San Francisco again...

Lately I have been enjoying listening to the Beer School podcast. If you want to learn a lot about beer tune in to this podcast. And where are they from? Surprise, surprise they're from San Francisco! Once again, many things I am interested come from San Francisco. I think it's the universe whispering to me
Universe: "You should move to San Francisco."
Me: "OK universe, get my wife and I jobs there and we will."
Universe: "Uhh...hold on...BRB."
One item of interest from San Francisco that I have been made aware of recently is the Anchor Brewing company. The story behind the Anchor Brewing company is interesting but I'm not going to tell it here. Buy me a beer and I'll tell it to you. Suffice to say that many people say that the owner of Anchor, Fritz Maytag (yes, from that Maytag family) is the father of the modern craft brewing movement. Thanks Fritz! I have been wanting to try their original beer, the Anchor Steam, for a while now and finally had the chance this past Tuesday at Wunderbar and I have to say it was worth the wait. It was pretty dark in the bar and I was drinking it out of the bottle so I can't really comment on how it looked but it tasted excellent. I'm looking forward to trying it again and spending a bit more time with it. I'm also looking forward to spending more time at Wunderbar, they have an excellent beer selection. So much good beer, so little time.

Beer!

I started this blog so that I would have a place to share things I'm "nerding out" over. Judging by the frequency of my posts one of the things I'm not nerding out over is blogging. One thing that I have been nerding out over though is beer! I've enjoyed beer for quite some time now, I've even tried my hand at brewing in the past but lately I've really began to appreciate beer and become interested in the many styles and different brews that are out there. I have been listening to two podcasts lately that have really encouraged my love for and education in beer. Check out Beer School if you are interested in learning about beer and expanding your beer horizons. Expert Drinking is a great podcast if you are interested in gaining some knowledge on all types of beer, wine and spirits. Dr. Bill Sysak's knowledge of all things alcoholic is remarkable.

The only problem with my interest in beer is that it does not dovetail nicely with my pursuit of physical fitness. I pretty much have one day per week where I allow myself to drink beer. That means that it is going to take me a long time to make my way through all the beer I want to try. I mean, Sherbrooke Liquor has over 600 kinds of beer in their cooler. 600! Their cooler is mind blowing. One of the great things about Sherbrooke, besides their selection, is that you can buy singles and try a new beer without being committed to an entire six pack if the beer of your choice is not to your liking.

If we sit down and talk be warned, I may rattle on incessantly about beer.

Why Nerds are Better Than Jocks

If you have been living under a rock you may not have heard that a bunch of drunk sports fans in Vancouver decided that when a team of guys whom they do not personally know lost a game that has no real bearing on the lives of these sports fans the only reasonable reaction would be to riot. Here's why nerds are better than jocks. Have you ever seen a mob of enraged nerds rioting? Even after an event as horrendous and offensive as say Star Wars Episode 1? Or the cancellation of Firefly? Or Star Wars Episode 2? Or Star Wars Episode 3? No, you did not. Granted none of the Star Wars prequels were shown to a huge collection of drunk nerds in a city's downtown core either. You'll never see a bunch of nerds flip over a car, of course that may be because the amount of nerds required to physically achieve flipping a car couldn't fit around a car. Any car. Even a Smart car is too heavy. You'd never see a crazy drunken nerd climb a light standard, again that may be because it's too much like climbing the rope in gym class and we all know that's nerd kryptonite. You didn't see gangs of angry nerds burning Jar Jar Binks in effigy. Hey, why didn't we see that? I'd like to see that.
No, when offended, we nerds go home to our rooms in our parents basements, log on to our forums and blogs and "register our disgust throughout the world". We nerds are a peaceful, non-violent lot, doing our best to usher in Gene Roddenberry's utopian future of humanity in our individual lives. Being the change we want to see in the world. That is unless you try and steal our seat in Hall H at Comic Con, then you might just get stabbed in the face with a mechanical pencil.

Nerding Out

What are you nerding out about lately? For me it's The Nerdist podcast and Mass Effect.
The Nerdist podcast is great because it's three nerds sitting around talking about their lives and the stuff they are nerding out over, or talking with a person they like. I love that being a nerd is "cool" now. I grew up a nerd and it was not a desirable thing to be. I think the explosion of pop culture and the internet has changed that. After trying to shun and hide my nerd roots trying to be cool for years I can now be a nerd again and be proud of it!

Kim and I have been playing Mass Effect for the past 15 hours or so. Not continuously for 15 hours, over the last few days. The game has been out for quite a long time so I'm really slow getting on the bandwagon. It's a lot like Knights of the Old Republic and I loved that game too. I love that the game is so expansive. You could just blast your way through this game and do the basic quests but you can also meander around exploring other systems and planets, talking to everyone you can, taking every side quest. That's what we're doing. It's going to take forever but it's so fun! Exploring different systems reminds me of this game I played back in the 90's but I can't remember the name. You traveled through space mining and salvaging to build up your ship. It used coreward and rimward as directions in space? I want to say Wing Commander? Maybe?

Goals for the week of May 9th

My goals for last week:

1. Consume 30 grams of protein within 30 minutes of waking up, everyday. - Check! I used an unflavored whey protein from Superstore every morning while making coffee.
2. Two 20 minute interval runs - Check!
3. Two 1 km freestyle swims - Check! One of them was even longer than 1 KM!
4. Four 30 Minute shred workouts - Check!
5. Read 2 chapters from Common Ground - Nope.
6. Read 2 chapters from Start Late, Finish Rich - Nope.

I didn't get my reading done but I did start listening to the 4-Hour Workweek audiobook. Interesting and challenging.

Now for this week:

1. Consume 30 grams of protein within 30 minutes of waking up, everyday.
2. Do research into website idea, affiliate programs and drop ship programs.
3. Read 1 chapter from Common Ground.
4. Read 1 chapter from Start Late, Finish Rich.

You'll notice there are no physical activity goals listed. I had some minor surgery last Friday and was advised by my doctor to take it easy for a week.

Doctor Who

Kim and I haven't had a chance to watch the newest episodes of Doctor Who yet, we've had the Impossible Astronaut downloaded and waiting practically since it aired. I'm not sure exactly why we haven't watched it yet. Mostly I think it's due to the fact that Kim has been sick and we want to be able to really pay attention to the story. This requirement that we pay attention could be seen as an affirmative answer to io9.com's question "Is Doctor Who getting too scary or too complicated?". I do think that Doctor Who has gotten scarier and more complicated under Steven Moffat and I don't think that's a bad thing. I like that it's scary and complicated. It reflects the show's rich mythology and dark tones that have been present ever since it rebooted in 2005. I think the show is maturing. Of course it has some complex story lines, it has time travel in it!
As far as "too scary" or "too complicated", I would ask for whom? I know that Doctor Who is considered a family show and I love it. the thought of families gathering together to watch the Doctor warms my heart! Maybe some young children won't follow the story all the time but is that all bad? Is it bad to challenge kids with a complex story? Should we be worried that maybe some kids won't understand what's going on and as a result dumb it down? I don't think so and David Mitchell would agree, sometimes it's good to be confronted with our own ignorance. If the kids don't get it would it be so horrible if they just had to ask someone to explain what's going on? 
Too scary? Some kids may end up watching the show through the cracks between their fingers or from behind a blanket. Again I ask is that all bad? Is it bad for kids to be scared? Especially when it's fear of something make believe? It's one thing to be afraid of nuclear war as I and many of my contemporaries were, quite another to be afraid of being erased from existence by a mysterious crack in your wall. I watched some stuff that scared me as a kid and ended up with nightmares but I survived. I think kids need monsters. I think being afraid is an important part of developing as a child but then again I am neither a parent nor a child psychologist. I don't have to get up in the middle of the night to calm a crying child and assure him or her that there are indeed no Cybermen in the closet. Take my opinions with a grain of salt.
Our failure to watch the newest episodes may also have something to do with David Tennant, or rather the lack thereof. I think Matt Smith is great but Tennant was brilliant and left some big shoes to fill and I don't feel that Matt Smith has filled them yet. Although I think I would keep watching the show if it was nothing but one hour of Karen Gillan. I think Kim would too but we have slightly different reasons for that.
I have some downtime for the next few days so hopefully we'll get it watched!

The Real Thing

Lately when I've been swimming, about half way through I start dragging my butt. My stroke gets sloppier than normal, I feel like I'm just splashing around in the water and I want to stop. A couple weeks ago my friend Beeny tipped me off about a trick that she and her roommates do to keep up their energy during an extended workout. For them an extended workout is 45 - 60 minutes, my swim is usually about 30 minutes but hey, tired is tired right? Today I thought I'd give it a try. I bought a bottle of Coke and "de-fizzed" it. Then I mixed half Coke and half water in my Klean Kanteen and headed off to the pool. What a difference! I had energy throughout my entire swim and even swam an extra 150 yards. I probably could have done more but I swim on my lunch break and had to get back to work.
Generally I'm anti-pop. I think it's one of the worst things you could probably drink if you are trying to get in shape. However as a sports drink it seems to be pretty effective and for $1.65 for 500ml you can't beat the price. I'm still concerned about the high sugar content so next time I'm going to try one quarter Coke to three quarters water and see how that works.
Also, as a bonus my bottle of Coke claims that it will give me a free iTunes song. I've yet to figure it out though.