Things of Stephy

I was burned, burned real bad, and while I’m not a bad actor with a bad script in a bad movie, I suffered like the audience would if I was. Auto save, it ruined my night.

Last night, I spent close to two hours on a post, researching my sources unlike half the sources did themselves, and adding in my own wit and creativeness. It was a combination of working so hard towards the end goal of hitting the publish button, and assumption of the existence of an auto save function based on the first two paragraphs being saved without any action from me. Through actions unbeknownst to me how they actually occurred, it was discovered that this was not the case, assumption made an ass out of just me this time.

Normally, I’m used to Microsoft products and their auto save functions, so has Microsoft made me complacent? Do we all rely too much on the features built into their programs, causing us grief when we use something else, assuming the feature is there too and automatically doing what we usually entrust it to do? Or is it just me?! Should we all take on board a motto or something, such as this wording provided by Steve, a Facebook friend much geekier than me, “I don’t ever trust a machine to do what I ought to be doing myself”.

I think in this relatively lazy world we all live in, we’re not going to be as vigilant as Steve if it’s not something drummed into us early, either by the almost natural sense of reserve the truly geeky and nerdy people have against all programs and applications they haven’t written themselves, or by disastrous downfalls due to losing hard work.

So in the meantime while I’m retraining myself, I’m going to stick to writing my blog posts using my phone’s Notes application, and sending it via email to WordPress. At least Notes doesn’t have a save button, its automatically saved every character I write, and considering the small keys, I often accidentally close the window, but come back to exactly where I was.

Bring on no lost posts!

I read briefly somewhere today that writing just seven hundred and fifty words I think it was is all that’s needed for adequate personal development.  On some levels I think this is a crock, how do they know it results in an adequate result?  Did they do an unscientific study like the New Zealand Herald?  On the other hand, I can see the merits.  I know plenty of people who struggle to make it through the day without putting something into words on paper or screen, I’m one myself.  I don’t always need the written word action, some days verbal is fine.  And I don’t traditionally let it all out via a diary or similar styled blog, its usually done through the course of the day via email exchange with a work mate.  We cover all sorts of subjects, today we bitched about work and coworkers, talked about shoes and clothes, and I introduced her to this gorgeous baking Website I stumbled upon today.  Recently, my birthday in fact, I was given a lovely suede notebook and pen.  Almost a month later, I still haven’t started using it.  I can’t think what to use it for!  I was given it because I’m a notebook freak, have been as long as I can remember.  My mother ventured into my room once as a child, and walked out with a pile of about twenty 3B1s, the kind traditionally used in New Zealand for spelling words.  

I had this awesome system I developed further from the school system, which utilised all those notebooks.  During school, if we spelled a word wrong during the course of creative writing etc, it was added to the word bank at the back of our notebooks.  Every week, the whole class did the same spelling test, and any words wrong for that became our homework words, topped up to ten with ones from the word bank, and put in the front of the book with spaces for parent ticks for each day they tested us at home.  Test day came around and if we missed any that we spent all week learning, they were added to the next weeks list, until we learnt.  My extra home version had it that any I missed while testing at home duing the week got added to the bank in the second notebook, as would any other words I came across out of school.  I remember one year, I wrote down all the countries as they walked in during the Olympics opening ceremony, and any I spelt wrong went into the notebook.  Tell you what, I didn’t know many other nine year olds who could spell Bosnia-Herzegovina!  It ended up that every time I got a word wrong while testing myself, it effectively got added to the list to test on another two times.  If the next time I got it right, I still had to prove it if it came up again.  Repetition, repetition, repetition!  Ooh, repetition is a cool word to enter with predictive text.  

So to summarise, not only am I a freak for notebooks, I was a tad freakishly OCD with learning to spell.  I was given this notebook I have no idea what to use it for, because its too nice, and a gift from someone special.  As I said when I got it, nothing I write is worthy of being in it.  I carry a notebook with me at all times, which holds information ranging to things I need to deal with at work, a to do list for home, doodles, cheats for computer games and other game notes, to medium-short-long term planning, budgeting and packing lists.  I’ve rarely finished a notebook completely, it tends to get to the point where its predominantly focusing on one type of content, case in point family history research, and gets put aside when another one comes along to be the book of all trades.  And the problem I have with the book I’m currently toting round is, because I’ve emptied a lot of the crap out of my shoulder bag, there’s more room for things to move inside.  Where before things were packed in like sardines, now I’ve got gauges out of my notebook from my keys constantly rubbing against the book while I’m walking.  What was once a pretty looking notebook, now looks like its going to fall apart, barely fifteen pages in.  I don’t want that to happen to this new one.  

I’ve tried the whole regular diary thing, both handwritten and electronic, doesn’t work for me, its one schedule I can’t get stuck into very easily and stay stuck.  I’ve got some of my past failures left here on the blog, because it’s something, and some of them I still get a kick out of re reading.  I dunno.  Maybe its the year of change this year, I feel like I’m doing a whole lot of new things, Twitter, which I stayed away from for ages, listening to the radio again, something I haven’t done quite this religiously since I was at school, and I think back to my so called prowess at writing at school, makes me want to do my fair share of personal development that I’ve been neglecting the last few years.

So here I am.  Personally developing.  Bring it on!

The second challenger of the Second Annual West Coast IPA Challenge on July 17, was the not so internetly acclaimed (when compared to Armageddon), Hallertau Maximus Humulus Lupulus.

Hallertau, based in Auckland (as is Epic), again brewed the special edition, the beer Kathi and I didn’t dare pronounce – we ordered it as “the other one, that isn’t Armageddon”. Since then I actually used google and found out that Humulus lupulus isn’t just a funky combination of letters thrown on the table, but the Latin term for a species of common hop. I have so much to learn!

The Malthouse blog has a couple of posts about the IPA Challenge, and one about the other kegs Steve the Hallertau brewer took with him to Wellington for the Challenge.

Not many tasting notes have I been able to find, apart from a few short ones at RateBeer and on the Facebook fan page for the BrewBar stating:

Our new release is Maximus Humulus Lupulus – India Pale Ale… GLADIATOR OF HOPS 6.8% ABV 750ML – THE FIERCELY FLORAL AND FRAGRANT HOP KNOWN AS THE EARTH WOLF BY THE ANCIENTS, HAS BEEN CUNNINGLY TAMED WITH A SOFT, RICH, MALTINESS

Kathi and I took our glass of Maximum Humulus Lupulus after our first Armageddon. One of the first things I noticed was that it had definitely caught up to the Armageddon in terms of the smoothness compared to last years efforts. Unfortunately I was too preoccupied with finishing it to get back to the Armageddon to give it what it was worth. I’m hoping that there’s a 3rd Challenge next year, and that I’ll be much better prepared to do it justice!

Sometime in the first half of 2008, Mike and I were at a tasting, and the question was asked. What’s bigger then Mayhem? The questioner was Luke Nicholas, of Epic Brewing Company, and the answerer, the beer guru extroidinaire, Neil Miller.

Armageddon became the answer. Following on from the Lager, the Pale Ale and Mayhem, Luke took off on a ever cliched quest for MORE HOPS. And this year’s bottle slogan “The answer to everything” being a somewhat subtle head-nod to the quantity of those more hops packed into the half-litre bottle. Incidentally, this year is the first Luke has squeezed this concoction into it’s 42 hop packed bottle, and I’ve yet to find one of the 2000 bottles appear on the shelves in front of me in my quest for it!

This year I sampled a few glasses of Armageddon at the Malthouse on July 17th, as part of the 2nd Annual West Coast IPA Challenge. Dining on this beerly meal with me was Kathi and, uh, Mike Swiney.

We were there for the Armageddon, there’s no denying that, and didn’t fart around in ordering our first sup. Having had a wee agoraphobic related breakdown at the crowds at the 2008 Challenge, I was glad we had got there early and were able to spend a leisurely few hours enjoying it before the after work crowd clocked in. I vaguely remember comparing a few observations of what we tasted and smelt but silly me took no notes, and all I remember is how we both exclaimed “mmmm this is good” almost simultaneosly after the first delicious mouthful.

Others are more descriptive in their experiences with Armageddon, a favourite tasting note I’ve found to date is taken from Highly Hopped:

… Powerful pine scented hop aromas dominate initially then some lovely passion fruit, tropical notes and toffee maltiness come through. Very malty on the palate with hints of caramel and grapefruit with dried citrus rind, smooth toasty biscuity malt and that massive hop bitterness driving full throttle the line and length of my palate leaving lingering bitterness in its wake…
Read all here

Lets not forget the collection of one lined compliments Luke has collected in his post What they are saying about “Epic Armagaddon IPA”, albeit collated from last years release, but I’m confident a few of them still stand this year.

Overall, though all things Epic hold a special place in my heart thanks to the one-mindedness of Mike, Armageddon is a brew that I truly look forward to drinking, and despite the hop content which may turn some away – it’s delightfully smooth and easy to drink. I can’t help but think, what’s bigger than Armageddon, and when does the brewing start?!

After kicking up a fuss at work at not being able to access sites with “beer” in the URL, claiming others get to surf sites about hobbies they pursue, I figured I better start dealing with beer as more of a hobby than an occasional past time! This, coupled with the defection of Mike to the stinky city in the north, and the relationship between the increased cost of previously mentioned tastings and the decreasing standard of the drinks on offer, means that I’m not envisaging many more tastings this year. So, I’m doing it alone.

My most recently made vow is to try 26 different beers before the end of the calendar year, without going to tastings, and tracking my progress here. And I’m starting (slightly) retrospectively, so I can include the 2nd Annual West Coast IPA Challenge, so really, I’m counting the second half of the year. Though, until I become slightly more knowledgeable in giving the illusion of sounding like I know what I’m talking about, I’ll use this space to collate notes and such from around the Internet pertaining to that post’s tipple. I’ll also go as far as to try photograph each sample.

And without further ado – sleep. So I can get started on the catching up another day.

Last night I took a trip back to a favourite place, the Cabinet Room of the Backbencher. Why do I call a bar often full of stuffy political suits a favourite place? The Cellar-Vate Beer Club Tastings!

As usual, I met Mike outside my work and we made the quick mission up Lambton Quay to the Backbencher. As usual, I had to direct Mike to the right door to enter, and as usual, he begged to sit closest to the door. The first thing to differ from the usual order of Cellar-Vate tastings, was the choice of the “compliementary” beer. I put that in quotation marks because we’d just paid $30 or thereabouts, so it’s not really complimentary is it? Usually we’d go for a Macs Gold – Mike’s reason being loyalty, mine being it’s the least shit of what’s on offer. But this time, they’d popped in a Sassy Red as one of the choices, and we both jumped at it. It’s an old favourite of mine, probably the first beer I had when I got to Wellington, except that was when it wasn’t under the Macs label and tasted better.

We, as usual, were one of the first lot upstairs, and ended up having the usuals sit down around us. And, as usual, we started a bit later than when I think we’re meant to start.

Neil, the always funny beer expert of the evening (and the other Cellar-Vate tastings we go to!) has his short but sweet summary of the night over here. But I’m going to do my own right here.

The first beer we were given to taste was Monsoon, Harrington’s brew for Little India restaurants around the country. It was a little bland without having a curry to liven it up, so I personally wouldn’t gloss over it next time I’m offered it, if a curry is offered too. It was one of my least liked of the night.

This was followed by the Epic Pale Ale, with it’s food match of a delicious smoked fish salad. Being Epic, it was favoured by most, and was one of my top 3. I have to admit that I think Mike was too biased when he enthusiastically voted it his favourite, just because Mayhem and Armageddon (also Epic) are also liked doesn’t mean the Pale Ale beats the beer that came next!

Which was The Rogue Hop, a lovely pilsner from Harrington’s. It wasn’t my first experience of this beer, I’d lost my roguehopginity last year in a short overnight stay in Christchurch when I demanded my host Stefan take me to a Harrington’s bottlestore in an attempt to locate Big John, which we’d sampled at the previous tasting and had whet my appetite. The Rogue Hop ended up being my favourite of the night, and disappointedly didn’t have the same reception from everyone else.

Fourth beer of the night was Emerson’s Pilsner. Though I ranked this middle of the pack, it is occasionally a favourite, but I prefer other Emerson’s, such as the 1812 IPA, and the WeissBier.

Following that middling sample, came another of my top 3 beers, a Hefeweizen from Rotorua (a bit odd in itself I reckon!), Croucher’s “The Hef”. I could easily see myself draped unattractively on the floor eating hamburgers after a night on this one! Except the food match provided was the pork belly and cumberland sauce on rice. Without the food match, a lot of the tasters including myself, felt the beer was plain. I believed that without the beer, the pork with a sauce traditionally matched with non-white meat was odd. Together, beer and sauce, was almost a mouth orgasm. But clearly not orgasmic enough to place in the overall top 3 for the crowd.

Next came the beer I was probably most disappointed in, the Nor’ Wester, a pale ale brewed by Dux De Lux. So much potential for me to like it, yet it fell so flat that I can’t remember much of it. It was of this beer that Mike and I constructed a statement.

The length of the sessionability is diminished by it’s lack of quaffability.

The only dark beer of the night followed this, the Invercargill Brewery’s Pitch Black. I was at the tasting where it won (incidently the one where Armageddon was named), but I was too taken with the Big John to remember it from then. For a stout, it’s not bad, and coming from a pilsner/hefeweizen/pale ale fan… you’ve got to take that as being pretty good. Still prefer Big John to it though, and being a matter of personal taste, the Pitch Black featured in the bottom half of my votes. But whilst tasting it, I was given a recommendation from Neil’s partner Courtney that their cider (Nallys’) is pretty darn excellent.

The final beer of the night, the strongest, and the foreignest! The Pauwel Kwak! And the one I struggled to finish yet again, to the point of not giving it a vote on my tasting sheet. The cool thing about this beer is the traditional glass! And the final food match of the night came out with Neil showing his glass stand (missing the broken glass), and despite Anton (Backbencher staffer) uttering that it was a “fucking disaster”, most of the serving platters of the beef and oyster Guinness pie were practically licked clean.

After the licking clean, we retired downstairs to the back bar, and was subjected to the (as usual!) obligatory jug of Hop Rocker by Mike, and bowl of chips by me, before a quick, somewhat sobering walk to the train.

I was up early and on the train into town to do the token cramming at McDonalds, and made my way up to tech at a time I thought things would be open. The building was, but the floor that the library was on wasn’t. I went up to the floor they were doing the exams on, as it was the only one I could get to and filled up my water bottles and took a wizz. I really didn’t want to hang around on that floor, as the morning exam was starting to get it’s early arrivals. But I eventually go to the library and set up camp for cram.

I was really thankful that because of whatever circumstances that hit, that our tutor wasn’t able to post a summary of what was in the exam, and made it an actual posting of the exam itself. It made memorizing the crap that much easier to do knowing where in the exam it was located and in what context. So I made my way through the exam throughout the morning, stopping a couple of times for breathers and food.

About half an hour before the exam, I head up to hang around outside the room the exam was in. The tutor saw me arrive and brought out the results of the group assessment I mentioned in this post. That assessment was fun and hellish at the same time, and we left that day feeling pretty crap about our result, we screwed inflation up to in excess of 30% at one point! But getting the results back and seeing our mark was a big surprise, we must’ve written up our hypotheses etc up great! So teamed with all my other good results, I went into the exam knowing I just needed to get the minimum 40% to pass. I didn’t NEED the marks, but it’s compulsory to get 40% in the final exam to prove worthiness.

The exam went well, considering it was an exam! I followed it up with some relaxation at the library, reading a book that contained captain and passenger logs of the Amelia Thompson and three other ships that landed in New Plymouth back in the day. I’m finding the more I look into the pioneering past of our country, the more appalled and grateful I become. Sure, growing up and visiting places like Tawhiti Museum and Pioneer Village in Taranaki, and even Sovereign Hill in Victoria and ShantyTown on the West Coast, you get a touch of how things used to be back then, but when I was younger, the main thing that got me was all the bloody kerfuffle you had (as a girl anyway!) in getting dressed!

What got me, reading the happenings of the Amelia Thompson, was the length of the journey. Well, not so much the length, as anyone knows that to get from England to New Zealand in the 1840s took a long time! The boat sailed from England in March 1841, took almost six months to get to New Plymouth after stops in Brazil (4 days) and Wellington (2 weeks). It must’ve been an excruciating time for those aboard, especially from July onwards, when New Zealand was first sighted! This excerpt I’ve taken from New Zealand Bound has a bit of detail.

…Sailed from Plymouth, 25th March 1841, arrived 3rd Sept, 1841 under the command of William Dawson

…

This was the second of the 6 ships chartered by the Plymouth Company for the transport of goods and colonists to the newly founded settlement of New Plymouth, New Zealand. She was not engaged in the Australian trade route. The Amelia Thompson crossed the equator on 23 April 1841 but the prevailing south winds carried them far to the west and no progress was being made so the decision was made to break the monotony of the voyage and make for Bahia (Salvador), Brazil. After 4 days of replenishing the ship they sailed east around the Cape of Good Hope and passing through Bass Straight, Australia July 15 finally reached the New Zealand coast 28 July. Five days were spent between being becalmed and stormy weather which would not allow them into either Port Underwood (south) or Port Nicholson (north). Eventually they reached Wellington where they spent two weeks. On 13 August they sailed for New Plymouth but experienced similar conditions, having to shelter in tempestuous weather or were becalmed, reaching their destination 3 Sept. It took 13 days to unload passengers and goods as the ship lay many miles off shore as because of danger from currents, surf and reefs. Some of the longboats arrived in darkness and some were overturned but no lives were lost. It is reported there were 7 births and 7 deaths on the voyage. From there the ship returned to London via Batavia and Madras. 

Imagine spending 13 days within view of your final destination after spending 6 months on a boat (I wonder how leaky it was?). I can only believe that those on board were somewhat relieved through their anxiousness during the stopover in Wellington where they were able to explore the streets, take meals in Thorndon, and see natives for the first time.

It kind of makes you glad that they did all the hard work for us and we have a (somewhat) civilized, cultivated land now.

Now apparently this cool little Last.fm app came from this beauty of a day they called “Hack Day“. Your Next Favourite Band does some kinda awesome investigating of what your neighbors have played, and looks for artists that you’ve not scrobbled plays for, in order to suggest a new band for you to sink your teeth into.

The messages that pop up when it’s doing the search remind me of the Sims et al, with it’s reticulating splines, and there are some gems in there that’ll make you giggle. I did it the other day to give me some ideas, and I’m pretty sure it came up with The Cure. I’ve not investigated that yet, because I then plugged in Mike’s username to see what came up for him. Out spat Fleet Foxes. So I jumped onto their MySpace and had a listen, thought they were pretty cool, and while in the seedy dvd store with Mike, was able to point their CD out to him and tell him they were his new favorite band.

Today I got word that yes, they are pretty much his new favorite band, and he was hoping to buy the CD this weekend. So I believe this is a great little tool for those Last.FM addicts, to really point out those artists that you don’t share with the people who you do share most of your top artists with!

I found someone who found someone who found a java version of the Lemmings game of old!

The best part of those people who dressed up as Lemmings today – was when they had to stop to wait up for some straggling Lemmings, and they did the almost exact stop motions as in the game! The hands up, looking from side to side, and even tapping the foot. Awesome guys, I’m pretty sure seeing that display made it the best costumed group I saw all day!