Madeline writes a blog letting everyone back home know what's going on in our lives down here in the Lone Star State. Everyone should check it out. There is a recipe at the end of the post every week of the best meal we made during it. She does a great job and the name is the first two letters of her name and the last two of mine hence "Male".
Male Mail: Male Mail: Week 4: MALE MAIL: WEEK 4 I hope everyone's electricity is back up and running to those of you back in the Chicago area or out eastward. I c...
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Monday, June 18, 2012
Adult Soap Box Derby (not that adult)
So this weekend was the ever popular, Marble Falls Adult Soap Box Derby. Instead of Boy Scouts or children's groups, professionals (Mechanics, Oil Change shops, Grown-ups with some mechanical aptitude) build some out landish racers and they race down a gigantic hill down the middle of town. There are tons of people watching and screaming (and drinking, not sure on the law of public consumption but if you had a can coozie, it was filled with beer. Didn't matter if you passed the police who were also racing this weekend). Needless to say it was a fun weekend watching people hurl themselves down a road at 30+ mph for a trophy. I posted some pics on Facebook, but I'll try to put some up here so you don't have to go there (go if you want, that's always cool and my +Klout score will thank you haha).
On Sunday, after the time trials were over and before the finals, they had a race called Jamaican. What this consists of is the team pushing their derby car down the hill and one person jumping on the back to gain more speed and weight. There is a point where the team has to stop pushing and then the two man car has a series of slaloms to complete before the drag race down the rest of the hill. It's insane, and I was surprised no one flipped, until the last Jamaican race. It was double elimination and one derby car had not lost and during the championship run, they were neck and neck so the person on the back stood up and started leaning forward and thrusting himself forward to try and get more momentum. They woman driver didn't know this was going to happen and one of the thrusts put her of course and she over compensated and like many action movies, the car skidded sideways and rolled on top of the woman, throwing the back teammate over it all. Luckily they both had helmets, but that's it. Just T-Shirts and shorts. It was scary as both members lay motionless at the bottom of the hill. They didn't move for over 3 minutes while people were sprinting down the hill to come to their aid. There was only one man (The finish line flagger) trying to help both racers. The crowd went silent, Mads and I were sitting next to the family of the team that flipped. Needless to say they were all rushing off the stands to get to the aid of their loved ones. A paramedic came around the corner to take care of them. Finally after about 20 minutes, the announcer (who also ran down to the crash) and a member of the team, came back up and said none of the injuries were life threatening (Thank God). Just shock and major road rash, the driver had a severe cut above her eye (And I would bet a consussion, you don't lie there motionless for that long without being unconscious). Needless to say, other than that crash, it was a great weekend. I'm not sure if Jamaican is a very smart way of celebrating Soap Box Derby unless some more safety measures are put in place.
Even the Marble Falls Police had a car in the race, with working lights. Or else they have some budget issues.
Some cars had front facing seats, this one's name was "Love Sausage". These people are way too crazy for me.
The derby cars came in all shapes and sizes, the "NO RULE 10" car's body kept wiggling as it went down, we all thought it was going to break apart like a Victory Auto-Wreckers car at the bottom. It stayed in tact all weekend.
The license plate says OUTATIME and Doc is in the passenger seat
The woman in the purple tri-racer was the one who flipped later in the day. As you can see, there isn't much keeping her in the racer. It has a couple 45 lb weights in the back plus the weight of another man who jumped on back during Jamaican making it pretty heavy and not fun when it lands on you at 30+ mph. Thankfully she is ok.
This is the back of the "NO RULE 10" car, nice comfortable seat. I like the slogan on the back. Maybe some day, I can get a crew together for this competition. It looks a lot of fun, we may not participate in the Jamaican section but straight-up racing would be fun. Team FIBS, who's with me?
On Sunday, after the time trials were over and before the finals, they had a race called Jamaican. What this consists of is the team pushing their derby car down the hill and one person jumping on the back to gain more speed and weight. There is a point where the team has to stop pushing and then the two man car has a series of slaloms to complete before the drag race down the rest of the hill. It's insane, and I was surprised no one flipped, until the last Jamaican race. It was double elimination and one derby car had not lost and during the championship run, they were neck and neck so the person on the back stood up and started leaning forward and thrusting himself forward to try and get more momentum. They woman driver didn't know this was going to happen and one of the thrusts put her of course and she over compensated and like many action movies, the car skidded sideways and rolled on top of the woman, throwing the back teammate over it all. Luckily they both had helmets, but that's it. Just T-Shirts and shorts. It was scary as both members lay motionless at the bottom of the hill. They didn't move for over 3 minutes while people were sprinting down the hill to come to their aid. There was only one man (The finish line flagger) trying to help both racers. The crowd went silent, Mads and I were sitting next to the family of the team that flipped. Needless to say they were all rushing off the stands to get to the aid of their loved ones. A paramedic came around the corner to take care of them. Finally after about 20 minutes, the announcer (who also ran down to the crash) and a member of the team, came back up and said none of the injuries were life threatening (Thank God). Just shock and major road rash, the driver had a severe cut above her eye (And I would bet a consussion, you don't lie there motionless for that long without being unconscious). Needless to say, other than that crash, it was a great weekend. I'm not sure if Jamaican is a very smart way of celebrating Soap Box Derby unless some more safety measures are put in place.
Thursday, June 14, 2012
The Stars at Night, are Big and Bright, Cause I Moved Down to Texas
As many of you probably already know (and for those who don't keep reading) I recently moved down to Austin, Texas. My girlfriend Madeline works down here and I thought it was high time I did something about it. So I packed up my stuff and moved down here. I've been here two days and already I've experienced rain (which they say is not that often), 60+mph winds, tons of lightning, and now, tropical heat. I've spent these two days revamping the resume and applying to about 10-15 jobs already online. Tomorrow I start the physical store to store applicationing. I am hoping that my hand will last long enough or else I will find some newfound ambidexterity so I can fill everything out. I'm nervous, excited and excited even more. I was in the market for a change of pace and boy is this a good start. I can't wait to see what life has in store for me in the Lone Star State. If anyone has any suggestions as to where I can find a job in Austin, let me know. I'm all ears!! or eyes, since you will most likely be typing your response. More to come!!
Monday, January 23, 2012
I can haz brewed beer?
Last Thursday, my dad and I went to Bev-Art in Beverly (has a nice ring to it) to partake in a beer brewing class. I had gotten a gift certificate for Christmas so I set up the appointment and off we went. When we got there and walked into the store, it smelled amazing. I don't know if many of you have been on a brewery tour, but when you walk into the room with the Mash Tuns (where they make the grain soup (Wort) which is beer before anything else is added) and it smells sweet and bready, well that's what this store smelled like. It was awesome. We checked in and the old man (hippie) told us that our classroom was actually across the street in an old insurance company storefront. "Just look for the door with all the white paper covering it," oookkk. Once across the street we walk into this room with some long tables and round tables and two big turkey fryers in the front. The two teachers were trying to find ways to move power cords to other outlets so that they wouldn't blow fuses, it didn't work.
The head teacher couldn't get his power point up and running because he kept losing power to the front half of the room. Also, those turkey fryers suck so much electricity that the fuse kept getting blown haha. So they kept trying different combinations of turning on and off different lights or only turning one fryer (which as I forgot to mention was being used as a water boiler with malt in them to make a "starter wort" for all of the participants of the class) and letting one stay off for a little bit and then turning one off and starting the other. Did I mention he was doing this all while explaining to the class the process and history of brewing beer? This guy was muli-talented and not easily discouraged that is for sure. During his lecture, he had his assistant pour out samples of different styles of beers to showcase different points in his lecture. I think this helped him keep calm, more alcohol the better.
Now, those who know me, know I love beer. I love talking about it, drinking it, and learning about it so this first part of the class was heaven for me especially because it was hands on and we got to try different beers. We probably started in the wrong order but that's ok, we had a Firestone Walker's "Walker's Reserve Porter" which is roasty, dark and delicious. Second was the Lagunitas "Doppelweizen" which has a lot of bananas and sweetness (not my favorite but I'm a hophead). Next was Firestone Walkers "Double Jack Double IPA", I love this beer and have had it before but I love it's grapfruity, mango smells and citrusy flavors. After that we started brewing but the beer didn't stop flowing haha. We had a Black IPA (Cascadian Dark Ale), Avery's "The Reverend" Belgian Quad and a Sweet Stout. The Black IPA and Sweet Stout were brewed by our teacher and OH. MY. AGAH! They were tasty. Through all these beers we learned that my dad loves sweeter beers, hates IPAs but LOVES Black IPAs haha go figure.
Back to brewing. There were about 12 people in the class and 2 people per beer so 6 beers were being brewed today. All different because when you sign up, they give you a list to choose from in the price range of the class. They also offer Imperial versions (stronger alcohol and flavors) and some specialty styles (Belgian Tripel). The Burnsides choose to brew a brown, but others that were being brewed was a Belgian Wit, a Pale, Irish Stout, and a Red ale. So each group came up to the boiling fryers one at a time to get their "starter wort" and threw in their grain tea bags to sterilize them. The room quickly filled with that sweet bready smells that I love and I was again in Heaven. Then, once you got your "starter wort" you brought your 5 gal. bucket back to your table and put your tea bag back in the bucket and stirred it for a long time to get all the goodness from the grains that you could. My dad took turns and made our brown look like chocolate sauce it was so dark. I mean, we wanted to get our money's worth haha. Then we added one container of hopped malt extract and one of non-hopped extract which saved us a step of adding real hops and probably making it too strong for most people (dad). At that point we added cold water to chill our wort and bring it up to 5 gal. Then we got a test tube of yeast from White Labs (which is a very reputable maker of brewers yeast) and added it to our bucket all while stirring. Our yeast was for an amber but it was the closest they had for brown ales. We stirred that in and hammered on our lids and put on the air lock to let the gas out and the alcohol in MMMMM.
The last order of business was to watch a scene from The Three Stooges about brewing beer. During the clip our teacher poured us all a sample of his chili mead that he had brewed. It was really good, sweet, dry, and SPICY!! Very good. Now dad and I will wait two or three weeks when we will make another appointment to rack our beer (basically siphon it into a glass container to help get rid of sediment and maker the beer "cleaner"). and a week after that, we go back again and bottle our beer. When we took the original gravity of our beer (basically what the original alcohol would be in our beer, we will take another reading when we are about to bottle to see what the actual alcohol reading will be) it came out to be that our beer will probably be about 7% ABV which is in the "Imperial" range, so for the regular price my dad and I were able to make it as strong as someone who paid more money BOOM! So in about 4 weeks, we may have a tasting of Burnsy's Brown for people to try. If you have any questions about beer or the class we took, ask away and I will try to answer as best I can.
The head teacher couldn't get his power point up and running because he kept losing power to the front half of the room. Also, those turkey fryers suck so much electricity that the fuse kept getting blown haha. So they kept trying different combinations of turning on and off different lights or only turning one fryer (which as I forgot to mention was being used as a water boiler with malt in them to make a "starter wort" for all of the participants of the class) and letting one stay off for a little bit and then turning one off and starting the other. Did I mention he was doing this all while explaining to the class the process and history of brewing beer? This guy was muli-talented and not easily discouraged that is for sure. During his lecture, he had his assistant pour out samples of different styles of beers to showcase different points in his lecture. I think this helped him keep calm, more alcohol the better.
Now, those who know me, know I love beer. I love talking about it, drinking it, and learning about it so this first part of the class was heaven for me especially because it was hands on and we got to try different beers. We probably started in the wrong order but that's ok, we had a Firestone Walker's "Walker's Reserve Porter" which is roasty, dark and delicious. Second was the Lagunitas "Doppelweizen" which has a lot of bananas and sweetness (not my favorite but I'm a hophead). Next was Firestone Walkers "Double Jack Double IPA", I love this beer and have had it before but I love it's grapfruity, mango smells and citrusy flavors. After that we started brewing but the beer didn't stop flowing haha. We had a Black IPA (Cascadian Dark Ale), Avery's "The Reverend" Belgian Quad and a Sweet Stout. The Black IPA and Sweet Stout were brewed by our teacher and OH. MY. AGAH! They were tasty. Through all these beers we learned that my dad loves sweeter beers, hates IPAs but LOVES Black IPAs haha go figure.
Back to brewing. There were about 12 people in the class and 2 people per beer so 6 beers were being brewed today. All different because when you sign up, they give you a list to choose from in the price range of the class. They also offer Imperial versions (stronger alcohol and flavors) and some specialty styles (Belgian Tripel). The Burnsides choose to brew a brown, but others that were being brewed was a Belgian Wit, a Pale, Irish Stout, and a Red ale. So each group came up to the boiling fryers one at a time to get their "starter wort" and threw in their grain tea bags to sterilize them. The room quickly filled with that sweet bready smells that I love and I was again in Heaven. Then, once you got your "starter wort" you brought your 5 gal. bucket back to your table and put your tea bag back in the bucket and stirred it for a long time to get all the goodness from the grains that you could. My dad took turns and made our brown look like chocolate sauce it was so dark. I mean, we wanted to get our money's worth haha. Then we added one container of hopped malt extract and one of non-hopped extract which saved us a step of adding real hops and probably making it too strong for most people (dad). At that point we added cold water to chill our wort and bring it up to 5 gal. Then we got a test tube of yeast from White Labs (which is a very reputable maker of brewers yeast) and added it to our bucket all while stirring. Our yeast was for an amber but it was the closest they had for brown ales. We stirred that in and hammered on our lids and put on the air lock to let the gas out and the alcohol in MMMMM.
The last order of business was to watch a scene from The Three Stooges about brewing beer. During the clip our teacher poured us all a sample of his chili mead that he had brewed. It was really good, sweet, dry, and SPICY!! Very good. Now dad and I will wait two or three weeks when we will make another appointment to rack our beer (basically siphon it into a glass container to help get rid of sediment and maker the beer "cleaner"). and a week after that, we go back again and bottle our beer. When we took the original gravity of our beer (basically what the original alcohol would be in our beer, we will take another reading when we are about to bottle to see what the actual alcohol reading will be) it came out to be that our beer will probably be about 7% ABV which is in the "Imperial" range, so for the regular price my dad and I were able to make it as strong as someone who paid more money BOOM! So in about 4 weeks, we may have a tasting of Burnsy's Brown for people to try. If you have any questions about beer or the class we took, ask away and I will try to answer as best I can.
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
I feel your pain germaphobes, then wash my hands
I was working out at the Wellness Center today and I finally get what germaphobes are yelling about. There are so many people this time of year at most workout facilities. This will most likely change in about a month as people have done their obligatory "try to keep a resolution". This influx of people, most of whom have no idea how to act in the gym, creates a germtastic situation. I saw things today I wish never to see again...EVER!! Let's start at the beginning, a very good place to start, Machine etiquette. I don't know how why people think that after they are done, they can just up and leave and not wipe down machines. I mean I went to a machine and it was wet. WET! Like someone just came out of a Russian sweat lodge and decided the best way to dry off was to do Lat Pulls. Needless to say, I was dry heaving while running to the anti-bacterial soap. Secondly, Showers. I understand people need to take their clothes off to take a shower, but that does not mean you can't close the curtains to your shower stall. When I'm trying to find an open stall to take my shower, I don't need to see hands all over your hairy Sasquatch body. Another thing, why don't they have doors on shower stalls? Why do those in charge think that a piece of water resistant cloth that is not big enough to cover the entire opening is more than sufficient? Lastly, and I know many people have this complaint is people gallivanting about in the buff like they are home alone. After walking by all these men doing their Heisman poses and sitting bare-butt on the seat, all I want to do is throw up. Instead I'm trying to dry off and put my clothes on and get ready to leave without touching anything. I won't sit on the benches, lean against the lockers. I will say one thing, it does help ones sense of balance when you won't touch anything because you saw old bean's beans all over the place. Sorry for those who are reading this and are feeling queasy. I know this is not what you might have expected but I need to get it off my chest. So to all two of you who read this and got this far, Thanks!
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Ello My Nayme Iz Arry Pottah
I finally saw the final installment that concludes the septilogy (Is that right?) that is Harry Potter. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2. I must say, awesome. I really enjoyed this movie. Having not read any of the books (personal choice, I prefer using my time wisely), I thought that it was an amazing story arc overall. This last film was much darker then the others and that just made me all the more enjoy it. (For those of you who haven't seen it yet, WHY NOT!! The rest of this post may contain some spoilers so if you don't want to know what happens, go to older posts and learn about my trip to Austin in March. If you don't want spoilers from that, go away.
Seeing central characters get killed throughout the movie,whether on the side of Potter or Voldemort, was somewhat shocking to me. Remember I never read the books, but of course those who did couldn't help but try and spoil the whole experience for me. Thanks for that everyone. The film was shot very well with some interested angles and use of CG (Computer Graphix) I also like how dark everything was. Looking at the SUPER GIGANTIC POSTER UP ABOVE THAT WAS SMALLER WHEN I GOT IT OFF OF GOOGLE, I totally dig the very crisp shot of Harry. This happened a few times in the movie and I thought it added a lot of "I was there man when the Giant Ogres took the Bridge" feelings as the movie progressed.
There were parts that I just laughed out loud. Now we aren't talking like super out loud uncontrollable laughter, more like like a snicker, perhaps a chortle might have escaped my unpotter literate lips from time to time. FOR Example, when they are talking to the Goblin in the home asking him for help into the vaults. I couldn't help but hehe when the camera kept focusing on this diminutive fellow and every time they did a close up, he re-crisscrossed his fingers. EVERYTIME, it's like when the camera's off he's waving his arms like a man trying to get the attention of a helicopter but when the camera pans back to him, he slowly, folds, his hands and talks slower than his hands move. One other time is when Harry "dies" and he is in the bright white King's Crossing. When he first stands up, the camera is on a wide angle and Harry looks very small. The first thought running through my brain (post Guffaw) was how similar this shot was to the Willy Wonka version of Johnny TV (you know the kid). I was half expecting him to start talking with a lisp. Am I chuming in chlear? Theriously! Instead he kept his charming British accent. And who can forget baby pepperoni Voldemort under a seat? HILARIOUS!!!!!!
I was happy to see some old characters have a bigger impact (remember never read the books). NEVILLE LONGBOTTOM YOU KICK SO MUCH BUTT!!!! I knew I liked him for more than his Cosby Sweaters. Anyway, I liked this movie and it was most definitely my favorite out of all the others. ZOMG CAN WE TALK ABOUT PARENT HARRY POTTER!?!? How hilarious was Daddy Harry Potter? He doesn't look old!! He looks like he fell in some dirt and Ron's sister put on her mom's clothes. Hermoine looks like she's in a drug induced freakout and Ron is his humble hilarious self with the potbelly. That is all. Have a great day everyone!
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Ummm...Yeah...About that
Hey remember when I said I was definitely going to keep up with this blog? Yeah me neither. PHEW!!!! ANNYWAY, I am going to try a little harder to keep this thing updated, I just need a more exciting life that is worth writing about haha. Like remember that one time something super crazy happened and I was there and remembered it in full detail, so. cool. Maybe I need to find a direction for this blog like what beer I've drank recently, or disc golf exploits. We'll see. Anyway, see you in April!
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