Sunday, July 08, 2007

6/7/07 Posting from douglasmyers.net

6/7/07 - To quote Alice Cooper, "School's out for summer!" Between final exams and a home computer crash, updates were set aside 'til quieter times arrived. Now I've got a homebrewed Oatmeal Molasses Stout in hand (I like to call it a "Moatmeal" Stout - packed with flavor & incredibly full-bodied). Check these out too - Florida State crocs! My better half bought me a pair as a present. How sweet is she? For several weeks I'm sans students. That’s when I get to become more of a student myself. About what? Homebrew, discipline, & discovering where certain stories will lead. Have an idea simmering for the next novel, but have to finish Lost Angels (working title) first. That is THE GOAL for this summer. Have schedule planned out and will stick to it. Selah.

Walter Mosley – Great excerpt on NPR.org about writing from Mr. Mosley. Not quite as captivating as Steven Pressfield’s, but excellent nonetheless.

Dodgers: Fell out of 1st place. 34 – 25 record. 1.5 games back. Great the see the Yankees struggle. Hope the Red Sox pull out to a 20 game lead. Not that I’m a fan of either team, but the BoSox are the lesser of two evils (American League & Northern/"Yankee" teams).

Star Wars Revealed: Memorial Day on History Channel. DVR’d it. Haven’t sat down and watched it yet, but from the previews it looks fascinating. Universality of Mentor and Pupil relationship and its lifespan. Yoda = a Buddha-inspired figure. X-Wing fighter = a P-51 Mustang inspired fighter. The Stormtroopers parallel to Hitler’s army. Fascinating too because Star Wars is full of so many archetypal heroes and hero journeys as outlined by Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces. In fact Campbell once claimed George Lucas was his best student.

My Lawn: The once green, lush yard now resembles a crispy, crunchy corn field three weeks after a harvest. Water for an hour one day, two days later it’s back to crunchville. Such is the life of grass in clay soil in the afternoon sun. Put Grubex down a couple weeks ago, and applied Scott's Southern TurfBuilder last week. Don’t have any bug or pest ailments, so did not use Summerguard this year. That advice comes straight from some experts on the Scotts.com discussion forum, i.e., some people with much more time on their hands & the experience to back it up.

Homebrew: As previously mentioned and referred to as my Moatmeal Stout, brewed a batch of Stout a couple weeks ago. Stepped up to an intermediate level of brewing with a mix of extract & specialty grains. It was an Oatmeal Stout and I added one cup of molasses to the wort. Would love to find a clone for Bridgeport’s Black Strap Molasses Stout, but haven’t been successful in my search. Made two “mistakes” in the Moatmeal's brewing process – didn’t strain out all the hops when racked to primary fermenter & did not add Irish moss. Massive amount of blow off. Probably lost close to a gallon worth of brew. Racked to secondary fermenter five days after pitching the yeast. By the way, the recipe called for 2 packs of yeast. Seems like way to much after the amount of blow off I experienced. Looking to brew a Blode Ale within the next week or two. Will bottle so as easy to carry down to the beach. Cheers!