Asymptomatic

There must be intelligent life down here

Bittersweet Bottling
February 03, 2011

Tonight (or tomorrow, depending on how packing for the ski trip goes) we’ll be bottling our next beer, Bittersweet.

Our idea for Bittersweet started while thinking about what to produce for a Valentine’s Day-ready brew. We thought it would be nice to create a fruit-flavored beer, but didn’t want to have that be the only flavor present, since it’s beer after all. We decided to ratchet up the bitterness of the beer in combination with the sweetness of the fruit, which is also how we arrived at the name, “Bittersweet”.

Start It Up
February 01, 2011

I learned some great stuff today. Rather, I should put this a different way. I learned about some great stuff today.

I’m looking forward to trying something new. It’s going to be a long road, but I think I may have finally figured out something that people have been saying to me for a long time. It reminds me much of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’s instructions on how to fly: “The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.”

Cajun Cooking Class
January 31, 2011

For Christmas this year, I was considering some special gift that involved Berta and I as a couple, rather than (really, in addition to) single for-her gifts.  While I was looking through the West Chester Night School catalog, I saw their couples cooking classes and knew that I had found the right thing.

The couples cooking classes take place at the Kitchen Workshop in Paoli.  It’s a store-front location, with all of the available floor space dedicated to cooking classes.  There is a kitchen area with a large island and many cutting boards.  In the back is a large dining table for guests to eat at.  And the walls are covered with cooking books of all types, apparently given to Art, the owner of the place, as gifts - that he doesn’t seem to need - and put out in the Workshop on sale for $5 each.

Sifting for Gamers
January 10, 2011

Building a new gaming group is always a struggle because it’s difficult to get a good balance of player personalities that all enjoy the same style of play. Maybe it’s more difficult for me than for others specifically because my style of play isn’t incredibly common.

I’m more of a story-oriented player. Sure, I enjoy the occasional hack and slash, but I do not relish the never-ending onslaught of random monsters that have no point to the story. Contrasting the two games that I’ve participated in over the past year, one game started out as much more story-oriented than its current incarnation, in which we’re stuck in a terrible place, looking for something/someone I can’t remember the name of, just killing everything that shows its head in long combat sessions. In the other game, which was much too short-lived, the story drove the adventure, and even the few encounters between interacting with local NPCs were oriented at furthering the story. The players of both games preferred these play styles.