“What now, then? I can only really say for myself: Enjoy who I am, the talents and the liabilities. Stop acting careless. In fact, care more. Be vulnerable but stay away from where it hurts. Read. See more shows. Of any kind. Rock shows, art shows, boat shows. Create more art. Wear hoodies to dinner. Carry a notebook and hand it to people when they passionately recommend something and ask them to write it down for me.

And when it’s all over, whether at the end of this fabulous career or of this life, which I hope takes place at the same time, I should look back and say that I had it good and I made the most of it while I was able. And so should you.”

It’s definitely worth reading the whole post as it adds some context, but this particular bit really hits home. Go off and be good!

Those days it was easy to say what music I liked, and because of the potential threat of being labeled a “poser” I was always ready to list them off. Since then a lot has changed, and I listen to so much music that I’m always left mouthgaped with a dumb grin on my face when someone asks what I listen to.

Well a few weeks ago I put together a muxtape which forced me to select 12 songs and assemble them into a playlist. It was pretty hard, but I’m really happy with the result. Even though the songs don’t represent the full spectrum of what I listen to (this mix tends to be lots of hard beat, electronic, and hip hop) I think I’ll just point the next person who asks to rett.muxtape.com.

And for people looking to explore some new music, I’ve had way more luck listening through random muxtapes then I ever have with pandora or last.fm’s stations. So go listen!

1. I shaved my head, bye bye faux hawk
2. I stayed up for 37 hours with Team Clockwork at the f1 web challenge (I’m in the background in this video!)
3. My friend Kyle launched Typesites and I wrote a review
4. I finally gave in to nerd peer pressure and switched from Dreamweaver to Coda and I started using an ergonomic mouse that looks more like a joystick
5. My friends Amy and Kase had a baby, and Russ and Nickie are soon to follow.
6. Over 50 people showed up for Brew52’s first official meet up at the Herkimer where we sampled Alt Bier
7. Two people searched for “dirty feet slut” and one person searched for “jiggling pissing pee pants” and all three ended up on BusTales.com
8. My friend Erin started a local restaurant review blog “We Got Served“
9. My friend Caleb bought a motorcycle (a yamaha maxim) and rode it down a bicycle path without a license
10. Ben’s ankle turned into a purple cankle and lost us the volleyball match

At it’s core, Brew52 is a celebration of Minnesota beer. Anyone can join in on the fun, just use the form on my contact page or send an email to rett at brew52.com to let me know you’re interested. One of the great things about Brew52 (aside from drinking beer) is that people are encouraged to discuss and rate beers however they feel comfortable and that is making for some very entertaining reviews.

During the first week Brew52 participants sampled Schell Snowstorm. Snowstorm is a seasonal beer by August Schell Brewing and interestingly, no two years are alike. This year Snowstorm was inspired by the Monastic beers of Belgium, and participant Jason DeRusha seemed to speak for many when he said “It’s slightly sweet, and kinda darkish, and I think it’s not bad. It’s like seeing a nice snowstorm, but then it turns rainy, and in the end, it’s a little gross but a little okay.” Read his full review here.

The second official Brew52 beer was Gluek Honey Bock, which received some pretty harsh reviews until participant Barrett Chase reminded us that, “This beer was never intended to be sipped, sampled, savored, or paired with any kind of food unless the food came from a gas station. This beer is made for drinking, preferably in large quantities, and not from a glass, either.” Read his full review here.

Since then we’ve sampled Flat Earth Belgian Pale Ale, Surly Furious, and are currently reviewing Summit Winter Ale for week 5. Then for week 6 we will be holding our first official meet-up at The Herkimer to sample their Alt Bier and hang out. Check out the Facebook Group if you want to learn more about this event and future meet-ups.

I also want to take a minute to thank everyone who is participating, supporting, or has helped spread the word. I have to admit that I was totally overwhelmed at the response. In just the first couple of weeks there were over 80 registered users and we’re currently at 120! It’s been a learning experience for me as I’ve contacted local breweries and liquor stores to ask for their support. Special thanks to the following:

• Carey at Summit Brewing
• Tyler at Zipps Liquor Store
• Joe at Heritage Liquor Store
• Jim and Taylor at Flak Radio, listen to the podcast!
• Ben and Erin for programming help and photography respectively

Beer in a pumpkin
I was talking with my good buddy Dan “Utah” Lallensack tonight and he mentioned that he’d read about a guy who had brewed beer in a pumpkin. After we got off the phone he sent me the link to this guy’s flickr set showing the process. I’m impressed. My favorite quote from his comments:

“I’ve got to say that it’s renegade daredevils like you who are the reason beer was invented in the first place.” - ben effin smart

Musty Nut Brown Ale
The first official Clockwork homebrew was a success. It was a nutty brown ale that I dubbed the ‘Musty Nut’ Brown Ale. I didn’t have a chance to make labels but I did sketch out a rough logo on a post it note that I stuck in the fridge at work along with the bottles. Photo courtesy of Sharyn.

Me as Dude Weather
Finally, here’s a photo of me dressed up as Dude Weather for Halloween at work. If you haven’t seen Dude Weather yet, I strongly suggest watching the entire series. It’s brilliant. And I’ve really been enjoying the site it’s on as well: Daily Mole.

I should also mention that there are obviously circumstances when pleated pants are ok, or unavoidable. For example, most suits and tuxes come with pleated pants. And I’m sure some people can pull them off, and at some point they’ll be cool in a weird retro way, but for now, they’re not cool, and a general rule of thumb is to avoid them if possible.

In an effort to spread the word, I purchased the domain name PleaseNoPleats.com. For now it’s just a placeholder image, but what I’m envisioning is a page that briefly explains that pleated pants suck, and allows the visitor to forward the url onto a friend or family member who wears pleated pants. Here’s a screenshot

If you have any ideas on how this site could be cooler, or if you want to argue that pleated pants are cool, then please comment away. But if it’s the latter then I expect to see a photo of you (or someone) in pleated pants, looking cool.

Flights
Leave Wednesday come back Sunday - $516/person = $1032
Leave Wednesday come back Monday - $455/person = $910
Leave Wednesday come back Wednesday - $361/person = $722

Driving
1,319 miles each way, averaging 28 mpg at $3/gallon would cost us a total of $282. It would also take about 20 hours each way.

So the verdict is in, we’re roadtrippin it unless we can find a cheap flight last minute. Take that stupid airlines! The other interesting option we now have is the ability to bring Dugan along…hmmm, gotta think about that one a bit more.

P.S. I found NWA.com’s search 3 days before and after option (pictured below) to be extremely helpful in examining flight prices.

So we are currently working on a Summer Weizen, recipe courtesy of The Beer Recipator. We bought the ingredients at Northern Brewery in St Paul and Dan was blown away by all of the grains and ingredients they offer…obviously far superior to the offerings of Wisconsin.

Last time I brewed beer was right after I got the kit for Christmas 2005 I brewed a nutty brown ale, here’s a picture of us enjoying the end result, or check out this picture from the beard contest where I’m showing off me bottles.

One thing I’m enjoying much more about this round of homebrew is the company…Dan has been filling me in on several rules of the trade, mainly that while home brewing you must:

1. also drink beer
2. listen to music, Dan suggested Justin Timberlake
3. surf the internet or play games…obviously I’m choosing internet
4. and hold the muslin bag of grain up to your tongue like it’s a sac

All of these things make the process much more enjoyable.

1. Diagonal Guides - currently you can only drag guides along the x or y access. I’m not sure exactly how you would do diagonal guides, but they’d definitely help when trying to create something with perspective.
2. Search filter - my files end up have hundreds of different layers, and if I’m working fast I don’t organize them but I might now the name of the layer. So if I could just type a search, similar to how you do in apple mail or itunes and it would show only the matching layers that would save me a lot of time.