Posts filed under 'Blog'
So I left the practice of law for a steady paycheck and some sanity. Constantly chasing after clients to a) get them and then b) get paid by them got tedious. I wanted to have insurance. The great thing was that I left the practice of law to make some dough via my beer nerd hobby. I’ve been brewing beer for fourteen years. Someday, I’d love to have my own brewery. I subscribe to Beer Advocate. I don’t post reviews on the site, because I can’t even be bothered to update my own blog.
That was last August. Tomorrow, I interview for the next job up in my company, as the guy opening a new location. It turns out that I also really dig wine. Wine is great. It’s not beer, but it does the job and has a whole new world of flavor profiles about which one can seriously nerd out. My main weakness is what I’d call wine trivia. Some of it isn’t too hard, some of it is ZOMG complex.
But I think I’m getting the hang of it. I certainly have some strong opinions regarding what I like and what I don’t like. I seek out really obscure single varietal wines and try them. I’m building a palate that can handle multiple beverages and generally enhance my own life by drinking tasty beverages with my food. Or not with food. At the end of the day, I’m enjoying life a lot more than before.
It’s a good place to be because, student loan debt aside, the career change has done me a world of good. Last August, I was pushing it to fit into a size 40 jean. Now I’m looking at putting a new hole in the belt and seeing if I can fit a 34 — my 36s are way loose. I regret not being a work from home dad, but it’s been good for the kid as well. She’s wicked smart. Her grandmother does a lot with her and really does a great job teaching her.
At any rate, we’re moving out there regardless of whether I get the job. I’m feeling pretty confident, but you never know. So yeah. There was some bloggy content. Let’s face it, this is really the only way I’ll ever get back in the habit of posting on my own stupid blog.
Fear.
June 3rd, 2008
Yep, things have been busy lately, so I’ve been neglecting the blog again. What it comes down to is a lack of discipline and a ton of other work that is still looming over me. I’m also remiss to write reviews of beers that I’ve tried umpteen times, and my attention to the video game industry has been spotty at best. By the time I read about “breaking news,” it’s already broken, discussed and old hat. I guess it’s time to start using an RSS reader again.
Either way, I’m going to attempt to develop discipline, even if that means some E/N blog action. Beer reviews are still very possible, especially since I just ordered an asston of new beers.
January 16th, 2008
So yeah, when the expiry date of your payment method lapses, it’s really smart to update that information with your service provider.
I am teh stupid.
I blame the commies and their mind-control satellites. Wolverines!
December 17th, 2007
So I forgot to decline a “featured selection” from the friggin record club (yes, I know I am stupid for having ever joined one). What arrived was actually pretty damn good: Chris Cornell’s solo album, Carry On. I like it much better than Audioslave, and it really feels like he’s had a chance here to explore his talent and tastes a bit more. The songs range from some harder ones (Poison Eye) to sprawling soundscapes like “You Know My Name.” Also fun is his cover of Billie Jean, which is so well done you don’t realize what song it is until the lyrics start.
Although I’m not usually a big fan of solo projects from artists who used to be in bands that I like (I’m looking at YOU Paul Westerberg, “Dyslexic Heart” was crappy pop pablum), this album is just damn good. It rocks when it needs to and then pulls back and then WHAM more rocking.
And now we know why Rolling Stone has never given me a job as an album reviewer. But hey, I’m doing research today and I’m trying to make up for months of not posting.
November 20th, 2007
So my great job search ended back in August. Instead of landing a gig as an attorney, I’ve turned my law practice into a hobby practice — I do real estate closings and contract drafting when people need it done, and I am currently networking out a bit to get more paid research and drafting work. It turns out that many lawyers don’t like doing the legwork and will pay me to do it for them. Hurrah.
So what am I doing as a “day job” in the meantime? I’m a beverage specialist for a major organic grocery store. It should take about, oh one guess to figure out which one. (Especially since the one I work for has been slowly absorbing the other ones.) So basically, my job is to order all of the beer that we sell, and to spend tons of time hand-selling beer and wine to the residents of the surrounding community. As a home brewer and general beer enthusiast, this kicks ass. It sure as heck beats working 70-90 hours a week as an associate at a law firm, and I get to do cool stuff.
Last week, I went to the grand opening of the new Two Brothers Brewing facility in Warrenville, IL. I got to see some massive stainless steel brewing vessels up close and enjoy all of their beers on tap. I also got to meet the Ebel brothers and generally have a great time being a huge beer geek.
Next spring, we’re planning a family trip to Cooperstown, NY. (Well, I’m planning the trip, Mrs. Slack thinks I’m still in the wishful thinking phase.) Why Cooperstown? Because that’s where one goes to visit the Baseball Hall of Fame. Oh, and the Ommegang Brewery, Duvel USA’s facility in the states. Ommegang makes some great beers, many of which are frequently in our fridge. Heck, I’m currently cellaring a bottle of their Ommageddon Funkhouse w/ Bretts beer until New Year’s just to see how it has developed since we drank one in September. The nice thing is that we’ll get to go on a pretty cool tour (and hopefully one that is better than the normal tour) thanks to the kindness of the people at Ommegang.
So, currently on my horizons are: starting teaching brewing classes at my store, figuring out how to get the cash to attend the Siebel and get my master brewer’s degree, and figuring out how to beg, plead or bribe my way to being an apprentice to a master brewer somewhere. Oh, and if anyone has piles of money just laying around, starting my own brewery is another thing I’d like to do.
At any rate, once I get the time to dig into the code for the site, I’ll be adding a beer category, etc.
November 20th, 2007
In response to a community pics thread over at Corpnews, Rhyssa has posted a pic that was apparently taken the night after day two of GenCon 2005. I’m not even sure if that’s me asleep (and very happy) or if that’s just my typical full-blink-at-the-moment-of-photo-capture move. Either way, some jacktard managed to set off the fire alarm at 4 AM by leaving butter on the waffle iron. I was pretty darn beat by the time we got back to the room.
I’d like to point out that, while this is most definitely not a drunken passout photo, if it was, I had the good sense to remove my shoes beforehand.
August 1st, 2007
So I’ve been getting some new and innovative spam that sometimes passes my filter, although generally not. This stuff uses the poster name and email for the actual spammyness while filling the body of the comment with quotes from classic lit and even some of the writings that make up the foundations of the Constitution.
It’s almost like school house rock for spammers. Almost. Either way, cut it out you jagoffs.
July 19th, 2007
I am unable to come up with a good name for a fake “natural male enhancement” product. I’m writing the problem and solution to a moot court competition and have a tenative fact pattern that involves a semi-public figure that is “outed” as a user of something like Enzyte. The two best ideas I have (and one was contributed by a friend) are “Wangulair” and “Bonex.” Or maybe “Girthromax.” So I guess that’s three. Feel free to leave non-spam replies that help me, uh, fill out this detail.
July 12th, 2007
So yep, I’ve been busy again. When you do contract work for projects funded by the Feds, you tend to get a lot of waiting….and then several weeks of “ZOMG WE NEEDED THAT YESTERDAY!” In the meantime, it seems that everyone else has been busy too.
Over at the RNC, they’ve been busily deleting emails. In fact, fifty-one White House officials with RNC email addresses have had their records deleted. That lovely PDF goes into more detail, but the gist is this: someone is violating the Presidential Records Act. I guess a lame duck and his administration can do more harm after all. As someone who supports more transparency in government, conducting government business on private servers and then deleting those records certainly isn’t how I’d go about it.
The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals determined that in order to gain access to an individual’s emails, a simple subpoena to his ISP was not enough. In Warshak v. U.S., the Sixth Circuit upheld a preliminary injunction forbidding the government to obtain any more of defendant Warshak’s emails via subpoena. It held that the Fourth Amendment demanded an actual warrant for access to an individual’s emails due to the expectation of privacy that people had in the contents of their emails. It rejected the government’s argument that an ISP’s ability to monitor the emails of an individual did not vitiate this expectation of privacy. It further indicated that Warshak may have a valid argument for facially invalidating the provisions of the Stored Communications Act that allow the government to simply subpoena emails.
While this was only a decision supporting a temporary injunction (which is issued pending a full hearing), it goes a long way to restore some of our expectation of privacy in our communications, which has been under fire from the current administration since at least 9/11.
Finally, in some news you’ll likely see me covering in more depth later on this summer, Congress has tasked itself with considering taxation issues inherent in RMT. Expect Congress’s Joint Economic Committee to issue a report during recess this August. I think most of this RMT taxation stuff is chicken little-esque bloviating, but I woudn’t mind seeing people nailed for failing to report their capital gains when they cash out.
So there you go. All the news that’s fit to gloss over in one blog post.
July 3rd, 2007
There is an interesting article at Time.com about some people’s concerns regarding the latest Google Maps feature, Street View. Google has been sending employees and contractors around several major U.S. cities in an effort to photograph everything. This data is then used to create the Street View feature, which allows people to get a 360 degree tour of the area they’ve looked up.
In my opinion, this isn’t really invasive at all. We’re talking about photos taken during the day on public streets. Nobody has a reasonable expectation of privacy on a public street in broad daylight. Some people are concerned that the photos will also document people attending AA meetings, visiting family planning clinics, or meeting with controversial political groups. That might be a valid concern, but the photos aren’t updated in real time. Moreover, it is information that anyone could get via loitering outside the locations. Heck, there’d be more info gathered that way.
At any rate, the article is a good read and at very least highlights that Google Maps’s latest feature is wicked cool.
June 12th, 2007
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