Thanks for giving

Thanksgiving break went well. I ate a ton of turkey and whatnot, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, oh. my. god. So good, I must have gained like five pounds over the last few days. It was good to see my mom and sister, since I hadn't seen them in a few months. Michelle met my mother, and I met her parents, and all went well. APPARENTLY Michelle's mom Google'd me and found my blog... So basically she thinks that all I'm about is beer and women's butts. Well, that is a large part of what I'm into, but I assure you, Mrs. Harmon, I'm into much more than just that. She was even so nice as to buy be a sixer of Gray's Oatmeal Stout (an excellent Stout, if you're into that sort of thing). Shocking, to say the least. But I am NOT an alcoholic and am NOT out to corrupt your daughter. That having been said...

Beera Claus has come to the apartment in the form of a copious selection of newly purchased alcoholic beverages! I'm going to TRY to review one of these beers every other day until I'm done with the list. I picked some out based on the type of beer they were (my favorites are Stouts and Porters), and some I just picked out at random. The store I went to (Sentry's Liquor in Waukesha) had a pretty good selection (not quite the selection that Woodman's in Madison had) and some of the beers even had their beeradvocate.com rating right on the shelf, so I based some of my selections on those. Here goes in no particular order...

Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout
Samuel Smith Taddy Porter
D. Carnegie Stark Porter
Stepan Razin Porter
Sierra Nevada Porter
Three Floyds Alpha King Pale Ale
Fish Tale Poseidon's Imperial Stout
Rogue Mocha Porter
New Glarus Unplugged Imperial Stout
Great Divide Titan IPA
Weihenstephaner Hefe-Weissbier
Victory Prima-Pils
Dogfish Head 90-Minute Imperial IPA
Left Hand Milk Stout
Victory Golden Monkey
Shmaltz He'Brew Messiah Bold (best name EVER)
Samuel Adams Holiday Porter
Rogue XS Imperial Stout
Ayinger Celebrator Doppelbock

Most of the aforementioned brews I got in single bottles, so if I hate them, I'm not out $8 for a sixer. Then again, if I love them, I've only got one bottle, so I'll be sad. It'll balance out, hopefully. In addition, I have some random stuff leftover from a few weeks ago, like Pilsner Urquell (an excellent pilsner, a good choice if you've always drank beast or Miller or the like and want to get into "better" beer), New Glarus Tail Wagger Barleywine (weird fruity taste, like beer mixed with Hawaiian Punch, I want to like it but I can't), and McEwans Scotch Ale (similar to the Tail Wagger but a stronger alcohol taste and a hint of hard liquor thrown in, just can't get used to it). If you'd like to trade for the Tail Wagger or McEwans (through mail, or if you're in the PVille area, in person), send me an email and we can set something up. I'm thinking of getting into the microbrew trading scene on ratebeer.com, but I'm not totally sure how you get started in that...

Anyway, that's it for now. Peace.

SOTM: Cold - Happens All The Time
MOTM: American History X (top 10 for me, the ending just blew me away the first time I saw it, and one of the few movies that made me cry)
BOTM: Pilsner Urquell (from the Czech Republic (!), an excellent Pilsner with a very crisp taste, goes well with a meaty meal like a burger or steak, or just throw one back for the hell of it. Like I said above, it's a good choice if you're looking to drink "good" beer, but isn't too drastic of a change from Miller or Bud.)

Snow... oh yeah, and wind... let's not forget cold, too.

Brrrr. It's windy and cold and snowy outside, so yes, I'd say winter is officially here. This is the earliest it's snowed in my recent memory, so I'm kind of pumped about it. I just hope the weather makes up it's mind and stays one way for the rest of the season, rather than getting cold, then warm, then cold, etc.

Nothing else new to report other than the fluffy white stuff. So I'm going to play some Battlefield 2 before class. Later!

SOTM: Dream Theater - Home (check out Dream Theater if you're into metal or progressive rock, they are really good and I'm sad that I didn't discover them sooner, as I'd been hearing good things about them for a long time.)
MOTM: The Terminal (I watched it again last night and determined that I don't really like it all that much. I'd give it a 4/10. It's shot in a dramaish fashion, but the characters and situations are so over the top that it has to be a comedy. It really doesn't know what kind of movie it is, which irritates me.)
BOTM: Guinness Draught (nuff said)

Let's get this marmaduke naked...

Drew is clamoring for new blog entry, so I'm going to do my best to come up with something consequential. Maybe...

Ok, so I like butts. Female butts to be more specific. I know few men who don't enjoy looking at women's asses (yes, this is a very lewd blog, but I felt I needed to get it out cathartically). I tend to walk very fast, even when not in a hurry, because I have very long legs and enjoy getting exercise when it's as easy as walking fast. But when I see a nice ass in front of me, I slow down in order to be able to appreciate it. I know other men do this, and I'm sure women do it too when they see a nice rear on a guy. I don't feel guilty about this, because I feel that if a woman wears tight jeans to accentuate their derriere, they have no reason to be angry if they catch someone staring. If you've got it, flaunt it. <tangent>I'm completely ignoring personal image issues and the objectification of women, both of which I detest, but since there's nothing I can do about it I won't/don't dwell on them. Also, I know that there are men out there who like larger women, and I believe that there's someone out there for everyone. So if a woman has a self-image issue, I feel that it's their personal problem and eventually they'll realize that society is bullshit and will get over it and be able to be comfortable with their body. As for me, I like women who are in shape, and as long as I keep myself reasonably in shape I think I have a right to desire someone who takes care of their body. It's only once you become overweight yourself that you lose your right to demand physical perfection of the other sex</tangent> . Anyway, I appreciate a quality behind not only for the physical titillation it causes, but because the shape of the female body is very aesthetically pleasing. I don't know if there's some sort of subconscious effect going on that makes me think of sex somewhere in my id when I see a particular work of art that brings to mind the female form, but even sexually-secular depictions of the female form are visually attractive to me. So when I'm ogling a particularly good looking lady, my mind's not necessarily in the gutter... I may just be thinking how good she would look in the Guggenheim.

And that is that.

SOTM: Incubus - You Will Be A Hot Dancer
MOTM: 24 Hour Party People (A semi-mockumentary about the early punk and new wave scenes in Manchester, England in the late 70s and early 80s. If you're at all interested in bands such as Joy Division, New Order, The Clash, The Sex Pistols, etc, check the movie out. If not, I'm sure you'll appreciate the excellent acting and direction.)
BOTM: Haven't had anything new in a while, but I finished a bottle of New Glarus Belgian Red a while ago. It's sweet and tart, and tastes like cherry pie. A good drink to have after a meal, just a few ounces of it goes far though, you definitely don't want to be drinking this in large quantities. It's just as well, since it's $8 for a 750.

Fuck...

Pardon the cussing, but holy hell am I pissed. I mean, what the hell? If there was one thing that I viewed as sacred in this hell-hole of a country, it was Alaska. I mean, it's fucking Alaska, you can't mess around with the last untouched land in the U.S. Oh but wait, we can, as long as the Republicans own the majority of the Senate and the House, they can basically do whatever the hell Bush wants. More oil? Why not. Let's ignore every renewable energy option and forget about conservation. Let's make it hard for forward thinking companies to get a foothold in the automotive market. I mean, it's not like we haven't been digging ourselves into a hole for the past 50 years with our rampant use of gasoline and other fossil fuels. Let's dig a little deeper, maybe we'll find some more black gold. I was glad to see that Feingold and Kohl both voted against drilling. Maybe in 20 years Feingold will run for president... after I move to Canada. Fuck...

Oh yeah, a good song for y'all:

Boy Sets Fire - Bathory's Sainthood

Do you feel alive now - now that you own the dead?
Preying on their corpses - their hearts no longer fed
Your sainthood is obvious on every starving face
Your deceptions gives us a way to seperate
The poor from their hate the rich from the stone
Genuflect away the sins that we've known
Sure one percent rules, but heaven's made of gold
So chalk it up to folly and consequence alone

Do we really want, do we really need a bastard massiah, wrapped up in the dream of patriotic clean white washed desire

And every time the real war's defined - the trenches are filled to hide battle lines
Torches to bridges and bridges to torture headlines distort what we see as our borders
And what gives us the right to feel with remorse for a God they created a God for the poor
For bathory we're bleeding out the devil hides in angelic shrouds
Blasphemy as speaking out we've asked for it for more of the same sad scheme of ghettos created by the power elite
For our minds and souls burning no longer for freedom invoked
Just more of the same

SOTM: Placebo - English Summer Rain
MOTM: Waiting... (Tied with Serenity for the best movie of the year IMO. Ryan Reynolds is my new god.)
BOTM: Gray's Oatmeal Stout (One of the best Stouts I've had, better than Sam Adams Cream Stout and, dare I say, better than Guinness Extra Stout. Blasphemy you say, but my tastebuds don't lie, at least not to me...)