Book Review: The Gone-Away World

 Nick Harkaway, son of famed spy novelist John le Carre, steps out of his father's shadow with this unique book. I, for one, can't think of another book that combines the elements of kung-fu, mimes, philosophy, anti-corporatism, and the end of the world so deftly and engagingly. Basically, if you're looking for a science-fiction fantasy/comedy/epic, this is the book for you. I'd say more, but that'd start giving things away, and the description I've given would've sold me on it already.

An Ignored Blog, a New Purpose

So, I've kinda been ignoring this for some time. I've really wanted to keep it up, but the constraints that I put on myself with it's purpose haven't been inspiring me like I hoped it would. It doesn't help that the things I wanted to "create" cost money, and I've been tapped out ever since I moved into my current place. Also, I hated the fact that whenever I posted onto my music blog I'd count it as my activity for the day, so I'd just post a link over there. Everyone who subscribes to this blog is probably already reading that one, so it just felt like a cop-out and needless.

So, what have I been doing with my time? Well, a lot of reading, watching BBC documentaries, catching up on other television I find interesting, some videogames, being frustrated that my roommates never clean, looking for new jobs but rarely sending out resumes, feeling superior, and generally just trying to find purpose in it all.

I like writing, though. I want to do more of it, and I think this is the place to start it up.

From now on, I'm going to run this like a regular blog of my various activities. I'll focus on reviewing the various bits of culture I'm consuming at a rapid rate, and to make sure I keep track of anything I bother creating. Depending how bored I get at work, I'll probably get a couple book reviews up in the next few days. I've got two more brewing adventures to discuss and a third coming up as soon as I'm in the same room as my roommate Paul for more than an hour. Trying new things with food is one of the things I'm most fascinated with, but I've never really learned to shop for say, a week instead of for a single recipe, so it gets a little too expensive to do anything interesting - but I have had a few deep frying adventures lately, so I'll try to document them.

Well, here we go.

Day 24:

Hey guys, if anyone still wants to submit a Robomonk label design, can we get that finished up? I'm looking to apply the rest of the labels on before next weekend (probably Thursday), so if you guys miss the deadline it was all for naught.

Day 23

Moving to Ship Bottom for the summer! Possibly longer if I can sort out a better job for myself

Also, dinner tonight was pretty:


Grilled veal chop with port wine reduction and mashed potatoes.

Day 22:

Boo-yah

Day 21:

Bleeaarrggghhh

Day 20:

Printed out 1 of each label and put them on the bottles! I'll put up pics when I get around to it, but it was pretty simple.

Everything I've read from other homebrewers has told me that actual sticker labels don't serve our purpose well and are hard to get off, so I just used straight-up paper. Of course, when dealing with paper you still need an adhesive. Milk, surprisingly enough, is actually really good for this. It's due to the water-soluble proteins already in it. Think about an unwashed glass of milk - after you drink the contents, a sort of milk-haze still rings the glass, clinging on. This is the drying protein from the milk, and it will stay on there as long as you let it. What makes this perfect for labeling my bottles is the water-soluble properties - they'll wash right off, leaving our nice thick glass bottles ready for reuse.