Tag: personal

i’m drinking my beer!

Okay, so I’m a bit early. I’ve only waited two weeks where I was supposed two wait four. But damn, it’s actually beer. When I popped off the top, it made that little hiss noise just like it was supposed to. It smelled like hefewiessen. The taste was good… a bit too hoppy, and not as clove-y or fruity as I had hoped, but it was beer! Leslie agreed. It’s thrill for sure that for $25 I can make five gallons of good beer… actual beer. What fun. We’ll see how it tastes when it’s been through it’s full bottle-sitting time.

I’ve settled into my classes for the semester… I’m taking three, which is one more than even I expected. I thought at first I’d stick to one, but Jonathan persuaded me to stick with my theory class by reminding me that it’s actually not necessary to ace every class you take. So I’m planning on a nice B+ and by the end of the semester, I’ll only have one more class to take for the Ph.D.

In other news, three distinct Wii modchips have been announced. Those of you who know of my video gaming proclivities are no doubt aware that all the other consoles in my life (PS2, Xbox, DS) have been mercilessly soldered into submission to deliver me free games, emulators, media centers and whatnot. The potential to do the same to my Wii brings me joy… I can go back and take a look at some of those Gamecube games I never had a chance to buy (the Gamecube avoided my onslaught by such simple physical measures as having mini-DVDs burned backwards), as well as trying out the new Wii gimmicks without throwing down $50/pop. I’ll be sure to document the debasement of my little white beauty.

beer in bottles, now we wait.

Last night I moved the beer from the carboy (giant glass bottle where it ferments) into the bottles. The beer at this point was totally flat, and very dry tasting, but my book says that’s the way it’s supposed to be so I’m not too worried. The only thing I’m worried about is that it tasted a bit too hoppy for a hefewiesen (which is what I was trying to make) Now we just wait 2-4 weeks for the extra sugar I added to get turned into bubbles by the yeast, and for all the flavors to develop, then we can drink it!

I meant to get cool pictures of the process of brewing and bottling, but I couldn’t find the camera on either occasion. As a consolation I present you with this picture of the beer all wrapped up:

beer in bottles

And for the interested here is my ghetto brewing log:

beer log

batch 1.
brew date: 13 jan 2007

“hefewiezen ale kit”
6 lbs. Wheat dry malt extract
1.5 oz Tettnanger hops 4.0 alpha acid
.75 oz Tettnanger hops
1 whirlfloc tablet
3/4 cup corn sugar

put duct tape on 6 gal carboy marking 1-5 gallons

began heating 3 gal water 11:30
at 12:00 added bittering hops
at 12:30 added irish moss tablet
at 12:55 added aromatic hops
at 1:00 put in bath tub to cool,
added a gallon cold water to wort
at 1:35 was at 80 degrees, funneled into 6.5 gallon carboy, added gallon cold water, put on fermentation lock

21 jan – all sign of foam on top is gone

22 jan, 8pm – bottling

dipped the 24 (new) 12oz bottles

siphoned out of the carboy basically until the top of the layer of sediment, although there was a lot more liquid in there… it seemed like the right thing to do. once it was in the bucket, added 3/4 cup corn sugar
dissolved in 1 cup boiling water (then cooled) for carbonation. Siphoned it into 24 12oz bottles and 12 22 oz bottles, for a total of 4.3 gallons of beer. Seems shy of my 5 gallon recipe, but it could be that I overfilled
the bottles or was too conservative about leaving the sediment in the carboy and lost beer with it.

the semester begins; also, making beer

This was the first week of class in my 6th (!) semester at Berkeley. Here at Berkeley EECS they believe in making grad students take plenty of classes, and I’ve got a few more to get through before I’ll be done. I’m taking one class that’s a full-blown lecture setup, with problem sets, a project, and even a midterm and a final. Yuck… but if I make it through I will have completed my inside minor in “Theory,” and I’ll have just one more class left to take. I’m also in a “reading” class taught by James, which basically consists of reading a paper or two every week and discussing it in a group–much lower work load. If only I could find a theory class that fit that same mold, I’d be a happy camper. I’ve got a paper deadline in April, and also around that time I’ll be giving my quals, which if I pass I will be “ABD” (all but dissertation), very exciting.

Also exciting is the 6-gallon glass jar on the floor in my kitchen that is filled with fermenting beer. Now, lest you think too much of me, brewing beer is not, as far as I can tell, cool to do anymore. No, it’s squarely in that awkward stage between being cool and retro. I know this because whenever I mention that I’m doing it to someone the response is usually “You too?” or “Oh yeah, I used to brew beer a few years ago,” or something along these lines. But ponder this, hipsters: beer for $0.10/bottle in raw materials never goes out of style. My first batch is a wheat beer, which has been fermenting for about a week and is ready to go into bottles. After it’s in there, I’ll have to wait a couple of more weeks before I can try it. I’ll be sure to give a full report, assuming I’m not killed by some super bacteria I’ve bred along with the yeast.

it’s like having christmas twice

We’ve just returned from Christmas in Texas, which we capped off with a Utah ski adventure. It was a complete vacation. Besides exchanging a few emails, I didn’t do a lick of work the whole time I was gone. I did, however, manage to bowl over a hundred (in real life, second time ever). I think I owe a lot more to Marc’s coaching expertise than any intuition gained in Wii bowling. If someday I can make the ball go where I want consistently, maybe I can put that knowledge to use.

bowling scores

Not only this, but I survived three days of snowboarding in Utah with no serious injuries, which for me is always a success. Again I have Marc to thank for conceiving the trip and making our condo a home, and Matt for tackling the logistics of where, when, and how much. Here we are in the tunnel they’ve drilled through the mountain at Snowbird so you can get to the backside without waiting for the Gondola:

snowbird tunnel

And, as if all of this isn’t enough, I also decided not to try to publish my latest research in SIGGRAPH, but to wait instead for a later conference deadline. Which means that instead being greeted in Berkeley maelstrom of stress, I’ll instead be able to ease back into work as is proper after such an excellent break.

if only i could bowl like this in real life

Well, classes for the semester are over. In machine learning, I trained a computer overmind to automatically tell when a DJ starts blabbing on the radio and change the channel. No, really. My last computational geometry homework (if you’re a glutton for punishment you’ll want a look at that, too) went like a great weight being lifted off of my shoulders. I’m working full time on tetrahedra these days, and I hope to even have some pictures for you soon.

I bowled 216 today in Wii bowling. Four strikes in a row at one point. It turns out that Marc’s excellent advice to “shake the hand of the head pin” works in the virtual world. If only I could translate my skill with pixels to the real thing. You should see the spin I can put on it.

In a week we leave for Christmas festivities in Texas, which include a lot of quality time in Dallas, some wedding-related festivities, and, after the new year, some skiing in Utah, which should be fun. I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a lot more skiing in my future, as my parents are looking into picking up part of a condo that my uncle owns just down the street from Winter park. Amazing.

This is the calmest I’ve been at this time of year since I started at Berkeley. Why? Because I probably won’t have a SIGGRAPH submission (due late January), and even if I do, it will be on my terms and the fruit of a project I really love. Also, I picked up a (virtual) 6-4 split–Leslie as my witness–and that alone should keep a smile on my face for weeks.

and wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii…

Yes, you heard right. Just as I had resigned myself to waiting until after Christmas to get my mitts on a Wii, one of the three most coveted toys this holiday season (along with the PS3 and, of course, Tickle-me-Elmo EXTREME). I thought about preordering it, but decided I wasn’t that hardcore, then wistfully watched as reports of the launch yesterday came in, with happy new Wii owners from coast to coast exultant.

Then I got to our usual Sunday dinner yesterday, and after the excellent home-cooked German fare, Doug laid a pleasantly heavy and large box in my lap, with a tag inscribed “Briian.” I totally missed the joke, but soon I didn’t care as I cradled in my arms my very own Wii (every sentence with that word just begs to be made into a joke…). It turns out that Doug had mobilized the troops, returned early from his excursion to Monterrey, and gotten people in three distinct lines at three distinct stores, rising at 5am to make it there for openings. In the end, it went off without a hitch (as most things researched by Doug tend to), and they landed three distinct Wiis (why not? plenty of other people in the friend group wanted one…), but most importantly I got mine. It was a joint present from Doug, Phil, George, Ali (way out in MI), and Jeff.

We got some great pics of people playing, best of all though is this movie of George boxing virtually. Also included with my Wii is the new Zelda game, which has arrived to universal acclaim. This is good because I just got done beating Final Fantasy XII (yup, they lied again about the last one being final… I don’t trust them this time either). I’ll let you know how it goes.

One other key feature of the Wii is the ability to build little models of yourself and your friends, so you can play sports and whatnot with an accurate virtual likeness. They’re called (wait for it) Miis. Even though Ali couldn’t be there with us, we brought him in virtually:

ali's mii

Isn’t that a spitting image? I think so. Click the above link and check out the nearby pics for more hot Wii action. I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of getting toys for my birthday. I think there is some requirement that when writing about the Wii, you must make some sort of pun in the headline. So I went with an old favorite, in case you were wondering.

swimmer’s hair

I’ve been in a swimming class at Berkeley all semester. It has been awesome overall: great exercise in a group with an enforced schedule in a beautiful solid-marble pool overlooking campus. It has a few drawbacks, though. Because the pool is outdoor, it has a huge amount of chlorine in it, which gives me the aroma of chlorine for about 2 days afterward, no matter how hard I scrub, and has also destroyed my hair:

bryan's swimmer's hair

My initial plan was to shave it all off. I mean, what’s the point of getting a fancy haircut if it’s just going to turn into muppet fuzz anyway? So, I ordered a set of clippers off Amazon with the full intent of finding out what shape my head really is. Things took an unexpected turn, however, when Leslie turned out to be a very competent stylist and managed to recreate a decent haircut on the floor of our living room. The master at work:

leslie cuts hair

So, now not only do I still have some hair, but I just discovered that I’m marrying someone who can do a decent job of cutting my hair. Woo! Free haircuts for life. That is all.

The greatest song ever?

This weekend I set my self the task of finally, conclusively merging my music collection with Leslie’s. All told we’ve got about 11,500 tracks unique tracks, though it did take me most of the day to determine what parts of collections overlapped and which didn’t.

The ways we have come by our music differ drastically. I actually started with my collection of CDs (remember them?). I owned about 250 of them when I got to college and heard about MP3s. I spent my first winter break carefully ripping them all, with nice, uniform tags and metadata. I started to accumulate more music through swapping, mostly with people as careful as myself. Years went by, and I had my beautifully cared for collection, complete to a fault (why not have the complete Scorpions discography? I liked “Rock You Like a Hurricane”).

Then there was Leslie. In the free music orgy that was the honors dorm, she cherry picked the very best songs her friends and napster (and, later, limewire) had to offer. Unfortunately these little orphans didn’t come meticulously packaged like my music–sometimes the tracks weren’t tagged at all! So, I’m currently going through the merged collection, trying to repair all the songs with partial information. This must be done, for archival purposes, you see. Never let us forget that Sir Mix-a-lot’s classic “Baby Got Back” was issued on his 1992 masterpieceMac Daddy.

I have to share with you one song I found. The file name of the song is (all spelling lovingly preserved):

Dave Mathews Band, Phish, Guster, John Popper, Bela Fleck, Vic Wooten, Santana, Peter Greisar, Butch Taylor, Rusted Root, and Ben Harper – Two Step (live, rare).mp3

Sounds pretty amazing, huh? The song, when played, is the original version of the “Who’s the Boss?” theme.

the rigors of academic life

The fall semester is now in full swing. I’ve managed to stick with two of three of my intended academic classes (Machine Learning! Computational Geometry!). Problem sets have not hit yet; I predict they will begin to deal their damage in the middle of next week.

I upgraded my self one level of hardcore-ness in swimming to a class that is also earlier in the morning. The dull ache throughout my upper body serves as a reminder of labors past. The setting for the class really couldn’t be better, though: it’s at Hearst pool, an open air, second-story pool with a solid marble deck that looks out directly over rolling green hills of campus toward the bell tower. This has the pleasant effect of making me feel like I’m in some movie from the 1950s about social challenges facing kids today set against the backdrop of the swimming team that brings them all together. Come on, you can hear the voiceover.

Yesterday Les and I went for some retail therapy at IKEA. Our main intent was to replace the rug in our living room which, while rug-like and on the floor, satisfied virtually no other requirements as far as cleanliness, tastefulness, etc. We failed mostly in this endeavor, mostly because of our stinginess, but generated many incidental purchases that brought them that classic American feeling of comfort that can only come from consumer goods. I got a little shaving mirror attached to one of those scissor-arms, and we got several random things for around the kitchen that we simply can’t wait for our wedding guests to buy for us.