Category: top five

New year pomp often requires resolutions. Because of mine, I’ve had to come to terms with some of the things I want to do but probably shouldn’t in the name of time. (damn you, time!) These 5 things I really want to do, but probably won’t:

• Create a blog of the sandwiches I’m eating. Silly, but useful. How else would I remember that roast beef, cream cheese and barbeque sauce on dark rye is good?
• Get Spatialoddity.com going. this bums me quite a bit because it’s a project I’ve been wanting to do for some time. I own the domain, installed drupal, got a logo, now I’m waiting.
• Ride in the Seattle to Portland again. It was fun, I’d love to do it again. We’ll see what happens
• Go to NYC. I’ve been digging Man Made Lake, the blog of a recent transplant from Portland that I occasionally had beers with at FOG events. His photos and posts really make me yearn for exploring urban settings. I should start by doing that here, I suppose, which would also be on this list
• Finish this list. There are plenty of things to add, and somehow I’ll probably manage to work on bits of each of these in frantic “free” moments.

September is probably my favorite month, though it’s not been as much fun the last couple years because of the chaos of working at a school that starts in late September. Regardless, I need to post again and I haven’t done a top 5 category in like 5 years. So…

1. Oktoberfest
2. ideal weather
3. Welcome, Autumn
4. My birthday
5. Fresh Hop Ales

Yeah, so number 3 is huge, but I don’t want to split hairs. July in Portland is most excellent, but September has (well, had) a better cadence.

I love magazines. Pictures, articles and more. But there are 5 (or more) things I can’t stand about them:

1. Subscription cards – clearly I’ve already subscribed. And they force you to flip to some unimportant page. I tear them out first thing.
2. Advertisements that contradict the ethos of the magazine. My sister gets Jane, and its full of them. But even National Geographic has plenty.
3. Advertisements. I know you need to get paid, but how much? I’m already paying for a subscription…
4. Paper – they’re such a big user of paper and petrol-based inks.
5. The subscription department – do they ever get things right the first time?

I guess these are just all artifacts of the for-profit model. Is that why Adbusters is so much more enjoyable?

My contributions to the culinary world include (and are pretty much limited to):

• Smartground vegetarian Sloppy Joes
• Stout and Sriracha Bratwurst
• Ham flavored IPA
• A few one-of-a-kind sandwiches (i.e. spaghetti, salsa, cheese and pepperoni wraps)
• Artichoke, green chili and Jalapenos dip (I added the hot peppers, which I’ll count as a contribution in the loosest sense of the word)

Its painfully obvious that I’m a culinary dunce. Most of my work has been with sandwiches and leftovers.

I’ve spent nearly 2 hours trying to decide on what to get with the iTunes gift certificate I received for christmas. I’m having a hard time committing because most of the albums I really want aren’t actually on iTunes. I do take some pride in saying that, yes, but I’m kind of disappointed. Not much MFDoom/Mad Villain, nothing from The Duo, lots of partial albums and a surprising bulk of lame jazz. I’d like to buy recent music but so much of it just isn’t appealing to me. I keep flipping between allmusic and iTunes. I wish iTunes had tabbed browsing. The navigation don’t really let you explore without losing your tracks.

So here’s my current top five potential purchases.

1. The Reverend Horton Heat – Revival or Lucky 7
2. Redman – Muddy Waters
3. Bob Dylan – Nashville Skyline Remastered
4. Mos Def – The New Danger (despite the poor reviews)
5. RJD2 – Since We Last Spoke

updated as opinion changes…

I actually meant to post this with the other lists, but had a difficult time deciding. This list fluctuates quite often, and is really a mood, meal, atmospheric dependent list.

My 5 favorite Ales:

It was a difficult batch of choices. Those who know me know what a feat this is.