Pocky?

According to Jerome, Pocky is a snack preferred by geeks. I do consider myself a geek but I've never heard of the stuff before. The quiz says I'm optimistic, we all knew that. Yeah, it's pink. You know that hole, the one you put pie in? Shut it.

what flavor pocky are you?

[c] sugardew

Fall is Here

At least that’s what they tell me. Somehow I’m still of the mindset where 87° weather constitutes summer. I ate lunch outside by the lake where yellow-jackets harassed me for my iced-tea. That’s right, screw “sweet-tea”. In every normal part of the country, iced-tea is by definition already sweet. There’s no reason to go making a cultural thing out of it.

So I ate lunch under the shade of a tree, next to the lake. After I consumed my sandwich, I played a little Zelda on my new Gameboy Micro. That was really a good way to spend my break. It got me outdoors away from the computer, and I was actually doing something I liked with my free time instead of staring blankly at CNN for 45 minutes. I was on the fence all summer about the whole portable gaming thing. I once owned a Sega Game Gear, but that was a POS. As I started spending more time stuck at airports I came to the realization it was time to take another stab at a portable game system. PSP and DS just weren’t what I was looking for. The PSP was too large and expensive, plus I’ve already played most of those games on my PS2. The DS just wasn’t what I was looking for and the available games were very limited. Then I heard about the Micro. Smaller than my cell phone and it plays any of the huge selection of GBA games, many of which can be had used for dirt cheap. Plus it was only $100! I wish I could have bought it sooner! I’m not looking for graphical hi-fidelity, that’s what I have home consoles for. All I’m looking for is something extremely portable to toss in my pocket with quality on a par with my old Super Nintendo. It fits the bill for an old-school gaming experience on the go.

Creepy Chips

I generally avoid purchasing, or even consuming when free, Utz ® brand chips. Maybe it’s that the brand name doesn’t remotely resemble anything edible. Or it could just be that the little girl mascot they have contrived freaks me the hell out. Her rosy cheeks would look garish even on a clown. Her head is a perfect circle, with the face painted on to the front as if it were a round wooden ball pretending to be a head. But for some reason they took the time to draw the body as a real cartoon should be drawn. With an arm correctly proportional to the body reaching into a paper bag that I’m only assuming contains potato chips. The head though, that demonic head is just so out of place that my eyes want to slide past it pretending it doesn’t exist. To prove I wasn’t just being irrational I purchased a bag of their Bar-B-Que flavored Corn Chips today. It’s not as brave an act as it sounds. The crazy mascot only appears in the small logo on the back of the bag. The quality is of a slightly lower grade than similar offerings from Frito-Lay ®, but it serves the purpose of pumping fat and salt directly into my arteries. I faced my fear, looked the devil square in the eye, and stared him down.

Of Hops and Bears

I'm reviewing this a little after the fact. Maybe a week after the fact, I'm not really sure. I've been working so much lately I haven't been able to get close to updating my blog. And when I haven't been working I've been tearing down that damn motorcycle. I won't get into that now. This entry is about beer! Bear Republic's Racer 5 India Pale Ale. It's very highly carbonated! I poured this beer into a large mug, well over 22oz, that I borrowed from a friend. I made the mistake of trying to agitate the pour to induce more head. It would have had plenty on it's own. The head was thick and creamy and it just wouldn't quit! That foamy head stuck around forever. Similar to the head, it had a very creamy mouthfeel to it. Not nearly as hoppy as I had been lead to believe, very smooth. It was a very balanced beer with a 7% abv. A little more tame than similar offerings but I enjoyed it none the less.

Another Imperial Stout

Remember those "better imperial stouts" I mentioned in my first review? This is one of them. I'm drinking Lagunitas Imperial Stout, brewed and bottled by the Lagunitas Brewing Company in Petaluma, California. It looks a bit on the light side for a stout. When held up to a light it's quite reddish in hue on the edges. Very easy to drink. Has a smokey roasted flavor to it. Maybe a little bit of caramel malt. I much prefer it to the sour flavor in my previous review. The 8.2% alcohol will get you just as buzzed. This is a very refreshing beer as well. I could even see drinking it on a hot summer afternoon. Quite good I must say.

Motorola tries for a hole in one, but hooks it into the weeds.

It looks like I'm not going to be getting a new cellphone after all. What a huge dissapointment. The phone it's based off is a year old model, the bluetooth is crippled, the camera is low quality, it only supports 100 songs, it's not even a 3G phone, and godamnit the thing looks like butt. They expect people to pay $250 with a 2 year contract for that thing? No wonder Steve Jobs gave it such a lack-luster endorsement. Apple's saving grace on this is that they seem to have done everything they could NOT to associate themselves with this lemon. The only involvement they had was getting iTunes to run on the damned thing. I'm holding off until Apple designs a phone themselves. One that doesn't look like it's 5 years old.

Going Fast, Slowly

Story #1

I've got a lot of work ahead of me.

I recently purchased a motorcycle for the princely sum of zero dollars and zero cents. Why so cheap you ask? Let's start with what it is, a 1985 Suzuki GS550E. True it's old, but it's only got 19,000 miles on it. Surely that's worth some bit of monetary exchange? Allow me to retort. Not only is it old, but it hasn't been run in 5 years. Now we're getting somewhere. It's been sitting under a deck outside for one quarter of it's life. The rubber parts are so weathered that the hand grips have turned to a black powder that coats your hands if you try and grab them. The paint, though vibrant and colorful from being under the deck and out of the sun has started to bubble from the random formation of rust on the tank. God knows how the rust formed, there was nothing wrong with the paint in those areas. The tires are cracked and air pressure is almost nil. They are in no way safe to use on the street. The turn signals are filled with water and practically falling off. One actually is falling off, held on only by a piece of wire. The brakes look alright, but I have a feeling that they aren't functioning at the moment. I have no idea if it will even run. I need to change every drop of fluid, battery and spark plug in the thing and probably rebuild the carburetor before I even try to start it up.

So why bother messing with this even if it was free? As Jim so eloquently put in the comments section, I need something to do and rally racing is friggin expensive. Maybe this will give you incentive to finally fix up your dad's bike and you can come ride with me Jim. Another big selling point for picking up this heap, 55 miles to the gallon. That's right, this gigantic moped is going to deliver me from the evil of high gas prices! So what if it costs me $600 in parts just to get it street able. I'll make that back in a
year. And common, motorcycles are a hoot.

Story #2

On a different subject, I have a new nickname. Let me start with the tale behind it. My boss and I left for a meeting up near DC last Thursday. I get the key's to one of the company cars, go find it out in the lot, then swing by the entrance to the building to pick up my passenger. All's well, we drive a couple hours, and stop for lunch about 2 minutes away from the meeting. We eat, then go back to the car. I slide behind the wheel, put the key in the ignition, and it won't turn. I try jiggling it. Nothing. I try forcing it. Still won't turn. My boss calls me a wuss and I let him try.

No dice, he can't get it to work either. He had heard about something that happens sometimes with Fords if you park it with the wheels turned too much. The steering wheel was locked out, it wouldn't turn. Even with the engine off it still should have been able to turn. We tried to get something out of the trunk, but the key wouldn't work in the trunk, it wouldn't manually unlock the doors. It was like we had the wrong key! Except for the fact that I had just driven 2 hours up the highway so I knew it had to work. The car stayed there overnight and we were 2 hours late for the meeting after we found a rental car.

They company car had been at a dealership getting diagnosed until today. It was the wrong key. I had taken the wrong vehicle and in order to get it to work again, the dealer up in DC had to completely re-key the whole car. I can't explain why the car started that day and allowed me to get as far as I did, neither can anyone else. They've started calling me Hot-Wire.

Been a Few Days

At least this time it wasn't because I've been working too much. It's mostly because I've just been kinda lazy about turning on a computer. Labor Day Weekend has been going quite well. We went out to the bars Friday. Recovered and cleaned up around the apartment Saturday. Went for an extended bike trip around Pocahontas State Park on Sunday, then rented a couple movies. And today I'm just kinda hanging out while Kelly goes to Starbucks and studies insurance. I may go to the pool this afternoon. In all, a very successful long weekend.

Last night was also a very successful night of Halo action. It's amazing how much easier it is when you have a good team with similar skill levels and the ability to communicate effectively. Of 8 games played with that team we lost once. It would have been great to keep playing but it was 2am. We ended on a high note. So what to do today? There's the upcoming walk down to the pool, and some laundry. But come on, there has to be something better than that to do in this town. Oh wait, it's Richmond. No there isn't.