I have a new favorite beer, or at least in the top 5.
If I had to choose a favorite beer in the past it would be either Beck’s or Guinness. Recently, I wanted to try some Red Hook ESB but I want to buy a single bottle. Safeway only carried six packs. So I finally went to Bevmo. After extensive looking around I found that they only carried Red Hook in six packs as well. At $13-$15 a six pack I did not want to try a new beer and possibly be stuck with 5 extra bottles. Although, I have had Red Hook in the past it was many years ago and I don’t remember the taste.
I did not want to leave empty handed. I really wanted to try something new. I came across the Stone Brewing Company display and read the review cards. Arrogant Bastard Ale looked promising. Excellent choice! Arrogant Bastard tastes as described. It has a refreshing crisp flavor with a nice bite.
To my surprise Safeway also carries Arrogant Bastard, at least for now.
Two other beers I picked up that I enjoy from time to time were Old Rasputin Stout and Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout. Samuel Smith Imperial Stout is in my top 5 of favorites.
The Night of the Living Book Club will no longer meet at Books Inc in Mountain View after the September selection. I no longer work for Books Inc. and communication about dates and times as become difficult. I will discuss with the few participants if there is any interest to continue the club elsewhere. I may continue it on my own at a local coffee shop. If that happens I will make the club bi-monthly. Once a month is just too far apart per book discussion. I am reading 4-5 horror books a month plus at least 2 more of non-fiction topics. Most horror books are not difficult and average 400 pages.
July selection: Urban Gothic by Brian Keene
August selection: Ghost Story by Peter Straub
September selection: Sparrow Rock by Nate Kenyon
I have switched to Google’s Chrome 6.0.453.1 dev as my main web browser of choice from Apple’s Safari 5.0 (6533.16). Safari has been acting up more often recently. It will hang or freeze at seemingly random times. Facebook games do not work well with Safari any more. Getting the spinning beach ball too often with Safari 5 has made the decision for me. Firefox has always been too slow for me, with or without extensions. Safari has been twice as fast as Firefox.
Importing my Safari settings into Chrome was simple and fast. In Chrome tabs are located on the top of the window versus below the bookmark bar in Safari. There are other subtle differences that will be easy to adjust to as time goes by.
EDIT: Chrome imported all bookmarks from Safari but without my folder organization. Import order was as if folders did not exist, not alphabetically. This will make it easier to re-establish some kind of organization. Using six extensions with Chrome does seem to slow initial launch down a few seconds until google reader and gmail indications load, still not a decision to use deal breaker.
A little while ago I purchased a refurbished iMac i7 to replace my aging iMac 20-inch. My last four Macs have been refurbished models. The 27″ screen is amazing. The size allows me to have two full page windows open and viewable at the same time. I only have 4 GB of RAM for now, which should be plenty for what I do, but 8 GB couldn’t hurt.
I initially was using the wireless small keyboard with the Magic Mouse, but have recently changed back to a more traditional set-up. I now use a wired Apple full-size keyboard and a Logitech M500 corded mouse or a Kensington Expert Mouse trackball. I prefer the full-size wired keyboard with number pad. The Magic Mouse works great, nice feel and responsive to Multi-Touch but was a bit twitchy at times on some web sites I visited and would occasionally lose the bluetooth connection. Battery life was not a big deal since I used rechargeable AAs and would monitor remaining charge. But I did grow tired of that and wired components don’t bother me and I never have connection issues.
Current: iMac i7
Past: iMac 20-inch
See a more complete computer history under About tab.
Activation of my new iPhone 4 was extremely easy online through iTunes. I gave my now de-activated iPhone 3G to my father to use as an iPod Touch. He is still new to touch screen technology.
As expected the 4 is much faster than the 3G.
