So the end of summer brings this back up, and makes me want to go to college.  Won’t be the same, but some of it should be, like the new people and new possibilities, and the stationary.   The juggling of school and work might be a little daunting, and remove some of the fun I hope for, and I can’t afford it this year, but the desire is fresh each fall.

Didn’t get home till 6 tonight, but the last place was a precision machine shop, got the dream gears running pretty hard with the multiple CNC machines and computer controlled Lathes and the fact that they export to Singapore.  That just tickled me, US product bought by Asia, not the other way around like seems to be the case everywhere else.  But I have engine building thoughts and prototype thoughts and robot thoughts and I brought up the engine thoughts and he said to call with some better details and he’d be able to give me a quote.  Not quite what I was hoping for but at least I’ll have a dollar figure, and I’ll know for sure if I can meet it.

I tested the most recent batch of mead yesterday.  The calculation for alcohol content came to 3.7%, which is pretty low, lower than your average beer.  It is VERY sweet, but VERY yummy.  Desert wine, not sweet enough to seem like drinking honey, but sweet enough to make me consider the possibility of pitching another yeast.  I’m pretty sure the cider yeast has a low enough alcohol tolerance that I wouldn’t get any more out of it.  Very yummy desert class mead, though, and I might grab a gallon or two and try post-ferment infusions.  It is crystal clear, apparently there is sediment on the sides of the carboy that kept me from really seeing how clear it had gotten.  For almost exactly one month old, it surprised me that it is smooth and drinkable.  I had expected it to take longer to be drinkable and tasty.

The show has been bubbling in my head, too.  Especially on days when I have to explain DNS, again, and again.  Though I’m pretty sure nobody has seen my posts recently to chime in on what the topic should be, I’m still open to suggestions other than DNS.

Have fun!

I decided to create a better login for blogging here than “admin”.  I might even disable that account for security purposes.

The cats miss the kids, very evidently, now that there aren’t any humans at home catering to their attention needs during the day.

I’m thinking I will do DNS explanation for my first episode of The Well Rounded Geek Show.  It is something everyone on the Internet uses every time they get on the Internet and yet few people really understand.  For average people, it might not matter much, but for people running a business online it is vital.  But I’m still open to topic suggestions.

Edit: Just installed a tool to let me quickly update Livejournal, Facebook, and Twitter about posts, so I did. It isn’t very system friendly, though, so I’ll have to remember to enable it to cross-post then disable it again afterwards.

The race was fun.  A re-learned lesson that temperature does not effect how much sunburn you can get.  We had a really good start, but then we erred on which course we were supposed to be running.  Just mis-read the flags a little.  We figured that if we were right we would win, and if we were wrong we were already in a position where it wouldn’t matter.  We ended up racing alone and having fun.

…and getting sunburnt. lol

Sunday J and I met with her cousin and nephew in San Francisco, ate at the Rainforest Cafe.  Nice place, good burgers, neat 3/4 sized fries.  A little loud with their jungle ambiance effects, though, so it isn’t a great place to sit and have a conversation.  Made me want to build something better, but honestly, what doesn’t?

After we dropped off the just-met family, J and I wandered over to the arts and crafts tents.  Saw some nice handmade jewelry, some interesting flattened bottles, and J found a ring that she couldn’t leave without. A nice sparkly silver hand-crafted twisted square-wire ring that nearly has an infinity symbol in the middle.  Then I got a headache that pretty much wiped out the rest of the day.

Had to be at work before 8:30 for a conference call.  Process change coming, needed to do A B C and D to prepare for it, and C and D can’t be done until Sunday.  Did my visits in Hayward and Walnut Creek, then spent until 10pm doing A and B to get them out of the way.

And now you know where my blogging time went.

There is supposed to be a “Leadership Training” today, no idea if there will be anything new in it, or if it will just serve to remind me of all the other stuff I’ve already heard or learned about corporate or team leadership. Trying to be in a positive mindset for it, but today is a tough day for that.

Midnight update: kids made it to Florida safe and sound, I got paid, and I got a message that the mead barrel brew schedule is delayed until a good recipe is found to use, factoring in results from current experimental batches.

I made what was supposed to be a hemp bracelet, but I didn’t quite leave myself enough room to make a good clasp.  It is therapeutic to work at a task like that when something makes me sad.

I got a phone number of a much more local honey producer than Watsonville, and I’ve been meaning to call but these last couple days have been quite, well… I haven’t wanted to waste any time on anything other than hanging with the kids since they are on a plane in the morning to the other side of the country.  Life should settle down a bit with them gone, but I will miss them a lot.

Haha, alot.

Anyway, the point was that we may be brewing the first barrel of simple mead this weekend.  Still boggles my mind a bit… a barrel of mead, 60 gallons, 25 cases of wine bottles, 300 bottles of mead.  Of course, it will have to age for a good while before we see if it is any good, but chances are it will be completely drinkable even if it doesn’t end up fit for sale.  I’m pondering a ramp-up of one-gallon test batches to test yeasts and added flavors. Strawberry has repeatedly come to mind as a flavor I’d like to try, as has nutmeg cinnamon and cloves.  Blueberry and pineapple are also flavors that I’ve pondered, flavors that you don’t see much in fermented beverages (as opposed to infused).

But I have to be awake in less than 6 hours, so it is time to shut down and dial in the sleep number.

Sadly, it was a going-away party for my kids, who are traveling back to Florida on Thursday, really the only downer to the day.

The mead is still bubbling slowly, the plans for making a barrel of mead at my mom’s winery in the near future were discussed. I’m going to be experimenting with mead flavors in small batches, but the barrel will be a simple mead this time around. Looking forward to seeing how a strawberry mead will taste, or how a cinnamon and clove sweet mead will be.

Today is pretty much just hanging out at mom’s, another good day but nowhere near as scheduled or hectic.

Also, I’m progressing with some code that might automate some of my job and lower the amount of tedium and paperwork, and just maybe help the other people in my position get their jobs done sooner.  Though it seems I will not get much programming done while I’ve got the kids at home, they need that portion of my time more than my job does, since they only have a week left here before going back to Florida.

This past weekend I started a new mead batch brewing. I used grocery store honey that came in 5 pound cans, labeled “raw and uncooked”. 15 pounds of honey cost about $36.  I started by putting one of the gallons of pure water into the bottom of my 6.5 gallon carboy, then heated 1 gallon of water with 1 can of honey three times and poured that into the carboy.  The last gallon I did this to I also added the yeast nutrient and stabilizer.  Then I poured the last gallon of water that I had chilling into the carboy.  I also added an additional half-gallon of water from water bottles to both raise the level and lower the temperature.  Once the temp felt below 90 degrees I took a sample and measured 1.082 on the hydrometer.  Then I pitched the yeast, which is an English Cider Yeast.  I wasn’t sure if I had killed the yeast though because I only relied on my sense of touch and not an actual thermometer, but it started bubbling happily on Sunday.

The mead is still bubbling but slowing a bit. The cider yeast is a slower yeast than the white wine yeast I used last time, which means it will need to age longer for fully developed flavor, but it might end up being a much sweeter end product. Next paycheck I’ll get a 5 gallon carboy and the siphon and racking tube to move it over.  It will make for a nice 2-week racking, and I’ll pull another hydrometer measurement then to see how the fermentation is going.

Tomorrow is my 6 month eval at work.  I’m excited and nervous and I really am not quite sure what to expect.  The overall positive corporate culture here helps to calm the nervousness and helps me focus on the good that can come of it.

I also think I should start working out, more than just sail racing and local hiking, but a regimented, continuous workout, again bracketing the not-so-solid schedule of work. This way work will seem more structured, and life itself will be more structured. Maybe then I’ll have a better grasp on what I want to do with it.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my job.  Yes, there are a ton of things I’d like to change, but not the core of the job or the core of the company, just little things here and there, remove some redundancies, simplify some reporting procedures… wouldn’t be work if there weren’t things you wanted to change, right?

Minor gripe: Evony stopped working on my main computer, and since it was really a research endeavor anyway, and my alliance broke up in my main server, I may just drop this particular time-sink.

This post is being written before even the site design is complete.  WordPress has been chosen as the “content engine” for the site, as it does well in that role and is well supported by the open source community.  Edits to this post are expected as sight design continues.

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Decided that Alderin.com will be my personal site, with family additions as desired.  WRGShow.com will be the show site.