Other Blogs Recent Comments Vinnie Jones: best blog eva Finch: I don't trust anybody by the name of Cheney. bean: Also - another good thing about instant coffee is that ... bean: yeah, bigtim. Jewfish: He's right! Me My name is Bean and this is my blog. Hence the name. If you have comments or questions, just leave them in the comments area. (old search) |  Fresh Beer Posted July 03, 2009 at 12:31:11 PM by Bean in the Beer category It's been a good day so far. I decided to keg some beer that m1 and I brewed back on June 23.
I racked the fermented and chilled beer into the kegs and put them on tap immediately. Normally, I'd force-carbonate the beer for a few days before tapping, but both of these beers tasts so good straight from the fermenter that I don't even want to carbonate them... yet. First off, there's the OHP. I've got the last of an old batch on tap, carbonated and slightly aged, along side the fresh batch. I tasted them side by side and although I thought they were both delicious, the carbonation in the old (and keep in mind.... old means 2 months instead of 2 weeks) just gets in the way. The fresh stuff, in my opinion, is so good... silky, roasty, smooth, that the sharpness that comes with carbonation just doesn't fit. Straight to the tap from now on. Stoked with my new revelation, I moved onto the fresh Wit that we brewed the same day as the OHP. It Upland Wheats I drank at Vinnie's wedding last weekend. And holy carp it was fantastic! My "fresh" beers approximate cask ale until the serving pressure begins to carbonate the beer. I'm planning to keep it low to keep these beers as still as possible for as long as possible. And now my taps are fully loaded. Beerpong, anyone? 
Bye Bye June Posted June 29, 2009 at 06:51:21 PM by Bean I had to blog a blog so as to not miss the month of June entirely. Close call. Tripple Plug Posted May 06, 2009 at 07:12:01 AM by Bean in the Plugs category I havent plugged any plugs in a while, so here we go.
Soda Water Okay... it's a replug... I've blogged about this one before. It satisfies the need for something other than boring, tepid water and has no calories, caffeine, or artificial sweeteners. Win-win-win! Instant Coffee Lots of people think instant coffee sucks. Most of them have never tried it. I drink one (1) cup of instant coffee every morning, on the way in to work. We no longer have to keep a coffee maker around, nor bother with cleaning it or keeping filters in stock. Also, I can vary the strength of the coffee from cup to cup with ease and go from no coffee to ready to drink coffee in 1 minute. Resolve Deep Clean Powder 3 years ago, irwin puked on my bedroom carpet and the proceeded to rub it into the carpet in an attempt to clean it. The stain resisted steam cleanign and many different spray on treatments. A few weeks ago, I worked some of this stuff into the 16" circular stain, waited 20 minutes, and vaccumed it up. GONE! Highly reccomend you give it a shot if you've got a stubborn stain that you've given up on.
FatDuck Results Posted April 06, 2009 at 10:50:23 AM by Bean  Congrats Scuba Steve for losing the most weight (by both percent and pounds)! BSG Posted April 03, 2009 at 01:06:16 PM by Bean Stef and I watched the BSG series finale last night. I thought it was okay, but I'm having trouble trying to put everything together. I decided to start with a basic time line of civilizations and whatnot... at least as far back as I can.
It has to start with a very vague "given": A planet called Kobol existed, and on it there were at least 2 races... human and cylon. It's unclear if the cylons were robotic, humaniod, or both. It's also unclear is there was a 3rd race.. the "Lords" of Kobol. So, on Kobol, the cylons split ways with the humans and depart to find their own planet. During the 2000 years that passes before the remaining humans on Kobol depart for the 12 colonies, a lot happens with the cylons (called the 13th tribe). They find Old Earth, live there, (maybe transition to humanoid form), switch to sexual reproduction (shedding resurrection), and invent their robotic cylons. So they basically turn into humans... at least that's how it seems. The Cylons that they create eventually rebel and destroy Old Earth. The final 5 are humanoid cylons that reinvented resurrection just before the rebellion, and survived the attack by resurrecting on board an escape ship. They departed for the 12 colonies to "break the cycle", i.e. warn them to be nice to their robotic slaves, or face rebellion. Alas, they arrive too late and find a war raging. They contact the cylons and convince them to end the war in return for resurrection and humanoid cylon technology. The 12 colony cylons had at this point already attempted to create hybrids for the transition into humanoid form, but failed. So the war ends, the cylons and final 5 retreat and form the home colony, and life goes on... for 40 years. During that time, the final 5 create 8 models of humanoid models for the cylons and outfit them with resurrection technology. The first of the new humanoid cylons created (Cavil) assists the final 5 in creating the remaining models. He eventually betrays the final 5, boxes them, and plants them in the 12 colonies for kicks while reprogramming the remaining models to erase any sense of where they came from. As their leader, he wages the second war that destroys most of humanity in the 12 colonies, leads the chase that makes up the bulk of the series, the grab for Hera, etc. In the end, we have a few Old Earth humanoid cylons, a few newer cylon-made humanoid cylons, a few thousand humans from the 12 colonies, and a planet full of apes... aka our ancestors here on New Earth. Is that right?
Bean's Big Brew 2009 Posted April 01, 2009 at 06:00:31 PM by Bean in the Beer category Here's something!
Goal: Brew 30 gallons of delicious beer on Saturday, April 11, 2009, in my basement. Plan: We will be brewing all day... that is to say, from about 10am to about 10pm. We will also be drinking all day... that is to say from about 10am to 10pm. Lunch and dinner will be the traditional IBADS fare - Domino's. I'll provide homebrew and Miller Lite on tap until it's gone... then we can improvise. Lineup (recipes pending): Amber - for Geoff and Jessica's upcoming wedding St. Chuck's or OHP - for in house replenishment Saison - to use up some of the fancy Belgian yeasts I acquired. Difficulty: I can't do it alone. I will need other brewers... people interested in helping, watching, or learning... and people to drink with me while I wait out the mash. I've talked to many of you who have expressed interest in brewing beer, so this is for you. Everyone is invited - just let me know you are coming beforehand. Come on down, stay a while. We've got spare bedrooms. Fatduck Progress Posted March 11, 2009 at 08:56:39 AM by Bean Us ducks got together to lose some weight. 100 pounds between the 6 of us is the goal. We are 5 pounds away from reaching that goal. Below is a chart of our percent body weight dropped since December.
 We are coming down the home stretch... final weigh-in is April 4th at DA's wedding. The person who loses the most (by percent) gets to decide how we spend our entry fees... which total $240. If for some strange reason we don't make our collective goal by then, m1 gets all the money. Grooveshark Posted March 05, 2009 at 06:11:51 AM by Bean Sweet Posted March 04, 2009 at 10:21:19 AM by Bean I'm currently making a conscious effort to avoid artificial sweeteners.
Step 1: No more diet soda. Step 2: Start looking at foodstuff ingredients more closely. Steps 3+: TBD Discuss
Lost: Season 5 So Far Posted February 26, 2009 at 07:47:26 AM by Bean in the Lost category At first, I was disappointed with the introduction of time travel into the LOST world. There have been hints at it throughout the show, but season 5 really brings it to the forefront. Time travel, much like the flash-backs and flash-forwards of seasons past, allow the writers to tell a story in whatever order they like... leaving out big chunks only to fill them in later. At this point, I've accepted the fact that time travel is going to play a major role in the final "answer" to LOST, so I am embracing it in all of it's paradoxical glory. Following are a few very short recaps of the first 7 episodes of this season. I'm happy with them so far, particularly the scenes where we get to dig into the island's mysterious past. Each episode links to a much better recap done by someone with more spare time than I.
Because You Left The season opens in the period of old timey Dharma, around 1980 - Dr. Marvin Candle wakes up, checks on his baby, and heads over to the arrow to make a video. He's interrupted by a team that is in the process of discovering the "exotic matter" and the frozen donkey wheel. The best part is: Dan is there! Back in the real world, Ben and Jack are busy trying to convince the O6 to return to the island. On the island, the Losties that were left behind (the Lefties) seem to have come dislodged in time, and are jumping back and forth between the future and the past. Locke has some interaction with Richard, and in the final scene, Daniel talks to hatch-bound Desmond (circa 2003ish?) and tells him to go see his Mom - Eloise - right before another flash. The Lie A lot of this episode follows the adventures of Hurley and Sayid back in the real world. Neither of them want to go back to the island, but we all know what's goign to happen eventually. Some of the Lefties get captured by The Others in 1954, and get accused of leaving a bomb behind on the island. The title of teh episode refers to teh scenes where we see the O6 planning the "lie" that they use to return to the real world. In the end, we see Eloise Hawking (Faraday?) workign some math and using a ginat pendulum to locate a way back to teh island, and letting good old Ben know. Jughead Desmond and Penny have a little boy named Charlie - how cute. Desmond wakes up suddenly needing to go see Dan's mom - as if a new memory has been planted in his head (by Dan in the past). When he goes to Oxford looking for Dan's mom, he finds some poor girl that's had her brain fired by Dan's experiments, and learns that the woman he seeks in in LA. Who knew? Back on the island, we meet said mom, along with Charles Widmore. They are both Others in 1954. Locke and Richard continue their complicated conversations that span the past 50 years... their paths cross many times. As it turns out, "Jughead" is a big H-bomb that the Army left on the island in 1954. It's leaking, and Richard thinks that Daniel and his crew of time-leaping buddies are the Army, coming back to retrieve it. Dan plays along so he can get a look at it, then tells them to just bury it. Also, everyones noses are statign to bleed form all teh time jumping. The Little Prince While there is a bunch of off-island plot movement in this episode (most related to Kate, Sun, and Aaron), the real treats were the scenes with the Lefties on the island. We find out that the Lefties have jumped to a time period that they have already been in! Sawyer witnesses the birth of Aaron, Locke see's the hat5ch light from the nigh Boone dies, and nosebleeds continue. We also see Jin get rescued by none other than Danielle the bat-shit crazy French lady, back when her crew initially found the island. This Place Is Death We get to see a lot of Smokey/Temple shots in this episode as Danielle's early days on the island are explained and she goes insane. Her crew gets taken, infected, or obsessed with the smoke monster and she feels like she needs to kill them. She tries to Kill Jin too, but he flashes again and is reunited with the Lefties. He's been floating in the ocean and jumping along with them the whole time. More nosebleeds occur. The off island crew all end up meeting at Eloise's church, getting ready to get their instructions on how to get back. 316 This episode reveals the Lamppost hatch and brings the 06 (5?), along with their proxies and Ben and a bunch of other people onto Ajira Flight 316 (piloted by noe other than crazy Frank), which flies over the island. As they pass over, some of the O6 (maybe all of them?) "flash" and end up on the island circa 1980. They run into Jin, who has apparently found himself a job working for Dharma. It's unclear whether or not he recognizes them. The Life And Death Of Jeremy Bentham This episode is mostly fill-in. We see John get off the island, talk to Ben and Widmore, try to get the O6 to go back, and eventually die. The first and last 5 minutes of the show, however, are the real guts. Flight 316 apparently crash lands on the Hydra island (Frank is a good pilot) after the 06 flash off the plane. Everything is eerily reminiscent of the 815 crash - complete with Locke's resurrection mirroring that of Christian Shepard. Looks like a whole new set of characters! And I'm spent. Please add your own comments!
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