Michaewa

What a beautiful, nostalgic image. Posted here.

Here is the second component to my new brewing setup, another eBay purchase. Interestingly enough this company sold the same product for a dollar more in the eCommerce website than they did on eBay, even though they had to pay the auction listing fee on eBay. I always was a little conflicted about that when I was selling stuff on eBay.

Thanks Robo and Bran for the gift certificate…another quirk along the way in this purchase is that the gift certificate was sent to an email address that was not yet ‘confirmed’ with PayPal, and the ‘We have sent an email to confirm your address’ process took over 24 hours for the email to arrive.

All’s well that ends well.

There was a moment that stands out in my memory as a turning point, a time when I realized that after all that I had been through that working at the ‘old standby’ job just wasn’t going to cut it anymore.

I had rejoined the company I worked for right out of College (University for you non-Americans) and been back for just a few weeks. I was on my first new project, eagerly anticipating the challenges that awaited me. After about three days of being consistently underwhelmed by my new ‘boss‘ there was a break in the case and I learned I would attend a meeting in which several key decision makers would be present.

I arrived at the hotel where the meeting was to take place, took my seat and waited for the action to begin. As the obligitory ‘around the room’ introductions (Your name, who you work for, what team you are on) began to take place, my turn was rapidly approaching when I noticed a note being pushed toward me across the table. A little confused, I quickly scanned the note, whose contents I dutifully quote here:

Andy Michaels
Accenture
IT PMO

A moment later I heard myself uttering those exact same words.

To this day I try to figure out his intentions. I’m pretty open minded, so I could definitely forgive the fact that I’ve only been on the team for a few days, and he was trying to help me out, thinking I could have spaced when it came time to parrot back the name of the team I was working on. But the company I had worked for for half a decade? My name?!? Well, I’ve been to one world fair, a picnic, and a rodeo, and that’s the stupidest thing I ever heard come over a set of earphones.

After brewing beer, wine, and champagne for the past few years, my friend Nate who is a bit of a trendsetter in the brewing space (he’s entered contests and won prizes) convinced me to move away from the arduous task of bottling and moving to a kegging setup.

I’m in the ‘procurement’ phase and not entirely sure what I’ll need quite yet, but my foray was consummated yesterday with the purchase of this beauty. A 20lb CO2 tank seemed somehow appropriate, even though a standard setup only uses a 5lb cannister. This will sit outside of the soon-to-be-converted [read: destroyed beyond repair] garage fridge and fuel the flow of brew from a couple of cornelius kegs inside.

Next step is to get my hands on a few kegs…I’ll also need to get a regulator for the tank to control the pressure to the kegs. The beautiful part (aside from being a lot more compact than 50 bottles scattered throughout the house) is that you can force carbonate the beer rather than adding priming sugar to bottle ferment (and carbonate) it.

A client (with a straight face) today asked me the following question about their website.

Company XYZ asked about putting a link to our site on their site - what do we need to do to make that happen?

I offered some insightful commentary about the vagaries of the linking process, JGB droplets in the URL substratus, and hyper-threading of cron demons before explaining that although possible, it would be very, very expensive.

I have been organically growing my little web design / development (mostly development) business over the past few years, and there is one thing that continually nags at me. When working with clients who lack a strategy of their own, they will invariably look to their (much, much larger and incomparably more successful) competition for ideas. 90% of the time they can offer no justification for why they want to do it, and don’t even know if it will work within their existing processes, but dammit Home Depot does it, so should we!

Part of me finds this infuriating, and a lot of times when I get requests for quote that say simply “how much for a site like www.originality.com” I will respond with “somewhere in the neighborhood of $15,000 US.” But the more I think about it, these jackasses may be on to something. When you lack intelligence and foresight, and you know you lack intelligence in foresight, maybe it is better to play follow the leader even if you haven’t a clue where you’re going.

After all, they are much more likely to be successful if they copycat a strategy that has been thought out, invested in, and tuned rather than something they pull out of their ass.

This guy is my hero. I thought his leather pants eBay auction was one of the funniest things I had ever seen, and this, the world’s most comprehensive junk email, is right up there. Thank you Mr. Sack. (add him to your RSS reader with this link)

I’ve been talking to a few friends lately about the changing landscape of the internet, and becoming more interested in trends developing there. I seem to have idea after idea, most of which to this point have been either pretty half-baked or implemented long ago by someone with a bit more foresight.

The most recent one to pop up was a way to measure the popularity of a blog in a scientific fashion. I’ve seen a few tools out there, but nothing that really got to the heart of it. My thought is that ideally you could go to a simple list, updated in real time that would show stats for blogs such as :

• Unique daily visitors
• Total pageviews
• RSS subscribers
• Posts per day
• Comment cadence

This would provide a google-news like view of the current blog landscape. You could view the outright most popular blog at any given time, or if you were a contrarian you could jump to the bottom of the list.

Getting this information seems a little bit tricky at best, but if you could make it easy for bloggers to opt-in, I think you’d see decent adoption. I’m sure someone is getting ready to release a beta version of this already, but here is my thought. You go after the big pieces of the pie first. Provide an automated way for users of Blogger, WordPress, Moveable Type, and other major players a built-in snippet of code that would unobtrusively report aggreate statistics about traffic patterns. For other custom bloggers or those with older versions, provide a plugin that could be dropped in. Build master database in the sky, and just come up with a few ways to slice and dice the data for public use.

Data is quite amazing…just got my entire rental history from Netflix.

Shipped Returned Title

10/19/05 11/01/05 The Time Machine (2002)
05/17/05 11/01/05 Macbeth (1971)
10/20/05 11/01/05 Angela’s Ashes (1999)
09/27/05 11/01/05 Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession (2004)
09/27/05 10/19/05 Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988)
08/23/05 10/19/05 Beyond the Sea (2004)
08/23/05 09/27/05 The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)
09/12/05 09/27/05 Bulworth (1998)
09/08/05 09/12/05 Meet the Fockers (2004)
07/12/05 09/08/05 The Pianist (2002)
08/17/05 08/23/05 In Good Company (2004)
08/17/05 08/23/05 Primer (2004)
08/08/05 08/17/05 Kinsey (2004)
08/08/05 08/17/05 Alexander: Director’s Cut (2004)
07/25/05 08/08/05 Hidden Agenda (1990)
08/02/05 08/08/05 Dazed and Confused (1993)
07/26/05 08/01/05 Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004)
07/22/05 07/26/05 Million Dollar Baby (2004)
07/12/05 07/25/05 The Station Agent (2003)
07/12/05 07/22/05 The Phantom of the Opera: Special Edition (2004)
06/13/05 07/12/05 The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)
07/06/05 07/12/05 Maria Full of Grace (2004)
06/21/05 07/12/05 The Cincinnati Kid (1965)
06/21/05 07/06/05 Closer (2004)
06/13/05 06/21/05 Rounders (1998)
06/14/05 06/21/05 American Splendor (2003)
06/07/05 06/14/05 Punch-Drunk Love (2002)
06/07/05 06/13/05 The Big Lebowski (1998)
06/08/05 06/13/05 Ocean’s Twelve (2004)
04/18/05 06/08/05 The Center of the World (2001)
01/17/05 06/07/05 The Last Emperor (1987)
06/01/05 06/07/05 Rushmore (1998)
05/27/05 06/01/05 Sideways (2004)
02/01/05 05/27/05 Kundun (1997)
05/10/05 05/17/05 The Haunting (1999)
04/19/05 05/10/05 Shadow of the Vampire (2000)
04/07/05 04/19/05 Limbo (1999)
04/12/05 04/18/05 The Winslow Boy (1999)
04/06/05 04/12/05 Pulp Fiction (1994)
03/29/05 04/07/05 Malcolm X (1992)
03/30/05 04/06/05 Diner (1982)
03/15/05 03/30/05 Croupier (1998)
02/14/05 03/29/05 Insomnia (1997)
03/01/05 03/15/05 The Cider House Rules (1999)
02/23/05 03/01/05 Swingers (1996)
02/14/05 02/23/05 What Lies Beneath (2000)
01/25/05 02/14/05 Diva (1981)
01/24/05 02/14/05 Dirty Pretty Things (2002)
01/24/05 02/01/05 Four Rooms (1995)
01/21/05 01/25/05 Mean Girls (2004)
01/13/05 01/24/05 Whale Rider (2003)
01/18/05 01/24/05 Grateful Dead: Downhill from Here (1989)
01/10/05 01/21/05 Saturday Night Live: The Best of Will Ferrell (1995)
01/11/05 01/17/05 Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)
01/05/05 01/17/05 The Return of the Pink Panther (1975)
01/04/05 01/13/05 Almost Famous (2000)
01/04/05 01/11/05 House of Sand and Fog (2003)
01/04/05 01/10/05 Saturday Night Live: The Best of Will Ferrell 2 (2004)
08/23/04 01/04/05 Children of a Lesser God (1986)
12/03/04 01/04/05 Das Boot (1981)
12/29/04 01/04/05 Little Odessa (1994)
11/30/04 01/04/05 Dead Man Walking (1995)
12/14/04 12/29/04 The Wings of the Dove (1997)
12/06/04 12/14/04 Greenfingers (2000)
11/30/04 12/03/04 Blow Dry (2001)
11/30/04 12/03/04 The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)
11/22/04 11/30/04 The Affair of the Necklace (2001)
11/22/04 11/30/04 Secretary (2002)
11/24/04 11/30/04 Smokey and the Bandit / Smokey and the Bandit II: Double Feature (1977)
08/10/04 11/24/04 The China Syndrome (1979)
11/16/04 11/22/04 Secretary (2002)
11/16/04 11/22/04 Happy, Texas (1999)
11/11/04 11/16/04 Road to Perdition (2002)
11/11/04 11/16/04 Rounders (1998)
07/12/04 11/11/04 Farmingville: POV (2004)
07/20/04 11/11/04 The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1981)
08/03/04 08/23/04 Donnie Darko (2001)
08/02/04 08/10/04 The Bourne Identity (2002)
07/19/04 08/03/04 The Year of Living Dangerously (1983)
07/26/04 08/02/04 Breaking Away (1979)
07/20/04 07/26/04 The World According to Garp (1982)
07/12/04 07/20/04 Gorky Park (1983)
07/12/04 07/19/04 Mr. Deeds (2002)
07/13/04 07/19/04 Dummy (2003)
04/26/04 07/13/04 Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)
06/30/04 07/12/04 Spider-Man (2002)
07/06/04 07/12/04 Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)
02/26/04 07/12/04 Six Feet Under: Season 1: Disc 1 (2001)
06/29/04 07/06/04 Touching the Void (2003)
02/26/04 06/30/04 The Russia House (1990)
06/15/04 06/29/04 The Killing Fields (1984)
05/04/04 06/14/04 Gandhi (1982)
04/26/04 05/04/04 A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
04/22/04 04/26/04 On the Waterfront (1954)
04/21/04 04/26/04 The Secret Lives of Dentists (2003)
04/12/04 04/22/04 Patton (1970)
04/15/04 04/21/04 The Rules of Attraction (2002)
03/08/04 04/15/04 The Bourne Identity (2002)
02/19/04 04/12/04 Drowning Mona (2000)
02/19/04 03/08/04 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
09/25/03 02/26/04 Reservoir Dogs (1992)
01/07/04 02/26/04 Igby Goes Down (2002)
01/02/04 02/19/04 Quiz Show (1994)
01/28/04 02/19/04 Sid & Nancy (1986)
12/22/03 01/28/04 The Day of the Jackal (1973)
12/22/03 01/07/04 Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002)
11/18/03 01/02/04 Bloody Sunday (2002)
10/17/03 12/22/03 Cinema Paradiso: Director’s Cut (1988)
11/18/03 12/22/03 Dark Days (2000)
09/18/03 11/18/03 The Anniversary Party (2001)
10/09/03 11/18/03 Roman Holiday (1953)
10/01/03 10/17/03 Joe Gould’s Secret (2000)
09/22/03 10/09/03 The House of Yes (1997)
09/25/03 10/01/03 Killing Zoe (1994)
08/25/03 09/25/03 Army of Darkness (1993)
09/15/03 09/25/03 Max (2002)
08/22/03 09/22/03 Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
09/05/03 09/18/03 Barton Fink (1991)
09/08/03 09/15/03 Blood Simple (1984)
09/02/03 09/08/03 Time Out (2001)
08/18/03 09/05/03 Ordinary Decent Criminal (2000)
08/18/03 09/02/03 Tigerland (2000)
08/18/03 08/25/03 Bowling for Columbine (2002)
08/15/03 08/22/03 Lawn Dogs (1997)
07/10/03 08/18/03 This Is Spinal Tap (1984)
06/18/03 08/18/03 Psycho (1960)
08/13/03 08/18/03 Mean Machine (2001)
05/09/03 08/15/03 Drugstore Cowboy (1989)
06/18/03 08/13/03 Key Largo (1948)
06/12/03 07/10/03 The Parallax View (1974)
05/30/03 06/18/03 The Great Escape (1963)
06/05/03 06/18/03 Three Days of the Condor (1975)
05/30/03 06/12/03 The Sting (1973)
05/16/03 06/05/03 State and Main (2000)
05/16/03 05/30/03 Waiting for Guffman (1996)
05/12/03 05/30/03 The Third Man (1949)
05/07/03 05/16/03 Cool Hand Luke (1967)
05/07/03 05/16/03 On the Waterfront (1954)
05/07/03 05/12/03 Talk Radio (1988)
03/20/03 05/09/03 The Last Picture Show (1971)
02/13/03 05/07/03 So I Married an Axe Murderer (1993)
04/28/03 05/07/03 Network (1976)
04/23/03 05/07/03 Absence of Malice (1981)
03/13/03 04/28/03 Easy Rider (1969)
04/10/03 04/23/03 Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989)
03/24/03 04/10/03 Shoot the Piano Player (1960)
03/13/03 03/24/03 Shampoo (1975)
03/10/03 03/20/03 Straw Dogs (1971)
02/28/03 03/13/03 Citizen Kane (1941)
03/03/03 03/13/03 Arlington Road (1999)
02/24/03 03/10/03 Altered States (1980)
02/13/03 03/03/03 The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
01/27/03 02/28/03 North by Northwest (1959)
01/27/03 02/21/03 Strangers on a Train (1951)
01/27/03 02/13/03 Casablanca (1942)
02/03/03 02/13/03 Death to Smoochy (2002)
01/27/03 02/03/03 Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
09/04/02 01/27/03 The Sopranos: Season 1: Disc 3 (1999)
08/08/02 01/27/03 All About Eve (1950)
09/09/02 01/27/03 The Sopranos: Season 1: Disc 4 (1999)
08/08/02 01/27/03 In the Company of Men (1997)
08/21/02 09/09/02 The Sopranos: Season 1: Disc 2 (1999)
07/22/02 08/21/02 The Sopranos: Season 1: Disc 1 (1999)
08/08/02 08/21/02 Rounders (1998)
07/31/02 08/08/02 Midnight Cowboy (1969)
07/31/02 08/08/02 The Score (2001)
07/31/02 08/08/02 The Limey (1999)
07/22/02 07/31/02 The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
07/22/02 07/31/02 The Cell (2000)
07/22/02 07/31/02 Following (1998)
07/10/02 07/22/02 Wonder Boys (2000)
11/29/01 07/22/02 Velvet Goldmine (1998)
07/10/02 07/22/02 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)
07/11/02 07/22/02 The Deer Hunter (1978)
06/24/02 07/11/02 American Psycho (2000)
02/05/02 07/10/02 Bringing Out the Dead (1999)
02/22/02 07/10/02 National Lampoon’s Animal House (1978)
02/01/02 06/24/02 Buffalo ‘66 (1998)
02/01/02 02/22/02 Ravenous (1999)
10/15/01 02/05/02 Memento (2000)
11/29/01 02/01/02 Enter the Dragon (1973)
12/13/01 02/01/02 Office Space (1999)
11/28/01 12/13/01 Run Lola Run (1998)
10/16/01 11/29/01 Chocolat (2000)
10/16/01 11/29/01 The Graduate (1967)
10/17/01 11/28/01 Damage (1992)
09/19/01 10/17/01 Waking Ned Devine (1998)
09/19/01 10/17/01 Bound (1996)
09/19/01 10/17/01 The Way of the Gun (2000)
09/19/01 10/15/01 Snatch (2000)
05/29/01 09/19/01 Planet of the Apes (1968)
05/29/01 09/19/01 High Fidelity (2000)
06/01/01 09/19/01 Annie Hall (1977)
05/29/01 09/19/01 Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
01/11/01 05/29/01 Fargo (1996)
11/17/00 05/29/01 Brazil (1985)
11/14/00 05/29/01 Dune (1984)
11/18/00 01/11/01 Pi: Faith in Chaos (1998)
11/17/00 01/11/01 Blade Runner (1982)
11/06/00 11/18/00 Suicide Kings (1997)
11/04/00 11/18/00 Clerks (1994)
11/06/00 11/18/00 Red Rock West (1993)
10/20/00 11/13/00 Chariots of Fire (1981)
10/13/00 11/06/00 Trainspotting (1995)
10/14/00 11/06/00 Days of Thunder (1990)
09/20/00 11/04/00 Bottle Rocket (1996)
09/21/00 10/20/00 Splendor in the Grass (1961)
09/25/00 10/14/00 Grosse Pointe Blank (1997)
10/02/00 10/13/00 Tron (1982)
09/18/00 10/02/00 The Big Kahuna (2000)
09/06/00 09/25/00 Life Is Beautiful (1997)
09/13/00 09/23/00 A Simple Plan (1998)
09/07/00 09/21/00 All the President’s Men (1976)
09/09/00 09/19/00 American History X (1998)
09/06/00 09/13/00 Gods and Monsters (1998)
08/15/00 09/09/00 Vertigo (1958)
08/15/00 09/05/00 Alien (1979)
08/15/00 09/05/00 The Usual Suspects (1995)
08/15/00 09/05/00 Romeo Must Die (2000)