127 thoughts on “December 14: International Brew”

  1. One month to go and I've hit the wall on this print. This is the most ambitious project I've ever attempted, and now I'm just trying not to screw it up.

    1. my mom is notorious for not knowing when to stop on her paintings. I remember many a time my brother and I would tell her that it looked great and then a week later not so much

      1. It's hard enough to figure out when a script is right - it's easy to take out jokes because they're not funny the 50th time you read them, so you have to remember why they were funny in the first place. I can't even imagine trying to figure out when a work of visual art was done.

        1. I'm never really done working on a project until I move on to a new subject. I tend to make an image, see the problems, and then try to fix them while working on the next image which will have problems of it's own.

          I'm currently working on a diptych that in the end should be around 17 colors. I want to be finished with the stencils, and the key drawing, by the end of the evening, but I'm not going to push myself to the point where I'm unhappy with the result.

          Finishing work has never been a problem for me as the images are mostly stuck in my head fighting to make it onto the stone. If there's going to be a problem it'll be with the design and layout of the image, and for that sometimes you just have to walk away from a project that isn't working.

          1. Finishing work has never been a problem for me as the images are mostly stuck in my head fighting to make it onto the stone.

            Hot damn, but I find that concept beautiful. I feel that way about writing - the characters know what they need to say, and all I have to do is sit there in front of the laptop and listen until they're done talking.

            sometimes you just have to walk away from a project that isn't working.

            Heartbreaking but true. I walked away from the first major project I ever tried to write. It was wrenching, but within a month, my mind was flooded with new ideas and it hasn't stopped since. I had to let go of the labor of love to allow my real creativity in.

            1. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.....

              It's more crazy than romantic to have these ideas and images knocking about in my brain, and terribly frightening when I find myself without them around. I once heard that Mozart would pray at night for god to silence the music in his head, and that Beethoven would pray at night for god to give him just one more song. I've always thought that a beautiful way to sum up the creative process.

              Tom Waits is also said to talk to his songs, sometimes violently, while he is making a record.

              1. Ooh, I like that Mozart/Beethoven thing. I hope it's true, because I'm going to start using it.

                And, yes, I hate the blank page as much as any other writer.

    2. Good luck. Go to the nearest pub and just go nuts. I used to write a bunch doing that. Then again, it's easier to correct typos than printing plates the next morning.

    3. My guess is that in this, as in many things, your first instinct is the best. Best wishes to you.

  3. Thanks, meat. I'm sick again (going on probably about the eighth day out of the last twenty), but that usually doesn't preclude me from remembering the brew.

      1. What I have is more annoying than anything at this point. I'm hacking up stuff that reminds me of when I was quitting smoking and I have a headache, but the nausea is gone. I normally set them up the day before anyway. I don't know why I missed it. But, thanks.

        1. I updated the theme recently. It's probable that some Atahualpa headers are mixed in with the WGOM ones.

          2. Yeah, I updated FileZilla, but can't find the generic headers in the usual spot. It finally forced me to retire some banners, though, so there's that.

      1. agreed. It was a 5-4 Wild advantage, but the Jets were dominate during and after that. I told my brother the Wild will be lucky to escape with 1 point, and here they didnt get any points

        good game tonight, Chicago in town and its on Versus. I would if the Wild will have any legs left and that game last night

  8. Bad news: next year I will have no paid time off, apart from six holidays
    Good news: my salary will be increased to compensate for the lost paid time off
    Better news: I think the increase may be applied to my future OT hours as well *crosses fingers*

    Apparently others in the company are raising a stink, but if the compensation offsets the lost PTO (and you're fiscally responsible enough to "bank" the extra pay towards the days you take off without pay) it's no more than a little hassle. I think HR is trying to standardize PTO among the different work plans within the company.

    1. That is a strange way to handle PTO for workers paid hourly. Not that I have a lot of different job experience to draw from, but I've never heard of doing it that way before.

        1. That's what my last three employers have called the vacation/sick/personal time that you accrue each pay period, whether you are hourly or salaried. Like I said, that's just my experience, and I know companies and state laws vary considerably.

    2. Assuming you're a nonexempt employee as defined by the Dept. of Labor, then you must be paid 1.5 times your hourly wage for any hours over 40 in a week. Hopefully, the pay raise won't bump you into a different tax bracket, or you could end up paying more on taxes. Of course, that would just mean a bigger tax return, but that money can be put to better use throughout the year.

      That is an interesting concept, paying more in salary instead of PTO. I'm guessing that is the company's way of preventing people from compiling a lot of PTO. I assume they still limit how much time off you can take throughout the year?

      1. No time-and-a-half for me. I don't think the pay raise will bump me up a bracket, but the lump sum check next quarter for my currently accumulated vacation time will be a sweet check.

        There isn't really a limit on how much time off a person can take, as such, but you must work X hours per month, which accomplishes the same thing.

        1. OK, but if they are calling it a raise in salary instead of PTO, I don't think they can get away with paying you less for OT.

          2. They haven't actually said that they're paying me less for OT. They also haven't said that they're paying me the same for OT, either, but that's what I'm assuming for now. I get my share of OT in a year, so this is where I believe things will work out for my good.

  9. From a Brewers-loving friend of mine, wrestling with the Braun situation:

    So yesterday’s theory on Brew Crew Ball is that it was a herpes medication that caused the high testosterone levels. (He had this massive welt on his face throughout the end of the year and playoffs). Somehow this puts me in the “I hope it’s only herpes and cocaine” camp—which is just a really weird camp to be in.

    1. I love how serious baseball fans take baseball. Better it be an STD that everyone knows about than something that makes our left fielder hit better! That'll be fun to explain to the kids.

      2. Not hard to explain. He took some medicine for a medical problem that made people think he had taken PEDs.

      3. Would I rather my favorite player be a douche or cheat at baseball? I'd go with be a douche too, I guess. But it is an awkward thing to route for.

      4. Just to be clear, if he had a facial welt due to herpes, it was probably HSV1 (the same virus which causes cold sores), not HSV2, in which case it's likely there's nothing sexual about it.

        1. Yeah, but that's not as fun.

          And realistically, if it turns out to be herpes of either kind, fans at large will go with the sexual version, even if it's not.

    1. I would support that. Ryan and Smith seem to have a good relationship, and Smith was well respected as an assistant. I think it's a good move for the Twins.

  13. @LindsayGuentzel #Twins offer to Cuddyer still on the table. If he stays, was told to expect Span to be moved for pitching.

    1. Ham in left and Cuddy in right with Revere in CF. Hmmm, two guys with no range and one with no arm. Slowey is so happy to be in Colorado.

    2. This is quite possibly the stupidest imaginable thing the Twins could do. I can't wrap my head around it. Completely idiotic.

      1. Massive hyperbole alert. I can imagine thousands of stupider things they could do. Signing Dmitri Young out of retirement to a $87M/7 year contract to be our new closer would be one of them. But yeah, let's deal a good, cheap, young leadoff CF while his stock is questionable due to concussions.

        1. Oh I'm being hyperbolic for sure, partly because I think hyperbole is the greatest thing ever. I maybe should've worded that slightly differently; I can imagine a lot of really dumb things, but those I don't see the front office actually doing.

          This I could see the front office doing. And that's why it upsets me so much.

        2. Span isn't that young, really. He'll turn 28 in February, which certainly isn't old, but it's not like he's a kid. Plus, he really hasn't had a good offensive year since 2009. I'm not saying I want to dump him, but let's not overrate him, either.

          2. All good points, but I think in the end, Span's expected contributions outweigh what he gets paid, and if Cuddyer signs with the Twins, Cuddyer's expected contributions will match his pay. (One would expect, it could go either way, of course.)

            The flip side of the argument is that if Span's expected contributions outweigh his pay, then he's a valuable trading chip, and since the Twins could use more pitching, maybe it's easier to get pitching by trading Span than it is to get pitching through the free agent market, which is probably why you'd sign Willingham and Cuddyer only to trade Span.

  14. my travels took me to Albert Lea and back today, and overheard at the table next to me at Taco Johns were two guys summing up my feelings about the Cuddy/Willingham situation: 'I like Cuddy, but if its going to cost the Twins a lot of money, I would rather have Willingham' and other level headed baseball talk. It was weird to hear a baseball conversation at a random place, and not have it boil down to 'he sucks/he rocks'

    also, driving along I-90 this afternoon was crazy because I was driving through a good old fashioned rain storm with rain so heavy it was about a half mile visibility. Havent had one of those since about the 4th of July

    2. Growing up here, I never liked Taco Johns. Then, once I moved back in 2006, I suddenly discovered I loved Taco John's. I wish I could explain it.

      1. Im not the biggst fan of Taco Johns, but its ten thousand times better than Taco Bell. I usually go to a ma and pa Mexican store when in Albert Lea (its call The Taco King), but damn those Nacho Navidad commercials got to me

        1. I avoid anything with ground beef (bef?) at Taco Bell, but I really like its steak taquitoes and chicken burritos.

        2. I'm always surprised when I happen to hear "Feliz Navidad" on the radio and remember that it's an actual song and not just a commercial jingle.

      2. growing up in Spamtown, TJs was the sum total of "hispanic" culture and cuisine available. There was a mexican restaurant in Albert Lea, but ~15 miles for dinner? Crazy talk. So, I learned about "soft tacos," burritos, and hot sauce from TJs. I don't eat there anymore (why would I? I have access to awesome taquerias and mexican restaurants), but I retain some small, nostalgic soft spot in my heart for TJs.

  15. interesting signing by the Twins (twitter)

    LaVelleNeal
    #twins have signed Sean Burroughs to a minor league deal with an invite to spring training.

    1. He was pretty good in limited action in AAA last year. Could be a useful player for Rochester.

    2. Well, he did tremendously well in AAA last year (in 102 at-bats) and didn't stink it up when called up to the majors. He could help at Rochester and be a short-term solution if Valencia got hurt. He won't really be blocking anybody. I kind of like it.

  16. The Yu Darvish posting derby is over. I'm excited to see who won the bid. I tweeted at Dave St. Peter that they should make a bid, if they didn't I can't even explain how upset I'll be!!!1111!11!1

  17. Guys, I will likely be off the radar for the next several days. My stepfather of 28 years was killed in a workplace accident today, and we're headed there immediately.

    2. Backstrom hasn't sucked as much this year in the shootout, but man did he look lost tonight. That second guy just toyed with him.

      1. Really? That Kane move was sick. I'm more irritated by Toews walking down the middle and firing it through Backstrom five hole.

        Of course, Cullen wishes he had Kane's moves and Heatley didn't even get a shot off. Shootouts are dumb.

          1. YUCK! I didn't know you could just stop in front of the net, slide the puck back-and-forth until the goalie wears out, then flick it in when he falls down. Backstrom didn't even lift the paddle he was so tired.

            2. you cant full stop, Kane still had momentum towards the net. PM Bouchard being out hurts us on the penalty shot. Sounds like Lantandresse is going to be out again with a concussion. Its amazing the Wild have so many points with a lot of players being hurt.

              Listening to the Versus announcers make me wonder why FSN North cant get top notch play by play and color guys in their booth. Case in point, one of the guys noted that Koivu was on the bench and the Chicago coach put Toews back out on the ice and he scored the goal when Koivu had been marking him all night. You never hear that much 'inside hockey' on a FSN broadcast

        2. yeah, the move was sick. I can't imagine any goalie stopping him there. But I still think Backstrom looked a bit lost.

          2. Moss likes that approach. Gaborik always made the HUGE mistake of rushing towards the net as fast as he could. But that made it easy for the goalie to track with him. Slow is the way to go.

            Wouldn't Backstrom be better served by getting out from the net and trying to poke check it away or at least disrupt all the stickhandling?

  21. He gone.

    The Clippers are sending the Hornets four of their best assets: shooting guard Eric Gordon, who turns 23 this month; a 2012 first-round draft pick that belonged to the Minnesota Timberwolves; the promising young forward Al-Farouq Aminu; and center Chris Kaman, whose expiring contract will help the Hornets lower their payroll.

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