Category: Personal

Sunday last week I went to the Blanton and watch the closing ceremony for the sand mandala that some visiting monks from the Drepung Loseling Monastery had been building. I took a few pictures and wanted to get them up here.

I’m sitting here at work about to start and entire day of writing quarterly reviews. Mine, my manager and five peer reviews. This is what is known as procrastination. We had a week and a half to do it, it’s due today and I have created the empty files in the directory I store them in.

I spent the entire day yesterday working on one thing. I got in at 08:30 and left at 19:30. After a little help from Whitney it went more smoothly and I have built a thing that looks at the difference in time between the same messages in two different data streams. It has to use a heuristic match because the people that produce the data streams do not include any of the unique message identifying information from the public stream in the private stream. This is clearly bullshit but I can get pretty close and with about 1.5% of messages being obviously misidentified when you look at the time delta.

I really want to keep working on that but it will be there next week and reviews are due today. Lame.

Hello dear blog,
It has been a long time. Since last we talked I rode the LiveStrong challenge and it was hard because I was out of shape. And then I didn’t exercise really at all until last week and it’s been even harder because I’m even more out of shape. However, I am feeling some motivation and I’ve written up a small schedule of exercise that I’ve been able to stick with for the last eight days. Three more weeks and it should stick well enough to be habit. I still haven’t decided if I’m doing the MS150 again. I’ll have to make the call soon though since I need to register and fund raise and all that. All kinds of things have been going on some of which I don’t really want to talk about out of primitive fear of jinxes and stuff.

I saw Django Unchained with a special friend. I liked it better than Inglourious Basterds which is to say I left the theater without feeling like I had been told I was bad person for watching the movie. The same special friend had also been my guest to the traditional New Years Eve dinner at Asti. However, this year we had a party to attend after dinner so we all went and had sparkling drinks and played Cards Against Humanity and I was victor / worst person in the room. I even got to be the Prepared Gentleman and hold the umbrella I had brought when it was raining on the way to the party.

Saturday I went to San Antonio to see my old friend Bimal’s Indian wedding. He and his wife had been married in Los Angeles earlier this fall but his family wanted to do the Hindu thing as well. It was really nice and was a new experience for me. We apparently got the short version since the ceremony was only an hour and there was a lot of “here is where we would normally do X but we’re going to skip that”. There was no skipping on food though. We had cocktails and hors d’oeuvres and then sorbet and then toasts and speeches and then dinner and then dessert and it was all delicious. They seem happy and are cute together.

Sunday I went to the Blanton Museum to see the sand mandala that had been under construction the previous week and which was to be erased. I have never seen that many people at the museum by half. The line for general admission was down the side of the building out into the parking lot where it ran into a plastic barricade and doubled back on itself. Fortunately I am a member of the museum so I was allowed to stand in the short line and actually got in before they erased it. I have a few pictures I’ll add later.

Things are going ok. I have plenty to do at work but it’s not overwhelming and I was asked to do something a little outside of my normal sphere that will be interesting and potentially good for my reputation should I do it well and in a reasonable amount of time.

I’ve read a few books recently.
Redshirts was entertaining and a quick read. There is definitely a gimmick and it’s fine but when it happens it’s like “oh, so this is about that now” and it was.

South of the Border, West of the Sun was also quick and pretty depressing. It was weird because Hajime, in many ways, leads an appealing life and so his midlife crisis is a little hard to sympathize with but at the same time, I feel like I’m in a better place mentally / emotionally so I must be doing something right. Also, the end is oddly ambivalent. He seems to be able to leave the baggage from his past behind and reconnect with his wife and it seems genuine but the last scene is him sitting at the kitchen table after not being able to sleep with his face in his hands which felt sorrowful and resigned. I’m not sure what to make of it.

The Signal and the Noise was good pop science and though it tends to skip around a bit I liked all of the individual pieces. Some of it has been a topic of conversation around the office and it seems like a lot of the topics touched on things I’ve done in my life either in school, work or just personal interests. He has an accessible writing style, conversational but not distractingly so.

Finally, I read a couple of young adult novels. The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, and The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There. Being YA they went quickly but they were enjoyable and the world building is imaginative and fun which is really what I wanted from them.

The big book news is that I have been reading the A Memory of Light, the 14th and final book of the Wheel of Time. I started reading the series in 1993. I got the first four books in paperback at Central Park Mall which doesn’t even exist anymore and then I got book five in hardback and have read each as they were released since then. This means that I have been following this series for almost twenty years which is well more than half my life. Mr. Sanderson has done a good job finishing up for the late Mr. Jordan, keeping the same style and tone but moving the plot along, tying up threads that need it and letting go those that are forgivably lost. I’m about a third through it and it’s pretty much what I wanted so far. Provided that work isn’t too bad this week and I can get through dinner and exercise in a timely fashion I suspect I’ll finish it by the end of the next weekend. How odd, to finally be at the end of the journey after all this time.

The last two weeks have seen two beer festivals come and go here in Austin. The Flying Saucer had Beerfeast on Saturday, September 29th, a day which threatened rain but did not deliver until the very end of the event. I had 12 delicious things and only spilled beer on one other person.

(512) Brewing, 2010 Double Pecan Whiskey Porter
Breckenridge Brewery, Autumn Ale, Fall Seasonal
Brooklyn Brewery, Fiat Lux, Wit Beer
Dogfish Head Brewery, Punkin, Spiced Ale
Harpoon Brewery, Octoberfest
Hops & Grain Brewery, Dark IPA
New Belgium Brewing Co., Metric 10.10.10, Belgian Style Pale Ale
Ommegang Brewery, Biere D’Hougomount, Harvest Ale
Ommegang Brewery, Seduction, Belgian Dark Ale
Real Ale Brewing Co., 4-Squared, Double Blonde Ale
Sixpoint Brewery, Sweet Action, Belgian Style Abbey Ale
Stone Brewing Co., 16th Anniversary Ale, Double IPA

Then this weekend was the Texas Craft Brewers Festival where I had more delicious things. I don’t know if this list is complete because I didn’t have note taking technology. Oh well.

Adelbert’s Brewery, Black Rhino, Dark Ale
Hops & Grain Brewing, Bourbon Barrel Aged ALTeration, Altbier
Jester King Craft Brewery, Funk Metal, Barrel-aged Sour Stout
Rahr & Sons Brewing, Stormcloud, English-style IPA
Ranger Creek Brewing & Distilling, OPA, American Pale Ale with Oats
Real Ale Brewing Company, Oktoberfest
Rogness Brewing Company, Beardy Guard, Biere de Garde / Saison
Saint Arnold Brewing Company, Oktoberfest
Southern Star Brewing Company, Pro-Am, Double IPA

Additionally, I’ve been stuffing my face this week! Yays!
Thursday night I ate at Second Bar and Kitchen with a young lady. We shared buffalo fried pickles, I had a beet salad and pork chop with hominy, barbequed escarole and sweet onion, she had the flank steak with chimichurri and potato salad and we shared pumpkin cheesecake in a jar. Also a bottle of Vall Llach Embruix (Priorat, Spain, 2008). Then Friday was the traditional Home Slice Pizza lunch followed by the biggest taco ever from Sao Paulo’s and chocolate pots de creme at Vino Vino. Saturday was Round Rock donuts for breakfast before four hours of yard work and then two Boomerang’s meat pies at the beer festival and then an Old Fashioned and chocolate cookie marshmallow sandwich thing at Contigo. Finally, today after a two hour bike ride, I had brunch at Frank where I got “Pig and Eggs” which is chicken fried pork chop plus eggs and hash brown casserole.

I’m going to have to step up the cycling if this keeps up but it’s awesome to eat all the things.

I also watched Good Night, And Good Luck which was excellent and fits thematically with The Newsroom which I’ve been watching over and over since early September. My book pile is getting a little out of hand though so it’s probably time to start chipping away at that and give the TV a rest. I have been instructed to get some whiskey and ice cream and watch The Godfather. I’ll probably fit that in some time in the next week or two.

And the Austin Paella Lovers United festival and cookoff is coming up at the beginning of November followed by the East Austin Studio Tour. I want to say there’s something towards the end of October also but I can’t remember and there’s nothing on the calendar.

It appears that it has been a long time since I last posted. Lots of things going on but nothing tectonic. What got me back onto the bloggityblog is I have been trying to eat better and less than in the recent past. This has been going on for a week now and it’s ok but I miss tasty things somewhat. I have discovered that a large tortilla has more calories than an entire crown of broccoli and that a single serving of peanut M&Ms is most of the way to a 4oz beef tenderloin. So, if you want to not be starving all the time you pretty much have to eat food-food and not deliciously-sugary-fatty-food. Which isn’t to say you (me) can’t still go to Mighty Fine on Sunday. You just have to plan around it a little.

My friend Bill (the only person who ever comments here /props) is getting married at the beginning of July and I’m going to be in the wedding party. Andy and I escorted him to Northern California for the ersatz bachelor party. We all flew into SFO on Thursday morning and spent the afternoon bumming around the touristy part of San Francisco including a visit to the Tcho chocolate factory. We bought some goodies and took the little tour which was both informative and mis-informative and which caused Bill to have to wear a beard net in addition to the hair net a photograph of which made it onto bookface. Thursday night we drove out to Fort Bragg during which I was car sick and gave dinner back to the nature from whence it came.

Friday was the wine day. Fort Bragg and Mendocino are near the mouth of the Navarro river which highway 128 follows through Anderson Valley. They make a lot of wine in Anderson Valley which mostly seems to focus on Pinot Noir. We stopped at Navarro, Husch, Handley, Tolouse and Roederer. All of them were friendly and most had free tasting although I suspect that was assisted by the fact that Andy can’t go 10 feet out his door without buying a bottle or six. I got four bottles of desert wine, a late harvest Gewürztraminer and a late harvest Muscat Blanc from Navarro and two bottles of late harvest Riesling from Handley all of which are delicious like the candy. Friday we also discovered that the following Saturday was the serendipitous 16th Annual Legendary Boonville Beer Festival so we stopped at Anderson Valley Brewing in Boonville to buy tickets. Then we drove back out to the 101 and into Healdsburg for dinner.

Dinner at Cyrus.
I’ll get this out of the way first. Dinner at Cyrus was the finest meal I’ve ever had. Not that I travel the world eating all of the most exciting Nouvelle Cuisine but I like good food and eat it on occasion. We had the eight course tasting menu with wine pairings which is actually more like 11 – 12 courses but that’s how they roll. They gave us each a copy of the menu including a substitution they made on the fly based on a conversation we were having with the waitstaff. Here’s a transcription:

Canapés
~~~
Amuse Bouche
~~~
Chilled Salmon with Ginger and Daikon, Snap Pea – Basil Broth
Riesling, Schäfer-Fröhlich “Grosses Gewächs – Felseneck”, Nahe, Germany 2007
~~~
Humane Foie Gras and Cherry Blossom Parfait, Barley, Sea Beans and Shiso
Tokaji Aszú, Királyudvar “6 Puttonyos”, Hungary, 2003
~~~
Black Sea Bass with Pea Sprouts and Asparagus, Lemon Verbena
Verdejo, Shaya “Habis – Old Vines”, Rueda, Spain 2009
~~~
Crispy Chicken with Miso and Morel Fondue
Pinot Noir, Williams Selyem, Sonoma Coast 2010
~~~
Spring Lamb Tataki Hot Pot
Cornas, Robert Michel “La Geynale”, Northern Rhône, France 2006
~~~
Artisanal and Farmhouse Cheeses Presented Tableside
Rice Ale, Echigo Brewing Co., “Koshihikari” Nigata, Japan
~~~
Goat Milk Panna Cotta with Rhubarb, Parsley-Lime Ice
Moscato D’Asti, Braida “Vigna Senza Nome”, Piedmont, Italy 2011
~~~
Yuzu Crémeux, Bergamot Meringue and Cream Cheese Ice Cream
Beerenauslese Cuvée, Kracher, Burgenland, Austria 2008
~~~
Mignardises

So we sat there and talked and ate and drank for something like three hours and it was awesome. The food was excellent. The service was also amazing. The staff would have, if we’d wanted, been content to let us eat and talk amongst ourselves. However, when we started asking questions and talking to them they had thoughtful things to say about the nature of the service they were providing, the restaurant and so on. At one point we were talking about the beer festival and wondering if they had ever done a beer pairing. So we asked the head waiter and the result was that they replaced the Pinot Gris in the upcoming cheese course with the rice ale and it was excellent as well. Anyway, if you’re in Healdsburg and want to have an awesome meal for all of the monies you should go to Cyrus and they will help you out.

Saturday we got up and derped around the house for a while and then drove back down to Boonville and attended the beer festival. It was excellent fun and they had ton of different brewers, mostly from the Pacific coast but I think there was an Austin brewer there and a few others from distant parts. The most interesting thing I had was a pomegranate cider and I also had Stone Vanilla Porter and a dark Saison that were excellent. Of course all the beer was good and the food was good too.

Sunday we drove north up the PCH looking for redwoods. We found a few including one that we could drive the car through and we spent some time walking along a river bank in the trees. Then Monday it was back into San Francisco and back to Austin and a good time was had by all.

Let’s see, what else is going on? I bought and have played a fair amount of Diablo 3. Work is going along although I’ve had almost no time to work on any of my actual goals this quarter so I’ll be throwing myself upon the mercy of the court again as per recent history. I read 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami. I enjoyed it as much as most of his books. It has the same weird supernatural feel that basically everything I’ve ever read by him has. I didn’t find the climax particularly climactic nor the resolution very satisfying but the characterization was good and it was worth the time it took to read. I also read The Night Circus which was shorter and faster to read but was also excellent. One thing I don’t appreciate in my magical, fantastical books is dancing around the magic and this book doesn’t do that. I just started Reamde and it’s starting to go somewhere after 140 pages (really around 80 or so) so it meets my interesting-in-100-pages-or-fail test that others (including the whole System of the World thing) have not.

That’s about it for now. I have about 1 hojillion pictures that need uploading to the gallery but I’m out of gas for now so instead you just get a big ol’ wall of text. Cheers.

I met my self-imposed fundraising goal for the MS150 today. Thank you to everyone who donated.

The weather is shaping up to be kinda crappy. It’ll be clear but with the wind going the wrong direction which sucks because 100 miles is a long ride into the wind. Oh well. So it goes.