It Came and soon I will Brew

 

Will this be awesome? It will... It might also be smelly...

 

I don’t know when I first thought about brewing my own beer…  I’ve known for a long time that brewing it wasn’t that difficult and that humans had been doing it for thousands of years.  The history of brewing is, like all histories, fascinating and worth your time even if you don’t drink.  One thing that struck me about its history that struck me though was how domestic the industry was, by that I mean people brewed their own beer for their own consumption.  Perhaps I don’t write about it much here but I’ve been holding an extended discussion with one of my dear friends about self-sufficiency and moving from consumption to production.  I think this is a direction that our nation as a whole needs to move in order to get its economic house in order but, right now I can’t do anything to direct national policy what I can do is learn a useful skill and try to pass it on to others, and hope that it inspires them to take action in their own life to consume less and make more.

This isn’t a post about my own philosophy, it’s a post about beer brewing.  I purchased the one-gallon brewing kit pictured above from the Brooklyn Brew Shop who also sell five gallon kits, several recipes packs, and other brewing accessories.  Obviously, I haven’t had much business with them but its been good so far and they came highly recommended by friends.  They have a several mixes and seeing as I’d never tried one I went with the one that sounded most delicious:  Apple Crisp Ale.

I’m currently scheduling the actual brew next weekend.  I was initially worried that I’d have to muck through this alone, but it turns out that not only is the internet full of resources (google: beer brewing), but my local community has numerous resources:  a restaurant that lets you brew your own beer; a local brewery with a its own brewers group that meets monthly to discuss all things brew; and, my Fraternity also has a Zymurgy committee.  With all that help at my fingertips I’m hoping my first batch isn’t a dud.

Of course, I’ll be blogging more about this as I move forward, as well as other projects I’m undertaking to shift from consumption to production.

Small Sampling of What I read Today

After two weeks of being good about posting on a schedule I blow it again. Thankfully, I’m only a few hours late rather than days.

I don’t have much to say today. That’s not true I have lots to say but none of it is in a format that would make sense to anyone but myself right now. So, I’m going to take the bloggers’ easy way out and construct a post out of random links!

First though I need to come up with a theme… think. think. think.

Man, that’s a lot of work…  Worse, I’m not coming up with something compelling.  Damn, this easy way out is working at all like I assumed it would.

Let’s start this post of with something… depressing.  It appears that 2010 isn’t the future people thought it would be.  I’m not even talking about the ridiculous stuff either, like flying cars and floating cities.  We haven’t even cured cancer yet!

We should be grateful it isn’t a full on dystopia yet, seeing as some people really think we’re heading that way.  That is only Kunstler’s latest post read his archive which goes back years, all of which are just as cheery.  Some people will be ready if and when collapse does come, it seems (I’m not talking about militias either those people are just silly.)

If civilization doesn’t collapse in the near future then we’ll be left dealing with the institutions we all know and love.  Sadly, the possibilities these days in government seem to be limited to two flavors of the same drink.  Which is it nice to see such vibrant alternatives as full-blown socialism.  I might not agree but at least it is something different, something to get excited over and talk about.  Not that it seems to matter, seeing as even when the government delivers no on seems to notice.

If you really want to dig into things you can always read Government Code.  It is dry but you’d be fascinated by what you’ll learn that in California stealing a gilt or a barrow is considered grand theft (CA Penal Code Sec. 487.)

Finally I’ll leave you with how much privilege I don’t always recognize I have and this quote by Epicurus:  If you wish to make Pythocles rich, do not give him more money, but diminish his desire.

Real updates resume Wednesday.

Random Discontent

 

This is a good thing...

 

 

I bought the Playstation in 1997 and its successor console in 2001.  I loved both of them and their respective libraries.  When the Playstation 3 was announced I was excited and had planned on purchasing it, until I saw the cost and the tiny library that was available at time the time of launch and for almost a full year or more later…  So, I picked up an Xbox 360.  Not only was it cheaper than the PS3 but the library for the console had everything I wanted, except MGS4 and after seeing that game I decided I didn’t really want it anyway…

Overall, I’ve been very happy with my purchase.  The 360 has been workhorse of my entertainment system, delivering not only the vidja games but movies as well!  There have been a few hic-ups, like two red-rings of death, both of which were covered by the warranty.  Now though the disc reader has stopped working and the warranty has expired.  So now I’ve got this very expensive, technologically advanced brick in my entertainment system just sitting there mocking me.  I can still use it for Netflix or XBLA games but I’ve got at least five 360 games that I’ve yet to play yet and are sitting on the shelf mocking me.

So, that’s my discontent.  It will only last for about a month until I pick up a new one and transfer everything over from the old one, which will of course be my new discontent.

 

I'm lusting over this for now

 

 

%d bloggers like this: