Just another Weird site…
So handy tip…. when you put your carboy into the fermenter and use water from your santizing cup on the air lock be prepared to see ALOT of bubbles…
I swear I thought the damn thing was rabid!
Also it turns out that 60 on my regulator is about the perfect temperature for fermenting beer.
Yes I’m still brewing beer…
This is more of a informal post on what I’ve been up to with beer since the last time I posted.
I did a kit amber ale in January that came out really really really well and everybody who tried it really liked it. That would be the one where Curtis is kissing the carboy. So I don’t know if the goodness resulted from my skills or Curtis’s affections towards the beer, but for now lets say it’s my skills.
So in the six months that I’ve been not brewing beer, my favorite beer store went belly up, so Homebrew Depot in Mesa Az is no longer. It’s a sad day for me… good thing I live in the greater Phoenix area. A quick google search and BAM! new brew shop! Brewers Connection in Tempe AZ. Staff of 3, all very very knowledgeable and a book of beer recipes from customers! I’m going to be trying one of those next time around.
As far as this batch goes, it’s another amber since that’s a good base to work from. This time I’m going to be working on Clarifying the beer to see if I can get rid of that oh so lovely cloudiness that I haven’t been able to get rid of.
And as has become something of a tradition I’ve put out a open invite to all who want to learn and I have a few takers once again. It’s always fun to share the love.
So there is finally a App for the Blackberry that I can use to upload photo’s and blog posts to my wordpress type blog instead of relying on the old Blogger blog… SWEET!!!
Of course if I had a iPhone I would have had this functionality a year ago… I guess that’s the price I pay for having a Blackberry on a real network.
Your favorite blog is now publishing a mobile friendly version!
Also I’ve installed the very same software here so once your done with you favorite blog you can roll on over to the drivel.
I turned 30 this last April, and I’m pretty sure it was a bigger deal for everyone around me then it was for me. Actually the last time I made a big deal about a birthday was 21… After that I left it to the folks around me, and I have yet to be let down.
So with the thirtieth birthday came the proverbial call from my parents wishing me a happy a birthday and to know me is to know my parents (and all that should really tell you is the communication habits of my family). This year the conversation went a little bit differently and I can’t tell you want was said (probably had something to do with the fact I was called while I was at work and dealing with a crisis du jour) but the point is something clicked in the old head that morning.
The next morning I started running… and my knees have yet to forgive me.
Well running is a loose description for what I’m doing…. it’s more like shuffling kinda fast for extended periods of time.
While breathing very heavily.
And from what I can see of my reflection in the canals in the morning it’s a pretty comical site too.
And so at 30 I once again get on the “healthy living” bandwagon… last time I got on I staid on for two years, but I was trying to impress one of the trainers at the gym (that didn’t work out so well for me) this time it’s all me.
Expect more writing on this topic as time progresses since it gives me something to write about, will hopefully keep me motivated, and who knows maybe a interesting story or two will come out of it.
Three days back from conferences with people who do the same thing that I do and what do I have to show for it?
A smoking credit card and a severe “Sweetwater” withdrawal later I’m home.
Nothing much changed… most of the stuff left on the counter is still there, the bedroom and office are both still disasters, the grass is a little longer, and finally I still have no beer. So par for the course on the home front.
On the work front there was only one cataclysmic event, my partner in crime at work switched from drinking a Monster Energy drink every morning to drinking coffee… actually two cups of coffee every morning. In the 4 years I’ve worked with him I would have never seen this coming in a million years. I guess it only took 4.
Of course this has led to a series of discussions about coffee in the work place. Now both of us are damned cheap so we won’t be taking the Curtis solution to our work time coffee fix. So this change of events has led to a series of discussions but the most surreal of which is the following….
N – So which coffee is better the stuff upstairs or downstairs?
T – Well it depends if you want to use the good bottle water go with the upstairs stuff but there is no sink so telling how long since the coffee pot was last emptied. Downstairs has a sink but all it has is a charcoal filter that hasn’t been replaced in 3 years. It’s all about the water here since the coffee is the same crap upstairs and downstairs.
N – huh?
T – The coffee here is all about quantity not quality.
N – Oh ok…. so upstairs or downstairs?
T – Downstairs the coffee is better.
So needless to say not only do I cover beer but I guess I’m going to have to bone up on my minutia of coffee detail.
Easier said then done since I like Folgers….
– NASCAR isn’t just popular… it’s a freaking way of life out here…. I thought Arizona drivers were aggressive, we have nothing on drivers from the Carolinas!
– Rain is not a localized event… or short in duration. It’s a days long event that is over a very broad area and it doesn’t stop anything. Not construction nothing!
– Umbrella’s suck for keeping anything other then your head dry.
– Your shoes will always be soaked
– BBQ is a way of life.
– Banjos sound way better in person, and are easy to play!
So one of the advantages to bringing your laptop with you to a conference is you can do fun things like bring up your wireless sniffer and see what’s out there like say Bluetooth devices!
So two things stand out to me here…
1. I’m surprised that some phones are still discoverable, since people by and large rarely change the default settings on Bluetooth from off to on. When I took this reading from my laptop there were probably 30 people with in the 30 feet of me which is about the maximum distance I can sniff Bluetooth with my laptop. 
2. The laptop user is just asking for issues… Windows and Mac by default have Bluetooth discovery turned off so someone out there is just flat being a idiot.
a. So while I was typing #2 I saw another Mac pop up…. And here is what my wireless sniffer had to say about that, and the other Mac is close enough that I can see his entire screen. 
b. So I guess my question is this… is it rude to go up to someone and say “Excuse me but your Bluetooth is showing” Especially on a MAC since you know most MAC users aren’t security minded like PC users are.
c. Also how wise it to have the “Remote Frame Buffer” (aka VNC) service out and advertising on bonjour? Along with Apple file sharing which at this point is really just SAMBA which is really just the open source version of windows file sharing?
I’m not at a IT security confrence but still these are interesting questions for those security minded people / security professionals that have been known to check around the old blog here.
Yes I know you come here… Google Analytic isn’t just for tracking my parents any more.
So I’ve talked at length over the last 10 years or so about my love of participating in all things redneck… you know the little things in life.
Beer Brewing
Hunting
Nascar
And not quite redneck but I’ve also talked about football at various points. Pretty much everything under the sun.
I’m in Charlotte for a conference and I knew it was NASCAR country but I had no idea….
I turned on the evening news and about half way through the news cast they talked about a NASCAR driver who’s been suspended and getting his mansion forclosed on. And when they hit sports the lead story was a NASCAR story, a couple of local sports stories, and another NASCAR story.
And on top of that my hotel room is across the street from NASCAR headquaters!
How cool is that?!?
Oh and I can see the “Bank of America” stadium home of the Carolina Panthers….
And you know what it still smells of defeat at the hands of a team from Arizona.
Of course I would be all to familiar with the smell of defeat and football.
Once again in a continuing effort to save you my fair reader from wasting your hard earned money on bad movies I present to you now….. Tom’s Guide To May’s Movies for the Year 2009… (Please note this should only be used by people that live under or a rock or have a kid/kids)
Wolverine… ever wonder what a movie about the most “interesting” X-man would look like? No me neither till I saw this movie and came away feeling not so much punch but suckered out of $5
Star Trek… This movie has no business being as good as it is. If you haven’t seen it stop reading this drivel and go see this movie now.
Angels and Demons…. Haven’t seen it yet… let me know!
Terminator Salvation…. Stunningly Average… more fun then Wolverine, no where near Star Trek, and the voice that Christan Bale uses for Batman isn’t just for Batman anymore.
A Night At The Museum…. I have a permanent ban on all movies that involve Ben Stiller except for “Dodge Ball” and “Tropic Thunder” and only because Vince Vaughn / Robert Downy Jr. are in each of those films respectively.
And at some point before the end of the month is out you may actually get a real update out of me… but I wouldn’t count on it.