Paradigm Angst

Aventinus

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 01:56:38 GMT

2003
clearer, actually very clear. wouldn't even peg it as a wheat beer
less carbonated
more malt aroma (munich, spiced rum)
much more prune flavor, this is the main flavor in the beer
banana and clove are almost gone
no alcohol flavor at all

2009
cloudier
more carbonated
fruitier aroma (banana)
Clove and banana flavors well balanced with prune flavor in the background
alcohol is just slightly more prevalent in that you can just barely there in the background
spilled on my netbook keyboard. After 20 minutes of touch and go forced rebooting the system seems to be working fine right now other than the built in mouse which no longer works. We will see if any other problems come up as we move along. Well its a few min later and we have occasional freezing if I try to use the mouse.

Both
Despite differences in apparent carbonation levels they both have the same mouth feel.

Winner: Even with the beer spilling the 2009 wins. It is a much better balanced beer. Though it may become the most expensive beer I have ever had.
Mari disagrees and says that 2003 is more balanced because the flavors don't compete. Also says that banana is there in 2003 but it takes a little while for it to build up.

The netbook will be replaced in a few weeks with a new netbook. It will replace my 5 year old amd 64 system which will have slackware installed on it and become a server for my gnu screen session that will be my main system and the new netbook will become a windows based dumb terminal with flash, aka exactly what this netbook (palsu) is now.

I am taking names for the new system. Naming scheme is based on "fake". Words that mean fake or copy in various languages. Names that can't be used because they have been used for systems in the past are faux, pseudo, proxy, fugazi, betrug, facsimile, mentiroso and unreal[123] (routers).

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 22:50:38 GMT

Its about time someone did this.

Food

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 01:10:06 GMT

A few years ago I asked my mom for any of the recipes she used to make for us kids when she was busy going to school and working two jobs. She proved to be very uninformative. She couldn't think of anything that she used to make from back then. So now every few months one of these foods pops into my head.

They weren't great foods. Fish sticks were a staple on Fridays. It wasn't till she got remarried a few times and started getting better jobs closer to home and that paid much better.
Today one of those foods popped into my head. Taco salad. Ground beef, taco seasoning, ice burg lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, tortilla chips, sour cream, green onions, jalapenos, and olives. I called up mom to see if I had it right. This is the first time I have bought ice burg lettuce. But I knew that it couldn't be sub'ed out. The crunch wouldn't be there with something else. Normally I avoid ice burg like I would avoid the fleas of late 14th century European rats.

So I made it today. I haven't eaten this in at least 22 years. But the first bite confirmed that I had gotten the proportions exactly right. I washed it down with some hard apple cider. While it gives me fond memories of childhood I am now just a little upset that I never got hard cider as a kid because it was a really good accompaniment to this fatty American classic.

Conan! What is best in life?

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 04:08:02 GMT

I apologize to any readers of Warren Ellis's warren_ellis blog that have been burned too many times by that subject line.

Brown food

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 01:00:19 GMT

I made my second roast in 10 years. First was a pot roast. This was a beef roast. A friend was coming over so I made him some brown rice that he brought down from MN 3 years ago. I never cook it unless he is coming over and have more than an hours notice. Which is to say never.
I have never cooked a meal so brown. Served with homemade stout made it even darker. Both the gravy for the meat and some of the rice is mushrooms. Tasty.

Namey

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 23:39:01 GMT

Remember your post last year about how you will wear black until they find something darker? Well that was only 99.9% black. Now we have 100% black:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090630082647.htm

ascii art

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 02:29:55 GMT

Four years ago I was doing a comic futurist thing in ascii art. Number 5 was about the death of MJ. When he did finally die my phone exploded with a bunch of text msgs as people on both sides of the country fired up their cell phones to let me know he had passed on.
http://fauxascii.com/ascii/comic/mot/mot_0005.html

 _Memories of Tomorrow # 0005 # The Surgical Gloved One________________
|                                                                      |
|                                                                      |
|    .-----------.    Michael Jackson was found dead late              |
|   |    .---.    |   last night in his home. The official             |
|   |   | o o |   |   cause is note yet known but rumors               |
|   |    \ d /    |   have speculated that he had been                 |
|   |    :F_P:    |   battling a staph infection for the               |
|   | Death Watch |   last few months as a complication                |
|    `-----------'    of plastic surgery.                              |
|                                                                      |
|______________________________________________________________________|

:F_P:#################################Thu Feb 17 2005#################
# Memories of Tomorrow # 0005 # The Surgical Gloved One

I had already fired off a message to a 4 people letting them know he was found not breathing and they had to do CPR on him and now he was in a coma. Within a few moments what started as a breaking news blip on NPR made for an memorable grocery shopping experience.
Can't wait to see the satellite image of the faithful gathered for the vigil, funeral or memorial.

--
In hunting for that ascii art bit I stumbled on a lot of other pieces I have done over the years. I need to do some more. Need to get some models first. I have some ideas but need to work in a different way than I was doing it.

You lie to yourself

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 00:11:05 GMT

This image was stolen from a post Chris Ambler made.
This picture shows what I have explained to many people over the years: Your brain lies to you. People always think their eye witness reports are as good as gold but people are so suggestible that you can casually manipulate their memory with very little effort.
In this picture you see green and blue lines. You might even see them if you are color blind. But both those are the same color. Take a color sample in your fav image editor to confirm it.

Goth teddy bear

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 05:23:18 GMT

I finished the teddy bear.
The pattern is the Debbie Bliss bear pattern from her Simply Baby book.

The first pic is the finished product. The second is the parts.

It is clear from making the thing that it was far more difficult than I ever thought it could be. It starts with poorly written that make you wonder if the bear pictured was reverse engendered by someone who didn't even bother to knit their own instructions. It ends with instructions for assembly of the parts that assume that you have done this 15 times already. Judging from pics of other bears made from the same pattern I assume that others have run into the same problem. Not one bear looks like the original picture.

I am going to make another one. This time it will be more mom friendly colors. It has also given me the urge to knit more animals. Maybe even make a better bear pattern. I did make some adjustments to this pattern. Thus the red soles, inner ears, snout and claws.

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 00:33:53 GMT

Zucchini and squash noodles with seared sliced port roast, feta cheese and butter. It is pictured here just some red and black pepper away from really awesome.

And in case you thought that the knitting was done I will be finishing a teddy bear shortly. A goth teddy bear. Wasn't sure if it was going to be a teddy bear or a teddy cthulhu for a while but have decided that the kid will get a bear.

food

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 17:07:40 GMT

Tasty Breakfast is Tasty

Yesterday I made a roast. First time in almost a decade since I had done that. Roasts have never really been my idea of a good time. But since network infrastructure is part of the food budget here and I spent almost 20% of that budget on a new router and modem this month and needed to cut back on food costs. So I made a roast. It was and will continue to be tasty. Picks some other day.

But I cut up too many potatoes for the roast. So I made mashed potatoes out of them for a future day. This morning I wanted some breakfast. I also had half an unused yellow squash. I took some finely chopped squash, a minced clove of garlic sauteed them. Mixed them and an egg into some of the mashed potatoes. Plopped three spoons of potato mixture into some hot oil in a non-stick pan and waited for magic to happen. Removed them from the pan and fried up some eggs.
Best left over breakfast ever.

more food

Sat, 13 Jun 2009 00:46:24 GMT

wine cozy

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 04:28:24 GMT

Made this in what will be a series of cozies for some mead I am making. The bottle is a 375 ml bottle and the idea was to make something that a) looked like spider web b) was a color of orange that would look really nice when the bottle is filled with saffron colored (and flavored) honey wine. One day I will have to start keeping bees, raising my own sheep and making my own bottles so that I can make gifts that are truly homemade. :)
It is made with two different yarns knitted together for color effect.

I don't talk about work very often but I am thankful that I have a job where I can talk tech all day while solving problems and keeping my hands busy doing something "productive". No if only the guys would stop looking at me like I am nuts and/or gay for being the only guy knitter they know.

Food

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 00:47:44 GMT

I was cooking up some teriyaki chicken which required skinless chicken thighs. So I was skinning all that chicken and thinking it would be a shame to waste all of that skin. So while the oven was preheating I took some of those skins and trimmed them up. The application of a frying pan and some heat made some very tasty skins. Which everyone knows is the best part of the chicken. Well its a tie between the skin and the little nib of meat on the thigh. You know the one that is barely a whole bite and is the tenderest and juiciest part of the bird.

Food

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 01:26:34 GMT

I haven't been posting enough food pics lately.

Its like strawberry shortcake but its make with corn bread. Take some (homemade) corn bread and poor some honey on it. Put some (homemade) whipped cream on it. Top it with more fresh strawberries than you should.

knitting

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 04:24:50 GMT

In the picture on the left is a partial bottle of mead that a friend made. When he made it there was some honey sweetness in it 6 months later when he handed it to me. Four months since then it has finished fermenting in the bottle (woops on his part) and has some lighter fluid traits now. Good stuff if your are drinking one shot at a time.

Second up we have a wine bottle cozy and some ginger wine. Not as lacy as I wanted it but happy with the results. I have a mead I am making and I am going to make some much brighter cozies for those bottles. This cozy will also work on 750 ml bottles of beer so I can see some use for this as a holder of Unibroue, Allagash and Avery bottles in the very near future.

The ginger wine is everything you always wanted in a ginger ale but is not carbonated, is 13% ABV and reminds me a lot of a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster but with ginger instead of lemon. Good stuff in moderation.

The last bottle is the only crappy Carmenere wine I have ever had. So its slowly turning into vinegar where it will serve some useful function in its all too long life.

I made some Guinness today. Made some whipped cream for berries and corn bread desert. Tasty day.

Did a force killing of the yeast in the mead I am making. Now to remove all the yeast, spike it with some saffron and bottle it. Shouldn't take more than a month or two :)

wine cozy, basic pattern idea from book "one skein wonders". a few alterations, using two yarns knit together. cascade yarns baby alpaca chunky for body and rowan kidsilk aura (75% kid mohair, 25% silk) for some fuzzy quality to it. less than one skein of each.

cell phone and mp3 case

Sat, 30 May 2009 03:10:08 GMT

Knitted cell phone case big enough for a smart phone and a large iPod. This thing is soft. I mean like fur rabbit or seal fur soft. Jet black and soft. Like the cute side of goth squee soft and jet black. Hang it from your belt or from your purse strap. Anyone want it? Let me know. One of a kind.

Want to make your own? size nine us needles, plymouth yarn sinsation, less than one (38yrd) skein, 3.5 stitches per inch. knitted 20 stitches on the round, cast off all but last 4 stitches once you achieve desired hight, continue to Stockinette sitch those 4 stitches another 10 rows, then flip the work and Stockinette another 6 rows. row 17 k2, k2. row 18 k1fb, k1fb, row 19 k4, row 20 p4. add button to body, seam the bottom

Achieving

Sat, 30 May 2009 02:38:44 GMT

I have been accused twice in the last year of being an over achiever.
Trying to explain to both of them that I am the classic under achiever was an effort full of fail.

An over achiever is someone who tries to do things that normal people in their peer group would not be expected to try. Being an over achiever has nothing to do with actually succeeding in their attempts. Some definitions also include factoring IQ and if someone attempts things that aren't really within their capability.

I know an over achiever. Classic 85 IQ who doesn't know what it means to fail and always, as Mark Twain put it, tries to raise to the level of their incompatanecy. I normally can't deal around people like her. Perpetual happiness drives me nuts. But she is also very good at adjusting herself around me so that we can both be in each others company and I don't get the urge to run for the hills. Very therapeutic for both of us.

I am the classic under achiever. I remember a moment in art school were we had to make a request of the teacher for some item. He was passing out the items and saved the last two for myself and a friend of mine. "And for the under-achiever of the class we have the smallest [item] and for the over achiever we have the largest [item]." I spent 12 years in special ed classes because my output never matched what my teachers expected of me. I always did the bare basics to get by. I didn't do home work. I barely did class work. I did the occasional "Do this or fail" assignment. I aced every test that they could put in front of me. But there was no effort in that. You can't be an over achiever unless you put effort into things.

I think what confuses people is that when I do pick up a goal I tend to do very well at it. I knitted a pair of booties within 2 weeks of learning to knit. I picked up computer programing without a class. I built suits of armor with no effort. I make beer. I rebuilt a 4 stroke engine with no prior experience. But these are all things that anyone can do with just a little effort or some coaching.

The things that would be in line with the expectations based on my tested abilities would include things that I have not even the will to try to attempt. Going to law school? Nope. Heck any kind of higher education other than 2 years of art classes? Nope. How about looking for a promotion? Nope. Every promotion I have ever gotten I was dragged into. Leaving my job to find a better one? Only did it once because failure to do so would have resulted in homelessness. I stay in a job for what most people in my peer group would think is an unreasonable amount of time. It isn't unusual to stay in a job for more than 4 years. I don't have a drivers license. Never have. Don't even know how to drive and have to make up the rules as I putt along on my scooter. I move only once I find a job that isn't close to work. By close to work I mean I currently live within 3 miles of work and could run their if I needed to. But I wouldn't run it because I am lazy and would rather take a bus or a cab. I live in the ghetto because I require a) cheap b) central location c) damn close to work. Every contest, except one, I have won I have done so by just being defaulted into it. In all I am full of slack.

I may be bold and do things that most people wouldn't even try but that is often because I am too cheap to pay someone else for the results I want. If I want something done right I know I have to do it myself. But that is a result of laziness not over achieving. I am a slacker. I hope to one day change that but for now it is part of my life.

This post was interrupted by marble sized hail coming down outside. Almost wish I hadn't left my rain gear in the trunk so I could go ride in it. But then I might do something like break my wrist. So lets not do that :) If you are on my face book then you can see a picture of it there. Along with, as my roommate pointed out, lots of things I don't post here. I am under my real (non-faux) name: Piller Gregerson.

knitted scarves

Thu, 28 May 2009 06:23:42 GMT

As mentioned before I am knitting for physical therapy after getting the cast off my wrist. I do something stupid about every 15 to 60 minutes that reminds me that my wrist still hasn't healed completely. But at least the pain doesn't hurt nearly as much as it did two weeks ago.

Finished the first one last week. Found cashmere on sale for almost half off. So I have a 6 foot long light weight very soft cashmere scarf sitting around doing nothing. $60 is the retail price just for the yarn. Add in 12 hours of labor and these things become very expensive. I should find a home for it because I will never use it. Its all stretched out for blocking in this pick but when not trapped down by 200 paper clips it curls up in a manor that would make young ladies look like young ladies.

This one I finished today. This has a small amount of gold colored metallic thread in it so in addition to deep colors there is some sparkle too. I knew about 5 rows into making this one who it would be going to. Also made a matching cell phone case for it.

All this knitting does make me regret not doing everything I could 15 years ago to go to the art school with the awesome textiles department. A few months ago I met someone who had actually graduated from School of the Art Institute of Chicago. I mentioned that I had wanted to go there because a) the school rocks b) has the best lending art library in the world c) had a textiles program d) its in Chicago which is the coolest city I have never been to
She said that the textiles classes may have proven too distracting for me because I would have been the only guy in the class. She may have had a point. :)

Censorship sucks.

Mon, 25 May 2009 22:56:49 GMT

Someone posted a link to The Obama Deception which isn't really an anti-Obama piece so much as a we-are-paranoid-and-don't-trust-anyone conspiracy film. Its the kind of film that would have existed no mater who the president happened to be at the time but since it was Obama his name got the title spot.

I followed up with a reply and some links showing the other side of the video. They replied by first deleting the comment and links I had made and then launching some ad hominem comments about how ignorant I was for not agreeing with the video. I pointed out that a difference of opinion is one thing but deleting links to opposing viewpoints isn't a groovy thing to do. They reposted one of the two links as a result and then fired off a whole lot more ad hominems which were more like attacks than mere comments. I can deal with the attacks. I am a nerd/geek and could care less about them.

The censorship on the other hand isn't cool at all. Especially when it comes to conspiracy topics. If they caught someone censoring their ideas they would incorporate into their conspiracy. In other words they are hypocrites.

I knew that this day would come. The time when those people I have known for some time start to enter into their 30s and 40s and all their drug use or pre-existing disorders would start to catch up with them. The time when they move from Dave-is-so-crazy-cool to Dave-is-nuts. I have always been curious about the way we move from one demographic into another as we age. Just like species changing slowly over time while retaining the marks of the species they came from each individual changes slowly over time and while still being them self they do become someone that the earlier version of them self would never admit was even possible.

Ever try telling someone they are getting old? They normally will laugh about it. Try telling someone they are becoming the kind of person they always hated? They don't take kindly to that. So I don't bother.

Bootie

Tue, 19 May 2009 02:56:03 GMT

Recovery for my broken wrist is coming along. At times its fine and at other times not so much. Yesterday I played all of 20 notes on a guitar and it burned like hell. Today I finished knitting this little bootie without any wrist issue at all. But then I took off my brace to type this and I am feeling a whole lot of pain. But I has a bootie! I feel so manly. Now I just need to make some more without all of the flaws this one has.

The booties are for a friend that is having a kid and does not want her kid bright pastels. I hate kids but figured that I could help a kid start off on the right foot and help my wrist too.

Maybe soon I will be able to knit my own socks. This knitting thing is much easier, functional and less forgiving than making armor.

Brewing

Mon, 18 May 2009 03:14:23 GMT

I haven't been able to brew anything in a while because of broken wrist. So today I got my shite together and had a few people over while I brewed a Golden Ale. I sacrificed most of the cheese in the house, a few cured meats and about 20 bottles of various beers to the entertainment gods. We were playing fiddle, guitar and lap harp. We watched episodes of Bullshit by Pen & Teller. We degassed the mead. We rocked, rolled, drank and brewed. Good day had by all.
Since all of my kegs are almost empty I am going to have to turn over fermenter space very quickly to fill my 7 kegs. So we will be doing this again in two weeks. Maybe this time I will have the foresight to invite a few sexy ladies. Then again I might just be lazy.

Brewing parties are so much better than brewing alone.

hater

Sat, 16 May 2009 00:43:57 GMT

Would this work better with imagery or different words?

Find a picture and caption it with:
http://wigflip.com/roflbot/
Save it to some thing like http://tinypic.com/ and post it in the comments.

knitting

Tue, 12 May 2009 03:38:15 GMT

As a general rule I try to not destroy anything that can't be replaced. Today I knitted a rat looking type thing so I could stuff it full of cat nip and cotton balls.
This was a one day throw away project made with cheap wool. Yesterday I finished a scarf with $36 of sale priced cashmere in it. That was my first real project. My roommate is mocking me because when your first "real" project has a retail price of $60 in cashmere in it the next step is to silks and other harder drugs. Once I get it blocked I will post a pic of it.
EDIT: i just noticed that the hunter is so large that it makes that 8 inch rat look like its only 4 inches.

Saw movie

Sat, 02 May 2009 01:39:07 GMT

Saw Wolverine. Made an even worse pic of me than the last one. It is about as cheesy as the first third of the movie.

This pic shows off the side burns better than the last one but has suck² written all over it.

No spoilers are below:
Just for the record: Logan was a paratrooper and not a beach stormer during WWII. It would have been better if more than 60 seconds of film had been spent on his time in Japan. It would have been even nicer if being able to tell what year it was in some of the scenes in the first 1/3 of the movie. There were always bits and pieces that made it look like thirty years all took place with the same one year gestalt. The producers, directors, costume designers and props people are all responsible for that not looking as clean as it could have.
At least they got the part about him being Canadian right.