12.31.2011

End of Year Wrap Up

Lousy year of blogging as I only managed 157 posts.  Need to improve that in 2012 although next year I hope to really send something in to be published and thus if I am writing there, I won't be bloggin here! Will do comic reviews more consistently and will try to haiku but without a weekly contest that will be tough to remember. Overall beyond the baseball, haikus, and occasional book review it was a pretty pathetic year. So this is 2011 in a nutshell:


- 31 books read (favorite, Non-Fiction (5 books) - "Eiffel's Tower" / Fiction (21) - "Point Omega" and "A Visit From The Goon Squad" / TPB (5) - "Sandman: A Game of One")


- Best Comics this Year - Spider-Man (2nd year in a row)
- Best Movie seen was "Super 8" and "Sherlock Holmes 2"
- Favorite Album - Coldplay although Katy Perry's was the funnest ;)
- Best Comic Cover was Amazing Spider-Man #671


- 51 Haiku's Written
- My Favorites Haiku's


Ski
Majestic Mountain
Skis Sing Softly in the Snow
Wind Whistles Wildly

Baseball
Bust out those Jerseys
Dust off that mitt, grab a ball
Just say it's so Joe!

The Amazing Spider-Man #660
Yeah clobberin' time!
Not really a spidey thing
But Carlie's tattoo ;)

Windmill
There's something soothing
Watching the sweep of her arms
Invisible force



The Amazing Spider-Man #668
Juxtaposition
Who is amazing this time?
How about Carlie



Fall Colors
Season's ebb and flow
Tree's clocks sway with a rhythm
Time's up on Summer


My space shuttle tribute haiku

Top Posts
New York Times Metrics
1000 Posts
2011 Ski Season
Happy Yuri Day
360 Tour 2011
Google Doodle - Les Paul
Future of Comics
US Space Program RIP
Future of College Football
R.E.M - Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight

Top Baseball Posts

12.28.2011

Neil Gaiman - Sandman: A Game of You

Volume 5 of the Sandman series and probably the most concise story in the bunch so far.  Also the one set of stories that I seemed to tell a good complete story.  Very touching and kind story as well.  He touches on a lot of "taboo" topics in this one especially if you consider the time these stories were originally published 1991 and 1992.   Gaiman continues to amaze and be creepy.   

12.26.2011

Haiku Beer #4


Haiku #4 was a recipe from beertools.com for a Light Hybrid Beer.  My desire was to brew something light.  Called Azorean Brewer's Kolsch (5.0% ABV, not verified) it was made with the following ingredients (this recipe really just served as a basis as I had some left over hops I needed to use and of course all of the ingredients weren't available):

1) 1.20 lbs Germen Pilsen
2) 0.60 lbs German Vienna
3) 0.20 lbs Belgium Pilsner (change)
4) 0.05 lbs White Wheat (change)
5) 0.4 oz Willamette Pellet Hops (4.5%AA) [change]
6) White Labs WLP029 German Ale Kolsch Yeast (Liquid) [change]

Used StarSan sanitizer.

The Mash
Heated 2.5 quarts (10 cups) of water (refrigerator water which is carbon filtered) to 130 deg F.  Add grain and mixed.  Cooked for 20 minutes at 132 deg F and stirred fairly frequently and then cooked additional 45 minutes at 154-160 deg F.  

The Sparge
Heated additional 4 quarts of water (refrigerator water) to boiling then transferred to gallon fermentation jug.  Set up the strainer over the second pot and added the hot grain mash.  Then poured the heated water from the jug over the grains and into the second pot.  Once done recirculated the wort back through the grain once more into the original pot.

The Boil
Heated the wort until it began to boil at approximately 210 deg F.  This was done with just the middle heat on the inside burner on my stove.  Boil lasted 60 minutes with 0.2 oz of Willamette Hops at the start of the boil then added 0.1 oz at 15 minutes and then 0.1 oz with 1 minutes to go.  Tasted the wort and it was very sweet.

The Fermentation
Placed the brew pot into the sink with ice allowing the temperature to decrease to 70 deg F.  Allowed the mix to settle this time.  When pouring into the fermentor it was strained into a larger pot then transferred to the fermentor.  After the fermentor is full, the yeast was added and throughly mixed to aerate the liquid.  Note:  Liquid yeast is designed for 5 gallon batches.  This time did not shake the yeast but opened slowly and mixed with a tooth pick.  Still difficult to determine exact amount of yeast was added.

The yeast began fermentation and a fairly consistent burp began.  Primary fermentation lasted for about 36 hours.  Transferred beer to the basement and put in the airlock.  Allowed to sit for 3 weeks.

The Bottling
Used bottling sugar and dissolved this in 1/4 cup of water, I siphoned the beer into a pot and then bottled into 4 x bomber bottles (~650 mL).  Allowed to sit for another 2 weeks.

The Tasting
Opened and tried on 2/1/12. Great big bubble carbonation.  See photo.  Good light beer flavor with some backbone.  First time I used the bottle caps and based on the secondary fermentation this is the way to go.  

A light hybrid beer
Brew again in the Summer 
Refreshing cool taste

Jonathan Lethem - The Fortress of Solitude

I had thought this was my first Lethem book but I had forgotten that years ago I had read his first book, "Gun, with Occasional Music" years ago.  Few years back (2009) I went to a book signing for his latest book which I haven't gotten to read yet.  He is very much a New Yorker and his writing bleeds it.  Interesting that this book takes the superhero meme, much like what Chabon did with Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay.  Overall great book.  Little raw in places and uncomfortable but I think that was the 70s and early 80s in New York City.  Not a fun place to grow up!




Page 54. Lethem makes a comment about his characters reading the following comics: Daredevil 77, Black Panther #4, Doctor Strange #12, and Incredible Hulk #115.  Looks like they came out in 1977ish although certainly not all at once...details, details...


Page 176.  "Parsecs measure space not time, some claim it's a mistake but I'm sure it's intentional, Han solo's pretending..."  Classic Star Wars line, first time I heard someone try to make sense of the comment, surprised Lucas didn't edit it in one of his many versions!

Page 274.  "Oh I don't know, I remember you always said you were going to buy x-men forever, unless Chris Claremont quit writing..."  Ooh that one hurts...hate to say it but Claremont was the X-men only Morrison had a slight bit of success since.

Page 368. "Well, Michael stipe was sucking from an oxygen tank after the show."  And I thought this was only a Denver thing...saw him a few years back and yup after every song Stipe was sucking on oxygen tank!

12.21.2011

Haiku Wednesday

Solstice

Sun's vacation day
At least up North, but down South
Working overtime

12.14.2011

Haiku Wednesday

Yukon Cornelius
Gadzooks wears yellow ear muffs
Misfit toys and all!

12.10.2011

Winter Poem


Winter Poem

Snow blankets the land with delicate white sheets
Wind whispers and nudges the trees with gentle force
Creek ripples with swift crispness as ice takes over
The crunching snow under my feet violates the evening chill
Moon radiates stark, brilliant light down upon the world
Stars twinkle for recognition as I gaze upon the sky

Her cool fingers pull me back from my reverence
A cold hearted mistress walks with me tonight
Pushing on, I deceive her with my dreams of warmth
A flickering fire beckons me with sinful promises
My footfalls sink deeper, I am within her grasp
But chimney smoke whisks the chill from these thoughts
At the door, warmth welcomes...






12.08.2011

Larry Niven - All the Myriad Ways

Always been a big fan of Larry Niven.  His Tales from Known Space have been a fun go.  Right up their with Heinlein, Niven is one of my all time favorites.  

This book, a collection of fiction and non-fiction, was published in 1971...gee I feel old.  Found the book at a used book store and for some reason this edition matches with ones that are on my shelf (if you must know only the best books make it to my shelf...).  

Anyway the first story is a fascinating look at an extension of Schrodinger's Cat thought that cat lives in parallel universes until the box is open (but Niven goes one step further because before the decision is made the Cat is both alive and dead).  So free choice is dead because you make all the choices.  The other notable story is an essay on why Superman can never have kids...think Super Sperm!

12.07.2011

Haiku Wednesday

Winter

A month of extremes
Both in weather and checkbook
No wonder Sun sleeps...

12.02.2011

Jeff Eugenisles - The Marriage Plot

As the second book I have received in the Powell's Indiespensable subscription book service that I started a few months back, this one marks the first book that I wouldn't read if it hadn't been sent to me.  It's a hefty, lofty book by a Pulitzer Prize winner that just screams to me, "Don't read me"

So pushing through I gave it a try.  A mandated desire to get through with it before I traveled (hey can't bring hardbacks on planes), I gave myself 9 days and 50 pages a night.  I finished it in 7 days so either it was good or I was reading machine.

To be honest it was actually pretty good.  I enjoyed more than the first Powell's book I got and it just goes to show that you can't judge a book by its cover (ha!).  Good characters (OK maybe just one of them was really good and the other two just frustrating) and a decent plot.  I always seem to fall for books that have a triangle love affair.  Parts of it made laugh, some made me cringe, and others just took me back to the 80s.  

In the end the mark of any good author is once you've done you are then interested in his previous books.  So there you have it