Homebrewing, random thoughts, Technology

Day after Xmas… at werk.

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I came in today thinking i’d be feeling creative and write a post. Well, here I am at 12:30 EST with no such creativity, but at least I’m writing. I plan to blog more in 2009, but then again, I think “Write more” was my resolution for 2008, and that went basically nowhere.

there are three other people in my group here today with me. I think there are maybe another 5-10 people here in addition. Makes sense to open the office for alllllll of those people, eh?

i got a new flash for my camera for xmas … Nikon SB-600. i don’t know what i’m doing with it, yet. guess this also locks me into Nikon, not that it’s a bad thing. the grass is always greener over at Canon…

my girlfriend is out shopping for her family’s party tomorrow. i’m sitting in the office freezing with the other people, all of whom are wearing jackets or other heavy attire. it’s current 39 outside in NYC.

i plan to brew on Sunday – an imperial stout. my last porter didn’t come out so great. a bit lacking in body, a bit too much alcohol burn, not enough vanilla. still very drinkable, just not fantastic. 5/10.

my inbox is barren, facebook is dead, no one’s on twitter, and even my rss feeds aren’t entertaining me.

why is it that we’re here today? i guess this is the entitlement society i keep hearing about. even Hale and Hearty doesn’t have a full selection of soups today.

yes, i’m bitter. and cold.

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Champ Car Racing, Motorsports, Politics, random thoughts, Technology

The Airing of the Grievances

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Yea, it is time that we put up the Festivus Pole, engage in feats of strength, and air the year’s grievances. So we call upon Our Lord Frank Costanza, and shout Serenity Now! Here are my grievances for 2008:

  1. To unhelpful RSS feeds that don’t display the content of a post. A headline only is generally not enough information to make me want to click through to your site.
  2. To Adobe, for charging ridiculous upgrade fees. $499 to upgrade, when I just spent that much less than 18 months ago, on products that are mature and stable?
  3. To the GOP, for ignoring our environmental issues, screwing up government oversight, our worldwide status, the Iraq War, and everything else over the past eight years.
  4. To my current employer, for not giving us off the day after Thanksgiving and Xmas. This year both holidays fall on a Thursday, so wouldn’t it be nice to enjoy a long weekend? Nope, if you have vacation days left, you have to take them. if you don’t, guess where you’ll be? Here in the office, which leads me to…
  5. The building managment company, as well as my current employer, for turning the heat down enough on weekends that Mondays are freezing. I bought cashmere socks just for Monday mornings. If you walk around the office, you’ll see people wearing hats, scarves, and jackets. Winter jackets.
  6. To Kevin Kalkhoven and Gerry Forsythe, co-owners of the now defunct Champ Car World Series, which merged with the Indy Racing League (IRL) earlier this year. When I say merged, I mean sold the fuck up the river a few weeks before the season was due to start. This is a topic very dear to me, as I followed Indy/Champ Car since I was a wee high schooler, and the Meadowlands Grand Prix came to town in the mid-to-late-80s. I could take up six months’ worth of posts on this topic, so i’ll leave it at that.
  7. To Tony George, who fucked it all up to start with.

There are certainly more, but these are the ones that are nagging at me. Check back in case there are more grievances!

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random thoughts, Technical Writing, Tools

Happy Little Errors

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So I’m working on designing buttons, icons, and interface items for a new release. The buttons I’ve created looked… nice, but still not what I wanted them to look like.

Somehow along the process, I cropped the template file a little too judiciously in Photoshop. Buttons I created a week ago were taller by six pixels. I’m still not sure how I did this, as all the guides were in the same place, and making the button taller changed the alignment of text.

While playing around, trying to figure out WTF I did, I ended up using a clipping mask with an existing layer – and it looks great! The only downside, of course, is now I have to recreate approximately 50 buttons. But, I’m happy now they finally look good!

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Beer, Homebrewing

The Power of Yeast

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Well, after a little over two months in secondary, we finally got around to bottling my latest homebrew, a porter. When I transferred to the secondary fermenter, I added a whole vanilla bean that was soaked in Jack Daniels for a couple of weeks. I also added the Jack Daniels. Unfortunately, there’s not much vanilla flavor; next time I’ll add another bean and cut them open, but there is a nice caramel flavor to the uncarbonated beer.

The big lesson with this batch is the effects of yeast on the beer. I used a Burton Ale yeast from White Labs. I should’ve known better (he says now), as I don’t really care for the “twang” of Bass Ale. Well, in my porter, you certainly get that Bass-like yeastiness. It was certainly interesting to see just how much of an effect the yeast has on the beer.

It’s not my best work, but it is still drinkable. It’s actually a bit lighter in color than I’d like. Maybe with some carbonation and time it will improve. I hope so, because I was planning on using some as gifts!

Labour Day Porter 2.0

12-C Baltic Porter

8.0 lb Dry Light Extract

1 lb American Chocolate Malt

.5 lb Caramunich® TYPE III

.5 lb British Crystal 55°L

1.0 oz Fuggle (4.0%) – added during boil, boiled 7 min

1.5 oz Super Styrian (7.0%) – added during boil, boiled 20 min

1 oz Super Styrian (7.0%) – added during boil, boiled 60 min

8.00 fl oz White Labs WLP023 Burton Ale

1.0 ea Vanilla (whole bean) – added dry to secondary fermenter

Results generated by BeerTools Pro 1.5.2

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Technical Writer, Content Strategist, Podcaster, and beer lover