21 Sep 2008 at 17:55 (travel)
Tags: deutschland
Beer, the cause of and solution to all of life’s problems — Homer Simpson (paraphrased)
Saturday was the first day of Oktoberfest, the Munich fall festival celebrating the heritage of the city. Or so they say, since a festival completely dedicated to beer would be a thoroughly irresponsible predicament. We arrived at the Theresienwiese in time for the delivery of the kegs by horseback followed by the ceremonial tapping of the keg by the Bürgermeister and pouring of the first beer by each Braumeister in the tents. After the brew started flowing, it was time to leave (really). There is no way we would get served in the beer tent: there were just too many people and we didn’t arrive by the requisite 09:00 hour to get a seat for the 12:00 noon festivities. Plus, we’d never have seen the parade if we showed up so early. No, we left and wanted around the fairgrounds taking in the sights and sounds. Then, we went for a beer and pretzel after the lines had cleared out a bit.
Sunday, we saw a second parade. This event contained costumes of pageantry of the area, including people from surrounding villages, states, and countries (I noticed Slovenia and Poland). Many brought traditional harvest equipment, lots of pipes and drums, and a few accordions. It is neat how such a small area of Europe contains so many distinct outfits and stylings. As the horse & buggies drew near the entrance of Oktoberfest, the passengers got out so they didn’t have to journey with the driver back to the stables. Smart move.
Then, came the beer-y-go-rounds, bumper cars, random lunch on the midway, and another beer-y-go-round. What a concept, get rid of the plastic animals with annoying organ musak and replace with a rotating bar surrounded by moving seating. More to see on each revolution and the feeling of the world spinning with out the need for beer … but beer we did.
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18 Sep 2008 at 00:20 (travel)
Tags: deutschland
The last two times I flew to Europe, the journey took 7-8 hours. However, this time I flew into Dublin, slightly closer to the US if you look at a non-flat map. Nothing against this airport or the flight (both nice), but this flight doesn’t give you enough time to take a nap to get acclimated to the time zones. JFK to DUB is normally 5h30m - but my flight left 5 minutes early since everyone actually got on board quickly, the taxi time was reduced for whatever reason, plus we had a tail wind. Thus, I ended up landing way over an hour early at 4am local time. People on #geekboy are still awake - it’s only 11pm! I’d hop on irc to say hello, but I seem to be without wireless (I blame my wunderbar laptop).
So, I have come to the conclusion that doesn’t count as a transatlantic flight - it is quicker than Denver to New York. Imagine a flight from Boston to Reykjavik: it would make EWR to ORD seem long.
At least a bunch of old guys are speaking Gaelic right now.
And, I got rid of all my small coins I’ve been holding since last year. One half-litre (16.9 US fl oz / 17.6 UK fl oz) bottle of Diet Coke: €1.80. I’ll let you do the math accounting for the “airport price factor” to determine if that is a good deal or not. It is too bloody dark outside and early to think.
Overall, the lesson here is: no sleep (guitar riff) ’til München.
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31 Aug 2008 at 20:32 (general)
So I broke down and ordered a few more shirts from Threadless (plus they’re having a nice fall sale right now). If only we could wear these to work, but no, collars and button-down shirts. I guess we’re lucky we have casual every-days, but an über-casual Friday would be nice. Ah, to be in corporate America with happy combat boots.
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22 Aug 2008 at 18:57 (general)
Tags: events
A long track of events. Recently, Atlanta, Las Vegas, Blackhat, Defcon, H.O.P.E., more beer, long busy events, and a busted ankle. With the ankle being the depressing moment of the month. Time to catch up, document my conferences, learn a bit more, and prepare presentations for work to teach others. Plus more beer manufacturing.
Ah, to have time… more later.
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28 Jun 2008 at 16:38 (visual fun)
Tags: anime
If you’re up a cartoon that seems like the writers have ADHD and freebased a concoction of caffeine and sugar, I’d recommend ぱにぽにだっしゅ (Pani Poni Dash). It satirizes Japanese cartoons and culture along with a bit of exported Americanisms. Make sure to watch it with subtitles to translate the background signs and text to double the laughter. If you quaff homemade beer, be sure to swallow fully before laughing.
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25 Jun 2008 at 18:08 (beer)
So, I passed off a bottle of beer batch two to a friend at a local cafe - he said it was the best beer he’s ever tasted. Me thinks he needs to get out more often, perhaps try a place that doesn’t serve big-named American beers. Batch three is ready but untested - need a good reason to drink besides “Wednesday.”
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13 Jun 2008 at 18:13 (beer)
Tags: beer
So, I tried another brew - Weizenbier with my mini-beer kit. Unfortunately, my assistant was not here! Watching the birth of his child or some unlikely excuse. Thus, I didn’t get the batch correctly made the first time. About an hour later, I remembered that I forgot to mix in some boosters. since it was so close to sealing up the keg, I thought I’d try adding boster late. So, I uncorked the keg, added booster, and stirred. We’ll see if it turns out or if I spoiled it.
As for batch two, the “Canadian Draft,” it was a success. A few bottles were less carbonated than the others and there was an unexpectedly nice sweetness to one. Also, when looking at the bottles in the fridge, it looked as if the carbonation bubbles only came half-way up the bottle. Really funky looking, but there was no separation in the liquid. Nevertheless, still very good.
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23 May 2008 at 20:15 (beer)
I recently acquired a system of brewing beer, something called Mr Beer. It’s a cheap kit and what the heck, I don’t have the enough room for a full-size adult kit. So, I’ll use my plastic children’s toy to make a brew.
The first recipe is Vienna Lager. Baseball and hockey on the over-the-air HDTV, a few purchased beers in the fridge, and pizza from across the street: perfect beginnings for or Aaron and I to brew. After we did some arm curls with existing beer, we starting boiling the “booster” following a can of flavouring mix. Told you it was for children, too easy. Mix in the plastic key, add yeast, seal, and let set for two weeks. Then, with fourteen 20oz bottles, transfer the beer, add sugar, seal, and wait another two weeks for carbonation to set in.
So, the first batch results: “quite drinkable” according to Aaron. Our sights were set low and they were excessively exceeded. Amazing. And cheap, like $15 for the keg + $5 for the batch of the beer works out to $1.43 a beer or 35¢ if you don’t account for the initial keg purchase.
Next up, Canadian Draft, whatever that entails. Only one more week until we can open the bottles, maybe during the Redwings.
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