Great White North by Northwest, Part II

This post is a continuation of a previous post that recounted my trip to Vancouver, BC and Portland, OR. The first post covered my stay in the lovely Canadian province of British Columbia which was first trip to Canada. I have subsequently made a second visit to the Great White North this time to Montreal.

This was my third trip to Oregon, and I very much enjoy the area. As I have mentioned in a previous post, Portland is known as "Beervana" due to the large number of breweries in the area. I always look forward to taking advantage of that fact when I visit my friend Alan. We planned our own beer tour on the first day of my visit. Unfortunately, the trip was several weeks ago, so time (not to mention the beer) have started to dull my memories. I do remember that our first stop was not a bar, club or restaurant but a food cart to grab some lunch. After walking past the various carts lining Alder Street, Ninth Avenue, and Tenth Avenue, we chose Emame’s Ethiopian Cuisine. While the food was excellent, it turned out not to be quite as enjoyable as our beer crawl progressed.

I do not remember the name of first bar that we visited, but it was know for the number of whiskeys it carried as can be seen in my photos. Instead of a whiskey, I had a pint of the Total Domination IPA from Ninkasi Brewing Company. I finished the glass, but I would not say that I particularly enjoyed the brew. Our second stop on the tour was Silver Dollar Pizza II. I enjoyed a glass of the Sweet Leaf from Off The Rail Brewing which is located in Forest Grove, Oregon.

For our next stop, we crossed Broadway and stopped into Bailey’s Taproom. This place recently replaced their previous method of displaying the list of their beers with a large display located above the bar. I enjoyed a very nice Kölsch-style ale from Occidental Brewing Company which is named Cloudy Summer. Alan has trouble finishing off his Bourbon Barrel Cappuccino Stout from Lagunitas Brewing Company. Together, we managed to finish off the glass. After Bailey’s, we crossed Ankeny which is a small side street and stepped into Tugboat Brewing Company where I had a Amber Lamps.

Things now start getting particularly hazy. Luckily, I have my handy dandy Twitter account to remind me of the beers I consumed, albeit not exactly where I consumed them. The next beer on the list is a hefeweizen from Pyramid Breweries which is headquartered in Seattle, Washington. For a time, this brew was branded as "Haywire Hefeweizen", but the name has since reverted back to just "Hefeweizen" with the "Haywire" being dropped by the wayside.

The hefeweizen was followed by Twilight Summer Ale from Deschutes Brewery which is one of the Oregon's more well-known breweries. Skipping ahead to Saturday, I accompanied Alan along with his wife and daughter to a picnic for his company which Alan has been responsible for organizing. At the picnic, I had bottles of Mirror Pond Pale Ale and Black Butte Porter both of which are from Deschutes. I also had a bottle of Widmer Hefeweizen from Widmer Brothers Brewery. At the picnic, I enjoyed a small box of maple and bacon ice cream from Fifty Licks Ice Cream in Portland. The maple leaf on the box represents the maple flavor is not a reference to my previous stop in Canada.

Backing up a bit, Friday night continued with beer tastings at the Cascade Brewing Barrel House. I chose to taste sour beers which were on the fruity side. I had the 2011 Nightfall Blackberry, the 2010 Apricot Ale, the 2010 Sang Royal, and the 2010 Kriek. Honestly, I mostly remember those beers being difficult to drink.

Moving on to Saturday night, Alan and I decided to hit some bars in his Lake Oswego neighborhood. We started with some beers at Maher's Irish Brew Pub. There I enjoyed some Magners Irish Cider with Guinness layered on top. The next stop was Firehouse Pub where we ordered a couple of baskets of chicken wings. The wings were over the top on the hot sauce. The extra hot wings led to copious amounts of beer of which I lost track. According to Twitter, I had a blonde ale from some brewing company with "Island" in the name. That turns out to be not particularly useful information. We finished up the night down the street at Gemini Bar and Grill, but those beers are also lost to the drunken haze.

I did have one more Oregon brew before flying home. In the Portland airport, I had a draft of Mom Hefeweizen from Rogue. It seems this beer is also known as Half-E-Weizen, but I will not hold the various names against it. Anyway, that beer is the end of my trip to Vancouver and Portland. Next up in Jim's travels is Boston and then Los Angeles, possibly Santa Clara, maybe a return trip to Montreal, and one or two trips to Las Vegas.

A Beginning

Note: As could be surmised by several of my previous posts, I have been traveling a good bit recently. While looking to kill time during a recent layover, I decided to try my hand at some creative writing. I only managed an opening paragraph. I suppose this story is intended to be erotic fiction as opposed to a Harlequin romance. At the risk of this site being slapped with the dreaded "Adult Content" label, here is my attempt at fiction.

During a layover in a generic airport, I am sitting at in a restaurant with a drink in my hand. Neither the crappy airport food on the table in front of me nor the random sporting events on the multitude of televisions around the bar are particularly interesting to me. Entering the restaurant is a woman in a conservative business suit. I can not help but notice her black stockings and expensive-looking three-inch heels. We make eye contact as she makes her way towards the table next to me. She smiles. She takes off her dark suit jacket before taking a seat in a chair across from me. Unconsciously, she unbuttons the top of her sheer cream-color blouse to let her well-sized breasts breathe. Her skirt rises up her thigh just a bit as her nicely-curved hips shift in an attempt to get more more comfortable in the uncomfortable chair.

Hypothetical Season for Texas

I am afraid this topic will be another that is not of much interest to many of my nonexistent readers. This particular post has been sitting in draft for quite a long time. It feels like I have been working on this post for over a year. I am not sure exactly, but that might not be too far from the truth. I believe that I started writing this post back in 2010 when top-level universities changing athletic conferences was current news. Once again the shifting landscape of college sports is in the news.

Texas Christian University (TCU) is one of the schools that will be changing their conference affiliation. While not exactly geographically-correct, the Horned Frogs will be moving to the Big East Conference for the 2012 season. Of course, TCU switching conferences is reminiscent of the children of Israel wandering in the desert. The Big East will be the fifth conference for TCU in recent memory. Their athletic program was a member of the Southwest Conference until 1996, then the Western Athletic Conference through 2000, followed by Conference USA (C-USA) until 2004, and the Mountain West Conference until this year.

One of my thoughts on this topic is close to being out of date with several schools from the Big 12 Conference, including the University of Texas, considering bolting for the recently expanded Pacific-12 Conference. My thought was that the Texas Longhorns would be able manipulate the Big 12 in an effort to create the possibility of seasons where they could make it all the way to the national championship game while only playing once outside of the state of Texas.

The first step would be for the Big 12 Conference to expand back to twelve team by adding two schools located in Texas such as the University of Houston and Southern Methodist University (SMU). (I originally included TCU prior to the announcement of their move to the Big East.) Both the Houston Cougars and SMU Mustangs are currently members of C-USA. With the exit of Texas A&M University from the Big 12, yet another school would need to be added to keep the number of schools in the conference at twelve. Therefore, I will include UTEP (University of Texas at El Paso) who are also from C-USA in this hypothetical situation. With the addition of the schools from Texas, the Big 12 would again be divided into North and South Divisions with the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University moving to the North Division.

North Division	South Division
Iowa State Cyclones Kansas Jayhawks Kansas State Wildcats Missouri Tigers Oklahoma Sooners Oklahoma State Cowboys	Baylor Bears Houston Cougars SMU Mustangs Texas Longhorns Texas Tech Red Raiders UTEP Miners

In the magical season for the Longhorns, their non-conference games could either be played at home or against teams from Texas, such as a rivalry game against the Texas A&M Aggies. For their conference schedule, they would play the five teams in their division and three games against teams from the North Division. One of the interdivisional games would be the Red River Rivalry game against the Sooners which has been played at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas for many years. One of the other two interdivisional games could be a home game. The third game would be an away game played outside of the state of Texas.

Assuming the Longhorns win their division, they would play in the Big 12 Conference Championship Game. Several times in the past, the championship game has been played in the state of Texas. It is not a stretch of the imagination to assume that Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas would again be a frequent home to the game. The stadium is the new home of the NFL's Dallas Cowboys and hosted the Big 12 Championship Game in 2009 and 2010. Speaking of the Cowboys, their owner, Jerry Jones, would like to see the new stadium get the chance to host the BCS Championship Game. The people in charge of the BCS have stated that they would consider the idea. Thus, it might be possible at some point in the future for the Longhorns (or any of the other Texas schools) to play for the national championship in their own state.

Coffee At Work

One of my coworkers recently bought a Keurig coffee machine for our lab at work. He also bought a variety of K-cups. So far, I have tried two of the flavors. I have enjoyed several cups of Caramel Vanilla Cream from Green Mountain Coffee. I do not think that the vanilla and caramel combination is quite as good as plain French vanilla, but it is much better than the combination of butter toffee and coffee.

I have been trying to cut down some on consuming caffeine, so I tried a cup of the decaffeinated version of Donut House coffee which is also by Green Mountain. I think decaf coffee is somewhat pointless, but the Donut House brew was quite drinkable.

Layered

This post continues the theme from my previous three posts of pictures taken from my cellphone. It also continues some of the discussions from the most recent post.

In that post, I covered Crispin Cider and Cottonwood Pumpkin Spiced Ale, and I mentioned a half-and-half with each of them plus Guinness stout. I was back at the neighborhood bar yesterday evening, and I took the opportunity to enjoy one of each.

The first picture shows the cider and stout. The half pint of cider was poured first, and then the Guinness was floated on top by pouring it over a spoon. The Crispin Cider company calls this creation the Crispin Velvet. As expected, it was quite lovely to drink.

The bartender had to rummage through a drawer to find the pouring spoon, so I felt obligated to have another half-and-half. The pumpkin ale and Guinness was next. The ale was poured first and again, the stout was floated on the top. Some places on the web call this concoction a Black and Orange. I had one of these the other day, so I knew it would taste great. The Cottonwood is a spiced pumpkin ale. The spice adds a unique twist to the flavor of the Guinness.

Picture Perfect 2

In a previous post, I discussed beers that have their own glassware. I showed two examples taken from the camera which is integrated in my cellphone. It seems that this might be a new reoccurring topic.

In my most recent post, I finally got around to discussing my trip to Vancouver. That was my first visit to Canada. Prior to publishing that post, I had already made a second visit to the Great White North. This time, I visited Montreal which is located in the province of Quebec. This was a quick trip to visit a customer and a vendor, so there is really not enough to discuss in an extensive post.

While in Montreal, I stayed at the Intercontinental Hotel. One evening during my stay, I had dinner in the hotel at the Sarah B. absinthe bar. I did not try any of the drinks that featured the signature spirit. Instead, I had a beer, Leffe Blonde, which was poured into its own branded glass. Before having a taste of the brew, I snapped a photo of the glass.

Last night, I stopped by the local neighborhood bar where I previously enjoyed Palm Speciale Belge in a branded glass. They also recently began offering Crispin Cider which arrives into its own branded glass. For some reason, the recommended method for enjoying Crispin is poured over ice. I enjoy hard ciders, and I enjoyed the Crispin. The ice does seem to make the cider more crisp. I am looking forward to enjoying a Crispin Velvet which is half a glass of the cider with Guinness floating on top (hopefully minus the ice).

As can be partially seen in the photo of the Crispin glass, my neighborhood bar now has Cottonwood Pumpkin Spiced Ale on tap. I enjoyed the pumpkin ale in a half and half with Guinness poured over top (another common theme). The Cottonwood brand of ales were previously brewed by the Carolina Beer Company which was part of the Carolina Beverage Group. The parent company decided to focus on contract brewing, so back in January, their Carolina Blonde and Cottonwood brands were sold off to Foothills Brewing. I have enjoyed several offerings from Foothills which is located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. I think this change will help alleviate some of the confusion surrounding the various breweries named "Carolina".

Great White North by Northwest, Part I

As previously promised, here is my post on my recent trip to Vancouver, BC and Portland, OR. The trip was for both business and pleasure. I was in Vancouver for business to attend the SIGGRAPH 2011 conference. The stop in Portland was to visit my college friend Alan.

The SIGGRAPH (short for Special Interest Group on GRAPHics) conference was held in the Vancouver Conference Centre which is located on the shores of Coal Harbour. The conference center is an interesting building and is known for an interesting piece of art. The views around Coal Harbour (which also seems to be known as Vancouver Harbour) are simply spectacular. Located next to the conference center is an airport for seaplanes called the Vancouver Harbour Water Airport. My coworkers and I all regretted that we did not have the opportunity to take a tour on one of the seaplanes.

Past the seaplane airport is the Mill Marine Bistro which is a restaurant and bar that overlooks the harbor. My coworkers and I had lunch there on our first day and then later returned to enjoy some of the local beers on tap. The bar features draft beers from the Whistler Brewing and Granville Island Brewing. I tried the Altitude Honey Lager and the Weissbier Wheat Ale from Whistler and enjoy both. It seems that the name of Whistler's honey lager has now been changed to Bear Paw.

I tried three different brews from Granville Island Brewing at various places around Vancouver during my trip. The first was the Robson Street Hefeweizen, the second was a pint of the English Bay Pale Ale, and the last was the Island Lager.

While in Vancouver, my coworkers and I enjoyed several fabulous dinners. The bartender in the hotel bar assured us that Gotham Steakhouse was the best of the breed in Vancouver. It was the only steakhouse that we tried during our visit, but it definitely got our vote as the best. Our waiter assured us that the grass-fed beef available in Canada was much better than the best grade of meat grown in the United States. The restaurant's website tells me their beef is from the prairies of Alberta. Interestingly enough, our waiter suggested that I not get my steak rare which is my usual preference. He told me that Canadian beef is lean, so rare is not sufficient for getting the juices flowing. I acquiesced and enjoyed a fabulous medium rare steak.

The next night, our group wanted seafood. Our hotel bartender again provided an excellent suggestion with a place called Joe Fortes. From what I remember, the raw oysters were fabulous, as were the calamari and beef carpaccio. For my entrée, I had a dish that was the daily special. I believe the fish was sole. It was buttery and sweet which was unexpected. I thought it was an excellent dish which I thoroughly enjoyed.

I enjoyed quite a few different brews while I was in Vancouver. The restaurant in our hotel had Rickard's Red from Molson on tap. I enjoyed several brews at Mahony & Sons, an Irish pub located in the convention center complex which also seems to be called Burrard Landing. In addition to some of the previously mentioned brews from Granville Island, I tried the Alexander Keith's India Pale Ale and the Stanley Park Noble Pilsner. In my tweet about the Stanley Park brew, I stated that it compared favorably to Sam Adams Noble Pils.

On our last night in Vancouver, our team had dinner at Smiley's Public House. It was Thursday, so I enjoyed the steak frites special for $13. That would be Canadian dollars, of course. I also enjoyed Driftwood Farmhand Ale which is a Belgian-style saison.

In a future post, I will cover my visit to Portland which was the second part of my trip.

Picture Perfect

A camera (if not two) is now a standard feature on most cellphones including my own. I find that the camera is very useful for taking pictures of beer, and the beers that are most interesting to view are the ones that are contained in glasses with their own logos. I recently enjoyed two brews that were served in their own branded glassware. While my photography skills are the less than perfect, the bad photos had no effect on the brews.

The first brew was Oktoberfest bier ("bier" is German for beer) from Paulaner Brauerei ("brauerei" is German for brewery). A word of warning, the brewery's webpage is very musical. The beer is a very easy drinking Oktoberfest brew. In fact, it was easy to drink more than one.

I also had more that one of the second beer which was Speciale Belge from Palm Breweries. The glass says Palm is Belgium's amber beer. The beer was new on-tap at the neighborhood bar. Several folks at the bar did not care for this new offering, but I thought it was quite tasty.

NHL Realignment Proposal (continued)

Here is one more realignment suggestion for the NHL. This one is just a minor change from the second suggestion in my last post. I just switched the Buffalo Sabres and Montreal Canadiens. Another change is water-based divisional names. Honestly though, the North Pacific Division could remain the Northwest with four of the five team currently in the division. The South Pacific could be the Southwest or just the Pacific also with four of five teams remaining. The South Atlantic could be the Southeast with three teams being held over. The Great Lakes Division could remain the Central with the Chicago Blackhawks and Detroit Red Wings being holdovers. The North Atlantic could be the Northeast, with the Boston Bruins and Montreal Canadiens remaining. The Mid-Atlantic could be the new Atlantic Division with holdovers Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers from the current version. I also considered North Central for the Central/Great Lakes and South Central for the Mid-Atlantic. However, the name South Central has some negative connotations.

Northern Conference
North Pacific Division	Great Lakes Division	North Atlantic Division
Calgary Flames Edmonton Oilers Minnesota Wild Vancouver Canucks Winnipeg Jets	Buffalo Sabres Chicago Blackhawks Detroit Red Wings Ottawa Senators Toronto Maple Leafs	Boston Bruins Montreal Canadiens New Jersey Devils New York Islanders New York Rangers
Southern Conference
South Pacific Division	Mid-Atlantic Division	South Atlantic Division
Anaheim Ducks Colorado Avalanche Los Angeles Kings Phoenix Coyotes San Jose Sharks	Columbus Blue Jackets Pittsburgh Penguins Philadelphia Flyers St. Louis Blues Washington Capitals	Carolina Hurricanes Dallas Stars Florida Panthers Nashville Predators Tampa Bay Lightning

NHL Realignment Proposal

I have previously discussed realignment for the NFL and MLB. I had hoped to cover realignment for college sports, particularly the BCS conferences, prior to the start of the 2011 college football season. Unfortunately, I have yet to get around to that topic. In the meantime, here is a plan for realigning the National Hockey League.

With the NHL franchise previously located in Atlanta moving north to Canada to become the reborn Winnipeg Jets, the NHL will be realigning its teams for the 2012-13 season. The simplest realignment plan would be for Winnipeg to move to the Northwest Division of the Western Conference. The team would mostly likely displace the Minnesota Wild who would then shift over to the Central Division.

One of the more eastern teams in the Western Conference would be reassigned to the Eastern Conference to replace the Winnipeg team. The Columbus Blue Jackets, Detroit Red Wings and Nashville Predators are all hoping to be the team that takes Winnipeg's spot in the east. For these teams, the move represents reduced travel costs and fewer late starting times for road games. Picking which team will get to move will take some politicking. As a Carolina fan, I hope Nashville will get the nod and join the Hurricanes along with Florida, Tampa Bay, and Washington in the Southeast Division.

Instead of the obvious and simple plan, I think the NHL should consider a more radical realignment plan. With the new franchise in Winnipeg, the number of NHL teams located in Canada rises to seven which is 23% of the 30 franchises. However, a Canadian team has not lifted the Stanley Cup since the Montreal Canadiens in 1993. The drought has now stretched to 18 years. Considering Canadian teams made up 20% of the league over most of that span, it would be expected that a team from Canada would win the championship once every five years.

To promote more games between the Canadian franchises, I propose that the current Eastern and Western Conferences be eliminated in favor of Northern and Southern Conferences. Obviously, all seven of the Canadian teams would be in the Northern Conference. The Northern Conference would contain mostly older, more established franchises including all of the "Original Six" teams. Some exceptions would be the Ottawa Senators and Minnesota Wild who are recent expansion teams and the relocated Winnipeg team which began as the expansion Atlanta Thrashers. The Southern Conference would have more recent expansion and relocated franchises but would also have five of the second six franchises (the sixth being the defunct California Seals/Cleveland Barons).

Below a straight geographically-correct realignment. Each conference is split into West, Central and East Divisions similar to the NFL divisions prior to its 2002 realignment.

Northern Conference
West Division	Central Division	East Division
Calgary Flames Edmonton Oilers Minnesota Wild Vancouver Canucks Winnipeg Jets	Buffalo Sabres Chicago Blackhawks Detroit Red Wings Ottawa Senators Toronto Maple Leafs	Boston Bruins Montreal Canadiens New Jersey Devils New York Islanders New York Rangers
Southern Conference
West Division	Central Division	East Division
Anaheim Ducks Colorado Avalanche Los Angeles Kings Phoenix Coyotes San Jose Sharks	Columbus Blue Jackets Dallas Stars Nashville Predators St. Louis Blues Tampa Bay Lightning	Carolina Hurricanes Florida Panthers Philadelphia Flyers Pittsburgh Penguins Washington Capitals

I think switching some teams would definitely improve the above proposal. For instance, swapping the Buffalo Sabres and Montreal Canadiens would put all three of the northeast Canadian teams in the same division. The seven Canadian teams would thus be concentrated into two divisions which would result in more match-ups between the Canadian teams.

I would also group Carolina, Dallas, Florida, Nashville and Tampa Bay in a true southern division. I renamed this division the South Atlantic. The other division affected by this change ends up with a mixed bag of teams that stretches from Philadelphia to St. Louis. I renamed this division the Mid-Atlantic. I do not think the names of the different divisions matter too much. I reverted back to the current division names for the Northwest and the Pacific and changed the name of the northeast division to the North Atlantic. The final result is below.

Northern Conference
Northwest Division	Central Division	North Atlantic Division
Calgary Flames Edmonton Oilers Minnesota Wild Vancouver Canucks Winnipeg Jets	Chicago Blackhawks Detroit Red Wings Montreal Canadiens Ottawa Senators Toronto Maple Leafs	Boston Bruins Buffalo Sabres New Jersey Devils New York Islanders New York Rangers
Southern Conference
Pacific Division	Mid-Atlantic Division	South Atlantic Division
Anaheim Ducks Colorado Avalanche Los Angeles Kings Phoenix Coyotes San Jose Sharks	Columbus Blue Jackets Pittsburgh Penguins Philadelphia Flyers St. Louis Blues Washington Capitals	Carolina Hurricanes Dallas Stars Florida Panthers Nashville Predators Tampa Bay Lightning

Interestingly enough, it seems that the NHL is considering what I think is an even more radical proposal which would reduce the number of division from the current six down to four.

My Application

Some of my friends have started trying to pimp this single guy out to their single female friends. One such female friend has some particularly exacting standards for the male of our species, "yes I would like you to find me a single man, mildly intelligent and attractive, all his teeth, has a passport and can keep up with me. Is that too much to ask?"

After some review, it seems that I fail one of her key requirements.

"single man" - There is no ring on my finger, and I have the appropriate equipment in my pants, so that would be a check.

"mildly intelligent" - I would consider "mildly" to be an insult. I have a bachelor's degree and a master's degree from well-regarded universities. I am certified in my particular profession, and I am currently employed by a local technology company. In my spare time, I enjoy reading, including books on science and technology. I am currently reading Coming of Age in the Milky Way (ha, he said "coming") by Timothy Ferris. I have previously read Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time, A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson (known more for his books on travel), and several books by the late Carl Sagan ("billions and billions of stars"). I am also currently reading The Beer Enthusiast's Guide, but I'm not sure that's appropriate here. I would give myself a check plus for this one.

"attractive" - Physical attractiveness is subjective, and opinions vary by person. I did recently star in my own music video. This one would be an incomplete.

"has a passport" - This is a check, but my visa for China expires in mid-September.

"can keep up with me" - This one implies an in-person interview and some sort of competition, so I would mark it as another incomplete.

Unfortunately, I fail her "all his teeth" test. I had braces as a kid, and as usually follows having braces, all four of my wisdom teeth were later removed.

Does anybody have any single female friends with less stringent requirements?

Mystery Beer

I stopped by my local neighborhood bar the other day, and I noticed that there was a new offering among the seasonal taps. The board listed the new brew as "CBC Pale Kolsch." In this case, CBC would be the Carolina Brewing Company. (I have previously discussed the confusion caused by various breweries having "Carolina" in their name.) I did not find a "Pale Kolsch" among the regular rotation of seasonal beers or specialty beers included on the list of brews from CBC's website.

Their main page however does mention a special brew that was recently released. This new concoction is suppose to be a unique hybrid of a pale ale and a Kölsch-style ale. Similar to how Champagne is a sparkling wine that originates from the Champagne region of France, Kölsch is a style of ale that originates from Cologne, Germany. Similar brews from other locations are usually termed "Kölsch-style." (Wikipedia tells me that Kölsch is also a group of German dialects primarily spoken around Cologne.) I will assume that the beer that I enjoyed was this hybrid brew and I will consider this little mystery solved.

After some reflection about this brew, I would say that it was an interesting combination of two styles that occupy opposite ends of the beer spectrum. My enjoyment of the light, clean-tasting Kölsch style is well documented on this site. Equally well documented is my less enjoyment of overly hoppy brews such as pale ales, India pale ales (IPAs) and double IPAs. I found that CBC was successfully able to split the difference between the two types to create a Kölsch-style ale with a nice touch of hops flavor.

Don't Stop Believin'

Two weeks ago, I traveled to Vancouver, British Columbia for work. On my way back, I stopped by Portland, Oregon for the weekend to visit my college buddy Alan. I will eventually get around to posting about my visit to those two fine cities. Luckily, the trip to Vancouver was not all work. As proof, here is a short video for your viewing pleasure.

Review: The Road

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

My sister, April, recommended this book to me. She gave it four stars. I have to disagree with her however. I read most of this book while I was traveling. I read it while in airports, on flights and in a hotel room. I was also usually sleepy while reading. Perhaps I just missed the coherent plot.

The book is set in a post-apocalyptic world. The narrator and his son are traveling the main road of the title. They are usually cold and are traveling south in search of warmer weather. They are also usually hungry, so along the way, they search for food and supplies while doing their best to avoid disagreeable characters who would like to do them harm such as eating them to satisfy their own hunger.

What caused the state of the world does not seem to be unknown to the characters in the book, but nobody bothers to share that information with the reader. Ash covers everything, and people wear masks or breathing apparatuses to keep from breathing it. However, the source of the ash is left unknown. Did a supervolcano erupt or did a giant asteroid crash into the Earth like the KT event that wiped out the dinosaurs? One of the categories listed in the Library of Congress information in the front of the book is "Voyages and travels - United States". I do not think it was established for certain that the location was the United States. The characters speak English, but I think somebody reading a translation of the book would think the location was some other country. There are a couple of references to Spanish including the son finding a coin with Spanish writing. Perhaps our travelers made it all the way to Mexico or perhaps some Latin American country or countries attacked the US which then retaliated with atomic weapons and thus brought about nuclear winter. That would also help explain why the cities seem to be in ruins.

I will grant that establishing the reason for the dystopian environment is frequently not a top priority in many works of the post-apocalyptic genre. For instance, I do not remember if it was established why society broke down in the Mad Max movie franchise. In more recent movies and televisions series, the situation is caused by an alien invasion or a rampant disease that created zombies or vampires. In the Kevin Coster epic Waterworld, the polar icecaps melt and cover the world with undrinkable seawater. I assume global warming caused the icecaps to melt, but that is a political argument which is not relevant here. Anyway, I think all of those reasons can safely be eliminated as culprits for the world of The Road. The reader is left either wondering or simply not caring.

Another problem that I have with the book is the author's writing style. I have not read any of Cormac McCarthy's other works, but this book has a distinctly spare style. I suppose when the world goes to hell in a handbasket, the first thing that will be lost is punctuation. The lack of quotation marks is particularly annoying and makes the dialogue difficult to follow. Another casualty of the breakdown is names, both for people and locations. The lack of place names leads to the ambiguity in regards to the settings for the book. Neither the man, his son, nor the dead wife and mother are named in the book. The only character to be named in the book is a stranger that the two main character encounter near the end of the book. The man gives his name as Ely, but it is quickly established that he is lying. I suppose that names are irrelevant in this new world.

The book is very emotional and runs the gamut of emotions with some scenes that are touching, some that are exciting, and some that are very disturbing. While the relationship between the father and the son is the primary focus, the book also does a good job of expressing the stress associated with fighting for survival in that trying environment. I found the ending of the book to be anticlimactic except that would imply there was a climax. Like a starving man in a post-apocalyptic world, the book does not end as much as it just slowly curls up and dies.

View all my reviews

Another Random Coffee Post

I was running low on K-cups again. I had two gift certificates for Target, so I swung by my local Target store yesterday to pick up some coffee. I decided to stick with flavored coffee and bought a box of Millstone Hazelnut Cream and a box of Van Houtte French Vanilla. I am currently enjoying the Van Houtte. While it has a nice flavor, it does not seem as flavorful as the French Vanilla Supreme which was my favorite from the Gloria Jean's variety pack. Or perhaps this is a case of time making the taste buds grow fonder.

Century Club

My post from yesterday was the 100th post on this site (which will make this post number 101). I have published 38 posts so far this year which projects to 63 or 64 posts for the whole of 2011. That would outnumber the 62 posts from 2010. My first post was published on January 3, 2010, so this site has existed for almost 19 months. Therefore, the one hundred posts represent an average of over five posts per month.

Back in January, I analyzed the labels that I used on posts for 2010. Back then, the "beer" label led with 37 posts. There are now 43 posts labeled with "beer", but those have dropped from 60% of the total posts down to 43%. (The 100 posts makes the math easy.) The "sports" label is still second with 29 posts, but I have only added 7 posts to the 22 posts from 2010. The "home brew" label has gone from 13 posts in 2010 to a total of 23 posts. The "books" label has grown from six posts to a total of 14 posts which is mostly due to me starting to post book reviews. Awhile back, I started a new "Raleigh" label and went back an updated previous posts. There are now twelve posts concerning the city of Raleigh.

Getting back to yesterday's post (as well as the post from the day before), I found a new "Next Blog" site. His guy who seems to be Canadian is aiming to prove how healthy beer is for you, although most of his posts concern reviewing and rating beer. I notice that his 10-point scale conveniently goes negative.

Next in Line (continued)

After publishing yesterday's post on the "Next Blog" link that lives at the top of most Blogger sites, I have continued to play with the "Next Blog" link from my site. I found that several sites continued to be repeated, but I also found some new sites which mostly followed the beer theme as discussed in the previous post. There was another blog on home brewing and also a couple's site where the guy brews and bottle his own beer. There were several more sites by guys that like beer including this guy who muses about beer and whatnot. In the far-flung category, there was a site for a beer store in San Francisco and a site that sells beer-themed tours of Europe which sounds like great vacations.

Next in Line

Since I started this site last year, I have occasionally played with the "Next Blog" link located in the Navbar at the top of the page. The "Next Blog" link specifically and the Navbar in general seem to be more of the hotly debated features of Blogger. According to the Blogger help page, the "Next Blog" link "takes you to a random, recently-updated Blogger blog." According to other sites, pages linked by "Next Blog" are grouped by common topics. Still others say that the list of other sites linked as "Next Blog" from a specific site is limited and the same sites repeatedly cycle. I have found that to be the case with the "Next Blog" sites linked from my site.

When there was less content on this site, the "Next Blog" pages seemed to be more random. Recently, my site seems to be grouped with mostly beer-related sites, particularly sites of bars of the brewpub-variety and a long list of guys (and a surprising number of ladies) that enjoy beer. (Although I am not religious myself, I am happy to see the Catholic folk are enjoying their beer.) Home brewing is another frequent topic, and more recently, the sites of people who enjoy coffee have been appearing.

As one would expect from the Internet, links can be from far-flung locations. I know a west coast-style brewpub in Brooklyn which I assume is quite similar to these two pubs in the Seattle area. I also know where to find beer in Baltimore. There is a brewpub in Flossmoor, Illinois (it's just south of Chicago), that has its own Mug Club. A few times, the "Next Blog" has been the Local Taphouse Blog which is blog site for two bars in Australia. One of the pubs is in St. Kilda, Victoria, which is a suburb Melbourne. The other is in Darlinghurst, New South Wales, which is a suburb of Sydney. I have never been to Australia, but when I get around to visiting that fine country, at least I will know a couple of places where I can stop for a beer.

Some unrelated sites do appear as the "Next Blog". There is one repeated site that would seem to be either about beer or coffee based on the word "brew" in its title but actually seems to only focus on electronics. Another site is by a guy who enjoys tattoos and cycling. The only thing that he and I seem to have in common is that we have both visited Oregon and Colorado, although for completely different reasons (outdoor sports for him, friends, family and beer for me). This guy also like bicycles, but he is also into beer.

I will end my little tour of "Next Blog" sites with a visit to this site by a Gonzo journalist.

Random Coffee Post

I have been running low on K-Cups. Yesterday, I ventured to the store, and I bought some Kahlúa-flavored coffee from Timothy's Coffee. Unfortunately, the coffee is non-alcoholic, or fortunate since I do have to go to work this morning.

Proposals for Baseball

While my proposal for renovating the NFL is currently up to four parts with a few more thoughts in the pipeline, I also have a few ideas about reorganizing Major League Baseball. This is appropriate because MLB is currently considering some form of realignment. That change would most likely be small with only one National League team, possibly the Houston Astros or Florida (soon to be Miami) Marlins, moving to the American League.


There is one major difference that separates baseball from the three other major professional team sports, and that is the salary structure of the players. The NFL, NBA and NHL all have salary caps and floors which place limits around how much teams pay their players. MLB teams, however, have no such restrictions and are free to spend as much or as little on player salaries as they feel appropriate. Instead of a salary cap, Major League Baseball has a luxury tax which affects the decisions of teams in regards to salary but does not include firm upper or lower limits.

Here is a ranking of the thirty MLB teams in terms of average salary over the last three years. I pulled these numbers from the sports section of USA Today (2010, 2009, and 2008). My primary thought is to divide the teams into two tiers based on average total salaries. Of course, there could be some exceptions to factor in team performance and avoid breaking up longstanding rivalries. Please note that because teams are not required to funnel a fixed percentage of revenue into player salaries, my proposals focus on total player salary and ignores actual revenues for the teams.

In regards to the number of teams in each tier and the number of divisions in each tier, the most obvious solution is to have fifteen teams in each tier with each tier being split into three five-team divisions. I will leave the fleshing out of that proposal as an exercise for the reader. Instead, I will focus on two even more radical configurations, each including five six-team divisions. I will refer to these two proposals as the bottom-heavy configuration which has two upper-tier and three lower-tier divisions and the top-heavy configuration which has three upper-tier and two lower-tier divisions. In both cases, eight teams would make the playoffs.

Bottom Heavy Configuration

My first proposal is a configuration that has more teams in the lower tier. The top tier would contain the twelve teams with the highest average salaries. Those teams would be assigned to eastern and western divisions. The remaining 18 teams would be in the lower tier and be split into three divisions, West, Central and East. Here are how the divisions would look based on the salaries listed in the chart above.


Four teams from each tier would make the playoffs. For the upper tier, the regular season-winner of each division would play the second-place team from the opposite division with the first-place team having home-field advantage. The winners of the two first-round series would play in the upper tier championship series. If the two teams are both first-place or second-place teams, the team with the best regular-season record would have home-field advantage. The lower tier would follow the current playoff format with the team finishing second in its division and having the best regular-season record making the playoffs as the wild card along with the three division winners. Here is an example of a playoff format.

Top Heavy Configuration

In the top-heavy configuration, the 18 teams with the average highest salaries would be in the upper tier and be divided into three six-team divisions, East, Central and West. The 12 teams with the lowest salaries would be in the two lower-tier divisions, East and West.


Six teams from the upper tier and two teams from the lower tier would make the playoffs. In the first round, the winners of the two lower-tier divisions would meet in the lower-tier championship series. The team with the best regular-season record would have home-field advantage. The top two teams from each of the upper-tier divisions would make the playoffs. The division winners would be the top seeds and have home-field advantage. After the first round, teams would be reseeded to give preference to division winners and teams with better records. Here is an example of a playoff format.

It is interesting to note that in this format, there would normally not be a separate upper-tier championship series. When two upper-tier teams meet in the World Series, that series would also double as the upper-tier championship. When a lower-tier team makes the World Series, their opponent would be the remaining upper-tier team which would be the upper-tier champion by default. The only time there would be a separate upper-series championship series is when a lower-tier team defeats their upper-tier opponent in the second-round before the other second-round series is completed. In that case, the other series would then become the upper-tier championship series.

Anticipating Criticism

It should be easy to anticipate criticism against these two proposals. I think the primary criticism will be that teams with higher player payrolls are clearly favored in regards to available playoffs spots. For the top-heavy configuration, six out of the 18 upper-tier teams make the playoffs which is one third (33.3%). Two of the 12 lower-tier teams go to the postseason which is only one sixth (16.7%). The bottom-heavy proposal is slightly better with four of the 12 upper-tier teams (33.3%) and four of the 18 lower-tier teams (22.2%) making the playoffs. However, the current alignment is already unbalanced with four of the 14 American League teams (28.6%) and four of the 16 National League teams (25.0%) making the postseason. Since the American League has fewer teams, those teams have a better chance of making the playoffs. The inequality is magnified when comparing the National League Central Division with six teams to the American League West Division with only four.

I feel the uneven nature of my proposals would serve as motivation to teams. In a future post, I will discuss the process by which teams could transition between tiers. This will be similar to the process of promotion and relegation used by soccer leagues. Teams in the lower tier would be motivated to move into upper tier while teams in the upper tier would be motivated to maintain their advantage by remaining in their current spot.

Another criticism will be that traditional rivalries, such as Yankees-Red Sox, Cubs-Cardinals, and Dodgers-Giants, could be affected by these proposals. In a future post, I will discuss tweaking my proposal to protect existing rivalries and possibly promote new geography-based rivalries such as Orioles-Nationals, Rays-Marlins, and Astros-Rangers.

I will also try to outline how the regular-season schedule would be laid out in a future post. By the way, I personally prefer the bottom-heavy configuration primarily due to its simpler playoff format. I will be focusing on that proposal going forward.

Review: Jump Gate Twist

Jump Gate Twist by Mark L. Van Name

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Full disclosure, I have met the author, Mark Van Name, in a professional setting. The company with which I am employed has a working relationship with his company, Principled Technologies. I received a copy of Jump Gate Twist as a gift after meeting with him and the company's other founder, Bill Catchings. Prior to our meeting, I had no knowledge of Mr. Van Name, and prior to receiving this book, I was not aware that he was a published science-fiction author. My copy of the book is signed by the author and has a nice sticker on the inside front cover with my name. I would like to thank Mark and Principled Technologies for the gift. That being stated, I had no expectations for the book. I was a huge fan of science fiction when I was younger, but as I have grown older, my tastes have ventured into other areas, currently spy fiction, particularly James Bond novels, and hardboiled crime fiction.

The book is compilation of two novels and two short stories plus additional tidbits from the author. The main protagonist is Jon Moore who was mentally challenged as child due to some unique properties of his home planet. Jon's first change is the subject of the first short story, "My Sister, My Self." His enhancement was done by his sister with healing powers that were the result of the same properties of their world. At some later point, Jon's body is further enhanced with nanotechnology as part of a corporate experiment which eventually goes awry and possibly makes his home world uninhabitable. That topic is only covered piecemeal in various flashbacks throughout the two novels. Returning to his home planet and finding his lost sister are Jon's overall goals in the series which currently includes four novels.

In the first novel, One Jump Ahead, Jon finds an intelligent attack vehicle named Lobo which has been left as a monument in a city square on a far outpost world. Lobo has its (or "his" since Jon comes to refer to Lobo in the masculine) own back-story in which he was damaged in battle. Through some negotiation, Jon is able to acquire Lobo from the head of the planet for services rendered. He is later able to have the damaged ship repaired. The main plot of the novel is the rescue of a kidnapped girl that comes to involve a couple of competing megacorporations and a less-than-forthright arms dealer.

The second novel, Slanted Jack, has even more twists and turns than the first. The Jack from the title is an accomplished con man who reappears from Jon's past. Jon agrees to help with protecting a gifted boy whose family originated from Jon's lost home world. After the initial plan falls apart, Jon has to run an intricate triple con that involves a mobster, a group of religious fanatics with a stash of weapons, and the local government who wants to catch both. The boy and Jon's not-quite-friend Jack serve as bait in the scheme.

Finally, the second short story, "Lobo, Actually," focuses only on Lobo and takes place during his period of downtime in the city square. It is a Christmas story that explores some interesting thoughts on religion and deity. The story is also interesting in that it is told from Lobo's point of view and not that of a human.

Overall, I found Jump Gate Twist to be a solid example of space opera, and I mean that in a positive sense. With tons of action and continually unfolding plot twists, Jon Moore very much reminds me of a futuristic James Bond.

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Review: Goldfinger

Goldfinger by Ian Fleming

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have found a third book that runs counter to the conventional wisdom that books are always better than their movie versions. The first two entries on my list are Forrest Gump and Shoeless Joe which was the basis for the movie Field of Dreams. While I enjoyed both of those books, the two movies are classics. The movie version of Forrest Gump won six Oscars among its myriad of other awards, and Field of Dreams is constantly ranked as one of the best sports movies of all time.

Goldfinger follows the same pattern. I truly enjoyed the book, as I have the previous six James Bond novels that I have read so far. However, the movie version is one of my favorite movies. Of course, the Bond books and movies are really completely different animals. Sean Connery in particular portrays Bond with super-human cool. The Bond from the novels, on the other hand, is fallible and occasionally shows a bit of emotion. In three of the first seven novels, including Goldfinger, CIA agent Felix Leiter appears at the last minute to save Bond's hide. In the movies, Leiter is usually just tagging along as a sidekick.

Similar to Shoeless Joe missing James Earl Jones' epic monologue on baseball from Field of Dreams, the book version of Goldfinger misses the great quotes from movie. ("No, Mr. Bond. I expect you to die.", "I must be dreaming.")

The plot of the novel and film are basically the same, but there are some differences. In the book, the main villain, Auric Goldfinger, threatens Bond with a giant saw. The movie replaces the saw with an even more intimidating laser in one of most memorable scenes ever. Also, the role of Pussy Galore is quite different. In the novel, Miss Galore is one of the crime lords involved in Goldfinger's plan to break into Fort Knox. In the movie, she is a pilot and leads a flying circus. In both versions, Bond is able to persuade Miss Galore to change sides. The ultimate goal of Goldfinger's nefarious plan is also slightly different between the novel and the book.

Appropriately enough, USA Network was showing Goldfinger as I typed this.

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A Different Type of Brew

Today is Memorial Day which is a great day to kick back and relax with a nice cold beer. However, today's post is about a brew of a different type. I drink a good bit of coffee. I enjoy both the regular stuff and the coffee-based drinks that were invented in the cafés of Europe and made famous here in America by Starbucks and the like. My particular guilty coffee pleasure is the café mocha, but I have tried many of the other crazy drinks flavored with caramel, white chocolate, peppermint, and even pumpkin. I also enjoy hanging out in the local coffee shop and taking advantage of their free wireless Internet connection.

Last year, my mother gave me a Keurig coffee machine (a.k.a. K-cup machine) as a Christmas present. My sister and her husband have had a K-cup machine for awhile. They enjoy it, so they gave my mother and stepfather one as a present a couple of years ago. My mother and stepfather have found their machine to be convenient. I also learned to appreciate the machines during my visits to my sister's and mother's houses, so I was glad to receive a machine myself for Christmas. My machine is a Keurig Elite Brewer. Despite being "Elite", it is one of the simpler brewers that the company offers.

As much as I am not an expert on the different types of beer, I am even more of a neophyte in regards to the different varieties of coffee. I am working on my knowledge of beer, and the K-cup machine will help in regards to my coffee education. There are quite a few different brands of coffee available in K-cups with the list continuing to expand. Of course, each brand offers multiple different varieties. It seems that everybody has their particular favorite variety. My stepfather likes the Green Mountain Nantucket Blend. He and my mother also had most of a box of Caribou Daybreak Morning Blend K-cups. Since neither of them care for that brew, they gave the rest of the box to me along with my brewer. I liked both the Nantucket and Daybreak brews. My sister and brother-in-law prefer Newman's Special Blend Extra Bold which they buy in bulk from their local Costco.

The K-cup brewer came with a sampler pack of K-cups. I do not remember all of the varieties included in the sampler pack, but it included decaffeinated coffee, Half Caff, and even some tea. After finishing off the sampler pack and the leftover box of Caribou Daybreak, I bought a box of Green Mountain Breakfast Blend K-cups at the grocery store. I later decided to buy a few K-cup boxes from Green Mountain's webpage (Keurig is subsidiary of Green Mountain Coffee). My first purchase included Caribou Colombia, Diedrich Coffee Sumatra, Timothy's Coffee Kona Blend, and Millstone Breakfast Blend. I just noticed that Millstone and Diedrich Coffee products are no longer offered on Green Mountain's site. Also, the Sumatra is not offered on Diedrich Coffee's webpage, and the Timothy's Kona is no longer being produced.

I recently ordered a second round of K-cups from Green Mountain. This order included Timothy's Coffee Breakfast Blend, Tully's Coffee Breakfast Blend, Donut House, and a flavored variety pack from Gloria Jean's Coffees. The variety pack included French Vanilla Supreme, Swiss Chocolate Almond, Butter Toffee, and Mudslide flavors. Surprisingly, my favorite of the four is the vanilla with the chocolate almond being a strong second. I think vanilla is a great flavor complement (as opposed to compliment) to coffee. I do not care for the butter toffee which has a really buttery taste. I do not find that buttery taste goes well with coffee. For me, it is just not a pleasant combination. I also do not find the mudslide flavor to have a very good taste.

I have a friend who puts cinnamon in her coffee which I have also found to be interesting. Perhaps with my next order, I should try Donut House Cinnamon Roll or Timothy's Coffee Cinnamon Pastry.

Review: Myra Breckinridge

Myra Breckinridge by Gore Vidal

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I have read many of Gore Vidal's historical fiction novels including Creation, Julian, and most of his Narratives of Empire series. I am aware of his sexual orientation, and while many of his historical fiction novels include sexual, particularly homosexual, themes and undertones, it is usually not an overt focus. I do not find the subject distasteful. In fact, I find that the sexual undertones add an additional layer of complexity to his novels.

However, I have avoided Vidal's books where the topic is more blatantly sexual such as The City and the Pillar: A Novel, one of his first novels. The previews that I read about Myra Breckinridge indicated that the theme was somewhat sexual in nature without being homosexual. I suppose that is sort of the case. The story has a few big twists. I did not find the biggest twist particularly surprising, but I am not sure it was suppose to be surprising. I found the book to be quite bizarre which I think was intended. There is one chapter that is very distributing and particularly painful to read. Even with the predictable twist and the painful section, I found the book to be interesting and even mildly entertaining.

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Tweetness

When I am at a bar or restaurant or otherwise out and about, I find myself sending text messages to my email account. Usually, these texts are about an interesting new beer that I am drinking and that needs to be added to my Beer List. I have also sent myself messages with books or authors that I think might be interesting or a perhaps a movie that somebody recommended to me. I have also sent myself and friends texts with lines that I said or overheard somebody else say that I thought was humorous or otherwise interesting ("I've got a WMD in my BVDs"). I have also sent myself texts with ideas for post on this site. My new phone makes sending texts much easier, so a couple of times I have send myself most of the wording for a post. I typed a good portion of this post from last week on my phone.

Along this vein, I have decided to take the plunge and start a Twitter account. You can see the Twitter gadget that is linked to my account in the right-hand column. In keeping with my super interesting personality, my first tweet was simply "<null>." Similar to the legion of imaginary reader of this site, I do not expect my Twitter account to have very many, if any, followers. I also do not plan on following the Twitter feeds of anybody else. Like this site, my Twitter account is solely for my own purposes. Follow at your own risk (or boredom). You have been duly warned.

Review: The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence

The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence by Carl Sagan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Being 30-some odd years behind the times, I recently finished reading The Dragons of Eden which was written by the famous author and scientist, Carl Sagan, and was originally published in 1977. As the full title attests, the topic is the evolutionary development of the human brain. As is to be expected, the technological references in the book are hopelessly dated, and I can safely assume that the scientific information is dated as well. I would have been very interested in a new edition with updated information, but unfortunately, Sagan died in 1996. Perhaps I will find a newer book on the topic of human intelligence.

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