Spectre’s Sayings

As you may have noticed, I’ve installed a new theme on my blog. The old one was getting a bit tired, and wasn’t quite displaying properly, so I found a few that suited my fancy and installed them. I previewed how the blog would look with each of them and ultimately decided on this one, Simple Magazine. It looks pretty clean and fresh to my eyes. I’m still not done configuring everything, but that will happen in due time.

Variety Magazine has the details.

Just saw Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. It was a fun little escapist fantasy. Just suspend your disbelief, and enjoy the action and the jokes. I liked it.

Had to delete a link to a beer blog on my blogroll today. The Thirsty Hopster has taken down her blog.

An update on my brews thus far:

• Cherry Melomel – Gone!
• Brown Ale – Gone!
• English Bitter – ruined and discarded
• Spiced Christmas Ale – Nearly Gone…
• Lemon/Orange Melomel – Gone!
• Scottish 60 – Serving
• Cherry Melomel – in Primary
• Pomegranate Melomel – in Primary
• Pale Ale – Bottled
• Brown Ale – in Primary
• Hefeweizen – on Deck

In addition to the beers mentioned last time, I also want to brew a Belgian Blonde, and try to clone Boulevard’s Lunar Ale. And I mentioned trying to brew a Kolsch as a favor to someone. Thus far, I’ve brewed extract with specialty grains. I’m really itching to make the switch to all-grain.

Turns out I didn’t have to buy a whole pump. AutoZone sells a package of plastic “Y”s in different sizes. I was able to buy that cheaply and use the correct sized Y and easily fixed my windshield washers.

I have to buy a new pump for my windshield wipers. Not that there’s anything wrong my old pump. What’s wrong is that a small plastic “Y” that split the washer fluid hose into two streams disintegrated and needs replaced. But they don’t sell that part independantly, only as part of a whole pump replacement kit. *grumble*

A summary of my brews thus far:

• Cherry Melomel – Gone!
• Brown Ale – 1 bottle left
• English Bitter – ruined and discarded
• Spiced Christmas Ale – serving
• Lemon/Orange Melomel – serving
• Scottish 60 – in Secondary
• Cherry Melomel – in Primary
• Pomegranate Melomel – in Primary
• Pale Ale – in Primary
• Brown Ale – on deck

Beers I’d like to brew include:

• a Patersbier
• a Belgian Dubbel
• a Brown Porter
• a Dunkelweisse

And possibly others.

Here’s the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain performing the theme from The Good The Bad and The Ugly:

And here they are performing the Black Crows’ Hard to Handle:

A very blessed and Merry Christmas to all!!

Last night I had a Shiner Hefeweizen. It was a thoroughly unremarkable beer.

When I drink a hefe, I want to experience some serious yeast esters. Some aromas and flavors of bananas and cloves, perhaps, like in German Hefes. I didn’t notice anything like that.

It didn’t really seem too much like an American Wheat, either.

It was just… there. No stand out flavors or aromas. It was sort of in the background and didn’t draw any attention to itself.

It’s definitely not a bad beer, in fact, it was very well-crafted. And, I’ll bet, a good introduction to wheat beers for someone who is accustomed to American mega-brews.

But, for me, it was basically no big deal.

Read this news article.

While I’m disappointed, I can’t say I’m surprised.

I see things differently than that report does. Russia was instrumental in provoking ethnic Russians located in South Ossetia to rebel against the legitimate (Georgian) government. When Georgia attempted to put down the rebellion, Russia used that as a pretext to invade. Russia was clearly the aggressor, and was at fault. George W. Bush was correct in saying so, and in providing medical aid to the Georgian victims of the Russian invasion.

So, why, when it’s obvious that Russia was at fault, does this EU report blame the Georgians? Simple. The EU is scared of Russia. They don’t want to provoke the angry Russian bear on their doorstep. The U.S., under Barack Hussein Obama is weak. Obama has shown no inclination to stand up to foreign strongmen, and has made it abundantly clear to our allies that his administration will do nothing to support them. Remember, it was just in the past week that Obama decided to throw Eastern Europe under the bus by axing the ballistic missile shield that was to be based there – another sign of weakness. The EU needs Russian oil, and remembers the Soviet invasions of Hungary in 1956 and of Czechoslovakia in 1968. Without U.S. military might acting as a deterrent to Russian invasion, the Europeans opt for flattery, historical revision, and soon, appeasement.