I was bored today, so I decided to go take some shots that I’ve had in mind for portraits. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get some paid models for these shots in the not too distant future. I like the way they turned out. However, posing one’s self is more awkward than posing for someone else.

Indoor soccer presents one of the hardest shooting situations I’ve ever encountered. The lights are really high up with the ceiling heights required for such a sport. And, they’re not very bright. So, we need a high shutter speed to capture the action, and we need a low f-stop to let in as much light as possible. That means high ISO, unfortunately. Now, if I had a $2K lens with 400mm zoom and 1.8 max aperture and image stabilization, I could still get some much closer shots with good quality. These will have to do with the equipment that I have.

I’m getting out of the home-brewing game. Today is your opportunity to take advantage of the hard work I did to research and acquire the best gear available for making quality home brews – including sours!

For the low, low price of $500, you can get (full retail price in parenthesis)

• Wort Chiller ($60)
• Burner ($45)
• Keggle Branded “Cog Monster” (priceless)
• 2x Water Filters ($21)
• CTS Temperature Control Computer ($14)
• pH Meter ($22)
• Bungs for Carboy ($5)
• 5x Airlocks ($5)
• Magnetic Stir Bar ($6)
• Stir Plate ($20)
• Flask ($10)
• Bottle Fill Wand ($6)
• 2x Hydrometer ($14)
• Grain Scale [up to 12 lbs] ($180)
• Digital Kitchen Scale ($13)
• Thermometer ($15)
• Bottle Capper ($17)
• Mash Stirrer ($3)
• Paint Stirrer [for aerating wort before adding yeast] ($10)
• 2x Auto Siphon [one for sours] ($20)
• Mash Tun ($80)
• Bucket Lid Wrench ($9)
• 10x Buckets ($30)
• Carboy ($44)
• Carboy handle ($11)
• Strainer Bag ($9)
• Hydrometer Test Jar ($4)
• Freezer [with external CTS1000] ($120)
• Dual Chamber Fermentation Box [with CTS1000 and 2 paint can heaters] (priceless)Here’s pictures of the items…

  

  The works (minus the freezer and fermentation box)

  

  Bottle Capper

  

  Thermometer

  
  

  

  Wort Chiller

  

  Auto Sipons, Paint Stirrer, Mash Stirrer

  

  Burner

  
  

  

  Hose, Bungs, and Airlocks

  

  Hygrometers and 2 dishes for hops measuring

  

  Carboy and handle

  
  

  

  Misc left-over ingredients

  

  Flask, Stir Plate, Magnet, and Bottle Wand

  

  Water Filters (One new, one used)

  
  

  

  Hydrometer Test Jar

  

  Bad Ass Valve on Mash Tun

  

  Grain Scale

  
  

  

  pH Meter

  

  Digital Kitchen Scale

  

  One of a Kind Keggle

  
  

  

  48 Qt Mash Tun

  

  48 Qt Mash Tun

  

  Extra CTS1000

  
  

  

  Dual Chamber Fermentation box

  

  Large side will hold 4 buckets of wort

  

  Small side will hold 2 buckets of wart (The paint can heaters can be moved to either side)

  
  

  

  CTS1000 temperature computer built right into fermentation box (between chambers)

  

  Chest Freezer with temp controller and paint-can heater

  

  Temp controller and heater for chest freezer

  
  

That’s well over $900 worth of gear for $500!

Here’s the shots that I managed to get when I wasn’t fixated on the kids with scooters.

Last year, when I rode the Michigan Mountain Mayhem I made some really great friends. You can read my MMM write up at my other blog, here. During that ride, we kept rolling out of rest/food/water stops just as another particular team would roll in. They looked great and they were clearly a team as they all wore matching jerseys – seen here.

They were the dark jerseys with “O2” on the back. I think it was during that ride that we all realized how cool it would be to show up in matching jerseys when we show up at organized/group rides out of town. Unfortunately, the TAB jersey doesn’t exactly scream bad-ass.

We wanted something that suggested that we were there to make circles and take names.  Since that early June ride, that group of great-friends has grown to include others who were not part of that MMM 2013 ride, but are very strong riders. They all loved the idea of a more aggressive jersey. And, I’ve worked hard to create a jersey that says:

1. We’re from NW Ohio
2. We’re bad-ass
3. We’re here to make circles and take names

This is what I came up with for the 2014 jersey.  I’m very excited to place this order! I will be ordering 2 jerseys and a jacket. One of the jerseys will be framed and it will hang in my office at work.

I’ve already designed the 2015 and 2016 jerseys.  Though, I may just make them all available next year and create a store. That way, we can order accessories like socks, arm/leg warmers, rain-gear, etc.

So… how do you qualify to be a Black Swamp Cog Monster?  Simple – just buy a jersey.

If you would like to order one of these jerseys, let me know and bring me your money by February 1st.  Here’s the price list… (in the leftmost [CS10] column) 

Note: I will split up the shipping cost and you can pay your portion when you pick up your Black Swamp Cog Monsters jersey in April.

Tonight, my girlfriend and I went to the newly remodeled El Tipico restaurant on South Ave.  I hadn’t been there in quite some time – several years.  They had closed over the summer to remodel and I was anxious to visit one of the best authentic Mexican restaurants in the area.  I had purchased a discount from corporateperks.com hoping to save a buck or two.  The coupon has a face value of $25 and requires a $45 purchase. Since they don’t serve alcohol at El Tipico, we didn’t even come close to spending the required $45. In fact, we barely spent $25.

The food was yummy, but it wasn’t the authentic flavors that I remembered.  Don’t get me wrong, it was all quality ingredients served hot and fresh and the new interior is beautiful.  The food is all reasonably priced and the staff is very attentive. We’ll definitely be back and we’ll take the kids with us so that we can use the coupon that I’d purchased.

My favorite part of this particular visit was when the server brought our check.  She informed us that there was, in addition to the bill, an envelope with a prize within the standard black folder that they bring your bill in.  The envelope, she explained, must remain closed until after the new year. Actually, it’s February & March – probably the slowest time of year for them.  Then, if you bring it back to the restaurant, they’ll open it to reveal the prize indicated within.  The possible prizes include…

• Discounts & Free Food
• Taco Bar Party for 25
• Manicure
• Jewlery (Yes, they spelled it that way on the envelope) – if you’re from WV near the Ace Adventure Resort, you may prefer “jewellry”. The rest of us prefer “jewelry”.
• Pinata
• 2 Hour Limo Ride to El Tipico and Dinner for Two
• A Two Night Stay at the Housley House in Grand Rapids, OH.

I just love this promotion.  It costs them nothing if you don’t return.  If you do return, they win with repeat business.  You’ll likely keep this envelope somewhere that you’ll see it from time to time so that you don’t forget to return after the new year. That keeps El Tipico on your mind.

A tip of the sombrero to you, El Tipico.  Well played.

Today, I did some lumber jacking in the back yard. Along the north side of my yard, in the section farthest from the house, I have several pine trees. These trees were so big when I moved into this house that they made the back yard look small. My remedy, 13 years ago, was to cut the trees back and trim them such that the lowest branch was higher than 6 feet. That way, I could walk under them. I could plant grass under them. I could use my whole back yard.

Fast forward 10+ years. The trees are not doing well. I don’t know if I trimmed back too much or too much at one time or what. But, of the 6 trees that were there, only one is still alive and it only has green at the top 15 feet or so. One of the trees fell in a wind storm last summer. Lucky for me, it fell into my yard instead of the neighbor’s yard.

This summer, I noticed that one of the remaining trees was leaning. It had rotted out at the bottom and it was leaning in the direction of: 1) The neighbor’s yard, 2) The neighbor’s garage, 3) Power lines, 4) a fence that I own, but would rather not replace this summer.

Since the tree was rotten at the bottom, I figured I could just use a come-along (hand operated ratcheting winch) to pull the tree in the direction of my yard. I as I looked closer at the tree, I realized that the top 5 feet or so was going to be impeded in my attempt to get it to fall into my yard by a branch from the Black Walnut tree that dominates my back yard. No big deal, right? I will just pull the tree toward my yard and the top part will snap off as it gets pulled.  Before I could do that, though, I had some prep work to do.

There was an old phone line that ran from the pole at the back corner of the yard (where the trees are) to the house.  I had to remove that.  Since I was removing that line, I decided to remove the old phone box from the side of the house, too.

I attempted several different ways of getting this darn tree to fall into my yard.  First I pulled it away from the direction that it was leaning. Once I got it leaning toward my yard, I used some old 4X4 posts to prop the tree and make sure it wasn’t going to fall back to where it had been while I adjusted the rope and come along. I had to do quite a bit of work to get the tree to snap and fall.  When it did finally break, it didn’t break near the top where it was touching the branch.  Instead, it snapped almost 15 feet below that.  When it did fall, it made a tremendous and marvelous noise.  The neighbors behind my house, who were outside playing with their kids, yelled, “That was awesome!”

The lady of the house said, “It’s a good thing that you can run fast.” – thinking that I was in danger because I was using the come along to pull the tree toward me. I assured them that I had measured it out and that I was safe.  They didn’t believe me.  So, I picked up what was the top of

the tree and carried it over and placed it where it would have been had the tree fallen in one piece. Vindicated.  I had used the method described in the Boy Scout Handbook to determine how far away I’d need to be

May saw 834.88 miles in the saddle that included the hardest ride of my life and one of the hottest. See the AOMM ride description in the previous post for the hardest. The hottest ride was the Memorial Day 100K which ended up being 83 miles once I rode to/from the organized ride. The speeds on that ride were stupid fast. Most of the TAB faster group are already in mid-season form and punishing each other as frequently as possible. Clearly I’m going to blow away my 3K mile goal for this year. Perhaps I should double it? If I have 800+ miles for each of June, July, August and September, double is doable.

Nahhh… I need some kite time, now. Plus, I have 2 vacations coming up – one will NOT involve biking at all.* I may end up taking bikes to NC at the end of June. I haven’t decided yet.

*That’s the plan now, any way.

Do E-Books impair memory?

I’ve found this to be the case. I certainly prefer paper books when doing any studying. There are a lot of things lacking in E-Books today. Eventually, I suspect we’ll get there. We’re just not there, today. I think that we need some kind of contextual sign posts along the way. E-Books need something more than just chapters and sections.

As I have done quite a bit of business reading since graduation in December, I’ve noticed that many of these books follow a predictable pattern in their layout. They make a point. They explain the point. They relate a story or two to drive home the point. It occurred to me that if we could have each of those sections color coded and have the ability to rearrange them within a section/chapter we could accommodate many more learning styles. (Forgive me if I don’t use the correct terminology here, but I use the words I know.) Some people need to have the linear/analytic point of view first. Others would prefer to have the personal story portion first so that they can feel the emotion and want the solution before it’s provided. Some people don’t need the explanation; they just want the idea and the story. Others could do without the story entirely. Sometimes, one personal story driving home the point is enough and you could skip the second one offered by the author; other times, you need more than one.

If a book could be rearranged or color coded allowing the reader to get at that which he/she needs most in the order that it’s needed to accommodate the reader’s learning style, E-Books could be so much more effective.

Additionally, visual queues could be added behind the words so that we could “map” the book better in our mind. If we know that all of the points in a book related to a particular topic are watermarked with a circle, or a triangle or some other meaningful shape (related to the topic) and we could make those shapes searchable, we could improve the usability and effectiveness of E-Books for all users.