…for they are all there but one – I, Ardenstone – Last of the Students.

21. December 2006 · Comments Off on …for they are all there but one – I, Ardenstone – Last of the Students. · Categories: Me, Me, Me, Me

While my fellow MBA students are rejoicing in being done with classes, I am grinding out one last gigantic project. Our adviser sent out a, “congratulations on finishing, now enjoy your holiday!” note that about caused me to jump out my window in exasperation. If you are contemplating being a full time student at an MBA program, especially any MBA program that considers itself somewhat competitive, let me let you in on a little secret: you will have no life until you are done. You see, there’s this thought that some of the value of an MBA program is to test, push and develop your time management skills. One of my professors described this as, “giving you more work than you can possibly do on your own.” Now, this isn’t because it’s hard work, although there is a lot of challenging material, especially if you’ve never taken statistics and haven’t thought about economics since high school (<ahem>). It’s simply that the mass of work thrown at you is intentionally vast. Consider yourself warned.

As such, when you do show up to your first semester all happy and positively oozing with confidence and eagerness, for the love of all things holy do not take an extra class. My girlfriend barely knows who I am anymore. It’s a good thing I have no friends in this city, because I certainly couldn’t meet with them on any regular basis. One of the main reasons for this is that my extra class (yes, the one you really, really shouldn’t take) was a web design class that I enjoyed a lot. More than the vast majority of my MBA classes, frankly. This isn’t a huge surprise, I’m a computer nerd so this is sort of what I do. However, it was also a ton of work. The professor had no difficulty in assigning lots and lots of practice, all of which I think is the best way to learn these skills and none of which I really had time for. Especially the last project, which consists of a website either built from the ground up or re-designed, a paper discussing what choices were made and why, and a presentation. The site is done, and I just finished the first draft of the paper. All 52 pages of it. For a three credit class on top of my “real” classes. Midway through the semester, I heard that 10 credit hours was full time. I later heard that 9 graduate credit hours is considered full time. I’m taking 19. This is why I am a complete moron.

For those of you with free time to do things like read and listen to music, I recommend browsing Pitchfork’s Top 50 Albums of 2006. I’ve only looked at the top 10, and have already realized some bands I like actually put out new albums recently. I’m going to listen to so much good music. In 2008.

Christmas time is here…

16. December 2006 · 7 comments · Categories: General

Christmas tends to sneak up on me anyways, but in the warmer, sunnier climate of San Diego, combined with me being heads down buried in schoolwork for the last few weeks, it’s been startling to see Christmas lights up at houses. Still, it was pretty cold and rainy today, so it was as close to December in Ohio as it’s been. The morning and early afternoon were a delightful few hours spent with friends who were in town. It was fun to see them all, and just hanging out in a coffee shop and over sushi was a wonderful break from schoolwork.

Later in the afternoon, we tried to get in the Christmas spirit. By “we” I mean Christy, Bryan and Amber who came together at our apartment and made Christmas cookies. And by “Christmas cookies” I mean like 200 of the things. I can’t believe how many sugar cookies and buckeyes (much less the mint-chocolate-chip-brownie-cookie-things) were produced in a span of 5 hours. Of course, I spent the time working on my website assignment for one of my classes, but I enjoyed the Christmas Music (I have a several hour mix left over from previous years when I used to throw a holiday cocktail party. That was back when I had 1) a house 2) time and 3) disposable income) and munching on a few tasty cookies. It still doesn’t feel quite like the holidays, but it was fun to have a house full of friends, music and good food while the rain came down on a grey day outside. Merry Christmas everyone!

The Frosting Station

(and for those counting, we’re up to 5 rainy days now. I fear it’s about to increase dramatically)

tastes like… burning (out)!

13. December 2006 · 1 comment · Categories: Linky · Tags: , , , , , ,

it is difficult to study when all one really wants to do is sleep or play Winterbells.

update the next day – while I stand by the above statement, and am fully convinced that this semester is exactly two weeks too long, even if you’re not completely zoned out, Winterbells is a really neat game. Orisinal is a pretty site, and hosts a lot of small, simple games with beautiful graphics in soft, pastel colors. Most of the games don’t do a lot for me, but I love that they’re taking video games in a different direction, and all the games show the results of being lovingly crafted with wonderful attention to quality. Winterbells is the first game I find really entrancing. Guiding the bunny as he hops from bell to bell can feel a bit like flying at times, as the snow flakes turn to stars and the music continues to drift in the background. I am reminded of a friend of mine describing how she sometimes had lucid dreams where she would be able to guide herself as she flew through whatever dream city or scape she encountered that evening. I love that image.

Anyhow, a game is fairly quick, with a decently long one running less than two minutes. Give it a try, I think you’ll like it. If you’re the competitive type, my high score is 33,283,440 (because what experience can’t be codified by numbers these days?).

Pisco Sour

08. December 2006 · 1 comment · Categories: Cocktails · Tags: , , , , , , , ,

This is theoretically a bit of a trendy drink these days, but I hadn’t heard of it until National Repeal Day when I noticed it floating about the internets. Christy sent me to BevMo tonight to pick up some wine. Sending me unsupervised to a liquor store with decent selection is a poor financial decision, but I managed to contain myself to just picking up some Pisco. It’s an interesting spirit, it’s actually a brandy based on muscat grapes and has a fairly unique flavor. Not something I need to drink straight, but I had purchased it for a Pisco Sour anyways.

DeGroff’s recipe:

Pisco Sour

1½ oz. Pisco Aba
3/4 oz. Fresh Lemon Juice
1 oz. Simple Syrup
Several drops of Angostura Bitters
One Small Egg White

Shake all ingredients (thoroughly!) with ice and strain into a small cocktail glass. Sprinkle a few dashes of Angostura Bitters on the foam created by the egg whites.

Ok, the thoroughly bit is my addition, but it’s important. Do your hands hurt? If you pause do you see layers (plural) of ice on the shaker? Ok, you’re almost done. You need to destroy the egg, and in the process produce a foamy drink to float the bitters on.

I often enjoy DrinkBoy’s take on cocktails, and I actually made his first before trying DeGraff’s. DeGraff has a lot more simple syrup and bitters in it, which rounds out the drink and keeps the Pisco from being quite so vocal. I liked it better, and so did Christy, so that’s what is posted above. Finally, a tragic admission, I didn’t have fresh lemon juice which means I used that crap out of a plastic lemon and it’s blatantly obvious in the drink itself. Do yourself a favor and use fresh lemon juice.

The drink is fun, and the egg whites give it an enjoyable texture. The bitters form a nice, orange-brown color, and the bitters and Pisco end up giving it a different flavor up front than at the end. It certainly seems like a summer drink, which perhaps makes sense given its Peruvian (or Chilean, depending on who you ask) origins. I’d love to muck with it and a fresh lemon, although after making two I ended up using more fake lemon “juice” to play with the Combustible Edison mainly due to the fact that it’s fun to play with fire. That and I love me the Campari.

Variations at:
The Art of Drink
DrinkBoy
DC Drinks
and, of course, Wikipedia

Update: picture of the Pisco Sour (v.1)

Pisco Sour I

Happy Repeal Day!

05. December 2006 · Comments Off on Happy Repeal Day! · Categories: General · Tags: , ,

In an earlier comment, AE alerted us to something so important it warrants its own post: today is Repeal Day. I would have posted this much earlier, but I just read her comment and had no idea this fabulous holiday existed until now.

Repeal Day - December 5th

As has been said before, sometimes there’s a man… I won’t say a hero, ’cause, what’s a hero? Sometimes, there’s a man. And I’m talkin’ about Jeffrey Morgenthaler here – the man who realized that prohibition was repealed on December 5th, 1933 and decided it was an event worth drinking to.

Here’s to you, 21st amendment.

PS: Why I miss living in London.

Happy Birthday from my Mother

02. December 2006 · Comments Off on Happy Birthday from my Mother · Categories: Me, Me, Me, Me · Tags: , , , , ,

My mother makes wonderful homemade cards. This one arrived today featuring somewhat younger versions of my sister and I. That kid on the right totally didn’t expect to be enrolled in an MBA program on his 30th birthday.

Birthday card from Mom

Happy Birthday To Me

02. December 2006 · 3 comments · Categories: Me, Me, Me, Me, Reviews

A package arrived yesterday with the following label. I was pretty sure what it was, and anything with that text is going to be good:

Alcohol Delivery Label

I had recently ordered a bottle of some of the finest bourbon around: George T. Stagg. It only comes out once (sometimes twice) a year, and my bottle from fall 2004 was almost empty. Once I heard that the 2006 bottling was released (a bit over a month ago), I started hunting around for a bottle. It took a while. Southern California may know a lot about wine, but people here don’t know the first thing about spirits (tequila aside). I keep hoping I’m going to find some store or club or something where civilized folk can pick up a drink, but so far no luck. I struck out totally in San Diego, but ended up finding a place in LA that carried the Stagg. Hi-Time Wine, of course a wine shop, also happens to have an interesting selection of spirits. They carried some of the Stagg, and as a result I opened the box yesterday to see a magnificent sight. George T. Stagg (bottle)

Now, the George T. Stagg is an amazing bourbon for a lot of reasons, and really should be tried if you’re a bourbon fan. I’m no expert, but a few highlights:

  • It’s unfiltered. This means that it can develop a cloudy haze, especially in colder temperatures or when water is added. As a result a lot of whiskey manufacturers have cold filtered for years under the belief that people will much prefer a perfectly clear drink. Unfortunately, this filtration process removes a lot of the particulates which impart a much different flavor to the alcohol. I tend to think the unfiltered whiskeys have a bit more body, a sensation which is hard to describe but nice to drink.
  • It’s cask strength. This means it’s not watered down, or at least less watered down, from the strength it is when it comes out of the cask. Most whiskeys have water added to them, bringing the alcohol content down to closer to 40%. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing as it tends to open the alcohol up and reduce some of the burn. My previous bottle was 65.45% alcohol, which is crazy. This year’s bottling is an even stronger 70.3%. That is a lot of alcohol.

    George T. Stagg (label)

  • Drinking George T. Stagg isn’t just drinking another bourbon. One of my friends described drinking the Stagg as liquid smoke. Christy’s description was, “it’s like a party in my mouth and they just won’t go home!” Drinking the Stagg is an intense, wonderful experience. It tingles up front, and then the heat roars up through your mouth, down your throat and nestles warmly in your stomach.

Since I have a review section, I’ll throw a rating in so it qualifies. The 2004 edition is one of my favorite bourbons, although you do have to be in the mood. If you’re looking for other great bourbons with more reasonable alcohol content you might want to look at Five Roses or Elijah Craig 18 year.

Rating: *****

(I use the spelling “whiskey” throughout this post, which is technically correct since American and Irish whiskeys are spelled this way. Scottish (so tasty), Japanese and Canadian whiskies are spelled “whisky.” I tend to just type “whiskey”, so in this case I lucked out and got it right)