Matt’s-Space
Aug/084
The joke is that my blog has become more of a social networking site than a blog. The comments section is a place for people to hold their own little conversations instead of actually commenting on the amazing writing that I provide. At least people are visiting the site.
Trivia
Aug/085
What movie ends with the line “big grains of salt.”
Don’t google it please. First person to get it wins a prize.
Nate – I think you meant channel 39. Also, looks like Nate and his mom know a good movie when they see one. Well done!
Raises, Burnout, Look-a-like
Aug/085
Let’s start the week out right with a recap of the going-ons of my life.
- This past week I got information on my performance rating for FY08. I did quite well considering that I ranked “significantly above” my peer group and that I was a first year at my level. Bonuses for the year ended up being decent but raises have a few people a bit disappointed. I don’t know how many jobs come with an expectation that you’ll get a good raise every year (especially when your company has good numbers) but I know that mine is one of them. Given the fact that I’m thinking a bit long-term with my company, I can overlook a year with relatively low raises but a raise below the rate of inflation is nothing to necessarily celebrate about.
- I played a round of golf on Saturday afternoon. I beat out my buddy by 1 stroke: 97-98. I could leave the story at that and some people might think “Wow, Matt you broke 100. That’s pretty good. You really are getting better. Pretty soon you’ll be hitting the low 90′s and from there, the PGA tour is obviously in your future.” I suppose that if I explained that the course was a bit short and only a par 62, you’d take that statement back. All the same, I shot below double-bogey and that should stand for something.
- An air of burnout has been circulating around as of late. I’m not sure how I’m reacting to it. I feel like things have definitely been a bit stressful but I’m managing. In reality, I’m not sure if I’m managing or ignoring to be quite honest. I admit that I’ve struggled with staying positive but I’m actively trying to improve how I operate. Could I benefit from a long break from my current situation? I don’t know. I kind of assume it is the nature of the job so learning how to deal with it is the only way to operate.
- Along the lines of burnout, I’m burned out in my marathon training. This past week was week 8. I only ran 11.3 miles. I was supposed to do 14 today. Instead I took a 4 hour nap in the afternoon. I’m not sure what the root cause for my burnout is, but I’m not happy with it. Reality is that I could just run 2 times per week up until the race and I’d be fine. However, I want to perform at a higher level and that requires me to really be dedicated to 4 nights per week with 1 good distance run. One thing I know for sure is that I’ve had an incredible lack of energy as of late (this probably deserves a post by itself). I’ve been so “tired” lately that I can’t even sit down to brew a batch of beer. I’ve got 7 weeks to go. I need to get it together but I’m not sure how.
- As I’ve written a zillion times before in some form, I don’t particularly like being single. I do enjoy the freedom it brings, but I’m bored with so much freedom. I really desire spending my time with someone else. If I wasn’t living this single life I doubt I’d be taking 4 hour naps on a Sunday afternoon when I could be out living life.
- The start of the tailgating season starts this weekend. I don’t have any strong feelings about it yet. I imagine it will be a good time but I’m not sure if I’m ready for the season quite yet.
- Last night I noticed how Derrick sort of reminded me of Matt Dillon’s character from There’s Something About Mary.
What do you think?
Oktoberfest Tasting
Aug/082
I suppose that it would be appropriate for me to go to Munich someday to take part in the annual Oktoberfest given my interest in beer. I’ve never had an especially strong desire to visit Germany to drink beer until recently. Here are a few facts about Oktoberfest.
-It started in 1810 to celebrate King Ludwig I’s wedding
-It actually starts in September and lasts 16 days until the first Sunday in October
-There are only 6 breweries represented but they serve over 6-million liters of beer (Spaten, Augustiner, Paulaner, Hacker-Pschorr, Hofbräuhaus, Löwenbräu)
Upon my most recent visit to Total Wine and More I discovered that all of the Märzen/Oktoberfest beers were available. I had only planned to pick up a few, but before I knew it there were eleven 6-packs and a couple 500ml bottles in my cart. Sounds like I should have an Oktoberfest tasting. So I did.
There were five of us participating in this event. As usual, the results were interesting. Trying 12 different beers really challenged the palate. In future tastings I think it would make sense to have a mix of 6 different beers.
Some of the most interesting results are as follows:
-One of the tasters said how much he liked Spaten, though collectively we ranked it the worst including him individually (he said it must have been a skunked bottle)
-To test things out afterward, I made everyone taste Spaten versus Hacker Pschorr and everyone picked Hacker which helped validate the results a bit
-Our ranking of Flying Dog so high was surprising when you compare it to the BeerAdvocate rating
-Sam Adams did quite well which both pleased and surprised me
-Germany took the #1 spot and 3 out of the top 5 (which I believe is appropriate) but all the same, America knows how to do a decent Oktoberfest as well
The serving sizes of each beer were just short of 5 ounces and none of us actually drank all 12 beers. The idea was to sample each. In fact, it only took us about 20 minutes of tasting to draw our conclusions. So, yes, the beer did warm up, but not beyond what would be acceptable to conduct the tasting portion. As mentioned, I would refrain from doing so many beers in the future and keep it around 6.
Golf
Aug/080
On Monday I had this corporate golf outing thing at this super cool, gated community country club with million dollar lots of land place down near Rehoboth Beach, DE. I felt very fortunate to be given the opportunity. The course was designed by Jack Nicklaus which was also cool. However, I played probably the worst round of golf in my life and I was just trying to not feel too embarrassed (fortunately, no one played great).
On Wednesday I played 9 holes after work. I played terrible with one exception. On the last swing of the day something felt right. I had done something noticeably different with my swing. I walked over to the range and hit a ball nearly perfectly using the same exact technique (ok, I had to hit two balls because the first one didn’t go so well).
For some reason I had the itch to go out and see if this little change was repeatable. I ended up shooting a 53 on 9 holes. That is certainly not a score to be ashamed of when the last two times I had to quit on holes. I think that I only had 1 bad tee shot. The rest were either great or manageable. Things were just clicking. The change to my swing was repeatable. Of course though, something had to go wrong. I could not put. I could have saved 6-8 strokes if I could have just putted averagely. Oh well.
That’s golf for you.
Centrist
Aug/082
According to some stupid little application on the Facebook, I should consider myself a centrist in terms of political standing. I had to answer 10 questions about economics and policy. Here is the official explanation:
Centrists espouse a “middle ground” regarding government control of the economy and personal behavior. Depending on the issue, they sometimes favor government intervention and sometimes support individual freedom of choice. Centrists pride themselves on keeping an open mind, tend to oppose “political extremes,” and emphasize what they describe as “practical” solutions to problems.
I think this actually describes both my political feelings and how I live my life as well. I don’t like to be polar. I like to keep an open mind but I’m not afraid to have an opinion. I really try to be realistic and practical (even though sometimes I like to push people’s buttons by making bold claims).
Kara and Mark Get Married
Aug/083
My older brother and Kara finally got married. They’ve known each other for something like 10 years. I’ve been aware of Kara for a good portion of this. I don’t know when they actually started dating, but they managed to survive a period of long distance and a while living together too (which is a good idea). The wedding was just a ton of fun. There were really only 2 minor issues: it rained and we had to have the ceremony inside (which was not a bad thing at all) and the neighbors of the motel complained about us being too loud during the post-party and threatened to call the police.
Mark, Brian and Matt
Getting things together pre-ceremony
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The photographer got some much better versions of this cool shot
A funny looking bird
The father of the bride and father of the groom
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The best man
The maid of honor
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My younger brother Mike and his girlfriend Tayrn
A view of where the outdoor version would have been
A very creative and tasty wedding cake
My parents are dancing the polka
I’ve got a thousand pictures of Phil like this
My dad’s favorite motto
The males of my family
Musikfest
Aug/080
This past weekend I went to Musikfest in Bethlehem, PA for the 7th time in my life. It was once again a very fun time. I had the same group along as last year: Derrick and JTI. The highlights were as follows.
Derrick’s grandmother’s homemade foods (including a venison vegetable soup)
Beers and snacks at the Spinnerstown Hotel (amazing beer selection)
A bunch of made-up back-stories that we never actually used
Gyros
Drinks at the Star Fish Brasserie
In terms of actual music, we listened to a Jimi Hendrix coverband that was pretty good but I believe that may have been all. It was a good time.
Blues Traveler, Collective Soul, Live
Aug/082
Thanks to a friend/coworker, I had a free ticket to see Blues Traveler, Collective Soul and Live on Friday. I had heard about their tour a couple months back and it got my attention. Those three bands were core members of the pop-rock scene of the mid-90′s. I never really had much interest in seeing them previously, and actually I was a little hesitant about going to see this (even with the free tickets) given the fact that the only thing I only really liked about the bands where the “hit” albums:
Blues Traveler – Four (2004)
Collective Soul – Collective Soul (2004)
Live – Throwing Copper (1994)
For the record, 1994 was an amazing year for music. I won’t list them all but some of my favorites are:
Weezer – Weezer “Blue”
NIN – The Downward Spiral
Green Day – Dookie
Stone Temple Pilots – Purple
Pearl Jam – Vitalogy
Tom Petty – Wildflowers
Portishead – Dummy
Nirvana – MTV Unplugged in New York
Eagles – Hell Freezes Over
Ben Harper – Welcome to the Cruel World
Sea and Cake – Thrill Jockey
Bush – Sixteen Stone
The Offspring – Smash
With all that said, they were important bands of my childhood and I’m glad I went. I’ve added some more bands to the list that I think will have some weight someday if I have kids and they decide they like my music collection and then discover I got to see all these neat bands back in the day.
There were a few keys notes from the experience.
1) When going to see bands at Festival Pier in Philly you should park and Dave and Busters. It is only $11 and you get $5 of that back if you go into Dave and Busters and buy something (aka giant mug of Yuengling for $1.25 with ticket). It is only about 3 minutes walk up to the venue.
2) All three bands sounded pretty much exactly like I expected them to (much like the CD) though they all had little twists to a lot of the songs. I’m not surprised by this fact as playing the same song thousands of times over 14 years would potentially get old if you didn’t find ways to keep it fresh and fun to play.
3) If I’m ever in a famous/semi-famous band I will talk to the crowd. Sure, you are there to see music but I think it is very valuable to try and relate to the crowd or at least say some funny stuff to pull the crowd in even more.
4) Live could easily be mistaken for a Christian-rock band. I never noticed it before, but if you just took their songs and inserted some religious diction like Jesus, you are my savior, I love God, please save me, I thank thee lord for all your love, and just the way the music sounds would perfectly support the lyrics. I don’t really mean this as a joke. I had a serious moment where I wondered what the deal with their music was and wondered if they had ever considered switching over to the Christian-rock realm.
5) The lead singer of Live reminds me of a cross between Michael Stipe (REM), Scott Stapp (Creed), a Christian-rock singer and a stereotypical pop-rock singer. This isn’t necessarily a good or bad thing. It is just an observation.
Alternate Pizza
Aug/085
Last night as I walked home from Flatrock I passed by this pizza spot that is supposed to have especially good pizza. I restrained myself.
When I got home I made an alternate pizza.
1 can black beans
1/2 cup of spaghetti sauce
some basil leaves
a sprinkle of feta cheese
Certainly, it was not the shape of pizza, but it was actually pretty tasty and reminded me of how pizza sort of tastes. Sort of.