Musical Interlude, redux

File under "your humble bloghost is not nearly as "vanilla" as he may at first seem...
Ladeezungemmun, I present, the Cruxshadows, "Winterborn":

There, I fixed it...

From the folks that brought you lolcats and icanhazcheeseburger:

There, I fixed it!

All manner of interesting engineering-type geekery therein...

OK, so as is often the case, I am behind in my "new band" discoveries... by something like 9 years... :/

Muse is a band from England, I am honestly having a hard time trying to pigeonhole them into a specific genre of music. Let's just say they're like a modern-day Queen.

Yes, rockin', in other words.

Politically, they "get it". They're libertarians. Not at all like Green Day- the no-talent asshats that constantly bite the hand that feeds them.

This song is inspired by Orwell's 1984:


and this one's the one I was first introduced to the band with:

Latest tomfoolery from the house...

Just a real quick blurb of an update:

-the Stout turned out GREAT. As luck had it, I was able to do the first Pour tonight, and I'm quite happy. Pics to come ;)

-new "wierd shit" project: "container gardening". Build a container out of a pair of Sterilite containers, which seperates the water from the potting mix (irigating the plants from the bottom), making a sort of terrarium, and avoid problems with weeds, make very efficient use of resources, and reap big numbers of veggies. Starting one with tomatoes, we'll see how it goes...

-Blackhawk has finally listened, and released a Serpa CQC for the 24/7 line of pistols. I'm VERY happy. Now if they just get OC through the state house...

The Warrior Song

The Warrior Song – Lyrics
I’ve got the reach and the teeth of a killin’ machine,
with a need to bleed you when the light goes green
best believe, I’m in a zone to be, from my Yin to my Yang to my Yang Tze
put a grin on my chin when you come to me,
‘cuz I’ll win, I’m a one-of-a-kind and I’ll bring death
to the place you’re about to be: another river of blood runnin’ under my feet
forged in a fire lit long ago, stand next to me, you’ll never stand alone
I’m last to leave, but the first to go, Lord, make me dead before you make me old
I feed on the fear of the devil inside of the enemy faces in my sights:
aim with the hand, shoot with the mind, kill with a heart like arctic ice

I am a soldier and I’m marching on
I am a warrior and this is my song

I bask in the glow of the rising war, lay waste to the ground of an enemy shore
wade through the blood spilled on the floor, and if another one stands I’ll kill some more
bullet in the breach and a fire in me, like a cigarette thrown, to gasoline
if death don’t bring you fear, I swear, you’ll fear these marchin’ feet
Come to the nightmare, come to me, deep down in the dark where the devil be
in the maw with the jaws and the razor teeth,
where the brimstone burns and the angel weeps
call to the gods if I cross your path and my silhouette hangs like a body bag
hope is a moment now long past, the shadow of death is the one I cast.

I am a soldier and I’m marching on
I am a warrior and this is my song
my eyes are steel and my gaze is long
I am a warrior and this is my song

now I live lean and I mean to inflict the grief,
and the least of me is still out of your reach
the killing machine’s gonna do the deed,
until the river runs dry and my last breath leaves
chin in the air with a head held high,
I’ll stand in the path of the enemy line
feel no fear, know my pride:
for God and Country I’ll end your life

I am a soldier and I’m marching on
I am a warrior and this is my song
my eyes are steel and my gaze is long
I am a warrior and this is my song




More info at The Warrior song.
Check out that site and please donate- all proceeds go to the Armed Forces Relief Trust.

So I've been falling down on the "babes" part....

How's this?

Hottie.... check
no overtly-exposed mommie parts to run off the womenfolks... check
3 foot-long razorblade to ward off the unsavory sorts... check
submissive, yet somehow determined, pose... check

Now we just need to figure out how to get her a ranged weapon without much more err... concealment... ;)

Wassail! (errr, in about 6 months...)

Started a little something new today-

Mead!

My first attempt- it's SUPER easy. One of my homebrewing buddies gave me the rundown:

-heat a half-gallon of water (preferably spring water, tap might be ok, definitely not distilled) to 160deg.
-add three pounds of honey (as close to "right out of the beehive and strained" as you can find)
-bring mixture to 160deg and let it sit there for 10 minutes. DO NOT BOIL!
-place this into an ice bath. Don't let any of the water in the bath into the pot (cover it). Bring the temp down to around 90 degrees.
-prepare yeast as directed on the package (you'll want a wine yeast or similar. I used EC1118)
-decant the honey/water mixture into your 1 gallon carboy (I am using an old gallon jug from cheap wine, a juice bottle would work too)
-add the yeast, add remainder of water to bring it up to the level of the neck of the bottle
-add fruit (raisins, in this case) to act as a yeast nutrient. Honey doesn't have a lot of what the yeast needs to work, and wine yeasts work slowly, making more time for foreign yeasts and O2 to get into the bottle. I used 10 small raisins.
-cap and shake the bottle
-remove cap, put a piece of plastic wrap over the bottle and wind a rubber band securely (not loosely, not tightly) around the neck of the bottle. This makes a cheapo "air lock"- the pressure generated by the yeast will "fart" out past the rubber band. Actual airlocks are preferred, and cheap. I just don't have a local homebrew store here- I ordered a couple from the place upstate that carries them- $1 a piece.

More details, and a pic, soon. I'm looking at about 2 weeks to rack this off the yeast cake into another carboy (gotta get busy drinkin' that cheap wine!), and 6 months til bottling.

Wanted: Guinness Stout clone

So I've been looking for Guinness clone recipes, and am finding a lot of "like Guinness, but different in a slew of ways" hits

Does anyone that reads my blog have any idea what it is that gives Guinnes that amazing head, that.. ah hell, don't know how to describe it.. it's this:


Also, what is it that gives it that mouth feel, kinda like whole milk?

Still figuring out this brewing thing- lots of new things to learn, lots of new beer to try.

Since I've picked up brewing, I haven't looked at beer the same. Now it's more an intellectual pursuit, not just pursuit of a good buzz.

Get Phil Jones to say the science is settled, all will be ok...

How's that global warming workin' for ya?

6" of snow here Saturday. CHARLESTON, South freakin' Cackalacki... you know, semi-tropical climate, that whole thing?

You can learn a lot by watching youtube...

Been digging around the 'net for homebrewing info... I'd never have realized that extra time in the bottle would matter with beer...



Looks like I am NOT going to be drinking any of that West Coast Pale I bottled 10 days ago, for about another 20 days. GRRRRRRRRrrrrrrr

hmm.. definitely time to get some mead going again... that'll make me learn patience!!

Beef and Guinness Stew Recipe : : Food Network

Beef and Guinness Stew Recipe : : Food Network

experimenting with the "Share" function of Windows, i ran across this recipe- beef 'n Guinnes stew.

DEFINITELY gonna have to try this one... with my homebrew I just put in the fermenter.

Of late, I have gotten into homebrewing- just bottled my first batch, a West Coast Pale Ale- and have a second batch (Archer's Orchard hard cider) that will be bottled next week. I will be bottling this Irish Stout in two weeks.

'Course, after bottling, everything has to sit in the bottle for two weeks to carbonate- so I am looking at two weeks till I can taste the fruits of my labor... but afterwards, I will have more beer than I know what to do with!

Pink: Oh My God

Uhhh, Yummm....




EDIT: Cheeky bastards at Youtube have removed it for "adult content". Apparently Madonna's videos are just fine though :rolls eyes:

Check this out for an idea of what I'm all about here...
Pink, "Oh My God"

Yaaaay, beer!

(with apologies to Red Stripe)

Picked up a Mr Beer kit today at the local kitchen supply place. It took all of 30 minutes to sanitize the equipment and start my first batch of beer going. In 2 weeks I will be able to bottle it, and I am going to *TRY* to wait at least two weeks after that till I drink it.

First batch is the standard West Coast Pale Ale- I'm not a huge fan of pales, but you don't get a choice as the pale is what comes with the kit first off. My next batch will be an Irish Red (think "Killian's") followed perhaps by a German Hefeweisen (if it comes out anything like Paulaner Hefeweissen Dunkle, the person who came up with this kit is my new best friend).

One can also brew their own hard cider in the same kit- or rootbeer. I am not a huge fan of rootbeer, but the wife and kid are- I may have to surprise them with a batch.

I grabbed a twelver of a local brewerie's sampler pack last night, and had two beers out of it (strictly to save the bottle, don'tchaknow). I am now a little hung over- WTF?!?!

The two gallons of beer I have on brew are gonna last me a bit, I think :)

Vonage offering free calls to Haiti for *all* US Callers

Found this when I logged into my Vonage account:

Service Announcements
Vonage is committed to helping during difficult times. In the wake of the recent devastating earthquake in Haiti, Vonage is currently offering free international dialing to Haiti for all U.S. callers. Dial 800-809-2503 and follow the instructions to place a free 10-min call. We encourage you to pass this Vonage toll-free number along to non-Vonage customers who want to call Haiti.

Remember, calls to Haiti are free only if you use this toll-free number to place the call. If you dial from your home phone without using the 800 number, you’ll incur standard long-distance charges. Please note that due to infrastructure limitations in Haiti, you may experience difficulty reaching your party successfully. This free calling service to Haiti may be discontinued at any time.

Please note this is not just for Vonage customers. It's for ALL US callers to Haiti.