chewingonaviancranium

Summer To-Do List

2008-06-01T18:54:00.000-07:00

I'm roughly 45 hours away from the start of my summer vacation. The last day of school/graduation is tomorrow, and then there's one more day for the staff to close up show for the summer, expected to wrap up around 4:00 PM on Tuesday, June 3rd. All the grading is done from finals week, scantrons are bubbled - all the hard work is done, I'm already mentally on vacation. Now to make the most of my impending freedom, I think it wise to make a "to do list." What follows it that list.

Investigate housing options in Davis/possibly (probably) move to Davis.
Buy a bike. Use it.
Devise & start a new training mesocycle. Goals: strength maintenance, bodyfat reduction (same goals as the mesocycle I've been running since late March, but I need to switch it up) + bringing up my back (an unassisted pullup? w00t!)
Read some books. I need to assemble some candidates. I've no idea what to read right now. Work this year has taken the wind out of my reading sails...
Summit a minor Cascade peak. South Sister? McLoughlin? (Shasta's nixed for this year due to poor conditions & under-training)
Head up to Yreka for the fair weekend (the last weekend of my summer) & go tubing on the Klamath, go to the fair, & go blackberry picking.
Brew again - it's been, sheesh, over a year? Weather will mandate a saison of some sort. Have my dad brew with me? (He expressed interest)
Do some more farmers' market shopping. I'm especially interested in finding local meat.
Buy some of Old Soul's bacon.
Go on the ocean fishing trip some of the Yrekans have organized?
Run the Mt. Shasta 4th of July race ('twood be my first race).
Eat at Cafe Maddalenna, Billy Goat's Tavern, and Taylor's Refresher (should be able to take care of the last one when I'm at the Napa conference).
Get "out" on a weekly basis lest I go crazy.
This one always makes "the list," but rarely happens: paint!
Update this list as the summer goes on?

All I can muster for now...

Community organization, rescindance, and other goings-on

2008-03-08T08:51:00.000-08:00

I checked my e-mail on this fine, late-winter morning to find this comment had been left regarding my post, Bread, Circuses, and My Hometown:

I realize this is a pretty old post, but I stumbled upon it in some google search. I just want to let you know that you are not alone in wanting to see Yreka and all of Siskiyou county develop into its full potential. Please visit siskiyoutopia.com. We can make a difference! It's just going to be an uphill battle and the older generation will only go along kicking and screaming! Yea for Siskiyou county! ...stop kicking back there and shut up!....

Soooo... I checked out Siskiyoutopia, and I have to say that I'm quite pleased. Looks like a Southern Oregon transplant to Siskiyou County has taken it upon themselves to try to mobilize some cultural revitalization there, and that the Siskiyoutopia blog is a primary engine of that movement. So far it looks like the primary content of the site is reports on local events, local shopping, local enterprise, etc. In general, things people can do in Siskiyou County that will establish and build some cultural momentum and economic revitalization. If I could make a suggestion to the voice of Siskiyoutopia, I'd say check out what the heck is going on with local agriculture: is there a farmer's market; who besides Hunter Orchards is producing some scrumptious, local eats; who can you go to to get some locally-raised, grass-fed beef? (I'm splitting a side of Townley beef with my brother and my folks)

Anyway, I'm glad to see there are like-minded folks living up yonder. Makes me think my eventual return will go much smoother...

BUT, the above comment prompted me to re-read my post, Bread, Circuses, and My Hometown. In that post, I said, "[mixed martial arts] is for troglodytes." Immediately after that, I said, "And I'm not going to back down from that statement." Well folks, I feel I do indeed have to back down from that statement, and here's why...

At the time I wrote that post, MMA was just beginning it's national resurgance. I wasn't quite aware of the scale to which it would permeate ALL of American society. It wasn't just Siskiyou County that saw MMA grow, it was the entire country. Now we see MMA on cable TV every night, and specials on the "fight science" of MMA on the "educational" cable channels. It's everywhere. And the fact that it's everywhere, and not just in Siskiyou County, makes me less scared.

Beyond that, honestly, my involvement in strength athletics (which began when I decided I didn't want to die a corpulent beast about a month after I wrote the post in question) has done a lot to make my more "okay" with MMA. You see, the MMA circle mixes with the powerlifting, olympic lifting, strongman, and bodybuilding circles. There's a lot of cross-pollination. When I look for articles on Russian conjugate training, I inevitably end up at the same sites that publish articles on things like "lactic acid tolerance training for MMA." By spending enough time in these overlapping circles, I've come to better understand MMA as a sport, and to have a better appreciation for the rigors involved.

Indeed, as I've trained for my own athletic feats (first an attempt on climbing Mt. Shasta, currently a powerlifting meet, and up next, another attempt on Mt. Shasta), I've come to appreciate sport in general to a degree which I never achieved before (that's what happens, I suppose, when you aren't athletic as a kid). At this point, I have a hard time believing that I dismissed physical activity and accomplishments as much as I once did. I now thrive on the zen of physical rigor. In all honesty, little in my personal experience has carried the same potential for self actualization that devotion to sport does. And if some folks find this same experience through the brutal regimen of MMA, good for them. That said, a sport which almost inevitably involves facial disfigurement and brain damage is most definitely not my cup of tea, but to each his own, I suppose.

Beyond all this, I've encountered some more mundane reasons to be "okay" with MMA. My activities in strength athletics have brought me Sacramento's coolest gym (with the best music selection ever heard in a gym), Bodytribe. At Bodytribe, I've met folks involved in MMA and Muay Thai, and you know what? They aren't creepy. They aren't skeezy. They aren't really weird. They're actually really nice people.

But with all that said (and heading back towards the original topic of this post), should small-time MMA fights held on the Karuk grounds be the biggest and bestest thing to happen in Siskiyou County? Definately not. Siskiyou County can do more and should do more.

I'd love to say more, but it seems that duty calls right now...

Raw Youth - A reader's thoughts...

2008-02-13T21:12:00.000-08:00

Recently I posted concerning the publication of my friend Tim's novel, Raw Youth. This past weekend I finished reading it, and I feel a need to talk about it a bit.

First of all, I must say that I respect the hell out of Tim for writing and publishing this novel. When we were in high school, idealistic and confused youths that we were, we voiced some pretty big plans for our futures. I dreamed of being a rock journalist or a guerilla artist or a socialist revolutionary - something provocative. Tim was pretty damned set on being an author, on writing "the great American novel." Nine years later, I'm teaching high school - valuable work, certainly, but it doesn't have quite the glory I'd envisioned myself to be destined for. In the meantime, Tim has lead a crazy and unexpectedly dramatic life, but he hasn't lost sight of that initial goal. Every step of the way from high school graduation to this very moment, he has been, according to my observations at least, focused on his literary aspirations. While I'm fairly happy with my life, the artist and dreamer in me envies Tim's clarity of vision and the cojones he has demonstrated in his commitment to his goals.

Now I'm not quite sure how to respond to Raw Youth. I don't know why Tim decided to push this manuscript through, as opposed to any of the others he has worked on. And to be completely honest, I was skeptical of the novel when he initially serialized the first several chapters on his blog - in that stunted and truncated form, I had a really tough time figuring out where the hell he was going.

And where was Tim going with Raw Youth? The novel consists of the recollections of a narrator who seems to be subject to paranoid delusions and hallucinations (in comments concerning the novel Tim has described the character as a paranoid schizophrenic) who is obsessed with the national traumas to which the American public has been subjected over the past 15 years (Waco, Oklahoma City, Columbine, 9/11, etc). Weird premise, eh? After reading the novel, I'm still not really sure what the hell Tim was saying about all this.

Ultimately, I feel somewhat unqualified to evaluate the literary merits of the novel. I'm not an objective audience. Reading the novel proved to be a rather odd experience for me simply because I am so familiar with many of the personal experiences and events Tim mined to flesh out the novel... Tony Roma's in Salt Lake? That's where we ate on our way back from seeing the Chemical Brothers at Red Rocks. I got food poisioning from that meal. But beyond that, I feel like I have too many preconcieved notions of Tim's psyche and intentions, and I'm not sure what I do think I understand about his novel is based on his writing, and not more than that.

That said, I need to describe what happened when I turned the last page and returned the novel to my bookshelf. I felt a longing. I wanted more. I didn't want to be done with the novel. I wanted the experience I'd had reading it to continue. Then I realized that Tim had done something very successful. He'd written a kick-ass, riveting narrative. Raw Youth was, for me, a page-turner. I enjoyed it greatly, and I eagerly await Tim's future writings.

RIP, Edmund Hillary

2008-01-12T08:33:00.000-08:00

Sir Edmund Hillary, O.G. of modern mountaineering, has passed.

But let's not forget that his accomplishment, the first known summit of Everest, was shared with Tenzing Norgay, who himself passed in 1986. The degree to which the role of the Sherpas in so many of Westerner's mountaineering accomplishments is overlooked will never cease to irk me.

That said, much respect to the both of them.

Lolme

2008-01-09T13:45:00.000-08:00

A certain eager & amorous neighborhood cat came to see me today upon my return home from the gym, and as I crouched down to pet it, it jumped up on my shoulders, settled in, and started purring.
Sigh, I need a pet...

Plug - "Raw Youth"

2008-01-08T21:11:00.000-08:00

My old friend Tim has written and, finally, published a novel, Raw Youth. Follow that link or the button to your right for some preview chapters & a further link to purchase the book.

Check one off my list...

2007-06-27T19:24:00.000-07:00

... of life accomplishments.

Finding a "Zoltar" and getting my fortune told? Check!

The Fifth Circle...

2007-06-13T17:52:00.000-07:00

Hrmm. Seems about right. But most of the wrath and anger stays in my head...

The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Fifth Level of Hell!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Very Low
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	High
Level 2 (Lustful)	High
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	Moderate
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Very Low
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	Very High
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	High
Level 7 (Violent)	Moderate
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	Low
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Low

Take the Dante Inferno Hell Test

A Die-Hard Chemical Brothers fan's reaction to the We Are the Night - Liveblogged upon his first listening

2007-06-05T23:52:00.000-07:00

Liveblogging my first listen of We are the Night. (How did I get it? Why do you ask?)

Currently in the title track (track 2). That's because track one was very short - one minute, just an intro - that's new for the chems. Minimalist too. Weird.

This track ("We Are the Night") has some weird distant percussion, psychedelic noises, and some acid. And hell yeah, here's the full on Chems percussion at about 1:30 in. Unabashedly old school in structure so far. Just old acid with a Chems sound palate. I dig it so far.

Rolling bass line. "We are the night, we are the night." Yeah, I can see wigging out to this one while being blinded by a lightshow, with some sweaty dude who smeels like patchouli dancing way too close to me.

Sweeping and psychedelic and dancable. Maybe even spiritual at a point. All the things I like in my music. A little odd that this seems so quintessentially Chems, yet also like such a departure. So old school but so new.

So far I feel like Tom'n'Ed may have finally said "to 'ell with it" to whatever's going on in music around them and just decided to making the drug-addled dance music that first got them going back in '93.

Oooh, nice Kraftwerkesque keys at the end.

Now it's on to "All Rights Reversed (feat. the Klaxons)." My friend told me the Klaxons are teh suck, so my expectations are low... Hrmm, typical brit "rave-rock" vocals. Track's alright. Dark, which is a new one for the Chems. Not dark in the possibly bad-trip, "It Doesn't Matter" kind of way, but dark in the nihilistic way.

Well, for a collaboration track, this ain't too shabby. Just wish they'd get over their need to collaborate with second rate brit-poppers. I haven't noted yet that this track isn't one of the dance-based tracks. Breakbeats, not 4/4, but a bit slower. Much more a traditional rock song structure, but with Chems production. Think "Let Forever Be" and "The Boxer."

Oooh, EBW #8 is on here - now called "Saturate." Good - I thought that track was very high caliber. Love the drums that come in during the second minute. I anticipate this track being part of a solid live 4/4 string..

As for album structure, thus far it seems okay. Now that I think about it, I like that the first track is an intro track. "All Rights Reserved" was so dark, and "Saturate" so happy, and "We Are the Night" so psychedelic, I'm not really percieving a distinct emotional arc (yet). Tracks largely un-transitioned - alas...

Now it's on to Do it Again. I've had this track for about a month now, and have already become very familar with it. It's hard to remember my first reactions - I was happy with it, and it's aged well. Never before have I heard something that was simultaneously so bubblegum-r&B-ey, yet so psychedelic and dark. A contrast that I really dig. This contrast, however, has thrown off a friend of mind - "it sounds like Justin Timberlake, sorta," he says. But how someone who likes JT and the Chems can disagree with this track, I don't understand. I like me some drugged up JT.

Alright, now it's onto Das Spiegel (awesome title, BTW). Hrmm, electro on a 4/4, with a clap. And now some chugging chords in the back. And weird Chem noises peppering things. I'm not apt to describe it, but it's fitting entirely within what I understand to be the Chems' current direction. Enjoyable little track, this is.
Apparently Spiegel means "Mirror." Now am I hearing an homage to "Hall of Mirrors" in some of these synths. Perhaps... And all of the sudden, the Speigel Catalog just got way cooler...

Really an undeniably happy tune. Petit. I dig it.

Now I stand in anticipation of "The Salmon Dance" - will it live up to its title?
Hrmm, breakbeat based, with a guest rapper. And it's actually one of those "here's how you do this dance" songs. It's cool, I suppose, I'd just expected an acid stormer or something like that. Better than "Left, Right," at least. But then that's saying very, very little.

This is a silly song. It's silly. Does silly belong on a Chems album? Well, the weird/psychedelic factor might be enough to override the sillyness. Perhaps the sillyness is part of the overall psychedelic arc. Yeah, keep telling yourself that...
Well, perhaps I just hold Tom'n'Ed to too high a standard. It's that old DYOH syndrome striking again.

Okay, Burst Generator is bringing it back to the seriousness & the dance. Still waiting for the break, which the building, reverbed guitars indicate will come soon. If this follows though, this could be a good one. Oh yeah, I dig it. This one's a head-nodder. And a spiritual-level booty shaker. Yeah, this is going to kick ass live. I'm going to take a break from typing and enjoy this one.

Several minutes of bliss pass.

Yeah, that was good. Exactly the kind of track that makes me love the Chemical Brothers, love music, and love life. I feel a warmth in my heart and a peace in my mind.

And to make it better, the next track, "A Modern Midnight Conversation" is transitioned. A little electro again, but in the new wavey way, not in the hip-hop-ey way. Ooh, and serene female vocals - I'm a sucker for serene female vocals on a Chems track. This is cool - burbling synths, spastic synths, a bass and percussion track that could be from some unrealized Herbie Hancock/David Byrne collaboration circa 1983, and serene female vocals. A weird combo that works way better than you'd ever expect, and comes out sounding dead serious & spiritual.

I'm a happy man right now.

This album so far, and "A Modern Midnight Conversation" really leaves me wondering what the Chems have been listening to lately. It's like this is a modern electronic dance music album from an alternate universe, were new wave, electro, and acid were all far more influential than they have been in this sphere.

Now it's onto "Battle Scars (ft. Willy Mason)." Okay, apparently the vocal from "No Path to Follow" was lifted from this track. Grizzled blues-folk-ey vocals over a breakbeat-based, rock-structured track, with prominent xylophone in the percussion track. And, of course, some of the Chems synths for good measure. Thoroughly unexpected, but I think I like it rather well...

Is this track a response to that new-fangled "New Weird America" genre? The whole psychedelic folk thing? Let's google this Willy Mason guy. 1984? Crap, he's younger than me - prominent, non bubble-pop musicians being younger than me is still freaking me out...

Okay, "Harpoons" is the penultimate track, and it's just over two minutes - they aren't going to pull another "Pioneer Skies" on me, are they (that was a *great* track that was just missing it's second half). On that note, imagine a live version of "Pioneer Skies" transtioning to the second movement in "The Sunshine Underground" - such awesomeness could not be comprehended by mere mortals...

So "Harpoons" was just content to fiddle around with some noises for two minutes - fine by me. It never threatened to break into a magnum opus of uber-psychedelic proportions as "Pioneer Skies" did. And "Pioneer Skies'" fault was in not following though on that promise, not just making the promise - I like my magnum opi of uber-psychedelic proportions. And if you're saying to yourself right now "proportions can't be psychedelic," then you just don't get it, man...

So, "The Pills Won't Help You Know (feat. Midlake)" is a mellow closer, not a storming closer. And I'm enjoying it. It's not occasioning much remark, however. I'm really looking forward to going back & giving "We are the Night" and "Burst Generator" second, third, and fourth listenings.

Yeah, that's a good album. Best initial reaction to a Chems album I've had since Surrender. It has a definate edge on Push the Button, but where it falls overall, I've yet to say.

Castle Crags

2007-04-08T20:58:00.000-07:00

Well, training pays off. This past Wednesday, April 4th, Castle Crags proved easier with a 55lb pack than it had last September without any added weight. I felt strong, sure, and swift the whole way up and down, and that should be a decent gauge of my Shasta-readiness, as the rate of ascent on Castle Crags is actually about the same as on Shasta (though the total elevation is significantly lower, and Shasta has about double the gain/distance through the total trip, and Shasta also has the snow to deal with). Whatever the case, my performance on Wednesday is solid proof of my progress. Now I just need to do what I can to drop any additional weight over the next two months so that there's less of me to haul up the mountain...

And a note: trekking poles are awesome. Using the poles enabled me to be more agile with 55lbs added weight than I would've been sans pack and poles - I was scrabling all over the granite up top... They also did much to decrease joint stress on the descent.

Up next, Goosenest?

I could do this all day...

2007-04-03T21:26:00.000-07:00

A wellspring of happiness

2007-04-03T21:22:00.000-07:00

You're welcome...

Finally...

2007-04-03T21:21:00.000-07:00

I have searched for this for years:

Daily weirdness

2007-04-02T18:17:00.000-07:00

As I came home from the gym today to find this on my doorstep:

Mountain of a Mountain Man

2007-04-01T22:01:00.000-07:00

So I'm finally going to climb Mount Shasta. It's something I've thought about since I was a child growing up in Siskiyou County. It's the realization of a life-long yearning, and a benchmark in my fitness development. But that's not the point of this post.

The point is this. I'm big. I don't look like a "typical" athelete. At least not any athelete other than a football lineman or a powerlifter. This makes finding athletic clothing and equipment somewhat difficult. While I can certainly, though perhaps with some searching, find clothing and equipment suited to typical gym-training & team sport needs, I experience significant difficulty outfitting myself for "outdoor" sports (the ones I'm actually interested in). Mountaineering, in particular, has prooven to be a problem area. Within this blog, I would like to detail my experience searching for mountaineering equipement suitable for my large size, in hopes that other aspiring large-sized mountaineers out there might find my posts and make use of the information contained therein.

First order of business, mountaineering boots.

Hard, "double-plastic" mountaineering boots are pretty damned fundamental to mountaineering. They are completely waterproof, they're insulating, they're sufficiently rigid to hold onto any crampon and support various and sundry mountaineering steps, and the stiff shell of the boots allows crampons to be cinched down without cutting off circulation to the foot. The only problem is, most mountaineering boots don't come any larger than a US men's size 13, if that. Seeing as my feet are size 14, and you're really supposed to wear your mountaineering boots one size too-big, that fact was a problem for me.

After much searching on the internet, I found mention of one boot that goes above a size 13, the Lowa Civetta. There's actually the standard Civetta and the Civetta GTX Extreme (the standard Civetta should do you fine unless you're planning to do some really long, really cold expedition climbs - we're talking Himalaya's here). The cheapest price I was able to find on the Civetta (by about $20) was here (shipping and return are free).

I tested the boots out about two weeks ago while taking a basic mountaineering course. They're size 15, standard width. Lengthwise, they were great. Width was alright, though if you have particularly wide feet and/or "boxey" toes (I have both), they might be a little tight near the "knuckle" of the little toe - something to be aware of when applying the moleskin.

Up next, gaiters.

I think I'm screwed on the gaiters front. You know the size of my boots. Now be aware of the fact that I have 19 inch calves. Between the size of my boots and the general largeness of my lower legs, I haven't been able to find any gaiters that come anywhere close to fitting. Double-X rentals from Outdoor Research were 1-3 inches of girth from closing at any point along their entire length. Same with some double-X gaiters from Mountain Hardware found at an REI. I haven't found any mention of triple-X gaiters anywhere. The solution? I'm going to make my own gaiters.

Turns out you can buy Goretex fabric, ripstop nylon, as well as numerous buckles & gizmos useful in the maufacture of gaiters here and here (amongst other places, I think). Both retailers also stock paterns for gaiters. I'm actually rather stoked about the notion of making my own gaiters. I'm just a little scared about the fact that there might be people out there who make their own sleeping bags, bicycle shorts, and sports bras...

That's all on this topic for now. In upcoming weeks, I may return to discuss crampons...

Say what? Free time?

2007-04-01T21:59:00.000-07:00

Weirdness.

Sheer weirdness.

Work had been going well over the past few weeks, but now it's spring break, and I'm having a rough time adjusting to vacation. Come Tuesday I plan to head up north to the homeland in order to do some training hikes for Shasta and bottle some batches of homebrew that have been sitting for way too long in the houses of assorted family members of mine, but in the meantime, I just don't know what the hell to do. I've been sitting around the apartment feeling vaguely anxious, twiddling my thumbs. Yeah, there's some cleaning and organizing I could do, but I've been trying to stay "out of the way" as my counterpart starts her new job tomorrow, and has much to to in order to prepare.

So now I'm trying a bit of the old blogging to entertain myself... Over the past several months, many many blogworthy things have crossed my mind, but I'm having a helluva time remembering what they all were. Hrmmm... If and when I recall them, I might try posting about 'em. See if I still have the ol' blogging chops...

Tree farms are for wusses

2006-11-26T21:21:00.000-08:00

Sometime in the past week, the Sacramento Bee ran a piece in their home & garden section regarding that hallowed piece of post-Thanksgiving tradition - the family outing to get a Christmas tree.

But hold up. The piece in the Bee talked only about going to tree farms. "Tree farms?" I say, no small hint of derision in my voice. Yes, tree farms. Plots of land, commercially owned and operated, planted with trees, maintained and groomed. Am I to believe that for those who are used to the box-store sprawl of a California metrosuburbanopolis, going to such a place actually makes one feel outdoorsey and traditional? Are these the same people who think they're granola because they occasionally go to Yosemite?

Really, all I have to say is that a tree farm ain't got nothin' on the slope above a dirt logging road at 6500 feet on a snow-covered, minor Cascade volcano:
Y'all best respect the O.G. holiday-ness...

I ain't dead...

2006-11-09T19:43:00.000-08:00

...but I sure as hell haven't blogged much in the past three months.

What have I been up to over the past quarter of a year? Well, school started up again, so I'm getting my teach on for about eight hours every day. Commuting takes about two hours round trip, bringing the grand total up to 10 hours... Then I've been at the gym about three hours a day, which puts us at 13 hours, and then it takes me about 90 minutes to get ready in the morning, so 14.5 hours... Then dinner, laundry, dishes, and a post-work-out shower take another 2 hours, so 16.5 hours... 24-16.5 = 7.5, which is, uh, less than eight. So I don't even have room for eight hours of sleep in there, let alone blogging.

Okay, so that's weekdays... But what about weekends, you ask? Well, there's been a slew of weddings, bachelor parties, baby showers, debate tournaments, and other such things that have eaten up my weekends. And on the few open weekends I've had here and there, I've opted to, as part of my plan to be more active/healthy, gone and done things like camping and hiking. So, again, no blogging...

But Veteran's Day is here! The first three-day weekend in what seems like ages... I have tomorrow off from work, and I will be heading up to Yreka early in the AM to visit friends (family will be elsewhere) and brew some beer (Aztec Imperial Stout - more on that later). Right now I'm currently avoiding packing. I figured I'd just snag a minute and say "hello" to the blogosphere. I'd love to comment on the "Democratic tide," personal issues, education, and my current obsession with mountaineering, but the first item is being covered by everyone out there in the blogosphere, the second would be boring to anyone who might stumble across this blog, the third would depress me, and the fourth is really just kinda weird...

But I would like to pose this question? What kinda freak thinks Sierra Nevada Celebration is improved by cellaring? Fresh, it's a wonderful, clean, definative West-Coast IPA. After two years of cellaring, it's utter crap. All the hops fade, and those weird, "old Chico yeast" flavors come waaaaay out. Only weirdo East-Coast hop-pansies would like this stuff cellared, I guess... Now three-year old Rogue Imperial Stout? That's some good stuff...

Anyways, enough with the beer geekdom. Really, all I wanted to say is, "I ain't dead," and I might be around here a bit more.

Summer 2006: the End

2006-08-15T21:11:00.000-07:00

A few months back I reflected upon the summers of 1998 and 2002, and mused hopefully about the possibilities offered by this summer. Late this spring, as my first year of teaching wore me down, I longed for an amazing summer on par with those of 1998 and 2002 in order to replenish me. Right now, I am very near the end of my summer, due to return back to school on Monday, August 21st. Instead of traveling somewhere or doing something amazing during this last week, I'm just hanging out around my apartment because I'm on call this week for jury duty, and thus may be called into one of the local courts any morning or afternoon. I'm a little bitter about that, to say the least.

Now with most of this summer behind me, and the possibilities for the remaining days of my summer squelched by the looming threat of jury duty and necessary but minimal preparations for the school year, I think it's safe to refect upon the summer and begin to assess whether the Summer of 2006 was indeed a good summer, and if there is really a numerological significance to the four-year intervals...

Well, the past few months have certainly been significant, and eventful in a way... Though dozens to hundreds of miles separate me from my core group of friends, I did manage a few highly enjoyable outings with my friends. The spelunking trip was a definate success, with an afternoon crawling around underground followed by a long evening of mildly inebriated discussion of geo-politics and general catching-up. My friend's bachelor party set the bar high for the flurry of bachelor parties that are to follow over the next few years as my friends continue their respective journeys into matrimony. My two weeks in and around Siskiyou County were thoroughly relaxing and, in addition to allowing me to brew several batches of beer, also facillitated a sort of "re-set" in my habits and routines by way of placing me away from my usual surroundings. A trip back to Humboldt County with my counterpart brought with it cooler weather, positive reminiscing, and some damn good sushi. A recent weekend trip brought some blackberry-picking, more beer-making, some thoroughly enjoyable conversation with friends, and some damned-amusing people-watching at the county fair. Somewhere in there I also made my way to a concert festival, and I even seem to remember enjoying my one week of work obligations back in June. So overall, it seems like it was a good summer, right?

Well, I don't know...

You see, there have also been many days spent battling churning discontent. The freedom to live my life closer to how I wish to live it during this summer has, to a great degree, highlighted just how much I dislike my life as it is most of the time. Long story short, my desire to move away from Sacramento and back to a less urban, less expensive, less "California" setting, has only grown stronger. I've also spent a lot of time questioning my involvement in education, and I've become fairly convinced that I shall not stay on this course too much longer. In order to preserve my sanity and my health, I think I need to leave this city within the year, and the profession of education within a few more.

I've expressed my complaints regarding cities before, and regarding education, I just feel something's wrong there, that it's just not a right fit for me. I don't enjoy the work involved in education as much as I enjoy other lines of work, and I seem to enjoy it far less than my co-workers do. And yeah, helping disadvantaged urban youth can be "rewarding" and all, but that doesn't quite do it for me. I think I'd feel more "rewarded" by some higher pay and/or work that alligns more closely with my personal interests. I also feel that my potential for monetary success and/or personal happiness in other lines of work are so great that I'd be a fool to continue in education, that it'd be a waste of my life. Altruism be damned. I need to look out for myself...

Now, those two conclusions - that I need to get out of Sacramento, and that I need to get out of education - both came about when I was traveling away from Sacramento this summer. When I returned a few weeks ago to work on preparations for the school year, I found myself facing an enormous block as a result of those conclusions. Both my residence in the Sacramento area and my work in education were, within my own mind, finite. As I attempted to work, I kept thinking "I don't like this, and it will be over soon anyway." As you can imagine, not much quality work got done. Soon I started wondering how the heck I was going to get through the next nine months of my commitment to my school. It was a dismal scenario.

Thankfully, after some reflection and hours of conversation with those close to me, I've managed to arrive at some sort of resolution. By framing the work I do now as enabling positive changes at a later point in my life, I think I've given myself the fuel I need to make it through this ordeal.

So what's the plan? Work as much as I can and save as much as I can to increase my total net-worth and thus bring me closer to the dual goals of buying a house and having the capital to start a business. I also intend to educate myself as much as I can regarding my intented eventual pursuit, in particular making use of my summers to do so. And the end goal? Move away from here and start my own brewery within five years. In five years' time, I intend to be living elsewhere (though the moving elsewhere part can happen as early as next summer) and working seriously at starting a brewery.

Am I crazy? I don't think so. Craft brewing is a growing industry, I think I have a knack for it, and I spend so much time thinking about brewing and beer that I might as well be working in the industry anyway. I know that I am happiest when working in a creative capacity, and I think that, no matter how hard the work, I'd be well satisfied.

I've mulled the brewery idea over in my head for much of the past four years, and the farthest I've ever gotten is "I'll think about that later." It's damned scary to think about starting up a business, which is a damned expensive and risky proposition. But I'm tired of settling for the status quo and ignoring my dreams. I'm also thoroughly confident that, though fate may be fickle, and though the odds and chance may in fact not favor me, that I do possess an enormous degree of competence and capability. I should just go for it - it'll probably work, and I'll probably be happier.

Having come to this conclusion, I feel greatly relieved and reinvigorated. And the very fact that I came to this conclusion, I think, is reason enough to declare this summer a success. Leaving college, I was most definately uncertain regarding my career and general direction in life, and part of the reason I gravitated towards education was that I figured the summers off would give me an opportunity to "figure things out" a bit more while recieving a paycheck. Now I have things a bit more "figured out," and I'm growing emboldened to take the steps towards my desired future. As tumultuous as the road here was, this is a good place to be.

Brewlog: Bachelor Party Porter & Saison #3 Update

2006-08-07T22:32:00.001-07:00

My recent excustion to Siskiyou County allowed me to tend to the Porter and Saison I'd brewed back in early June. Thankfully, I've ended up very pleased with both beers...

Bachelor Party Porter, brewed for a friends bachelor party, was kegged, force-carbonated, and chilled on Thursday, July 20, then tapped at approximately 6:00 PM on Friday, July 21, at our rented cabin on Elk Lake near Bend, Oregon. After a fierce battle against that and other forces, the keg was finally drained on the morning of Sunday, July 23rd, as we dined on a breakfast of bratwurst and attempted to figure out how the heck to make the cabin look like anything other than the warzone we had turned it into over the course of the weekend.

The beer had a finishing gravity of approximately 1.015, making for an abv of around 5.5%. The beer was exceedingly dark with a tan head. There was a bit of mint in the aroma and flavor due to the Eroica hops, and that was not unwelcome. There was an appropriately medium mouthfeel, and a considerable residual sweetness. The round, estery flavors of the London Ale yeast worked perfectly. The hopping was substantial, more so than I'd expected, making the overall impression of the beer similar to that of Rogue's Shakespeare Stout. Overall, I'd say I was damned pleased with it, and I'd say the rest of the folks at the festivites were too... I can't say that I'd make any tweaks to the recipe, I think it's damned-near perfect as is. The only concievable change I can see would be to up the gravity of the whole thing and turn it into a Baltic Porter. Mmmm....

As for Saison #3, that was bottled on Tuesday, July 25th. The final gravity was 1.012, which though higher than the WLP 565 has the potential to ferment to, is right where my Saison #1 settled out, and both batches were brewed & fermented under damn-near identical conditions. Whatever the case, the beer still yielded an abv of about 7.5%, though with a bit more substantial of a body than I'd find ideal. The spicing is perfectly subdued and just barely noticable. The hopping is mild - I'd still like to beef-up both the hop bitterness and hop flavor in future batches, though what I have here is certainly acceptable. The yeast didn't produce as much funkiness as it can yield at higher temperatures, but I still did get a moderate level of funk, a good level of fruit, and a nice spiciness out of it. Right now I'm still letting the bottles condition, though a bottle opened this Sunday did show a good level of carbonation.

Brewlog: India Brown Ale

2006-08-07T22:32:00.000-07:00

One of the two batches of beer brewed recently...

Batch #25, 7/26/06: India Brown Ale

For several months I'd intended to brew a single-hop pale ale using Amarillo hops. Two weeks ago I set out to do just that, but somehow I veered off course, and ended up with something considerably different. Entranced by the assortment of dark and Belgian malts I had on hand, and inexplicably deviating from my hopping intentions, I ended up creating something moderately dark, substantially hoppy, and with some damned-weird malt character going on. Thus, I give you my "India Brown Ale..."

Water:

7 gallons Yreka tap water (tastes a little weird lately, but I was too lazy to buy water) treated with a pack of Burton Water Salts, the weight of which I neglected to write down...

Grain:

4oz Belgian pale malt
2oz Belgian aromatic
1oz Roasted barley
10z Caramunich
4oz 40L Crystal
1oz Special B
.5 oz Black patent
2 oz Caramel wheat (again, 80-100L in color)

Extract:

7 lbs pale malt extract

Hops:

1oz 11.2% Chinook at 60 minutes
1oz 8.8% Amarillo at 30 minutes
2oz 8.8% Amarillo at 10 minutes

Yeast:

1/2 gallon starter of WLP 001, California Ale

Procedure:

"Mini-mash" the grains, steeping just below 150 for at least 30 minutes, then remove. Add the dried malt extracts and bring to boil. Commence 90 minute boil. Hop according to schedule. At 15 minutes, add two tsp Irish moss. Knock out and cool according to your preferred method. Final wort volume should be just at five gallons if your boil was sufficiently vigorous. Next, aerate, transfer, and pitch yeast.

Notes:

Now, the O.G. I read was 1.050, and I'm certain that's wrong. I know I took the reading when warm, but I don't know how much that affected the reading. I was concerned solely because the hopping was rather substantial for such a low O.G... Nevertheless, a sample I tasted after four days, when the gravity had dropped to below 1.020, seemed just fine to me. But then, I'm a damned hophead...

Whatever the case, this is a weird one. But that's okay, 'cause it's homebrew. I have the freedom to make some weird beer if I want to...

It really does live...

2006-08-06T15:59:00.000-07:00

My old laptop is officially, completely recovered. I'm currently re-installing assorted software and copying back over my data, while concurrently making my rounds on the internet on my work computer as everything loads and installs... Having one computer at each hand makes me feel like I'm in some technophillic mid-90s thriller. I can almost hear the goa playing in the background...

Anyway, sometime today or tomorrow I should post some brewblogs regarding the Bachelor Party Porter (which was consumed in it's entirety over the course of a weekend "fishing" near Mt. Bachelor) and Saison #3 (bottle-conditioning currently), as well as a big ol' "quadrupel" and something that started as a hoppy, citrusy, west-coast pale ale, but then got hit with a grain bill involving some dark and/or Belgian malts. It's really just a dark IPA, but there are some very a-typical malt flavors going on behind the west-coast hop assault...

Outside of the brewing stuff (which is an increasingly huge part of my life), I also hope to post some updates regarding my travels this summer, some photos, etc. In the meantime, check out Mosier's blog - after a month and a half back in the States from his adventures in Japan, he finally posted again. Within his posts, you can find two pictures from our shared excursion to the Lava Beds National Monument.

More to come...

It Lives! (knock on wood)

2006-08-06T02:09:00.000-07:00

After spending the better part of the last nine hours wrangling my computer, I think it's finally coming back. Right now it's restoring the factory image to the new hard drive that I installed (rather easily) and then struggled for hours to get the motherboard to actually recognize as existing. In the end, it was a simple and absurd solution. What can I say, I'm not 1337...

And thankfully, I was able to recover most of the data I'd thought I'd lost... When I returned from my two weeks in the wilderness (details on that later) I, on a whim, fired up the heap. Magically, it started. I grabbed my mp3 player and a USB cable and started pulling data off. I got the photos first, then my documents (school papers, notes, letters, writings, etc.), then the miscellania. Last came mp3s and videos. I got less than halfway through my backup of my illicit property when the computer started making that grinding noise again, and eventually went back to the same blue screen I'd gotten before. No huge loss, however - I'd procured the most recent versions of my writings and the photographs from all my travels for the year, and I can always re-download or otherwise obtain anything else I might've had on there. The salvaged data has since been backed up in an additional two sources - my external hard drive (bought for music storage) and my work laptop (without which I'd be crippled in this whole repair process).

Humbug Burning...

2006-07-19T23:03:00.000-07:00

So for two weeks, I'm away from the festering, burning pit of hell that is the Sacramento Sprawl. This weekend I'm attending/putting on a bachelor party for a good friend up in the wilds of Oregon. Before and after that, I am residing with my parents for a while, enjoying the company of my family and the "charms" that my hometown has to offer. At the end of this all, my better half and I shall go on a short road trip to celebrate the third anniversary of togetherness. Nothing too remarkable... However, this vacation has already proven to be far more, uh, "exciting" than I had anticipated.

You see, tonight I drove home to see this: That's taken from I-5 North of Yreka (I was driving back from Medford where I'd bought an obscene amount of meat to grill up for my friend's bachelor party...) The fire, if you can make it out, was on Humbug, the group of mountains that rise above Yreka to the west. Over-logged sometime before my birth, Humbug has always been, to my knowledge, a barren range, covered by bone-dry sage-brush and manzanita, populated only by assorted wildlife of the unfriendly sort (rattlesnakes, mountain lions, coyotes), the proprietors of meth labs, off-road vehicle afficianados, and mountain bikers. It's always been a tinder-box, an inferno waiting to happen. I remember Humbug burning in the past, but I don't remember it ever threatening property (aside from the meth labs). This time, however, the fire was very low, just above houses I played in as a neighborhood kid. Folks up one more block were evacuated, and though my parents weren't, they were ready to go...

In my attempts to get up to my parents' house to help them clear out in case of an evacuation, and to protect my own belongings housed there, I encountered approximately 1/2 of the population of Yreka - apparently the stupider half - who had come up to the borders of my parents' relatively sparsely-populated and exclusive neighborhood to watch the show on the hill. This behavior infuriated me. One troglodyte on had the gall to motion to motion to me to slow down (from the speed limit) because his clan of fellow troglodytes was occupying roughly 1/2 of the breadth of the street to watch the fire. As his and his kin's property wasn't threatened by the fire, and mine was, I felt that my need superceeded his. Jackass...

Aside from the idiot lookie-loos, "law enforcement" was out in full (and misused) force. I was turned back from my attempts to reach my parents' house. Officer Jackass wouldn't even listen to me long enough for me to explain my situation (yes, I don't live there, but I am currently staying there, I have possesions there, and my dad has a bad back and can't lift too much, so he needs me to help load out...), "resolutely" turning me away. So I parked my car and walked up. I met no resistance, which I find odd, as if the police were really looking out for my safety, couldn't I flee faster by automobile than by foot? Regardless, I regret that the pig's heavy-handed manor infuriated me so quickly and so thoroughly (as such jackass, authoritarian manners always do) that I was unable to communicate effectively to the fellow, and was, quite actually, ready to go to jail for whatever charges he would level against me for whatever I might do in my infuriated state.

Argh. I hate people. Especially the stupid ones...

Regardless, the fire was under controll within an hour of my arrival at my parents' place. Looming evacuation orders were rescinded, the embers died down, and the fire trucks drove away, as did an utter horde of troglodyte lookie-loos who had managed to make it up the hill before the police started blocking the way. I'm glad to know that the police felt it was more important to keep me away from my kin, property, and memories, than to turn back that horde of jackasses.

Argh.

Now the fire seems to be almost entirely subdued, though I can still smell smoke, and I can still hear the activity of some engines further up the hill. I'm not quite calmed down from the enormous surge of adrenaline and fury that my earlier encounters with the good townspeople and peace officers of Yreka produced, and I'm going to have a helluva time trying to go to sleep. Especially considering that with a good gust of wind, I could need to ready for that evacuation after all...

Blue Screen of Death: Zac's Laptop, RIP...

2006-07-19T22:51:00.000-07:00

Three good years it gave me. And now all it does is make a grinding noise, followed by an occasional plink or plunk sound. Fortunately most data had been backed up, but lost are all pictures taken in the past six months and a certain revision of an earlier piece of writing that I rather liked. Alas...

The most lamentable part of the ordeal is that I never quite got to live the lifestyle that I wanted the laptop for. I never got to write a novel on it while sitting in the corner of a pub, nursing a pint, occasionally nibbling on some Welsh rarebit. The most I ever did with it that was dependant on it being a laptop was surf the internet from my couch and work on a paper for one of my education classes while riding down I-5 in the passenger seat of a car.

Now it's time to shop for a new computer, but this time I think it'll be a desktop - money's not tight, but it'd still be an extravagance to buy a laptop at this point in time. And worse comes to worst, there's still my work laptop.

Now anyone have any desktop suggestions for someone who's a compulsive internet surfer, downloader, and occasional writer?

Goa/Psytrance Sample Waiting to Happen...

2006-07-10T08:46:00.000-07:00

Just caught this Daily Show clip on Comedy Central, and maybe it's all the Highway 604, the Sunday evening goa program on Santa Cruz's KZSC, that I listened to last night (as I did many Sunday evenings back in college), and maybe it's just a sign that I really need to find a way to keep myself occupied, but I really think that when Sam Eagle says "the people on this program are weird and peculiar, and not to be trusted," I think it's a psytrance vocal sample waiting to happen. C'mon pystrance producers, consider this an invitation...

Homemade Lox

2006-07-03T12:00:00.000-07:00

w00t!

The experiment was a success - I have officially made my own lox. I took a 1lb slab of salmon and with some salt, sugar, spices, and time, turned it into this:

That's, oh, about $20-$40 worth of lox were you buy it prepared... But I was able to make something that seems to be just as good as most commercial examples for under $8. The procedure was as follows:

Grind (in a coffee grinder or spice mill)

2 tbs black peppercorns
2 tbs coriander
2 small, dried red peppers

Mix the spice mixture with

1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup salt

Place the salmon fillet (1lb or so, and don't use a center-cut "steak" - the grain will be wrong for what we're trying to do) on a big ol' sheet of plastic wrap. Completely cover the salmon - on all sides - with the entirety of the salt/sugar/spice mixture. Wrap the whole thing up tightly in the plastic wrap, then give two or so more coats of plastic wrap. Then place inside two big zip-lock bags. Basically, you want this thing hermetically sealed, 'cause it's gonna get juicy as the salt draws the liquid out of the salmon... Then place the whole mess in a casserole-type dish to catch any escaping juices. Then put some sort of weight on the salmon - whether or not you actually need to do this, I don't know, but it is part of the hoo-doo of lox-making lore, and I did it and it seemed to work well... I used a tupperware container with a base about the size of the salmon fillet, and placed a big can of baked beans in the container. Then, place this whole mess in your fridge and wait. I took mine out and flipped the salmon every 12 hours or so - again, I don't know if that's really necessary, and I don't see why it should be, but it is part of the hoo-doo.

The range of time to "cure" the salmon varies between recepies - some say 3 days, some say a week. I went for a week, and while it's good, I think I'll go for around 4 days next time to keep things a little less salty. What I pulled out of the wrapping was much firmer than the un-cured salmon fillet. I then rinsed all the remaining brine mixture and spices off of the now-cured salmon with some cold water, patted the whole thing dry, and then I set about slicing it up. With a not-so sharp knife I was able to, surprisingly, slice near paper-thin slices from the firmed-up fillet. The resulting lox slices are translucent, bright orange, glistening, and otherwise feel and look every bit like all the lox I've ever bought commercially. Taste-wise, things are very similar - mine is a bit saltier, which I don't object to but will attempt to correct in the future, and the inclusion of coriander makes for a noticably different, but IMO entirely welcome, floral/hot spice element.

I think I shall never buy commercial lox again. Unless, of course, it comes with a bagel and cream cheese attached.

Now to contemplate if the sockeye salmon shall recieve any different spice treatment when it is loxized...

Bread, Circuses, and My Hometown

2006-06-29T19:09:00.000-07:00

I am very concerned for Yreka...

Yreka, California, is a small town. Not much happens there. It's socially conservative - tremendously so. With the fall of the resource (logging) based economy, it is increasingly becoming a retirement community. There aren't many good jobs... If you aren't working for the government in some capacity, as a Yrekan you're likely making minimum wage or very close to that. Culturally, the place is rather dead. Very little happens in terms of social events that doesn't involve the few dive bars in town. The place can be excruciatingly boring for a teenager, and as a result, the teenagers often get up to no good...

But Yreka is tremendously beautiful. It has the perks of a small town - it's safe, it's clean, it moves at a managable pace, and there's a strong social (if inactive) network to support you. And the physical beauty of the surrounding Siskiyou County is amazing. And as a native Sisqan, I am convinced that I must eventually move back to this place. I am also convinced that many of my friends - fellow Sisqans - will end up there too. But if I am to spend a significant portion of my remaining life in Siskiyou County, I think I'm going to need it to change. I want there to be more economic opportinity. I want there to be viable working-class jobs. I want there to be enough higher-end jobs to encourage more native Sisqans to return after attaining their college degrees. I want Siskiyou County to adapt to the post-resource era - I want the local economy to find a way to work things out such that there are good jobs across the spectrum - this means more than just lots of money for developers and minimum wage for the waitresses and bus-boys serving the retirees from the Bay Area. I want there to be cultural events... I want bands playing gigs. I want poetry readings. I want art exhibitions. I want Yreka and Siskioyou County to be alive and balanced, and I want for youth to have a role in these places.

I want all of that, but this is what we are getting instead:

Yes, instead of wholesome, intellectually-tinged cultural events, Yreka is now getting the savagery of "cage fighting." Or "ultimate fighting." Or "mixed martial arts." Or whatever you want to call it. Whatever the case, it's for troglodytes. And I'm not going to back down from that statement.

This is rock bottom. I realize that small-scale "cage fighting" is gaining popularity across the country, but it disturbs me that this is what Yreka has chosen to latch on to. This is cancerous. This path will not lead to new, beneficial businesses moving into town. This will not lead to economic opportunity and prosperity. This path will lead to hopital bills and welfare moms. This is exactly the kind of thing that makes city slickers snidely snicker at us, the low-life country bumpkins. Why don't we just spend all our paychecks on Natural Ice and beat up our wives while we're at it? Christ almighty...

The scary thing is I actually remember one of the fellows in the posters from high school.

The capacity of the rural American to work against his/her own best interest will never cease to amaze me. It all makes me shiver...

The Best Albums You Never Knew About, Vol. 1

2006-06-29T18:44:00.000-07:00

Carl Craig's More Songs About Food and Revolutionary Art is a freakin' masterpiece. I don't know that I'll elucidate on the matter much more to support that statement, but after spending a chunk of my afternoon listening to that album while working on my first canvases in nearly a decade, I am compelled to come forth and advocate for that album. For those of you who went so far as to click the link above, you would've noticed that Amazon is only offering up three used copies of the album - I'd assume that means it's out of print. And that 'tis a damn shame. Never before, and possibly never since, has someone taken such a heady approach to Detroit techno. Oh, sure, Derrick May did crank out some lofty, spiritual, and perhaps intellectual singles, but he never put forth an actual album - the most he could muster was a half-assed and painfully incomplete compilation that would be laughable were it not the only notable record of his work on compact disc, let alone the only work of his in print... But for an album, an actual album, Craig's More Songs About Food and Revolutionary Art has to be the pinnacle of Detroit techo. Sprawling, spiritual, ambitious... It draws from jazz, it draws from R&B... It does not in anyway attempt to mask its blackness... Spare as only Detroit techno can be, it draws on no more than the typical sound palate of Detroit techno with the occasional addition of a sultry, female, jazz-tinged voice. The rest is all the basic drum machines and synths, the same as the Belleville Three used when making their groundbreaking works. And it reaches such lofty heights. Spare and spiritual, cool and intellectual, but we're talking jazz cool, not cold cool. Sure, subsequent Detroit techno has been more rockin' - Richie Hawtin and Matthew Dear could pummel Carl Craig into the ground wiht their relentless beats. But Craig managed to present what is perhaps the headiest, purest, blackest, and bestest manifestation of the Detroit ethos and sound.

Go but this album. Pour yourself a drink. Listen to it. And contribute...

Fighting Inertia

2006-06-27T18:14:00.000-07:00

Objects at rest tend to stay at rest, and objects in motion tend to stay in motion.

I am all too often an object at rest.

Sunday night I arrived back from the spelunking leg of the week's travels, and it is only now, on Tuesday evening, that I have begun to blog again, or do much of anything, really. The human capacity to do jack shit is really quite astounding when you think about it.

But some things were accomplished. Yesterday's time was eaten up by a trip into work to do a bit of paperwork that needed doing and could be done by none other than me. Today began with some hardcore loafing, and then continued on to an outing in which I purchased, yet again, painting gear. And let me tell you, art supplies are waaay more expensive when they aren't subsidized by either one's parents or one's high school art teacher. Nevertheless, I've allowed cramped dorm and apartment living keep me from my art for far too long - the entire seven years since I graduated high school, in fact. Which is downright weird when you consider how big a part of my life art was for me prior to graduating high school. I'm convinced that had I not had art classes and the community thereabouts through high school, I would have ended up way more messed up than I did.

Whatever the case, I have a stack of canvasses, some fresh paints, and some brushes and knives that are sufficiently servicable to crank out some of the abstract-ish stuff that I evolved into doing towards the end of my high school career. What I'm going to paint, I don't really know. As an angsty teenager, unfocused anger and frustration was a driving force in my life, and it really was at the forefront of my psyche. Because of this, I always had something very obvious to tap into when I painted. Now, I'm not really sure what to do. I'm happier in general, but I'm still very suceptible to existential dread, and while there's still anger, it's highly specific anger focused on a plethora of environmental elements. There just doesn't seem to be one driving emotion that can leap forward and lead my focus. When I think about art, and my practicing of art, I end up thinking about how I've drifted away from that ideal path that I set out, how I feel burdened by "real life," and how I yearn to get back to that ideal. I feel like Odysseus, with a touch of Jonah. How to channel that into some visual art, I don't really know, but we'll just have to see what happens. 'Cause it's a damned shame I drifted away from art, and it's gonna change. (This is all a part of last Thursday night's epiphany...)

In other news, I'm trying out making some gravad lax, this time using some farmed, color-added Atlantic salmon. Should it turn out well, I've got some wild sockeye salmon sitting in the freezer (to kill off any parasites it may be carrying), awaiting the same, salty fate.

How did I go nine days without blogging?

2006-06-22T01:49:00.000-07:00

Seriously... June 13th through June 22nd? What have I been doing? With how cathartic and focusing an activity blogging has prooven to be for me, what the hell have I been doing not doing it? I know I did a bunch of crap reading, and I spent hours in the gym dedicated to both weights and time on the bikes sufficient to render my legs near useless by Sunday - though I'm glad to see that my leg lifts are still in the superhuman range, though still several hundred pounds below my '03 peak - but I don't know why I didn't find any time to blog during the past week and a half. Surely I have had experiences and/or thoughts worth blogging in that frame of time?

And now for the randomness...

Why is there a road crew using a jackhammer outside my hotel room right now, at 2:00 AM? Isn't that a bit inconsiderate? At least those fellows are getting some hefty hazard pay for their disruption of my sleep (should I attempt to attain it)
Is there anything Timbaland touches that doesn't turn to gold? I certainly didn't want to like this Nelly Furtado single, but, aside from the chorus, I find it to be infectuous. Is there an album of Timbaland instrumentals out there?
Why aren't more folk talking about the fact that the Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Dani California" lifts significant musical elements directly from Tom Petty's "Last Dance With Mary Jane?" Am I just showing my age here? That wasn't that long ago, and Tom was already a fogey then...

Gasp - Music Videos on Music Channels?

2006-06-22T01:40:00.000-07:00

Holy shit. Pardon my French. Is VH1 always this good in the middle of the night? They’re actually playing music videos right now. Right now they’re playing a freakin’ Radiohead video, albeit one from The Bends [the most (contextually) overrated album of all time]. And last night they were playing the White Stripes’ “Blue Orchid” as well as the latest (and surprisingly rockin’) Pearl Jam. And just recently they were playing some Keane. Not that I like Keane - the jury's still out on them. I’m just glad to see a major music network giving some airtime to a band based on their music, not on aesthetics (how could anyone be attracted to Keane’s freakish-looking vocalist?) And now they’re playing the freakin’ Raconteurs? And now the Gorillaz' "Dare?" I'm not dancing around the hotel room, but another bottle of 99 cent sake and I might... And I thought the music video was a dead medium. It’s certainly not as if they were showing videos from the recent Audion and Orb singles (do such videos even exist? – highly unlikely), but still, I can’t really complain about this. Heck, I might have to alter my sleep schedule over the next few months.

Travelblogue: Napa Conference - Mid-way...

2006-06-22T00:07:00.000-07:00

Work, or more specifically, my district's 18 hour per year professional development requirement, brings me to Napa, California this week. The conference, for the larger network to which my school belongs, has been somewhat reinvigorating thus far. In the assorted sessions I've attended I've accomplished some valuable things, but more than anything I've become supremely frustrated through my interactions with the teachers from those schools within the network that are located in affluent (white) regions - these folk seem to be utterly ignorant and/or unconcerned of/for the differing needs of those of us dealing with drastically different demographics. Whereas they deal with affluent, white and south-Asian students with extreme performance expectations and demanding parents (all of which certainly do present some unique and valid challenges), I deal with predominantly poor, minority and/or immigrant students. On any given day, I deal with students having at least seven different native languages. The ability of the teachers from the more affluent schools to hijack any session they attend and curb any potential progress with their stubborn ingorance/indifference is frustrating. But I have been able to to channel my frustration into a positive dialog with one of the network mentors regarding some strategies to alleviate this situation and thus improve network service for all schools in the network and to more effectively advocate for what exactly it is we do in these schools. Two weeks ago, an experiance similar to what I have experienced over the past two days would have left me frothing at the mouth; that I have reacted as I have is a sign of significant healing on my part, and I am glad to recognize that - this vacation has been good for something, at least... Sorry for all the ambiguousness for all those who don't know me well enough to figure all this out, but I do want to protect what anonymity I do have. To some degree...

Anyway, the true value of the conference has been, to me, the development of of an improved relationship with my co-workers. Between evening dinners, late night talking/drinking sessions in the courtyard, and the like, I've gotten to know my co-workers even better than I did before, and repair a bit of the damage that Meatgrinder May did to our relationships. This has also been an opportunity to meet our new hires, one of whom I learned attended my alma mater, UCSC, and even resided at Porter College, as I did, though he in its glory days of the early 90s. The other new hire is, like me, a homebrewer, and we have already had lengthy talks on the subject. And last night, we all caravaned down to San Francisco to watch a Giants game, which I enjoyed despite my strong antipathy towards professional sports... In person, the spectacle is something to behold, and I find the entire event to be interesting as an anthropoloigical/ethnographic subject if nothing else... Regardless, it was a pretty damn cool thing to do with my staff, and on the principal's dime at that.

Now, when I was leaving the game - slightly before the end of the game but after it was certain the Giants were going to win - I saw this:

If you can't make it out - apologies for the crap camera-phone pics, I'll buy a real digicam sometime soon, I swear - that's a man in a Batman suit in a kayak. He was in the waters just behind the back fence of the ball park, behind right field, where some home-run balls occasionally go. There were about four other kayakers out there with him, hoping to recover any balls that should make their way over the fence and into the Bay during that particular game. They, however, didn't have attire that was nearly as interesting as the Batman suit. Calculated weirdness, surely, but it brightened my day nonetheless...

As of now, I have two days left in this conference. I hope to go through them being a little more aggressive, advocating for my school and the demographic with which it deals, as well as for the model in general. The time should be productive... And following the close of the conference, I depart to pick up James, then head up to the Homeland for a trip to the Lava Beds National Monument to camp, drink, cook food over an open fire, stay up late talking and philosophizing, and spend hours upon hours hiking/crawling/climbing through things like this:It should be good...

But when that is all over, when I return to the Sacramento Sprawl, I really need to re-focus my energies and try to get back to what I thought I was going to back to be back when I was young & idealistic (to think, then I thought I was old and grizzled...) I need to pull out a stack of canvasses and and do some freakin' painting. I need to go back to that zen-like state I achive when performing meticulous and/or exuberant creative tasks, and reside in it. I need to get back to that point, so close yet so distant, where I would read Kafka and seek jubilant inebriation with equal vigor. What has lead me to this resounding conclusion may, perhaps, be the subject of a future post. Nevertheless, know now that the strange and seemingly minor events of tonight have severely altered my perspective on a multitude of things, and should - assuming I don't get distracted and derailed in the intervening time - provide a focus and frame for my energies so that I may "correct" my life to some degree. "Revelation" might be an appropriate term. So may "epiphany." But I don't think either of those quite nail it. Whatever the case, I find I am chilled. And motivated. And confident. And yearning. And hopeful, and perhaps even comfortably certain. I think the Summer is finally sinking in, and this is, to be terribly cliche, "Me" coming back. Now let's just make sure I'm here to stay...

Pairings: shocking the masses, forcing beer into wine territory

2006-06-13T19:47:00.000-07:00

This evening I was reading though the summer issue of the Raley's/Bel Air/Nob Hill ad-magazine, Something Extra. Yeah, it's really just one giant ad for products stocked at those stores, but it usually has some damn good (and season-appropriate) recipes, and some fairly decent food writing. This edition of the magazine features a fluff piece on wine and pairings, briefly profiling six wine varieties and offering suggested pairings with summer foods (think grilled items & salads). There's nothing wrong with what information it does offer - from what I can tell, it is all accurate, and certainly useful. It does, however, remind me of the dominance of wine when it comes to pairing beverage with food. The wine industry aggressively plays up wine's potential to compliment food, and the food industry, at all levels, ranging from producers to restaurants to grocers, plays along in a mutually beneficial, symbiotic relationship. This shouldn't be a problem... But I ask, "what about beer?"

If you've ever developed the courage to try some craft beer, you know that beer offers a wider range of flavors than SAB-Miller, Molson-Coors, and Anheuser-Busch would have you believe. If you've been a little more adveturous, you may have realized that beer offers an exceedingly wide range of flavors, from the sweet to the bitter, from the tannic to the sour, from the floral to the spicy, from the smoky to funky, from the metallic to the minty, and let's not forget roastiness... This huge range of flavor offers innumerable options that can, IMO, more appropriately and thoroughly pair with numerous foods than can the more limitedly ranged wine.

You see, wine, no matter what lengths food-writers might go to in order to describe "hints of vanilla," "bing cherry," or the all too ambiguous "spice," usually offers two, and only two, prominent flavors, with one possible alternate. Most wines offer sweetness and sourness (acidity). Reds can also offer a tannic (mildly bitter) character. These are the only major flavors that will carry through and interact with food.

Beer, meanwhile can offer sweetness, sourness, tannicness, as well as intense hop bitterness, smokiness, and huge range of additional flavors. Beer also offers a wider range of mouthfeel than that offered by wine, ranging from viscous and flat to bone-dry and effervescent. And while beer, like wine, can play the "contrast" game - this is what you will see happening in most pairings - beer can often also compliment food, echoing the flavors of the food. C'mon, do you really want a Syrah with your smoked brisket when you could have a Smoked Porter in its place, building on the smokiness yet cutting away the fat, and thus intensifying the whole experience?

So, to stop my bitching and start being proactive, I think I will now, and perhaps occasionally hereafter, offer some potential beer-food pairings. For the first installment, I'll go with two pairings that are exceedingly simple, but also very, very good. First, the beer style in question: India Pale Ale, aka IPA.

IPAs are simplistic beers. Are they unsophisticated? No. But the statement they make, and their method, they are both simplistic, though strong. These beers are simply a forum for that glorious bit of flora, the hop. IPAs are where hops step out of their supporting role in the production that is beer, and step into the spotlight. Nothing more than slightly beefed-up and over-hopped pale ales, IPAs present an intense bitterness, with a chorus of hop flavor and aroma that change, based on the hop variety. They can be citrusy, spicy, minty, piney, floral, or earthy. Depending on the interpretation, they can also be bone-dry, or have some residual sweetness to balance out the hops. Recommended commercial example? Go with Anderson Valley's Hop Ottin' IPA - it's a quintessential, over-the-top California IPA. If your on the East Coast, go west, I say - they just don't know how to make IPAs back there...

Now, being a relatively simplistic and aggressive beer style, IPA would seem to present some significant difficulties when it comes to food pairings. However, two of my absolute beverage-food pairings do involve IPAs. The first of these is the painfully obvious pizza and beer.

Yes, pizza and beer. Or more specifically, pizza and IPA. You see, most any pizza you try, whether it be from that nose-upturned wood-fired place in the hot shopping district, the Domino's in the ghetto, or that weird mom & pop place around the corner, will A. be greasy (at least mildly), and B. have a sweet red sauce involved somewhere. Both the grease (fat) and the sweetness provide excellent elements for the IPA to play off of. IPAs offer the raw bitterness of the alpha acids, plus a small amount of tannins due to the sheer amount of vegetable matter to which the beer is exposed. The bitterness from these two elements cuts through both the fat and the sweetness of the pizza. In contrast, the pizza seems sweeter and greasier, and the bitterness of the beer comes across more pleasantly as it seems to have a purpose. The two play off of each other and enhance each other. It's a simple beer, and a simple pairing, but this clash of titans is a wonder to behold as it plays out on your palate.

The second IPA pairing I would recommend is a bit more unexpected - a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I'm serious here - it's one of the best pairings I've ever had. You see, peanut butter and jelly has two major components - the sweetness of the jelly and the mouth-coating fat of the peanut butter. The sandwich itself is a pairing, with the jelly added to make the peanut butter's mouthfeel a bit more tolerable. The addition of an IPA takes it a step further. You see, the basic bitterness of an IPA interacts with the sweetness of the jelly - they contrast and augment each other. But then the other element of the hops, the tannins, come into play not as bitterness, but as mouthfeel. You see, tannins feel "sharp" in the mouth, and they can "clean away" things that seem to coat the mouth, such as mashed potatoes or - drumroll - peanut butter. And that's what makes this pairing so interesting to me - there's a two-front battle being waged. We have sweet vs. bitter and viscous vs. sharp. And that's not something you're likely to find in wine pairings, as wines tend only to play up one of their three major components, and thus are capable of waging only one battle at a time.

So for now, I'll step off my soapbox. But I will continue to, intermittently, advocate for beer, especially for its use as a compliment to food.

Pet Peeve: Sports pre-empting "our regularly scheduled programming"

2006-06-13T18:38:00.000-07:00

If there is one thing that pisses me off, besides loud, pot-smoking, college-student neighbors and people who commute in SUVs (especially Hummers), it's when regular television programing is pre-empted for sports events. Now, this doesn't normally happen with most of the television that I watch regularly - shows like Lost are such cash-cows that they are scheduled around sporting events so as to not ruffle any feathers... But minor programing, often syndicated, all to often gets shoved aside for sports. And I don't care about professional sports (and no, that doesn't make me any less of a man). And I don't understand why anybody does. I just don't get team sports. I don't understand how anybody finds them interesting. I, myself, find them nearly incomprehensible when playing them - I guess I'm just missing that gene. Nevertheless... Sports events often pre-empt minor and/or syndicated programing in general, and Jeopardy in particular. Just now, I changed the channel, thinking I'd get to watch a half-hour of a semi-challenging quiz show, all the while thinking to myself, "Dude, I totally kick ass at this. I should totally go on Jeopardy!" But NO. There's some basketball game going on. I didn't even know the basketball season was still going. I assume this is the finals or something? But why is this on local television? Does anyone in the greater Sacramento area (the range of the chanel) really care? The Kings are out... Even the Lakers are out, so those locals crazy (and brave) enough to express allegiance to the Lakers shouldn't really have any reason to watch, nor should the Kings fans of the masochistic variety. Argh. At least Monday Night football has moved from ABC to ESPN. Though now, I suppose, Monday Night could pre-empt coverage of my beloved cycling and strongman competitions...

Brewlog: Saison #3

2006-06-13T11:24:00.000-07:00

The second of the two batches brewed during my recent travels...

Batch #24, 6/8/06: Saison #3

Any beer geek worth their salt knows that Saison is in vogue right now. Though the original Saisons of Wallonia, long since lost, were presumably more a "family" of beers defined only by their archaic and odd production methods - a relic of pre-modern brewing - the modern interpretations of these "farmhouse ales" are evolving into a more cohesive style. Still managing a wide range between the various interpretations, most commercial Saisons do have some common elements: the use of non-barley adjunct grains, stronger than normal (for a Belgian) hopping, liberal spicing, warm fermentation (70-90 degrees), and utterly crazy yeast strains that produce some of the funkiest flavors you'll taste this side of a lambic.

Shortly after moving to the Sacrament Sprawl two years ago, I was able to try some previously unavailable (to me) commercial examples of Saison, formost amongst them the classic and definative Saison Dupont, and the overlooked local gem, Jack Russel Farmhouse Ale. I quickly latched onto these beers and declared Saison my favorite style. Between the oddball grains, spicing, & crazy yeast, Saisons seemed to provide a new frontier in flavor, going places I didn't think beer could go. Indeed, bringing me flavors I didn't think I would be able to taste, let alone appreciate. It was the ultimate treat for a tired, old epicurean. Additionally, the style tends to be damed drinkable and refreshing.

Last summer, I brewed several beers using the Saison Dupont yeast strain, commercially available as WLP 565. The first of these, which I based very closely off a Hennepin clone recipe taken from an issue of Zymurgy, I count as my most successful beer ever. The second, well, we don't talk about that one very much. Let's just say, be careful with your spices. Especially with the lemon peel... The third didn't really end up being a traditional saison at all. Through successive and obsessive tweaking, that one has morphed into this strange, big quadrupel/braggot thing, with cranberries and cherries incorporated, and which is now sitting in the fermenters still, with some oak chips and some Brettanomyces Claussenii. So that makes the beer I just brewed the third Saison I've attempted.

Scared by what happened with Saison #2, I decided to back off on the spicing, returning to what I'd done with the first recipe, and even scaling back the lemon peel. Otherwise, the recipe is closely inspired by that used for Saison #1, with some tweaking of the adjunct grains based on what I had on hand. Anyway, here goes...

Water:

7 gallons Yreka tap water, untreated (like I said, the stuff is good)

Grain:

4oz Belgian pale malt
4oz Belgian aromatic
4oz honey malt
6oz rolled oats

Extract:

4 lbs 60/40 wheat dried malt extract
2 lbs extra light pale dried malt extract
2 lbs regular ol' table sugar - it's cheap, and every bit as good as the rip-off "candi" sugar

Hops:

1oz 7.0% Styrian Goldings at 60 minutes
1oz 3.8% Saaz 5 minutes

Spicing: all spices added at 15 minutes

1 tsp coriander (cracked)
1 tsp black pepper (cracked)
6 cardmom pods (the contents thereof - discard the pods themselves)
2 tsp dried lemon peel
A one inch piece of ginger, diced

Yeast:

1/2 gallon starter of WLP 565, Belgian Saison I

Procedure:

"Mini-mash" the grains, steeping just below 150 for at least 30 minutes - again, I advocate the mini-mash proceedure here because I think it's really important to get some flavor and fermentables out of those adjunct grains, and also, the oats will only contribute ugly starch without some conversion action.

Add the dried malt extracts and bring to boil. Commence 90 minute boil (you could reduce your original volume and do a 60 minute boil for lower caramelization, but at this point I'm superstitious about the 90 minute boil). Hop according to schedule. At 15 minutes, add two tsp Irish moss. At 10 minutes, add the sugar (add late to avoid caramelization and get greater hop utilization earlier in the boil). Knock out and cool according to your preferred method. Final wort volume should be just at five gallons if your boil was sufficiently vigorous. Next, aerate, transfer, and pitch yeast. The O.G. on mine was 1.069...

Notes:

What came out of this batch was unexpected and, I think, promising. The honey malt is aptly named - it really does seem to convey a honey flavor. Also, the oats came through strongly. I'd included them in the recipe primarily to support the lattice-like head that is characteristic of the style, but with the mini-mash, they seem to have contributed substantially to the flavor, too... What results tasted like an uber-sweet oatmeal. Not bad at all, just strange. And perhaps, just the kind of strangeness that works in a Saison. I'm really eager to see what those yeasties will do with those oats... The spicing is more mild this time, largely due to a weak crack on the pepper and coriander, but I think I'm okay with that. The lower lemon-peel level seems to have turned out well, and should shine nicely in the finished beer. But, foremost, I'm really interested in what's going to happen between the grains and the yeast... The hopping was a bit harder to discern. Strong hopping for a Belgian is weak hopping for most any other beer, and this wort was so sweet that it was hard to get a solid reading on the hop character behind all the sweetness. It's definately there, mind you, and at an appropriate level. It's just hard to detect the nuances. Whatever the case, I'm confident it will turn out well.

Updates will follow as the (unfortunately) slow-working WLP 565 works its way through this one.

Brewlog: Bachelor Party Porter

2006-06-13T10:20:00.000-07:00

During my recent trip to Yreka, in addition to bottling the "Belgian small ale," I also brewed two additional batches. The first of those is recounted below...

Batch #23, 6/8/06: Bachelor Party Porter

My own journey into craft beer appreciation, begun long ago with the purchase of a four-pack of Old Rasputin on my 21st birthday, soon led me to the safe, approachable, and damn-tasty territory of Porter. I quickly became enamored of the ubiquitous Black Butte Porter, and the the obscure (outside of Siskiyou, Shasta, and Humboldt counties) but equally respectable Etna Porter. A lot of my early efforts in homebrewing - begun meer months after my 21st birthday - were attempts to brew a Porter like the commercial examples I so loved. I was moderately successful once with a prominent Black Butte Porter clone recipe. Subsequent deviations from that recipe proved, however, somewhat disasterous - some serious rookie mistakes were made. Eventually, as my interests drifted towards Belgian styles and hop-monsters, my homebrewing followed suit, and for the past two years or so, I've rarely bought a porter, and not once brewed one. Until now...

You see, a friend of mine is getting married this summer. For the bachelor party - which us men-folk are way more excited about than the actual wedding - we will be fishing, spelunking, and enjoying the craft-beer scene around Bend, Oregon. As a practical move, a gesture, and an excuse to brew, I decided to brew a batch specifically for the trip. I asked the soon-to-be groom for a preference, and he said "Porter," so a Porter I brewed.

When formulating the recipe, I went back to the Black Butte Porter clone, and made some more educated tweaks, based on what I wanted to change, and what was available in my brewshop. Foremost, the color on all my previous Porters has been, IMO, too light, so I opted for amber malt extract instead of pale. Also for color, and in the interest of increased roastiness in the flavor, I beefed up the dark adjunct grains for the mini-mash. Hopping decisions were made on a whim - let's hope they turn out well. Anyway, on with the recipe...

Water:

7 gallons Yreka tap water, untreated (it has never done me wrong)

Grain:

9oz chocolate malt
4oz black patent malt
6oz roasted barley
8oz caramel wheat (this was fairly dark stuff - equivalent to 80-100L crystal or so...)
4oz caramunich
8oz 10L crystal
8oz honey malt

Extract:

7 lbs amber malt extract

Hops:

1.5oz 12% Erocia (or Eroica - both spellings seem to occur equally) at 60 minutes
1oz 8.8% Amarillo at 30 minutes
1oz 5.5% East Kent Goldings at 5 minutes

Yeast:

1/2 gallon starter of WLP 013, London Ale

Procedure:

"Mini-mash" the grains, steeping just below 150 for at least 30 minutes - this being adjunct-extract brewing, it isn't an exact science, but I think with this one, it's important to be on top of things with the mini-mash, otherwise you just won't get the color and flavor that are so important to a Porter out of those grains...

Add amber malt extract and bring to boil. Commence 90 minute boil (for both caramelization and wort-reduction). Hop according to schedule. At 15 minutes, add two tsp Irish moss. Knock out and cool according to your preferred method. Final wort volume should be just at five gallons if your boil was sufficiently vigorous. Next, aerate, transfer, and pitch yeast. The O.G. on mine was 1.060...

Notes:

The resulting wort from this session seems to have all the makings of a good porter. The color came through very well - the final beer should even have a tan head. From the honey malt, and perhaps the long boil, there were some interesting sweet flavors going on - I hope the yeast leaves some of that behind - it'd work well in the finished beer. I was worried about the hopping, especially when the Eroica/Erocia - with which I was perviously unfamiliar, and whose smell out of the pouch indicated that it was just another neurtal bittering hop, along the lines of the recommended Galena - started smelling very strongly of mint in the boil. This was also my first time working with Amarillo, but I figured one citrus hop could substitute for another. And what was I thinking finishing with EKG? Minty, to citrus, to floral? Nevertheless, the hopping didn't come across as weird at all in the final wort, especially behind the roastiness, and the bitterness level seemed appropriate for a nice moderate American Porter, along the lines of Black Butte... The London Ale yeast should leave a nice bit of the sugars uneaten, making for a good body and a slight residual sweetness. I'm also hoping for some of that mild fruitiness that works so well in British beers of all types, but is shunned by the Chico/Ballatine strain-loving American brewers.

Whatever the case, there's nothing to do now but wait, and hope to God that this stuff actually turns out alright, considering that I've already promised to share it with 10 people.

Brewlog: Belgian Small Ale - Update

2006-06-12T11:37:00.000-07:00

Last week, after a few "recovery" days - that is, letting myself sleep in past 5:30 AM - I finally headed up to Yreka to get the Belgian Small Ale that I'd brewed back in mid-April into some bottles. Now, I hadn't been around to monitor this one, but contitions were, apparently, good, and the beer fermented out to a final gravity of 1.000, which means there was perfect or near-perfect attenuation (the fact that alcohol is lighter than water means there'd have to be a slightly negative hydrometer reading to indicate full attenuation). That's the first time I'd ever recieved as such from a yeast. I think I'm a fan of WLP 570.

Anyway, the beer fermented out beautifully, and it dropped crystal-clear. The final product, before bottling (and carbonation) was very pleasing. Though the breadiness I'd noted in the unfermented wort hadn't really carried through, the final beer was successful, to say the least. My somewhat questionable decisions to use the decidedly non-Belgian elements of not insignificant amounts of dark adjunct grains and prominent hopping both played out well. The floral/spicy medley of the Styrian Goldings and the Saaz hops along with the slight bit of roasty, tannic bite from the grains give substaintial character to this otherwise small beer. They also marry exceedingly well with the yeast characteristics from the WLP 570 - I suppose this shouldn't be surprising considering that it is the Duvel strain. There's a sort of clean, phenolic bite left by the yeast that compliments the roastiness and hoppiness. Behind it, there's just a twinge of mild fruit esters. All in all, it came out tasting kinda like a roasty saison.

I'm not really one to toot my own horn, and I've certainly had a lot of dismal failures when it comes to homebrewing, but I must say I think this beer is a resounding success, and I'm very pleased about that. Lots of flavor in a very drinkable, low-alcohol package. And a rather cheap recipe too. I'll take this over a big quadrupel or double-IPA any day.

Election Results: the Mark of the Beast

2006-06-06T21:14:00.000-07:00

Sweet Jesus I hope what I'm about to recount is just the work of a mischievious web-monkey in the Secretary of State's office, 'cause if not, it's damn creepy...

So, I went to check out the results so far. And with regards to the gubenatorial slots, this is what I saw on this page around 9:13 PM:

Check out the results for the Peace & Freedom Party:I repeat:The Peace & Freedom candidate just happened to have 666 votes when I checked. In an election occurring on 6/6/06.

I just refreshed the results page, and the Peace & Freedom candidate now has 805 votes. So I guess it wasn't a prank. But what kind of luck do I have to view that page exactly when 666 votes were reported? Creepy...

Election Day

2006-06-06T18:54:00.000-07:00

I did my part: I'm still disgruntled, however, by the lackluster options for the Democratic gubenatorial slot. A gazillionaire developer's pet monkey, and a corporate gazillionaire who resorted to some decidedly ugly campaigning. Slim pickings... I'm also disappointed that, because I just barely live in the wrong district, I was unable to vote in the heated county supervisor's race, a battle between a developer's lackey (son of the developer linked to Angelides) and an incumbent (funded in large part by the United Auburn Indians), with the core issue being the development of a new private university (which would equal beacoup bucks for the developer in question, though he'll tell you - in his television ads - that he's just concerned about "educational opportunities"). Local politics are quite fun this time around...

And concerning the vote for the Democratic candidate for the CA-04 House slot, I didn't vote for the frothing lunatic and personal enemy, Hamersley (honestly, this tool put "Tax Scam Investigator" on the ballot as his occupation). Nor did I vote for Lisa Rea, who, in addition to a being shameless panderer to the already over-represented and empowered senior citizens, is a flaming idiot, as is indicated by her allowance of the following mailing:I challenge any of you out there to explain to me why anyone would think that mailing would be a good idea, especially considering that it only went to registerd Dems. It plays to the most archaic and sexist frames for viewing femeninity. It's right up there with "get in the kitchen and make me a sandwich." It plays directly against the frames that tend to be held by left-leaning voters. I can't imagine a young, female, Democrat voter who wouldn't be turned off by that mailing. Rea is just another clueless Dem I that I want to hit over the head with a copy of Don't Think of an Elephant!

Anyway, nothing to do now but wait & check for results...

The Coolest Thing to Enter My Life in Recent Months...

2006-05-31T20:37:00.000-07:00

Tonight, I was grilling some burgers for dinner. The burgers, onions, and tomatoes were on the grill. Yes, I said "the tomatoes were on the grill" - it didn't work that well, so don't bother trying it... Anyway, everything was on the grill, and getting to be pretty in-need of a flip. So I headed back into the kitchen to look for my metal spatula. But my one metal spatula was dirty and in the dishwasher. All the others were plastic, and not suitable for grilling. However, I quickly solved my dilema when I remembered an old Christmas gift that I'd stored away, unopened. It was a set of BBQ tools: a metal brush (for cleaning the grill), a pair of tongs, and a metal spatula. I opened the case and retrieved the spatula, expecting, you know, just a metal spatula. But upon closer examination, I realized that this was much more than "just a spatula." Behold: Isn't it cool? What, don't see what I'm talking about? Look closer: Yes, not only is it a spatula, suitable for flipping assorted pieces of meat and whatever else you may like to grill, but it is also a bottle opener. And if you look at the pictures, you will notice that one edge is serrated, so as to serve as a knife. What the larger prongs on the other side are for, I haven't quite figured out yet... But anyway, isn't that just about the coolest thing you've seen in a while? And it's so sterotypically male. This thing is so bloody masculine, I am dubbing it the Man Tool. Yes, I realize that sounds like a very poorly conceived nickname for one's member, but I can't think of another name that conveys the level of masculinity contained so eloquently within this one simple item.

More complaining...

2006-05-30T18:12:00.000-07:00

Well, for my 1.5 readers out there, it looks like I will be providing more regular, but low-quality reading. The following was written around 11:00 AM in a bout of despair:

Another day at work began well... I felt rested, though as I drove in I was still wishing I was in bed rather than battling post-holiday traffic. Once I arrived at school, things began well enough. I was rather productive for the first hour or so. But then I started crashing... For the past fifteen minutes, I've stared at a laminated BTSA form, trying to read it so that I might fill out another form and thus insure the safety of my credential. But I just can't focus. This isn't just me being resistant to the utterly pointless hoop-jumping that I so loathe. It's as if I literally cannot read that piece of paper. Nor can I focus on the grant I'm attempting to write to gain some funding for mock trial and speech & debate stuff. I'm just done. My brain is fried. I am incapable. A whole weekend of rest, and I am right back where I started... Well, I'm not quite as doom-and-gloomy as I was before. But I am just as out-of-it. I just can't do the work that needs
doing right now...

While discussing this situation with a co-worker this morning, he did have a good insight to share. He said, sympathetically, that when in this situation, at least one knows they are doing the most they can do. That's an odd bit of solace. I shall continue to breathe, take up space, and futilely attempt to stumble through some paperwork, grant-writing, and perhaps some occasional teaching, and know that I am doing my best.

Shortly after writing that, I spent some time signing students' yearbooks. The alternative activity did much to turn my spirits and energy level around. Also, helping a student with some math seemed to help - using a different part of my brain was a relief... The day closed with a dismal senior project re-presentation and a conversation with the principal regarding the senior project fiasco that began as a slight downer but ended up being the enlivening and energizing kind of conversation that made me like this principal so in the first place. We're all tired, I guess, but we're the same people in the end.

One more week...

2006-05-29T16:14:00.000-07:00

...that's how long I have to make it. Almost exactly one week from now, I will be free for nearly three months. A week from this moment, I plan to be sitting at home, quaffing a glass of Deus and thinking about the things that really matter, such as "what beer should I brew next," or "what should I serve with the tuna steaks tonight?"

Yes. In one week more, school will be out. Grades will be turned in. I will be free. And it will be good. It will be the Summer of 2006, and like its magical brethren, the summers of '98 and '02, it will be filled with sun, spirituality, and socialization.

Currently I'm feeling much better than I have over the past several weeks. And that's because, thanks to Memorial Day, I am currently at home when I should be scowling though a BTSA meeting, awaiting an hour-long battle up I-80 to reach my home. This weekend, I've finally been able to get some of the rest and recreation that I've so desperately needed over the past few weeks. Perhaps I should explain what's been happening lately...

May of 2006 has been hell. Nay, Hell. As in Satan resides there. I mean, should I suffer eternal damnation following my death, I fully expect it to consist of a constant repeat of the past month. Following Coachella, I returned home feeling energized & youthful. That, however, quickly dissipated upon my return to work. Yes, a crushing load loomed for the following month, but I wasn't letting it get me down. However, my co-workers, especially my team-teacher (we do two-hour long block periods with combined subjects - she's the English half, I'm the social studies half) seemed stressed out by what was to come. This stress wore on me, making me, quite simply, not want to be at work. Did I work to calm my co-workers or alleviate the situations causing them stress? Not really. Whatever the case, I was soon swept up in the same stress-storm as they were. With the first graduating class' "senior projects" happening, and those projects being almost universally abysmal, I began to crack. Because of the time-demands of that week - detailed here - the moot court field trip the following week, and the "Senior Trip" to Disneyland & Dana Point - which was quite wonderful, but very tiring - I went into this week rendered nearly incapable. As students worked on senior project revisions and finals preparations, I went through the week in an absolute haze. I was utterly exhausted, incapable of tasks that had once been simple. I simply could not focus, and I was so groggy that I could barely stay awake. On top of this, my allergies continued to be torturous, and the only way to effectively combat them was through sleep-inducing Benadryl... I quite literally crawled through the week. I weathered the evening commitments of "Open House" and "Senior Awards Night," managed to not mess anything up too badly in my exhausted state, and made it to Friday afternoon.

This weekend wasn't as restful as I would've liked. A trip up to South Lake Tahoe with Brenda's family was fun, but there wasn't much time for sleep, or even for sitting still. And what sleep there was was disturbed by a hotel-wide alarm and a drunk fellow in the hallway. But after a full (over eight hours) night's sleep last night, the first I've had in ages, I'm enjoying life again. Today has been good. In addition to getting caught up on sleep and some chores, I'm generally experiencing a better outlook on life. The end of the school year and the beginning of vacation is finally close enough that it is tangible. Yes, I have to go through a week of finals, graduation practices, and the actual graduation itself, but the end is in sight. Just four days of school, then a brief meeting on Monday, and I'm free...

So, in a week, I shall begin my professional recreation, which will likely include a fair bit of blogging. However, I don't expect to post much, if at all, over the intervening time. I shall continue to be busy for a short while longer, but let's just hope that I make it through it all better than I had been.

12 Days

2006-05-29T12:41:00.000-07:00

Twelve days... That's how long it's been since I last posted. Nearly two weeks. That's unheard of since this blog roared forth from it's initial lethargy. The reason? I've been extremely busy at work. But that shall change soon. Details forthcoming...

Where the hell I've been...

2006-05-17T19:47:00.000-07:00

Oy vey.

It's been a while, yes. Why, you ask? Work has been absolutely crazy. Just as the end of the year nears, and as my co-workers and I grow exhausted, and as the students grow restless, our duties grow exponentially. Last Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were 14 to 15 hour days due to "Senior Project" presentations scheduled in the evening. For the weekend there was an enjoyable (sort of) though not exactly restful jaunt to see my yuppie relatives in the North Bay. Monday brought a pointless but mandatory "colloquium" to herald the close of this year's session of the torturously pointless BTSA program - if you're going to keep me at work until 12 hours after I arrived, at least make it worthwhile. On Tuesday, stressed out staff and students straight-up ruined my day. Today was a 10 hour day that included a field trip to conduct a mock trial in San Jose that, while successful, had its bumps. Now I'm finally home and doing everything I can to flush the work stress from my mind, but it ain't happening. I currently need to pack, for tomorrow I depart with a bus-load of students for a grad-night trip to Disneyland. Before you start protesting about how that sounds nice, realize that this trip involves a 10+ hour drive in a bus, the students will legally be my responsibility and it may very well be on me if they do as teenagers do and do naughty things while on the trip. And the whole thing doesn't end until 10:00 PM Saturday evening, which means I'm giving up half of my weekend. And I'm just damned tired, burned out, and I just want some rest. On top of all of this, it's unseasonably hot right now, and my apartment is hovering near 80 degrees despite the efforts of the AC unit.

Basically I'm feeling like there are just too many responsibilities being placed on me right now - responsibilities that inevitably mandate time spent working beyond the six hours for which we "officially" work under our contracts - and I'm too tired and frazzle-brained to juggle all the appropriate tasks. It's inevitable that I will mess things right now. Mistakes are being made with increasing frequency by myself and my co-workers, and what we need is rest, not to be hounded.

No wonder the majority of teachers don't last more than five years. I won't be a goddamn martyr for this...

And yes, bitching like this may not be good for my longevity as a teacher. Perhaps I should be spending this time attempting to reframe things in such a way that I am re-motivated. But then, I'm not sure longevity as a teacher is a wise decision right now. Why continue at this, when, with what I am paid, I don't even have the hope of buying a house in the area in which I live and work? Why when countless other people work jobs that have set hours - eight to five only, and with no weekend duties, ever - less stress, and considerably higher pay?

Gah. I just need to get this stuff out. It's not all there yet, but this was a start...

In other news, plans for the summer are coalescing. The bachelor party is still up in the air, but it looks like there will be some spelunking in late June, some high-Sierra camping in early July, and perhaps even some time spent in delicious isolation in a cabin in the Sierras. I hope all this prooves rejuvenating, 'cause I'm sure as hell going to need it.

Beerlog: Lagunita's Imperial Stout

2006-05-09T19:44:00.000-07:00

Why are imperial stouts ever done as a summer release? Lagunita's & Stone both do it, and it makes no sense... Heavy, intense beers like RISs and hot weather never go well together. It's 90+ degrees in the Sacramento Sprawl right now, and I'm feeling the kolschs and saisons, not the impy stouts. If I were to drink any "bigger" beer during the late spring/summer, it'd probably be a big Belgian, with a lighter mouthfeel (in fact, I've gone on my greatest Belgian binges during the summers, for some reason). Nevertheless, despite the current, unseasonable heat, I finally decided to try Lagunitas' offering in RIS the style. And I'm glad I did.

I have issues with Lagunitas. I don't quite trust the brewery. Half of their beers I hate. Half I love. Until now, I couldn't quite discern the pattern of their schizophrenia. It's the hopping. I love their "non-hoppy" beers, while I loathe (nearly) everything they do in the "hoppy" styles. Something about their hop choice turns me off from their IPAs, DIPAs, and pale ales - the Imperial Red is the only exception. But their "non-hoppys" have all been damned good. Their saison (#9) and Neuvo Noir were both wonderful, and this imperial stout ain't too shabby.

It poured a clear and exceedingly deep amber. Not black, mind you, but dark amber. Not unpleasant, but a bit out-of-style, so I'd dock a few points on appearance.

The aroma is all I like in an imperial stout. A hint of roastiness, hopping subdued, and a big, mealy, malty, gamey, with that indefinable odor that is unique to good RISs and dopplebocks. There are also undercurrents of currant and plum. And chocolate. A definite winner on the aroma...

The flavor fills the mouth with stabbing bits of charcoal and chocolate, and there's sweet, dark fruit at the end, but in the middle it's a bit anemic... It could use a bit more malt body to carry it through. The mouthfeel suffers with the lack of residual sugars that impact the "middle" of the flavor, but the acrid bits at the end from the roasted malts make up enough to land the beer in the territory of "interesting" in terms of mouthfeel.

Overall, a damned drinkable RIS, and with the relatively low price at which my nearest supermarket is offering it, I should think I should often find myself drinking this beer. That is, were this not a bloody hot late-spring/early-summer. Move this release to winter, and I might choose to live off this stuff through the cold months...

Recent Purchases

2006-05-07T18:45:00.000-07:00

Killing a little time in America's second-favorite mass-retailer, Target, I decided to buy a few CDs. Yes, I know, I should've bought 'em at an indie shop, but the indie shops around here are mediocre at best. Anyway, here are the spoils:

Tool, 10,000 Days - I never wanted to like Tool, but after watching them perform back in 1998, and being subjected to some forced exposure by my friends, I eventually had to acknowledge that despite their creepy and sophomoric imagery, they do make some damn good music. And really, progressive metal is a hard concept to disagree with - I do like my Opeth, after all... On this latest album, they deliver what is to be expected - lean, sprawling prog-metal of high quality, and laughably bad artwork that only a 15-year-old metalhead could dig. Buy the CD, ignore the packaging.
Wolfmother, Wolfmother - I bought this CD based on its overwhelmingly good press, a brief listening on the band's MySpace page, and the $10 price-tag. So far I'm pleased. Garaged-out Sabbath - quite a fun formula. And the Frazetta-ish artwork warms my heart.

There were also some non-music purchases. For the purpose of facilitating a spelunking trip this summer (a repeat of '04's most enjoyable outing), a quick jaunt to REI yeilded the following:

Black Diamond "Spot" headlamp - If you've never used a headlamp, you can't possibly conceive of how wonderful they are. They make spelunking infinitely more enjoyable, easier, and safer.
Some generic "multisport" gloves - Just some regular, synthetic-fiber gloves, with a slightly rubberized palm. They should hold up to the lava rock. And I was elated to find some XL gloves - it's amazing what a proper fit can do.

The Truth About Beef Jerky

2006-05-03T17:13:00.000-07:00

Back when I was going to UCSC, I lived in a funky little beach-cottagey studio apartment near Seabright Beach. This thing was funky and old - thin walls, crooked door frames, drafts, astroturf-like carpet, etc. But it was a cool place in a great neighborhood - two amiable bars, an Italian restaurant that played Snoop Dogg, a laundromat, two tacquerias, a Chinese place, a breakfast cafe, a coffee cafe, a corner liquor shop, a wood-fired pizza place, a barber, a brewery, and a bus stop, all within two or three minutes' walking distance. And then the beach just a few minutes' walk in the other direction. Ideal, really.

Anyway, my next door neighbor at this place was a guy about five years older than me who seemed to lead a very odd life. He always seemed to be home, and never out working. And he always seemed to have money, somehow. He seemed to lead the perfect life - always having friends over, sleeping late in the morning only to wake to a breakfast of grapefruit (the sign of a luxurious morning), and spending the day listening to good music and detailing his Harley. I couldn't quite figure out what it was that he did for a job, and figured he must've been independently wealthy. Since then I've figured out what it was he was doing, though I still don't know where he got the money. In fact, what he was doing led me to question even more the source of the money.

This man, Fritz Junker, was producing a movie. A movie that ran under a half hour, and cost over $300,000 to produce. And this movie was called The Truth About Beef Jerky, and I have just watched this movie. It's a short comedy lampooning the two extremes of hippie and redneck culture, with a Ted Nugent doppelganger leading a group of sportsmen on a hunt of hippies who had been lured into a trap with promises of a Phish reunion concert. The slaughtered hippies are used to make "Count Nugent's Beef Jerky." It's a rather amusing 24 minutes, at least for anyone who's lived in Santa Cruz or anyplace like it. You can get your own copy on DVD by e-mailing Fritz yourself.What do I take away from this? Well, I have a memento of my time in Santa Cruz. And I have more questions about Mr. Junker, who now leads up a music-promotion non-profit in Des Moines. I guess you just meet some weird people in life, and I'm thankful for that.

The mainstream media just doesn't get it

2006-05-01T21:37:00.000-07:00

Just a short little rant here...

After a quick look through Google News and other sources, it seems all the big media outlets care to talk about when it comes to the Coachella Festival, 2006, is Madonna. If you were to trust the articles, you'd think it was the Madonna Festival, not an indie-rock/hip-hop and dance festival. I'm not exactly upset about this, I just think it's odd. I mean, the festival just finished its seventh go, and since 1999 it has been gaining international attention, recognition, and applause. And despite all that, despite the combined power of the dozens of other artists on the bill, the celebrity of Madonna was enough to trump all else in the eyes of the non-music, mainstream media. A most odd situation.

Travelblogue, Coachella 2006 11: Reflections, Part 1

2006-05-01T20:53:00.000-07:00

The following was written while waiting in the Ontario International Airport:

Though I’m writing this from the Ontario airport, it won’t be uploaded until later, as the wi-fi here isn’t quite working for me - “limited or no connectivity,” grrr…

The rental car has been returned, I’m checked in, I have my boarding pass, and I’m waiting for my flight. Everything that needs to be paid for on this excursion now has been, and my tax return has arrived to offset the cost. Now it’s time to relax, recuperate, and reflect.

I’m not quite sure what form this or the subsequent posts will take… I just know that I have a lot to say, and I’m not quite sure how to sharpen it all up and organize it, so you might just get some verbal vomit here. Be prepared…

One thing that I have to say concerning my Coachella experiences, and one that I have long felt the need to say is this; what’s with the people attending in groups?

That probably already sounds strange. But let me elaborate. I’ve been to Coachella five times now, twice solo, and thrice with two different sets of two friends. And while it’s nice to have friends around to share the experience, I think I’ve enjoyed myself most thoroughly when going solo. Attending solo has given me freedom to wander on a whim, drifting from show to show without having to worry is the others want to do the same. I haven’t had to worry about anyone but myself, and I like that.

Watching those attending in groups, I’ve been astounded at how much time they waste on the logistics of staying connected. They move through the crowd at a crawl because of their insistence on staying in a tight pack. They get separated, then miss five minutes of the show because they’re texting or calling each other to re-connect. And at the close of the festival, when everybody just wants to get out of the human crush – this is the annoying part – they stand in the middle of the exodus, facing against traffic and slowing things down, as they wave hands and hats in the air to signal to their other group members. Because it’s totally unacceptable and inconceivable that they should, you know, meet out in the parking lot, at the car.

And on another point, what’s up with people’s insistence on using drugs and alcohol at concerts? The marijuana use I can understand to some degree, because I don’t see it having any increased ill-effects in conjunction with the heat – if you have to be inebriated to enjoy the festival, I suppose that’s the way to go. But what’s up with the people drinking alcohol? Now, I love beer. I mean I love beer. But when I’m at Coachella, beer is about the last thing I want. Why? Because alcohol always seems to increase my body heat and dehydrate me. Those are very undesirable outcomes when you are in the bone dry, 100 degree heat of the Coachella Valley. At that point, all I want is water, and maybe some sports drinks.

But on the larger issue, am I that odd for wanting to depend on the music for my intoxication? I have had some amazing experiences at concerts – the most psychedelic, out of my mind and body experiences. Religiousness, we’re talking about here. Transcending the body and self and reaching out beyond. Communing with God. Pure ecstasy, and I’m talking about the state, not the drug. And I’ve experienced this all through the music, with no assistance of drugs or alcohol. I’ve been stone-cold sober at every concert I’ve been to, and I’ve had some damn-fine times. Why aren’t more of the others doing the same?

But then, also, I’ve had a harder time achieving that same state of music-induced euphoria lately. The last time I experienced it was at Coachella 2003, and I experienced it big. All day Sunday I was dancing in the Sahara tent. The day culminated with the a massive set from Underworld, and an amazingly funky techno set from Richie Hawting. I have never danced so hard in my life. I was experiencing complete suspension of inhibitions and self. And it was bloody amazing.

However, in the few years before that, and in the years following – the current one included – I never quite attained that same level of euphoria at any concerts, and I don’t quite have they why puzzled out. Perhaps it’s age creeping up on me. Perhaps it’s related to my overall health (which was peaking in 2003). Perhaps the concerts just haven’t been as good. Whatever the case, I want that same level of rapture that I experienced at Coachella 2003 and Rave on the Rocks 1999 back. I want to experience it again and again. I want it to never stop. Perhaps those using drugs to alter their experiences are seeking the same thing. Not that I can endorse that, but this may give me a certain
degree of understanding. But then again, I think a lot of those folks are just immoral, lowly, dirty, and base party-folk. The same kind that get drunk and high every night of the week, and eat Domino’s pizza while playing video games, only to return to their crap service jobs the next day.

And that's as far as I got before my flight started boarding. Now I'm home, and I've been here for a while. I'm quite tired now, and I have to go to work tomorrow, but I feel satisfied. I feel transformed, if only slightly. I feel reconnected with the music scene, and with youth and energy in general. I feel vitality flowing back into me. Before heading home today, I went by the grocery store to pick up a few items. While I was selecting some mangos in the produce section, Depeche Mode's "Enjoy the Silence" started playing throughout the store. And I started nodding my head. And there was a bounce and sway in my step. And a shake in my ass. And I was dancing. Just so slightly, but I was dancing. That isn't something I would normally do. Normally I would enjoy the music, but find something to grumble about. But I wasn't grumbling, and I was dancing. And that is remarkable.

Travelblogue, Coachella 2006 10: Sunday Summary

2006-05-01T02:46:00.000-07:00

Well, I deem Zac's trip to Coachella a success. Sunday went just as well as Saturday, and probably better, overall. I thoroughly enjoyed every act I watched today. Here's the summary, with the briefest of comments.

Matisyahu - Unexpectedly good. Like, prog-reggae or something. Doesn't sound like it would work, but it does.
Bloc Party - Outstanding. Just outstanding.
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Karen O is an outstanding rock & roll performer. She looks like she could have studied under Iggy Pop. Imagine Iggy, but with femenine sexuality, and occasional jaunts into girliness. Bonus points for swallowing the mic and screaming (I haven't seen that since the Murder City Devils' Spencer Moody did in back in Santa Cruz in October of 2001).
Massive Attack - You know how Mezzanine sounds really good when you turn up the volume and the bass really loud? Yeah, imagine that times, oh, about 100. Fantastic treatment of "Karma Coma" in particular.
Tool - These guys were my first concert back in '98, in a very small venue in a town that rarely gets visited by tours. They're still good and creepy in the way that only Tool can be.

I'll expand on everything later - there's much I'd like to say still... But for now, I have to get to sleep, as I have a flight to catch tomorrow.

Travelblogue, Coachella 2006 09: Mid-day Report

2006-04-30T19:09:00.000-07:00

Arrived here at the festival at 4:30-ish today, just in time to catch Matisyahu's set. Not that I'd been planning to see him, but I was drawn in, and I'm glad I was. My love of Jamaican music has grown greatly over the past three years, and he did not disappoint. I think reggae may be the perfect festival music - at least for the daytime.

Up next, I watched Bloc Party. Now, Silent Alarm was possibly my favorite album of 2005, so I had high expectations. And they were satisfied. I am so thoroughly impressed with them as a band. Sharp musicians who, as a one-time internet-associate it of mine put it, "love to play music." And they're downright classy fellows to, based on their suprisingly refined-yet-jovial stage banter. Very pleasant stuff. Here's a pic:
Now off to wait for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs...

Travelblogue, Coachella 2006 08: The Massive Mightiness of Daft Punk

2006-04-30T11:50:00.000-07:00

I cannot sufficiently stress the mightiness of Daft Punk's live set. Seriously. Rarely have I seen such a spectacle in live dance music. I'd say in terms of sheer spectacle, they're on par with the Chemical Brothers, however much I prefer the headier and more spiritual sets of the Chemical Brothers. The Daft Punk set was loud, flashy, and, I would argue, universally agreeable. Behold: As you can see, Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo were at the top of this big pyramid-type thing on the stage. Whatever equipment they were working with was hidden from view. Behing them was this diamond-framework of lights, and behind that a projection screen. Footage of the main stage was projected onto the two flanking screens. And, as you might be able to make out from the side screens in the first photo, they were dressed in robot suits. Sheer spectacle, and glorious for that. It was unspeakably cool to see a 50-sci-fi-style robot head bobbing along to "Robot Rock."

The set was largely similar in means, method, and content to the set immortalized on Daft Punk's Alive 1997 (an album which gets my vote for the great, un-sung live album of all time). This means a constant, mixed, mish-mash madness of their tracks from all across their three albums. Two minutes of one track, then samples from another track are brought in, then it's on to another track, and then back to the first. In the lead-in to the main treatment of the iPod-commercial-popularized "Technologic," Daft Punk took a cue from the thoughts in my head and mixed in samples of Busta Rhymes' recent track, "Touch It," which makes use of similar (related?) vocal elements. Exceedingly cool.

Shortly into the set, Daft Punk drew in a large part of the remaining Coachella audience, as they were one of the last act's playing (they actually violated the curfew, playing until 12:15 AM). Certainly, there were many lay to lax Daft Punk fans in that audience - folks who at some point, back in the day, heard "Around the World" and guiltily liked it, and relatively few folks like me, who have been following Daft Punk for over nine years. But everybody seemed to have a damn fine time. Which brings me to my next point.

There's a reason LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy cheekily references Daft Punk, saying, "I was the first guy playing Daft Punk to the rock kids. I played it in CBGBs. Everybody thought it was crazy." Daft Punk's music has, IMO, an advantage over other electronic acts in terms of appealing to mainstream audiences, and I think this advantage is based on their simplicity. Yes, Daft Punk makes simple, 4/4 based music which rarely strays from the techno/house framework. They do, however, bring a lot of personality and texture to the music, giving it an advanteage over more austere techno acts. But ultimately, I think Daft Punk may be more successful in terms of crossover appeal than other, less orthodox dance acts just because their music is so damnedly simple and primal. I'm convinced that dance music, at its core, is universally appealing, and that only the weird socialization of American culture under the dominance of record companies prevents dance music from being more popular here. When folks can relax a little and listen to the music, and get over the fact that there are no lyrics to sing along to, and realize that repetition is condusive to dancing, they all seem to have fun.

Ultimately, Daft Punk presents dance music in a package so big, loud, and garish, that it's impossible to ignore. And because of that, they gain attention, and they make converts. And for that, I applaud them.

Travelblogue, Coachella 2006 07: Sunday Morning, Refreshed

2006-04-30T11:32:00.000-07:00

It's amazing the recuperative powers an air conditioned hotel room can have. In my previous two trips to Coachella, 2003 and 2004, I camped. The first year wasn't so bad - since the camping was new, it wasn't too crowded, nor dirty, yet. But it was taxing to sleep on the ground, wake at 6:30 AM with the light, use not-so-sanitary porta-potties, eat funky food, and go without showers. In the second year (2004), I camped again. And it was a mistake. Camping was drastically over-sold, and they had to open several overflow camping lots. After driving 15 hours solo, I arrived in Indio at about 12:30 AM only to find an excruciatingly long line. I had a near breakdown, then slept in my car until about 3:00 AM, at which point the line had died down, so I headed in and made camp. But this new, overly crowded campground wasn't just filled with folks looking for cheap lodging. It was filled with folks looking for outright debauchery. People were up at all hours of the night, raging drunk and high, screaming, running about, and vomiting and soiling the porta-potties, rendering them completely unusable - how does one get excrement on the wall? When I woke at 6:30 AM to the growing desert heat, after sleeping fitfully for another two-or-so hours under the disturbance of the infantile revelers, my day was already soured. I could hardly enjoy the festival afterwards. Oh yes, there was some good music, and I finally got to see Kraftwerk, but at the end of the day I was so exhausted and disgruntled that in the morning I decided to ditch the second day and head home early.

Coming back to Coachella, I was slightly worried I'd have a similar experience. But nay, it's been thoroughly enjoyable thus far. Flying instead of driving gave me a head-start in terms of exhaustion. The hotel, with air conditioning, a bed, a toilette and shower, and privacy, seems utter luxury. When I came home last night, I was tired and sore, but after six hours of sleep and a shower, I feel fully recuperated and eager to head back to the festival. I'm very much looking forward to Bloc Party & Massive Attack. I suppose I'll also see Tool - I like Tool, and they were my first concert, but I imagine the Tool crowd is going to be unpleasant. I never enjoy metal-type crowds - the innate hostility just isn't fun.

Oh well. Now, for some more on yesterday...

Travelblogue, Coachella 2006 06: Saturday Recap

2006-04-30T03:35:00.000-07:00

So, what I saw, in whole or in part:

Joey Beltram
Collette (before I ran away screaming)
Derrick Carter (again, lackluster)
Ladytron (eh, alright-ish)
Carl Cox (this man is still around for a reason - he's good)
Franz Ferdinand (not as good as I'd expected, then better than I'd expected, all in the same set)
The Juan Maclean (hous-ey, techno-ey, electro-ey, vocodor-ey, theramin-ey, and all done by a live band)
Audio Bullys (tolerable, I suppose, but I still don't get why Goldenvoice booked them)
Daft Punk (absolutely massive and ear-bleedingly loud)

I also spent a fair amount of time in the "Oasis Dome," a smallish dome tent that looked like this on the interior:

That's a DJ in the fake tree there. Her music is what drew me into the tent. Unlike the music at the Sahara tent - which has, with the exception of some of its headliners, seldom strayed from unimaginative house - the music in the Oasis was varied and, well, engaging. Yes, this DJ was spinning tracks from across subgenres. She was also playing a lot of breakbeat-oriented stuff, ranging from '97-era "big beat" to the grime-esque breakbeat stuff of a few years back. Overall, it was pretty damn good, and I wouldn't have minded staying longer. But that wasn't the only attraction in the tent. I also saw this in the Oasis:

Yes, that's a mostly-naked, androgynous man doing the Cirque du Solei type thing in the middle of the Oasis Dome. It seemed there was some sort of formal organization to the madness in the Oasis Dome, with some sort of rave-acrobat troupe running the thing. There were some extremely scantily-clad "rave"-style female dancers on platforms and mingling with the crowd, and this fellow. For two five minute sessions he did full-on Cirque du Solei stuff with the cloth hanging from the ceiling, wrapping himself up in it and rolling around and manipulating things so to climb up and down. Not something I'd expected to see, and very cool.

Now it's off to bed for me. I'm afraid this is all I cam muster right now. More to follow, perhaps, tomorrow. We shall see...

Travelblogue, Coachella 2006 05: Live Electronic Music Done Right

2006-04-29T21:59:00.000-07:00

Behold the glory that is the Juan Maclean: Just finished watching the Juan Maclean set. Damned fine stuff, as is to be expected from a DFA artist. Though the Juan Maclean is really one man - John Maclean - he has three additional musicians performing with him for the live sets, doing the duties on the drums, synths, and theremin, while John does sampler and vocoder duty. Unfortunately there were technical difficulties leading to an excruciatingl long sound check and a truncated set, but they made up for it with a set-closing, mind-blowingly woofda, 10-minute-plus version of "My Shining-Skinned Friend." And let me say, they have quite a theremin player.

Now, to wait for the Daft Punk set and rest my feet.

Travelblogue, Coachella 2006 04: Mid-Festival, AT&T Blue Room

2006-04-29T18:19:00.000-07:00

I'm currently at the festival in the AT&T "Blue Room," an air-conditioned tent with computers. Freakin' brilliant. And a sign of how important the modern internet is becoming to the music industry (at least the indie end of it).

Arrived way later than I'd expected, so I missed Lady Sovereign. I did, however, catch Joey Beltram. Nice to see some authentic techno and acid here - despite their tact in the booking of rock and hip-hop acts, Goldenvoice suffers some serious handicaps when it comes to electronic acts. Overall, things in the Sahara (dance) tent are enjoyable as always, despite the sometimes shoddy music. The vibe of the electronic music scene can be infectiously positive when one is in the right state of mind. However, that didn't stop the utter horror of Collette's singing over her DJing from driving me away from the Sahara.

After that, there was a bunch of wandering. I checked out the music magazine tents to pick up the swag that they always have - it's a bit leaner this year than in years past. Then to check out the film tent to rest my feet and get out of the sun for a while. Watched a bit of a very cool documentary on the metal scene. Despite what you saw on my itinerary in the previous post, I didn't watch Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - the throng of hipsters was thick enough to deter me, and I had only a very low level of interest in them due to the buzz - they only made the schedule because there wasn't anything else to interst me.

Anayway, I've been taking beacoup pictures. Most won't be up until after I get back to the hotel, if at all, but here's a teaser:

Yes, gnomes. In a dome tent. On a weird faux-earth pedestal. And they make noises.

Indeed, Coachella 'tis an affirming event. I feel my surliness slipping away in the face of the carnivalesque nature of this place.

More later...

Travelblogue, Coachella 2006 03: Continental Breakfast and Hipsters

2006-04-29T09:58:00.000-07:00

After finally going to bed at about 2 AM, I slept like a rock until 8:50 this morning. Seeing as I had woken fairly early and fairly amiably, I decided to go take advantage of the continental breakfast, which was to close at 9:30. In doing so, I exposed myself to a most strange scene - a hotel lobby full of hipsters.

Of the people in the lobby eating breakfast, about 90% of them were young (late teens to twenties), and bearing all the tell-tale hipster signs. Too-tiny t-shirts with snarky slogans and punk-esque design elements. Distressed, moppy hair. Designer sunglasses, worn indoors. Carefully maintained not-quite-beards. I've grown quite used to seeing these types at concerts and the like, but to see so many assembled in someplace so sterile - and usually populated with seniors and young families - as a hotel lobby with continental breakfast is just straight up weird. I should have taken pictures...

So now I'm back to relaxing in the hotel room, killing some time until I go to the festival. In past years I've rushed to the festival as early as 9:00 AM, only to wait in line for hours before getting inside the gates, and then to wait for hours more - in deathly heat and sun, mind you - before any decent acts start playing. Based on that past experience, and some research, I've made an informed decision to go to the festival late this year. That way, I plan to avoid the worst of the lines, and to minimize my time waiting in the ungodly heat drinking $2-a-bottle water. I can also avoid eating the sketchy festival food this way. And minimize the time in which I have to subject myself to the soiled porta-potties. The big-time music writers never mention this stuff, eh?

A big help in my making of that decision was Goldenvoice's (promoter of Coachella) decision to publish the set times of the festival before the festival. I believe they first did this last year, though they may have started it earlier - I don't really know. But I do know that in 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004, I went to the festival without knowing who was playing when, and I did not gain this information until in the festival gates, when the little festival guides were handed out. This year, not only are the schedules available, but also a nifty little tool that allows you to create your own, visualy-prioritized schedule. Here are my schedules for Saturday and Sunday, respectively:

The names of the acts in higher priority are printed proportionately larger. Very easy, very cool. I'm also glad to see that there are few conflicts for me. I lament that I'm going to have to miss Sleater-Kinney, but Bloc Party is, for me, mightier. And while it is also unfortunate that I'm going to have to cut out of Franz Ferdinand early in order to see the Juan Maclean, I imagine the Franz Ferdinand crowd is going to be obnoxious anyway... But, based on a little bit of MySpace listening this morning, I'd have to say the act that I'm the most excited about seeing at the moment, oddly enough, is Lady Sovereign. I honestly never thought I'd get the chance to see a grime act (grime is a weird UK permutation of hip-hop, heavily influenced by electronic music), not without traveling to the shadier neighborhoods of the UK. I followed this scene a bit back around 2001-2002, but I'd since kinda forgotten about it, and had assumed it had died. To have a grime act playing in the US, where I get to see them, is just too cool for words.

Enough for now. On to other things, and then other things will become going to the festival. Until then...

Travelblogue, Coachella 2006 02: HoJo, Palm Springs

2006-04-29T01:27:00.000-07:00

Wi-fi in airports, wi-fi in hotels - I love it.

Well, I've finally, after many trials and tribulations, arrived at my hotel here in Palm Springs. Why am I staying in Palm Springs when Coachella takes place in Indio, you ask? Well, the two previous times that I've stayed in hotels (rather than camped), I stayed here because, well, that's what happened. And now it's habit. Besides, Palm Springs is just far enough away and with the twinge of expensiveness to keep away the sorts who go to Coachella only go back to their hotels and party loudly. I've had enough of that. I had enough of that long before even my college days began. I'll play hard at Coachella, but when I get back to the hotel after such exertion, I just want to shower and sleep...

So, my flight from Sacramento to Ontario was delayed approximately an hour. This meant we were touching down on the runway at 10:50 PM, when we were scheduled to already be at the gate an hour earlier, at 9:50 PM. Because of this, I completely missed my rental car reservation. Why Enterprise thinks it's a good idea to close at 11:00 PM, I do not know. I was able to get another car from another agency, but only at double the price. Which made me irate.

Nevertheless, I've calmed down, and I'm looking forward to the festival in the afternoon. More on that in the morning...

Travelblogue, Coachella 2006 01: Sac Intl Airport

2006-04-28T19:48:00.000-07:00

So I made the somewhat quesitonable decision to take my work laptop along with me on my trip to Coachella. This is a certain sign that I am entirely too internet-dependent. Nevertheless, I couldn't resist the notion of blogging my Coachella trip as it happens. And, of course, I couldn't leave the slightly less internet-dependent Brenda without a computer at home, so I had to leave my personal one behind.

I'm currently checked in and waiting for my flight at the Sacramento International Airport. And enjoying the free wi-fi. The last time I traveled with a computer - December of 2003 - was the first time I used wi-fi. It was in the Dallas airport, and I had to pay for it. Now, beautifully, businesses are treating it as just another standard service, along the lines of restrooms and drinking fountains.

My flight to Ontario is running 25 minutes late, departing at 9:00 PM instead of 8:35 PM. Hopefully, when I land, I'll still have time to pick up my rental car before 11:00 PM and drive to Palm Springs so as to not loose my coveted hotel reservation. If I have to sleep in an airport tonight, Coachella will be a bear tomorrow...

Expect another post late tonight.

Recent Purchases

2006-04-26T22:42:00.000-07:00

Two new packages from Amazon finally made their way to me today. Yes, I'd rather go crate digging than buy online, but there is not a single decent record shop, at least with regards to anything I listen to, within the greater Sacramento area. Anyway, the contents of the packages:

Brian Eno and David Byrne - My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (reissue) - Amazing, a record I should've bought years ago gets a reissue that actually makes me thankful for waiting.
The Chemical Brothers - Believe parts 1&2 - Finally trying to get back on the completist bandwagon, despite Astralwerks' every effort to deter me.
The DFA Remixes, Chapter One - Craziness... The current track, "Blues Explosion - Mars, Arizona (DFA Remix)" sounds like what would've happened had the Stooges developed an amiable relationship with disco and gotten the Chemical Brothers to produce the record.
DFA Compilation #2 - Again, here we have the only people in contemporary dance music who are doing anything to excite me. Wonderful stuff.

Digesting them currently...

Strife in the Rainbow Family

2006-04-25T19:43:00.000-07:00

Summer is almost here, and for hordes of hippie extremists, that means one thing, the Rainbow Gathering. The Rainbow Gathering is an annual convergence of uber-hippies who have loosely aligned themeselves in the so-called "Rainbow Family of Living Light." From what I can tell, they converge in public lands in remote areas of the US by the thousands, camp out for a week, and do hippie stuff. A whole hippie tent-city is errected, with everything from make-shift restaurants to massage parlors. Somewhere in here, some big pseudo-pagan ritual happens, honoring the Earth and all that.

My interest in the Rainbow family came about because twice in my life, far-northern California has played host to the Rainbow Gatherings - both times in Modoc County, actually. The last time, in 2004, I was living in Siskiyou County, and I witnessed a brief spike in the hippie population as the hordes made their way across to Modoc County. At this time, I learned of the notoriety of the Rainbow Family amongst local Fish & Game and Forest Service personnel. They accused the Rainbow Family of hypocricy, citing supposed thorough and lasting ecological damage to the land on which they camp. I found Rainbow Family-associated sources that refute this, but I don't quite know which side to believe, and I can see some dishonesty happening on both sides... Regardless, it now seems there's something else to taint the image of the group.

The location for this year's Rainbow Gathering has been announced, and it's somewhere near Nederland, Colorado - that's as specific as they tend to get until closer to the event. However, when I was investigating at one of the webpages closely associated with the group - since they aren't a formalized organization, they cannot have an "official" website - I noticed mention of something else, a so called "Gathering of Tribes," which looks to be a similar event, but taking place in the Ozarks at the exact same time as the Rainbow Gathering, July 1-7.

Perplexed by this, I did some investigation, and found this on the Wikipedia talk page for the Rainbow Gathering:

The "A Gathering of the Tribes" is/are bonifide Annual Rainbow Gatherings...
Counsels for the A Gathering of the Tribes are held openly on the land with the invitation going out well in advance, in short these gatherings are focalized by Rainbow Family individuals who have counseled and decided to follow their own path and heartsongs. These gatherings came about in 2003 after certain individuals of responsibility within the Rainbow Family (claimed Elders / Founders) started signing permits and changing the nature of the gatherings here in the United States. These alternative to the permit gatherings are intended as an expansion of Rainbow Ideologies while trying to maintain some measure of unity and respect with the various same type gatherings.

If you don't speak whacked-out hippie, that passage means that, in protest to the recent moves by those organizing the standard Rainbow Gatherings to obtain permits for the use of the public lands on which they are held, a splinter group has broken off to do things old-school, illegal-style. Why, you ask? Because these are weird anarcho-hippies were talking about here.

I don't know why, but there being a splinter group within the Rainbow Family just rubs me the wrong way. With an organization so disorganized, with such an anti-organization, how is there room for a splinter group? How is there even the frame for a division? There's no unity in the first place! It's a bizarre situation. At least now, should you be crazy enough and olfactory-challenged enough to attend a Rainbow Family event, now you have two options, with perhaps one of them being a shorter drive...

Harvard Brat is a Plagiarist

2006-04-24T21:12:00.000-07:00

If you weren't aware of it already, I have, shall we say, pronounced concerns about the role of class in modern society. A large portion of what liberalism does reside in me is a result of concerns about class issues. Most everything I see about the world around me reinforces my notions that the American Dream is a lie, that the American meritocracy is anemic at best, and that most of those who are in power are there because their families were. I see folks around me working their fingers to the bone just to survive, when the elites live in relative to absurd luxury. That does not sit well with me. In light of the recent neo-con actions over the past few decades, I believe, essentially, that the super-rich have executed a coup, and are bleeding the middle class dry and running everyone else into the ground for the purpose of inflating their own, already bloated, profits. I have issues with class issues, and I have a bone to pick with the upper class.

In light of that, I am much delighted to see that Harvard brat Kaavya Viswanathan has been revealed to be a plagiarist. In her recent "chick-flick" novel, How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life, Viswanathan "tweaked" passages from Megan F. McCafferty's novels.

McCafferty writes on page 6 of her first novel: “Sabrina was the brainy Angel. Yet another example of how every girl had to be one or the other: Pretty or smart. Guess which one I got. You’ll see where it’s gotten me.”
Viswanathan writes on page 39 of her novel: “Moneypenny was the brainy female character. Yet another example of how every girl had to be one or the other: smart or pretty. I had long resigned myself to category one, and as long as it got me to Harvard, I was happy. Except, it hadn’t gotten me to Harvard. Clearly, it was time to switch to category two.”

That's plagiarism on the level enacted by my freshmen advisory students; cut and paste that paragraph, reverse a phrase here, swap in a synonym there, call it good. And that's just one of many examples. And it makes my blood boil.

You see, if there's anything that pisses me off more than someone from the elite class, it's a young brat from the elite class - I had to deal with enough of those at this past weekend's CHSSA State Tournament... But back to the matter at hand. Viswanathan, a current Harvard sophomore, wrote the novel in question as part of "a two-book, $500,000 contract [received] while she was in high school." The book has been selling well to boot. Being, from what I can gather, an utterly vapid piece of tripe, the book is also the product of plagiarism. That fact helps to justify my notion that the elite enjoy what status they do have undeservedly. When I have a friend struggling for years to get published, yet the same brat that walks into elite-class headquarters Harvard and gets a cushy $500K two-book deal while still a high school student, I can't help but see the world as unjust, and I can't help but think that the elite are just propping each other up. But when I see such brats expose themselves as unworthy, I smile a very evil smile, and my heart swells with righteousness.

To the dis-belief of my teenage self

2006-04-24T20:42:00.000-07:00

My good friend from back in the day, one who was there for "Ebeneezer Goode" and Dig Your Own Hole at the bowling alley, has, in his current endeavor as a music journalist, interviewed Liam Howlett of the Prodigy, and you can read the results here. This is a bit of an odd moment - somewhat seminal, actually...

In the late days of high school and the early years of college, we spent a lot of time geeking out over music in general, and electronic music in particular. Pouring over music magazines and listening to non-stop electronic music, we both had notions of futures connected to music and the music scene. We both delved into clicktronica production, and I toyed with DJing some. But in the end, while I went on to other things, my friend has devoted himself to writing - on multiple fronts - and has managed to work his way into a position where, occasionally, he gets to do things like interview famous musicians. For him to have interviewed one of the artists responsible for our respective journeys into the realm of electronic music is, well, damned cool, to say the least. It feels like we've arrived, or something...

Seventeen, Twenty-One, Twenty-Five: 1998, 2002, 2006

2006-04-18T17:14:00.000-07:00

In the summer of 1998 I was 17, I was surrounded by great friends, and I had a helluva lot of fun. I was about to go into my senior year of high school, I was finally mobile thanks to a hand-me-down Mercury (a rural teenager without transportation is a bored teenager), and my friends and I were eagerly exploring life. I remember a lot of discovery that summer. I remember a lot of introspection in the warm summer evenings. I remember a lot of loud electronic dance music, old-school hip-hop, industrial, and They Might Be Giants played over shoddy car stereos via a discman and a tape adapter since most of us only had tape decks in what teenagermobiles we had managed to obtain. I remember philosophizing and gossiping. I remember lusting. I remember dreaming. I remember lolling about Lake Siskiyou for hours on end. I remember commandeering the stereo at the bowling alley in Weed and listening to the Chemical Brothers through our game. I remember inventing the sport of "barrel throwing" while listening to ear-bleeding industrial music in a friend's back yard. I remember sweltering heat and the siren call of "Ebeneezer Goode." I remember marveling at life.

The summer of 1998 was a good time for me. I don't know what exactly it was that made it so. Perhaps it was something about that age. Perhaps it was the adolescent confidence. Perhaps it was my friends. Perhaps it was a confluence of factors. Regardless, I have held that summer in high esteem ever since. Afterwards, I often reflected on that time and longed for it.

Then in 2002 I had a similar experience. In the summer of 2002, I was 21, I had a slightly changed yet equally strong group of friends, and I experienced another high-water mark of fun. This time I was heading towards my senior year of college, my interests were rapidly expanding into the world of craft beer, and I again had burdgeoning confidence. Much like the summer of '98, that of '02 was filled with long, warm summer evenings spent on a friend's porch philosophizing and gossiping, only with beer in hand instead of generic soda. Again, my personal world was expaning, and I was filled with wonderment. I remember longer and more frequent excursions on Lake Siskiyou. I remember incessant filming with a friend's camera: our parties, our conversations, the feral cats, etc. I remember suspecting a friend of alcoholism. I remember my joy at discovering matryoshkas in the house my friend was house-sitting. I remembering spending $250 and 14 hours preparing food for a backyard barbeque, and loving every minute of it. I remember eating the best hamburger I have ever eaten off a grill in my friend's front yard, sitting in a folding lawn chair. I remember grass in my toes. I remember IPA's tasting "too bitter" for me. I remember brewing my first batch of homebrew, and how bloody horrible it was. I remember trolling for girls in Ashland and Medford. I remember being turned on to Indian food. I remember being outside under the hot Montague sun for hours on end each work-day. I remember being tanner and blonder than I have been at any other point in my life. I remember hours at the gym bullshitting with my friends and turning my health around. I remember being in the thrawls of a growing obsession with Slavic science fiction. I remember reading voraciously during my lunch break. I remember turning down an evening out because I was so bloody wrapped up in Stanislaw Lem's His Master's Voice. I remember my mental and physical health both being on a definate, positive upswing. I remember feeling like I was being the best possible me I could be, and having a damn fine time doing it.

Much like the summer of '98, the summer of '02 has since been looked upon with a longing fondness. Why the summer of '02 was as it was, I don't know. Perhaps it was the age. Perhaps it was my decision to make a concerted effort to turn around my physical and mental health. Perhaps it was my damn fine cohort of friends. But again, regardless of what it was, it passed, and I have longed for it since. However, since that time, I have often wondered about the timing of my two superlative summers. 1998? 2002? Four years apart? Betwixt the junior and senior years of both high school and college? Perhaps there was something in the numbers. Perhaps every four years I was bound to experience such a summer.

And then today came. As I was driving home from work today, I was in remarkably good spirits, especially considering the funk in which I began the day. Perhaps it's the fact that the weather has finally turned in California and the Sun is shining down unabashedly. Perhaps it's the fact that I've finally adjusted to daylight savings time. Perhaps it's the goodwill that's been showered upon me as a result of this day being my birthday. Or perhaps it's something else...

As I was driving, I was listening to Respect Is Burning, Vol 2, a compilation of French-scene house from the late 90s - we're talking the fuzzed-out, uber-funky stuff expemplified by the likes of Daft Punk. Listening to this album triggered intense memories of that idyllic time, 1998 (odd, considering that the disc didn't come out until '99, but oh well). As I drove, I reflected on that summer, and subsequently, on the summer of '02. And again, the four-year interval occurred to me. And very soon I realized, to my absolute amazment, that 2002 was four years in the past. It occurred to me that the summer of 2006 loomed before me, and that it may, according to the numbers, be another of the magical summers. And I was filled with glee at its certainty.

This coming summer will I will be on paid (sort of - only through the debiting of my paychecks through the rest of the year) vacation. It already has the ingredients of a grand time on par with '98 and '02. There will be a bachelor party consisting of fishing and craft beer in the Bend, Oregon area. There's a spelunking trip in the works. And I will have enough time on my hands to enact much more based on what I should dream up. Now I turn my attention to what I should do during the coming summer to make the most of it. I should hit the gym, hard. I should read, a lot. I should write - four years ago I told myself I'd use my summers off to become a published author. I should listen to loud electronic dance music. I should bask in the sun and laze in the dusk. I should take a pochade box and a stack of canvases up in the Sierras and not return until they are full. I should brew another lovely saison. I should go backpacking. I should go weeks without shaving, and then delight at a smooth face. I should never wear slacks. I should track down my now disparate friends and force my company upon them. I should live, having worked all year.

Have you any grand ideas for the Summer of Zac, please leave them in a comment...

What the hell is a "moonbat," and are they confined to Santa Cruz?

2006-04-18T10:02:00.000-07:00

Today I'm rather amazed to watch the churning chaos in the blogosphere brought about by the actions of some UCSC students and hellbeast hate-blogger Michelle Malkin. I mean, wow...

You see, the initial press release from the student group UCSC Students Against War concerning the blocking of military recruiters from a recent event at UCSC contained phone numbers and e-mail addresses for the organizers. Malkin posted this contact info on her blog - very widely read - and bam, those UCSC students are recieving death threats. Now the left wing blogosphere is all sorts of angry, saying that this is indicative of the crudeness of the right wing blogosphere's readership. Nevermind that Malkin has recieved comparably ugly counter-threats from in response to this whole mess. Of course, Malkin is arguably a more public figure, and therefore more subject to such actions. Nevertheless, reflecting on this whole thing, I can't help but fault the UCSC students a bit, and here's why...

I went to UCSC. 1999-2003. I was there through the initial Bush "election," 9/11, Afghanistan, and the beginning of Iraq. And my political leanings are pretty goddamn left, though they are all laid out through a fairly libertarian frame. But at Santa Cruz, what I saw amongst my peers often made me feel downright, well, conservative. As liberalized as I was - and I certainly became moreso as I was there, though I attribute that to events post-9/11 and not UCSC brainwashing - I always felt unease with the Santa Cruz brand of liberalism. This was because I saw a huge degree of naivete in the liberalism around me. It seemed everybody spouting these crazy, far-left ideas and stances (I'd never been approached by actual Marxists before my tenure at Santa Cruz) had not arrived where they were because of reasoned and informed deliberation, but because they were straight-up out of touch.

Yes, in Santa Cruz, it was like Republicans were boogeymen. Yes, they were feared and hated, but no one really believed they were real. I mean, sure, they were out there somewhere, but somewhere was somewhere far-off and scary, like Texas. No one really seemed to have an understanding of how someone could hold right-wing viewpoints, of what could put a person in that stance. From within that culture, that bubble, it becomes easier to understand why some naive students might post contact information regarding a lefty protest and be surprised at recieving death threats - not that those death threats are excusable. It also explains how some might think the following form of protest is a good idea: Yeah. That'll work. That's exactly the kind of behavior that will bring about the momentum and popular sentiment necessary to stop the neo-cons' worldwide rampage. Demonizing the military is a great idea. That really makes people like you seem level-headed and sympathetic...

Another thought... Does it really do the left any good to keep students from an undeniably left-leaning university away from military recruiters? What might happen should some of these burdgeoning young lefties join the military? Why, an inevitable drift towards the right, some might say! Political brainwashing! Repression of homosexuals! Unnecessary deaths in unnecessary wars! Well, some of all that might happen, but something else might happen should more lefties join the military. They might exert influence. Think about it... A young, left-leaning UCSC politics grad joins the military. What if, instead of shifting right and aligning with the standard military culture, the student retains their UCSC-born disposition and enacts it in their service as a military officer? What if said student eventually becomes a general, a Joint Chief of Staff, even. What if they then, in that position of power, counsel a bloodthirsty neo-con president against an unjust and unnecessary war?

But then, inside the uber-left bubble that is Santa Cruz and UCSC, thoughts like this might never occur. When you live in a one-frame world, it's kind of hard to learn to be effective in the outside world.

In the end, however, I'm still left with one question. What the hell is a moonbat? Is that meant to be derisive? 'Cause if it is, I don't exactly see how... Call me a proud moonbat.

Brewlog: Belgian Small Ale

2006-04-16T17:05:00.000-07:00

Batch #22, 4/14/06: Belgian Small Ale

I've long thought that the "smaller" Belgian ales -"singles," Belgian pale ales, etc. - are perhaps the most underdone style in the world. Everytime I have one of these beers, I wonder, "why the heck don't more people make beer like this?" These beers take the quirks of bigger, and more widely available, Belgian beers - funky yeast characteristics, spicing, adjuncts, etc. - and play them out on a smaller scale. With a beer such as a Belgian pale ale, you get the delightful yeast funkiness and biscuit-ey maltiness of bigger Belgian beers, but in the smaller, easy to drink, session-style package of an English or American pale ale. With these beers, I can enjoy a session beer with all the palate-expanding craziness of the big Belgians, without the excessive alcohol. Inspired by these beers, and by DeKoninck in particular, I brewed what I will call a "Belgian Small Ale" this past Friday. I use that term as what I made ended up with an original gravity of 1.045, aligning with the parameters for English "small beers" such as milds and bitters, and what I ended up making was so dark as to make the term "Belgian pale ale" seem utterly absurd. I also eschew the "single" label, because I'm not entirely sure it's not just a construct derived in reverse from the "dubbel" and "tripel" styles... Anyway, on with the recipe. It's an extract recipe for 6.5 gallons. Here goes...

Water:

7 gallons Yreka tap water, untreated (it's pretty damn good water - you'd want to soften for Bohemian beers or harden for Burton-style beers, but for most everything else it does well as is)

Grain:

4oz caramunich
2oz Belgian special B
2oz roasted barley (Am I crazy? Maybe I am...)
4oz Belgian aromatic
4oz chocolate

Extract:

7 lbs pale malt extract
12 oz piloncillo sugar (two of the 6oz cones)

Hops:

2oz 4.0% Styrian Goldings at 60 minutes
1oz 3.8% Saaz at 30 minutes
1oz 3.8% Saaz at 10 minutes

Yeast:

1/2 gallon starter of WLP 570, Belgian Golden Ale

Procedure:

Steep grains to 170 or so. No need to stress out about them, they're mainly for color and unfermentables... Add pale malt extract and bring to boil. Commence 90 minute boil (I wanted good caramelization on the malt sugars...) Hop according to schedule. At 15 minutes, add two tsp Irish moss. At ten minutes, add the piloncillo (you don't want the crazy flavors of this uber-unrefined sugar to get masked by caramelization, so add late in the boil). Knock out and cool according to your preferred method. Top wort to 6.5 gallons, aerate, transfer, and pitch yeast.

Post boil I had just over 4.5 gallons of wort at 1.060. At this point the wort tasted wonderfully malty with a definate breadiness coming from the aromatic and chocolate malts. I made the exectutive decision, however, to water down the wort to lower the original gravity to 1.045, which brought it closer to what I'd envisioned. The color of the final wort is on par with most American brown ales, perhaps even darker. I really hope that the breadiness that I tasted in the wort carries over the finished beer, as that's part of what inspired me about DeKoninck. As of now the yeasties are hard at work. Within a month I should have some updates on progress and the finished beer...

Best Salad EVER

2006-04-12T11:25:00.000-07:00

As part of Brenda's birthday dinner last night, I made the following salad. We were both amazed by its magnificence...

Baby spinach and red leaf lettuce (2/3 of pre-washed bag)
2 diced saladette tomatos
2 ounces chevre, crumbled
A couple tablespoons crumbled bacon (real bacon, not the fake stuff)
A handful of croutons

All the above tossed with the following salad dressing:

1 medium onion, diced
2 ounces ham, diced
3 cloves garlic, diced

Saute ham, onion, and garlic until all are well caramelized. Then puree in a blender or food processor with the following:

1 cup cheap white wine
1/2 cup cider vinnegar
1 tablespoon mustard
1/3 cup plain yogurt
1/4 cup egg white (patuerized, please)
1 teaspoon each salt, cracked pepper, and red pepper flake
1/2 cup honey

After that is well combined, slowly add 1-2 cups olive and/or vegetable oil (while the device is running) to emulsify.

I cannot convey how well this salad worked... The honey/ham flavors from the dressing and bacon work wonders with the spinach, and the chevre, tomato, and croutons provide wondrous textural contrast. And you can't really go wrong with anything using chevre, can you?

MyPoliceState

2006-04-12T08:44:00.000-07:00

Apparently some high school students back east have been suspended for content on their MySpace pages:

Seven Parsippany High School students will serve 5-day suspensions starting next Monday for setting up two MySpace.com accounts filled with photos and "vulgarities" about classmates and teachers, Interim Superintendent James Dwyer said today.
The students used cell phone cameras to photograph classmates and other school employees without their permission, Dwyer said. He did not say how many photos were posted.
A teacher surfing the Internet stumbled across one of the MySpace sites two weeks ago, Dwyer said, prompting an investigation by high school principal Anthony Sciaino and the school's police resource officer.
All seven students -- two freshmen, three sophomores and two juniors -- admitted to their involvement last week and both sites have been pulled from the Internet, Dwyer said. The group included both boys and girls, he said.

This is what I like to call "a crock of shit." As deplorable as the students' behavior may be, the school's reaction doesn't sit well with me.

I am troubled that this whole incident started with a teacher browsing student profiles. See, I'm a high school teacher too, and yes, I have MySpyed my students. I've only done this once, and it yielded too much information. Yes, I was shocked at what I saw my students saying and professing to have done or to intend to do. However, a quick reflection on my own high school years, ending a scant seven years back, revealed that yes, my own high school experience was very similar to what I saw students discussing. Does that mean teenage debauchery is "okay?" Not really, but I'm not too concerned about it either.

Reflecting back on my own high school experience, I remember an intense frustration at life in general, and I think this had a lot to do with the lot of teenagers within society as a whole. At the ages of 14-19, people are, essentially, the pariahs of society. No longer valued or cultivated as children, not yet accepted as adults, teenagers are forced into an ill-fitting situation of perpetuated restrictions and insufficient responsibility(and freedom). What results is a violent and fumbling transition towards adulthood that often manifests in some very ugly ways. But do I fault the teens? No. I fault society for not sufficiently incorporating the teens.

When I was looking at my students' MySpace profiles, I felt that I was doing something wrong. It felt dirty. I felt I was invading their privacy. I thought this odd, since what I was looking at was by nature public. However, therein lies the rub. MySpace treads this odd space between public and private. Yes, it's publicly accessable, but it's only intended to be viewed by friends and/or folks of a similar peer group. Do I want teens, especially my own students browsing my MySpace page? No, and I in fact take pains to make sure I am un-locatable to them. I imagine and know my students' attitudes regarding their own pages and authority figures - such as myself - are similar. Where am I going with this? See below...

The school's main contention is that students were posting images of classmates and teachers "without their permission." I can see this being something of an issue if this were done in a truely public space, i.e. via flyers posted throughout town. However, posting these images in MySpace is arguably non-public. Whatever the case, the behavior in question was undoubtedly not intended to be public to school staff and administration, but intended for the students' peers. The posting of these images and comments is akin to a conversation between students off campus, after school. It's the late night session of BSing and shit-talking over coffee and a shared basket of chicken strips at the local diner. Now let me tell you, if I'd been suspended for some of the things I said or did late on a Friday or Saturday night amongst friends in a (fairly) private place, I'd have been livid.

In the end, I don't think what the students in question did was "okay." I think it's disrespectful and juvenile. But I also think that because it was done in quasi-private, the school doesn't really have any business in the matter. I am troubled that this and other schools are setting up a precedent for monitoring MySpace because they are pushing in and invading a teen space, a refuge. This is not okay. See below...

Imagine that you are at your local Denny's with your friends. It's late on a Saturday night, you are 17, and your basket of chilli cheese fries has just arrived. Now imagine that you and your friends are discussing girls, boys, that creepy substitute with a thermos of "coffee," and so forth. Now imagine that the entire time, the school's vice principal is standing over the table, watching and listening. Sends shivers down your spine, doesn't it? Well that's what's starting to happen with MySpace.

I wouldn't be coming to the defense of MySpace and teens so heavily if I didn't see a need for the social behavior that teens do now engage in on MySpace and the like. Teen's entire life experience cannot be monitored and policed. Teens need a certain degree of freedom and privacy in order to be able to engage in the behaviors that will move them towards a well developed adulthood. They need time and space for social exploration. And they need all of this without monitoring by authority figures. MySpace is simply a location where teens are now choosing to perform these behaviors. That it is publically accessable doesn't mean that is should always be accessed. The intrusion of authority figures into this space is only an extension of the awkward, unnatural limbic situation that teens are attempting to escape in the first place, and it is a startling trend.

Postmodern impressions of Yreka

2006-04-11T22:43:00.000-07:00

This evening, feeling a little homesick and contemplating my impending travels to (tentatively) begin tomorrow, I Bloogled my hometown of Yreka, CA. Most of the results were from people detailing roadtrips along I-5, with most of them saying something like "and then the freeway was shut down by a blizzard and we had to stay in this po-dunk town called Yreka." However, I came across a slightly more expansive post, also by a traveler, which I found to be rather odd. See below...

Yreka isn't what you might consider a "tourist town", but the city fathers saw fit to ignore the obvious and created a downtown area that is reminiscent of the town's Gold Rush past.

The poster must have been talking about this:

As you can see above, Yreka does indeed have a small, "gold-rush-eque" downtown. But this is not, as the poster had concieved, a contemporary development effort to lure tourism dollars. Those buildings look old because they are old.

That's the old Franco American Hotel building, from back when it was still the Franco American Hotel. It is an old gold rush era building, as are most of the others on the lower blocks on Miner Street just off the central Yreka exit. The only modern buildings on that stretch are there because some of the old ones burned down.

Now, what seems weird to me is that someone would see the buildings as they exist now and think that they are a facade, that they are constructs, that they are inauthentic. I have seen such places as the poster percieves downtown Yreka to be - in Nevada most obviously via Casinos developments, but also in some "revitalization" efforts in various California towns. In both of these cases, new developments are built to resemble "old-time" downtowns. However, in this case, an authentic "old-time downtown" is percieved to be a contemporary, artificial reproduction of such. Brenda pointed out that this perception, this perspective held by the author of the post in question, is actually an example of postmodernism. But that doesn't make me any less queasy...

What a stage we have reached when someone can see something that appears to be antiquated and presume that it is artificially so. What a strange place to be in where the artificial construction and re-creation of the past is sufficiently prevalent to skew someone's perceptions so greatly. With sprawling developments springing up all across America, with corporate and franchised businesses dominating local economies, could we finally be reaching a point where the average American is officially out of touch with the schema of small-town America, complete with its antiquated buildings and ma & pop businesses? Where do we go after this?

In the end, I'm just glad that I will have a chance this week to leave my current home of gigantic box-stores, Starbucks, and SUVs, and go home to a place that is quintessentially small-town America.

NYT on the Housing Crisis

2006-04-10T12:37:00.000-07:00

The New York Times has an article today on the effects of high housing prices in suburban NY on public and volunteer workers such as teachers and EMTs who are crucial to such communities yet cannot afford to live there. The article focuses especially on volunteer firefighters. Glad to see this issue getting some national press. Something has to be done about the marginalization of the middle class... Check out the article here.

The Return of the Beer Wall

2006-04-09T21:17:00.000-07:00

Today I finally made my way up to Lowes and bought some painter's tape so that I might finally recreate what had been a fixture at our previous apartment, the Beer Wall:Yes, that's 63 six-pack sides affixed to my kitchen wall with painter's tape. I have more stored away, but I haven't quite figured out where to put 'em, and the dull colors of some of 'em don't quite fit with the rest. And yes, that is a bottle of orange flavored rum on top of the fridge - it was bought for the purpose of doctoring up some mulled cider for the womenfolk at Turkeyfest '05. Apologies for the horrible photo quality. All I have for a digital camera is my cell...

Anthropodermic Bibliopegy

2006-04-09T13:17:00.000-07:00

So apparently an "ancient" book believed to be bound in human skin was found in Leeds, believed to be discarded following a burglary, and local police are attempting to locate the rightful owner of the grim book.Apparently, the local authorities "were unable on Saturday to answer any questions about it, including the book's subject matter." Hrmm... Why could this be? Perhaps because it is in fact that horrible tome of incomprehensible evil, the handbook of demonology, the Necronomicon. But in all seriousness, this book could be explained without the aid of Lovecraftian lore. See the below from the Breitbart article:

Much of the text is in French, and it was not uncommon around the time of the French Revolution for books to be covered in human skin. The practice, known as anthropodermic bibliopegy, was sometimes used in the 18th and 19th centuries when accounts of murder trials were bound in the killer's skin. Anatomy books also were sometimes bound in the skin of a dissected cadaver. In World War II, Nazis were accused of using the skin from Holocaust victims to bind books.

Nevertheless, immensely creepy. And I kinda like it that way. I'd like to think the true owner of this book is some European aristocrat with an ancient and storied lineage, a member of one of the millionaire satanist orgy clubs that post-Lovecraft horror outlets such as the Ninth Gate would have us believe exist. I'd like to believe the contents of the book are too horrible to read, that they contain a depraved madness of cyclopean proportions, incomprehensible horror...

My car is whole again

2006-04-08T18:23:00.000-07:00

Finally picked up my car from the body shop this past Wednesday. $2500 of State Farm's money, and $250 of mine later, my stupid mistake is remedied:
After ten days of driving a Pontiac Grand Am, my '02 Altima 3.5SE seems like friggin' heaven. I'd grown used to the sluggishness, soft-brake-ness, squishy suspension, horrendous visibility, and crap sound system of the Pontiac. Getting back in my own car I was shocked at the ballziness of it, as well as the responsiveness of the brakes, the appropriately stable sport suspension, and the excellent visibility. It's also nice to have the sound system back so that I might continue to erode my hearing whilst blaring some LCD Soundsystem. I love that car.

Lee Chase leaves Stone Brewing Co.

2006-04-07T19:13:00.000-07:00

Just caught this on a visit to the Beer Advocate forums...

Lee Chase, head brewer at Stone Brewing Co., has decided to leave. There's a video blog about it all here. This comes as a shocking development... Brewing ain't exactly a lucrative business, but if there's a prime position as far as brewing within the craft beer (vs. big three) industry, I'd say it would probably be the head brewership at Stone. The brewery is nationally and internationally recognized and eagerly sought-after by beer geeks across the globe. In addition to that, it's pretty damn successful in terms of money, and I would wager it pays a considerable bit more than the average brewpub.

I can't help but wonder what the hell Lee is going to do after leaving Stone. Perhaps he seeks to start his own establishment in search of more creative freedom - I don't exactly know what the situation was like at Stone, but it really did seem like most everything that happened was an product of CEO and Dear Leader of Stone Greg Koch's vision, not anyone else's. I shouldn't be concerned about any downgrade in the quality of Stone's beers - they have too much riding on it to let that happen. Also, as good as their beers are, none are really all that nuanced in either flavor or construction, and there are plenty of decent brewers out there who should be up to the task. At the end of it all, I'm just damn surprised that this happened. Seemed like he had a good thing goin'...

Boomer entitlement and housing prices...

2006-04-05T09:59:00.000-07:00

According to this piece here, 39% of all home sales in the US in 2005 were second homes. As in the people buying them already had a first home, and just felt like they needed another. This figure includes both vacation homes and "investment" homes. 39%!!! 39% of homes being sold are going to people who already have homes!!! They are being used for vacation, or for investment purposes, and in both cases they're driving up housing costs so much that hard-working young folk like myself can't even dream of buying first homes without selling our goddamn souls.

And check out this quote from an economist on the matter:

"Baby boomers are favorably positioned in terms of affordability, as well as being at the stage in life when people are most interested in making that kind of a lifestyle purchase."

So the boomers, who fought for social change in their youth, then betrayed their ideals and enjoyed unprecedented success as adults, are now entitled to "lifestyle" choices that deliver posh vacations and hundreds of thousands in equity income? Boomers are making these choices at the expense of the "lifestyle choices" of the younger generations. Generation Y is currently having a very difficult time making the "lifestyle choice" to subsist, let alone achieve middle-class status.

It is a zero-sum game. When the Boomers "win," when they over-indulge on real-estate, when they lock-up the job market, when they bleed social security dry, it is the youths that suffer. I can only hope that in my middle-age, I shall not forget the struggles of my youth, and I shall not use what little privledge I've managed to gain by that time to exploit the youths of the time...

I should've called it: "Robert Jordan" faces death

2006-03-28T20:55:00.000-08:00

I am a Wheel of Time reader. I have no shame in admitting that I read this plebian, indulgent, overly-wordy and exceedingly long fantasy series. And part of why I am so comfortable admitting that I read the books is because I started reading them when I was 14, back when I was a socially crippled high school geek with no greater sense. I can't be blamed for having started to read the books then. And anyone who's read the books can attest to the fact that they're like crack - once you start, you have to plow through to the end.

But there's a problem. There may be no end to the storyline, because there may soon be an end to the author, "Robert Jordan," aka James Oliver Rigney, Jr.

When I started reading the WOT series, there were six books in the series. They all clocked in near 1000 pages in paperback edition (and those paperbacks were notorious for falling apart after one reading). I figured the series had to be near done. Any sensible person would realize that a coherent narrative couldn't stretch much longer than 6000 pages... But no. The books kept coming. I eagerly purchased and read the seventh book at the age of 15 - I had budgeted my reading of the sixth book, allowing myself only two chapters per day in order to ensure that I wouldn't have a long, WOTless wait before the release of the seventh book. Then I waited another two years for the next book. Then another two or three for the next. (I should note at this point that the release dates of the eighth and ninth WOT books synched up exactly with those of the second and third Fatboy Slim albums - creepy...) I bought these books with due dilligence, read them when my schedule and overtaxed memory allowed - re-readings of the prior books were often necessary in order to keep the immense character list and convoluted plot straight. I even, in a true geek moment, attended an author's signing once, though this was more indeference to the fact that 14-year-old Zac would never have forgiven 19-year-old Zac for missing such an opportunity.

But as I read on, things changed other than my age. The sprawling books, which had once covered time periods of approximately six months, slowed to a crawl of one week to one month per book starting with book seven. The plot grew increasingly convoluted, the cast of characters expanded exponentially, and Jordan's already indulgent wordiness grew even worse. Many accused Jordan and his publisher, Tor, of milking the fans with the slowed pace of the books - rarely was a WOT book released without it shooting to the top of the NYT bestseller list as the unwashed, MMORPG-playing masses shuffled out of their parents' basements and into the sunshine to drive their AMC Gremlins down to the local Barnes & Noble to buy the latest installment of the addictive series. In light of this, fellow Tor author Mercedes Lackey even went so far as to accuse Robert Jordan of being a construct, insisting that the books are written by a council of ghostwriters.

Yet I stayed loyal, because I was addicted. I still am. I have to find out what happens. What exactly will Tarmon Gaidon, the Last Battle, look like? Will Rand's blood really be shed on the steps of Shayol Ghul? Will the stick ever be removed from Nynaeve's ass? Will Rand, Mat, and Perrin all finally learn that they all think they are clueless with women, yet attribute a great skill with women to the other two? Will Bela the pony ever make it to her home pasture? I know it sounds absurd if you're an Outsider, but if you've read even one of the books, you probably know what I'm talking about...

Now, as I forged ahead with the books - I'm currently in my third re-read in hopes of being able to read and comprehend the tenth and eleventh books - I maintained my faith. Yet my fellow geek friends did not. One turned away from the series indefinately, distracted by his own tumultuous life and his own writing career. Another insisted that he wouldn't touch the series until it was completed, because he was tired of the necessary re-reads. As he said this, it occured to me that the author might not even live to finish the series - he appeared to be of upper-middle age (mid-late 50s) by his press photos, and the photos, and later my own eyes, revealed him to be a rather large man. I easily imagined him encountering heart troubles or the like within a very short time-frame, and him dying with the series unfinished, and myself and the legion of fans left waiting for a fulfillment that would never come.

That doomsday scenario may now very well come true. Rigney/Jordan has been diagnosed with some uber-rare blood disorder, and will have to undergo chemotherapy and stem-cell treatment. Under this treatment, there is a 25% chance of remission, and a 10-15% chance of death. Whatever the case, he's still likely to die from it within four years.

Now, on the official Tor site, Jordan has a statement on the situation in which he expresses his every intention to fight through this and continue on with his life and his writing. And I'm behind him 100%. I hope he makes it out of pure humanism. But hell, I'm scared that he'll die and never finish the goddamn books. And then all my effort will be for naught. We're only one book away from the conclusion of the storyline, and here he is going into treatment with a 10-15% chance of immediate death. I don't think even Mat would bet on those odds...

Stanizlaw Lem, 1921 - 2006

2006-03-27T19:09:00.000-08:00

Zac's Blog o' Death returns today, this time to honor this man:
Polish science fiction author and favorite of mine Stanislaw Lem died today. He left behind an expansive body of work, and his legacy is assured. His works were among the most cerebrally witty, cunning, and outright bizarre I have ever read. My life has been thoroughly enriched as a result of this man, and I am thankful that he had what time on Earth that he did have.

What happened to sonic booms?

2006-03-26T18:53:00.000-08:00

As a child growing up in Siskiyou County during the '80s, I remember hearing sonic booms frequently. We're talking on a weekly basis here. I heard them all the freakin' time. And after conferring with some Siskiyou natives around my age, they also recall hearing them with a similar frequency through that time period. However, something has changed...

Sometime in the early-mid '90s, I stopped hearing sonic booms with any regularity. In fact, I can say with some significant level of certainty that I haven't heard a sonic boom in 10 years or more. Not in Siskiyou County, not anywhere. I ran this by Brenda, and she says the same. So, what happened to them?

Thinking on this some more, I wonder why the heck I heard so many sonic booms back in the day. Siskiyou County was nowhere near any military bases, so I don't even know what super-sonic jets would be doing in the area. Maybe I just heard the sonic booms more often because I was outside more often as a child. But then I have trouble believing that in all the time since the initial decline, I've somehow managed to hear no sonic booms, despite living much nearer military bases for the past seven years. Hrmmm, perhaps this is all part of some government conspiracy...

Anyway, I'd like to get to the bottom of this. Initial internet searches have turned up very little information. Do any of you out there reading have anything to say on this? Have you noticed the same drastic downturn in sonic booms that I have? Let me know in a comment...

The Mosquito is Swatted

2006-03-24T15:13:00.000-08:00

Yes, that headline has probably been used a thousand times already today, but I am not a Domanech - that headline occured to me without any outside prompting.

So, the Mosquito," a high frequency siren-type device designed to be audible only to younger folk (thanks to hearing damage in those of us over the age of 22 or so) and used as a deterrent for loitering youths (dastardly!) has been challenged by a human rights group. How this will hold up, I don't know (especially in the UK, the origin of the "NEET" concept). And concerns so far are, in fact, about unexpected issues:

A concerned NCSP spokesman told the BBC: "If the noise upset a baby in a pram or caused a dog in a neighbouring house to bark incessantly then these are issues we would have to address."

Hrmm... I'm more concerned about it being deliberately and disgustingly ageist and abusive. Not to mention indicative of a deep societal distrust of youths. And regardless of whether or not the behavior of youths is indeed undesirable, I think a more appropriate action is to work towards the reincorporation of youths into modern society, rather than pushing for their further marginalization... But, of course, pro-active action is never in vogue.

r0x0r5

2006-03-23T10:58:00.000-08:00

A bit more of the jovial, lighthearded content I'd like to see here:
Two things I love: Jeopardy and 1337n355

Another Winner...

2006-03-23T10:33:00.000-08:00

So another day has passed, and yet another person has left comments on one of my CA-04 posts, attacking and insulting me. This time the perpetrator didn't even have the balls to post non-anonymously. And though I should be able to say "oh well, just another internet crazy," I'm having trouble getting past this one. It's extremely bizarre as "farm-league" blogger as 5C11 put it - though I'd say I'm actually more of a backyard garden league blogger, or even an herb-garden league blogger... nay, I'm a friggin' Chia-Pet league blogger - to be the subject of such vehement attacks. And though I do get past the initial spike in heart rate and adrenaline when I read such attacks, and I eventually "wax-off," I'm quickly realizing that I just don't want this sort of thing to be happening on my blog. I want this to be a place for my friends, as well as for whatever passers-by might enjoy the content. I don't want to be a target for some crazies out there, emboldened by the anonymity of the internet to unload their frustrations on me. It's just not what this is supposed to be about.

So, a couple of changes... I'm no longer allowing anonymous comments. I'm also not going to be blogging about CA-04 very much, as it seems to make me a target for some very troubled people out there. I don't want their negativity here. That doesn't change how I feel about the situation, and it certainly doesn't change how I'm going to vote come June. Am I caving to the crazies? Maybe. But I've been in many internet flame-wars throughout the past, and it's just not a pleasant thing to be involved in. I'll be happier if I just remove myself from the situation and move on with my life and the blog...

That said... Were a political candidate to basely attack a small time blogger, make numerous grammatical mistakes while doing so, and then enlist others to go and do the same, I'd say that political candidate would indeed be unworthy of your vote. I would say that political candidate might be characterized as a "loose cannon," and would not at all, through those actions, be demonstrating the level of professional behavior that we, as voters and constituents, expect of our elected representatives. I would even go so far as to say that a person behaving thusly would be demonstrating such an utter lack of common sense that I would not want them to be working in any position of authority. Additionally, calling someone an "ass" is certainly a helluva way to get them to vote for you.

Beerlog: Russian River Redemption

2006-03-22T18:31:00.000-08:00

For the purpose of this post, I'd normally just link to my review on Beer Advocate, but they're now requiring a login to view reviews...

So, anyway, the FedEx people brought me a package today. This package contained four beers from Russian River Brewing Company, aka, my favorite brewery in the whole wide world. For those of you who don't know, Russian River is sort of coming to the forefront of American craft brewing right now due to their explorative approach to beer and their much-lauded line of Belgian-style and Belgian-inspired beers, all having names ending in "tion" - Damnation, Salvation, Supplication, Temptation, Erudition, etc. One of the beers I was recieved was Redemtion, which is Russian River's interpretation of a Belgian "single" - as opposed to a "dubbel," "tripel," or "quadrupel," - a low-alcohol "session"-style beer that rarely makes its way outside of Belgium. IMO, it's a style of beer that's massively underdone - there should be way more of it available in the US...

The beer itself is lightly golden and hazy. There's a lush head and high carbonation from the brettanomyces in the beer - brettanomyces is a kind of wild yeast that, though avoided in other beers, is embraced in a few Belgian styles for the "farmhouse funk" that it lends to the mix. The aroma is all apple and pear, with a hint of sweaty-funk and tartness from the brett. In the mouth the beer is amazingly light, both from the low overall alcohol content (4.8%) and the fact that the brett has eaten away any and all residual sugars. Falvor-wise, the beer breaks from style some, with no hop presence, depending entirely upon the esters and the funk. This isn't unpleasant, it's just unexpected... The beer leaves a lingering metallic twang, oddly enoughy.

So, in the end, it's a worthy beer, but were you to make a purchase from Russian River, I'd recommend Damnation or Salvation over it. Or better yet, wait until the summer and order up a case of the lovely chardonnay/blonde ale chimera that is Temptation...

Lessons Learned in CA-04

2006-03-22T08:12:00.001-08:00

Somebody put significant effort into replying to one of my most recent posts claiming to be CA-04 candidate Michael Hamersley (that's one M, mind you...) Wow, I had no idea that little ol' me held so much sway.

I just want to clarify a few things:

I am in no way associated with the Brown campaign! I like what I know of the candidate so far and I chose to put his banner on my blog. (I thought I was entitled to do that...)
I am simply a lowly blogger, one of tens of thousands. I have barely any readership, so far...
I am not an "ass," as the commenter (I've no proof it's really Hamersley) said. I am a constituent of CA-04 and I am a registered voter.

So, to close, I just want to thank the commenter for putting me in my place. I've learned my lesson. A citizen and a constituent should never express their opinions regarding political candidates.

My car has been de-virginized...

2006-03-21T18:19:00.000-08:00

Today, upon arriving home and pulling in to a parking space, I hit this:
Which did this to my car:
The estimate? An astounding $2100. Amazing. I am thankful I have good insurance...

Lesson learned: be not hasty and do not let the commuter life rush you.

The odd thing is, I think I'm actually somewhat relieved by this episode. I was feeling so rushed and harried by commuter life - it seemed like I couldn't get anything done because I was always on the road and/or working during business hours. Now that I'm forced to take a day off to handle this, I'm strangely at peace. Yes, part of my car that should be up near the front has been ripped off and now rests in my trunk, but I'm forced to pull away from the grind and deal with it. I'll be going to an auto-body shop and a rental-car place in the town in which I live. I'll take some time to, *gasp*, wash my car. And yes, I may even get to the post-office too, which was what I was intending to do when this whole mess began...

Another (Uninspiring) Candidate for CA-04

2006-03-21T14:59:00.000-08:00

Michael Hamersley has thrown his name in for CA-04. A quick look over his website made me want to, as I did with Rea, run screaming, though for different reasons. Whereas Rea comes across to me as just weird and mildly creepy, not to mention an unabashed senior-panderer, Hamersley is seemingly lifeless. Completely stiff, completely uncharismatic. He and his people attempt to sell him as an ethical man, a whistle-blower, etc. I don't care how "ethical" this guy is based on the whistle-blowing incident, he will fall flat with Red county voters. Someone without charisma, without even the sense to put a photograph of himself on his campaign website, will never win in Red territory. And with all the talk about his ethics, it's amazing how cold and scientific it seems. See below:

"I find it exceedingly difficult to fathom that no illegal quid pro quo existed when John Doolittle 'earmarked' millions of dollars for a Department of Defense contract that was awarded to a man he calls his 'close friend,' Brent Wilkes, who contributed $85,000 to Mr. Doolittle's campaign coffers and political action committee in close temporal proximity to the awarding of this contract. At the very least, this conduct is highly unethical." Hamersley said.

All his ethics talk is wrapped up in cold, legal jargon... There's no humanity to it. There's no outrage. Ultimately, there's no value-appeal - which should be easy with a topic such as ethics - and there doesn't seem to even be a sense amongst him and his people that values appeals should be made.

In the end, I want to hit Hammersley over the head with a copy of Don't Think of an Elephant. But then, I'm not sure I want him to even be in the race. I don't want him to steal the candidacy from under Brown. I don't want to run the risk of the idiotic Dem establishment running an uncharismatic stiff over an inspiring candidate, as they did in '04.

Labor for Brown...

2006-03-17T10:57:00.000-08:00

New press release from the Brown camp:

CALIFORNIA LABOR FEDERATION, AFL-CIO, ENDORSES BROWN FOR CONGRESS
Mar 16, 2006 Democratic Congressional Candidate Charles Brown (Lt. Col., USAF Ret.) announced that the California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, endorsed his campaign at the organization’s pre-primary endorsement convention on March 8th. The California Labor Federation is the umbrella group for labor in the state, representing more than 2 million workers in health care, manufacturing, service, retail, construction, public sector and private industry.
“I am honored by this endorsement because working families are the backbone of our economy and our communities,” noted Brown. “Unfortunately the Republican Congress has shown that it cares more about corporate CEOs and wealthy campaign contributors than ordinary Americans. Retirement security, access to quality healthcare, well supported public schools, good paying jobs and fair trade are not special interests---they are the people’s interests, and will be among my top priorities as the 4th District’s next Congressman.”
“In the military, as a teacher and as a law enforcement professional, Charlie has stood up for hard working Americans, and we are proud to stand with him,” added Sacramento Central Labor Council Executive Secretary Bill Camp. “It’s time for new direction in Washington that puts the needs of working Americans first---and his name is Charlie Brown.”
Charles Brown, Lt. Col. USAF Ret., spent 26 years in the U.S. Air Force, and is a former public school teacher. He is currently employed by the Roseville Police Department, and is a Democratic Candidate for California’s 4th Congressional Seat. www.brown4congress.org.

Military, education, and law enforcement? Anti-corporate, pro-populist? Can we get some apple pie with that? Things are looking up for CA-04...

We're not the only ones...

2006-03-17T09:35:00.000-08:00

Protests in France over a youth labor law? And the NEET phenomenon in Japan? Seems that youth are simmering across industrialized countries, and the Boomers are universally bullheaded. Is another '68 on the horizon?

The Burdens of Youth?

2006-03-16T10:15:00.000-08:00

I am concerned about the welfare of my generation, Generation Y. I am concerned that so many of my peers, despite college education, seem unable to find stable and appropriate employment. Oh yes, they may find some service jobs, and they may find some temp work, but overall the wages are lower than expected, and benefits are scant. And for those living in California, housing costs are prohibitively expensive. All this, faced with the troubles posed by the impending boomer retirements, and we're looking at a very bad situation.

I recently discovered the work of Anya Kamenetz, a blogger and columnist hailing from my own Generation Y, who takes on the economic issues surrounding twenty-somethings, especially with regards to (student loan) debt, in her book. Intrigued by the buzz surrounding the work, I have ordered it. Perhaps that's an example of the impulsive consumerism to which some attribute my generations debt, but I see it as a positive step to grow more informed about the issue and plan a course of action. And if nothing else, I'm contributing to the income of at least one 25-year old with my purchase...

Overall, I'm very frustrated with the political lot of youth in this country. I think that the twenty-somethings of the US should be pissed off about their marginalization. I think they should be pissed off that this country is eating its young. I think they should be pissed off that their parents and their grandparents are mortgaging their future. And I think that if this anger is channeled into political action, the youth vote could be a force to be reckoned with. As for how to get youth to vote at a higher rate than they do (a shockingly low 10% of those eligible) I don't know what to do yet. Perhaps they know. I'll be mulling this one over...

Are you a good man, Charlie Brown?

2006-03-15T20:55:00.000-08:00

Today I got to thinking about this coming Fall's election. Now, that'll be a gubernatorial election for us Californians, and though Angelides is already running a substantial campaign, I think Arnold's reformed policies will net him another victory. But I'm not really that concerned about the gubernatorial race - it's odd how at ease some of us lefties are with Republican governors (see Massachusettes with Romney). But what I am concerned with in this election is the House seats. And I'm concerned in a big way. Changing the face of the legislature will go a long way in terms of steering this big, slow, and stupid ship back onto course. And it's the only ground on which any gains can be made, what with Bush having another three years as a lame duck, and the rest of the Supreme Court appearing rather healthy...

I decided to look up the candidates for my own district, California's fourth. This district, stretching from the affluent, commuter-based suburbs of Roseville and Rocklin (both heavily Republican), up to the Oregon border in bass-ackwards Modoc County. Aside from Oroville, Susanville, and the towns of Nevada County, there's not much in that swathe of land aside from a SETI reasearch facility, a lot of ranch land, and a rather good meadery. According to one source, this is the sixth most Republican district in California. It is "Red California" - the affluent white-flighters and the good rural folk (who the Dems have done a damn good job of outright ignoring for decades...) It's a helluva district for a Dem to try for, and it's exactly the kind of district the cancerous DC Dem establishment has chosen to ignore and/or throw. And it's exactly the kind of district I think the Dems should start fighting for.

So, anyway, the current Democratic cantidates for CA-04? Well, there's this woman, Lisa Rea, who makes me want to run screaming. Exactly the kind of unfocused, mildly batty, and downright uninspiring candidate that excells at losing in Red districts. An example of her half-baked and oh-so-strangely strategized policies?

"'We need to hold criminals accountable to their victims,' she said, noting her program goes beyond financial restitution. Criminals need to face their victims, apologize for their misdeeds and make right, she said. As an example, Rea said a person convicted of graffiti might be required to actually paint over the graffiti he painted."

Hrmm. That's an odd stance, seeing that it's standard practice with graffiti to A. photograph it for evidence and then B. paint over it immediately so as to deny the perpetrator an audience for their crime. What's up next for the first contender? Cue the pandering to the senior vote:

"Rea strongly believes in honoring 'our parents.' 'I don't think the lives of our seniors are well respected or represented,' she said. 'I want to reach out to the seniors in the region.'"

The lives of "our seniors" aren't well represented? Senior citizens are one of the most mobilized voting groups out there! Politicians pander left and right to seniors! Those who aren't represented are the young folk. The twenty-somethings struggling to establish careers and unable to buy houses due to a rampant, intetest-rate induced bubble.

Anyway, enough with her. I shouldn't be too concerned about Rea, as I'm certain she'll be soundly stomped in the primary by contender number two, Charlie Brown. An Air Force veteran and Acadamey grad, he's recieved some good buzz from Kos as a "Fighting Dem," a strategy of which I don't wholly approve (remember how well Clark did?) but I suppose Brown's military credentials could be quite an asset in this district. Reading over his site, I'm fairly pleased with what I see. Sound policy stances, general political finesse. And Brown might well have enough charisma to fare well in CA-04. Is he the "real thing?" I don't know. Does he have a chance of winning against entrenched, Abramoff-linked Republican heavyweight Doolittle in a solidly Red district? More of a chance than I'd ever expected to see. So for now I'm throwing my support behind Brown, hence the new banner below. As the election picks up, and I learn more about him, I hope he continues to prove himself "a good man."

The Theocratic States of America

2006-03-15T08:28:00.000-08:00

From the Christian Science Monitor:

"Currently, Florida, Mississippi, and Utah have laws that ban gay adoption explicitly, although a few other states - including Nebraska, Arkansas, Missouri, and New Hampshire - have de facto policies or laws restricting gays from adopting or becoming foster parents."

Sweet Jesus. I wasn't aware I was living in a theocracy. How the hell do those laws hold up? Where are the challenges? Where's the ACLU on this one? And why the hell are so many Americans so bloody afraid of homosexuals?

We've got a long way to go...

Big Brother in New Jersey

2006-03-14T15:23:00.000-08:00

So a New Jersey legislator has decided that internet exchanges, such as those made on message boards, are uncivil (they often are - I'm a veteran of flame wars and know firsthand how uncivil people can be behind a mask of anonymity) and that legislation is required to make such exchanges more civil. This would be done by requiring posters to use include their real name and address. Wow. In addition to being nearly un-enforcable, such a law is A. damn creepy, and B. just plain stupid. At least it seems that my opinions, uncivil as they may be, are shared by many others, and the bill is now stalled. Let's just hope this bizarre censorship doesn't gain any traction... Read more here.

Silence on the Left...

2006-03-14T09:30:00.000-08:00

So, that enigmatic Dem, Senator Russ Feingold, has proposed a censure of President Bush regarding Spygate. Since the initial announcement, support was anemic, the Republican response was vitriolic, and the Dems have withdrawn the motion. Why exactly this was done, I don't yet understand. Reid implied that the withdrawal was in response to the Republican threat for a quick vote without debate - "To try to limit debate on this most important matter that Senator Feingold is going to put before the Senate is not appropriate." Hooey I say. No amount of debate would lead to this motion passing.

Did I expect the motion to pass? Hell no - the Republicans have a solid control of the legislature. And while the ports fiasco has eroded Republican support for Bush some, this doesn't transfer to Spygate, the subject of the censure. Would there be value in putting forward the censure motion and having it fail? Some symbolic value, yes. Especially if the Dems voted solidly for the motion. This may indeed have as much value as a wholesale passing of the motion, as even a passed censure motion is nothing more than a public admonition, with no actual weight or accountability behind it. I think a Democratic Party united behind this motion would send a message stronger than any we've seen in recent years. And it might be rather well received by the general public, especially considering that Bush's approval ratings are hovering in the mid to low 30s. With the retreat, I think the Dems come across as weak, divided, and unprincipled (which they are - at least the ones on Capitol Hill...) and Feingold has been painted a fringe extremist - no good for anybody involved.

But what's really bugging me about this whole thing is the silence of the Lefts 900-lb blogorillas such as Kos and Jerome. At the time of this writing, neither had commented on the withdrawal. I am very anxious to see what they say (or don't say). In the meantime, we shall wait...

Wasted Weekend

2006-03-13T11:01:00.000-08:00

As I bolted out of bed this morning, frustrated that I didn't get a better night's sleep - largely because I was lying awake anxious about getting a good night's sleep, 'tis a vicious cycle - I couldn't help but feel that I'd wasted the weekend.

Oh the weekend stared fine, with a quasi-date involving Indian food, an attempt to see a movie, and an explorative drive throughout the area on which we discovered that we live alarmingly close to a casino. But then Saturday came. And nothing happened. I slept in some, and I know I ate some food, and I know I ended up falling asleep at the astonishingly early hour of 9:00 PM. But I don't know that anything else happened. I think all that time was wasted watching re-runs of Project Runway and other indulgent and wasteful television programs. Oh, occasionally I might have contemplated actually doing something, but I never did. Sunday was much the same, though I ended up shopping for groceries and washing/ironing several loads of laundry. But that was all requisite stuff. Stuff that, had I not done it, I simply wouldn't have been able to get through the following week.

Why did this happen? Going into the weekend, I was exhausted, largely because the previous weekend had involved the highly stressful, two-day speech tournament. By the time Friday rolled around, I was desperate for some respite. And I largely think I did as I did on Saturday and Sunday because I was too damn tired to do anything else. But now that Monday is back upon us, I feel profoundly unsatisfied with the weekend. I feel angry that I should grow so tired in the course of a week as to fall into such a slump during the weekend. That I should find myself not using my weekends for pleasure and recreation and living my own goddamn life. From here on out I resolve to strive to use my weekends for good. I shall not succumb to the urge to be a lump. I shall not let my job and modern urban/suburban life wear me down to that point. I shall be vibrant and alive, and use my own time to fulfill my wishes, not just to recover so that I can make it back to work on Monday. I shall work to live, not live to work.

Yes, I have said as much before, and I have slipped back. But the overall progress is, I think, positive. With this reaffirmation, I set myself back on course.

Now I just need to make it through this week, and through the two-day debate tournament on Friday and Saturday without growing, once again, tired, cranky, and sour. Wish me luck...

You want cultural divide? I'll show you cutural divide...

2006-03-08T10:11:00.000-08:00

While browsing Wonkette, I learned of this. Now, I don't read Arabic, but sources lead me to believe it's basically a Hamas-related recruitment site targeted towards young children. Now, as horrifying as that is in and of itself, while browsing the site I found something more disturbing. What, you ask? Just look below...

What, you don't see it? Look a little closer... Still don't see it? Okay, I'll just point it out...

Yes!!! The scroll-bar is on the LEFT. I realize that based on the top-right to lower-left dynamic of Arabic script, much graphic design within the Arabic-speaking world actually runs opposite to what we're used to in the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic alphabet-based portions of the world, mirroring our standard design formats based on the opposite-diagonal being the dominant one. I just have never before seen it as an influencing factor in web-design, and it just caught me off guard. I spent a minute just staring at the page, wondering how the hell I was to navigate it without the scroll-bar, before I finally realized it was on the left. It just comes across as, well, damn freaky. An affront to my sensibilities, more so than the cultivation of preadolescent martyrs.

Update: Al-Fatah.net appears to be down momentarily.

Bloody Luddites and Debate Geeks

2006-03-07T10:18:00.000-08:00

Little in this world angers me more than technology resistance and ignorance.

I am currently trying to figure out some of the specifics regarding the logistics of our upcoming National Forensics League national qualifying tournament, and I can't find the appropriate information on the website. Sure the site looks pretty nifty, with lots of mouse-overs, but the overall architecture of the site is Byzantine and confusing. And in the end, a lot of the information that I would expect to find either just isn't there or is impossible to find. This is, I believe, symptomatic of a larger problem amongst those born pre-1975...

So many of the pre-computer, pre-internet generations - yes, they've been around the technology for certain, but unlike those of us born after 1975, they weren't steeped in the technology throughout their formative years - have a steadfast resistance to modern technology and/or a critically limited understanding of it. For those few that do decide to delve into modern technology a bit, there seem to be several recurring problems. The first, as illustrated by the above example is the "'Good Enough' Website."

Yes indeed... So many businesses and organization owned and/or run by boomers and the like, or by luddites in general, tend to, if and when they do put up a website, do the minimal amount of work. This means a poorly designed page, with perhaps one grainy image, a horrendous logo, and little to no content. No substantial information about the business, poor site architecture, and no means of contact outside, perhaps, the listing of a rarely-checked e-mail and a telephone number. It's as if they think by simply putting up a website, business will come to them. Though some sites do end up with more polish, as with the NFL site, there are still the content and architecture problems.

Then there's the e-mail issue. It seems to me that many luddites, young and old alike, seem to think that they are less accountable for e-mail than they are for telephone or direct inter-personal contact. Send an e-mail to someone? No imperative to reply. Call someone? Well, there's a little more there. Talk to one of the old fogies in person and they finally feel the social pressure to actually acknowledge you and address your problems. Worst offenders on this front? The bloated mass of mid-level administrative staff at my district.

Oy. The structure of this post is getting lost, and it's really just a bunch of complaining on my part, but what I really want to get to is this... Perhaps the worst offence commited by Luddites against me would be the decision on the part of my debate league to tab tournaments by hand rather than use the software that is increasingly becoming the standard throughout the rest of the debate world. The steadfast resistance of these Luddite dinosaurs, their insistance that a well-tested computer program is not to be trusted over emotional, tired, and fallable humans infuriates me. It infuriates me because their insistance on doing everything by hand, on paper, makes tournament days arduous and hectic, when things could be greatly simplified by the use of the software.

I'll be glad when the boomers retire and the dinosaurs die. I really will.

Dialing it in...

2006-03-05T21:07:00.000-08:00

Oy vey.

Apologies for the absences/slowness as of late. This weekend I had to take my speech & debate team to a two-day tournament, and the work-week leading up to it was busy and stressful. After the tournament, which was a byzantine and political nightmare, I have at least one student who has a guaranteed spot at April's state tournament. And while that's a great success, especially considering that my team is a first year team at a low-SES urban school of under 400 students, and that I had absolutely no speech & debate experience before beginning my stint as a coach, and it's going to do a lot to curry favor both for me with our administrator and for our school with our district, and that it's just stinkin' cool for the kid, I can't say that I'm all that excited. What with this tournament having been so goddamn stressful, with tab-room errors being made, and one team making a big and ugly ruling protest, and with the league administration getting stressed-the-fuck-out and being generally unpleasant to be around, I kinda had no energy left with which to be excited following the awards ceremony. And quite frankly, I think I'd rather just sleep in on the weekend of the state tournament. At least I can be thankful that the tournament will be hosted at Sierra College, which will be, quite literally, across the street from me...

Anyway, hopefully I'll recover some from the trauma of this weekend and soon begin writing/completing the several big and insightful posts that have been percolating in my head over the past week. We shall return to form. I guarantee it...

Where I've Been

2006-03-03T09:59:00.000-08:00

A map of the US states I've visited, generated here.

And another map of the countries I've visited, generated here.

Kinda pathetic. Especially the second one. I need to travel more. My ideal map would look something more like this...

I've got some work to do...

The Origami: I want it...

2006-02-27T23:07:00.000-08:00

Finally gadgets are reaching that cusp of smallness and capability that gets my attendtion. First it was the Nano. Now this... Behold, the Microsoft Origami:

Looks to be basically an ultra-small PC. Entirely capable by modern standards - even runs a standard operating system, word is - but the size of a PDA on steroids. I love the idea. Now I only wish I had a lifestyle that justified owning such a gadget. I can imagine flying all over the world to cutting-edge academic conferences... Or taking my Orgami to the cafe or pub to work on my novel... Sigh. For now, my laptop at home, and my laptop at work take care of all my computing needs, and I haven't the free time to do anything so cool as to loiter in a pub nursing a beer and writing the Great American Novel.

Official information will start coming out March 2nd. For now, go here to read up on it... I shall continue to dream up excuses to buy it.

Travelblogue: Joviality and Introspection in Reno

2006-02-26T19:37:00.000-08:00

I gambled a twenty in Reno, just to watch it die...

This past weekend, Brenda and I loaded up in my car with issues of Bust and the Economist, minimally-packed clothes, and too-few toiletries, to head over the Sierras for a day in Reno. I'd scheduled the trip secret-ninja style, and I never really developed a plan for what we'd actually do there besides sleep in our hotel room at the Silver Legacy. However, despite the lack of planning, we ended up having quite a fine time. I managed to not think about work, the housing market, the Bush administration, or any of my other constantly-looming bugaboos for more than a few seconds. A successful mini-vacation indeed...

Part of the success of the trip was due to the fact that we were staying in a casino. Now, prior to the trip, I'd had some hesitation about doing this. I thought I'd just find the casinos trashy, and I had an aversion to gambling. However, by the very fact that casinos are designed to keep people in the building, they make an enormously easy vacation-destination. From the restaurants & shopping in the facility, to the bathrooms at every corner, to the cheap room-service, and even to the ultra-fast elevators making the traversment of the 38 floor building a breeze, the casino provided an opportunity for a pre-packaged, no-effort vacation. No figuring out where to eat, no driving anywhere... And on top of all this, there's free entertainment if you can resist the allure of gambling - the sheer spectacle of the casino, directly connected with another two, differently themed, casinos, made certain that one could entertain oneself for hours simply by walking and staring as the indulgent, bizzare weirdness of it all.

Amid the over-stimulation of the casinos, I didn't have many opportunities to let myself worry about "the little things," and this helped force some rexation on me. My greatest concern was my agoraphopbia - which did flare up a little bit, though mainly in Circus Circus, amongst the screaming throng of children, and once again amongst the screaming throng of Korn fans exiting the Korn concert on the premises - but overall my inherent fear of/discomfort in crowded situations stayed at a meer simmer, mainly because everybody seemed to be much more laid-back and much less high-strung than I am used to in California. Yes, it was a crowd, but it was a crowd of happy people.

After eating in the buffet - a classic casino experience if there ever was one - Brenda and I wandered around the adjacent casinos a bit, and then finally ventured down to gamble. It was my first time gambling, and Brenda's first time, at the pathetically small and grungy Alturas Rancheria, didn't really count, so this was her first substaintial gambling experience. We tried out some quarter slots, then some penny slots, and then got sucked in way farther than we ever thought we would. Looking back on the time, I am astonished at how, under the influence of the flashing lights, spinning images, and clanging noises, I lost rational control. But I had my fun. I turned five of Brenda's dollars into $23, then into $1, then back into $13, at which point I cashed out and handed it to her. Then I decided to try my luck with $20 of my own. And, slowly but surely, I lost it all. At that point I had enough sense to step away, but I had grown to understand the siren-song of gambling. Do I regret it? No. Did I have fun? Yes. Do I wish I'd left with net gains? Hell yes. But so it is...

Anyway, that's as much as an account as I'm going to commit to blog-space for now. More words may follow, and pictures will most-definately follow...

chewingonaviancranium

Summer To-Do List

Community organization, rescindance, and other goings-on

Raw Youth - A reader's thoughts...

RIP, Edmund Hillary

Lolme

Plug - "Raw Youth"

Check one off my list...

The Fifth Circle...

A Die-Hard Chemical Brothers fan's reaction to the We Are the Night - Liveblogged upon his first listening

Castle Crags

I could do this all day...

A wellspring of happiness

Finally...

Daily weirdness

Mountain of a Mountain Man

Say what? Free time?

Tree farms are for wusses

I ain't dead...

Summer 2006: the End

Brewlog: Bachelor Party Porter & Saison #3 Update

Brewlog: India Brown Ale

It really does live...

It Lives! (knock on wood)

Humbug Burning...

Blue Screen of Death: Zac's Laptop, RIP...

Goa/Psytrance Sample Waiting to Happen...

Homemade Lox

Bread, Circuses, and My Hometown

The Best Albums You Never Knew About, Vol. 1

Fighting Inertia

How did I go nine days without blogging?

*Gasp* - Music Videos on Music Channels?

Travelblogue: Napa Conference - Mid-way...

Pairings: shocking the masses, forcing beer into wine territory

Pet Peeve: Sports pre-empting "our regularly scheduled programming"

Brewlog: Saison #3

Brewlog: Bachelor Party Porter

Brewlog: Belgian Small Ale - Update

Election Results: the Mark of the Beast

Election Day

The Coolest Thing to Enter My Life in Recent Months...

More complaining...

One more week...

12 Days

Where the hell I've been...

Beerlog: Lagunita's Imperial Stout

Recent Purchases

The Truth About Beef Jerky

The mainstream media just doesn't get it

Travelblogue, Coachella 2006 11: Reflections, Part 1

Travelblogue, Coachella 2006 10: Sunday Summary

Travelblogue, Coachella 2006 09: Mid-day Report

Travelblogue, Coachella 2006 08: The Massive Mightiness of Daft Punk

Travelblogue, Coachella 2006 07: Sunday Morning, Refreshed

Travelblogue, Coachella 2006 06: Saturday Recap

Travelblogue, Coachella 2006 05: Live Electronic Music Done Right

Travelblogue, Coachella 2006 04: Mid-Festival, AT&T Blue Room

Travelblogue, Coachella 2006 03: Continental Breakfast and Hipsters

Travelblogue, Coachella 2006 02: HoJo, Palm Springs

Travelblogue, Coachella 2006 01: Sac Intl Airport

Recent Purchases

Strife in the Rainbow Family

Harvard Brat is a Plagiarist

To the dis-belief of my teenage self

Seventeen, Twenty-One, Twenty-Five: 1998, 2002, 2006

What the hell is a "moonbat," and are they confined to Santa Cruz?

Brewlog: Belgian Small Ale

Best Salad EVER

MyPoliceState

Postmodern impressions of Yreka

NYT on the Housing Crisis

The Return of the Beer Wall

Anthropodermic Bibliopegy

My car is whole again

Lee Chase leaves Stone Brewing Co.

Boomer entitlement and housing prices...

I should've called it: "Robert Jordan" faces death

Stanizlaw Lem, 1921 - 2006

What happened to sonic booms?

Gasp - Music Videos on Music Channels?