Dammit you were so tasty,
A great part of the meal to celebrate Holidays,
Boy I was hungry,
Food was so good, conversation was great,
Time passes by – not a lot,
Why? Why? WHY?
WHAT DID I DO TO YOU YOU LITTLE BASTARDS?
(Crawls into fetal position to die)
I haven’t bothered to do an ‘About’ page yet. But when I do a good portion of this post will go into it.
I don’t mind comments on posts. I don’t seek them, but I don’t block them either. Some can be pretty interesting. But I know what works and what doesn’t so here are some commenting rules:
I may update this post at later dates. One thing about the internet is it never fails to surprise you.
Since 9/11, Islamic terrorists have killed just 17 people on American soil, all but four of them victims of an army major turned fanatic who shot fellow soldiers in a rampage at Fort Hood … During that same period, 200 times as many Americans drowned in their bathtubs. Still more were killed by driving their cars into deer. The best memorial to the victims of 9/11, in Schneier’s view, would be to forget most of the “lessons” of 9/11. “It’s infuriating,” … “We’re spending billions upon billions of dollars doing this—and it is almost entirely pointless. Not only is it not done right, but even if it was done right it would be the wrong thing to do.”
Take a look at that will you? That is the start of my World dominating micro-brewing strategy. As with everything I’m approaching this exercise with a little bit of confidence (ahem!).
Home brewing has been a bit of a tradition in my Family. Both my Father and Grandfather were keen brewers. With different levels of success of course.
My Father favoured brewing Ale and always had a keg on the go. He did try Wine and I think gave some liqueurs a shot. With varying degrees of success. His wine quickly got a reputation for being particularly good at making you lose the feeling in your legs. Whether that was a good or bad reputation varied with the people drinking it.
My Grandfather was more of an enthusiastic if not accomplished home brewer. This was a man whose philosophy was that alcohol cured many ills and if it didn’t, well it would dull the pain and make you forget for a bit. Had he been born a century earlier I’ve no doubt he’d be hawking some miracle cure – that had a strong alcoholic base. He didn’t have the patience to wait as long as you should for the brewing process to complete. His brews tended towards cloudy, in some cases bitty and I have no doubt were not great for teeth enamel.
Taking that fine historical pedigree on board, it’s time for me to start experimenting with home brewing. Going against that pedigree I’m aiming for a tasty beverage. I’m not aiming for potency or speed – it’s got to be yummy dammit! I’m starting off with a red wine kit just to see how it goes. I have to find the right place in the apartment for this that has a steady temperature. Although I’m approaching this with confidence there’s a bit of realism in there. It may not turn out perfect the first time.
After a couple of go’s with the kits, my plan is to build up to raw ingredients. And one of the things I really want to take a shot at brewing is Mead. It must be 25 years since I did any kind of brewing. It was Ginger Ale I remember. Brewed, bottled and stacked it under the stairs and just had to wait for a week or so before testing it out. About three days into the waiting period my Father, Uncle and myself were stood by the stairs, chatting, when the corks started exploding out of the bottles. I remember thinking “Well that’s bloody disappointing” as we all threw ourselves to the floor to avoid being taken out by corks. I think there were a couple of bottles that didn’t explode. They tasted bloody awful. I see you can buy fizzy alcoholic Ginger Ale in the shops now – I was doing that all those bloody years ago. If only I’d used champagne cages 
When we eventually have little kids running around the house at Christmas, I fear for my sanity. MBH regresses terribly when presents are placed under the tree. She still loves the idea of Christmas. Whereas for me its a relaxy, keep the alcohol levels topped up and walk right up to that indigestion line time. She came in from work the other night,
“PRESENTS!!!!! TREE!!!”
“No touching”
“PRESENTS!!!!”
“NO GOD DAMN TOUCHING!”
“Awww…”
I knew I should have had a water spray at the ready to keep her away from them.
“What did you get me???”
“Kinda defeats the whole point of Christmas Day that petal”
“An iPhone???!!”
“Er, no…”
“DIAMONDS!!!”
“Er, really no” (Deep concern that the Downton Abbey DVD and Jamie’s cookbook among other things is not going to go down as well as I thought…)
“I’m going to wrap yours and put them under the tree”
Now it’s been a long, long time since I got excited over Christmas presents. I think it was over Star Wars figures in 1980 or something. But I am absolutely fascinated by her thought process when getting me presents.
There was the year she bought me a certificate for a plot of land on Mars. Seriously. We’re not allowed to talk about that anymore. I burst out laughing when I opened it and was not allowed to ask the reasoning. Then there was the year where I was bitching about bag weight when I had to go to Africa in December for work. So I unwrapped a handheld luggage scale that Christmas. Thoughtful but missed the edict during bitching that there was “No way in hell I’m travelling as much next year”. I have no idea where that scale is now.
So I try to remember that around October – November anything I may be talking about might be something I get at Christmas. Although I still can’t remember wistfully wishing I owned land on Mars…
Now this is why I like my Ukulele. It’s just great fun. Of course now I need to learn the chords to this. And I haven’t mastered the art of playing and singing at the same time (unless I’ve had a few drinks…something about thinking less probably). I learned ‘Have you ever seen the Rain’ by Creedance Clearwater Revival last weekend which pleased me no end.
Facebook is being urged by the Data Protection Commissioner to tighten security in order to ensure that users’ personal information is kept private > Interesting phrases used there, ‘Urged’ and ‘Informed Choice’
Well this isn’t at all scary:
It was probably the most important research on flu in years, but most people won’t be allowed to read it all. As New Scientist revealed in September, researchers at the University of Rotterdam, the Netherlands, created a mutated H5N1 bird flu that could go pandemic – and would be lethal to half its victims.
Thanks to Contagion I now know what an R0 value means (yay…). That was an okay sort of movie if you like to feel utterly depressed. I had to cheer myself up by pretending to sneeze on MBH and looking at the reaction on her face (Sick sense of humour) (Ha! Didn’t intend that Pun at all).
Back in the day I took a semester course in Human Toxicology. Well it seemed interesting and my degrees have absolutely nothing to do with my current profession – utterly stellar at career planning me…
Anyway, it was fascinating and utterly horrifying at the same time. The Professor was an awesome guy who was also a WHO and UN advisor so this guy knew what he was talking about. Apart from the feeling of doom, all I remember from the course was learning to create Compound summaries – or whatever they were called. Basically for any compound you had to create a summary which gave every little piece of information you needed and all on one side of A4. I’m very good at summarising things now – so it’s true that you can always get some skill from an obscure course.
I’m utterly convinced that Pandemics are a significant threat. Ease of travelling and overabundant use of antibiotics are just two of the factors that would contribute to a problem I reckon,
“I have a cold and feel bad Doctor”
“Here have a VERY STRONG ANTIBIOTIC and go away”
What can we do about it? Not a whole lot. But there are people who work tirelessly on it. This was a good talk given by Dr Larry Brilliant when accepting the TED Prize in 2006. This is also a very interesting talk by Seth Berkly on advances in Vaccine development.
Bioterrorism experts in the US immediately questioned whether the method for making such a plague should be published. Now the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity has recommended that the “general conclusions be published, but that the manuscripts not include the methodological and other details that could enable replication of the experiments by those who would seek to do harm”
Wow, that’s surprising. Not like our American friends to overreact to a perceived threat – alway’s seemed such a level headed bunch…COUGH
Anyway! Stifling research isn’t the answer. The key to combating any potential pandemics is time and a quick understanding. Having some Homeland Security bunch hiding information is not what I’d call helpful.
I would have loved to have taken Biology and Chemistry, but my ‘Career Advisor’ back in my school days (who was also my woodwork teacher…yeahhh…) said because of my other subject choices I had to take Physics. I feckin hated Physics. Had a knack for Chemistry and Biology but Physics just left me a dry husk – didn’t care at all. Our Physics teacher also subscribed to the ‘Copy pages 101-123 and be quiet’ education framework. Bloody useless.
I like background noise in my home office. So normally have Radio 2 or 4 coming through the iMac when I don’t have calls. Irish Stations with callers who have ‘opinions’ make me stabby. Radio 2 was cool as they were doing a lot of Christmas songs which was helping with my Festive Spirit as I stared at a spreadsheet willing it to sort itself out (didn’t work).
They had a discussion going about open fires and how dangerous they can be. I come from the generation that still remembers open fires and the coal man being a common thing. Gas fires were kinda modern and if you had one of those imitation flame ones? Well la-dee-da.
Open fires are common in Ireland as well. Our friend just had one put in and I entirely intend to install one when we buy a new house next year. The fact that they are an absolute pain in the hole to clean out in the morning is far outweighed by level of cosiness come night time. Burning Turf (Peat) is an utterly heavenly smell – although admittedly you get a better heat from coal.
I’ll also admit that the older part of my brain does a quiet “Yarrr, me make fire!” every time I light one.
But dear me people, you are lighting a fire in your house. Fire is dangerous (duh) either have a closed Stove type or get a bloody good fireguard. Also get the right fuel for it, you can’t just throw any old wood on there.
Has society become that closeted that we can’t safely have fires now?
We’re all fucked when the Zombie Apocolypse comes… 
Over to Radio 4 for me then.
Two and a half working days before Christmas. The meeting cancellations are coming in thick and fast. You sit listening to conference bridge music for the (well understood) ten minute cut-off time before cursing the organiser for not sending out a cancellation. I’ve only had 25 emails, 1 conference call and 5 IM sessions this morning. Unheard of at any other time of the year. Of course the VP’s leave it to the last minute to cancel some meetings – and you’ve already spent two days preparing data and presentations. That’s okay they are VP’s after all [hard stare].
My old role (being deliberately vague obvs) dealt with when things went wrong. So it could be quiet or could be madness. My current role, things go wrong but it’s internal so it can wait. I like that.
This is the time to sort through email. Archive, store and convince yourself that you have the perfect methodology for dealing with email in the New Year. Never works – when you put your mouth back onto that particular fire hose and it’s turned back on, well your eyes bulge the same as they did the year before.
When in the office this is the time of the year when you really do take an hour for lunch. Working from a home office it’s a little different. Dammit I only have Ramen noodles o_0 not good. How have we not got our Christmas food shopping in yet? [Emergency text to MBH] We eat out far too much…grrr.
Not too much of a disaster as we go to her parents for Christmas Day. Every year. Every_Year…
Who am I to complain? I don’t lift a finger and eat and drink far too much No it’s Christmas week that we need to be stocked up for. Okay I need to be stocked up for. While MBH is braving the Sales I entirely plan to sit on my arse to watch TV, or lose a few more days in Skyrim. A man needs sustenance for that! but it’s going to be crazy out there. We were out for Dinner with friends last night (Ramen explanation?) and I heard that they closed Dundrum Shopping Centre car park at 10:30 in the morning. Reason being there were so many cars waiting to get in that it was tailing back to the M50. That’s just nuts. It either needs to be a very early morning lightning guerrilla raid, or a very late at night forage.
Can’t figure out how women can handle this. MBH said to me last night,
“Want to go into Town on Saturday?”
“Saturday?”
“Yeah Saturday”
“Christmas Eve?”
“Er, yeah”
“You’ve entirely lost your mind woman!”
Apparently she still needs a few bit’s and pieces. In my mind if you haven’t got the last bit or piece right now – forget it, not worth it.