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My Tree 2008

I felt like trying to utilize the holidays to add some excitement to my life. So, I picked up my tree for Apple St. It fits very nicely in the corner of the room. Now, I just need to put together an evite for a holiday party.

Somewhat related, I kegged my latest beer. I just had a sample of it and I’ve got mixed feelings. There is lots of interesting stuff going on but right now the spices come through a little too boldly. When you use spice in brewing it should generally add a subtle enhancement to the flavor. You should be wondering if you are tasting a particular spice rather than being overwhelmed and adament that a particular spice is in the recipe. I’m hoping that a little bit of time to settle will do something to mellow it out.

Karma

I don’t actually believe in karma. That might surprise some people because I’m often seen and heard doing things on the behalf of karma. In reality, it is about as real to me as ghosts. Yes, I don’t believe in ghosts either.

With that said, I still live my life like it exists. Because, there are too many times when the easy way to rationalize a situation is to blame it on karma. Everyone needs a handy out in their pocket. Most human brains can’t live without some sort of justification.

So, I will continue to live my life as if all the decisions I make will stack up and bite me in the ass if I’m a really jerk.

Joe Paterno

Cheers to Joe Paterno and the great season he has coached. I know a lot of people question what he actually does with regards to coaching, but I have no doubt that his vigor still inspires his team to give it their all every week.

I just read that his hip surgery was successful and he is expected to be good to go for the Rose Bowl. I wish him a speedy recovery.

That’s all I’ve got to say about that. Mmm Mmm Milano!

HVAC

Being that it was sub-30 this morning, I decided it was about time to get the heating system in order.

I tried to turn the temperature up on Sunday night but discovered that the furnace was not interested in igniting any gas. The blower attempted to exhaust the system but there was no ignition. I decided that I could live without heat for the night. I did a follow-up look on Monday to no avail. I took yet another look on Tuesday night. It still didn’t want to work.

I called the landlord in the afternoon to see if he would send someone over to check it out. Surprisingly, he called me back a few hours later to tell me he’d stop by on Thursday. He suggested that the pilot light must be out or something simple like that. I decided I could handle one more cold night.

When I got home I pulled up the internet and did some quick Googling. I figured that I’d look into the process of relighting the pilot in hopes that I could fix the system and get the heat back online. After a short period of time I came to the conclusion that my furnace actually did not contain a pilot light. After browsing around for a few more minutes I got a hunch about what was wrong.

I took a quick step outside the front door and looked in the alley between my house and the neighbor’s. There was a bunch of stuff in the alley. I moved a box and headed back inside. I went back down to the furnace and attempted to fire it up. Bam! It started up without any hesitation. The exhaust system had been blocked and the sensors did their job. They prevented any burning from taking place to remove the risk of deadly gases building up in the house.

Things are nice and toasty right now and I believe I’ll sleep very well.

Indoor Rowing

I don’t think I’ve mentioned this yet, but I acquired a Concept2 rowing machine (ergometer). A couple friends of mine influenced this decision. So far, I think it was a smart choice.

I don’t really care for the gym. In fact, I haven’t worked out in my gym in over 6 months. That is $360 I wasted. Tonight I went to the gym and quit. However, they told me I had to give 60 days notice so I can’t quit until January. I think that is a bunch of crap and I don’t remember agreeing to those terms (it was probably in the terms but who ever reads that stuff). I tried to be disgruntled, but I wasn’t in the mood to push my agenda. Anyway, how are you supposed to convince someone to change the rules when you are cutting off funding for them. They have no motivation to appease me.

If the weather were more manageable in the winter, I would make more of an effort to run. Actually, it isn’t the weather but rather the lack of sunlight. There is absolutely no way to run in the light. Wait, that’s a lie. I could wake up at 6am and run. Not happening. Point is that I needed an alternate method of exercise to get me through the winter months. Indoor rowing seemed like a good option.

So far, I’ve rowed 22km. I’m going to put together a database one of these days for tracking this stuff. For documentation purposes, my best 5K time is 20:28.2 and the best 10K is 45:05.0. I don’t know if those are particularly fast or slow. I do know that the machine is a good workout.

Update: It is worth noting that 2km and 6km are the common distances for indoor rowing. Therefore, I will no longer refer to 5km times.

The Club House

I affectionately now declare that John and Sarah’s house in Houserville (State College, PA) is now to be know as “The Club House.”

I’ve got this funny little thing about me where I like to be in control of my own time. Sitting around too much when I’m out of my element makes me antsy. I love roaming around and seeing things but but I also love to be sitting in my own house doing whatever. I’ve always been this way (plenty of embarassing stories about how much I hated going places).

At “The Club House” I don’t feel this way.

Here are the potential reasons why hanging out here was so nice.

• good beer in the fridge
• cold pizza in the fridge
• a comfy couch in the basement for sleeping
• 2 bathrooms that I can use
• a big HD TV
• good people
• video games
• high speed internet
• a group of people where sarcasm is the only way of speaking to each other

I look forward to next weekend.

Good Days

Today was one of those “good days” that I mentioned. A day where I feel very productive and know that I add “value.” And that best part (in theory) is that the day is not yet over. I’ve got plenty of time to sort out world peace as well. Maybe as a bonus I’ll fix the hunger thing too.

It was so good of a day so far, that it has inspired me to drive to State College tomorrow so that I can watch Penn State get things in order against Indiana. I was actually planning on going anyway (and not because of my inspiring friends).

The English put mayo on everything (rather, every type of sandwich) as default.

Sainsbury’s grocery stores have “Cool Ranch Doritos” type chips that are their store brand but taste like a cross between the big name chip and popcorn.

I bought a ticket today on StubHub for $146 for “Joe Paterno’s last home game” which will be against Michigan State on November 22, 2008. I’m looking to sell it. The seat location is the lower, north-east section of the north endzone about 30-odd rows up. Please let me know if you are interested.

Footy

For the second straight week I played football (soccer) with a bunch of people from work. It was a really fun time. The situation was 5 v 5 on a small, rectangular, outdoor, arena-style field. I think we ended up at a 10-10 draw but I believe my team thinks they won. I actually scored a goal which is quite an accomplishment for me. I might be a decent goalie but I’m a relatively poor field player. The experience was especially interesting because it was a bit cold and the rain blew down on us for most of the match.

Now I sit here, wondering if I should turn the TV off and try to sleep. I’m not particularly tired though. I feel like last week my body was confused and decided to try and adjust to the UK time. I feel like this week my body realized that I live in America and we lost a lot of lives to have that as a fact. It doesn’t want to subject itself to adjustment. It wants me to stay up and party and have some drinks and call it quits around 6am GMT. However, I would still need to wake up at 7:10am and that just wouldn’t add up to a particularly productive day.

I am quite happy that I discovered my room has a temperature adjustment unit. There is a terrible draft at the windows and the past two nights have been chilly. That isn’t really a bad thing once I’m sleeping as I prefer it to be cold in the room. However, when I’m sitting up, typing away, watching TV, I’d rather be warm. I have the thing set at 25°C which I have no idea how hot that is. It won’t go over 28°C so I’m gonna guess that is like 80-something. It is actually too warm but maybe that will make me sleepy.

My current debate is whether or not I actually post this tonight. It costs me 15 pounds per day for internet access. Let me correct myself. I pay that much for terrible internet access.

In conclusion, I look forward to coming home right now for a variety of reasons. Before I list them, I’d like to say that I feel absolutely strange over here. I feel like I’ve been here forever and it almost feels so routine that I can’t imagine what it will be like to go back to my normal life. I don’t mean to make this sound like a bad thing. Everyone is absolutely great over here. Lots of friendliness and lots of laughs. I appreciate the less politically correct culture. Things get said that would never fly in the States and no one bats an eye.

If I had to spent the next 5 months over here, I wouldn’t completely hate that fact. I would miss a lot though.

• I’ve got be honest about the fact that I’m not really looking forward to going to the Penn State game this weekend. I suspect I’ll need a weekend to just regroup and get back to my normal life. On top of that, you have the disappointment that PSU gave us. And you have the long drive. But, you also have a lot of friends expecting me to be there.
• If I remember correctly, I bought a few nice beers before this trip. They should be waiting in the fridge. I suspect I’ll crack them open on Sunday upon my return from State College (if I go).
• If I’m lucky, my last batch of beer has settled down and is ready to keg. According to the Sultan himself, it exploded last week. The yeast was going so crazy that the krausen (yeasty beer foam that gets created) probably clogged the airlock which resulted in a large pressure build-up which results in the top partially popping off (which takes a lot, and I mean a lot of pressure). Hopefully, it did not get infected. The high alcohol content is a plus that it will be clean.
• Ah! I’ve got a keg of delicious homebrew on tap. I hope to fill a few growlers to take back to the folks in central PA (if I go).
• My poor soccer team needs me. Last week we played a team that we had previously defeated 7-2 and lost 9-2. That is unacceptable. I’m missing playoffs this week. I’d bet $1000 we lose in the first round.
• I’ve got to get back to my hunt.
• I still have a work team at home that is doing God-knows-what. I’ve been trying to sync up with them everyday but for all I know, they are building box forts and surfing the net all day. I suppose that if everything is still functioning, I ought to buy them lunch or something.
• In my opinion, Marriott beds are better than Westin beds. I’m going to miss these beds, but there is certainly nothing like sleeping in ones own bed.

Finally thought. If I would win a foreign lottery, am I allowed to collect the winnings?

Crazy Chips

The British have lots of odd potato chips. Yesterday I purchased a variety pack that included “Turkey and Stuffing”, “Ham and Mustard” and “Ploughman”. I’m not too familiar with what a ploughman is supposed to taste like so I can’t really judge it. The other two tasted very much as hoped. The turkey one also smelled like a turkey dinner which was quite fascinating. The ham one tasted like it had spicy mustard and was quite tasty. I try to keep my chip eating to a minimum but I’m glad I sampled these varieties.

I Had A Dream

The other night I had this most bizarre dream. I’ve been having a lot of strangely vivid dreams as of late. Anyway, I was at a birthday party or some sort of celebration. Oddly enough, it was being throw by my old guitar teacher. For the life of me, I can’t imagine why this person was on my mind. I remember sitting on the floor as the guitar teacher’s son sat on a bench. It might have been a piano bench. He had a 12-string guitar; right handed. My old guitar teacher played a 12-string as well. I believe there was some conversation mixed in, but the most vivid part was that he played this one song. In the dream I couldn’t quite place it but the way his hands moved along the neck probably wouldn’t have resulted in the actual sound. He was going through some rather complex motion and the flow was a little amateur, but I was impress nonetheless.

I woke up in what felt like a short time later. The motion of him playing the guitar was still fresh in my mind and the sound was there too. I don’t ever recall remembering sound so vividly from a dream. Come to think of it, I don’t ever remember dreaming with sound. Can you recall a particular sound or voice from a dream? Not just words but the actual sound.

I thought about the song for a little while but didn’t put in much effort into discovering what it could actually be. I suspected that it was some sort of amalgamation of various indie rock songs I’ve heard recently, but part of me realized that it was actually a distinct song.

Tonight I was reading the first blog linked on the right hand side and there was a post about a vivid dream. It got me thinking about my own recent experience. It inspired me to search for the actual song. I had a feeling it was a Death Cab for Cutie song. Indeed it was. The song is from their most recent album and is entitled “You Can Do Better Than Me.” I’ve had the strangest relationship with their music as I’ve written several times.

Not surprisingly, it is a bit of a somber tune with classic Death Cab lyrics that make think, “Why didn’t I come up with that line.” I’d say it is probably one of the better songs on the rather disappointing album. Why did I dream about that particular song? No idea. I haven’t heard it in at least a month.

Perhaps it is some representation of how I feel as of late. Maybe it somehow represents my realization of my potential and the yearning to qualify said potential. Time to push away the old and discover the new? Maybe it is a yearning for change. Maybe the lyrics attached to me quite subliminally the first time I heard it. Maybe it was just a catchy song.