take a deep breath and count to ten

think of all the nice places that i've been, like back when i was waging peace against the visigoths i was tutored in the ancient mysteries by a wizened philosoph, learned the polyrhythm of celestial time, wait for the one to come, to get it done, finish the rhyme
but no, seriously, the advice should be to take a deep drink and count to ten. but i guess we don't always have a beer at hand. shame about that. but i feel a little better. i like how the title for the last post lined up just about right, nice unexpected bonus. i also like how i have a variety case of magic hat, but i kind of expected that to still be there after i bought it earlier today. although, who knows, i could have opened a bottle to find the label was wrong, or the beers had somehow mixed like my document. it is also not a case, really, but two twelve packs. at the end of the day, four beers, six of each, thirty bucks. not so bad. except i am still down on hefeweizen. i don't know if i'll ever warm up to wheat beer again. circus boy is a fine hefeweizen, especially for an american one, but meh. i figured i would drink 'em when i was just drinking to have a beer, not to necessarily get real into it. beats pabst by a long shot. and lager. when you consider the fact that a six pack of lager will cost more than six craft brews bought in case form, the answer is easy. i don't know why i thought it would be so tough to carry a case of beer a few blocks. totally worth it. it will be more worth it when i'm drinking other stuff from the case though. number nine of course, and one i haven't had called odd notion. it is apparently some sort of a red ale. could be good or pretty boring. i'll let you know, maybe even later in this post depending on how long i type for. the other beer is the spring seasonal, the hi.p.a. which i believe i have already reviewed in this space after buying a single. if you want to know about it but you don't want to hunt for it in the shitstorm of this blog's archives, let me just say it is an odd one, not enough hops for me, but a pleasant roasty character not typical to the style. magic hat usually fails the authentic to style test, but that is not necessarily a bad thing all the time. i've always respected them, but that is sort of waning as they get their marketing on. it is getting kind of silly, almost like they are the ben and jerry's of beer just cause they're the biggest brewer in vermont. they haven't named beers after people yet really, but a visit to the website reveals what they're up to, especially with this particular variety pack. overall, i guess if their marketing strategy means three dollar pints at jam (man i hate that word but i'd rather call the stuff jammy than hippie) shows at well-known venues, i can't bitch too much.
i'm looking forward to getting some otter creek at the festival tomorrow; haven't had that since i was in vermont. hard to believe that was three and a half years ago. the experience remains a highlight in my memories. makes me wish i had decided to spend my time pursuing activities like that instead of going to law school. i could have worked my same old job and made better use of my free time. now i have a decision between wasting a ton of money on a degree i don't really use or working a job that pays me plenty and gives me no time to spend it. i know things aren't really so simplistic, but it is just one more explanation of how i fucked up.
because now i'm sitting here, with not as much done as i had planned or hoped, but a complete inability to do anymore today. writing used to be my favorite. but i got to write sort of about things that interested me. oh yeah, also grades were not positively correlated to writing like/being a total fucking asshole. furthermore, they never ruined my fridays like this.
so i just cracked an odd notion. it is way better than i had even hoped for. awesome beer, all about the malt flavors, and a malt-centric beer has to go the extra mile to make a believer out me; hops are my main concern most of the time. the hops take a back seat, but they're definitely hanging out in there keeping it bitter. just making sure nothing gets sweet without having a whole lot crazy to say, like a great bass player who doesn't stick her neck out too much. i know this main flavor but i cannot for the life of me pin it down right now. real bready, kinda biscuit-y, a little spicy, got a little rye character going on, but not so much that i would guess they actually used rye malt. oh, yeah, this is excellent. i could happily drink like twelve of these. if you see this beer, get it. let me know what that flavor is. i feel like i tasted it the other day, but i can't remember what it was i ate/drank that contributed. is it ginger lurking in there? i dunno. good chunk of chocolate (named for color not flavor) malt going on too, more than i expected from a beer like this; it has a seemingly stout-like portion of the stuff. end result is something that could pass for a red ale on looks, but one taste and you'd know one scoop of black patent and a couple minor tweaks could have made porter of it. the color is a little deceiving, but i'll be gladly fooled by this brew any time. overall, the beer comes off as really fresh, and i hope that does not decline in shipping, but the sooner you get your hands on it the better. it is so fresh that i feel like i'm at founders and i can throw the shucks from my peanuts on my carpet. when does the band start? well, i feel better about choosing this case for purchase given this beer. as it stood it had been one beer that is good but i could do without, one beer i enjoy thoroughly but never want much of, one beer i really liked that still left me wanting something (unfairly so on my part - too much troegs nugget nectar), and one beer i knew nothing about, which turned out to be one beer i really really dig. might unseat roxy rolles as the best i've had from these guys. this is truly bitchin, a lot going on in a style that is usually a little too straightforward. people label the typical examples "good session beers" but i would way rather session on something that has a twist to it most of the time, personally. if fat tire were a kid, it would grow up to be odd notion. i love fat tire, and that is a beer that has more going on than you'd expect too, which is how it made a name for itself, but this just seems like a more realized and fulfilled iteration. the label on the odd notion includes a really small figure riding a bike. subtle dig? now i'm just reading too much into beer labels.
the cats were just wrestling, then switched to just licking each other. now they're holding still but whenever either moves they are wrestling again. they are so pretty and so little. they quit doing that a while ago and i stopped typing, but now one was hanging out in the room with me. he stayed gamely through three powerful sneezes, but he fled in absolute terror at the fourth one for some reason. they got to say hi today to the stange neighbor who lent me the carrier for straw. she is moving out, but she was really excited to see me. she wanted to know if i could help her out by keeping an ancient computer monitor in my apartment because she was worried that when she moved out they would lock her door (probably won't happen knowing the landlord). it was not a problem, and i told her as much, and so she went and got the monitor. i am thankfully not here all the time, and she realized this and said she needed my number. after a brief search for a pen, i started to recite the number. before i was even finished giving it, she suggested she could just leave the monitor in the small hall/landing area that only our apartments are on. no one but us ever really goes up there, and she was already planning on picking it up tomorrow. so after this awkward drawn out interaction, we concluded it was unnecessary. i know it isn't really a funny story, but i just kind of wanted to attempt to convey how odd the whole thing was on its own, without being there or knowing her. i do wish her all the best; she understands cats, living with them, and accepting their prettiness fairly well. but beyond that, she is a person who has lived a principled and tenacious life. i believe knowing a neighbor is not what it once was. sometimes it is difficult to pick apart projections into the past, especially the relatively short history of this particular country.
neighbor is a loaded term to anyone who has even a baseline understanding of either testament of the christian bible. i wish i knew something about how it translates in other languages. neighbor is a highly social concept and so i would imagine it varies greatly from culture to culture and hence in linguistic terms as well. get your hermeneutics on.
i am currently listening to sgt. pepper's lonely hearts club band. my feelings toward the album itself are entirely positive, but the feelings i have for one bill born are thoroughly mixed. i am pleased that he took reasonbly good (god dammit law school) care of his records, and he had decent taste, but i wish he hadn't felt the need to thoroughly label every piece of every element of whatever packaging a piece of vinyl included, along with the actual thing. i have this one from bill born, another beatles record, and something else really good i do not recall right now. if i don't have a post-revolver beatles record, i will prefer playability over all else. that strategy landed me a copy of the white album including the famous four photos, one of each one of them. without bill born's esteemed autograph, mercifully.
my current setup tends to emphasize ringo's cymbal work (a.k.a. the speakers are pretty crappy), but i'm glad to hear it. ringo's drumming in general came up in a really good interview i read earlier today (it is fine if you don't click because you have better things to do or whatever, but if you passed it up because you read the site before you clicked the link, double indemnity on you). musicians are usually marginally better than athletes when it comes to being articulate, but this was pretty impressive. the guy will have played with three really excellent this year before it is even half over. and he actually has some thoughtful things to say about music. there's a little more background info than anyone out there probably cares for, but when you get a few paragraphs in things start to get worthwhile.
well, i didn't finish this in any way last night so i didn't post it, but i have to actually work on something important now, so this is it for now. today has kicked off pretty awesome, with some 888 number calling and waking me up at 8 and a small child screaming like forty minutes later made sure i didn't get back to sleep. excellent. oh well, i'm going to a beer festival.