Tilted Kilt > Hooters

Shallow male time! :)

We need a Tilted Kilt on the north side of Indy, preferably within staggering distance of my house.

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Why You Should Homebrew

Just thought I'd share this article from Gizmodo on why homebrewed beer is better than store bought.

Now at some point I need to work up the enthusiasm to tackle cleaning out 2 dozen bottles and 2 carboys. Granted, I'm not up to making beer, but it's been ages since I made a batch of mead.

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Guinness 250

Guinness is going to celebrate its 250th anniversary with a special stout. The 250 will be maltier, more carbonated, and more potent than Guinness' traditional recipe.

I feel a quest coming on.

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*Real* Ale

I never knew there was a difference between "real" ale and not real ale. Evidently it has to do with the yeast still being alive, as opposed to the dead beers we are used to here.

Check out The Real Ale Net to learn more.

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Swearing for beer

If we had a swear jar in my warehouse we'd be able to afford the good stuff, not just some *bleep*ing Bud Light. *Bleep* ya. Maybe it's because we sound like the *bleep*ing Osbournes visiting *bleep*ing Deadwood.

Found this via Amy.

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Oktoberfest in September?

Yesterday I decided to go to Oktoberfest. I had been kicking around the idea and even though things like this aren't as fun by myself it's better than lurking in the den hunkered down in front of a computer. Plus I'm half German and there's beer.

So I hopped on the train and headed down to the fairgrounds, visions of a feeding frenzy sure to wreck my diet for the next week in my mind. I remembered my experiences with Indy Irish Fest and expected something similar.

A bratwurst and 2/3 a pretzel doesn't exactly constitute a feeding frenzy.


It was much smaller than I expected. Plus my appetite was much smaller than it used to be, so even though I was really hungry by the time I got there I ran out of steam without being able to finish my huge pretzel. I could have done the whole thing in an hour, but given the train schedule I had 3 hours to kill.

There was a German band inside the main building and local bands in the tent outside. The German band was literally a band, something like 20 instruments and as near as I could tell the local bands had nothing to do with being German (unless 70s and 80s covers are really big in Germany).

The outside area looked like leftovers from the State Fair with a few rides, a few food trailers and a few games. There was a reminder of why I don't trust carnival rides when I saw a couple of carnies ran by and I watched them rush to a ride that was spewing hydraulic fluid and the kids on it were stuck.

But at leat there was beer.

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Mad Scientists Party

I don't think this is what Nicole meant when she said that she wanted a shot.:)

Barfleet hosted a Mad Scientist Party at InConjunction. I had a lot of fun, at least what I can remember (shots = evil).

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To Boldy Drink...

Got this link via the Barfleet crew...a NCC-1701 bottle opener.

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MavenCon report

Nothing like a convention, a late night party, daylight savings time, and a 12 hour inventory to mess with you. But now I am recovering, so I'll tap a few notes about MavenCon.

Friday was shortish. I got there after work and waiting for rush hour to abate. I was able to get in on a playtest session for a game. Because of the NDA, I can't say much. It's an RPG system with an interesting concept but way too complicated to catch on. I know whenever I start tinkering with a rule system, I have to watch for crunch bloat, where my "cool ideas" to add detail bog the game down. I try to think of my more casual players and contemplate whether my latest addition would be so complex that they would be put off.

More MavenCon after the jump...

We also had our Mavens meeting, the largest yet (that I've been to) since folks at MCon could attend the meeting. Since the hotel was kind enough to provide every seat in the meeting with a pad of paper an impromptu paper airplane contest erupted.

After the meeting was a fun filled drive home in blowing snow. I love when someone annoyed passes me in a snowstorm only to find out the hard way there is a reason I'm driving slow.

Saturday was the long day. I mixed up the start time for two games I was interested in, so showed up on time for the one that was already full and too late for the one that would have had space. I was able to play a few games of Lifeboats, not to be confused with Lifeboat, a game with a similar name and theme. I won two of three games mainly by hanging onto my trumps until the end, after my opponents had burnt theirs early on.

I was able to meet up with a friend from my college days and we hung out and had dinner with some mutual friends. Feel old moment: his son is old enough to drink now.

Eventually, I made it to the BarFleet party. I ended up joining BarFleet (surprise there... Sci Fi + Booze = win) and was saddled with the BarFleet nickname of Ihavenoclue, my response to the XO when he asked what my BarFleet name was. In retrospect, it could come in handy after too many of the really evil drinks they make new recruits and promoted members drink.

"What's your name?"
"I have no clue."

Fortunately, I didn't get too hammered, though it could have been easy with all you can drink booze and some of the stealth concoctions. There were enough people there that I knew that I didn't spend the evening holding up a bulkhead.

And since daylight savings time meant 1 less hour of sleeping time, I didn't stay to the bitter end and called it a night around 3 am. I didn't set a wake-up call because I knew my internal clock wouldn't let me sleep too late. Fortunately, my hangover was a dull yellow alert and gone by the time I got to Kokomo to start their inventory.

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Struggling Guinness launching Red

Evidently Guinness has been on a slide, especially back "home" in Ireland and England. To battle the downturn in sales, Guinness is launching a major ad campaign along with the roll-out of a red stout.

Check out the article.


I'm also amused by the fact that Guinness has fewer calories than milk.

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