Options for the geek.

When you realize you are geeky, even among the company of the somewhat geeky world of social media, you clearly have a problem.  Something must be done.  I sat down, thought about it, and have come up with the following solutions.

1. Get out entirely.  Clearly social media has infected you and you have embarrassed yourself and are dragging your family down with you.  Just stop altogether.

2. Reform.  Slow down.  Try to be cool.  Comment on mainstream topics like, Duck Dynasty, the latest season of LOST, Justin Beber, or the new baby king George... I wonder it they named him after George Zimmerman...hmm?  (Stop it, that's the kind of geekery that is inexcusable and intolerable.)

3. Embrace it.  Face it, you are a bit weird, strange even, or potentially just plain mad.  There is nothing wrong with this...is there?

Faced with the decision of which way to go, I thought of a few random  things.

Alice Cooper.

Photo by KeithKoelger Photography, creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/

Lewis Carol.

Alice: But I don't want to go among mad people.

The Cat: Oh, you can't help that. We're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad.
Alice: How do you know I'm mad?
The Cat: You must be. Or you wouldn't have come here.

Thomas Edison.  "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."

Edison and the Phonograph, Public Domain

Bad Religion.



Albert Einstein.  "The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination." and "Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds."

My decision seems clear to select option #3 above.  But what does all this mean?  Maybe it doesn't mean anything.

Freaking Wil Wheaton had a beer named after him.  All he did to earn it was be a geek.  And then there are some geeky bloggers who decide to get together and collaborate on a beer review...each reviewing the same beer and posting on each other's blogs. Completely mad, right?  Perhaps.

But you won't want to miss it on Monday.

Another blog post from two years ago - Grab their attention right away

All I had to do was push start and all my headaches would go away.  Tumble tumble reeouwww reouwww!!!  Was it my lucky day?  The cat that I hate the most, the orange one, was sitting in the washing machine, minding his own business.  Now's my chance!  Slam the door and push start.

There are many ways to start a speech (or a blog post for that matter).  There is a sure way to gain interest from the listeners... Grab their attention right away.  Get right into a story.  Say something shocking.  Say something strange.

Never start with a joke.  If is sucks, you will suck.  Never apologize.  Some will start a speech with something like, "I'm a bit nervous" or "I'm not a good speaker."  Well duh, nor will you ever be.  If you think you are no good, they will never think otherwise.\

The same can apply to writing.  If you don't gain and keep their attention, you will lose the reader.

Think about it next time. 

(short, sweet and no filler fluff)

And that was the blog post from two years ago today.  It has nothing to do with beer.  Dang!

My blog post from two years ago today.

I spent a few minutes rummaging through some old blog posts and I came across this one, from June 14, 2011.  (Not on this site, but another blog platform.)

Looking back, I wonder how to best measure ways I've progressed since.  Or have I?

I have almost completed the fourth book of what my wife calls my "Summer Reading" list.  My list is quite themed, and I'm not sure of the original reason behind it...other than the books interest me and I find myself clicking the Kindle page forward button until late into the night.
The list began with Mustaine: A Heavy Metal Memoir, followed by Red: My Uncensored Life in Rock by Sammy Hagar.   Lots of rock 'n roll, girls, drugs, alcohol, highs, lows... exciting stuff!  I though it would mellow out a bit with Eric Clapton's autobiography next, but he was just as interesting.  The most difficult thing in all this is to figure out who did the most drugs, drank the most alcohol or shagged the most groupies.  As I've always said about celebrities, "they are not normal people."
Yet, as crazy as their lifestyles may seem to a "normal" hard working American like myself, there is something I envy in each of these guys.  No, not the drugs, sex, fame, fortune, or even a Ferrari or two in the driveway (well maybe the Ferrari).  It excites me that they actually did something extraordinary.  They had a dream and chased it.  They had a talent and maximized it.  They went into the world and conquered it.  And me... I get up, go to work, come home, eat dinner, check out my social networking sites, read, go to bed and then start it all over again.  And it all seems much too ordinary.  I want more!
I need to find my dream again, chase something bigger, conquer another mountain, and maximize my time here.  Great! Go! Just do it!  Easily said...
I keep reading.  I am now toward the end of I Am Ozzy, and I must say Ozzy is far from the normal bloke.  Some crazy stories, Ozzy tells.
I get tired of normal.  To become extraordinary, we've got to get beyond just the ordinary.  Perhaps I'll find my way someday, and in the meantime I'm reading.... and enjoy some good music.

What is my passion?  What is your passion?  And what are we doing about it?  Hmm.

Rock On!!!

What did I blog about this time last year?

Good question.  And wow, it's not too surprising that it is very similar to what I blog about today.  Check this out from March 6, 2012, posted on a different platform.

My ninth batch of homebrew is fermenting, and I’m still as enthused about this hobby as I was when I first began.  If you think about it, Homebrewing is the one hobby that actually provides a return on investment.  I enjoy golf, but at the end of the 4 hours, the $30+ dollars are gone (along with about 8-10 balls).  With brewing, after all the hobby stuff is complete (creating the recipe, purchasing the ingredients, brewing, cleaning, waiting, worrying, bottling, waiting, wondering), the best is still waiting for you… drinking.
An additional bonus for me (as a wanna-be artist) has been in naming and designing the labels of the different beers.  This has been the most enjoyable aspect of this hobby for me.  Don't get me wrong, the beer is very good (especially the Imperial IPA).  Creating the concepts and graphics for each variety has been fun and continues to enhance my creativity.  The latest label is for the Belgian Witbier, Lunargaarden.

Pretty cool, huh?  I think so.
Cheers!

 How time flies!  I can't believe that was my ninth batch of beer back then.  I seemed to have lost count now...which is a shame.  My batch and recipe logging has changed some over the months, and I'm not sure everything is in one place anymore.

Anyway....