Gone But Not Forgotten

This is one of those posts where I came up with the title before writing anything. The title seems to be a little morbid to me now. It reminds me of those stickers that you see nowadays in the rear windows of cars that say "in memory of" so-and-so. I find those window stickers to be annoying, but not as annoying as the decals of family members in stick figure form. Except that I do not find the stick figure stickers to be annoying when they are on minivans. I find the ones on minivans to be sad because they are on minivans which are just sad in general.

This post is kind of like those "in memory" window stickers. However, this is not in memory of a person but of a website that has left us to move on to that old bit-recycler in the sky. I found out the other day that El taken down her personal blog site. For this site, it means that all of the links to her site are now broken. It seems that most of those links were for posts about various bits of conversations between her and me that she thought were moderately entertaining at the time. Thanks to the Wayback Machine, I am able to resurrect one of those conversations below. (FYI, "Me" is El, and "Jim" is me.)

Me: It’s <not sure what we were talking about prior> typical that we feel that way, I am usually a glass half full type and you’re a glass half empty type. Maybe that’s why we get along so well, the balance. Although I wouldn’t define us exactly like that…

Jim: Yes, I’m an engineer– the glass was spec’ed twice as big as it needs to be.

Me: And I’m me… if you hold the glass up to a sunbeam it’s full of rainbows!

A Chinese Joke American Style

I thought I would submit a quick post before I head out of town for the weekend for Mother's Day. This week I had lunch with a bunch of guys including a couple of men from China. The discussion turned to how the country of China is incredibly large. There are many different types of terrains and climates. The Chinese people also vary between the different areas of the country with each group having its own distinct culture. Cuisines vary across the country, and instead of a single Chinese language, Chinese is actually several dialects which are not necessary mutually intelligible.

One of the two Chinese men told us a joke to illustrate the differences among Chinese people. I think it is a great joke, but since repeating a joke about Chinese people seems a bit inappropriate, I figure I could modify the joke to apply it to American people. To decode my Americanize version back to the original Chinese version, simply change the American from Washington to a politician from northern China, perhaps around the national capital of Beijing. The New Yorker would instead be from eastern China such as from Shanghai. The Cajun from Louisiana would be from southern China perhaps from Hong Kong. The western area of China does not factor into the joke. Western China is most rural and is not as densely populated as the other areas. Anyway, here is my version of the joke.

Three guys are driving down the road. The first man is a politician from Washington, DC, the second is a businessman from New York City, and the third is a Cajun from Louisiana. As they're driving along, a strange flying object crashes into a field next to the road. They stop to check out the accident, and they discover a dead alien which had been flung from the wreckage. They look at each other and try to decide what to do with their amazing find. The politician from DC wants to put the body in a museum and invite everybody to come and see what the three of them found. The businessman from New York thinks the alien would be worth millions. He suggests they sell the body and split the profits. The Cajun says "I wonder how it tastes. Let's eat it!"

Like Bruce Willis

This little anecdote can be filed under old habits. I went to the store today. Because I needed to pick up some toilet paper, I headed down the aisle for paper products. I passed the plastic bags of various sizes and rolls of aluminum foil and plastic wrap. Out of the corner of my eye, I see cupcake wrappers. For those of my imaginary readers who may not know, my ex-girlfriend, El, bakes gourmet cupcakes in her spare time. (I see that she has now expanded her empire to facebook and twitter.) As I passed by those shelves, I had the fleeting thought that El is probably running low on cupcake wrappers, so I should pick some up for her. It was a eerie déjà vu-like feeling.

More Bond

Back in March, I posted about a bunch basically random topics. One of the topics was about visiting the Reader's Corner, a local used book store, and picking up some books. As an aside, the Reader's Corner also sells books via an Amazon.com site and a site at Abebooks.com. Included in my purchases back in March were the first two books in the James Bond series. Today, I paid another visit to the shop and purchased the next five books in the series. The third book is Moonraker which became the eleventh of the Bond films in 1979. The movie starred Roger Moore instead of Sean Connery who starred in six of the first seven Bond films. Moore's first Bond movie was Live and Let Die which was released in 1973. It was the eighth film but was adapted from the second book. The fourth book in the Bond series is Diamonds Are Forever which became the seventh Bond film in 1971. That film was Connery's last time in the role of James Bond for the official series of films, although in 1983, he starred in Never Say Never Again which is not considered part of the official series.

Moving right along, I mentioned the fifth (From Russia with Love) and sixth (Doctor No) books in my previous post along with the fact that they became the second and first films. Those films were released in 1963 and 1962 respectively. The seventh book in the series is Goldfinger. The film version of that book was released in 1964 and was the third in the series. The movie version of Goldfinger is my personal favorite of the film series. There is the best of the Bond girls, although Entertainment Weekly disagrees. (Their number one isn't bad either.) The title character, Auric Goldfinger, is one of the best of the Bond villains. Of course, the word "auric" means relating to gold. There are also all the great quotes, and the first appearance of the most famous of Bond's cars, an Aston Martin DB5 which had been tweaked a bit by Q.

During my visit to the bookstore, I also bought three other books. Smart-Aleck Kill is a small collection of stories by Raymond Chandler. All four of the stories are also included in The Simple Art of Murder which I have previously read, but this will be a good excuse to read them again. The Turk is about a famous chess-playing machine from the 18th century, all of which can be deduced by the book's full long title. Finally, Zeno's Paradox is about a series of paradoxes postulated by the ancient Greek philosopher Zeno, the most famous of which concerns a race between the Greek hero Achilles and a tortoise.

Review: The Fourth K

The Fourth K by Mario Puzo

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Mario Puzo is of course best known as the author of The Godfather which was turned into two very successful movies. Unfortunately, the Fourth K is nowhere near the quality of the Godfather and other books by Puzo. Basically, this book is like the screenplay for a really bad miniseries.

View all my reviews

Close Encounters

I am lucky if I get around to publishing a post once a week, so it is no surprise that this will be first time that I post twice in the same day. Right after publishing the my previous post, I ran over to Blinco's for a bite of dinner and a couple of tasty beverages. I grabbed a seat at the bar and did not pay any attention to the group of guys around the corner of the bar. That is until one of them started talking, and then it was hard not to notice them. The voice is one of the most recognizable in this area if not the whole state of North Carolina. The voice belonged to Chuck Kaiton who is the radio announcer for the Carolina Hurricanes. Below is a YouTube clip of Kaiton's call during the final moments of game seven of the 2006 Stanley Cup Finals.



It turns out that Kaiton is a friend of Jim Blinco who is one of the owners of the bar. One of Kaiton's pals called Blinco. He lives in Holly Springs which was one of the local towns that were the hardest hit by the tornadoes and thunderstorms that ripped through Raleigh and the surrounding area yesterday. In the voicemail that he left, Kaiton's friend said something about the tornadoes being over and Blinco should not be a Toto and to come on over to the bar. One of the bartenders thought it was a bit soon for Wizard of Oz references and told the guy so. I piped up and told the guy I thought his comment was funny. I also do not think preaching to your customers is the best way for a bartender to get a good tip.

Last Night I Had a Dream

OK, so it was not exactly last night that I had this dream because there is no way that I would be that on top of a post. The dream actually occurred a couple of weeks ago. Anyway, this dream has me thinking that perhaps I read the Uni Watch blog a bit too much. While I do follow sports, I would not consider myself an über-fanatic. However, there might be some people who would not agree with that personal assessment. I also do not consider myself to be particularly creative. Nor do I think that I am overly concerned with appearances. I live in a modest townhouse which is in desperate need of new siding. My car has huge spots of oxidation including most of the roof. I am sure my personal appearance could also use an upgrade. Combining all of those facts, it is interesting that one of my favorite Internet sites is Uni Watch where the primary focus is the physical appearance of sports including uniforms, logos, and team colors.

Getting back to my crazy dream, my favorite NHL team, the Carolina Hurricanes, were playing a basketball game against the Tampa Bay Lightening. I assume it would have been for charity or some such. The Canes were wearing white jerseys with red and black trim. In the NHL, white jerseys are worn on the road, but NBA teams were white at home. The Bolts were in gray uniforms with blue and black trim that were similar to Georgetown basketball. I know Tampa Bay does not have gray uniforms, but I did mention this was a dream. Also, Georgetown wears their gray uniforms at home, so this game would have featured two "home" uniforms. The uniforms were simple affairs with "Carolina" and "Tampa Bay" above basic numbers fonts on the front. Their team logos were on the right shoulder. Alas, the Canes were using their infamous toilet-flush logo which some considered to be the worst team logo in sports. The back of the jerseys were also simple with the player's name above standard numbers.

Uniforms that cross between sports are not completely unheard of. Some people in the Uni Watch community enjoy designing their own crossover uniforms. Actual physical crossover jerseys are also available. Baseball jerseys seem to be the most popular. I found baseball jerseys for the NFL, the NBA, and the NHL. I also found a NFL basketball jersey for sale on ebay. I did not, however, find any NHL basketball jerseys.

This is completely unrelated to anything, but I have decided that I will be renaming one of my fantasy teams the Montoya Rapiers.

Colorado Brews

I recently returned from a week trip to Colorado to visit my sister and her family. My sister has been a stay-at-home mom for a couple of years now. This was my first chance to meet my new 11-week-old niece. She is a beautiful baby. Of course, what else would a loving uncle say? I have previously had a couple of opportunities to visit my nephew who turned two years old back in December, but it was good to see him again. As expected, he is growing like a weed.

My sister's family live in a small town outside of Boulder. I flew into Denver International Airport. I spent most of my time just hanging out with my sister and the kids. We went to Denver Zoo and a local children's museum. I played trucks and trains with my nephew. I flew him around like an airplane, and my back is still hurting. We went for walks around the neighborhood and spent lots of time at the two playgrounds in the area. We also just spent one morning out shopping for groceries.

Colorado is one of the great states for beer. In addition to being home to Coors, one of beer's Goliaths, Colorado just might be the best craft brew state. According to this page, breweries from the state have won the most medals awarded by the Brewers Association per capita. Not surprising, Oregon was a strong second. The post is from 2009, so the rankings could have changed.

While grocery shopping, my sister picked up a 12-bottle sample pack from Breckenridge Brewery which contained three bottles each of four different brews. I tried each of the styles. The first one that I drank was the Vanilla Porter. I thought it was a solid porter, but I did not taste any vanilla flavor. Perhaps, the vanilla flavor was very subtle and just helped with the overall taste. The second bottle that I tried was the Agave Wheat. Including agave nectar in a beer is an interesting touch. The beer was a very good wheat beer, but like the vanilla in the porter, the wheat did not taste like agave. Of course, I really do not know the true taste of agave. I am just familiar with the taste of various tequilas and that does not seem to be the taste of the Agave Wheat brew.

Next, I tried the Avalanche Ale which is an amber ale. I generally like amber ales, and the Avalanche was no different. Conversely, I am generally not a fan of IPAs, and the final beer that I tried in the pack was an IPA. I know that as I continue to try IPAs and double IPAs, I have learned to enjoy those styles. I found Breckenridge Brewery's Lucky U IPA to be very drinkable.

During my stay in Colorado, I did get one opportunity to visit Boulder. I met up with one of my former managers and his fiancée for dinner and a few beers. We started out with burgers at Mountain Sun Pub & Brewery which is right on Pearl Street in downtown Boulder. I tried the Lil' Willy which is a Scottish-style ale and the Blackberry Wheat. I thought the Lil' Willy was very good and the Blackberry Wheat was...well, interesting. The burger was good as well. We finished with a drink at BJ's Pizza, Grill & Brewery which is also on Pearl Street. I tried the Harvest Hefeweizen which was a good example of the style. I was tempted by their Nutty Brewnette or at least the logo. I think they should expand the pin-up girl theme for their Brewhouse Blonde (which is a Kölsch-style ale), Jeremiah Red (an Irish-style ale), Oasis Amber, and either the porter or stout (think Bettie Page).

3-2-1 Contacts

As I mentioned in my previous post, I finally got around to getting a new cellphone on Monday. My new LG Rumor Touch was delivered on Wednesday. I was easily able to activate it online. The LG is only my third cellphone with the aged Sanyo RL-4920 being the second. The first was the truly ancient Sanyo SCP-4700 from way back in 2002. That phone was still in my possession until I disposed of it today.

Getting back to a bit more modern technology, I was able activate my new phone on my own online, but I also wanted to transfer my contact list over to the new phone. I needed some outside assistance with that process. This morning, I took both my phones over to the local Sprint shop on Creedmoor Road. After a short wait, I was called up to the counter. While the clerk was intrigued by my vintage phone, that particular location unfortunately did not have the necessary connector to make the data transfer. The guy suggested that I try the location at the corner of Millbrook Road and Atlantic Avenue. I drove over that shop, and after an even shorter wait, the lady at the counter called my name. Again, the clerks were amused by the prehistoric technology. Fortunately though, they had the right connector. However, the first few tries at exporting my contact list were not successful. The lady took my phone in the back and gave the connector on the bottom a few shots of compressed air to clean it out. That must have done the trick because the next try was successful. Importing the list to my new phone was uneventful. Now I am a happy camper with my new phone.

Moving on to another topic, I have just cracked open the bottle of home brew marked with the number 14, and I am pouring the contents into a frosted mug. I have high hopes for this bottle with the highest number, but I am afraid this one will be another disappointment. There is very little discernible head which dissipates quickly. There are a few white specks floating on the top, but that is not unexpected for the bottles which contain more of the carbonation tablets. The taste is about the same slight sourness as the previous bottles. I do not think it is particularly successful. I still have three bottles remaining. Those bottles are numbered 10, 11.5 (which contains a piece of a broken tablet), and 12. The bottles marked 10 and 11.5 have been in the fridge for a while now. The bottle marked 12 was still in the closet until I just moved it to the fridge. Perhaps 12 will be the magic number.

Number Nine

Today, I cracked open the bottle of home brew which I had labeled with the number 9 ("Number Nine, Number Nine") to indicate that I had added nine carbonation tablets. Nine was the least number of tablets that I used in a bottle. As expected, the result is a very flat beer. The taste is also a bit sour, but I believe that would be relieved with more carbonation. The white specks which are remnants of the Munton's CarbTabs were not an issue with this bottle.

Looking back over some previous posts, I noticed that two recent posts had an interesting and not immediately apparent connection. In a post from March 6, I mentioned that I saw the new Tron movie at the local $1.50 theater. Then on March 12, I posted about the bottle of home brew that contained thirteen carbonation tablets. So what, or more precisely who, is the common connection? That would be the lovely Olivia Wilde, of course. Yeah, yeah, it is a bit of a stretch, but it seemed much more interesting before I started typing this. Anyway, she plays the character Quorra in Tron: Legacy. She is probably most well known from the television show House M.D. where she plays Dr. Remy 'Thirteen' Hadley. OK, enough of that silliness, although I did I get through all that without mentioning that her character is bisexual or linking to her photos in GQ, Maxim and others (oh well).

In other news, I have finally gotten around to ordering myself a new cellphone. I have been with Sprint since I bought my first cellphone quite a few years ago. My current phone is a Sanyo RL-4920 which was originally introduced back in 2004 or so. My current contract with Sprint expired way back in 2007, but I have just never bothered to get a new phone by signing up for a new contract. I recently changed my mind, and today, I ordered the LG Rumor Touch and agreed to a two-year contract. By the way, I got the blue one and not the purple one.

For the Love of the Bar

I live in the northwestern region of Raleigh. The primary artery in this area is Glenwood Avenue, and my neighborhood is about halfway between the south end of Glenwood in the Glenwood South area of Raleigh and the Brier Creek neighborhood which has exploded over the last few years. It is also halfway between Crabtree Valley Mall and Raleigh-Durham International Airport. While my neighborhood has experienced some growth recently, it is a mainly a middle-aged neighborhood relative to other areas. Similar to its geographical location, it is squeezed in between the fresh-faced Brier Creek and the older downtown area. However, I would argue downtown Raleigh, particularly Glenwood South, experiences much less turnover than the more northern end of the avenue.

The Glenwood South area of Raleigh is known for its restaurants, bars and clubs. Some, like Hibernian and Sullivan's, have been in the their locations for years. Others, like Cashmere and Natty Greene's are newer and replaced previous establishments. I have spent more than a few nights out and about in Glenwood South. For a few years, El had an apartment that was only a short distance from the main strip of Glenwood South. She and I and many of our friends could walk from her place to the various establishments in the area. Nowadays however, I seldom make it downtown.

While the nightlight in my area of Raleigh is not quite so well known as Glenwood South and other areas of downtown, there are plenty of places to have a drink in the north and west areas of Raleigh. I occasionally venture out to Sawmill Tap Room, Edwards Mill, and the new Buffalo Brothers location. Back before they closed, I payed visits to Crowley's and Ben's Place which is soon to be reborn as The Luxury Box. However, I usually just frequent three places that are found along Glenwood Avenue.

Switching gears slightly, a problem that I have with people in general, but particularly with people that hang out in bars, is the gross overuse of the word "love". At least in the bars that I frequent, people are always saying how much they love each other. They also love the bartenders and servers, and of course, the bar staff always loves their patrons. To me, it all seems a bit unseemly. I understand the problem is really with the limitations resulting from the English language having a single word for love. That single word is used to cover love in all of its various forms. The ancient Greeks were much smarter about the subject than us. In fact, they were intelligent enough to have four different words for the different types of love. It just so happens that the three establishments that I most frequent can be mapped to three of the four type of love as defined by the Greeks.

First is O'Malley's which represents familial love (or storge). O'Malley's is an Irish pub that is located in the nondescript Oak Park shopping center where it is sandwiched between a hair salon and a framing store. The parking lot is populated with motorcycles and muscle cars as well as SUVs and minivans. On warm days, people of all shapes and sizes are out front with tasty beverages in their hands. For better or worse, the regular patrons of O'Malley's seem to be like a large family to me. Most of the folks seems to be particularly close and have come to be dependent on each other. However, there is also that peculiar aspect of everybody knowing the business of everybody else and all that goes along with that.

If O'Malley's is familial love, then Blinco's represents fraternal love (or philia which incidentally, is what makes Philadelphia the "City of Brotherly Love"). Blinco's is obviously a sports bar. While there are four televisions in all of O'Malley's, Blinco's has more than twenty. Blinco's is in a free-standing building that faces Glenwood Avenue. It is located in front of a shopping center whose major tenant is a Havertys furniture store. The patrons of Blinco's are generally a friendly lot. The same folks are regularly saddled up to the bar playing Buzztime trivia or poker on some of the televisions. In the fall, Blinco's is the place to be on Saturdays and Sundays to watch some football.

Finally, there is Lynnwood Grill which would be eros or what most people think when the term "love" is used. However, I do not mean that Lynnwood is love in a romantic sense but in the sense of pure lust. Lynnwood will soon be moving into a brand new building that is currently under construction across the street from its current location. The new building will have with a rooftop bar which will offer a great view of the nearby Lowe's and Target stores. At the moment, Lynnwood is holding down one end of a small strip mall. (Drinking establishments that are located in shopping centers is a common theme here in North Raleigh.) This strip mall is located between a movie theater and a Goodwill store. Most of the time, Lynnwood Grill (or "LG" as the regulars say) masquerades as a pizza joint and also serves as a watering hole for the local neighborhood. In reality though, Lynnwood is something much else. To put it simply, on weekend nights, Lynnwood becomes a prototypical meat market.

As I mentioned above, there are actually four different types of love as defined by the Greeks. As I also mentioned above, I really only frequent three local bars which map to three of those four types. I tried searching my mind to find a fourth bar which could represent the fourth type of love which is agape. To me, agape seems only slightly different from storge or familial love. Agape is suppose to be the highest form which is unconditional love, sacrificial love or charity. I guess love progresses up from eros to philia to storge and finally to agape. Anyway, I could not come up with a place that for me fit the agape type of love. Perhaps that place in on my couch with a cold glass of the home brew in my hand. Or this could mean I have not yet found a bar that I truly love.

Another Home Brew Update

As a reminder, I currently have one-liter bottles of Mr. Beer's Octoberfest Vienna Lager which I mixed up back in January and bottled two weeks later using Munton's CarbTabs to create carbonation. Today, I cracked open the unlucky bottle marked with the number 13. I trouble getting the thirteen carbonation tablets into this bottle and ended up dropping three on the counter. I poured the brew into a frozen glass mug. Even with the thirteen carbonation tablets, there was very little head. There were white specks floating at the top of the beer. The taste was sour but still drinkable.

Some New Kicks

The return of the friendly neighborhood gathering ended early tonight for yours truly. I figured I could use the extra free time on a post.

This post is for any of you out there who happen to have a shoe fetish, particularly for shoes of the athletic type. I have recently been shopping for a new pair of running shoes. I bought my most recent pair of shoes back in 2009. They were the pair that I wore when El and I ran (well, traveled) the Las Vegas Half Marathon that year. I see that the Las Vegas Marathon and 1/2 Marathon will now be held at night which sounds like fun, but they were held in the morning in 2009. If you are wondering, I finished the half in two hours, 55 minutes and 37 seconds which was only good for 13,632 place out of 17,920 overall entrants.

Back to my shoes, my most recent pair are the ASICS GT-2140 in the electric blue. I really like those shoes, but they are by now well-worn and needed to be replaced. The current version of those shoes is the GT-2160. I went to a few running and general athletic stores, and I checked out several pairs of the GT-2160. I particularly liked the look of the flame-colored ones. My pair of GT-2140 are size 12 and a half, and most stores do not stock half sizes over 12. The ones that did have my exact size did not have the flame-colored version in stock.

However, what I found during my various stops was that the stores still had stock of the previous version, the GT-2150. I spoke to one sales clerk, and she told me the GT-2150 was basically the same as the GT-2160. The GT-2150 was priced considerably cheaper. I went home and started searching the Internet for the GT-2150. I found an online store that had my size available, but I decided to skip the flame color and go with the brass. The shoes arrived about a week and a half ago which was only a couple of days after placed my order. I went for a run last weekend wearing the new shoes, and they felt really good. Now I just need to remember to buy new running shoes more often. Perhaps, my next pair will be the GT-2160 in the flame.

A Little Bit of This and That

Forewarning, this post has no particular rhyme or reason.

Today, I went to the local $1.50 movie theater and saw Tron: Legacy. While it was a decent movie, it seemed like a great movie to see in 3-D, particularity IMAX 3D. Speaking of IMAX 3D, I have a guy date (is that the proper term or it is man date or bro date?) with one of my coworkers to see Hubble 3D at the local IMAX theater. He said he bought one of those two-for-one deals from Groupon or LivingSocial, but his wife balked at going to the Hubble movie with him. He has not mentioned when he wants to go, but perhaps that will be something to do next week.

Speaking of next week, this Friday marks the return of the friendly neighborhood social gathering. It was previously held every other Friday night, but recently, it has disappeared from the schedule. The last gathering was back in November for the birthday of one of the guys. That event was actually on a Saturday. The last one that I attended prior to that was at the end of July. Now, I have even volunteered to help. I have been managing the invite list, and perhaps in a few weeks, I will even host an event at my place.

Back to today, I stopped by my favorite used bookstore, The Reader's Corner, over on Hillsborough Street. As usual, I picked up a handful of books. This time, my book purchases were in three pairs plus a single. There was a whole stack of Ian Fleming's James Bond paperbacks that were printed in the mid-60s. While I am a big fan of the Bond movies, I have never read any of the books. I was able to control myself and only purchase the first two in the series, Casino Royale and Live and Let Die. Interestingly, those are not the first two that are turned into movies. The first Bond movie was Dr. No which was released in 1962 and was based on the sixth book in the series. The second movie was 1963's From Russia with Love which was the fifth book.

In addition to the two Bond novels, I picked up two books by Gore Vidal, Julian from 1964, and Myra Breckinridge from 1968. I also bought two books on science. One was The Dragons of Eden by Carl Sagan (of "billions and billions" fame). I bought the other science-related book purely for the title, In Search of Schrödinger's Cat by John R. Gribbin. If you do not know about Erwin Schrödinger and his infamous cat, then you should ask somebody (like a physicist) or just look it up on Wikipedia. You might also want to read up on Werner Heisenberg and his uncertainty principle. Moving right along, my final unrelated purchase was The Fourth K by Mario Puzo which is not part of Puzo's Mafia series.

I think that is enough randomness for today.

The Very Useful People at Merriam-Webster

I recently found the message below in my personal email archive. Unfortunately, I do not remember the exact question that I asked the fine folks at Merriam-Webster back in 2002, but it seems that I was concerned about the earliest usage of the word for the performer of a activity being dated earlier (1930) than the word for the activity itself (1932).

From: James ████████████ <█████████@merriam-webster.com>
Sent: Wed, March 13, 2002 11:55:16 AM
Subject: Re: striptease

Dear Jim,

As an historical research editor here at Merriam-Webster, I edit the
dates of first usage, and look for earlier examples of use. I
frequently deal with the troubling issue you bring up.

It seems like "stripteaser" implies "striptease." How could the name
for a doer of some action be formed, if that action hadn't been named?

The problem is that we are not dating when we surmise the word to have
come into use, but the first actual quote we can find of it in print or
manuscript. I can surmise "striptease" to have preceded "stripteaser,"
but the first citation of "stripteaser" we can find is from _Variety_
magazine (as are all the early citations for both words) from 1930,
while the first time "striptease" was used (in _Variety_) was 1936.

This may seem picky, but proof and specificity are absolutely necessary
in dating word usage, and for good reason. I have often found pairs of
words with similarly reversed-seeming dates, for which I have found
proof that the seemingly basic form was not formed first. This may (or
may not) even be the case with "striptease." _Variety_ used "the strip
and tease" as early as 1930. "Stripteaser" may have been formed directly
from "the strip and tease," and the latter only later compacted in
speech to "striptease."

Sincerely,

James ████████████
Merriam-Webster, Inc.
47 Federal Street, P.O. Box 281
Springfield, MA 01102
█████████@Merriam-Webster.com
http://www.Merriam-Webster.com

Errrrrr!

I am blatantly stealing this little tidbit from the News Ticker section of today's Uni Watch post, but errrrrr!

For Kush

(Yes, we're going to Hell)

1. Candace
   
2. Marymac
3. Sarah
4. Stephanie (Brownie Queen)
5. Morgan
6. Megan
7. Tracy
8. Care Bear
9. Krista
10. Jamie
11. Heather
12. Vickie
13. Miss Fedora (the other Heather)
    

Another Bottle

I decided to try the second bottle from the latest home brew batch. Next in line was the bottle marked 11 plus a little dot. This bottle has me a bit worried. I added the little dot because I dropped one of the carbonation tabs on the counter. I then picked it up with my fingers and put it in the bottle. There is some concern around the Internet about handling carbonation tabs. Some people suggest using little tongs or perhaps tweezers (sanitized and sterilized, I assume) to get the tablets out of the package and inserted in the bottle. Having neither small tongs nor tweezers (clean or otherwise), I went with cutting a small opening in the corner of the package, placing that opening very near to the top of the bottle, and then sliding a tablet out of the package and into the bottle. I managed quite well with only a few drops. Some dropped tablets hit the floor. I discarded those. However, I decided to use the ones that hit the counter. There was one of those counter tablets in this bottle. As it so happens, the only other bottle that contains dropped tablets is the one with 13 tablets, three of which were dropped on the counter. I am not superstitious, but that 13 bottle might have some surprises in store.

Back to this bottle. The initial pour is completely flat. Again, I believe more time carbonating is required. Surprisingly, the taste does not seem as bad as the previous bottle. The sour taste is still there, but it is much subdued. Or perhaps I am just getting use to the taste with the second bottle. Sourness aside, I do like the Octoberfest Vienna Lager. It has a nice amber color and a malty taste.

While searching the Internet for information on the Vienna Lager, I found out something that I should have realized earlier. This brew can not be a true lager since it was fermented at room temperature. Lagers are brewed at lower temperatures than ales, and they use a special type of yeast. Wikipedia tells me lagers are brewed at around 50 °F as opposed to 64 °F for ales. Lager yeast are mutated bottom-feeding varieties, specifically Saccharomyces pastorianus. Now I know.

Home Brew Update

Today, I got around to cracking open the first bottle of the latest batch of the home brew. I selected one of the two bottles that contained twelve of the Munton's CarbTabs. The amber-colored brew is a bit of a disappointment. It is flat which probably means that it needs to sit a bit longer while more carbonation is created. This is not unexpected with the Munton's CarbTabs which I have read take up to three weeks for the carbonation period. There are also white specks in the brew which is also not unexpected with the CarbTabs. The taste is sour which is more disconcerting. A search of the Internet shows several possible answers. Perhaps what I am tasting is just stale beer and additional carbonation will fix the problem. On the other hand, the yeast might have been dead in the packet or perhaps killed by me if the wort was too warm. Or the batch might have needed to ferment a little longer. I will try another bottle in a few days, but I think the odds are that I have myself a bad batch of brew.

The Last Crusade

When I am in the gym, Glenn Beck's television show is usually on the one television tuned to Fox News. While I am on the elliptical machine, I watch Around the Horn and Pardon the Interruption on ESPN, but occasionally during commercials, I switch over to see what Mr. Beck is all teared up about. As one would might expect, Mr. Beck's most recent concern is the forthcoming Armageddon ignited by the troubles in Egypt and somewhat related demonstrations in Tunisia, Jordan, and Yemen. Mr. Beck sees these uprisings as a beginning of an organized attempt by Islamic groups to take over the world.

I really have no opinion on Mr. Beck's concerns. However, as an example of Muslim aggressiveness, he goes all the way back to the Crusades. Now am I not an expert on those religious wars of the Middle Ages, but I am pretty sure all of the Crusades, except the last one, were due to Christian armies invading Muslim territory which in those times included Palestine. The point being that the Crusades were the result of aggressiveness by Christians and not Muslims.

Of course, the Last Crusade is not a war, but the third of the Indiana Jones movies. It's the one where Indiana Jones, played by Harrison Ford in one of his iconic roles, and his father, played by Sean Connery, are searching for the Holy Grail while being pursued by Nazis. The movie has that great line delivered by Connery, "We named the dog Indiana."

A Beer in My Future

Home Brew Update: I have read in various places on the web that if you use Munton's CarbTabs, some leftover particles of the tablets could show up floating in the beer. Some people suggested simply ignoring the particles while others suggested giving the bottles an extra turn midway through the carbonation period. Today, I gave each bottle of the latest home brew batch a couple of extra inversions. I did notice some particles in the bottles, particularly the bottles in which I put more of the carbonation tablets. There was also some white residue in the very bottom of some bottles. A few taps on the bottom helped with dissipating some of that white film.

I am finally adding a second beer to my list for 2011. I stopped by my favorite wine and beer store yesterday. I was in the store last weekend, and there had just been a run on the draft beer. Their shipment of new kegs had been a little short that week, so they were down to just two taps. Luckily, one of those two drafts was Reissdorf Kölsch, so I was good to go.

This week, the keg situation had been resolved, and there was a brew that was new to me. The new brew was Nostradamus by Brasserie Caracole which is located in Belgium and according to Wikipedia, is an "artisanal brewery". The store had this brew listed on their board as a brown ale. When I think brown ale, of course, I think about Newcastle which is an English-style brown ale. Newcastle is known for a taste that is malty and nutty. The Nostradamus definitely did not taste like that. It is categorized as Belgian Strong Dark Ale, and it is a pretty big beer at 9.5% ABV. The taste is strong and complex, and I probably would have enjoyed it much better if I had not been expecting the smooth malt taste of Newcastle.

A Book About a Bar

As I mentioned in my first post of 2011, I have been intending to write more posts about books that I have read. Since I just finished at this very moment a book that I thought was really great, I figure it is a great time to get back to posting about books. The book in question is The Tender Bar which a memoir by journalist J. R. Moehringer. It recounts Moehringer's youth and early adult life. He grew up in Manhasset, New York with his mother. The town is on Long Island and is best known as part of the setting for the book The Great Gatsby. This book includes several references to The Great Gatsby, most of which I probably did not fully grasp since I have not read that particular book.

During the early part of the book, Moehringer and his mother live mainly with her parents. They move out on their own several times, only to end up moving back. The dilapidated house of his grandparents is also home to his mother's brother, Charlie, and frequently his mother's sister and her six children. Like he and his mother, his aunt and cousins also frequently move out of and then back into the house. Moehringer's father is largely absent, although he makes a few rare appearances throughout the book. Since his father works as a DJ, Moehringer grows up really only knowing his father as a voice (or the Voice) on the radio.

The book is populated by a variety of interesting characters. However, the star of the book as referenced by the title is not any of the actual people, but the corner bar and restaurant where most of the human characters congregate. At the start of the book, the pub is named Dickens after Charles Dickens. It is later renamed Publicans (after barkeeps and not tax collectors) and is reborn as Edison's in the epilogue. the author's Uncle Charlie is one of the pub's bartenders. As the book progresses, Moehringer gets to know and befriends the bar's owner, most of its employees, and many of its patrons.

The main theme of the book deals with Moehringer seeking out men to fill the void left by his missing father. The early parts of the book recount the misadventrues of his youth in Manhasset. Eventually, he and his mother leave New York and move to Arizona. Some of the stories about his teenage years in Arizona and summers back in Manhasset are painfully awkward. At the urging of his mother and two shopkeepers at the bookstore where he works, Moehringer applies to and is accepted at Yale. His time at Yale turns out to be as equally awkward as those of his younger years. He feels out of place among his fellow students who are mostly from the upper crusts of society. He eventually ends up playing lapdog to a beautiful co-ed. After she leaves him for someone that is more her social equal, he begins to spend most of his time drinking and reading as oppose to concentrating on his classes.

Somehow he manages to graduate from Yale, but he ends up back in Manhasset where he spending most of his time hanging out with the gang at Publicans. His continued misadventures include a stint in the housewares department at the local Lord & Taylor and his time as a copy boy with The New York Times. The main section of the book concludes with Moehringer moving out to Colorado to live with his cousin and a friend.

The book was published in 2005, so it is no surprise that the epilogue revolves around the author, who at that time was a reporter for the Los Angeles Times, returning to his hometown shortly after September 11, 2001. I imagine writing about the New York area around that time would be difficult particularly for a native. The book has a generally depressed feel, so I thought tacking on the even more depressing epilogue risked a complete nose dive. However, I think Moehringer manages admirably to convey the strong emotions of that time without having the tone completely bottom out.

Reality Mimics Fantasy

As I mentioned yesterday, the NFL's two conference championship games will be played today. I know that I can not cover anything here that has not already been mentioned over and over again on television, radio and the Internet. For instance, the four participating teams are some of the NFL's most historic. The Chicago Bears, Green Bay Packers, and Pittsburgh Steelers are three of the eight oldest NFL franchises. Those three teams are also among the five most successful in the NFL's history. Throw in the New York Jets and their upset victory back in Super Bowl III, and the four teams still standing have eleven Super Bowl championships and 28 championships overall. Another interesting note is that the Bears and Packers will be playing each other for the 182nd time but for only the second time in the playoffs. Then there is this completely pointless little nugget.

One fact about these two games that I find particularly interesting is that both the Packers and Jets have made their respective conference championship games as six seeds. As the worst seed, sixth-seeded teams generally have the toughest road. Wild card teams, the five and six seeds, have to play all their playoff games on the road. It is not surprising then that only one sixth-seeded team has even made it to the Super Bowl. That team was the 2005 Pittsburgh Steelers who won Super Bowl XL. This year, the playoffs for the Packers and Jets have been particularly difficult since they both will have faced the top three seeds in their conference.

I know that people, mostly guys, discussing their fantasy football teams can be terribly boring. I broke the taboo twice last year with fantasy-related posts, one of which in particular was a fantasy geek-out. However, one of my two fantasy teams followed a similar arc to this season's Green Bay and New York Jets teams. My team was led by quarterback Michael Vick of the Eagles, running back Michael Turner of the Falcons, and wide receiver Dwayne Bowe of the Chiefs. The team finished the regular season with a 6-7 record, but I think my team was deceptively solid. During the regular season, they scored the third most points. They also had the most points scored against them which helps account for some of their losses.

Like this season's Seattle Seahawks, my fantasy team made the playoffs with a losing record. Like the Jets and Packers, my team was the sixth and lowest seed, and like those teams, my team had to face the top three seeds. In the first round, my team convincingly beat the number three seed. That team had opened the season with a seven-game win streak but had faded in the second half. In the semifinal round, my team faced the second-seeded team which was also the second-highest scoring team. My team won a shoot-out, and the losing team would have won the other semifinal game. My team matched up with the top-seeded team in the championship game. The one seed had dominated the season. They were the highest-scoring team during the regular season and were atop the power rankings for 13 out of the 16 weeks, but not the final rankings. The outcome was not decided until Tuesday since we had to wait for the Eagles and Vick to play the Vikings. My team managed to squeaked out a three-point victory to claim the league championship.

Obviously, I know that the performance of my fantasy team has no bearing on the actual playoffs teams, but I am interested to see if the Jets or Packers or both will be able to duplicate the success of my sixth-seeded fantasy team. I have no particular rooting interest in these games, but having the two six seeds end up meeting in this year's Super Bowl would make a riveting story.

The Carolina Effect

Home Brew Update: Since I expect that I will be spending most of tomorrow sitting on my lazy ass watching the two NFL conference championship games, I went ahead and took care of bottling the latest batch of home brew today. This was my first time using Munton's CarbTabs. According to various websites, the number of tablets to use in my one-liter bottles varied from nine to fourteen. Therefore, I decided to try a little experiment. I have eight bottles. I put different numbers of tablets in the bottles and noted that number on the bottle cap. I expect the bottle with only nine tablets to be flat, while the bottle with 14 tablets will be extra carbonated. Stop by for a taste in two weeks.

This post is a continuation of a topic from a previous post. In that post, I discussed the new head coach of the Carolina Panthers and my prediction for his time holding the reigns. I based my prediction on the records of his three predecessors. While my thought process made sense to me, looking back over the post, I am not sure that I made it clear that I saw a discernible pattern of peaks and valleys in the records of the previous Panthers head coaches. Being the spreadsheet geek that I am, I made this graph of the head coaching records of the Panthers. The basic pattern is a mediocre year with a record around .500 followed by a peak year with wins in the double digits. Finally, there is a two-year decline with a mediocre year followed by a dreadful year and the coach being fired.



Dom Capers had one peak year in 1996 with the Panthers winning the NFC West division and beating the Dallas Cowboys in the first round of the playoffs. George Seifert did not have any peak seasons. His first mediocre year as head coach was immediately followed by a two-year decline. John Fox had three peak seasons. In 2003, the team won the NFL South division and made it to the Super Bowl. In 2005, the team made the playoffs as a wild card and went to the conference championship game where they lost to the top-seeded Seattle Seahawks. In 2008, the Panthers won 12 games for the second time in their history and the first since 1996. The team enjoyed a first round bye in the playoffs, but then got destroyed by the Arizona Cardinals in the divisional round with quarterback Jake Delhomme turning the football over five times. The Cards would go on to play in Super Bowl XLIII. My prediction for Ron Rivera's tenure was based on averaging the one peak season under Capers and the three peak seasons under Fox. I gave Rivera a total of six years with two cycles of a mediocre season followed by a peak season and then a two-year decline.

The Panthers even having a mediocre season in 2011 is not a gimme. The team is coming off a dreadful two-win season and in reality, might be looking at one or two rebuilding years before becoming competitive again. Perhaps, a mediocre 8-8 or 7-9 season is out of the question for next season. While change is the only constant in the NFL as it is in life, looking at the team's opponents for next season, it might be hard to find seven or eight wins. The Panthers did not record a win against their divisional opponents this past season. Atlanta and New Orleans should be strong again, and Tampa Bay will be looking to continue their improvement. Hopefully however, the Panthers can steal two wins next season and go 2-4 in the division. The Panthers will play the four teams from the NFC North. Tomorrow, the Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears are playing for the NFC Championship. I have to assume those two team will be solid next season. The Detroit Lions have been improving, and much about the Minnesota Vikings is up in the air including where they will be playing their home games. At best, the Panthers might go 2-2 against that division, but 1-3 is more realistic.

Next season, the Panthers will also play the four teams from the AFC South division, and they might do pretty well. The Indianapolis Colts should be formidable as long as they have Peyton Manning under center. However, I think the games against the Houston Texans, Jacksonville Jaguars, and Tennessee Titans should all be winnable for the Panthers. I say that they will go 2-2. Finally, the Panthers have games against Arizona and Washington, both of whom also finished last in their divisions. Those two games could be wins as well, but I say the Panthers will split them. To add it all up, 2-4 in their division plus 1-3 versus the NFC North plus 2-2 versus the AFC South plus 1-1 equals 6-10. I guess that record would be considered mediocre.

On the other hand, both the Falcons and Saints collapsed in their playoff games. While Atlanta, New Orleans and Tampa Bay all had impressive double-digit win seasons, I think there is a good chance that those team are not quite as good as their records indicate. The Panthers were truly dreadful this past seasons, and since their fellow NFC South teams each had two games against Panthers, I think their records are a bit inflated. I call this hypothesis the Carolina effect. Other playoff team also had wins over Panthers, so those wins would have to be discounted as well. I wanted to see if the NFC standings would look different if the 10 losses that the Panthers had against NFC opponents were removed. Once again, I went to a spreadsheet. I used the final NFL standings by conference for 2010 which can be found here. I updated the records to remove wins over the Panthers, and the winning percentages were recalculated for the affected teams based on 15 or 14 games instead of 16.



Based on the result, it turns out that my great theory does not hold water. Removing the wins over the Panthers does not change the conference standings. The top three teams, Atlanta, Chicago and New Orleans, all had victories over Carolina, so discounting those victories was basically a wash. Philadelphia and Green Bay did not play the Panthers, but that did not help them gain any ground in the standings. Of course, it is impossible to say how the standings would be different if the games against the Panthers were replaced by games against better teams. The Packers could not have overtaken the Bears for the NFC North championship, but Green Bay might have gotten the higher wild card seed over the Saints. The Eagles might have gotten the second seed and a first round bye instead of the Bears. Those changes would have drastically altered the face of the playoffs.

Completely Unrelated

A friend of mine named Rob Segall has recently started a new blog focused on recruiting, particularly in the field of technology. Rob spent several years as a recruiter for IBM. Incidentally, IBM turns 100 years old this year. The company was incorporated in 1911 as the Computing Tabulating Recording Corporation (CTR). Back to Rob, he had a cup of coffee with Hewlett-Packard and is now with Cisco. I consider Rob to be an expert in recruiting. Granted, he is friend, and I think he is a great guy, so I might be biased. However, I think he has fabulous ideas in regards to the future of recruiting. Cisco is lucky to have him in their ranks.

Training Wheels

In my post from last weekend, I discussed using Munton's CarbTabs instead of sugar when it comes time for bottling the batch of home brew that is currently fermenting in the keg. Unfortunately, the store that I visited last Saturday was out of carbonation tabs and drops. I considered ordering the CarbTabs online, but I did not want to pay $5 on shipping for a $3 product. The good news is that yesterday, I was able to pick up a pack of CarbTabs at American Brewmaster which a great beer- and wine-making store located off Capital Boulevard here in Raleigh.

There was one thing that kind of irked me while I was in the store. I was in the line to check out, and the guy manning the cash register got a call from somebody asking about supplies for their Mr. Beer kit. The guy told the person that the store did not carry Mr. Beer products, but the store could help them with some of the necessary supplies. The particular problem is that Mr. Beer kits have a two-gallon keg while most brewing supplies support five-gallon batches or larger. What irked me though, was after hanging up the phone, the clerk snidely (in my opinion) commented something to the effect that the person should get a real brewing kit. I do not think that veteran home-brewers should be critical of the Mr. Beer kits. I think that is similar to making fun of kiddie bikes with training wheels. I hope someday to move up to a more full-functional brewing setup. That might not ever happen, but if it does, the Mr. Beer kit would have been the initial impetus for getting me to that spot.

Moving on to another topic, I have changed the title of my previous post from Thursday twice now. Since this is my site, I suppose I can do as I please. I originally went with just "Same Old, Same Old", but I was not completely happy with that title. The next day, I changed it to ""Same Old Story" which is closer to what I intended. This morning, I changed the title again, this time to "Same Old Song and Dance" which is the title of a Aerosmith song. We know that I like referencing songs. Perhaps tomorrow I will change the title once again maybe to "Same Ol' Situation" which of course is a song by Mötley Crüe.

Same Old Song and Dance

On Tuesday, my favorite NFL team, the Carolina Panthers, introduced Ron Rivera as their new head coach. Rivera replaced John Fox whose contract the Panthers let expire after the team went 2-14 this season. Fox was expected to rebound promptly, and just today, he was hired as head coach of the Denver Broncos. Before joining the Panthers in 2002, Fox was defensive coordinator (DC) for the New York Giants. He posted a .507 winning percentage in nine seasons with the Panthers.

To me, the hire of Ron Rivera is just a repeat of the same tired story for the Panthers. The magic number in this story is four, and the magic letters are 'D' and 'C'. During their search, the management of the Panthers interviewed four people. The four, Rivera formerly of the San Diego Chargers, Perry Fewell from the Giants, Greg Manusky from the San Francisco 49ers, and Rob Ryan from the Cleveland Browns, were all DCs.

Rivera is the fourth head coach for the Panthers, and all four were former DCs. Three of four, including Rivera, transitioned directly from coordinator positions. Only the team's second coach, George Seifert, had previous head coaching experience. Seifert was DC for the 49ers under the Hall of Famer, Bill Walsh. In 1989, Seifert replaced Walsh as head coach of the Niners and posted an impressive .766 winning percentage in eight seasons. He retired from the Niners in 1996 with the highest career winning percentage in NFL history before returning in 1999 as head coach of the Panthers. His stint with the Panthers would only last three years while he posted a .333 winning percentage.

The first head coach of the Panthers was Dom Capers. Capers was previously the DC for the Pittsburgh Steelers before taking over the Panthers. He posted a .468 winning percentage in four years. After the Panthers, Capers went back to a DC position with the Jacksonville Jaguars before getting another chance at breaking in an expansion team when he became the first head coach of the Houston Texans in 2002. Since 2009, he has been DC for the Green Bay Packers.

Getting back to Rivera, I only know what I have read about him on the Internet, but let me give a preview of Rivera's tenure with the Panthers based on the records of his predecessors. I am going to be generous and give him six years. As I mentioned above, Capers lasted four year, Seifert only survived three years, and Fox hung around for nine years. This year, Rivera will lead the Panthers to a surprising turnaround and go 7-9. In 1995, their inaugural season, the Panthers went 7-9 with Capers as head coach. The Panthers went 8-8 in 1999, Seifert's first year. The Panthers went 7-9 in 2002 which was Fox's first year.

Rivera's second year will continue the turnaround. The team will go 11-5 and surprisingly win the NFC South. In 1996, the Panthers went 12-4 and won the NFC West in their second year of existence. In 2003, Fox's second year with the team, the Panthers posted a record of 11–5, won the NFC South, and went on to play the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XXXVIII. (Yes, I have the DVD yearbook for the 2003 Panthers). In Rivera's third year, the team will have a mediocre year and go 7-9. The Panthers went 7-9 in their third year under both Capers (1997) and Fox (2004).

I am going to say the Panthers will go 11–5 again in the fourth year of Rivera's watch which is what the team achieved in 2005 in Fox's fourth year. The Rivera yo-yo will continue in his fifth (and second-to-last) year with the team going 7-9. The Panthers went 7-9 in the penultimate seasons for both Capers (1997) and Seifert (2000). Fox fared slightly better in his next-to-last season (2009) as the Panthers went 8-8. In Rivera's sixth and final season, the team will limp to a 2-14 record, and he will be left go at the end of the season. The Panthers only managed a 4-12 record in 1998, their last season under Capers. They were an absolutely dreadful 1-15 in Seifert's final year (2001), and only managed two wins with 14 losses this past season.

Below is my prediction for Rivera's tenure as head coach of the Panthers in table format. I wish the new coach the best of luck, but based on previous experience, my guess is that his career with the Panthers with be an up-and-down affair.

Season	Win	Loss	Win %	Finish
2011	7	9	.438	4th in NFC South
2012	11	5	.688	1st in NFC South
2013	7	9	.438	3rd in NFC South
2014	11	5	.688	2nd in NFC South
2015	7	9	.438	3rd in NFC South
2016	2	14	.125	4th in NFC South
Total	45	51	.469

The Art of Label

This will be my first post of 2011. I intend it to be a recap of the year that was for my little site, but first, here is an update on the ongoing home brewing experiment. I have been meaning to mix up a batch of the home brew since I got back from China, but I have been busy with work and the holidays. Also, due to extenuating circumstances, I found that I did not have a whisk which is needed during the brewing process or any sugar which is needed for bottling. I took care of the first issue yesterday by picking up some whisks along with some other kitchen supplies including measuring cups and measuring spoons.

Instead of buying a bag of sugar which I otherwise did not need, I decided it was time to try another method for creating carbonation. The two main carbonation options are Coopers Carbonation Drops and Munton's CarbTabs. Based on information from various message boards, I understand the main difference between the two is that the Munton's tabs contain mostly glucose (a.k.a. dextrose or corn sugar) and the Coopers drops are a mix of sucrose (or table sugar, 73%) and glucose (27%). While the Coopers drops are suppose to be faster, I decided to go with the CarbTabs.

I also took the opportunity to visit Fifth Season Gardening Company which is located on Hillsborough Street over near the state fairgrounds. In addition to being a gardening store, they also have an inventory of home-brewing supplies. After mastering the Mr. Beer kit, I think I would like to step up to a more full-function kit such as this one from Brewer’s Best. Anyway, the store was out of both the CarbTabs and the Carbonation Drops, so I had to order some of the CarbTabs. Since I assume they will be delivered within two weeks, I went ahead with mixing up the brew and putting it in the keg. I used the last can from El's original gift which was Octoberfest Vienna Lager. Now I need to look into buying some refills.

Moving on, I am a few days late, but I published my first post on this site one year ago on January 3. No, I did not do anything in particular to celebrate this first anniversary. This post is sort of a follow-on to my State of the Site post from back in February where I summarized the first month of the site. For the full year of 2010, I had 62 posts which is an average of just over five posts per month and over one per week. I got off to a strong start with 15 posts in January and 11 in February. After that, my posting frequency dropped off considerably. I averaged only 36 posts over the next ten months or less than one a week.

I came up with the title for this post before I started typing it. My plan is to examine the labels that I have used so far. Of course, leading the pack is the "beer" label with 37 posts which is a whopping 60% of all my posts. I went back and added a new label for posts that were specifically related to home brewing. There are thirteen posts with the new "home brew" label. This post will be number fourteen. The next highest ranking label is "sports" with 22 posts. Those posts cover a variety of different sports including baseball, basketball, football, hockey, and racing. I also went back and added a new "NFL proposal" label to my four posts (so far) on that subject.

None of the other labels cracked double-digits in posts. Next on the list is the "books" label with six posts. As my Goodreads gadget will attest, I have read several books since my last book-related post in March. I just need to try harder to post about what I have read. The next three labels all tied with five posts apiece and are each related to entertainment. Last month, I had one post labeled with both "movies" and "television", and another post labeled with "music". To summarize, my site is primarily focused on beer, sports and various forms of entertainment.