Jim’s Blog

A friend recently remarked to me, “I thought you’d be more excited.”

Don’t get me wrong. I supported Obama from the beginning, was a little put off by the VP choice, and wound up standing in line to vote for him. I’m stoked. Really stoked.

My excitement is measured by concern. It’s going to take a lot of work to accomplish the things he’s promised. I’ll meter out my excitement with each of those accomplishments.

I’m still concerned for education, the state of innovation, the future of the internet. I’ve been promised change, and I can’t wait to see it.

If this election has accomplished anything, it’s motivated me. In the coming weeks, I’ll be writing to my representatives to tell them how I think things should be.

Issue #1: The abolishment of the penny.

I’ll look back on this day and say, “I was there.”

Once again, it’s been a while since I’ve posted.

I’m still working on my iPhone app. I’m still not getting as much time to work on it as I’d like. I think I’m about 75% done. I’ve finally approached some people about artwork for it. I’m going to be stoked when this leg of it’s done. Unfortunately, what the say is true. Software is never finished. I have a ton of ideas for improvements, and I’m sure some bugs will slip through.
Development has definitely gotten easier since Apple has dropped the developer NDA. I fixed an issue I had stewed on for two weeks with a quick google search.

Isha and I started brewing some hard apple cider yesterday. We picked up some fresh, unpasturized cider from an orchard in South Eastern Michigan. Tasty stuff. I hope it turns out well. I wound up combining a few recipes and using champagne yeast, which should make it a bit dry.
Brewing cider is way easier than brewing beer. One thing that sucks is that the ferment time makes rapid iteration impossible, and I’m hesitant to make a lot of batches at once. There’s only a small window to pick up fresh cider. We’ll see how it turns out. There’s always next year, I suppose.

I picked up Ken Schram’s book on mead making while I was in BG. I’m loving the book. He’s clearly a nut, and I’m learning a ton of new words. I respect an author who’s not afraid to use obscure phrases.
He laid out the book really well, starting off with the basics and clear steps for making your first batch, and moves onto advanced stuff from there.

Beyond that, life is relatively quiet. Programming, cooking, sleeping, the regular stuff.

My kingdom for the person who brings me a steak. Medium rare, please.

Today, I plugged my phone into my car and listened to a set of songs chosen based on my interest which were streamed from the internet. As I was hurtling back to where I sleep, it dawned on me just how fucking sweet that is.

Technology and the internet have changed everything.

Isha and I havested the jalapenos from my garden and concocted something spicy and delicious.

I helped Derek brew two batches of homebrew beer today. It’s not difficult, I enjoyed it, and it’s certainly worth the result. I don’t think I’ll be able to do it for as cheap as I’d like in these hard times, but I think I’m going to try to start with small batches and with bare bones equipment.
I took some pictures with my cell phone. I’m not sure how well they came out, but you’ll take what I give you, damn it.

This is the cake we got for Mean Stef. It was glorious.

I want to get something etched into my laptop, but haven’t decided what. Here’s what I have so far:

• Octopus
• Line Drawing of a Chinchilla with a spiked collar

I demand suggestions!