Beer In Review - Blackberry Brawl

Blackberries seem to be one of those neglected berries in food and drink. In beer, it's taken a backseat to blueberries, strawberries, raspberries and even apricots. But I've got two blackberry ales, one old and one new, for the summer sampling.

Long Trail has been making their Blackbeary Wheat since 1996. No, that's not a typo. Bears are their mascots and so the opportunity for a pun was irresistible. Long Trail states that its an American Wheat Ale, golden in color and brewed with Two-Row and Wheat Malt with Nugget hops. 4.0% ABV. On the pour, I got a straw-yellow colored beer with plenty of white head. There's a faint scent of blackberry which doesn't increase much on the tongue. It's very light-bodied with just a twinge of hops. It's smooth and finishes clean. While it's available year round, it's quite a refreshing summer beer.

The ever creative Boston Beer company added blackberries to their witbier to create Blackberry Witbier. It's a similar drinking experience. An ample white head sits on a pale yellow body (Sam says "hazy gold"). Again, there's a faint scent of blackberry which barely increases its presence on the tongue. There's no hops or malt character to it at all, though Sam says that there's Hallertau hops and various pale malts. There's also claims of orange peel and coriander but I'd think you'd need a gas chromatograph to detect them. 5.5% ABV. It might sound like I'm dissing this beer, but I'm not (I explain below). Like Long Trail, it's available year round but is best served as a summer refreshment.

The beers I review here are poured into a simple pint glass and then evaluated. I've noticed that many a beer will have a different character if it's left in the bottle versus being released in a glass. I didn't get into IPA's until I had them in pint glasses. Like wine, some styles need to breathe. I know that makes sound like a beer snob. Oh well.

Any beer fanatic will tell you that different brews belong in different glasses. I'm guessing that a Weizen glass would probably be best here, but don't sweat it if you don't feel like breaking out the easy-to-spill container or don't have one. Drink them out of the bottle. Seriously. I had a much better tasting experience drinking these two straight out of the bottle compared to the pint glass. The hops and blackberry flavors are lost sitting in an open glass. The narrow opening of the bottle helps to contain their characters and only releases them when you bring the bottle to your lips.

I really can't say which is better. My wife likes Sammy's offering, but she hasn't had Long Trail yet. To me, this "brawl" is a tie. I like them both, but only in the bottle and during the summer.

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My Music Library - 1973

Now we're in the thick of it. 1973 was one of those meat and potatoes years for classic rock. You had debuts from Aerosmith, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Foghat, and Queen. The Eagles released Desperado. Wings told us about the Band on the Run. ZZ Top was Tres Hombres. Emerson, Lake & Palmer underwent Brain Salad Surgery. The Steve Miller Band told us about The Joker while David Bowie was Aladdin Sane. Billy Joel was The Piano Man while the Rolling Stones concocted Goat's Head Soup. Deep Purple forgot who they were and asked the question, Who Do We Think We Are?. Many a fan wondered that themselves. Jethro Tull blathered on about A Passion Play while Steely Dan held a Countdown to Ecstasy. Black Sabbath had Sabbath Bloody Sabbath and Yes recounted Tales From Topographic Oceans.

But I'm not going to talk about any of those albums. I'm sticking with my top three.

How do you follow up one of the best selling albums in all rock-n-roll creation? By spreading your creative wings and daring your fans to follow.

Houses of the Holy marked a major change for Led Zeppelin. Like III, their first attempt at broadening their sound, Led Zeppelin felt it was time again to change before they became stale. The blues rock foundation diminished, to be replaced by a diverse arrangement of musical styles. "D'yer Mak'er" goes the reggae route while "The Crunge" has a particular funk to it. "The Rain Song" is a mellotron-laden ballad that sounds damn near orchestral. "Over the Hills and Far Away" offers jangly acoustic guitars to accompany the medley. My favorite song from the album, "No Quarter," is drenched with keyboards and is a dark and haunting piece. "The Ocean", which closes the album, features an a capella break in the middle of the song and a bit of a doo wop vocal during the song's closing jam. It nonetheless carries a signature Page riff.

The band doesn't completely abandon their old sound though. "The opening guitar riff in "Dancing Days" is vintage Page. "The Song Remains The Same", which kicks off the album is a multi-layered jam. While it might come across as too much mid-range clean strumming, Page is all over the place and hits the distortion pedal towards the hallelujah peak of his fretwork.

While the album had its detractors, it was a big AOR hit. Many songs hit heavy rotation and stayed there. Unlike most transition albums, Zep made a solid musical statement with Houses of the Holy and it heralded the coming of another masterpiece.

The Who found themselves in a similar situation as Led Zeppelin. How do you follow up one of the best selling albums in all rock-n-roll creation? in The Who's case that album was Who's Next, their best selling album of all time. Well, it was back to the rock opera. Who's Next was what came out of the failed Lifehouse sessions. Maybe now was the time to revisit the form.

Quadrophenia is the story of Jimmy Cooper, a teenage mod, who comes to terms with the harsh realities of life in mid-1960's England. "Quadrophenia" is a play on schizophrenia and Jimmy is said to be afflicted with four different personalities (meant to reflect the four band members). He's put his faith in family, rock, a fad lifestyle and women (work and school never warranted any respect) and over the course of the album they all let him down. He gets hopped up on amphetamines and tries to relive what he considers the best time of his short life. While coming down from the high and sick from some gin, he has an epiphany about who he is.

Throughout the album, the band has four recurring musical melodies, each meant to represent the members of the band. They rise and fall through the various songs, singularly prominent when one personality is full on, diminished when others are more dominant. It's a work of genius. "The Real Me", "5:15" and "Love, Reign O'er Me" were the songs that grabbed the airwaves, with the latter becoming a monster hit.

Having been introduced to this album while in the throes of high school angst, so I could relate to the feelings of loneliness and alienation. But that was the extent of it. I actually pitied the main character for being foolish enough to get caught up in the mod scene. And in my forties it looks pathetic. But the follies of of youth can be forgiven.

Hey! Did you see the movie? I think they did a great job but I understand the complaints that it didn't follow the album's liner story to its literal finish.

But let's move on to...

The Greatest Album of All Time

Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon is one of the earliest albums I can recall listening to. My father used to play it all the time. He'd unwind to it at home and bring it along when we went camping in our pop-up.

Unable to sleep, I'd lay there in the dark, or Coleman lantern light, listening to the album. The music wasn't like anything else I'd heard on the radio or my parents play. The voices, sound effects and music conjured images in my mind (This was several years before MTV or USA Network's Night Flight). It had a profound impact upon me, shaping my view of the world.

The album opens with that heartbeat and the sampling of voices (swearing!) and sound effects. It was creepy on its own, but the maniacal laughter and screaming only made it worse. "Speak To Me" then breaks into "Breathe in the Air" and it seems like I can relax. The guitar slides around bestowing a trippy feeling. But the second half of the song breaks into the warning about the perils of the rat race.

I always pictured a chase scene in "On the Run." That was probably the point. The song ends in a literal crash, which diminishes into a faint rumbling. The ticking of the clocks rises up and they finally all chime at once. A resounding bass note announces that "Time" has moved into the next phase of the song. Nick Mason's drum solo carries the spartan theme while Waters' bass builds tension, letting us know that we're headed for something big. And then the whole band breaks through with the main song. And Gilmour's guitar solo soars through time and space to bridge the folly of youth with the crushing regret of old age.

The lyrics parse out how time is a tricky demon. It drags through aimless youth in excessive abundance "and then one day you find ten years have got behind you." It becomes this scarce commodity that you desperately try to get back, but you can't. It's a harsh lesson that's been taught every day for forever, but no one seems to learn it until it's too late. In the end, it takes every bit of effort not to slip away in despair over what was squandered and wasted.

"The Great Gig in the Sky" winds up side one (remember, we're in the vinyl era here). Gilmour's guitar acts as a preamble to Clare Torry's tempestuous vocals while we hold on tight to Richard Wright's piano and organ to keep us steady.

Cash registers galore herald the beginning of "Money," Waters' tongue-in-cheek attack on greed and materialism. The middle section is a wonderful jam, and Dick Parry gets in on the action with the saxophone. There's not too many songs I can say that about. The song fades out with voices babbling on about gossipy-type stuff while Wright's organ fades in and presents us with "Us and Them." After the "Money" party, "Us and Them" is the slow and sober trip back to reality. It walks us along some city street as Parry's saxophone describes the scene. The music crescendoes for the chorus to emphasize the anti-war message in the lyrics.

"Any Colour You Like" kicks in after the abrupt end of "Us and Them." It's an eclectic instrumental with percolating keyboards bubbling up through the mix. In the latter half of the song, Gilmour's guitar puts an end to it. He picks his way here and there like a telephone switch operator before he settles on a melody. The keyboards sneak back into the mix but they share the song until the end.

Then we drop into "Brain Damage." Gilmour sparsely picks through several notes, while Waters warns us that "the lunatic is on the grass." As the song progresses, the lunatic gets closer and closer until he's finally in our heads. Brain surgery and white padded rooms follow. "There's someone in my head but it's not me." As a kid, this came across as terrifying. There's that drunken mosquito buzzing keyboard that winds the song down while some nutter laughs, but then we segue into "Eclipse" and everything's going to be all right. The music swells, background vocals soar, and you can just picture it all. Waters plucks pieces of our existence here and there. He sings "All that you love/All that you hate" and just keeps adding to the list, bringing it all together into this harmonic convergence. The finishing touches come in to play for one final crescendo: "All that is now/All that is gone/All that's to come/and everything under the sun is in tune/but the sun is eclipsed by the moon." Hold, settle into tranquility and cosmic understanding, and fade out.

And then it's done and I'm like, "Where can we possibly go from here?" If you've let yourself be taken along for the whole ride, emotionally, spiritually, or what have you, then when that heartbeat fades, there's nothing left. Just turn off the stereo and go to bed. Nothing else you can throw on the stereo will compare. Whether we just become worm food or move on to some other plane of existence, it's the last thing I want to hear before I die. Unless someone else can come along and create something that I can say that about, Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon will remain the best album of all time.

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The Losing Role by Steve Anderson

My review of The Losing Role is now up over at The New Podler Review of Books. If you're into espionage thrillers with a touch of noir, then you'll want to check it out. It's set in WW II during the Battle of the Bulge. Unlike most novels and films from that time period, it's from a German's point of view. Highly recommended.

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Accelerando

Manfred Macx is a "venture altruist," someone who conceives of new technologies and patentable ideas who gives them away for free. He's a successful man because he makes others wealthy, who, in turn, cover all of his expenses. He's trying to be post money, but the IRS, still struggling to pay off America's massive debt, is after him. Normally, this wouldn't be a problem for a man like Macx, but the agent in charge of the investigation is his estranged, dominatrix wife. While on the lam in Amsterdam, he gets a call from a net-based AI built from the uploaded brain scans of lobsters that works for KGB.ru. It seems that the lobsters want to defect and escape the domineering influence of humanity and they need Macx's help.

If that sounds strange, it's only the beginning. We follow three generations of the Macx clan as they cope with the rapidly increasing pace of technological advancement, expansion of the human race into the solar system, and the decline of civilization as we know it.

Stross sets a heady pace here. He packs more ideas into a single chapter than most writers do in an entire novel. It's easy to get lost, but Stross provides omniscient narrator infodumps in each chapter that sound like newsreels from the first half of the 20th Century. But even with the help, there's nothing to help us stay connected with the characters. In fact, the reader must actively re-connect with them as the jumps in the narrative break the continuity. It was hardest to do with Amber, Manfred's daughter. She goes from rebellious pubescent girl on the run from her domineering mother to founding a kingdom/infohaven on one of Jupiter's moons without any sort of transition. But before we can adjust to this new setting, she's uploaded a copy of herself to an interstellar probe. Now I understand that the book is composed of a series of short stories, but for the collection which is Accelerando, I would've preferred new material that tied the individual stories together and delete the obvious repeated background which were necessary for the short stories to stand alone.

The accelerated pace of technological advancement reads like a Ray Kurzweil wet dream; something for the Singularity crowd to swoon over. Being that the time from when an author writes his manuscript to when it sees print takes some time, I thought Stross bought into Wired's fantasy puff piece: "The Long Boom," written pre-dotcom bubble burst, in which the dotcom boom was never going to end. Fortunately, Stross doesn't buy into that and he doesn't paint the Singularity as all shiny either. Instead, bad things happen as the offspring of post-humanity threaten us with extinction!

In case all of my grumbling has obscured matters, I'll reiterate that I loved reading Accelerando. Where else can self-aware coporations wielding lethal pyramid schemes do battle at an interstellar network router orbiting a neutron star with uploaded personalities fleeing an all-consuming Martioshka Brain? If your curiousity outweighs your confusion, then pick up a copy of this book.

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Beer In Review: Heavy Seas: Siren - Noire

One might think that Hurricane Alex's churing of the oil-enfused Gulf of Mexico was Clipper City Brewing's inspiration for Heavy Seas: Siren - Noire, but the brew pre-dates the disaster. This Imperial Chocolate Stout is a seasonal offering that came out in February. There might still be bottles lying around, shipwrecked on some shelves in the remote corner of your liquor store. I can't recall when I purchased it.

As alluded to earlier, this brew pours out of the 22 oz bottle dark. No light penetrated my pint glass. The head resembles frothy foam lying on a beach after a storm. And it lasts even longer. Roasted malt is the dominant aroma, and taste. There were some hops bite and chocolate undertones that complemented a silky mouthfeel, but they didn't last long. That high alcohol character of Imperials (8% ABV) swept them out to sea, leaving me high and dry.

It's a really good beer that went down easy on a cool summer evening.

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The Ghost Brigades

The Ghost Brigades is the second book in John Scalzi's Old Man's War Universe.

The title refers to the Special Forces operatives that we first met in the first book in the series. Unlike enlited personnel, these soldiers are born into their fully grown genetically engineered and enhanced bodies and know nothing else. The templates come from enlisted personnel who die before they can have their consciousness transferred from their seventy-year old bodies into their newly revitalized bodies.

Jared Dirac is an unusual case. His body was cloned by a traitor, Charles Boutin, who faked his own death. An autopsy determined the truth and in an effort to track down Boutin, an attempt is made to transfer enough of Boutin's personality into Dirac's body to ascertain where Boutin has fled to, why he has betrayed the Colonial Union and what devious plan he has in store. Because he's the clone of a traitor, he's watched like a hawk by his squad commander, Jane Sagan (who we met in OMW).

It takes some time before Boutin's memories resurface in Dirac's mind. The delay affords him the opportunity to develop his own personality and discover his own sense of self. Without giving anything away, there's eventually a showdown between Boutin and Dirac that concludes the story. The argument that comes to debate is whether or not people who have been grown for a specific purpose can ever break away from their pre-destined fate and exhibit anything resembling free will.

Scalzi, whose style resembled Haldeman and Heinlein in his first novel, develops more of his own voice in The Ghost Brigades. Just like Dirac, he's grown from the template he started with to forge his own style. He continues to craft full-bodied characters, human and alien, that you can't help but care about facing life and death challenges that keep you turning the pages.

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Walking With Dinosaurs

On Wednesday, I took my son to see Walking With Dinosaurs. It was amazing.

When I was a kid, my family did the obligatory trip to Disney World. This was in the 70's when the animatronics were still relatively new. I remember being spellbound because the characters seemed so life like. Well, I could be excused for the ease of my rapture due to my age. Seeing that stuff now, oh man, is it ever dated. Motions were stiff. Sound was canned. Movement, if there was any at all, was confined to a track.

Hollywood upped the ante with their mechanical monsters but you never got close to them so the fake was obscured by movie magic. They were rendered on celluloid and the sound was dubbed. You didn't hear the whirring of gears and servos, not to mention the whooshing expulsion of compressed air and busy hydraulics.

But now animatronics have been taken to a new level.

These beasts thundered across the stage. Although they're mounted onto these little trams, their motions were fluid. Legs moved up and down. Tails swished back and forth. Bodies shuffled. Jaws chewed. Eyes blinked. Throats roared. Yes, the trams can spoil the illusion if you let them. But try not to.

Small dinosaurs like Lilliensternus and Utahraptor were wearable puppets. You could see the actor's legs but there were no strings. They were completely controlled from inside the costume.

The large dinosaurs were rendered full size. Well, the Brachiosaurs were a little on the small side. It's tough to control a three story tall robot. We saw the show at the Arena at Harbor Yard in Bridgeport. Picture an AHL size hockey rink and you'll have an idea as to how much space they had to work with. Some of the dinosaurs, when turned perpendicular to the rink, head to tail would span from one side to the other.

The large dinosaurs were operated like remote controlled vehicles. It was all done wirelessly from a control booth, which was situated behind where we were sitting so the illusion held.

How real? Well, when the T-Rex roared at the crowd, the hair on the back of my head stood on end. I knew it was just a robot but it was convincing.

I can't say that I'd recommend this for kids under four. The fight scenes were too loud and T-Rex was full on intimidating. The scenes where the carnivores eat their prey may be too intense. Simulated entrails were part of the act. But having said that, if you've got the money (it's not cheap) and you're a big dinosaur fan, go check it out. You'll be impressed.

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The Fall of Barack Obama

First, Jon Stewart voices the frustration we're feeling here over what seems like Obama's ineffectiveness.

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While I have a hard time believing that free markets can safeguard our environment, what good are regulations if the regulators can't be trusted to do their jobs?

But now we see what the power of the Oval Office does to people. Again, Jon Stewart highlights how Obama has pulled a 180° on other issues. He looks more like George W Bush in these instances.

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Add this to the failed attempts (so far) to reform Wall Street to (hopefully) prevent a repeat of the near collapse of the banking industry and I'm left with singing along to The Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again." You know the line: "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss."

Back in November 2008, I couldn't vote for Bob Barr (the Libertarian Party candidate) because the Connecticut chapter of the party couldn't get him on the ballot. I settled on Obama because I thought that he would eliminate some of the more heinous Bush policies and programs. Well, I'm just not seeing it. While I didn't expect Obama to be a miracle worker and fix everything, I hoped for some measure of progress on these issues.

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The Caliphate by André Le Gallo

My review of The Caliphate is now up over at The New Podler Review of Books. If you're into international espionage thrillers, then you'll want to check it out. What sets this one apart from the others is that it's written by a former CIA agent.

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2010 Connecticut Craft Brewers Beer Festival

Yesterday was the 16th annual Connecticut Craft Brewers Beer Festival. While it was mostly cloudy the weather was ideal for sampling craft beer from around the country. Politics, oil spills, warfare were nowhere to be found, nor were there conversations about such. And, as seems to be a tradition there on the grounds of Jesse Camille's restaurant, civility was the rule of the day. Just beer aficionados enjoying the hoppy concoction on a pleasant day.

It was a smaller group this year: just Bob, Cooper and me. We ran into some people that Cooper knew from the Fairfield Country Beer Society, or whatever they're called. Now that we're smack dab in the middle of the social networking age, there's meet and greets for groups of all particular tastes.

I forgot to write down the order of the beer I sampled. I just have my notes scribbled on the flyer listing brewers and their wares.

For the record, I consumed no pints this time. I stuck with the little sample cups so I was able to taste a variety of ales without getting sauced and fatigued.

River Horse (a nickname for a hippopotamus) had some friendly people manning the taps. The brewery is based out of NJ, which makes me wonder why they're so expensive. I had their Summer Blonde Ale. It was bold and crisp, which was a pleasant surprise. Plenty of blonde ales I've had have been mild to the point of tastlessness. Bob had their "Double IPA," which I think is called "Hop-A-Lot-Amus," though I could be wrong. The double wasn't for the hops so much as the alcohol content was double. He liked it.

The Narragansett Brewing Company started in 1888 and was New England's largest lager brewing company. They barely survived Prohibition but returned to prosperity after WW II. Competition from the big national breweries ground them down and the brand was sold off. Bob remembers having swill by them made in the 90's, quite likely from a batch brewer. Well, the brand has been rescued from oblivion and the guy representing them that day was quite proud of that. Bob and I both had the porter and were quite surprised by how it tasted. I can't agree with the description on the website and I certainly am not put off by the smokiness that is common in the style. Narrangansett's was sour with a citrus mouthfeel, which is weird for a porter. While it's an original approach, it takes some getting used to and I'm not sure I'd want to.

Also new to the brewfest was Strangford Lough. If you guessed that they were Irish, you'd be correct. If I'm remembering correctly, they split their brewing between Northern Ireland and NY. I know. That doesn't sound like it makes sense. I had St. Patrick's Best Ale and Leg Biter Ale. While the latter was hoppier and tastier, the former might make for a good session beer. And if you can find them priced reasonably enough, they might be worth checking out.

Bru Rm @ Bar has normally had good beer at the brewfests, but this year's Dam Good Stout was off. I'd forgotten what it was like in the past. It had a weird smell and Bob noticed it too. He said it was a bit like "rotting lettuce," which seemed about right. But it tasted ok. More cask conditioning gone awry?

Cambridge House, another brewpub, was there. It's been two years since I had the 3 Steve Stout so I had it again. Still good.

Hoping to have better luck with this year's notes versus last year's, I had Farmington River Brewery's brown ale again. It was quite good, but my notes aren't much better. And good luck finding it.

I have fond memories of the New England Brewery when they were located in South Norwalk. They had a fantastic restaurant and bar on the premises. Unfortunately, they moved up the coast and started using cans (I think to save money). I tried the Sea Hag IPA and it was good, an IPA in the classic sense.

Another can craft brewer was Oskar Blues from Colorado. This was the first I'd heard of them. I had the Old Chub, a scotch ale. Despite the 8% ABV, it didn't have a strong approach. It was rather good, with the sweetness toned down to mild.

Willimantic Brewing was there. It's too bad that they're located on the other side of the state. They seem to be having fun creating new brews. I had their India Pilsner Ale, which they describe as "a very hoppy unfiltered beer brewed with German Pilsner malt and hopped with Magnum and Palisades. 6.8%abv." The IPA aspect here is dominant so if you're like me and don't like pilseners you'll be pleased with the result.

There was a battle of blueberry ales between Bluepoint Brewing and Newport Storm's Rhode Island Blueberry. I'd say it was a tie between the brewers, but a win for beer drinkers.

Boston Brewery was touting their latest Longshots homebrew winners. I had the Lemon Pepper Saison. Yeah, the name seems more appropriate for a steak. It was kinda belgian with a hint of lemon but no sign of pepper. Maybe not a good day to pick up subtle tastes.

Berkshire Brewing's Steel Rail Extra Pale Ale was decent. More tasting required.

Ipswich's Oatmeal Stout was very good. Another beer that requires more tasting.

Shipyard's Imperial Porter was solid but didn't have the overwhelming attack of other imperials. I'd like to find this one for home sampling, but it's typically an expensive brand.

Captain Lawrence had a good Brown Ale. I can see that being a good session beer.

For the hell of it, I had some of Long Trail's Pollenator Pale Ale (bold and hoppy), Sierra Nevada's porter (always good), and ended the day on Otter Creek's Pale Ale.

Believe it or not, I didn't get to try everyone. Time and pacing didn't allow for it. Maybe next year. :)

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I'll Be Back

Ok, the blog will continue. Nothing concrete planned just yet, but I believe that it'll be more reviews with a sprinkling of science and life and light on the politics. The latter wasn't good for my spleen.

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At A Crossroads

This month I finally upgraded to a pc and an OS made in this century.

And there was much rejoicing... Yay!

So what took so long? A few reasons. First and foremost, I couldn't justify the expenditure. The pc I had was sufficient for the work I put it through: coding and writing. No games, video uploads, file sharing, or anything else that required a respectable amount of CPU or memory. I had a 4 GB hard drive and most of it was empty (My first pc had a 140 MB hard drive!). Besides, a year after upgrading someone would surely come along and make my new purchase outdated. So, why bother playing that game? If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

I finally gave in for two reasons: 1) there were no new software upgrades for my OS and it was impacting my work, and 2) it was free. To paraphrase my old band, "free pc's are the best pc's there are."

But this upgrade opened up a can of worms in me noggin'. It made me realize that all of the self-denial for the past decade has turned me into a Web Dinosaur. There's so much new Web technology out there and I have no idea how it was put together. While my coding skills are still useful, I haven't kept up. As such, my skill set can easily be offshored to India or China for a third of what I used to get and by no means was I expensive. Good luck finding a job in this economy.

I've been dissatisfied with Blogger's interface for some time. And all the clunky code makes the files four times bigger than they should be. You see, kiddees, us first gen Web programmers had to keep out code tight, clean and minimal or we'd never hear the end of it from the Marketing dept. Bandwidth was a precious commodity back then. Dial up modems ruled the day. We did all our surfing at work on the company's T1 line.

To this day, I still code to Spartan standards. When I saw that even minimal posts were heavy with code, I grit my teeth. Consider it my OCD. I'd intended to bring the blog in house but there's been a steep learning curve with their XML driven style sheets. Although I finally succeeded in approximating something, it's taken me way too long and the thought of applying it to the whole blog seems like a waste of time. After all, no one's reading this except me.

That's not a cry of self-pity. It's an honest, face-the-facts analysis of the activity here. And it's all my fault.

When I first started blogging, I'd intended it to build my brand. If I could generate an audience then by the time I was published I could have a nice spike in sales coming out of the gate. Well, none of those things has happened.

I never had the time to post with anything like regularity. Daily? There wasn't time to post something weekly, or even monthly. I stretched myself too thin (time not volume). It's hard to hold someone's interest if you don't feed them regularly. Couple that with a lack of focus (My interests are all over the map: beer, politics, music, science, fiction, etc.) and people tuned out. If I spend three posts in a row talking about sci-fi and someone isn't in to it, they stop coming by.

If you're not a celebrity (even D-List members count) in the loosest definition of the word, you have to spend your time visiting everyone in the blogosphere and commenting on what they've written to get your name out there. With any luck, they'll like what you have to say and follow you back to your blog and put you on their blogroll. Again, that takes A LOT of time, something I don't have.

So Blogger announced that they were discontinuing FTP support for its users. Not a bad move on their part. Only 0.5% (1 in 200) of their users host their own blog and just use their interface to compose their blog. They're offering to port everyone over to yournamehere.blogspot.com and put pointers in place so that dedicated readers don't get lost. I considered it, but then I'd be stuck with advertising and my files in the cloud: two things I detest.

Nope. No, cloud computing for me. I don't trust it. It doesn't make me feel secure. The privacy advocate in me gets all paranoid about files disappearing or prying eyes making off with them. Some may think that makes me a Luddite but they're wrong. I like tech just fine. I just don't trust large corporations who claim to be benevolent.

So I deleted the blog from Blogger. I know. It's still here. That's because the files are on my server and backed up on my pc.

Anyway, I'm wondering what I should do now. I can make this the last post and forget about blogging until life changes and I suddenly have more time. I can start anew on a different service and just let them host it along with their kludgey code. I can keep it going here and try out the Echo comment app for $12/year. But if I'm not writing anything that compels someone to comment, why bother?

If you've got something to say, hit the "Contact" button and fill out the form (the "Comments" links are all broken now). I'll get the message. In the meantime, I'll see you around.



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