Video Games Live concert at the Citi Center on Friday 11/21. Features orchestral and choral arrangements of music from video games.

Benefit for Greyhound Friends in Waltham on Saturday, 11/22. Buy some crafts and help out the doggies we put out of work with question 3.

Bazaar Bizarre at the Castle at Park Plaza on Sunday 12/7. Unique crafts from local artists.

1) I’ve started a Descent: Road to Legends campaign with some friends and will be posting a running journal of the game at the BostonGeek alt site for boardgame reviews, Big Remy’s Board Game Blog.  Here’s the report from the first session.

2) I apologize for the fact that there hasn’t been a beer review in over a month.  Between the price of gas and the state of the economy right now, money has been tight on a combined teacher (the wife) and student’s (mine) salary and beer money is the first thing to go.  Things are looking to be on an upswing moneywise so hopefully soon I’ll be able to get back on track.  Thanks for the patience and emails with suggestions of beer.

That’s all for now.

Any comments or suggestions?
Email: Colin, Carl, Captain Damage
Skype: bostongeek
Voice: 1.617.418.4113

Production Engineer: Carl “Crazylegs” Reyes
Post-production/Editing: Colin “Rock N’ Roll” Rego
All music composed and recorded by Karl “Captain Damage” Kornfeld.

From everything I’ve seen and read, I was pretty on the fence about ever wanting to play 4E.  I really, really like 3E/3.5E.  Everything I’ve seen about 4E screams “This is for first time RPGers who only experience is WoW”.  Which, in and of itself, is fine, I really don’t have a problem with it.  My problem has come with people trying to convince me that 4E is in some way better than 3E/3.5E for people who like “realistic” mechanics in their RPGs.  I’ve listened to the arguements, but haven’t heard anything convincing.

But now something has come along that has pushed me over the edge into the territory of having no desire to play it.  DnD 4E is available as an application on Facebook.

I’ll say it again….FACEBOOK!

Any RPG system that can be distilled down to a minor application for a social networking program like Facebook is not something I would call worth playing.  Will I never try it…probably not I’m sure at some point my Will save will fail and I’ll try it out to be fair, but I’m not encouraged by this discovery.

Arrogant Bastard and Stone Brewery have come to North Carolina and Chapel Hill finally.  This place immediately became less of a hell for me to live in.

THANK YOU JESUS!

Catch a glimpse of what GM has in-store, as they celebrate their 100th by hitting the embedded video at about 8:30 am EDT (pre-recorded, introductory video begins at about 7:50 am EDT).

Drove down. Drove back. Atlanta.

Now let us never speak of the shortcut again.

Any comments or suggestions?
Email: Colin, Carl, Captain Damage
Skype: bostongeek
Voice: 1.617.418.4113

Production Engineer: Carl “Crazylegs” Reyes
Post-production/Editing: Colin “Rock N’ Roll” Rego
All music composed and recorded by Karl “Captain Damage” Kornfeld.

Come and take a look!

The-other-Carl, Colin and I were were there to witness the incredible spectacle that is Dragon*con. I’m trying to figure out how to describe how amazing it is and find myself coming up short. It isn’t just a science fiction convention, it isn’t just a big sf/fantasy/gaming convention, it’s freaking huge. It spans four large hotels turning Atlanta, Georgia into a writhing sea of geekness for four days. You must attend this convention before you die!

Probably the most notable aspect of DC is the number of fans in costume. The evenings in the hotel lounges and bars are giant costume parties. We hung out for hours, people watching and mingling with other fans in costume - oh, didn’t I mention that one of us was in costume? Yeah, I was a klingon. A blonde klingon. In a business suit. That’s me in the picture above…But I digress…The costume parade is wave after wave of characters from movies, tv and comics that takes more than half an hour to pass.

Here’s a Photo Gallery, I’ve got videos also, but It’ll need some editing. I’ll put links in the comments to this post.

There were dozens of fan and celebrity pannels. So many that it was often hard to choose between concurrent events. Fortunately, most of the most popular ones were repeated. A few of the pannels we attended included open Q&As with the stars of Star Wars, Farscape, DS9, SG1/Atlantis and Firefly/Serenity. We also attended smaller pannels with George Takei, Erin Gray, James Marsters and Cliff Simon.

Dragon*con is host to the official Miss Klingon Empire beauty pageant. Judgeing this year were Michael Dorn (Worf), Ethan Philips (Neelix), James Cawley (Peter Kirk in fanfilms), Domenic Keating (Malcolm Reed), and beauty pageant agent and veteran contestant Autumn-Sky Boothe. As I’ve mentioned here before, the winner of last year’s MKE, VarkNa B’traughH, is a very good friend of mine. She was in attendance as was MKE 1999, Gunner H’nter, the very first Miss Klingon Empire. And of course as  klingon myself, I was not about to miss this event. It was great fun, as expected, with one of the contestants, Lady Vik, reciting  a love poem to Michael Dorn, who climbed onstage to deliver her a long passionate kiss. I’ll put a link to video in the comments so you can find out who won.

Merchandise booths filled three ballrooms on two floors of the Marriott. There was lots of gaming; a large artists room; many guest authors and writer’s pannels; and the celebrity Walk of Fame where fans wait in line to pay $20 to meet a star and have them sign a picture (ok, it not really my thing, but lots of people like it).

It would be remiss of me not to give recognition to the Atlanta Police and other security personnel. The crowds were unbelievable - and everyone was there to party. Yet I heard of no police/security incidents, nor even any antagonism between police and attendees

twitter.com/bostongeek

My Dash GPS will be sending regular updates as we start our journey tomorrow evening.  You can live the experience without all the bickering, bathroom breaks, and body odor.

Don’t forget to go visit the BostonGeek store at Cafe Press!

Quick! Go to http://www.cafepress.com/bostongeek and buy a BostonGeek t-shirt or thong; a Remy is Right beer stein; a Science is Like Sex spaghetti tank and much more! All the other fashion plates are doing it, what are you waiting for?

Brewery Description: “A hop lover’s delight. In the India Pale Ale tradition this brew is very hoppy in both aroma and flavor from the generous amounts of cascade hops used in brewing. Look for a medium to full body and golden straw color.”

Brew Style: American India Pale Ale, 5.8% ABV

Recommended Glassware: Shaker, English pint, Tulip

The Ugly Truth: The Saranacs are done…FINALLY.  I have to apologize for dragging my ass on these, I’ve just been out straight lately and haven’t had time for reviews.

Alright, Saranac India Pale Ale.  Not awesome, but not horrible either.  The beer poured a medium gold in color, with a bit of a copper tinge to it.  It sported a persistant head, with a creamy texture to it.  Very clear, with lots of carbonation bubbles rising from the bottom at the start but died down after awhile.  The aroma was probably the best part of the experience.  Very statisfying dry citrus hop profile to it that wasn’t overly strong.  No heavy malt overtones to it.

The flavor was where I found the beer lacking.  There was only a light to medium hops profile at the start, with a touch of malt sweetness to the test.  There is a definite citrus hops flavor that comes forwards and lingers into the aftertaste.  It has almost this grapefruit quality to the citrus, but its thankfully not strong enough to dominate the taste.  The taste isn’t overly harsh, but I found it to have a real mild hops profile for an IPA.  The body was light to medium, which was nice since it made the beer more drinkable.

Overall, it was an alright beer but nothing that blew me away.  Decent hops, but I would have expected more from an IPA than this gave.  If you are just looking for something to drink and want a tiny bit of hops, then try it.  Otherwise, I wouldn’t go out of my way for it.

Verdict:Giving it a 6 out of 10.

Only one problem. Emily isn’t real. She’s an animation. Not motion-capture, mind you. Animation. As in, the face is photorealistically built from scratch by software that uses an actor’s performance and builds the face to go over the original. You can see some of the effects possible towards the end of the vid, and the final shot (the ‘Plate’) shows the real Emily.

In my opinion, they should have made artificial Emily completely different from the model, in order to better highlight the power of the imaging process. Because, frankly, they started out with an attractive woman. Who I would plow anyway until next July.

Eh… screw it. Get me true VR and some sort of artificial vagina and hook me up.

Emily, the artificial spokesperson. [via Gawker]

Image-Metrics Site

First off, let me say that I saw The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor when I was hanging with some friends and we needed to kill a couple of hours. And it wasn’t like “Oh man we gotta see this movie!” It was more like “Well, this is going to have to cook for a few hours. Let’s go see a movie or something.”

Man this movie sucked! Call it cgfx porn in the purest sense. In the same way that porn uses the thinnest plots and weakest dialog to justify extended sex scenes (um, I mean, so I’ve heard)…

…this movie uses thin plot and lame dialog to justify the special effects. But the thing is, the effects aren’t even that good! But the medocre effects aren’t even the beginning of why the movie is so bad. Let’s start with the over-use of telegraphed cliches: watch as our hero tries to run away from someone who can magically throw fire by hijacking a truck full of fireworks; then let’s have an immortal guardian; next we’ll have a young couple who obviously share an attraction but are in denial because they’re from different worlds. The list goes on.

More stuff that sucked: Rachel Weisz was replaced as Evie by Maria Bello. Like we wouldn’t notice. She doesn’t look, talk or act at all like Weisz. She doesn’t even have the same kind of accent. Luke Ford plays Rick and Evie’s now-full-grown son Alex. Similar to the way Christian Slater channeled Jack Nicholson for his role in Heathers, Ford choses for his role in Mummy3 to channel… Iron Chef Bobby Flay?

The antagonist, the resurrected Emperor Han, has the ability to morph himself into a dragon - not a snaky Chinese style dragon, which would make sense cause they are in China after all, but a fat fire breathing european style dragon with huge leather wings. And dont get me started on the Yetis… just don’t, okay?

Probably the biggest crime of this movie was the complete waste of Michelle Yeoh. Whether it’s kung fu movies or James Bond, Yeoh normally moves with a grace that is a delight to watch. (Yeah, I’m refering to fights and action sequences.) But in Mummy3 she’s got only one short fight and it’s all slow motion closeups. It’s like director Rob Cohen wanted to make sure there was nothing redemable about this movie. Well if that was his goal, it’s almost perfect in that respect.

Almost. Isabella Leong is really cute.

From xkcd

Brewery:

Brewery Description:“Our classic German lager has a perfect balance of caramel malt sweetness. Look for a rich, amber color and medium body.”

Brew Style:German Amber/Vienna, 5.5% ABV

Recommended Glassware: Lager, Flute, Pilsner, Dimpled mug, Stein

The Ugly Truth: Well, back again with the 2nd to last bottle of Saranac.  Almost done with it, then I can get back to some better beer.  But all is not lost, as the Adirondack Lager turned out to be a pretty decent beer.  The brewer has it down as a German Amber or Vienna, but other places has it as a German Pilsner.  Based on the style guide I consult on a regular basis, I’m going with the brewer and calling this a Vienna.

The AL poured a fairly deep golden color with a light head on it with low retention.  The head wasn’t very characteristic of the style, which typically sports a stonger and longer lasting one.  Color was fairly clear with some mild carbonation rising from the bottom of the glass.  Moderate to strong malt aroma, with a toasted character to it without a discernable hops aroma.

As for the taste, I actually really enjoyed it.  It was probably the best of the mix pack I’ve had so far.  Overall the flavor was crisp and really refreshing.  The taste didn’t blow me away, but its was pretty striaghtforward and a pleasent surprise.  There was some moderate malt flavor to start with, not too storng.  Body was medium to medium-light, with the carbonation coming through in the taste.  The lager finishes clean and crisp with a dry hops flavor to the aftertaste that balances the malt out nicely.

Overall, pretty good beer.  Its the first of the Saranac that I’d go pick up a six pack of to keep in the fridge for a light drinking beer with dinner.  I haven’t had too many Viennas but if this is an indicator of the style I’d like to grab some more.  The Saranac Adirondack Lager is definitely worth trying out in my opinon.  Nice, uncomplicated taste that is refreshing to the end.

Verdict: 8 out of 10 bottlecaps.

But just when you thought things couldn’t get any better, they are.  Pabst Brewing Company, owners of Schlitz, are going back to the original forumula.  The current Schlitz, while good, is a poor malt liquor version in the eyes of many of the faithful drinkers out there.

So in an effort to attract new customers and answer the pleads of the older customers, Pabst is going back to the original formula.  I am exicited to say the least.  I mean I like the current Schlitz but if the original is as good as people claim I can’t wait to try it.  It may prompt the first ever side by side comparison of a beer on Boston Geek, the current Schlitz versus the original formula Schlitz.

Any comments or suggestions?
Email: Colin, Carl, Captain Damage
Skype: bostongeek
Voice: 1.617.418.4113

Production Engineer: Carl “Crazylegs” Reyes
Post-production/Editing: Colin “Rock N’ Roll” Rego
All music composed and recorded by Karl “Captain Damage” Kornfeld.

Brewery Description: “A beer that would make the English jealous! This true English Pale Ale is rich and fruity, yet finishes crisp. You’ll love the copper amber color and medium body.”

Brew Style: English Pale Ale, 5.50% ABV

Recommended Glassware: English pint

The Ugly Truth: Alright, four beers down and two more to go for Saranac.  Thank god.  I don’t mind Saranac, but I’m looking forward to getting to the end of this six pack and buying something different.

Saranac Pale Ale poured a deep copper in color, with some light carbonation rising from the bottom.  Finished with an off white foamy head that had decent retention to it but ended up being low.  Which is all fine, right about where a English pale ale should be.

Aroma-wise, really good.  Moderately strong hops aroma, with a little bit of caramel tone to it from some balancing malt.  It had a really balanced mix of the two, with the light malt caramel balancing the hops perfectly.

However, I’m not sure where those things went when it came to the taste.  They completely disappeared on me.  Don’t get me wrong, the taste is pretty good but it didn’t live up to the aroma.  Low hops flavor that didn’t reflect what I found in the aroma, same thing with the malt.  The taste was smooth, though not even remotely bitter.  The hops flavor that was present had a slight citrus tinge to it that worked pretty well.  The low carbonation level lead to a light mouthfeel and body.  The taste was straightforward, with no secondary flavors creeping in to ruin it.  Finish was clean with no strong aftertaste to it.

Overall, its not a bad English pale ale.  It could definitely be stronger in the hops flavor and the malt to make it a better beer.  I personally found it kind of weak for a pale ale even though I liked the taste.  It was an easy drinking beer with nothing crazy to it so it gets a bonus point for simplicity and ease of drinking.

The Verdict: I’m giving it a 7 out of 10 bottlecaps.  Not a bad beer, but not an awesome one either.

My first experience with owning Descent: Journeys in the Dark

How’s that site upgrade coming?

This is also known as the Greater Internet Fetish Theory, and was made hilarious by an XKCD comic.

In simplest terms, if you can think of it, the internet has it. Not sure I buy that, but it got me thinking about some of the more insane things I can think of. This made me realize two things: I am about as screwed up as any person could possibly be, give or take and; There are some truly bizarre things out there on the internet if this is true. For example:

- Sex with jars of peanut butter.
- Sex with jars of chocolate sauce.
- Sex with peanut butter cups for those who cannot decide between the above two.
- Sex with people in ‘bubbles’ who are not allowed contact with the outside world so there is a permanent penis holster installed like the gloves on an incubator.
- Sex with car headrests.
- Sex with television remote controls.
- Sex with the battery slots on power tools.
- Sex with (unloaded) grenade launchers.
- Sex with homemade versions of Cousin It from the Addams Family.

… and so on.

These are the great gifts man has bequeathed upon history. We look at the past and see pyramids. Our descendants will look at us, see the infancy of the global net, and see dudes humping toasters. Awesome.

(This may not be new news to some of you. I just found out about it today because my friends were sheltering me.)

Don S. Davis who portrayed General George Hammond on Stargate SG1, died June 29th of a heart attack.

There are many “geeky” titles among his extensive list of film and TV credits, including The X Files, Twin Peaks, The 6th Day, Highlander (TV), Flash Gordon (TV) and many others. After eight seasons on Stargate SG1, his character was replaced with General Hank Landry, played by Beau Bridges who sucked. Hard.

The Premise: The Red Dragon Inn, published by Slugfest Games, can best be described this way: Imagine you were playing Dungeons and Dragons and you just killed the McGuffin Beast. This would be the drinking party that would ensue once you got back to town to rejoice at The Red Dragon Inn.

Read more of the review for The Red Dragon Inn here.

Brewery:

Brewery Description: “A beer lover’s dream! This classic irish stout and amber lager blend is malty, yet pleasantly bitter with many complex flavor notes. Look for a deep brown-black color and full-body”

Brew Style: Black and Tan (in this case, a stout and an amber), 5.40% ABV

Recommended Glassware: English Pint, Tumbler, Dimpled Mug, Stein

The Ugly Truth: Is so goddamn ugly, I don’t even know where to begin really.  Holy eff’ing sh*t, this stuff sucked donkey balls.  If you don’t know what that experience would be like, ask Carl cause he can tell you (kidding buddy).  I’m not even sure how much of review I feel like writing for this.  Right off the bat though: a prebottled Black and Tan is a god forsaken, incestious crime against beer.  If you want a black and tan, buy the damn beers and make one yourself you freakin’ f*cktard!  They are not that hard to make and probably won’t taste like moose piss.  Let’s give it the usual shakedown just for sh*ts and giggles though, shall we?

Appearence:  The best damn thing about the beer.  A nice dark chestnut brown with some red highlights.  Fairly opaque with moderate carbonation rising from the bottom of the glass.  The head was creamy, fairly large with solid rententaion to it and light tan in nature.

Now, here is where things start to go into the sh*tter.  The aroma.  I’ve got two words for you…DRIED VOMIT.  I kid you not, its the first thing that came into my mind when I smelled it.  Dried vomit.  If I took only a short whiff, I could get it to go as good as stale biscuit/toasted 5 day old bread.  The second I took a nose full of aroma…BAM!!!1  Dried vomit comes right back.  I actually had to make myself take a drink of it, so afraid of the taste I was from the aroma.

The taste, thank god, was a hell of a lot better than the aroma.  Of course, since the aroma was so bad this is the equivalent of saying that a kick in the nuts is preferable to the jumper cables to the balls that you received earlier (wait…can’t resist…South Park moment…I had to kill him.  He shocked Santa’s balls!!).  Still, all told the taste still sucked and was completely unimpressive.  I found the body to be medium at best, with a near complete lack of carbonation to it.  I got some coffee/roasted flavors at the very start, but they died fast.  There was some faint sweetness at the end, but that also died quick.   The finish was nothing impressive, but at least there was some lingering hops aftertaste.  Except that also sucked, because it had a nasty resinous character.  Other than that, I would have rather been drinking water.

Saranac Black and Tan is just flat out not worth the money in my opinion.  The stout and the amber are probably quality beers by themselves, but mixed together they evidently undergo a chemical reaction that produces suckdom.  Like I said before, if you really want one, man up and go buy a six pack of Bass and a four pack of Guinness cans and make one yourself.  Or if you want something different, I used to make something called a Courageous Irish Apple.  Take some Woodpecker hard cider and layer John Courage Amber on top of it.  Damn tasty.

Verdict: It gets a 2 out of 10 bottlecaps, solely because the comment that goes with 2 bottlecaps fits it better.

While I don’t want to give the impression that he gets a pass with such a lame excuse, I do have to give him credit for one of the geekiest excuses I’ve ever heard! Why drink beer and eat barbecue when there’s Orcs to be stuffed in your Bag of Holding?

1) I’ve been playing a lot of new board games since joining a gaming group at a local gaming store down here.

2) We actually appear to have left this part out of the BostonGeek equation

I think that second reason was an oversight on our part.  I’ve played a number of games with both Carl and Colin, so I found it surprising that we didn’t have a secton for it.

EDIT: I’ve been corrected by Dave.  At one point, we did cover board games some.  I’m going to try to get it going again and will probably stick to it unlike my ill fated attempt at book reviews.  I’ve got three guys in my Descent group who, between the three of them, own around 600 games.  Two of them are run demo nights, one for Rio Grande and the other for Slugfest Games.  Gonna be playing a lot of new games.

So while the reviews will be posted on a separate blog, it is really under the BostonGeek umbrella until the site is upgraded.  The first post is up, with a short summary of my first experience with playing Descent: Road to Legends.

So, not only were PS3 owners subjected to a firmware update disaster, but early Dash Express adopters who recently downloaded and installed the JUN08 system update might experience constant rebooting after applying the update.  The kicker:  the only way to fix it is to have your device replaced.  Thankfully, the folks at Dash have consistently treated their customers very well.  This should mean an easy (and free) replacement.

We are writing to let you know that your Dash Express needs to be replaced in order to take advantage of all of our new features.  As one of the very first customers your device has some older hardware and software that has been updated in the final production devices.  If you attempt to install the June08 Update, your Dash Express may completely reboot every time you turn on the device.

Please call Dash Customer Service at (877) 500-3274 Monday - Friday, 9:00 am - 5:00 pm PT and we will process a no cost exchange for you.  Please ignore this email if you have already have contacted Dash Customer Service and had your device replaced since June 30, 2008.

We sincerely apologize for this inconvenience, and we thank you for being one of Dash’s first customers!

1) Descent: Journey into the Dark and possibly the Road to Legends expansion

2) Guitar Hero III for PS2

3) Rock Band for PS2

I’m currently playing Descent and its probably the best dungeon crawler board game I’ve ever played in my life.  However with my limited free time, I’m not sure how much use my own copy would see.  For GH3 and RB, a similiar situation in that I would have time to play at night, but due to the setup of our house I wouldn’t be able to play at night until we get a new TV and I’m not sure when that is happening.  I’ve heard good and bad things for GH3 and RB for PS2, but not enough to turn me off from either.

I hate having to make tough decisions about my toys.

(2:23:19 PM) Carl Reyes: saw ‘Wanted’… good flick
(2:23:28 PM) Carl Reyes: very loosely based on the comic (which I have yet to read)
(2:25:14 PM) Dave @ GTalk: yeah, apparently the only thing that they brought over was the name
(2:25:27 PM) Dave @ GTalk: i thought it was decent. ass-shot of jolie didn’t hurt
(2:27:14 PM) Carl Reyes: basically it’s a confused wanna-be Fight Club successor…
(2:28:29 PM) Carl Reyes: jolie needed a sammich
(2:29:35 PM) Carl Reyes: I’m more into Kiera Knightly anyway. Saw Domino not too long ago…
(2:29:39 PM) Carl Reyes: movie was kinda dumb
(2:29:48 PM) Carl Reyes: lapdance… made it watchable
(2:30:22 PM) Dave @ GTalk: yeah, i saw that in the theater
(2:31:08 PM) Carl Reyes: lapdance… and she looks really good with short hair.
(2:31:35 PM) Carl Reyes: I mean… wow.
(2:31:40 PM) Carl Reyes: she’s only 23, too.
(2:33:48 PM) Carl Reyes: *groan*

(2:33:50 PM) Carl Reyes: Oh no
(2:34:02 PM) Carl Reyes: oh Jesus. Tittyfucking. Christ.
(2:34:16 PM) Carl Reyes: Terminator… Salvation.
(2:34:28 PM) Carl Reyes: Christian Bale as John Connor
(2:34:33 PM) Carl Reyes: Josh Brolin as Terminator
(2:35:00 PM) Carl Reyes: with… Helena Bonham Carter?
(2:35:01 PM) Dave @ GTalk: heh
(2:35:03 PM) Carl Reyes: really?
(2:35:05 PM) Carl Reyes: jesus
(2:35:14 PM) Dave @ GTalk: did i ever get you to watch ‘The Hole’? knightley flashed in that one
(2:35:24 PM) Carl Reyes: hmm
(2:35:30 PM) Carl Reyes: must put in netflix queue
(2:35:42 PM) Dave @ GTalk: also, seriously, fuck the terminator series
(2:35:44 PM) Dave @ GTalk:
(2:36:00 PM) Carl Reyes: it was fucked pretty much at the end of T:2
(2:37:25 PM) Carl Reyes: “I know now why you cry… but it is something I can never do.”
(2:37:31 PM) Carl Reyes: My bowels watered a little bit
(2:37:44 PM) Carl Reyes: Bowel Disruptor ray, right there
(2:38:54 PM) Carl Reyes: also, T-800 can apparently set off a nuclear blast simply by overloading its battery core (according to T:3). Seems like the fucking series could have been 3 fucking movies and a TV series shorter if Arnie had let that shit fly in the first Terminator movie.
(2:39:28 PM) Carl Reyes: continuity notwithstanding, though… it’s given the very cute Summer Glau another show to be sexy and dangerous in.
(2:39:53 PM) Carl Reyes: and after last season’s miniskirts and panties lesson, this season there is supposed to be ‘jealousy’.
(2:40:06 PM) Carl Reyes: and fuck me if I don’t likes me some crazy jealous hot robot chick
(2:41:57 PM) Dave @ GTalk: i couldn’t bring myself to keep watching the series
(2:42:01 PM) Dave @ GTalk: even with summer glau in it

This is why Dave and I need our own review show.

Terrorists, your game is through,
cause now you have to answer to
America! FUCK YEAH!
So lick my butt and suck on my balls!
America! FUCK YEAH!

What you going to do when we come for you now!
It’s the dream that we all share; it’s the hope for tomorrow,
FUCK YEAH!

McDonalds, FUCK YEAH!
Wal-Mart, FUCK YEAH!
The Gap, FUCK YEAH!
Baseball, FUCK YEAH!
NFL, FUCK, YEAH!
Rock and roll, FUCK YEAH!
The Internet, FUCK YEAH!
Slavery, FUCK YEAH!

FUCK YEAH!

Starbucks, FUCK YEAH!
Disney world, FUCK YEAH!
Porno, FUCK YEAH!
Valium, FUCK YEAH!
Reeboks, FUCK YEAH!
Fake Tits, FUCK YEAH!
Sushi, FUCK YEAH!
Taco Bell, FUCK YEAH!
Rodeos, FUCK YEAH!
Bed bath and beyond (Fuck yeah, Fuck yeah)

Liberty, FUCK YEAH!
White Slips, FUCK YEAH!
The Alamo, FUCK YEAH!
Band-aids, FUCK YEAH!
Las Vegas, FUCK YEAH!
Christmas, FUCK YEAH!
Immigrants, FUCK YEAH!
Popeye, FUCK YEAH!
Democrats, FUCK YEAH!
Republicans (republicans)
(fuck yeah, fuck yeah)
Sportsmanship
Books

Any comments or suggestions?
Email: Colin, Carl, Captain Damage
Skype: bostongeek
Voice: 1.617.418.4113

Production Engineer: Carl “Crazylegs” Reyes
Post-production/Editing: Colin “Rock N’ Roll” Rego
All music composed and recorded by Karl “Captain Damage” Kornfeld.

Brewery Description: (from site) “A Bavarian black beer with distinctive carmel malt sweetness and rich creamy trademark head. Flavorful, yet smooth; it is very drinkable!”

Brew Style:Schwarzbier, 5.3% ABV

Recommended Glassware: Flute, pilsner glass

The Ugly Truth: Alright, slowly getting back on track with writing reviews.  Saranac Black Forest.  Not an awesome beer, especially as far as Schwarzbiers go for me, but not a bad beer.  Black Forest pours a deep ruby in color, with a fairly dense blackish/ruby red core to it.  Good color, clean with a moderate carbonation to it.  The head was an light tan in color of moderate size and texture, initially with low rentention but once it settled a bit it lasted much longer.

The aroma was really good, nice and clean with a moderate malt presence and no strong hops contribution.  There was a light sweetness to it, with some of the caramel tones coming through.  I found Black Forest to be a bit on the light side for mouthfeel for a schwarzbier, with moderate carbonation.  The most distinct flavor for me was one not mentioned in the brewery description: bitter chocolate.  Pretty strong flavor actually, but worked for this beer.  The flavor was actually fairly rich for what I felt was a lighter body on the beer than expected.  The flavor wasn’t complex, but what was there was good.  It also sported a fairly prominent malt character to it with a bit of sweetness coming out in the finish and some hops bitterness in the aftertaste.

Overall, pretty good stuff but definitely not the best Schwarzbier I’ve ever had.  The bitter chocolate flavor got balanced out some, but was still the majority of the taste.  Give it a shot, but I’ve reviewed a few other black beers that I think are much better.

Verdcit: I’ll go with a 7 out of 10 bottlecaps on this one.

In (just) two short/long weeks, we will get our first taste of the latest Joss Whedon Joint.  I am not really sure what to make of Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-long Blog.  But, I will certainly have my computer all gassed up and ready to go on July 15th when the first episode of this mini-mini-web-only-series is set free on the internets.  If you haven’t seen it yet, there is a teaser out for it.

“You spoke, and we listened. We are keeping Profiles. Thank you for all the calls and emails telling us how important Profiles are.

We are sorry for any inconvenience we may have caused. We hope the next time you hear from us we will delight, and not disappoint, you.

-Your friends at Netflix”

Kudos Netflix.

“Me? I’m scared of everything. I’m scared of what I saw, I’m scared of what I did, of who I am, and most of all I’m scared of walking out of this room and never feeling the rest of my whole life… the way I feel when I’m with you.”

Any comments or suggestions?
Email: Colin, Carl, Captain Damage
Skype: bostongeek
Voice: 1.617.418.4113

Production Engineer: Carl “Crazylegs” Reyes
Post-production/Editing: Colin “Rock N’ Roll” Rego
All music composed and recorded by Karl “Captain Damage” Kornfeld.

Brewery Description: (from site) This Brown Ale is brewed with American malt and hops, and traditional ale yeast. Look for a sweet, chocolaty taste, with balanced bitterness resulting in a full flavored but smoothly drinkable beer.

Brew Style: American Brown Ale, 6.0% ABV

Recommended Glassware: English pint, Stein, Mug

The Ugly Truth: Yay, a beer review finally.  Sorry once again its been so long in between, I’m going to try and make sure I get back to the at least weekly schedule.  I recently picked up the Adirondack Trail Mix from Saranac, so the next six reviews will all be from that brewery, and I’m going to try and do two a week to get through it and on to other beers.

Alright, Saranac Brown Ale.  I like brown ales.  Sadly, this one, not so much.  I would call this one the hops lover’s brown ale.  I mean I love hops, but not in my brown ales.  So while having hops in there is still in line with the style, I found this to be borderline in its degree of hops and it killed the rest of the flavors for me.

The Brown Ale poured a solid medium to dark brown in color, with a creamy head on it sporting decent retention.   The head was a light tan in color and overall the beer looked really good, strong color and clear.  The aroma had a moderate hops profile, but to me lacked the malt to balance it out especially any chocolate or toasty notes.  The hops profile was lightly citrus in tone, so it did have some of the sweetness expected from a brown ale.

The taste was fairly dry, but not at all sweet or toasty like I’ve had from other brown ales and was distinctly lacking in the expected chocolate flavors the brewery description implies.  Maybe I just missed it or something.  There was this god awful strong citrus hops flavor that seemed to just dry out my mouth and pucker it up.  It wasn’t that pleasant strong hops flavor I like, it was like someone twisted a lemon over my tongue while drinking it.  Very acidic in characters, and completely dominated any of the malt flavors that may have been there.  Fortunately, the finish was crisp and the brown ale didn’t produce a lingering aftertaste.  I think that would have really destroyed any enjoyment I had, little that I did have.

I really didn’t like this beer overall.  It has some good qualities to it, if you like citrus hops flavor then this is one for you.  I found the described sweet and chocolate/toasty malt flavors to be completely lacking, or at least strongly out of balance with the hops profile.  I like most Saranac beers I’ve had, but this one was frankly disappointing for a brown ale in my opinion.  As always, try it for yourself to see.

Verdict: 5 out of 10 bottlecaps.

George Carlin

May 12, 1937 - June 22, 2008

That is so _not_ Tit.

He purchased it, ostensibly, as a way to acquire a supposedly ‘future-proofed’ Blu-Ray player at a reasonable price. I say he’s full of it.

Of course, he had incentive. Thanks to a promotion from everyone’s most-loathed big-box retailer, his final cost ended up being $299 (plus tax and shipping, presumably). This requires a bit of fuzzy math, but that’s the gist of it.

Am I angry or unhappy with his choice? Not particularly. Not being his conjoined… screw it- his siamese- twin, what Colin does in his free time (be it play PS3 or have masturbatory fantasies about his groundhog) is none of my business. But I feel a certain sense of disapproval, disappointment, if you will. Colin is, to his very core, a geek like me. He is as aware of the excesses of Sony’s corporate strategies as I am. And he doesn’t care.

Rootkits, the RIAA, the MPAA, ludicrous copyright claims… take your pick of Sony antics. They are the robber-barons of the electronics age. But their slick packaging and quiet Blu-Ray and built in DVD upscaling and their interface are apparently a lure too sweet to resist.

Well, not to me. I will never buy a Playstation 3. In fact, Colin will have to watch his PS3 carefully to make sure I don’t carry out my desire to place my testicles into it’s blue-lasered maw for a gentle suckling.

*DISCLAIMER: I own a Sony-Ericsson phone. The w810i. I purchased it through Amazon and MADE $100 on the deal. Every man has his price.

Actually it’s our wisdom. No, really! Look for it, it’s in there. We’ll wait…

No? Hrm. Well then ask yourself this, Neo… is the wisdom lacking, or are you just not ready to hear it?

Any comments or suggestions?
Email: Colin, Carl, Captain Damage
Skype: bostongeek
Voice: 1.617.418.4113

Production Engineer: Carl “Crazylegs” Reyes
Post-production/Editing: Colin “Rock N’ Roll” Rego
All music composed and recorded by Karl “Captain Damage” Kornfeld.

No really. This is all my fault. Unconscionable, really. Inexcusible.

I mean it. As I sit here, flaggelating myself with an actual cat-o-nine-tails, I am reminded of just how incredibly painful a cat-o-nine-tails actually is.

Any comments or suggestions?
Email: Colin, Carl, Captain Damage
Skype: bostongeek
Voice: 1.617.418.4113

Production Engineer: Carl “Crazylegs” Reyes
Post-production/Editing: Colin “Rock N’ Roll” Rego
All music composed and recorded by Karl “Captain Damage” Kornfeld.

Roman Glass Gaming Die

Dated circa 2nd century A.D. I love this part:

Lot Notes: Several polyhedra in various materials with similar symbols are known from the Roman period. Modern scholarship has not yet established the game for which these dice were used.

Several polyhedra? A d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, maybe? You know they were slaying dragons back in the day.

(via BoingBoing)