Decent Mess Eh, it works

Batman Drinking Game

In celebration of that one movie coming out this weekend, I went ahead and made a printable board game just for you - it's the Batman Drinking Game!! Yeah. I thought you might like it. It's kind of a first draft, so let me know how you feel about it before I update the lil guy again.

Click through to its own page to see the whole thing & print it out & show everybody how cool you can be.

“Beer Here!”

Something weird happened when I came to the UK. I tried a lot of beer, and most of it, I didn’t like. It wasn’t the room temperature of it, nor was it the lack of carbonation or its “flatness”. Putting it bluntly, the beers just weren’t interesting enough. Nothing struck me---good or bad---with a “whoa that’s different” moment. It’s like in older movies, where at a crime scene the cops shoo away onlookers, “Move along, nothin’ to see here! Nothin’ to see here!”

I wasn’t resolved in this opinion, but I was puzzled. What the hell is going on? We’re only separated by the Atlantic Ocean. How are the beer flavors and options so different… and so, honestly, lacking.

Liquid Warmth

There's something warming about simply bringing up the topic of winter warming beverages, they're like magic god-trumping elixirs of fortitude. So which is mightier, the sweater or the bottle? (what's worth drinking?)

No one really likes the idea of itchy, wool sweaters. I guess they’re manageable for at least the first hour of a Christmas sweater party, but at some precise and unconscious point we shed them, and toss them in the corner (often for the party host to throw away the next day).  Aside from just being uncomfortably removed, something additional is occurring. Sweaters aren’t being shed. They’re being replaced. As liquid sweaters begin to wear themselves upon their owners, wool sweaters are subconsciously made unnecessary and irrelevant.

It’s funny how the dismissal, or negation of something uncomfortable can give birth to something so much more useful and comforting. This is the idea behind winter warmers.

A Means of Classification – Party Beers

I’m doing a Master’s program here in the UK. So far, so good. In fact, so far it’s been a shit-ton easier than I’d imagined. This week’s been a rough one, though. In the UK model of higher education, you’re more on your own throughout the term than what I was used to back in the states. Consequently, there aren’t as many (if any at all) assignments to benchmark your progress throughout the term.

With this in mind, and in embracing English culture, I dedicated many working hours to the pub. And so began a maiden voyage.

I like beer. I like many different types of beers, for different reasons. I think that value of a given beer need not be solely based on it’s flavor. I think that when buying beer, drinking context ought to be considered (Who are you drinking with and why? Are you telling your friend she's fat? Are you celebrating your Guinea pig's new babies? Or are you just hanging out?) In placing our beer in context we may more specifically judge its value/worth/utility to us (this certainly goes for many types of alcohol as well).

I want to classify beer differently, and this is how.

Yao Ming Makes Wine, Ditka Makes Champions

The 7'6'' former NBA star retired from basketball last year, and no longer will his feet stomp the paint, but instead, grapes. Yao Ming’s interest in wine probably has something to do with the current Chinese Wine Boom , but, die-hard fans aside, who thought this sounded appealing?

According to a few blogs, he’s collaborated with wine consultants to get the ball rolling (bouncing? dribbling?). The wine experts said their goal was to “[get] to know him in a way so [we] could express his personality in the wine … He's physically imposing, but he's also very personable and gentle. We wanted to capture that in the wine.” (There’s a joke in that quotation somewhere.) Honestly, though, if they’re marketing the wine as a taste of his personality, it sounds pretty fucking boring. Despite being ridiculously tall, Yao Ming didn’t exactly bring much personality to the court.

So, this got me thinking, who else is “expressing their personality” in wine right now?