entombed in the shrine of zeroes and ones

There's been a ton of shit i've been meaning to mention.  Let's see if i can remember most of it...

Just over a year ago, i got a T-shirt addressed to 'rone'.  Then about a year after that, i received an envelope addressed to Ron 'Tron Guy' Echeverri, with a PO Box in San Luis Obispo as its return address, containing a ten-dollar bill.  The "Tron Guy" is an amusing touch given my antipathy towards jmaynard.  I don't mind getting random stuff, although i suppose i would prefer getting stuff off my Amazon wishlist.

Speaking of Maynard, lammah mentioned that Maynard James Keenan and his winemaker, Eric Glomski, would be signing bottles of their wine at the Whole Foods in Cupertino.  Kim and i showed up about 75 minutes early and there were already about 100 people in front of us (Kim heard someone inside mention that some clowns got in line at 06:00, eight hours early).  Keenan isn't very comfortable as a celebrity, which showed as he barely looked at us when we came up, but Glomski was engaging and while they signed our bottles, i got to talk to him about the pinot noir that Kim, Kim's mom, and i are making.  If you feel like you missed out, he'll be at Fresno's Whole Foods on February 17, Petaluma the 18th, and Sacramento the 19th, all starting at 16:30.

Speaking of wine, i passed Viticulture for Winemakers, which was the final class towards my Certificate in Winemaking from UC Davis Extension.  So as soon as i cough up the certificate fee, i should be receiving my first academic certificate since my high school diploma in a week or two.  I'm a bit excited about it, but i'm only getting started with figuring out if i can make this wine thing go.

peglegpete moved from Dallas to Seattle, and stopped by our humble home for room and board.

I got to go back to playing soccer last month.  This Thursday marked the first time i won a game while on the field since... i dunno, last summer.  A last minute squeaker, too, thanks to my teammates losing their minds in the final minutes of the game and leaving me defenseless.  It felt good to win, and i feel like i've finally gotten back into playing shape.

I picked out a bottle of shochu at our local sushi joint, but it turned out to be not shochu, but awamori.  It smelled like tequila a bit, and was quite tasty.

When your boss tells you, in so many words, that you should consider seeking alternative employment because he doesn't know where the company's going, why, it makes you want to drink youself into a goddamn stupor.  SO WITHOUT FURTHER ADO... HEY, IS IT A CRIME AGAINST DECENCY TO PUT CUBAN RUM IN DR PEPPER?  I NEED TO KNOW FOR A SCHOOL PROJECT.

I haven't written much here lately.  I guess i'm depressed or something with the job search.  So maybe i should write about the good stuff.  Like meeting people; Kim and i met mezdeathhead and schwa242 over Thai food in San Francisco, together with Mez's sister grrjessi and her boyfriend Justin.  All too short a meeting, as i had to take off for soccer back in the South Bay.  Some days later, after i had a job interview at UC Santa Cruz, Kim and i met solipsistnation and stophittinyrslf for lunch.  It's a lot of fun to hang out with couples who have a good dynamic and obviously like each other (and i don't mean gooshy stuff, although i have no objection to that), and all of the above qualify.

Soccer's still good.  I took a shot in the nuts the other night, and my cup wasn't able to protect me, so i spent some time on the ground groaning.  I've been getting a lot of compliments on my improved play, all of which really started after i went to the park one weekend to learn some fundamentals.  Funny how little things have big effects.  I still can't get my teammates to reliably and quickly set up walls on free kicks, though.

Last week, Kim and i went to see allannah's daughter perform as part of a choir.  Afterwards, we went out for Mexican food, and allannah and i decided to have a premium añejo tequila flight with our meal.  The first had obvious vanilla overtones and burned all the way down (now that i think on it, it was AsomBroso); the second had definite butterscotch flavor, although not quite as strong as the vanilla in #1.  The third was free of any foreign flavor and was my favorite.  I mentioned this to our waiter and he offered me a taste of a reposado that he recommended.  It was superior by far to the añejos, both in aroma and flavor, which surprised me a bit.  I'm not really a liquor drinker anymore (excepting soju, which is distilled but only comes in at 24% or so), but it was fun to give this a try.  And i was glad Kim was driving, too.

Take a jug of crap-ass vodka, run it through a Brita filter thrice, and pour it back into an empty bottle of high-quality vodka.

I think that this tequila [Flash] was named AsomBroso (which means "amazing", or more exactly, "AmaZing") because of their dildo-shaped bottle.  You tell me.

Via coldsleep:

AUGSBURG, Germany (CNN) -- After 30 years of hard work and trial and error, brewmaster Axel Heiliger says he has come up with a way to save the beer industry time and money.

The 64-year-old, who comes from a brewing family, has developed a novel technique that fuses yeast to the sides of specially created ceramic-lined cylinders during the brewing process.

Why is it that Anheuser Busch hasn't started a national chain of beer pubs, à la Starbucks?

Some of you have already heard this from me, but for the rest of you:

Tequila is proof that man will ferment anything.