Today I am thankful for black IPA. Beer? I'm thankful for beer when people are without power and heat and water? Yes. Because I'm shallow and self-centered like that.
Anyway... After a long week that started shitty but ended pretty good, I needed a beer. I haven't been drinking much beer lately. Since coming back from Vermont in July I've been mostly drinking cider. I found a local dark and dry hard apple cider I like quite a bit. The last few months I felt that beer was just too heavy and cider fit the bill.
Tonight, it was rainy and cool and November--and I wanted a beer. I'm pretty much an IPA drinker--the hoppier the better. And IPAs are Pacific Northwest standard. By the way people talk about them, you'd think brewers in the Pacific Northwest invented the IPA. But I've also found out I like oatmeal stouts a lot. I never thought I like stouts, but, holy shit, I do.
So, as I was about to grabs a six-pack of an IPA I like, I saw a black IPA. And since the beer guy (you know, the guy in the liquor section who knows beer instead of wine) was right there, I asked what the difference was. Simply put, it's either a maltier IPA or a hoppier stout. Or as the beer guy said, "It pretty much follows the pattern of people in the Pacific Northwest making everything hoppier." He went on to explain that the bitterness of the hops cuts into the richer chocolate taste of the malt. I was sold. To add to the Pacific Northwest ownership of the IPA, black IPAs are also called Cascadian Dark Ale.
And you know what? It's great. Super great.
Friday, November 2, 2012
Thursday, November 1, 2012
30 Days of Thanks, Day 1
Yeah, so I was taking a break. And I did this 30 Days of Thanks thing last year. And I don't know if my 30 things will be much different than last year. But, here it goes.
Today I am thankful for today. And by that I mean this very day, today.
I've had a semi-shitty week. Monday was crazy busy. Tuesday was that type of day where it felt like everything I touched I broke. I taught in the morning, and it went terribly. My students got frustrated, and I got frustrated. It I felt like I had been rambling on for seven weeks and nothing I said was sinking in. It got to the point where I almost told them to get out of the room because I didn't want to look at them anymore. But I took a deep breath, asked them what they didn't get and tried to address their concerns and questions. The rest of the day was spent in meetings or grading, and then I was at work late, still grading.
The grading continued until Wednesday, and I got even more frustrated. The grading was briefly interrupted for more meetings.
Today? Was the polar opposite of Tuesday. Or Monday. Or Wednesday. It was busier than all of them combined, but my class went beautifully. I tried something new and it worked. It really worked. My students got into the exercise and they seemed to get something out of it. It was great. And the meetings, while time consuming, were actually productive.
And I bought an iPad. It's a used one. And it was semi-impulsive, but there you go. A friend on Facebook was selling it, I counter-offered her price, and we had a deal.
So, today was what I needed to counterbalance the rest of my week.
Today I am thankful for today. And by that I mean this very day, today.
I've had a semi-shitty week. Monday was crazy busy. Tuesday was that type of day where it felt like everything I touched I broke. I taught in the morning, and it went terribly. My students got frustrated, and I got frustrated. It I felt like I had been rambling on for seven weeks and nothing I said was sinking in. It got to the point where I almost told them to get out of the room because I didn't want to look at them anymore. But I took a deep breath, asked them what they didn't get and tried to address their concerns and questions. The rest of the day was spent in meetings or grading, and then I was at work late, still grading.
The grading continued until Wednesday, and I got even more frustrated. The grading was briefly interrupted for more meetings.
Today? Was the polar opposite of Tuesday. Or Monday. Or Wednesday. It was busier than all of them combined, but my class went beautifully. I tried something new and it worked. It really worked. My students got into the exercise and they seemed to get something out of it. It was great. And the meetings, while time consuming, were actually productive.
And I bought an iPad. It's a used one. And it was semi-impulsive, but there you go. A friend on Facebook was selling it, I counter-offered her price, and we had a deal.
So, today was what I needed to counterbalance the rest of my week.
Friday, October 26, 2012
Okay... This is the deal.
Okay, so I'm not going to spill my guts or anything. I really don't have much to say, but my life has calmed down a bit.
I wish I could say I took a short break because my life had become terribly exciting or something great, but it didn't. Actually, it went the other way. I'm not going to go into major details. And at one point I tried to figure out how to make a post password accessible so only those who asked for the password could read it. But... figuring out how to do that in Blogger proved to take far too much time.
Simply put: I had a shitty summer. I took a week off. I took a week to work from home. I took a short vacation right before classes started. I did this to clear my head. To take a break. But it wasn't enough. Ugh.
So, a recap... I went to Seattle for a few days right before the quarter started. I met up with a friend from Wisconsin and we went to the Packers-Seahawks game at The Clink. You know, the one with the Fail Mary: The game that settled NFL officials lockout. The one where Seahawks coach Pete Once-a-cheater-always-a-cheater Carroll revealed himself to be an even bigger ass than I thought he was. Now, don't get me wrong, for 99.99% of the game, I had a great time. I went with a friend from Wisconsin and a local friend (who is a Seahawks fan). We drank a lot. A lot. We drank before we got there. We drank during the game. We were in the very last row of the stadium, which meant we pretty much just had our own little party up there. And it was fun. There were enough Packer fans there that you could actually hear the "Go Pack Go" chants. There were also enough that you could hear the "Bullshit" chants after the blown calls. My local friend cheered in Spanish and proved to be as passionate about the Seahawks as I am about the Packers. Seriously, it was all around fun. Until the final call.
I was upset, but I didn't completely lose it until I saw the replay on TV. And the next day, while wearing my Packers tshirt in Seattle, I actually had people apologize. It was kind of cool.
Before the Packers game, we went to the Chihuly Garden. I'm not a big fan, but my Wisconsin friend is. We went to the EMP. My Wisconsin friend isn't a big music fan, but I am. I'd been through part of the EMP before, but I had never done the whole thing. We spent an afternoon wandering through the SciFi and horror movie exhibit. We hit the Hendrix exhibit. And Rolling Stone and AC/DC exhibits. But the highlight was the Nirvana exhibit. I almost cried. Not because I think Kurt Cobain was the spokesman of my generation, but because the music--all the music--from that era was so good and it meant so much to me then and now.
The other cool part? Was watching kids who had never seen Michael Jackson's Thriller see it for the first time on the big screen in the EMP. I wanted someone to break out into the Thriller dance. Okay, I wanted to break out into the Thriller dance.
And the day after my trip to Seattle? Classes started. And my life didn't slow down until this week. Why? Because I'm teaching a class that went from an elective to a gen ed and the number of credit hours doubled--as did the teaching time. I'd like to say my normal work schedule was adjusted for this, but it wasn't. And I almost lost my mind. Seriously, I can't remember being this busy since I took two summer classes at the same time while in grad school. I forgot to pay my bills. I haven't cleaned or vacuumed in more than a month. I was working seven days a week and not sleeping well because I dreamt about work. It was pretty much like working 24/7.
It sucked. Big time.
My life has calmed down some. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I can begin to imagine this quarter ending. And I may actually survive.
Oh, and then there is this election. I was talking to some colleagues this afternoon who have both accepted that Romney will win. I was all, "What the fuck?" There is part of me that is in denial because I live in a solidly blue area in a solidly blue state, and I pretty much stopped paying attention to campaign details months ago (I couldn't stomach it). There is another part of me that thinks my colleagues are correct. And I want to weep. Now, we survived eight years of George W Bush and the damage done by the fuckwads he had in his cabinet, and we would survive four years of the Mitt Romney Tea Party Asshats. If Romney were as moderate as he was in Massachusetts, I wouldn't be too worried. But he'd start running for a second term as soon as he's elected which means he'll fill his cabinets with ignorant fucks. This is when I go stone cold with fear thinking about what Romney's Tea Party Fucks will do to women's health issues, specifically reproductive rights.
I hope my colleagues are wrong. Very wrong.
But, I did my part. I voted earlier this week. I'm ready to get this thing over with.
I wish I could say I took a short break because my life had become terribly exciting or something great, but it didn't. Actually, it went the other way. I'm not going to go into major details. And at one point I tried to figure out how to make a post password accessible so only those who asked for the password could read it. But... figuring out how to do that in Blogger proved to take far too much time.
Simply put: I had a shitty summer. I took a week off. I took a week to work from home. I took a short vacation right before classes started. I did this to clear my head. To take a break. But it wasn't enough. Ugh.
So, a recap... I went to Seattle for a few days right before the quarter started. I met up with a friend from Wisconsin and we went to the Packers-Seahawks game at The Clink. You know, the one with the Fail Mary: The game that settled NFL officials lockout. The one where Seahawks coach Pete Once-a-cheater-always-a-cheater Carroll revealed himself to be an even bigger ass than I thought he was. Now, don't get me wrong, for 99.99% of the game, I had a great time. I went with a friend from Wisconsin and a local friend (who is a Seahawks fan). We drank a lot. A lot. We drank before we got there. We drank during the game. We were in the very last row of the stadium, which meant we pretty much just had our own little party up there. And it was fun. There were enough Packer fans there that you could actually hear the "Go Pack Go" chants. There were also enough that you could hear the "Bullshit" chants after the blown calls. My local friend cheered in Spanish and proved to be as passionate about the Seahawks as I am about the Packers. Seriously, it was all around fun. Until the final call.
I was upset, but I didn't completely lose it until I saw the replay on TV. And the next day, while wearing my Packers tshirt in Seattle, I actually had people apologize. It was kind of cool.
Before the Packers game, we went to the Chihuly Garden. I'm not a big fan, but my Wisconsin friend is. We went to the EMP. My Wisconsin friend isn't a big music fan, but I am. I'd been through part of the EMP before, but I had never done the whole thing. We spent an afternoon wandering through the SciFi and horror movie exhibit. We hit the Hendrix exhibit. And Rolling Stone and AC/DC exhibits. But the highlight was the Nirvana exhibit. I almost cried. Not because I think Kurt Cobain was the spokesman of my generation, but because the music--all the music--from that era was so good and it meant so much to me then and now.
The other cool part? Was watching kids who had never seen Michael Jackson's Thriller see it for the first time on the big screen in the EMP. I wanted someone to break out into the Thriller dance. Okay, I wanted to break out into the Thriller dance.
And the day after my trip to Seattle? Classes started. And my life didn't slow down until this week. Why? Because I'm teaching a class that went from an elective to a gen ed and the number of credit hours doubled--as did the teaching time. I'd like to say my normal work schedule was adjusted for this, but it wasn't. And I almost lost my mind. Seriously, I can't remember being this busy since I took two summer classes at the same time while in grad school. I forgot to pay my bills. I haven't cleaned or vacuumed in more than a month. I was working seven days a week and not sleeping well because I dreamt about work. It was pretty much like working 24/7.
It sucked. Big time.
My life has calmed down some. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I can begin to imagine this quarter ending. And I may actually survive.
Oh, and then there is this election. I was talking to some colleagues this afternoon who have both accepted that Romney will win. I was all, "What the fuck?" There is part of me that is in denial because I live in a solidly blue area in a solidly blue state, and I pretty much stopped paying attention to campaign details months ago (I couldn't stomach it). There is another part of me that thinks my colleagues are correct. And I want to weep. Now, we survived eight years of George W Bush and the damage done by the fuckwads he had in his cabinet, and we would survive four years of the Mitt Romney Tea Party Asshats. If Romney were as moderate as he was in Massachusetts, I wouldn't be too worried. But he'd start running for a second term as soon as he's elected which means he'll fill his cabinets with ignorant fucks. This is when I go stone cold with fear thinking about what Romney's Tea Party Fucks will do to women's health issues, specifically reproductive rights.
I hope my colleagues are wrong. Very wrong.
But, I did my part. I voted earlier this week. I'm ready to get this thing over with.
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Taking a Break
I'm taking a short break from blogging.
Why?
I don't have the time. I've taken on some extra work, and it's sucked up most of my extra time. When I do have free time the last thing I want to do is turn on my computer because that just means I'll start working. And right now I need to separate my personal time from work time.
I'm also taking a break because... well, because. There are reasons why but they aren't blog-friendly.
Why?
I don't have the time. I've taken on some extra work, and it's sucked up most of my extra time. When I do have free time the last thing I want to do is turn on my computer because that just means I'll start working. And right now I need to separate my personal time from work time.
I'm also taking a break because... well, because. There are reasons why but they aren't blog-friendly.
Friday, September 14, 2012
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