengthy absence. Everyone knows that I have a precocious toddler, an interesting life-situation vis-a-vis Jill's illness, and serious demands at work, but I know plenty of people who manage to do a lot more than file a fracking blog update a few times a week, so I'm done with excuses. Let's get right to it.

I bought some pants the other day. Jeans. So last week, it was New Jeans Week. I tried to stretch it out, wearing the same pair for two days (but not consecutively!) so I had new denim happening for all five days of the work week. It's pretty nice when they're new, since jeans are completely pre-shrunk these days. Instead of breaking in your jeans like you used to do, they actually feel good the first few times you wear them. That, combined with the visceral sense of power that comes with wearing newly acquired goods, makes those first times in public particularly exciting. Were you looking at my ass? Of COURSE, you were. And I have to say, my ass is pretty comfortable (new boxer briefs, too).

Some douchey entrepreneur is posting anonymous ads on some of the comments pages here. I try to delete these as they happen. Sometimes, they are on really old posts, and I find myself scanning through a few months worth of posts. This is part of why I missed writing; I had so much fun reading it again and reading all of the back and forth with you guys. I also realized that I disagree with former me on many points to do with my amateur music analysis. So if you ever come across any of those earlier posts, just think of it as how I felt then. I'm way more sophisticated now.

The other major reason why I came back to these old pixels is that Jonathan Woodard was surprised to learn that I was not much for cats. I realized that my branding was slipping, and I needed to get back before my entire online identity slipped into some sort of brown, averaged, everyperson. Listen: I kind of don't always like cats. OK, Jon?

Summertime

Ever notice how you don't have as much to say online when it's all nice and beautiful and summery outside?

I love a parade

Wait, what?

Zebras!

Flying Spaghetti Monster!

My mind...!

Fight Global Warming!?




Who knew? We celebrated the Solstice this year (I guess) by dragging Elaine down to the self-proclaimed Center of the Universe, aka the Fremont neighborhood in Seattle, to witness the legendary Solstice Parade. We got there way in advance and scored some front curb seats. It was pretty incredible. There was a lot of dancing and tribal drumming, costumes that ranged from the lavish to the bizarre, and the signature opening event: cyclists wearing nothing but body paint. I was highly entertained from start to finish. Elaine was a little freaked out. The coolest thing for me was that every float/exhibition/whatever-the-hell-that-thing-is had some sort of meaning as related to the Solstice celebration or some progressive cause, but there were no signs or symbols associated with the parade to clue you in to it. It was art, and it was lots of fun. Flaky as Fremont is, they really manage to pull off a great parade.

Since I've got a general rule against the posting of bosoms and weewees on my blog, I kept those images out. If you'd like to see more great images of the parade (and I recommend that you do), including an extensive gallery of the naked/painted cyclist parade, visit this page. In addition to gratuitous nudity, you'll be rewarded by pics of the completely awesome Soviet era statue of Lenin, situated at the heart of Fremont.

She's Two!

Deal with it!

This past weekend, we marked the event of Elaine’s second birthday with a bash for the ages (of one, two, and three). Jill took care of most of the prep with a very productive Target run. We had a small helium tank and balloons, cupcakes, a pizza lunch, and little gift bags for all of the kids which contained plastic dinosaurs, party favors, and bubbles. Some of the children blew bubbles, some poured bubble soap onto the lawn, and some just drank it straight from the bottle.

The party, with Elaine's big present in the background. Clockwise, from top: Big Molly, Madeleine, Susanna, Phillipe, Elaine (not pictured: Matthew, Olivia, little Molly


The festivities got underway a little early when Jill got locked in the bathroom at T minus ten minutes. We disassembled the doorknobs, but the mechanism had been installed from the edge of the door. Jill decided that we needed to call someone, leading to this exchange:

Me: I could kick the door in…?
Jill: Really?
Me: Sure!
Jill: (after a pause) OK, I’m in the bathtub.

Needless to say, I didn’t wait for her to change her mind. How often does one get to fulfill destructive fantasies like this? Amazingly, the door survived intact, but we’ll need to get the jamb reassembled. Anyways, this is a total word of warning to any crooks out there who think they can hide from the kicking foot of justice. I know you’re in there, and I’m a-comin’ in! (Please don’t have any weapons, because Jill won’t let me have a gun.)

Sunday night, I got to play Through the Ages: A Story of Civilization for the fourth time. This time, it was just Josh and I. Man, this is a really well-done game at 2, 3, or 4 players. I believe the third printing is underway right now, so I’m definitely going to be picking it up.

Elaine’s birthday fun times continued into Monday night, when we took her and her grandma (technically, grandma paid, but I drove) to Red Robin! Milkshakes, burgers, and balloons, oh my! When we got home, there were presents that had come by mail from various people. She scored some radical toddler clothing, a few small empty boxes (awesome idea), a bunch of crayons, and some books.

We got a lot of good video from the party, but not very many pictures. I’m looking into editing the videos on my MacBook (it has to be good for something) to post at a later time—perhaps on Picasa or Vimeo. Any suggestions for video hosting are welcome.

Deploy the grappling hook

A friend of a friend knows this guy who builds weird cars. Most of them are based loosely on the ship Serenity from the movie of the same name (and the series Firefly). I got to drive this one yesterday:



I was not able to see the looks on the faces of other drivers and pedestrians, as it took all of my concentration to keep it in the intended lane. Steering this vessel did approximate drifting through the vacuum of space: any direction on my part was largely suggestive. Also, it kept wanting to stall out at traffic signals. Also, it is a manual transmission vehicle, which is not a recommended feature in a hilly place like Seattle. It was fun, though.

Oh, and if you've never seen Firefly, do yourself a favor and rent the whole series (it is only one season long, as it was tragically cancelled), and then watch the movie. I can't recommend it enough.

In which you curse my name

I've been somewhat addicted to this quiz website, Sporcle. There are new quizzes every day, most of which take the form of lists. My favorite section has been the geography quizzes, found here, particularly the one in which you are called upon to name all the countries of the world. There is a map, and a little text box will appear over the country as you name it. It allows 15 minutes, which is plenty of time if you know how to spell the countries correctly. I have taken it every night over the past week. My scores, out of a possible 195, have been 185, 190, 192, 193, 193, 193, 194. The countries that I miss always vary, because the map is pretty small and has low resolution, and it gets covered up by your correct answers. It's a fun challenge.

I didn't start out with knowledge of 185 countries. There are also quizzes for the various regions of the world (5 continents plus Oceania) that I mastered before attempting the big enchilada. These are much easier to learn from, since the countries are colored in as you name them. Are YOU ready to possess this kind of raw knowledge? Do YOU want to be able to kick serious booty in a very specific subset of geography-related categories on Jeopardy? Then head on over to Sporcle and get hooked. Pro tip: Vatican City.

Of further internet-related interest, I've solved part of my productivity issues at work. I exclusively use Firefox, and there is an add-on called Leechblock (Tools menu -> Add Ons -> search for Leechblock). It will block your access to specified websites between certain hours. You can schedule in a lunch break, or tell it to permit 10 minutes every hour or two. There are a lot of options. You can have your access restricted by a password, but I don't trust myself with such an easy fix: I have it set up so that I can't access the settings during working hours. To avoid temptation, I eliminated Safari from my always-visible dock on my MacBook. It's only been two days, but I feel like I'm adjusting to life without Boardgamegeek, ESPN, Facebook, this blog, the Seattle Times, and Sporcle at work. When I do waste time, it is to flip through Science, Nature, or PNAS, which is slightly more germane to my work situation than the latest argument in the Religion, Sex, and Politics forum on the Geek (or even successfully naming the 195 recognized countries of the world).

Update, several hours later: I did it!!!