Chuggnutt!

Month: September 2002

  • Beer & Wiki

    I just finished up making a batch of beer, an English Old Ale that I’ll be giving to my Dad for his birthday this year. This is the second beer in as many months that I’ve brewed, and I’ve already got plans for at least two, maybe three more: a Pumpkin Ale (I used to brew this every year around Halloween), a wheat beer for my Mom’s birthday (perhaps a blackberry wheat), and I’ve been thinking about a barleywine in December. Though I’ve been thinking about experimenting with the style and using wheat malt instead of barley malt— a “weizenwine” or something.

    Here is an extremely cool site: Wikipedia.org. It uses the (relatively) new concept/technology of the “wiki web,” and is essentially an online, freely editable encyclopedia. And by “freely editable” I really mean freely editable— anyone (anyone!) “can edit any article right now, without even having to log in” (in their words). It’s true. I had edited their Beer page and added an entry for Barleywine, then added and edited the very page for Barleywine myself, just today.

    And, it’s collaborative. Within three hours of my creating the Barleywine article, someone else had edited it and added links. What more can I say? Check it out.

    Random Web Link: BookCrossing – I just love this concept. Right along the lines of Where’s George?

  • Lapse

    I’ll be more active on the site again, soon. Until then, here’s a quick recap of what I’ve been doing:

    • Reading A History of Knowledge
    • Working the new job (programming, programming, programming)
    • Getting caught up in the new season of TV (grrrrrr….)
    • Pouring concrete (well, I only spent a Saturday doing this, but it was 800+ pounds of concrete…)

    That’s about all for now. Changes coming though!

  • 9 – 11 – 02

    Peace.

  • There and back again

    We just got back yesterday from a week-long vacation on the Oregon Coast. I should say, “We just got back and recovered,” because a week in hotels with young children is taxing. But, it was a good trip.

    We started out in Newport, and the weather for the first few days was crappy: chilly, foggy, wet. Consequently, I started getting a cold and had to drink tea and take echinacea for a few days. But we found things to do before hitting the beach anyway; we visited Lincoln City for some shopping, wandered along the stores on the bayfront, enjoyed good food. We had lunch at the Rogue Brewery in Southbeach, but I couldn’t drink any beer because I was at the peak of my sore throat! How can you visit one of the best breweries on the west coast and NOT drink beer?

    Our last day in Newport, the weather turned nice, and after a great breakfast (marionberry French toast), we spent time on the beach. The kids had a fantastic time. After that, we moved on to Florence for a night.

    I’m not too crazy about Florence; it’s kind of a dingy town with a worn-out feeling. We visited Old Town Florence (decent shopping and eating), and went to the Sea Lion Caves about 11 miles north. That was impressive; you take an elevator 200 feet down into the largest sea cave in the world to see the sea lions on the rocks.

    After Florence we moved on to Bandon, on the southern Oregon coast. I like Bandon; it’s a charming, tiny little town that I can picture myself living in some day. There’s not much around there, though; the largest towns are Coos Bay and North Bend to the north, which aren’t saying much. I hear people mostly like to leave Coos Bay.

    Finally we drove over to Roseburg (not on the coast, but close enough) and visited the Wildlife Safari there, and the La Garza winery. The Wildlife Safari was fun; I’d been there years and years ago, as a teen. Kaitlyn and I rode an elephant, which was very cool.

    We got back yesterday (Friday), spent a good part of the time getting unpacked, doing laundry and recovering. I’ve gotten caught up on everything, and getting geared to start my new job up this next week, on Tuesday. We’ve got office space, I’ve got a desk and three chairs that need assembling, and a computer.

    Should be interesting.