I see your comic, and raise you a second...

Ha ha, more comics of relevance.

http://www.octopuspie.com/2009-08-05/313-it-gets-the-job-done/

Leads to...

http://www.octopuspie.com/2009-08-10/315-stuff-u-need-2-kno/

Now, this arc means a lot to me as my grandparents used to bootleg beer on the big island of Hawaii (the old country, or territory at least; stupid hukilau). Anyway, so this fine tradition of bootleg beer touches my family, where my grandfather would make his father's recipe, and his island wife, 15 years his junior, would serve it to his friends. Luckily this included the local revenue man, so they never got caught.

Least Interesting

It deals with beer and not posting to your blog. How appropriate!

I owe you all an update, GBBF, BrewDog

Well. I owe you all an update. I've been to the GBBF, which was awesome and totally changed my mind about CAMRA. Roger Protz's beer seminar was awesome, and we tried beers from all around the world. It totally went against the jack-booted CAMRA persona I was expecting. His new book, A Life on the Hop is also pretty good. This is a good man who loves beer, and I'm impressed and thankful to have met him.

(I didn't make this, sorry. But it is what I saw after the Baltic Porter to finish)

We started with a Brakspear Triple, followed by a Budvar. Then some Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Orval, Salvator and finally a weird Polish Baltic Porter. The festival was awesome and there were some great beers. I stuck to the Milds mainly, as I can't get them at home and was on a bit of a mission, in part from the brew club I belong to. The championship beer was excellent, the Rudgate Ruby Mild. Full reviews forthcoming next week, but I have to say I was impressed by the festival and wrong about CAMRA.

(Pork and Pulchritude)

We also did a BrewDog tasting, which was great. The Atlantic IPA wasn't as amazing as I'd hoped, but it was definitely unique and punishingly hoppy. Some of the other beers were astounding, especially the honey infused ale. Full details on that are also forthcoming.

However, I'm off to San Francisco in the morning and can't wait to try some more new beers. Suggestions encouraged in the comments section. I showed up at my in-law's at 2am last night, and my mother-in-law asked if I brought any beer. I hadn't but a quick trip to the store landed us on Duvel richer, which is good, if a tad young and alcoholic.

Death of Me

It's been a little while since my last real random post.  I've been kind of busy with work and...and, ah who am I kidding.  I've just been sitting around playing with myself as usual.  But that still doesn't excuse me from falling behind with my duties.  As fortune would have it, the perfect random post has just fallen into my lap (don't worry, It didn't get sticky).  A friend of ours just sent us this link this morning and I really felt the need to say something about it.

http://www.barstools.net/booze_death/

If you checked it out, it's one of those internet quizzes.  You know, the kind that based on your answers, it lets you email all your friends what breed of Ewok you’d be.  Well this one is fairly quick and dirty.  Just input your weight, male/female, and select a drink.  When you click finish it tells you how many of that particular drink you'd have to ingest TO DIE.  Just for the record, to kill off this motherfucker, it will take 20 shots of whiskey, 23 glasses of red wine, 22 Appletinis, 26 cans of Yuengling or 23 Mojitos. I didn't bother checking Tequila because I already know I'm legally dead after just two or three.

Now I'm no tea-tottler, as anyone who’s been reading this blog would know, but even I can see that this is a bad idea.  I can see the developers brainstorming session now.

"OK fellas.  We need something new to draw people to our site.  I know, Let's take an internet gimmick that's immensely popular with people in the age range of between 14 and 23, and do one about alcohol.  Better yet, let's do it about how much of a certain drink it will take to kill you.  Our budget is shot so we aren't going to have any scientific data to back it up, but that's OK since we're just going to  grossly over-estimate all the figures anyways.  Jenkins!  How many rum and cokes did you drink that night we all went out to the strip club and you ended up vomiting all over the dancer's snatch?  16?  Ok, let's use that as the benchmark and add 30%.  Oh and fellas, don't forget to make it fun."

I love my booze, and am guilty of recently pushing the system myself.   It's no fun, and I bet I was out of it well before reaching any of the numbers they are giving here.  This website is bad bad bad.  Am I saying take it down?  HELL NO!  They have the right to put whatever crap they want on their site.  I follow Darwin’s thinking, so anyone stupid enough to actually try to drink 23 Appletinis is just doing society a favor and thinning out the herd.

Police officer:   How did he die?

EMT:   From alcohol poisoning. According to the bartender, he drank 18 Appletinis. His friends are all in shock, because some internet site told them he still had 5 more to go before he was in danger of kicking the bucket.

Police Officer:   Ugh...it's a shame to see our youth turning into such degenerates. I mean when I was a kid we'd never dream of drinking Appletinis. That's the sort of thing that would get your ass beat up.

EMT:   I know. What a fucking waste. I've put down 11 shots of Jack in one sitting before, but never pushed the limits much beyond that.

Police Officer:   Well, it looks like I gotta call his family and tell them the bad news. His father is going to be heartbroken over this one.  Such a shame.

EMT:   Yeah, on this kid's casket it's gonna read, "Jimmy Walton 1987 - 2009, Died of Pussy Drinks".

Police Officer:   Haha, when I go, I hope mine just reads "Died of Pussy".

EMT & Police Officer:   hahaha...haha...