19.1.13

Lifehacking

Coolest recycling project to date: full-size mattress-turned-couch!






































We used ratchet cinch straps to help bend it and hold it in place, then covered it with an old fitted sheet and threw some pillows on it. Now we can get rid of the wobbly computer chair!

[We didn't get this idea from Lifehacker, but I would highly recommend the website for other DIY and recycling projects]

Homebrew Alley 7

Don and I are entering three of our brews into the New York City Homebrewer's Guild's annual competition, Homebrew Alley !

The grand prize is unbelievable: getting to brew 15bbls (beer barrels, or 31 gallons) of your recipe at Sixpoint Brewery. The first, second, and third prizes are markedly less astonishing (gift cards to local brew stores) -- but I'm excited just to enter, let alone even dream of winning. The only one that I think might have the best chance is our Stinky Cider, which we entered in the "Other (Cider)" category, since it's a traditional cider brewed with a weizen yeast. The Fat Wizard Wheat is in the "Weizen/Weissbier" category, and the Big Nuts Christmas Stout is in the "Russian Imperial Stout" category, both of which I'm assuming will probably have a lot of entries.

This is a big step in our brewing careers! I'm so pumped!

Fat Wizard Wheat, circa November 2012

15.1.13

Al Jazeera

The Times definitely isn't headlining this stuff!


In Pictures: India's Kumbh Mela Festival





I'm excited about Al Jazeera's purchase of Current from Al Gore, though it might be awhile before racist executives allow it to broadcast anything...

14.1.13

Get Scared

Pollution levels in Beijing yesterday.

It scored at 755 out of 500 ("Crazy Bad"), which is like failing an exam by getting a -30 as your grade.

By contrast, New York City scored a 19 out 500.

Only a matter of time!!

10.1.13

NYE + good riddance

Spent another New Year's Eve atop Steve's apartment building on 54th Street! Ridiculous to be so high above so many frozen, silly people. Apparently the New Year's Eve "screen" starts counting down from 50 instead of 10... meh.







































I am very glad 2012 is over. The calendar year means less to me than the change of seasons, but I am forcing myself to accept something symbolic about the start of a new year, just to be hopeful.

2012 was probably the most difficult year of my little life -- at least, post-Yosemite (June-December). I spent all my savings, started hating a job I once loved, stressed myself out to the point of mania, had some typical and deeply disturbing quarter-life crisis realizations (e.g., I've wasted my life developing skills I don't want, I've alienated everyone I love, I need to live in the mountains, etc.), saw the death of my hedgehog, stopped sleeping. I have also spent all of my vacation days until April 1st, so a mental health day or two is out.

I tried to do some reparations over the holidays, for which I had minimal time off. I've found that sleeping more resolves about 75% of the problems, but is only possible when, in the zero-sum game of life, I sacrifice other time-consuming tasks like cleaning, playing my violin, and hanging out with Don. I'm currently revising how I approach these three things.

On the bright side, I did pretty well in my Syntax I class






































and learned some unwelcome but necessary lessons about working, the office, and "best practices." I would say I'm a wiser and better-equipped human being -- which I suppose is the most anyone can say after each successive year of life -- but am still pretty bitter about it. I feel delicate and bruised, as if personal growth battered my insides.