Posts from — March 2007

Working for a sustainable design consultant, as I do, I am continually exposed to exciting and interesting individuals with progressive views and ideas. The climate change crisis is real, and I’m excited to be helping in some small way to affect architectural design in a positive and sustainable way. But the sustainable message is bubbling over into my colleagues’ email signatures, as evidenced by a recent email, which carried the following message after the author’s signoff:

“please consider the environment before printing this message.”

• Like, don’t print this, OK?
• Printing this message kills trees. Print is murder!
• Please consider filing this email in an email folder and refraining from printing it, since that would be redundant and a waste of space, time and paper. Just make sure you back up your hard drive, you idiot.
• Please respond to this email as soon as possible, as I am soon unplugging all my electrical devices and moving to the woods. And this should go without saying, but you should NOT print this message, since the more you print, the less woods I will have left to live in. Again, please hurry.
• You know pal, you really should think about what you’re doing there, with your mouse cursor on the “print” button; don’t you realize that trees are a precious and beautiful resource? You already have the material, right there in front of your oil-thirsty face, in digital format. You should read it on your monitor instead of wasting precious paper to print out what you already have, you heartless bastard! I can’t believe you could be so stupid, you PAPER WASTER! Of course, by reading it on your monitor you’re running your computer which consumes about 450 watts of power while it’s running whereas you could print this out on a few sheets of paper and power down. Hmmm. Let me think about this for a second. I’ve got it! I’ll just bet you don’t do two-sided printing, thereby wasting TWICE as much paper as I do when I print things duplex (even though I almost never, ever, print things, because I am pleased to consider the environment before doing so)! Oh you climate change accelerator, you! I hate you! Yes, far better that you read this on screen, especially since you don’t have a duplex printer. Come to think of it, you should really get a duplex printer; I can’t believe you don’t have one of those! Jesus, you are a resource hogging pig! Aren’t you glad you have me to help you think about these issues? By the way, how many miles per gallon do you get with you car? You DO drive a hybrid, don’t you? Put that hamburger DOWN, dammit! LISTEN TO ME!!

Good morning Rob, Outlook here. Guess what? I still suck.

The Stats:
Brewery: Great Divide Brewing Company, Denver, CO
Style: India Pale Ale
abv: 9.1%

The Beer
Hercules Double IPA (India Pale Ale) is an exercise in excess. India Pale Ale, already a full bodied, hoppy and high-alcohol beer style, is taken to a whole new level in this rich, chewy brew. Golden in color, it pours cloudy with a nice medium head, and the beer clears nicely over time. The aroma is full of barley and you can almost taste the beer before ever taking a sip. And once you do take a sip, look out. The alcohol is always at the forefront, but so are all the flavors one would expect in an IPA — primarily, hoppy bitterness trumping malty sweetness — but it’s all turned up to eleven. More of everything, in equal proportions. The end result is a strong beer with strong flavors, an IPA to remember; the only flaw is that it’s so strong you can only drink so much in an evening! Highly recommended.

More Info
RateBeer.com Rating: 99(!)
Brewer’s Info Page: http://www.greatdivide.com/thebeers/hercules.htm

After a long, long, very long winter, I’m here to tell you that spring is on its way, and is settling in nicely. I realize I just marshaled the weather gods to unleash a furious last ditch winter storm sometime in the coming weeks, but I don’t care; Colorado is becoming beautiful again!

I went for a bike ride today, in 70 degree weather under blue skies (and discovered that my new bike has a really nasty propensity for high speed front end shimmy). Last week I read the latest Backpacker magazine and picked out a few choice fourteener hikes I want to do this year. Brenda and I made some headway on our foyer & landing flooring project this weekend, and I hope to be done with that one soon so we have more free time on the weekends to go hiking. This time last year, we had already crested Green Mountain and Bear Peak, but this winter was a whole different animal — one that I hope is an endangered species.

The point is, summer is on the way, and I couldn’t be happier.

The other day I signed and emailed a message to Congress calling for action to solve the climate change issues facing the planet, and sent it to Al Gore as part of his presentation in Washington. Yesterday, I got this thank you email:

Dear Rob,

Thank you!

By 10:00 AM yesterday, as I took my seat in the hearing room, an incredible 519,414 people had signed our message to Congress demanding immediate action to solve the climate crisis.

All of those boxes chock full of your messages, sitting right next to me as I testified, were a fantastic show of support and one that is already having an impact as our Representatives and Senators begin to debate solutions to the climate crisis. In fact, so many people signed our message in the 24 hours before the hearing, we are still working on printing them.

Still working on… printing them.

JFC, this is why no one takes this shit seriously, even though they really, really should. Al, do me a favor, and start walking the fucking walk. You of all people can’t afford to generate more fodder for the right wing and their oily-eyed shortsightedness and agenda, m’kay?

Besides, if all you want is a big old pile of papers as a symbolic prop, just fill a box with recycling; the right wing won’t know the difference, since it appears half those morons can’t read, anyway.

Brenda & I went to the east coast this past Thursday, our makeup trip for our postponed christmas Visit. Our christmas Visit was postponed due to weather. Perhaps in honor of that fact, we encountered more goddamned weather.

Booked on a noon flight Thursday, our flight pulled back from the gate promptly at 2:15 so we could sit on a taxiway for another 45 minutes before departing. Upon arrival in the NY metro airspace, we commenced a precision hold for another 45 minutes before landing at Newark NJ. Upon arrival, the NJ Transit train we boarded for New Brunswick was horrifyingly similar to the one I left almost two years ago when I finished my tour of duty, but at least this one arrived on time — unlike the one we tried to take the next day to Philly. That one was delayed — thanks to similar weather we experienced when we postponed out trip back in December in the first place — 30 minutes, then 45, then disappeared from the planet as the one after it was delayed, then canceled. My brother-in-law picked us up and eventually we arrived at my sister’s house. I am here to tell you that New Jersey Transit’s Northeast Corridor Service is as horrible as it ever was, and I hate the entire miserable corporation with every fiber of my being.

The trip was good, overall, delays notwithstanding. We saw family and friends and saw some old neighborhoods. Unfortunately we did not get to see everyone, but our shit was delayed so what do you expect? Sorry John, Davis, Lisa & Pete, and the gang at RDG.

The big revelation was this: I love where we live now. Yes, New Jersey is where I grew up. Yes, New York City is where I was born, and where my ancestors immigrated to. Yes, the New York/New Jersey Metro Area is where the majority of my family continue to live. And, big yes, I hate when people smugly compare one living situation to another, but you know what people? I earned this, and I wouldn’t trade it.

Most of my family back east still don’t quite get why we love it out here, and I understand that; after all, back home we have cold cuts and the Yankees. But here, there is less shit on the sidewalk; people are, on the whole, nicer; the weather is, on the whole, nicer; there is less horn-honking; less attitude; more bike paths, mountains and beer. And that is the nicest way I can say it. I spent the last five days compiling a long list of sense memories of what I don’t miss, but it’s silly to list them here. Suffice to say it’s a long list.

I’d say I’m done with New York, but we all know life doesn’t work that way. Time will tell. But I’d like to say that I felt a palpable relief when I saw the Front Range out the window of our plane on arrival, and I breathe easier out here. I’d like to stay right here.

This has been around for a little while, but I just stumbled across it. Very funny, if you use the crusty old vi editor in unix (as I do) and hate Microsoft (as I do).

How the vi editor would look if made by Microsoft

Richard Jeni, standup comedian, killed himself the other night. I always remembered him as one of those great comedians who sailed under the radar, one of those acts that you were proud to say “yeah, he’s great”, with the smug satisfaction of someone who was more plugged in to the comedy scene than the person you were talking to.

Jeni’s specials on TV were the kind of laugh-fests that you remember forever, the kind that have you with tears in your eyes and your sides literally hurting from laughing so hard. Interestingly, his interview & quote in the Bill Hicks documentary “Just a Ride” was very telling. He said that watching Bill Hicks, you really questioned what you were doing (referring to standup comedians in general). I thought that was one of the greatest accolades Bill Hicks ever received, since I considered Richard Jeni to be a great comedian and here he was saying he wasn’t even in Hicks’ league.

But enough about Bill Hicks. He’s been gone a while, and Richard Jeni is freshly departed. Damn; I still can’t believe it. Comedy’s a tough racket.

The way I see life, it’s like we’re all flying on the Hindenburg, why fight over the window seats?
-Richard Jeni

Elayne Boosler’s eulogy
Bill Hicks’ “It’s Just a Ride” transcript

The Stats:
Brewery: Avery Brewing, Boulder CO
Style: Barleywine
abv: 9.2%

The Beer
I first tried Hog Heaven back in New Jersey, long before I ever entertained thoughts of living in the same town where the magic elixir is brewed. The reasoning was simple: it was a new barleywine ale on the shelf at my local New Jersey liquor store. What with strong ales of all stripes being my preference and barleywines in particular, I immediately grabbed a bottle. The flying pigs on the label didn’t hurt any, either.

The beer is dark ruby red in color, with a nice dense head and intense hop aroma. Dipping a nose into the glass, you can’t help but take several long pulls with your nose before ever taking a sip,and the whiffs are intoxicating in their own right. Once you take a sip, the deal is sealed. Strong alcohol flavor is balanced with an incredible one-two punch of malty sweetness and hoppy bitterness. The malt and hops are in perfect harmony; this beer is not cloyingly sweet nor is it dryingly bitter. It’s a lot of everything, but all flavors get their turn at the front of the stage and the end result is a beer that fills your mouth — and your soul — with the total beer experience. Immensely satisfying and delightfully sippable. This reviewer maintains that this is one barleywine that’s drinkable year-round; it’s that balanced.

Available in 22oz bomber bottles, this is one of my all-time favorite beers, and one or two are generally in residence on my refrigerator door rack at any given time.

More Info
RateBeer.com Rating: 96
Brewer’s Info Page: www.averybrewing.com/BigBeers/docs/hogHeaven

A co-worker forwarded me this:

*How to Make Bacon Soap*

My sister jokes that if they made bacon candy, I’d be the top consumer of the stuff, and that’s probably true. Apparently, my affinity for bacon has made its way around the office and so when my co-worker came across this little gem of baco-utility, she felt compelled to pass the tip along. The email subject line was “Since you like meat”. ‘Nuff said.

In reality, while I’m pretty sure I could easily come up with enough bacon grease to make a batch or two, the idea of lathering up with the transformed grease is not exactly appetizing. Regardless, I thought it was an interesting article.