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Here are a few photos from when I was going to El Camino a few years ago that I came across while going through the ‘archives’.

I dunno I had to snap this, one day when Cassie, Vo, and I went to Venice Beach, we stumbled upon this ‘tag’ outside a random vendor there. It speaks for itself.

I was stumbling around looking for some new brushes for Photoshop, and came across this site ‘Obsidian Dawn‘ which has a nice collection of grunge, vector, urban, and some other cool nature brushes.  I definetly think it’s worth checking out.  Plus there is always ‘GetBrushes‘.  Happy Photoshoppin’!

Well I didn’t really know what to title this so I figured call it what it is.  So here are a few photos from my backyard. I thought they where kind of cool.

Dog Fish Head’s Midas Touch, the old ancient ale so to speak.  Brewed with honey, muscat grapes, and saffron.  Poured out of a 12oz bottle into a glass.  It has a golden hue, but no head after about thirty seconds, yet very carbonated, almost soda like.  In the nose you really pick up the muscat.  Upon first sip you get a nice sweet flavor, the grapes and honey really come through, the saffron is faint in the finish, but it’s there.  The honey starts to be a little more prominent about mid-glass, dry yet sweet.  Once you get down to about a 1/4 of a glass the muscat grapes start to take hold.  It starts to take on the flavor profile of a ‘Moscato di’ Asti’, even with almost the same carbonation level, just not as sweet.  At the end it turns into a muscat and honey bomb, a great nightcap by far. My final thoughts are that it’s amazing to think that this is one of the oldest fermented beverages in history, let alone the oldest known beer recipe.  King Midas, or one of his cronies, was on to something when they came up with this.  To me the best of both the wine and beer world.  Bubbly, sweet, yet palate friendly. A one of a kind, must try, beer snob or not!

12oz bottle into glass.  Pours a deep amber, the nose has a slightly sweet aroma.  After the first few sips all I could think was “Oh my god, they actually made something decent“.  Similar to a Firestone Union Jack but not as ‘hoppy’.  It is very bright on the palate and the head lasts sip after sip.  When this hits the market (yes, thanks to my job, I get somethings before the public).  I actually see it doing very well, especially in the ‘Fat Tire‘ and ‘Sierra Nevada‘ crowd.  A nice balance of malt and hops.  Honestly I can’t believe I’m going to type this, but this is probably one of the best macro brewed beers I’ve had, period.

Out of a 22oz into a glass.  It pours a very cloudy amber/reddish hue.  Not much of a head.  Not much hop aroma, but more of.. a… almost that… dare I say… vomit aroma in the nose.  But the flavor is wonderful, a nice bitter, heavy, oily hop flavor fights to the death with the malt backbone eventually the hops prevail and linger until no tomorrow.  Some hints of dried fruit, which I can’t quite pin point yet.  After about 1/4 glass the malt falls into the distance but, the hops become more prevalent, and you really start to feel the alcohol (9.5% abv).  The buzz creeps in and with each sip it warms you ever so slightly.  A little after that, the beast that is lying underneath comes out, nice citrusy, bitter tones, intensely hoppy!  This lives up to being a ‘hop monster’ as they claim on the side of the label.  A nice example of a West Coast IPA gone over the top, great job Thom, great job!; but my only gripe is that it’s seven to eight dollars for a 22oz bottle in the South Bay.

Well most of us have a Wal-Mart near by so why don’t we make some fun of the intercom, while stumbling around I cam across this from Gwally.com.  So hear it goes;

“Wal-Mart stores can be so big and the workers seem so bored and the customers seem so harried and annoying. It seems like the perfect fertile ground to have a little fun at Walt’s expense. Sometimes I just want to jump on the intercom and say something. But how does one get access?

Planet Wally found the answer. You can use the intercom from any one of the many telephones Wal-Mart provides around the sales floor. Even better, we know the code! Here is how you use the intercom at Wal-Mart:

• Pick up the phone
• Dial #96

You’re now on the store intercom!

The proper way to use the store intercom, I mean, apart from the fact it is only supposed to be used by Wal-Mart employees, is to declare the code and the location. For instance, “Code White in Automotive”. Here are a few helpful things you can do with the Intercom.

Intercom Codes:

INTERCOM HOLD: Sometimes silence is golden. So if you pick up the phone, dial #96 and then hit hold, nobody can use the intercom until they figure out which phone is on hold.

CODE 1: This code is used for SHOPLIFTING!

CODE 10: Dry Spill.

CODE 20: Wet Spill.

CODE 90: Management Needed. That sounds useless.

CODE 99: This code implies that there is an emergency and all male employees are to immediately stop what they are doing and move to the announced location.

CODE 300: Security Needed. For grins, call Code 300 to the location you are currently at.

CODE ADAM: Code Adam is used to report a lost child. Technically, the store is supposed to shut all doors until the lost child is found. This sounds like fun until you realize that you are going to be trapped in a Wal-Mart for hours while they attempt to locate a missing child.

CODE BLACK: This code is used for severe weather. It’s only used if something severe is happening such as tornadoes are bearing down on the store. All employees are supposed to immediately head to the fitting rooms at the center of the store. Wal-Mart doesn’t like to use this code because it quite frankly, when the employees all leave, it leads to looting.

CODE BLUE: A bomb scare.

CODE C: Customer service. A customer needs help in a location like housewares.

CODE GREEN: This code is used when there is a hostage in the store. Ask yourself, do you really want to shop at a store that needs to have a special code for a hostage situation?

CODE ORANGE: This is for a chemical spill. Water is a chemical.

CODE RED: This is used in case of a fire!

CODE WHITE: is used for an injury.”

All in all I find this as a security issue as you can easily ‘distract and attack’ with this.  As always with knowledge comes power and responsibility. Use it wisely!

Well Twitter seems to be popular now, and it’s documented that you can use it via terminal if CURL is installed.  The below is how to install CURL and be able to ‘tweet’ from your terminal.  Obviously you will need a Twitter account.

Step One:

Install CURL by opening the terminal and run the following command:
sudo aptitude install curl

Step Two:

Make a new text file with your settings:
sudo gedit /usr/bin/twitter

Step Three:

Place the following code into the newly formed file:

curl –basic –user “yourusername:yourpasswd” –data-ascii “status=`echo $@|tr ‘ ‘ ‘+’`” “http://twitter.com/statuses/update.json” -o /dev/null echo Message Sent!

You will need to replace “yourusername:yourpasswd” with your twitter username and password, save the file, and exit the text editor.

Step Four:

Make the file executable. In the terminal run:
sudo chmod +x /usr/bin/twitter

To use type : ‘twitter WHATEVER YOU WANT TO POST TO TWITTER‘ in the terminal and see it posted straight to your Twitter page.

Although it is tested in Ubuntu, it should work on all distros.

Well this is the first post since I moved my blog to this site, so enjoy the first sip of this blog as it will be one of many to come.  Now onto the beer review.

Poured out of a 12oz can to a glass.  First impressions are pours a cloudy blonde with a massive head, the aroma is of malted wheat and faint watermelon.  First sips are of a slight grain flavor that passes over the tongue before the watermelon hits, it is a very faint watermelon, but it’s there.  At about mid glass it almost almost takes on the finish of a watermelon jolly rancher, that you finished about a half hour ago or so, but it is there, stronger than before.  I can’t get over that wierd smell, it is watermelon and wheat, not a favorite.  All in all, for a summer brew on a hot day, when the beer is chilled almost to ice cold, I see it being refreshing.  But in reality, not my cup of beer, but it might work for you.   I am very happy with this different offering of flavored beer other than the usual blueberry, raspberry, apricot flavored wheat beers as they tend to taste like fake flavorings, this does seem to have an ‘authentic’ watermelon flavor which really comes out about at a quarter to a sixth of a glass, but once again not a personal favorite, but very refreshing.