It’s been an amazing year. In some ways great, but there were some painful times. It seems that there’s a cycle where every now and then I need to go through some changes. Change is painful, and this was no exception. I didn’t always handle it well, and at points I handled it very badly. I’m not sure that I was built with the emotional fortitude to maintain the stoic coolness I’d need to manage the changes.

It’s a new year and I have a lot of resolutions on my mind, and I’m working through what I want to really focus on. But two really stick in my mind as relevant and important. The first is to continue on the path that I set out on mid-year last year, cultivating relationships and habits that really help me move forward. The second is to make and drink more of my own beer, and specialty beers, and to spend less time drinking commodity beers, even from the great microbreweries.

This is the story of our little group’s journeys in the areas surrounding Phandalin.  Please be aware that spoilers lie behind the fold.

Worn and Bruised after defeating Klarg and his minions, the party collapses in the cavern and recovers with a long night’s rest.  They search the cave for  treasure and clues about the whereabouts of their dwarven patron Gundren to no avail, only the spoils of a recent raid are evident.

Spoilers below the fold.

Over the last year, I’ve had the opportunity to work with some outstanding homebrewers on some barrel projects. Basically, we get 10 or so people to each brew a batch(es) of a particular beer, then we get together to siphon it into a bourbon barrel. The beer then ages over a month to many months, changing in character and gaining oak and bourbon flavors. So far I’ve reaped the benefits of a baltic porter and an imperial IPA.

The process of turning raw ingredients into delicious beer is an extremely complicated one. It involves chemistry, biology, physics, and magic, plus a potentially infinite budget for copper, stainless, and rubber whizbangs. I have only scratched the surface of the possibilities. That is by design. So, completely neglecting the science involved, and getting to the sequence of events that need to take place to make beer, here is the brewing process in a nutshell.

St. Peter’s English Ale comes in a sweet old-style medicine bottle. This organic ale from England opens with a nicely rounded bitterness and has an interesing fruity finish. It drinks clean, not syrupy at all, and has a nice light carbonation with the medium body. This beer is less sweet than typical English ales, and a bit more bittered than I typically find in the genre. No complaints here.

Over the last year, I’ve had the opportunity to work with some outstanding homebrewers on some barrel projects. Basically, we get 10 or so people to each brew a batch(es) of a particular beer, then we get together to siphon it into a bourbon barrel. The beer then ages over a month to many months, changing in character and gaining oak and bourbon flavors. So far I’ve reaped the benefits of a baltic porter and an imperial IPA.

I’m a book lover. By nature. I find flipping pages, browsing aisles, and even falling asleep on a book, to be comforting. But I’ve been eyeballing the Kindle (and the Nook and the eReader) since it came out. With the price dropping to under $150 (sans 3g), it was suddenly accessible. I started to think about it, but never quite pulled the trigger. Which was fortunate, as the lady got me one for my birthday.

I’ve recently started contributing to a nifty new iPhone app called urbandig. It is the app that I wanted when I was in NYC earlier this year. It’s the app that I want when I visit Memphis and Denver later this year. Basically, they’ve gone out and found people who know the city, or parts of it, really well, and gotten them to created nice little curated morsels of experience. Portland’s urban dig experience has just been release, and in it you can enjoy my delicious noodle crawl, in which I explore some of Portland’s more exciting Ramen joints.

I’m a fan of social media sites. Sites like twitter and facebook are loads of fun, and great for staying in touch with old friends, new friends, and potential friends. In a recent post I commented on what I felt were the differences between facebook and myspace. In the end, I believe that myspace is primarily a vanity site, whereas facebook focuses on relationships. A more subtle comparison happens between facebook and twitter.

and I learned a lot. And met some nice people. There were a lot of major themes. I was happy to see the internet future includes thoughts on how all this stuff will work inside business too. As a corporate lacky, this is valuable stuff for me, and for a long time it has seemed neglected. The main focus here was around corporate culture and the roles of communities and community managers.

The debate has been serious this summer. From touchy questions on sides of buses to annoying comments on blog posts to occasional legal debate. The community has been vexed by this question: Is a bicycle a car or a pedestrian? To help shed light on this problem, beerdrinker has gone undercover, actually riding his bicycle most days, frequently more than 25 miles. I’ve been thinking about this question for quite awhile, but it really came to a head (or mine) when Webtrends posted their controversial question on Portland’s public transportation: Should cyclists pay a road tax?

Well, today was the due date. I haven’t talked about it much, but N and I are expecting a little girl here anytime. She’s been a trooper, we went out to a Christmas party last night, walked to NePo42for a tasty breakfast. She got gorgeous fluffy pancakes with apple (real apples hunks…bigger than chunks) and I got the biscuits and gravy and a bloody mary. Augie got pet but no food.

Over the last year, I’ve had the opportunity to work with some outstanding homebrewers on some barrel projects. Basically, we get 10 or so people to each brew a batch(es) of a particular beer, then we get together to siphon it into a bourbon barrel. The beer then ages over a month to many months, changing in character and gaining oak and bourbon flavors. So far I’ve reaped the benefits of a baltic porter and an imperial IPA.

Over the last year, I’ve had the opportunity to work with some outstanding homebrewers on some barrel projects. Basically, we get 10 or so people to each brew a batch(es) of a particular beer, then we get together to siphon it into a bourbon barrel. The beer then ages over a month to many months, changing in character and gaining oak and bourbon flavors. So far I’ve reaped the benefits of a baltic porter and an imperial IPA.

Lisa the beer goddess has called my attention to an article in which GQ calls out the 50 best beers. These things are such a matter of opinion and experience it doesn’t make sense to argue much, but I think they hit a lot of good ones. I’ve previously mentioned the Duchesse as a favorite. I’m also a fan of Southern Tier who didn’t make the list. Que sera.

N and I are heading down to Austin shortly to catch the SxSW interactive conference and spend some time with her sister who moved there from somewhere I didn’t want to visit about 6 months ago. So I think I can find my way around a conference. But what about the city? Any tips…beer, BBQ, texmex, or whatnot. Cheers. PS. Just saw the Tron Legacy preview and it looks pretty awesome.

It’s a new year and I have a lot of resolutions on my mind, and I’m working through what I want to really focus on. But two really stick in my mind as relevant and important. The first is to continue on the path that I set out on mid-year last year, cultivating relationships and habits that really help me move forward. The second is to make and drink more of my own beer, and specialty beers, and to spend less time drinking commodity beers, even from the great microbreweries.

The process of turning raw ingredients into delicious beer is an extremely complicated one. It involves chemistry, biology, physics, and magic, plus a potentially infinite budget for copper, stainless, and rubber whizbangs. I have only scratched the surface of the possibilities. That is by design. So, completely neglecting the science involved, and getting to the sequence of events that need to take place to make beer, here is the brewing process in a nutshell.

I’ve been thinking long and hard about writing a series on homebrewing. By no means am I a great homebrewer…in fact I am only beginning to dabble in brewing all-grain beers. However, after surveying the various writings on the internets about the subject, I have found that most have one flaw in common: they go too deep. To make good (often very good) beer, it doesn’t take a deep understanding of flocculation curves or the dynamics of viscous fluids.

This is brilliant! props chris h from the OBC

Rob L of the Oregon Brew Crew posted this to our listserv in a conversation about a new beer tax proposed in Oregon. He makes a number of lucid points. And doesn’t just complain but proposes action. Oregon HB2461 surprised me. Actually, at first it was shock, then disbelief and anger. Now I’m ready to do something about it. Jim P wrote: Cost of producing each keg (tax is production cost) would go up $25.

K-smacky alerted me to this. Prohibition ended 75 years ago, an event which opened the door to true American innovation. After the innovation of Prohibition expired…speakeasies, booze runners with false bottoms, etc, opened the doors to a new age of enlightenment. In fact, some would argue that it was the repeal of Prohibition that directly contributed to the space program, nuclear physics, and the internet.

Well, it was definitely Moist over the Memorial Day. We had a great showing of ballers and their friends and family. As seems to frequently be the case, the various Moist squads had some difficulty putting the ball into the back of the net. I don’t think it’s due to any shortage of talent on the teams, probably more because all of the teams are just mixes of dudes and ladies who haven’t necessarily played together.

St. Peter’s English Ale comes in a sweet old-style medicine bottle. This organic ale from England opens with a nicely rounded bitterness and has an interesing fruity finish. It drinks clean, not syrupy at all, and has a nice light carbonation with the medium body. This beer is less sweet than typical English ales, and a bit more bittered than I typically find in the genre. No complaints here.

Lazy Boy…just jumped out at me tonite as I picked up some veggies to make a lentil curry. “Locally Brewed,” they claimed. Where the heck is local because I’ve never heard of you. Everett, WA. I guess it’s kind of local. But what about those guys getting their Vermont bottle deposit back? Enough of that crap…I’m caring about what’s inside the bottle. A lightly amber-hued IPA is what I found.

It’s a new year and I have a lot of resolutions on my mind, and I’m working through what I want to really focus on. But two really stick in my mind as relevant and important. The first is to continue on the path that I set out on mid-year last year, cultivating relationships and habits that really help me move forward. The second is to make and drink more of my own beer, and specialty beers, and to spend less time drinking commodity beers, even from the great microbreweries.

After quite a bit of work I’ve got a new version of beerdrinker.org ready to rock. Some of the new features are pretty obvious…a new banner and some random photos. But there are other new features. I’ve included a feed of my latest ficlets so at least you can tell I haven’t been slacking too much if I haven’t been posting. Then there’s the beer grab bag on the right, so if you’re ever thirsty and not sure what to consume, just checkout that doodad and let you thirst be forever quenched.

I’ve been riding my bike a fair amount this year, pushing 30 miles 2-3 times a week, from where I work in Beaverton to home in fairly far-east Portland. The route that I take has a variety of paved terrain, from busy suburban and downtown streets to cozy residential streets to dedicated bicycle (and other non-motorized activity) paths. There’s a lot of controversy around bikes this year, as more people take to the pedal path, they remain misunderstood.

The debate has been serious this summer. From touchy questions on sides of buses to annoying comments on blog posts to occasional legal debate. The community has been vexed by this question: Is a bicycle a car or a pedestrian? To help shed light on this problem, beerdrinker has gone undercover, actually riding his bicycle most days, frequently more than 25 miles. I’ve been thinking about this question for quite awhile, but it really came to a head (or mine) when Webtrends posted their controversial question on Portland’s public transportation: Should cyclists pay a road tax?

I’ve been riding the bike a lot lately, and it’s been great. It’s not just good exercise to ride for my commute, it’s also a far better way to relax than driving to and from work. I’ve been doing it so much lately (driven to work once since early August) that I’m kicking around selling one of the cars. We’re currently a 2-adult 1-baby 2-car household. I’ve registered for ZipCaraccount, though I’ve yet to use it.

I’ve been riding my bike a fair amount this year, pushing 30 miles 2-3 times a week, from where I work in Beaverton to home in fairly far-east Portland. The route that I take has a variety of paved terrain, from busy suburban and downtown streets to cozy residential streets to dedicated bicycle (and other non-motorized activity) paths. There’s a lot of controversy around bikes this year, as more people take to the pedal path, they remain misunderstood.

The debate has been serious this summer. From touchy questions on sides of buses to annoying comments on blog posts to occasional legal debate. The community has been vexed by this question: Is a bicycle a car or a pedestrian? To help shed light on this problem, beerdrinker has gone undercover, actually riding his bicycle most days, frequently more than 25 miles. I’ve been thinking about this question for quite awhile, but it really came to a head (or mine) when Webtrends posted their controversial question on Portland’s public transportation: Should cyclists pay a road tax?

It’s a new year and I have a lot of resolutions on my mind, and I’m working through what I want to really focus on. But two really stick in my mind as relevant and important. The first is to continue on the path that I set out on mid-year last year, cultivating relationships and habits that really help me move forward. The second is to make and drink more of my own beer, and specialty beers, and to spend less time drinking commodity beers, even from the great microbreweries.

Over the last year, I’ve had the opportunity to work with some outstanding homebrewers on some barrel projects. Basically, we get 10 or so people to each brew a batch(es) of a particular beer, then we get together to siphon it into a bourbon barrel. The beer then ages over a month to many months, changing in character and gaining oak and bourbon flavors. So far I’ve reaped the benefits of a baltic porter and an imperial IPA.

Just a reminder that the NAOBFis happening this weekend, starts at noon Fri-Sunday at Overlook Park. This is my favorite brewfest of the year. It doesn’t get crazy crowded, there are tons of fun beers to try, and it’s always an all-around good time. I’m helping Dave Knowswith his story about it this year, so double-stoked. See you there.

Over the last year, I’ve had the opportunity to work with some outstanding homebrewers on some barrel projects. Basically, we get 10 or so people to each brew a batch(es) of a particular beer, then we get together to siphon it into a bourbon barrel. The beer then ages over a month to many months, changing in character and gaining oak and bourbon flavors. So far I’ve reaped the benefits of a baltic porter and an imperial IPA.

The process of turning raw ingredients into delicious beer is an extremely complicated one. It involves chemistry, biology, physics, and magic, plus a potentially infinite budget for copper, stainless, and rubber whizbangs. I have only scratched the surface of the possibilities. That is by design. So, completely neglecting the science involved, and getting to the sequence of events that need to take place to make beer, here is the brewing process in a nutshell.

I cannot believe how long it took me to build my mash tun. In then end I think I was a bit intimidated, partly because I didn’t really understand what a mash tun was. Whenever I set down to research it, I’d end up on some long-winded analysis of manifold efficiency and sparge mechanics. What I’ve since learned is that a mash tun is a container that keeps water and grain at a stable temperature.

I’ve been thinking long and hard about writing a series on homebrewing. By no means am I a great homebrewer…in fact I am only beginning to dabble in brewing all-grain beers. However, after surveying the various writings on the internets about the subject, I have found that most have one flaw in common: they go too deep. To make good (often very good) beer, it doesn’t take a deep understanding of flocculation curves or the dynamics of viscous fluids.

The process of turning raw ingredients into delicious beer is an extremely complicated one. It involves chemistry, biology, physics, and magic, plus a potentially infinite budget for copper, stainless, and rubber whizbangs. I have only scratched the surface of the possibilities. That is by design. So, completely neglecting the science involved, and getting to the sequence of events that need to take place to make beer, here is the brewing process in a nutshell.

I cannot believe how long it took me to build my mash tun. In then end I think I was a bit intimidated, partly because I didn’t really understand what a mash tun was. Whenever I set down to research it, I’d end up on some long-winded analysis of manifold efficiency and sparge mechanics. What I’ve since learned is that a mash tun is a container that keeps water and grain at a stable temperature.

I’ve been thinking long and hard about writing a series on homebrewing. By no means am I a great homebrewer…in fact I am only beginning to dabble in brewing all-grain beers. However, after surveying the various writings on the internets about the subject, I have found that most have one flaw in common: they go too deep. To make good (often very good) beer, it doesn’t take a deep understanding of flocculation curves or the dynamics of viscous fluids.

Okay, last email here. Hopefully I can make it count. The topic for today is what are you afraid of? I’ve had a lot of conversations with people who “don’t like either candidate” but are voting for McCain. My question for them is — Why? What’s wrong with Barack Obama? Sometimes you don’t trust him, sometimes he’s not experienced enough, sometimes, you can’t really express it. What has Obama ever done to break your trust?

The debate has been serious this summer. From touchy questions on sides of buses to annoying comments on blog posts to occasional legal debate. The community has been vexed by this question: Is a bicycle a car or a pedestrian? To help shed light on this problem, beerdrinker has gone undercover, actually riding his bicycle most days, frequently more than 25 miles. I’ve been thinking about this question for quite awhile, but it really came to a head (or mine) when Webtrends posted their controversial question on Portland’s public transportation: Should cyclists pay a road tax?

I’ve always enjoyed Lompoc beers. Many sunny afternoons have been misspent sitting on the porch at New Old Lompoc, and I’ve had quite a few pleasant cool-downs from soccer and riding at Hedge House and the brilliantly named 5th Quadrant. Tuesday the good people of Lompoc held a tasting event for their holiday beers, and it did not disappoint. Eric and I arrived early and snagged seats at the bar. From there I was able to snag good glassware and chat up the bartenders (who also happened to be brewers, owners, or Dave).

I’ve always enjoyed Lompoc beers. Many sunny afternoons have been misspent sitting on the porch at New Old Lompoc, and I’ve had quite a few pleasant cool-downs from soccer and riding at Hedge House and the brilliantly named 5th Quadrant. Tuesday the good people of Lompoc held a tasting event for their holiday beers, and it did not disappoint. Eric and I arrived early and snagged seats at the bar. From there I was able to snag good glassware and chat up the bartenders (who also happened to be brewers, owners, or Dave).

Well, it was definitely Moist over the Memorial Day. We had a great showing of ballers and their friends and family. As seems to frequently be the case, the various Moist squads had some difficulty putting the ball into the back of the net. I don’t think it’s due to any shortage of talent on the teams, probably more because all of the teams are just mixes of dudes and ladies who haven’t necessarily played together.

and I learned a lot. And met some nice people. There were a lot of major themes. I was happy to see the internet future includes thoughts on how all this stuff will work inside business too. As a corporate lacky, this is valuable stuff for me, and for a long time it has seemed neglected. The main focus here was around corporate culture and the roles of communities and community managers.

I’ve been thinking about social web stuff a lot today. The good folks at Nemo Designs were good enough to have a long chat with anners and me about their social interweb. But that’s just the setup, I’m not really going to go into that…it was interesting though.

What I wanted to hit on is the kids and their lack of email! Which is something that’s come up in conversation, and it came up sometime after the aforementioned meeting, but not during. So the argument that I hear goes something like this:

– Email is going away.

– Why?

– Because kids don’t use email.

– Huh?

– Yeah, they’ve studied kids and they use facebook and twitter and stuff and they don’t even have email accounts.

So, my response is…So what? I mean, did you have a mailing address as a kid? I don’t recall getting much mail. And most of it was highly temporal, non-transactional information. Birthday cards, Ranger Rick, um, I think that’s about it. I was way ahead of my time and couldn’t stand sending letters because the transit time was ridiculous and I didn’t want to pay for a stamp.

and I learned a lot. And met some nice people. There were a lot of major themes. I was happy to see the internet future includes thoughts on how all this stuff will work inside business too. As a corporate lacky, this is valuable stuff for me, and for a long time it has seemed neglected. The main focus here was around corporate culture and the roles of communities and community managers.

was just thinking about my commute since I’ve been riding regularly, and how much I enjoy my morning time on Portland’s light rail, the Max. It’s really the only time of the day that I can count on to be my own time. I can read, write, get some work done, chat with strangers, or just stare blankly. When I work, it’s without fear of interrupts, so that 30 minutes can be more productive than a whole day in the office.

I’ve been riding the bike a lot lately, and it’s been great. It’s not just good exercise to ride for my commute, it’s also a far better way to relax than driving to and from work. I’ve been doing it so much lately (driven to work once since early August) that I’m kicking around selling one of the cars. We’re currently a 2-adult 1-baby 2-car household. I’ve registered for ZipCaraccount, though I’ve yet to use it.

and I learned a lot. And met some nice people. There were a lot of major themes. I was happy to see the internet future includes thoughts on how all this stuff will work inside business too. As a corporate lacky, this is valuable stuff for me, and for a long time it has seemed neglected. The main focus here was around corporate culture and the roles of communities and community managers.

Poaching an egg is really easy if you just know a few tricks to make it work. Since I’ve been doing WW I’ve been eating a lot more poached eggs since there’s no frying, but you still get a lot of the benefits: filling, low points, healthy, cheap, and goes well with lots of things. Set some water to boil in a medium saucepan. The egg wants a little depth.

Rob L of the Oregon Brew Crew posted this to our listserv in a conversation about a new beer tax proposed in Oregon. He makes a number of lucid points. And doesn’t just complain but proposes action. Oregon HB2461 surprised me. Actually, at first it was shock, then disbelief and anger. Now I’m ready to do something about it. Jim P wrote: Cost of producing each keg (tax is production cost) would go up $25.

I’ve been thinking long and hard about writing a series on homebrewing. By no means am I a great homebrewer…in fact I am only beginning to dabble in brewing all-grain beers. However, after surveying the various writings on the internets about the subject, I have found that most have one flaw in common: they go too deep. To make good (often very good) beer, it doesn’t take a deep understanding of flocculation curves or the dynamics of viscous fluids.

I’m embarking on a new mission with my family to simplify our lives and get out of debt. We’ve somehow managed to drive our credit card debt well into the 5 figures, and that’s not sitting too well. We are working on becoming aggressive towards our debt. Here are the initial steps we’ve taken to eliminate this burden. Stop using credit cards Move cc balances to 0% interest account Kill debt with savings Consolidate subscriptions Question purchases This is where we’re at after an initial paydown, and the consolidation in progress.

I’ve recently started contributing to a nifty new iPhone app called urbandig. It is the app that I wanted when I was in NYC earlier this year. It’s the app that I want when I visit Memphis and Denver later this year. Basically, they’ve gone out and found people who know the city, or parts of it, really well, and gotten them to created nice little curated morsels of experience. Portland’s urban dig experience has just been release, and in it you can enjoy my delicious noodle crawl, in which I explore some of Portland’s more exciting Ramen joints.

was just thinking about my commute since I’ve been riding regularly, and how much I enjoy my morning time on Portland’s light rail, the Max. It’s really the only time of the day that I can count on to be my own time. I can read, write, get some work done, chat with strangers, or just stare blankly. When I work, it’s without fear of interrupts, so that 30 minutes can be more productive than a whole day in the office.

I’ve been riding the bike a lot lately, and it’s been great. It’s not just good exercise to ride for my commute, it’s also a far better way to relax than driving to and from work. I’ve been doing it so much lately (driven to work once since early August) that I’m kicking around selling one of the cars. We’re currently a 2-adult 1-baby 2-car household. I’ve registered for ZipCaraccount, though I’ve yet to use it.

The debate has been serious this summer. From touchy questions on sides of buses to annoying comments on blog posts to occasional legal debate. The community has been vexed by this question: Is a bicycle a car or a pedestrian? To help shed light on this problem, beerdrinker has gone undercover, actually riding his bicycle most days, frequently more than 25 miles. I’ve been thinking about this question for quite awhile, but it really came to a head (or mine) when Webtrends posted their controversial question on Portland’s public transportation: Should cyclists pay a road tax?

I’m embarking on a new mission with my family to simplify our lives and get out of debt. We’ve somehow managed to drive our credit card debt well into the 5 figures, and that’s not sitting too well. We are working on becoming aggressive towards our debt. Here are the initial steps we’ve taken to eliminate this burden. Stop using credit cards Move cc balances to 0% interest account Kill debt with savings Consolidate subscriptions Question purchases This is where we’re at after an initial paydown, and the consolidation in progress.

Recap of the party’s latest adventures in Phandelver.  Spoilers below the fold.

This is the story of our little group’s journeys in the areas surrounding Phandalin.  Please be aware that spoilers lie behind the fold.

This is brilliant! props chris h from the OBC

I’ve been riding the bike a lot lately, and it’s been great. It’s not just good exercise to ride for my commute, it’s also a far better way to relax than driving to and from work. I’ve been doing it so much lately (driven to work once since early August) that I’m kicking around selling one of the cars. We’re currently a 2-adult 1-baby 2-car household. I’ve registered for ZipCaraccount, though I’ve yet to use it.

Over the last year, I’ve had the opportunity to work with some outstanding homebrewers on some barrel projects. Basically, we get 10 or so people to each brew a batch(es) of a particular beer, then we get together to siphon it into a bourbon barrel. The beer then ages over a month to many months, changing in character and gaining oak and bourbon flavors. So far I’ve reaped the benefits of a baltic porter and an imperial IPA.

Worn and Bruised after defeating Klarg and his minions, the party collapses in the cavern and recovers with a long night’s rest.  They search the cave for  treasure and clues about the whereabouts of their dwarven patron Gundren to no avail, only the spoils of a recent raid are evident.

Spoilers below the fold.

Twitter is getting some hype lately. The fun part of the hype is that it lacks any real explanation of what twitter is about, and generally any real understanding. So I’m going to help out by offering some examples of how twitter can positively impact your life, and not just by getting endless tweets sent to your phone or browser. Twitter for sports teams This one is for the soccer moms and team managers.

The albatross sent me a depressing link about a first-time teacher’s summer school experience. Ouch, what a panful experience she describes, an intellectual woman of experience wanting to give something to the community (symbiotically, she admits), who is thrust into a classroom of students who just don’t want to learn. They have their reasons, and you can’t hate (most of) them for it, as so many have horrible home lives, but she has to battle so many sides her job is nearly impossible.

Not extraordinary news to stand out among the atrocities, but I noticed that West Linn-Wilsonville School district is making a good decision and even handling it well in disallowing students tranferring to other schools outside their area. The good part is that they are letting next year’s seniors finish with their current school. This decision will save the district hundreds of thousands of dollars and is a good example of positive changes that are available to help with the current budget crisis.

Poaching an egg is really easy if you just know a few tricks to make it work. Since I’ve been doing WW I’ve been eating a lot more poached eggs since there’s no frying, but you still get a lot of the benefits: filling, low points, healthy, cheap, and goes well with lots of things. Set some water to boil in a medium saucepan. The egg wants a little depth.

I’ve been thinking about social web stuff a lot today. The good folks at Nemo Designs were good enough to have a long chat with anners and me about their social interweb. But that’s just the setup, I’m not really going to go into that…it was interesting though.

What I wanted to hit on is the kids and their lack of email! Which is something that’s come up in conversation, and it came up sometime after the aforementioned meeting, but not during. So the argument that I hear goes something like this:

– Email is going away.

– Why?

– Because kids don’t use email.

– Huh?

– Yeah, they’ve studied kids and they use facebook and twitter and stuff and they don’t even have email accounts.

So, my response is…So what? I mean, did you have a mailing address as a kid? I don’t recall getting much mail. And most of it was highly temporal, non-transactional information. Birthday cards, Ranger Rick, um, I think that’s about it. I was way ahead of my time and couldn’t stand sending letters because the transit time was ridiculous and I didn’t want to pay for a stamp.

Okay, last email here. Hopefully I can make it count. The topic for today is what are you afraid of? I’ve had a lot of conversations with people who “don’t like either candidate” but are voting for McCain. My question for them is — Why? What’s wrong with Barack Obama? Sometimes you don’t trust him, sometimes he’s not experienced enough, sometimes, you can’t really express it. What has Obama ever done to break your trust?

Sent: 10/22/2008 It appears that internally, at least, al-qaeda and other terrorist organizations support McCain’s candidacy. Makes sense, considering how successfully the war in Iraq has divided the country, emptied our coffers, exhausted our military, and alienated our allies. “Al-Qaeda will have to support McCain in the coming election,” said a commentary posted Monday on the extremist Web site al-Hesbah, which is closely linked to the terrorist group. It said the Arizona Republican would continue the “failing march of his predecessor,” President Bush.

Sent: 10/15/2008 Okay, I just can’t resist commenting on this, because it is such an absolutely clear illustration of Sarah Palin and her in-your-face lies. Sarah said: “The report that came out also was very clear in that there was no unethical or unlawful behavior on my part,” Palin told a local CBS affiliate in Pittsburgh, adding, “No abuse of power there at all.” Actually she said things like that multiple times.

Date: 10/19/2008 Colin Powell has endorsed Barack Obama for president (of the United States). Personally, I think this is huge. A Republican who has always provided a steady, well-reasoned approach, he is widely respected on both sides of the aisle. But this is more than “a rightie supports Obama.” This is support from a figure broadly and recently well-regarded in national defense. “As gifted as he is, he is essentially going to execute the Republican agenda, the orthodoxy of the Republican agenda, with a new face and a maverick approach to it, and he’d be quite good at it,” Mr.

Tired of all the right-wing emails I’d receive, and especially the fact (yes, fact) that most of them contain gross inaccuracies or straightout lies, I began writing and sending my own emails. I am trying to keep them as factual as possible, and while they highlight issues more popular on the left than on the right, I am trying to present facts in a “think about it” approach, rather than an editorial.

St. Peter’s English Ale comes in a sweet old-style medicine bottle. This organic ale from England opens with a nicely rounded bitterness and has an interesing fruity finish. It drinks clean, not syrupy at all, and has a nice light carbonation with the medium body. This beer is less sweet than typical English ales, and a bit more bittered than I typically find in the genre. No complaints here.

and I learned a lot. And met some nice people. There were a lot of major themes. I was happy to see the internet future includes thoughts on how all this stuff will work inside business too. As a corporate lacky, this is valuable stuff for me, and for a long time it has seemed neglected. The main focus here was around corporate culture and the roles of communities and community managers.

I cannot believe how long it took me to build my mash tun. In then end I think I was a bit intimidated, partly because I didn’t really understand what a mash tun was. Whenever I set down to research it, I’d end up on some long-winded analysis of manifold efficiency and sparge mechanics. What I’ve since learned is that a mash tun is a container that keeps water and grain at a stable temperature.

Word travels fast. Shortly after this was announced, we decided to crash it. You can see some more photos on my photostream or picasa. Some are a bit more adult than my usual fare, but nothing that’ll get you fired. Jane Wells has an entertaining summary also, featuring a shot of me and a few other crashers. . Thank you, Etnies!

I’m a fan of social media sites. Sites like twitter and facebook are loads of fun, and great for staying in touch with old friends, new friends, and potential friends. In a recent post I commented on what I felt were the differences between facebook and myspace. In the end, I believe that myspace is primarily a vanity site, whereas facebook focuses on relationships. A more subtle comparison happens between facebook and twitter.

I’m completely aware that Facebook is pretty handily kicking the figurative ass of Myspace. I am pretty excited about this, because I’ve never been a fan of Myspace as a social networking site. I’ve enjoyed visiting band sites, and I managed to connect with a few people there. On the other hand, I love Facebook. I talk about Facebook. I advocate its use, and might occasionally be obnoxious about it. But the conversations are interesting.

Just a reminder that the NAOBFis happening this weekend, starts at noon Fri-Sunday at Overlook Park. This is my favorite brewfest of the year. It doesn’t get crazy crowded, there are tons of fun beers to try, and it’s always an all-around good time. I’m helping Dave Knowswith his story about it this year, so double-stoked. See you there.

I’ve recently started contributing to a nifty new iPhone app called urbandig. It is the app that I wanted when I was in NYC earlier this year. It’s the app that I want when I visit Memphis and Denver later this year. Basically, they’ve gone out and found people who know the city, or parts of it, really well, and gotten them to created nice little curated morsels of experience. Portland’s urban dig experience has just been release, and in it you can enjoy my delicious noodle crawl, in which I explore some of Portland’s more exciting Ramen joints.

N and I are heading down to Austin shortly to catch the SxSW interactive conference and spend some time with her sister who moved there from somewhere I didn’t want to visit about 6 months ago. So I think I can find my way around a conference. But what about the city? Any tips…beer, BBQ, texmex, or whatnot. Cheers. PS. Just saw the Tron Legacy preview and it looks pretty awesome.

Portland has been a Gen-X city for as long as I can remember. Which is as long as I’ve been here. We’ve had a lock on cuisine, fashion (?), transportation, attitude, periodicals, entertainment. Pretty much the whole shebang. Sort of a Gen-X wonderland. Don’t get me wrong, PDX is a city of variety and range, there’s a lot of of other stuff too for Y’s and boomers and everyone in between.

Okay, I’m pretty frustrated with the more liberal party right now. Tuning in, there are two major themes right now. Health care and Fort Hood. These are both important issues, but I am not liking what I’m hearing. First, Fort Hood was a tragedy, plain and simple. But the theme that I’m hearing on the (left) radio is almost a defence of of Hasan for the pressures he was under. Laying the onus on the military, that they didn’t listen enough.

I’m a book lover. By nature. I find flipping pages, browsing aisles, and even falling asleep on a book, to be comforting. But I’ve been eyeballing the Kindle (and the Nook and the eReader) since it came out. With the price dropping to under $150 (sans 3g), it was suddenly accessible. I started to think about it, but never quite pulled the trigger. Which was fortunate, as the lady got me one for my birthday.

Worn and Bruised after defeating Klarg and his minions, the party collapses in the cavern and recovers with a long night’s rest.  They search the cave for  treasure and clues about the whereabouts of their dwarven patron Gundren to no avail, only the spoils of a recent raid are evident.

Spoilers below the fold.

I cannot believe how long it took me to build my mash tun. In then end I think I was a bit intimidated, partly because I didn’t really understand what a mash tun was. Whenever I set down to research it, I’d end up on some long-winded analysis of manifold efficiency and sparge mechanics. What I’ve since learned is that a mash tun is a container that keeps water and grain at a stable temperature.

and I learned a lot. And met some nice people. There were a lot of major themes. I was happy to see the internet future includes thoughts on how all this stuff will work inside business too. As a corporate lacky, this is valuable stuff for me, and for a long time it has seemed neglected. The main focus here was around corporate culture and the roles of communities and community managers.

Okay, this is one of the coolest tools I’ve come across in awhile. Still trying to see how well it integrates into my workflow tendencies, but I’m really hoping that it does. Because it’s pretty awesome. TiddlyWiki is a wiki/blog that exists completely inside of a single file. It’s all DHTML and such, so it requires no server-side processing to work. What that means is you can just save the file to your computer, and open it in your browser, and it works.

Poaching an egg is really easy if you just know a few tricks to make it work. Since I’ve been doing WW I’ve been eating a lot more poached eggs since there’s no frying, but you still get a lot of the benefits: filling, low points, healthy, cheap, and goes well with lots of things. Set some water to boil in a medium saucepan. The egg wants a little depth.

Okay, I’m pretty frustrated with the more liberal party right now. Tuning in, there are two major themes right now. Health care and Fort Hood. These are both important issues, but I am not liking what I’m hearing. First, Fort Hood was a tragedy, plain and simple. But the theme that I’m hearing on the (left) radio is almost a defence of of Hasan for the pressures he was under. Laying the onus on the military, that they didn’t listen enough.

I am terrible at identifying plants, yet at the same time I’m really susceptible to poison oak. For some reason, it is very difficult to find a decent image of the toxic weed. Guidebooks all have the same line drawing as can be found at trailheads. Pics on the internet are obscure and frequently hidden behind broken links. So I found a plant I think might be poison oak. Can somebody please confirm?

I’ve always enjoyed Lompoc beers. Many sunny afternoons have been misspent sitting on the porch at New Old Lompoc, and I’ve had quite a few pleasant cool-downs from soccer and riding at Hedge House and the brilliantly named 5th Quadrant. Tuesday the good people of Lompoc held a tasting event for their holiday beers, and it did not disappoint. Eric and I arrived early and snagged seats at the bar. From there I was able to snag good glassware and chat up the bartenders (who also happened to be brewers, owners, or Dave).

Word travels fast. Shortly after this was announced, we decided to crash it. You can see some more photos on my photostream or picasa. Some are a bit more adult than my usual fare, but nothing that’ll get you fired. Jane Wells has an entertaining summary also, featuring a shot of me and a few other crashers. . Thank you, Etnies!

Well, today was the due date. I haven’t talked about it much, but N and I are expecting a little girl here anytime. She’s been a trooper, we went out to a Christmas party last night, walked to NePo42for a tasty breakfast. She got gorgeous fluffy pancakes with apple (real apples hunks…bigger than chunks) and I got the biscuits and gravy and a bloody mary. Augie got pet but no food.

okay, police violence sucks. It’s a drag that unarmed people get shot. Lately, I’ve been putting together some tips I’ve picked from my years of experience not getting shot at by the police in an effort to help people avoid the short barrel of the law. First, you can take a preemptive strike and keep the police away in general. Try to avoid situations in which housemates and loved ones feel the need to call the police in regards to you.

Went to Ignite last week, it was pretty sweet. The premise is a bunch of presenters get up and talk about something presumably interesting for a little while. The catch is that they have exactly five minutes, 20 slides (power-pointish), 15 seconds each, and they roll automatically. That keeps things moving and keeps you on your toes. And from experience (not at Ignite), talking about something for five minutes can be tough.

Over the last year, I’ve had the opportunity to work with some outstanding homebrewers on some barrel projects. Basically, we get 10 or so people to each brew a batch(es) of a particular beer, then we get together to siphon it into a bourbon barrel. The beer then ages over a month to many months, changing in character and gaining oak and bourbon flavors. So far I’ve reaped the benefits of a baltic porter and an imperial IPA.

After the US’s disappointing (yet thrilling) tie against Slovenia, you can be sure that there will be a clamor for instant replay in soccer. On the surface, it seems like a great idea. Matches will end with the true winner victorious, honor will be restored to the game. This is a terrible idea. There is a purity about soccer. 23 men on the pitch, and only a few rules on how to play the game.

Over the last year, I’ve had the opportunity to work with some outstanding homebrewers on some barrel projects. Basically, we get 10 or so people to each brew a batch(es) of a particular beer, then we get together to siphon it into a bourbon barrel. The beer then ages over a month to many months, changing in character and gaining oak and bourbon flavors. So far I’ve reaped the benefits of a baltic porter and an imperial IPA.

St. Peter’s English Ale comes in a sweet old-style medicine bottle. This organic ale from England opens with a nicely rounded bitterness and has an interesing fruity finish. It drinks clean, not syrupy at all, and has a nice light carbonation with the medium body. This beer is less sweet than typical English ales, and a bit more bittered than I typically find in the genre. No complaints here.

Lazy Boy…just jumped out at me tonite as I picked up some veggies to make a lentil curry. “Locally Brewed,” they claimed. Where the heck is local because I’ve never heard of you. Everett, WA. I guess it’s kind of local. But what about those guys getting their Vermont bottle deposit back? Enough of that crap…I’m caring about what’s inside the bottle. A lightly amber-hued IPA is what I found.

I’ve recently started contributing to a nifty new iPhone app called urbandig. It is the app that I wanted when I was in NYC earlier this year. It’s the app that I want when I visit Memphis and Denver later this year. Basically, they’ve gone out and found people who know the city, or parts of it, really well, and gotten them to created nice little curated morsels of experience. Portland’s urban dig experience has just been release, and in it you can enjoy my delicious noodle crawl, in which I explore some of Portland’s more exciting Ramen joints.

I’ve been thinking about social web stuff a lot today. The good folks at Nemo Designs were good enough to have a long chat with anners and me about their social interweb. But that’s just the setup, I’m not really going to go into that…it was interesting though.

What I wanted to hit on is the kids and their lack of email! Which is something that’s come up in conversation, and it came up sometime after the aforementioned meeting, but not during. So the argument that I hear goes something like this:

– Email is going away.

– Why?

– Because kids don’t use email.

– Huh?

– Yeah, they’ve studied kids and they use facebook and twitter and stuff and they don’t even have email accounts.

So, my response is…So what? I mean, did you have a mailing address as a kid? I don’t recall getting much mail. And most of it was highly temporal, non-transactional information. Birthday cards, Ranger Rick, um, I think that’s about it. I was way ahead of my time and couldn’t stand sending letters because the transit time was ridiculous and I didn’t want to pay for a stamp.

I’m a book lover. By nature. I find flipping pages, browsing aisles, and even falling asleep on a book, to be comforting. But I’ve been eyeballing the Kindle (and the Nook and the eReader) since it came out. With the price dropping to under $150 (sans 3g), it was suddenly accessible. I started to think about it, but never quite pulled the trigger. Which was fortunate, as the lady got me one for my birthday.

Rob L of the Oregon Brew Crew posted this to our listserv in a conversation about a new beer tax proposed in Oregon. He makes a number of lucid points. And doesn’t just complain but proposes action. Oregon HB2461 surprised me. Actually, at first it was shock, then disbelief and anger. Now I’m ready to do something about it. Jim P wrote: Cost of producing each keg (tax is production cost) would go up $25.

Okay, I’m pretty frustrated with the more liberal party right now. Tuning in, there are two major themes right now. Health care and Fort Hood. These are both important issues, but I am not liking what I’m hearing. First, Fort Hood was a tragedy, plain and simple. But the theme that I’m hearing on the (left) radio is almost a defence of of Hasan for the pressures he was under. Laying the onus on the military, that they didn’t listen enough.

I’m embarking on a new mission with my family to simplify our lives and get out of debt. We’ve somehow managed to drive our credit card debt well into the 5 figures, and that’s not sitting too well. We are working on becoming aggressive towards our debt. Here are the initial steps we’ve taken to eliminate this burden. Stop using credit cards Move cc balances to 0% interest account Kill debt with savings Consolidate subscriptions Question purchases This is where we’re at after an initial paydown, and the consolidation in progress.

Portland has been a Gen-X city for as long as I can remember. Which is as long as I’ve been here. We’ve had a lock on cuisine, fashion (?), transportation, attitude, periodicals, entertainment. Pretty much the whole shebang. Sort of a Gen-X wonderland. Don’t get me wrong, PDX is a city of variety and range, there’s a lot of of other stuff too for Y’s and boomers and everyone in between.

Lisa the beer goddess has called my attention to an article in which GQ calls out the 50 best beers. These things are such a matter of opinion and experience it doesn’t make sense to argue much, but I think they hit a lot of good ones. I’ve previously mentioned the Duchesse as a favorite. I’m also a fan of Southern Tier who didn’t make the list. Que sera.

I’ve always enjoyed Lompoc beers. Many sunny afternoons have been misspent sitting on the porch at New Old Lompoc, and I’ve had quite a few pleasant cool-downs from soccer and riding at Hedge House and the brilliantly named 5th Quadrant. Tuesday the good people of Lompoc held a tasting event for their holiday beers, and it did not disappoint. Eric and I arrived early and snagged seats at the bar. From there I was able to snag good glassware and chat up the bartenders (who also happened to be brewers, owners, or Dave).

Twitter is getting some hype lately. The fun part of the hype is that it lacks any real explanation of what twitter is about, and generally any real understanding. So I’m going to help out by offering some examples of how twitter can positively impact your life, and not just by getting endless tweets sent to your phone or browser. Twitter for sports teams This one is for the soccer moms and team managers.

was just thinking about my commute since I’ve been riding regularly, and how much I enjoy my morning time on Portland’s light rail, the Max. It’s really the only time of the day that I can count on to be my own time. I can read, write, get some work done, chat with strangers, or just stare blankly. When I work, it’s without fear of interrupts, so that 30 minutes can be more productive than a whole day in the office.

Well, it was definitely Moist over the Memorial Day. We had a great showing of ballers and their friends and family. As seems to frequently be the case, the various Moist squads had some difficulty putting the ball into the back of the net. I don’t think it’s due to any shortage of talent on the teams, probably more because all of the teams are just mixes of dudes and ladies who haven’t necessarily played together.

2010 hit like an angry bull in a brillo tornado. Well, not that bad, but it’s been pretty freakin’ nonstop. Work’s been crazy. Picked up some tech reading on the side. Been finishing the basement. A few ski trips. Daily-ish gym trips, yoga, and cycling. Lots of brewing. Sorry I haven’t been sharing. I’ve been somewhat holed up in many ways. Anyways, I apologize. It’s not you, it’s me. But I hope to be visiting more often again.

I’ve always enjoyed Lompoc beers. Many sunny afternoons have been misspent sitting on the porch at New Old Lompoc, and I’ve had quite a few pleasant cool-downs from soccer and riding at Hedge House and the brilliantly named 5th Quadrant. Tuesday the good people of Lompoc held a tasting event for their holiday beers, and it did not disappoint. Eric and I arrived early and snagged seats at the bar. From there I was able to snag good glassware and chat up the bartenders (who also happened to be brewers, owners, or Dave).

Well, it was definitely Moist over the Memorial Day. We had a great showing of ballers and their friends and family. As seems to frequently be the case, the various Moist squads had some difficulty putting the ball into the back of the net. I don’t think it’s due to any shortage of talent on the teams, probably more because all of the teams are just mixes of dudes and ladies who haven’t necessarily played together.

I’m completely aware that Facebook is pretty handily kicking the figurative ass of Myspace. I am pretty excited about this, because I’ve never been a fan of Myspace as a social networking site. I’ve enjoyed visiting band sites, and I managed to connect with a few people there. On the other hand, I love Facebook. I talk about Facebook. I advocate its use, and might occasionally be obnoxious about it. But the conversations are interesting.

It’s a new year and I have a lot of resolutions on my mind, and I’m working through what I want to really focus on. But two really stick in my mind as relevant and important. The first is to continue on the path that I set out on mid-year last year, cultivating relationships and habits that really help me move forward. The second is to make and drink more of my own beer, and specialty beers, and to spend less time drinking commodity beers, even from the great microbreweries.

Googlin around for info on the No Child Left Behind Act, I came across an interesting caveat mentioned by Mother Jones. If a military body requests a school for student contact information, they must furnish it. This is a huge violation of rights. While I was not significantly harrassed by recruiters, I know people who were, and these people would not stop…phone calls everyday, mailings, and now probably mass emailings. And what is next?

Rob L of the Oregon Brew Crew posted this to our listserv in a conversation about a new beer tax proposed in Oregon. He makes a number of lucid points. And doesn’t just complain but proposes action. Oregon HB2461 surprised me. Actually, at first it was shock, then disbelief and anger. Now I’m ready to do something about it. Jim P wrote: Cost of producing each keg (tax is production cost) would go up $25.

Rob L of the Oregon Brew Crew posted this to our listserv in a conversation about a new beer tax proposed in Oregon. He makes a number of lucid points. And doesn’t just complain but proposes action. Oregon HB2461 surprised me. Actually, at first it was shock, then disbelief and anger. Now I’m ready to do something about it. Jim P wrote: Cost of producing each keg (tax is production cost) would go up $25.

Just a reminder that the NAOBFis happening this weekend, starts at noon Fri-Sunday at Overlook Park. This is my favorite brewfest of the year. It doesn’t get crazy crowded, there are tons of fun beers to try, and it’s always an all-around good time. I’m helping Dave Knowswith his story about it this year, so double-stoked. See you there.

St. Peter’s English Ale comes in a sweet old-style medicine bottle. This organic ale from England opens with a nicely rounded bitterness and has an interesing fruity finish. It drinks clean, not syrupy at all, and has a nice light carbonation with the medium body. This beer is less sweet than typical English ales, and a bit more bittered than I typically find in the genre. No complaints here.

Over the last year, I’ve had the opportunity to work with some outstanding homebrewers on some barrel projects. Basically, we get 10 or so people to each brew a batch(es) of a particular beer, then we get together to siphon it into a bourbon barrel. The beer then ages over a month to many months, changing in character and gaining oak and bourbon flavors. So far I’ve reaped the benefits of a baltic porter and an imperial IPA.

I struggle with portion size. I’ve known for a long time that my “stop eating mechanism” does not work. I love food, I love making food, and I love eating it. That makes for a dangerous combination when you’re trying to lose weight. For one thing, the food that I cook doesn’t break down into easily identified portions. So, I’ve always just eaten too much. The discovery that is helping me is that many premade foods are made in discrete portions, whether large or small.

The process of turning raw ingredients into delicious beer is an extremely complicated one. It involves chemistry, biology, physics, and magic, plus a potentially infinite budget for copper, stainless, and rubber whizbangs. I have only scratched the surface of the possibilities. That is by design. So, completely neglecting the science involved, and getting to the sequence of events that need to take place to make beer, here is the brewing process in a nutshell.

and I learned a lot. And met some nice people. There were a lot of major themes. I was happy to see the internet future includes thoughts on how all this stuff will work inside business too. As a corporate lacky, this is valuable stuff for me, and for a long time it has seemed neglected. The main focus here was around corporate culture and the roles of communities and community managers.

Word travels fast. Shortly after this was announced, we decided to crash it. You can see some more photos on my photostream or picasa. Some are a bit more adult than my usual fare, but nothing that’ll get you fired. Jane Wells has an entertaining summary also, featuring a shot of me and a few other crashers. . Thank you, Etnies!

The debate has been serious this summer. From touchy questions on sides of buses to annoying comments on blog posts to occasional legal debate. The community has been vexed by this question: Is a bicycle a car or a pedestrian? To help shed light on this problem, beerdrinker has gone undercover, actually riding his bicycle most days, frequently more than 25 miles. I’ve been thinking about this question for quite awhile, but it really came to a head (or mine) when Webtrends posted their controversial question on Portland’s public transportation: Should cyclists pay a road tax?

K-smacky alerted me to this. Prohibition ended 75 years ago, an event which opened the door to true American innovation. After the innovation of Prohibition expired…speakeasies, booze runners with false bottoms, etc, opened the doors to a new age of enlightenment. In fact, some would argue that it was the repeal of Prohibition that directly contributed to the space program, nuclear physics, and the internet.

I am terrible at identifying plants, yet at the same time I’m really susceptible to poison oak. For some reason, it is very difficult to find a decent image of the toxic weed. Guidebooks all have the same line drawing as can be found at trailheads. Pics on the internet are obscure and frequently hidden behind broken links. So I found a plant I think might be poison oak. Can somebody please confirm?

okay, police violence sucks. It’s a drag that unarmed people get shot. Lately, I’ve been putting together some tips I’ve picked from my years of experience not getting shot at by the police in an effort to help people avoid the short barrel of the law. First, you can take a preemptive strike and keep the police away in general. Try to avoid situations in which housemates and loved ones feel the need to call the police in regards to you.

Sent: 10/15/2008 Okay, I just can’t resist commenting on this, because it is such an absolutely clear illustration of Sarah Palin and her in-your-face lies. Sarah said: “The report that came out also was very clear in that there was no unethical or unlawful behavior on my part,” Palin told a local CBS affiliate in Pittsburgh, adding, “No abuse of power there at all.” Actually she said things like that multiple times.

Okay, I’m pretty frustrated with the more liberal party right now. Tuning in, there are two major themes right now. Health care and Fort Hood. These are both important issues, but I am not liking what I’m hearing. First, Fort Hood was a tragedy, plain and simple. But the theme that I’m hearing on the (left) radio is almost a defence of of Hasan for the pressures he was under. Laying the onus on the military, that they didn’t listen enough.

Okay, last email here. Hopefully I can make it count. The topic for today is what are you afraid of? I’ve had a lot of conversations with people who “don’t like either candidate” but are voting for McCain. My question for them is — Why? What’s wrong with Barack Obama? Sometimes you don’t trust him, sometimes he’s not experienced enough, sometimes, you can’t really express it. What has Obama ever done to break your trust?

Sent: 10/22/2008 It appears that internally, at least, al-qaeda and other terrorist organizations support McCain’s candidacy. Makes sense, considering how successfully the war in Iraq has divided the country, emptied our coffers, exhausted our military, and alienated our allies. “Al-Qaeda will have to support McCain in the coming election,” said a commentary posted Monday on the extremist Web site al-Hesbah, which is closely linked to the terrorist group. It said the Arizona Republican would continue the “failing march of his predecessor,” President Bush.

Date: 10/19/2008 Colin Powell has endorsed Barack Obama for president (of the United States). Personally, I think this is huge. A Republican who has always provided a steady, well-reasoned approach, he is widely respected on both sides of the aisle. But this is more than “a rightie supports Obama.” This is support from a figure broadly and recently well-regarded in national defense. “As gifted as he is, he is essentially going to execute the Republican agenda, the orthodoxy of the Republican agenda, with a new face and a maverick approach to it, and he’d be quite good at it,” Mr.

Tired of all the right-wing emails I’d receive, and especially the fact (yes, fact) that most of them contain gross inaccuracies or straightout lies, I began writing and sending my own emails. I am trying to keep them as factual as possible, and while they highlight issues more popular on the left than on the right, I am trying to present facts in a “think about it” approach, rather than an editorial.

I struggle with portion size. I’ve known for a long time that my “stop eating mechanism” does not work. I love food, I love making food, and I love eating it. That makes for a dangerous combination when you’re trying to lose weight. For one thing, the food that I cook doesn’t break down into easily identified portions. So, I’ve always just eaten too much. The discovery that is helping me is that many premade foods are made in discrete portions, whether large or small.

I’ve always enjoyed Lompoc beers. Many sunny afternoons have been misspent sitting on the porch at New Old Lompoc, and I’ve had quite a few pleasant cool-downs from soccer and riding at Hedge House and the brilliantly named 5th Quadrant. Tuesday the good people of Lompoc held a tasting event for their holiday beers, and it did not disappoint. Eric and I arrived early and snagged seats at the bar. From there I was able to snag good glassware and chat up the bartenders (who also happened to be brewers, owners, or Dave).

Just a reminder that the NAOBFis happening this weekend, starts at noon Fri-Sunday at Overlook Park. This is my favorite brewfest of the year. It doesn’t get crazy crowded, there are tons of fun beers to try, and it’s always an all-around good time. I’m helping Dave Knowswith his story about it this year, so double-stoked. See you there.

Portland has been a Gen-X city for as long as I can remember. Which is as long as I’ve been here. We’ve had a lock on cuisine, fashion (?), transportation, attitude, periodicals, entertainment. Pretty much the whole shebang. Sort of a Gen-X wonderland. Don’t get me wrong, PDX is a city of variety and range, there’s a lot of of other stuff too for Y’s and boomers and everyone in between.

The debate has been serious this summer. From touchy questions on sides of buses to annoying comments on blog posts to occasional legal debate. The community has been vexed by this question: Is a bicycle a car or a pedestrian? To help shed light on this problem, beerdrinker has gone undercover, actually riding his bicycle most days, frequently more than 25 miles. I’ve been thinking about this question for quite awhile, but it really came to a head (or mine) when Webtrends posted their controversial question on Portland’s public transportation: Should cyclists pay a road tax?

Went to Ignite last week, it was pretty sweet. The premise is a bunch of presenters get up and talk about something presumably interesting for a little while. The catch is that they have exactly five minutes, 20 slides (power-pointish), 15 seconds each, and they roll automatically. That keeps things moving and keeps you on your toes. And from experience (not at Ignite), talking about something for five minutes can be tough.

Okay, this is one of the coolest tools I’ve come across in awhile. Still trying to see how well it integrates into my workflow tendencies, but I’m really hoping that it does. Because it’s pretty awesome. TiddlyWiki is a wiki/blog that exists completely inside of a single file. It’s all DHTML and such, so it requires no server-side processing to work. What that means is you can just save the file to your computer, and open it in your browser, and it works.

Rob L of the Oregon Brew Crew posted this to our listserv in a conversation about a new beer tax proposed in Oregon. He makes a number of lucid points. And doesn’t just complain but proposes action. Oregon HB2461 surprised me. Actually, at first it was shock, then disbelief and anger. Now I’m ready to do something about it. Jim P wrote: Cost of producing each keg (tax is production cost) would go up $25.

K-smacky alerted me to this. Prohibition ended 75 years ago, an event which opened the door to true American innovation. After the innovation of Prohibition expired…speakeasies, booze runners with false bottoms, etc, opened the doors to a new age of enlightenment. In fact, some would argue that it was the repeal of Prohibition that directly contributed to the space program, nuclear physics, and the internet.

Over the last year, I’ve had the opportunity to work with some outstanding homebrewers on some barrel projects. Basically, we get 10 or so people to each brew a batch(es) of a particular beer, then we get together to siphon it into a bourbon barrel. The beer then ages over a month to many months, changing in character and gaining oak and bourbon flavors. So far I’ve reaped the benefits of a baltic porter and an imperial IPA.

The albatross sent me a depressing link about a first-time teacher’s summer school experience. Ouch, what a panful experience she describes, an intellectual woman of experience wanting to give something to the community (symbiotically, she admits), who is thrust into a classroom of students who just don’t want to learn. They have their reasons, and you can’t hate (most of) them for it, as so many have horrible home lives, but she has to battle so many sides her job is nearly impossible.

Twitter is getting some hype lately. The fun part of the hype is that it lacks any real explanation of what twitter is about, and generally any real understanding. So I’m going to help out by offering some examples of how twitter can positively impact your life, and not just by getting endless tweets sent to your phone or browser. Twitter for sports teams This one is for the soccer moms and team managers.

I’m a fan of social media sites. Sites like twitter and facebook are loads of fun, and great for staying in touch with old friends, new friends, and potential friends. In a recent post I commented on what I felt were the differences between facebook and myspace. In the end, I believe that myspace is primarily a vanity site, whereas facebook focuses on relationships. A more subtle comparison happens between facebook and twitter.

I’m completely aware that Facebook is pretty handily kicking the figurative ass of Myspace. I am pretty excited about this, because I’ve never been a fan of Myspace as a social networking site. I’ve enjoyed visiting band sites, and I managed to connect with a few people there. On the other hand, I love Facebook. I talk about Facebook. I advocate its use, and might occasionally be obnoxious about it. But the conversations are interesting.

K-smacky alerted me to this. Prohibition ended 75 years ago, an event which opened the door to true American innovation. After the innovation of Prohibition expired…speakeasies, booze runners with false bottoms, etc, opened the doors to a new age of enlightenment. In fact, some would argue that it was the repeal of Prohibition that directly contributed to the space program, nuclear physics, and the internet.

It’s a new year and I have a lot of resolutions on my mind, and I’m working through what I want to really focus on. But two really stick in my mind as relevant and important. The first is to continue on the path that I set out on mid-year last year, cultivating relationships and habits that really help me move forward. The second is to make and drink more of my own beer, and specialty beers, and to spend less time drinking commodity beers, even from the great microbreweries.

I’m a book lover. By nature. I find flipping pages, browsing aisles, and even falling asleep on a book, to be comforting. But I’ve been eyeballing the Kindle (and the Nook and the eReader) since it came out. With the price dropping to under $150 (sans 3g), it was suddenly accessible. I started to think about it, but never quite pulled the trigger. Which was fortunate, as the lady got me one for my birthday.

Googlin around for info on the No Child Left Behind Act, I came across an interesting caveat mentioned by Mother Jones. If a military body requests a school for student contact information, they must furnish it. This is a huge violation of rights. While I was not significantly harrassed by recruiters, I know people who were, and these people would not stop…phone calls everyday, mailings, and now probably mass emailings. And what is next?

Well, today was the due date. I haven’t talked about it much, but N and I are expecting a little girl here anytime. She’s been a trooper, we went out to a Christmas party last night, walked to NePo42for a tasty breakfast. She got gorgeous fluffy pancakes with apple (real apples hunks…bigger than chunks) and I got the biscuits and gravy and a bloody mary. Augie got pet but no food.

This is the story of our little group’s journeys in the areas surrounding Phandalin.  Please be aware that spoilers lie behind the fold.

Worn and Bruised after defeating Klarg and his minions, the party collapses in the cavern and recovers with a long night’s rest.  They search the cave for  treasure and clues about the whereabouts of their dwarven patron Gundren to no avail, only the spoils of a recent raid are evident.

Spoilers below the fold.

Word travels fast. Shortly after this was announced, we decided to crash it. You can see some more photos on my photostream or picasa. Some are a bit more adult than my usual fare, but nothing that’ll get you fired. Jane Wells has an entertaining summary also, featuring a shot of me and a few other crashers. . Thank you, Etnies!

Not extraordinary news to stand out among the atrocities, but I noticed that West Linn-Wilsonville School district is making a good decision and even handling it well in disallowing students tranferring to other schools outside their area. The good part is that they are letting next year’s seniors finish with their current school. This decision will save the district hundreds of thousands of dollars and is a good example of positive changes that are available to help with the current budget crisis.

and I learned a lot. And met some nice people. There were a lot of major themes. I was happy to see the internet future includes thoughts on how all this stuff will work inside business too. As a corporate lacky, this is valuable stuff for me, and for a long time it has seemed neglected. The main focus here was around corporate culture and the roles of communities and community managers.

I’m embarking on a new mission with my family to simplify our lives and get out of debt. We’ve somehow managed to drive our credit card debt well into the 5 figures, and that’s not sitting too well. We are working on becoming aggressive towards our debt. Here are the initial steps we’ve taken to eliminate this burden. Stop using credit cards Move cc balances to 0% interest account Kill debt with savings Consolidate subscriptions Question purchases This is where we’re at after an initial paydown, and the consolidation in progress.

After the US’s disappointing (yet thrilling) tie against Slovenia, you can be sure that there will be a clamor for instant replay in soccer. On the surface, it seems like a great idea. Matches will end with the true winner victorious, honor will be restored to the game. This is a terrible idea. There is a purity about soccer. 23 men on the pitch, and only a few rules on how to play the game.

Well, it was definitely Moist over the Memorial Day. We had a great showing of ballers and their friends and family. As seems to frequently be the case, the various Moist squads had some difficulty putting the ball into the back of the net. I don’t think it’s due to any shortage of talent on the teams, probably more because all of the teams are just mixes of dudes and ladies who haven’t necessarily played together.

I’m a fan of social media sites. Sites like twitter and facebook are loads of fun, and great for staying in touch with old friends, new friends, and potential friends. In a recent post I commented on what I felt were the differences between facebook and myspace. In the end, I believe that myspace is primarily a vanity site, whereas facebook focuses on relationships. A more subtle comparison happens between facebook and twitter.

2010 hit like an angry bull in a brillo tornado. Well, not that bad, but it’s been pretty freakin’ nonstop. Work’s been crazy. Picked up some tech reading on the side. Been finishing the basement. A few ski trips. Daily-ish gym trips, yoga, and cycling. Lots of brewing. Sorry I haven’t been sharing. I’ve been somewhat holed up in many ways. Anyways, I apologize. It’s not you, it’s me. But I hope to be visiting more often again.

Over the last year, I’ve had the opportunity to work with some outstanding homebrewers on some barrel projects. Basically, we get 10 or so people to each brew a batch(es) of a particular beer, then we get together to siphon it into a bourbon barrel. The beer then ages over a month to many months, changing in character and gaining oak and bourbon flavors. So far I’ve reaped the benefits of a baltic porter and an imperial IPA.

Twitter is getting some hype lately. The fun part of the hype is that it lacks any real explanation of what twitter is about, and generally any real understanding. So I’m going to help out by offering some examples of how twitter can positively impact your life, and not just by getting endless tweets sent to your phone or browser. Twitter for sports teams This one is for the soccer moms and team managers.

and I learned a lot. And met some nice people. There were a lot of major themes. I was happy to see the internet future includes thoughts on how all this stuff will work inside business too. As a corporate lacky, this is valuable stuff for me, and for a long time it has seemed neglected. The main focus here was around corporate culture and the roles of communities and community managers.

and I learned a lot. And met some nice people. There were a lot of major themes. I was happy to see the internet future includes thoughts on how all this stuff will work inside business too. As a corporate lacky, this is valuable stuff for me, and for a long time it has seemed neglected. The main focus here was around corporate culture and the roles of communities and community managers.

Rob L of the Oregon Brew Crew posted this to our listserv in a conversation about a new beer tax proposed in Oregon. He makes a number of lucid points. And doesn’t just complain but proposes action. Oregon HB2461 surprised me. Actually, at first it was shock, then disbelief and anger. Now I’m ready to do something about it. Jim P wrote: Cost of producing each keg (tax is production cost) would go up $25.

Twitter is getting some hype lately. The fun part of the hype is that it lacks any real explanation of what twitter is about, and generally any real understanding. So I’m going to help out by offering some examples of how twitter can positively impact your life, and not just by getting endless tweets sent to your phone or browser. Twitter for sports teams This one is for the soccer moms and team managers.

The albatross sent me a depressing link about a first-time teacher’s summer school experience. Ouch, what a panful experience she describes, an intellectual woman of experience wanting to give something to the community (symbiotically, she admits), who is thrust into a classroom of students who just don’t want to learn. They have their reasons, and you can’t hate (most of) them for it, as so many have horrible home lives, but she has to battle so many sides her job is nearly impossible.

Twitter is getting some hype lately. The fun part of the hype is that it lacks any real explanation of what twitter is about, and generally any real understanding. So I’m going to help out by offering some examples of how twitter can positively impact your life, and not just by getting endless tweets sent to your phone or browser. Twitter for sports teams This one is for the soccer moms and team managers.

and I learned a lot. And met some nice people. There were a lot of major themes. I was happy to see the internet future includes thoughts on how all this stuff will work inside business too. As a corporate lacky, this is valuable stuff for me, and for a long time it has seemed neglected. The main focus here was around corporate culture and the roles of communities and community managers.

N and I are heading down to Austin shortly to catch the SxSW interactive conference and spend some time with her sister who moved there from somewhere I didn’t want to visit about 6 months ago. So I think I can find my way around a conference. But what about the city? Any tips…beer, BBQ, texmex, or whatnot. Cheers. PS. Just saw the Tron Legacy preview and it looks pretty awesome.

I was pretty excited about V. It was bringing back what in my mind was the original miniseries, and a nice bit of sci-fi. But this time with a budget and awesome effects and some hindsight on making a great series. Plus, I wrapped BSG and 4400 up pretty recently and need a new sci-fi serial fix. I watched the pilot last night, and was a bit disappointed. 4400 was great, and there are some strong ties to that show here, between Joel Gretcsh and Scott Peters they really raised the bar.

okay, police violence sucks. It’s a drag that unarmed people get shot. Lately, I’ve been putting together some tips I’ve picked from my years of experience not getting shot at by the police in an effort to help people avoid the short barrel of the law. First, you can take a preemptive strike and keep the police away in general. Try to avoid situations in which housemates and loved ones feel the need to call the police in regards to you.

I’m a book lover. By nature. I find flipping pages, browsing aisles, and even falling asleep on a book, to be comforting. But I’ve been eyeballing the Kindle (and the Nook and the eReader) since it came out. With the price dropping to under $150 (sans 3g), it was suddenly accessible. I started to think about it, but never quite pulled the trigger. Which was fortunate, as the lady got me one for my birthday.

N and I are heading down to Austin shortly to catch the SxSW interactive conference and spend some time with her sister who moved there from somewhere I didn’t want to visit about 6 months ago. So I think I can find my way around a conference. But what about the city? Any tips…beer, BBQ, texmex, or whatnot. Cheers. PS. Just saw the Tron Legacy preview and it looks pretty awesome.

Okay, I’m a bit late to the party, but this is pretty sweet. How many of that bad boys haven’t you plugged two bits into? They’re on tour, the bizarre thing is the order of cities. They are all over the map. Must’ve been the original Pacman algorithm.

Sweet! My buddy M@ hooked me up with a ticket to GnR Monday. Being one of my favorite all-time bands, I was stoked. Honestly I wasn’t that excited about the opener, Sebastian Bach (Skid Row), who I’d seen open for GnR some 16 years ago. I’ve always considered Skid Row to be wussy rock, a sort of precursor to Incubus (who should’ve stuck with the funky stuff they put out early).

Alright cave-dwellers, time to explore beerdrinking venues for the merit of their tunes rather than their ales. And lagers if that’s what you’re into. The Musicfest NW is going on, and there are a lot of great acts to see. Last night the Black Keys rocked. That’s the only show I saw, getting a late start and opting out of the Dandy Warhols. Tonite, there are so many bands conflicting that I am a bit conflicted myself.

so the Alberta Public House isn’t new. Not like the Concordia. It also doesn’t have the beer selection of the Concordia. But I still like the place. It’s totally chill, a geographical mess (on the inside), and full of pigs. The pink cartoon kind. They have some fun music, a good patio, and pretty alright food. Their happy hour (OLCC, can I say that?) last until 8pm on weekdays, which means that even after driving back in from the ‘tron I can still have time to get my happy swerve on for a discount.

It’s here. It’s probably been here for awhile. But now you can look up you favorite bands, get their discography, and link to official and fansites. Check out the Encyclopaedia Metallum. I looked up Lacuna Coil immediately. Next I think I’ll check out Tesla, just to see if they count, and then maybe onto a few of the other great hard bands. thx albatross, and have a great long weekend!

We at beerdrinker.org work hard to stay on the high road of good taste. Last night’s show at Dante’s is clear evidence of that. From songs about drugs to ladies playing (rockin’) guitar in their underwear to not-so-tragic references to recent tragedies to deep-throating light beer bottles while playing rockin guitar, this show was beautifully highbrow. Nashville Pussy kick ass. Their guitar smacks of ACDC, with a southern twist and apathy and mean-spiritedness thrown in, as well as sexy guitar and bassist.

I became so fed up with the horrible situation of radio here that I actually took a significant step in alleviating my pain. I cut my ears off. Actually, I bought Sirius satellite radio. Sirius the second-to-market competitor to XM radio, which I don’t know much about, except that it has some commercials, is stightly cheaper (per month), and has one less satellite beaming down on us (two). I am going to say right now that Sirius has put a damper on my learning the German language.

The Catheters rock. Nedra pointed out their album at a listening booth at Tower Records when I was getting my stereo replaced after some jerk broke into my car and stole pretty much the whole center console, along with the air bags. I only listened for a couple minutes before deciding to buy the album, as it rocked really hard. They have a bit of that rock-n-roll rhythm blended with some searing punk-rock vocals.

It truly does. Once again. In bold. Portland Radio Sucks. Bigtime. I could stop this story right here, and probably have said all that I need to, but then what would be the fun in that? I am just freakin’ so sick and tired of all the damn commercials and the stupid DJ’s mackin on strippers for 47 minutes out of each hour. And the three songs that I do hear…if my timing was good and I get to hear any on my commute…are the same ones by the same ‘artists’, rotating between Rage Against the Machine, tool, System of A Down, Korn (sorry deep guys can’t do that kewl ‘K’ thing they do), with maybe a bit of Metallica blended in.

I’m a fan of social media sites. Sites like twitter and facebook are loads of fun, and great for staying in touch with old friends, new friends, and potential friends. In a recent post I commented on what I felt were the differences between facebook and myspace. In the end, I believe that myspace is primarily a vanity site, whereas facebook focuses on relationships. A more subtle comparison happens between facebook and twitter.

Twitter is getting some hype lately. The fun part of the hype is that it lacks any real explanation of what twitter is about, and generally any real understanding. So I’m going to help out by offering some examples of how twitter can positively impact your life, and not just by getting endless tweets sent to your phone or browser. Twitter for sports teams This one is for the soccer moms and team managers.

After quite a bit of work I’ve got a new version of beerdrinker.org ready to rock. Some of the new features are pretty obvious…a new banner and some random photos. But there are other new features. I’ve included a feed of my latest ficlets so at least you can tell I haven’t been slacking too much if I haven’t been posting. Then there’s the beer grab bag on the right, so if you’re ever thirsty and not sure what to consume, just checkout that doodad and let you thirst be forever quenched.

I’ve recently started contributing to a nifty new iPhone app called urbandig. It is the app that I wanted when I was in NYC earlier this year. It’s the app that I want when I visit Memphis and Denver later this year. Basically, they’ve gone out and found people who know the city, or parts of it, really well, and gotten them to created nice little curated morsels of experience. Portland’s urban dig experience has just been release, and in it you can enjoy my delicious noodle crawl, in which I explore some of Portland’s more exciting Ramen joints.

I was pretty excited about V. It was bringing back what in my mind was the original miniseries, and a nice bit of sci-fi. But this time with a budget and awesome effects and some hindsight on making a great series. Plus, I wrapped BSG and 4400 up pretty recently and need a new sci-fi serial fix. I watched the pilot last night, and was a bit disappointed. 4400 was great, and there are some strong ties to that show here, between Joel Gretcsh and Scott Peters they really raised the bar.

okay, police violence sucks. It’s a drag that unarmed people get shot. Lately, I’ve been putting together some tips I’ve picked from my years of experience not getting shot at by the police in an effort to help people avoid the short barrel of the law. First, you can take a preemptive strike and keep the police away in general. Try to avoid situations in which housemates and loved ones feel the need to call the police in regards to you.

I was pretty excited about V. It was bringing back what in my mind was the original miniseries, and a nice bit of sci-fi. But this time with a budget and awesome effects and some hindsight on making a great series. Plus, I wrapped BSG and 4400 up pretty recently and need a new sci-fi serial fix. I watched the pilot last night, and was a bit disappointed. 4400 was great, and there are some strong ties to that show here, between Joel Gretcsh and Scott Peters they really raised the bar.

I’m a fan of social media sites. Sites like twitter and facebook are loads of fun, and great for staying in touch with old friends, new friends, and potential friends. In a recent post I commented on what I felt were the differences between facebook and myspace. In the end, I believe that myspace is primarily a vanity site, whereas facebook focuses on relationships. A more subtle comparison happens between facebook and twitter.

I’m completely aware that Facebook is pretty handily kicking the figurative ass of Myspace. I am pretty excited about this, because I’ve never been a fan of Myspace as a social networking site. I’ve enjoyed visiting band sites, and I managed to connect with a few people there. On the other hand, I love Facebook. I talk about Facebook. I advocate its use, and might occasionally be obnoxious about it. But the conversations are interesting.

Okay, this is one of the coolest tools I’ve come across in awhile. Still trying to see how well it integrates into my workflow tendencies, but I’m really hoping that it does. Because it’s pretty awesome. TiddlyWiki is a wiki/blog that exists completely inside of a single file. It’s all DHTML and such, so it requires no server-side processing to work. What that means is you can just save the file to your computer, and open it in your browser, and it works.

The debate has been serious this summer. From touchy questions on sides of buses to annoying comments on blog posts to occasional legal debate. The community has been vexed by this question: Is a bicycle a car or a pedestrian? To help shed light on this problem, beerdrinker has gone undercover, actually riding his bicycle most days, frequently more than 25 miles. I’ve been thinking about this question for quite awhile, but it really came to a head (or mine) when Webtrends posted their controversial question on Portland’s public transportation: Should cyclists pay a road tax?

It’s been an interesting couple of weeks. Got my Universal Life Church ministry certificate because a couple friends had asked me to perform their wedding services. This past week was the week. The first was on Sunday, and the second on Friday. I’ve been just a wee bit busy with all of that…meeting families, drinking beer, BBQing, clamming, crabbing, camping, cooking, eating, driving, playing hookie, and petting my dog and smooching my lady.

Okay, this is one of the coolest tools I’ve come across in awhile. Still trying to see how well it integrates into my workflow tendencies, but I’m really hoping that it does. Because it’s pretty awesome. TiddlyWiki is a wiki/blog that exists completely inside of a single file. It’s all DHTML and such, so it requires no server-side processing to work. What that means is you can just save the file to your computer, and open it in your browser, and it works.

After the US’s disappointing (yet thrilling) tie against Slovenia, you can be sure that there will be a clamor for instant replay in soccer. On the surface, it seems like a great idea. Matches will end with the true winner victorious, honor will be restored to the game. This is a terrible idea. There is a purity about soccer. 23 men on the pitch, and only a few rules on how to play the game.

This is brilliant! props chris h from the OBC