| « | February 2008 | » | ||||
 |
||||||
| S | M | T | W | T | F | S |
| 1 | 2 | |||||
| 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
| 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 |
| 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 |
| 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | |
When I get home from work today, I think I'm going to relax with a homebrew, then work on a couple projects. First I need to keg a smoked porter. I hate having to tear apart a keg and sterilize all the pieces. Especially the long dip tube. Kegging is sure a lot easier then bottling though.
Another project will be to boil a pint of wort with light DME to add to my yeast culture. I'm trying to culture the yeast from a bottle of Bell's Hopslam. I need to figure out the recipe for this great beer since it is only available from mid Jan to the end of Feb. Why Bell's only brews this in the winter, I don't know. Seems like it would be a great summertime BBQ beverage!
I'm still researching the hops bill. So far my best guess from reading forums and searching the net is: Hersbrucker, Centennial, Glacier, Vanguard Crystal and Simcoe. Fortunately I have most of these in my freezer from before the hops shortage. I'm in some disagreement with which is said to be boiled and which is to be dry hopped.
On Sunday, I might brew up a batch of 2 hearted or a close facsimile. I can't remember the grain bill exactly but I think it is 10# pale, 1# 60L. (I'm at work and my recipe book is at home) For the hops I use 1oz at the beginning boil, 1oz at 45min, 1oz at flame out, then dry hop in secondary with 2-3 oz, depending on how hoppy I feel like making it. All Hops are Centennial.
If you haven't guessed yet, I LOVE hoppy beers!
I don't get it. I can't seem to get my own kids interested in model rockets. I always thought that because Dad owned a hobby shop specializing in model rockets that they would be interested and feel they were the coolest kids around. I would've loved for my Dad to have owned a hobby shop. I would have been the most popular kid in school. Not my kids! They would rather sit in front of a video game and see who can push a button the fastest.
Kids now days aren't interested in using their hands to create something. They rarely ever get to feel the pride of constructing or assembling something with their own two hands. What skill are they learning by pushing a button at the speed of sound? I'm beginning to understand why American kids are falling behind in science and math. It's not necessarily the fault of our educational system.
It's not that I haven't tried to get them involved in rocketry. They used to come with me all the time to launches. They even flew model rockets for awhile. Soon my son was complaining "it was boring". I asked him why he thought that, and the reply was "because they don't blow anything up". Well I wasn't about to make warheads for him to launch!
You're probably saying to yourself "why did you buy them the video games in the first place"? I didn't. Back when their mother was still around, we decided not to get either kid a video game for xmas. We knew this would lead to trouble later on. We asked our parents not to be the cool grandparents and be the first to get them one. Guess what my kids got that xmas? Damn were we pissed. We wanted to be the ones to get them their first game when the time was right. At the time I figured learning to socialize and gain new interests were more important to their growth then a video game. Eventually they would be the only kid on the block without one. That was when I felt was the right time. Of course, that is only because I didn't want them to feel they were neglected somehow.
I've tried to limit the time they could play. I've tried to take the games away. I've even flipped the circuit breakers to their rooms to keep them from spending too much time on those damn games. All this accomplished was, too much stress on my part and too much depression and anger on their part. Maybe I'm a push over. I don't want to widen the gap more then I have to. My parents and especially my Dad and I were about as far apart as could possibly be. I didn't want that to happen between me and my kids. I've always been open minded and want my kids to feel they have a cool Dad.
Now I'm starting to get off topic. What to do to get them to enjoy a hobby like model rocketry, that will teach them something and give them pride in what they can accomplish with their own two hands? It doesn't have to be rocketry. It's just what I know a great deal about. I understand they will be their own person, with their own interests. You would think that someone who owns a hobby shop could get their kids involved in a hobby. I've given them RC cars, planes, models, trains, chemistry sets, electronic kits, kites, everything I can think of. They just aren't interested in anything but video games. Are these games THAT addictive? I must admit, I haven't played many video games since pong and asteroids. Clearly the graphics are better, but have the manufacturers done something to make them like a drug? I sure hate to see what society will be like when this generation grows up and have their own kids and family.
Well, enough ranting and babbling on about this. I have to close up shop and get home to make dinner. I sure hope someone starts reading these blogs. Maybe they can either straighten me out or sympathize with me.
I've been getting excited about Bush's stimulus plan and the checks that most everyone will be receiving in May. I was thinking that I sure could use this money to buy this or that. Also, I thought that business should pick up at work around May because others will have that extra money to spend.
Last night I realized it was a hoax! It is nothing more then a bail-out plan for credit companies. Think about it. I, like most people, have debts. Most of us are getting behind because of the economy and preditory loans. Who's going to spend this extra money on anything but a debt? The local businesses like grocery stores, gas stations, video rentals, hobby shops, etc won't see any, if not, a very little of it. Most of all that money will end up in the bank accounts of major credit and loan companies.
Sure this will help the average Joe with his bills, but it won't help the economy to pick up by much at all. It just prolongs or prevents the multi-billion dollar loan companies from going bankrupt. Of coarse Bush's administration couldn't just give this money directly to the credit and loan companies or we would be up in arms about it. So they came up with this hoax, and so far its working. Wake up America! Bush has tricked us again.
A better plan would be to stop the laon and credit companies from charging the loans shark rates that would have found most Mafia members thrown in prison several decades ago.
Just my 2 cents worth.
Well this is a first for me. Call me techno challenged, but I've never seen a blog before and here I am starting one. I'm not even quite sure what a blog is.
I'm using this for a means to rant and rave about whatever is on my mind at the time. Who knows where it may go or what topics may get covered. Sometimes I may report about a rocket launch or a weekend getaway. With the primaries going on and the elections next year, I may write about political views.
Maybe you have a topic that you'd like to get my opinion on. I can be very opinionated.
Humm. This first entry was reasonable painless.
