FlaSoxxJim

QUOTE (Brian @ Sep 10, 2009 -> 03:39 PM) Whenever I would meet someone like that, I never wore what I told them I was going to wear. That way, if I didn't find them attractive I could just leave without being detected and if I did find them attractive I could just say, "Sorry I'm not wearing what I said I would. I spilled some sode on my shirt." Or something like that. That is totally brilliant. You Dog!

Totally just 5-star'd Paul's bass line on LSD on Hard. Going to run through the set before going Expert, but I'm loving playing these bass tracks.

Lifeblood not so much for an Odontocete such as Physeter macrocephalus. Sperm whales are more into biger prey like Architeuthis (giant squids), and they leave the krill to the Mysticetes, aka the baleen whales. I can add first-hand accounts to the unreal communal experience that was winter smeltfishing in Chicago. Some nights it was eclectic enough to be our own little Burning Man festival.

Just smelt fishing from the seawall at Burnham Harbor in the Winter back when I lived in Chicago. Good times, good eats, and considerable drunkenness as I recall.

Humu­humu­nuku­nuku­āpuaʻa, the Hawaiian reef trigger fish, has only the second longest name for a Hawaiian fish. It means "triggerfish with a snout like a pig", which is pretty cool I guess.

QUOTE (G&T @ Sep 11, 2009 -> 12:56 AM) Yesterday I found myself a Smuttynose Baltic Porter at the bottle shop. Cracked it open tonight and I'm finishing off the bomber as I write. Smuttynose is a great brewery which comes out of New Hampshire. It's sold in the Northeast exclusively (I think). Some of their finery includes Old Brown Dog and Really Old Brown Dog which are English "old ales", and their Scotch Ale, which is a favorite of mine, though tough to find fresh. In any event the Baltic is supposed to be one of their finest. This is essentially a stout, if there is a real difference between porters and stouts to begin with. There's a lot going on here. Raisins and port along with coffee and chocolate. This one is really a great porter/stout. Highly recommended. I'm actually drinking from a Smuttynose pint glass at this very mo'. Drinking a rum cocktail rather than beer, mind you, but it should still count for something. We started into a conversation about certain beer brands that don't weather the ravages of time and/or mishandling well, and Smutty is absolutely one of those in my experience. I haven't had their porter or their Scotch ale, sadly. Smuttynose has a connection with Shipyard in the person of brewmaster/brewery planner Alan Pugsley. And, a lot of the Shipyard products suffer from the same instability issues imo. Shipyard's Old Thumper, at it's best and freshest and most unbruised, is as authentic and rewarding an English-style beer as I've tasted from a US brewery. Past it's prime or manhandled along the way, it's a thin, barely drinkable cardboardy mess. And down here it's 50/50 whether you'll get Jeckyl or Hyde. I'd absolutely turn more people onto that beer if I could count on some product consistency. I hate telling someone they need to check out a certain beer when there is such a high risk of the bottles they find being cr@ppy.

Fish is sorta' my thing, actually, and I'm thoroughly enjoying this detour into reino de los pescados.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Sep 11, 2009 -> 12:40 AM) BTW, in all seriousness, I'm glad to see you chime in here, and I will try not to be a Kaperbolistic ™ asshole. I've mostly stayed away from 'Busterly threads for more han a year now, because getting too impassioned about stuff here was not doing my mental health any good. If I had the stomach for it anymore, this (US heath care) would be where I'd put some heart into a debate (the environmental debates notwithstanding, because I still have the bruises from beating my head against those walls too). Shame on me though, because I'm not going to get overly into the debate over the best of the bad compromises in US health care reform. I'm one of those certifiable whackjobs that believe health should be a human right and not a privilege. That's a majority opinion according to national as well as international polls, but it's sufficient to make me a left-wing extremist in the current political discourse, so it's not worth discussing my fringe viewpoints too much in mixed company.

QUOTE (ChWRoCk2 @ Sep 11, 2009 -> 12:19 AM) Crab is tasty as well with no poisons, just an easier to cook alternative Deaths in humans have been attributed to crabs, both as allergic reactions after consumption or as a septicemia after the skin has been punctured by a crab.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Sep 11, 2009 -> 12:20 AM) People don't go because they are afraid they might actually get stuck for a bill. OH NOES! They have access to doctors now, they just don't want to pay for it. Put them in a government system, now you just paid for it and you just opened up pandora's box. It's always "don't want" to pay for it, and never ever "can't" pay for it on your side of the fence, eh?

QUOTE (Pants Rowland @ Sep 11, 2009 -> 12:04 AM) Totally agree and refuse to get excited...yet. However, what you say about the 2009 Sox was just as applicable to the 2007 Rockies. They were done and written off. They had floundered the majority of the season and everyone assumed the Padres had it in the bag. Then Colorado went crazy. Not saying it is likely here, but if the starting five pitch at their highest level while the improved defense continues to hold steady,...ya never know. Who the hell are the starting five these days, anyway?? Kidding. Mostly.

QUOTE (Disco72 @ Sep 10, 2009 -> 11:53 PM) If Psych is a "soft" science, I can't imagine what my field (Strategy/Entrepreneurship) is... (there's a joke to be made here that I'm too tired to come up with). My wife is a biologist, and she still says what I'm doing isn't a "real" PhD or "real" science, lol! Darn stuck up biologists! I mostly just say stuff like that to make Soxy mad and make the veins in her forehead throb. See? I'm conducting a Psych experiment! Really, how hard is that?!? [/ducks for cover]

QUOTE (The Baconator @ Sep 10, 2009 -> 11:16 PM) My immediate response to that was "yeah, but they were in the super weak NL West"... and then I thought about the Central... And then you think about the 2009 White Sox' ability to piss away any hint of an opportunity all year to make any sort of run at it, and you come crashing back down to reality. There, I have allowed my pessimism to manifest itself in words. The math says we're not done, but the brain and heart both say otherwise.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 10, 2009 -> 11:29 PM) Instead there will be zero disinsentive to go the doctors If you are sick you should have access to a doctor. The failure of many people to accept that this should be a fundamental right for all American citizens is what has me so disillusioned by the whole healthcare reform process, and so disillusioned with the vocal, myopic minority of Americans that feel otherwise.

Again with the snapper, Pants? or are you actually talking about snapper this time and not. . . er, . . . snapper?

QUOTE (Disco72 @ Sep 10, 2009 -> 11:20 PM) Good Lord, you made me count, and that's pretty much where I am too. This should be the last year. Having been there, I feel both your pain. And then there's Soxy, who seemed to cruise through to nearly getting her Piled Higher and Deeper in what seemed like six months or something. Just goes to show you we all shoulda gone to a soft science like Psychology.

Falernum production has taken three days here at Casa de Flaxx. A tad too much ginger heat in what I bottled yesterday (new recipe), so I needed to cut it back with simple syrup. No worries, it leaves me with three bottles instead of the two I intended to make, and I've turned enough people here nto the stuff that I always end up giving away bottles. If either of the two commercial brands sold in the US (Fee Bros. and John D. Taylor) came anywhere near here i probably wouldn't bother. Or, at least i'd be able to taste the commercial products and decide if it's worth the effort. Seeing as I've gotten to the point of making most of my own cocktail syrups, I assume I would still end up doing the same with the falernum. Sweet-tart, complex funky stuff. Lime zest and clove flavors extracted with overprof rum, also usually containing ginger, almond extract, and other savory spices, and then topped up with simple syrup. A very interesting (if sweet) liqueur in its own regard, it's a key "secret" ingredient in scads of classic cocktails. It is also half of the heart and soul of this crazy Corn 'N Oil drink I keep yammering on about. For anybody looking to try making their own falernum at home, there are several very good online recipes. For the lazier types lucky enouh to come across the commercial products, splurge and pick up a bottle. Then get a bottle of Cruzan Blackstrap Rum. Then run home. Then place a single ice cube into a snifter and pour 1 1/2 oz each of the blackstrap and the falernum into the snifter. Swirl, smell, taste, savor, and then wonder why such a phenomenal and perfect cocktail is almost unheard of today. Enjoying the fruits of my labor now. Wish I could upload these flavors for you all the be able to experience. The rum would have made piracy an acceptable line of work methinks.

You know, I had to post again out of turn simply to note that my previous post sailed the ocean blue with Cristoforo Colombo.

Xenomorphs. . . that's what Ripley called 'em.

Bought Beatles Rock Band this evening. Played band style with the kids for a while until they went to bed, and now I'm grooving on the Paul McCartney bass lines. Hands-down this has been the easiest Guitar Hero/Rock Band title to jump right into and 4-Star songs on Hard setting. I don't know how much of that is due to my familiarity with the songs versus the lack of over-the-top stunt guitar work on the Beatles' tunes. Having fun regardless, and the set animation pieces are top notch. Cannot get online access via the wii, and it's the first time I've ever had a problem — maybe there are too many users trying to go online with the new game, i dunno.

I got my job when someone took pity on me after having been in school way too long to ever fully escape, so they pulled me back into academia. Try explaining to a little kid that you are still in school as an adult and basically in the 23rd grade.

QUOTE (BigEdWalsh @ Sep 10, 2009 -> 07:28 PM) Ringo vocals I particularly like are "I Wanna Be Your Man", "Boys" and "Don't Pass Me By". His solo "It Don't Come Easy" was really good too. Priceless Ringo vocals on Good Night as well.

QUOTE (RibbieRubarb @ Sep 10, 2009 -> 03:54 PM) See Spirited Away...one of the best animated films of all time. So I have heard. I'm dying to see it.

Yeah, Rain isn't one of the Paul on drums songs — should have caught that. Paul did lots of White album drums during a stretch when Ringo "quit" the band. Paul also supposedly came up with the great shuffling drum pattern on ticket To Ride (maybe my favorite Beatles drum track), but Ringo played it.

Ugly win with 16 runners LOB.