Notices by Brian Ó 🍄🍺 (blacksam@social.gibberfish.org), page 2

Take a guess

#2021insurrection

Aesop Rock and Homeboy Sandman tribute to MF DOOM.

https://youtu.be/x3WRs-86u8g

#aesoprock #homeboysandman #lice #mfdoom #rap #hiphop

My orange mead seems to have finished fermenting at 1.020. I started this before I had a hydrometer, so I can only estimate the original gravity at ~1.105 based on the amount of honey I used (plus whatever was in the oranges, so maybe more like 1.110). That means it's at roughly 11-12% ABV at the moment. Lower than I would have guessed based on the 14% tolerance yeast I used. It's possible it's not 100% done yet and will drop lower. We'll see. I racked it into a gallon jug to finish out/clear. I'll give it another reading in a week and see if it's moved. The ABV isn't support important, but it is a little on the sweet side still. I'd like to ferment out some more of that sugar.

#homebrewing #fermentation #mead #wine #diy

A Republican strategist on the radio this morning on the topic of Republican legislators working with Biden:

They're not going to abandon their conservative principles.

I had to laugh. Which principles are those? 😆😂😔😢

My favorite piece on the difference between treatment of pro-Trump insurrectionists and other actual protesters:
https://www.theonion.com/d-c-police-lose-control-of-rioting-trump-supporters-af-1846002738
Police Lose Control of Rioting

Cobra Kai always plays Kreese'w arrival in a scene like he's fucking Voldemort or something, but aside from just kind of being a prick he ever actually does anything consequential.

#cobrakai #karatekid #netflix

I kinda have to admit, this sign is hilarious. 👏

Congrats to Democrats on thoroughly ousting the Republicans. Please don't fuck up this opportunity like I know you will.

I can report that my tea wine is legit booze.

#homebrewing #wine #drunk

I'm always skeptical of claims that "humans are the only animals capable of X" because they tend to be borne out of hubris and ignorance, and the list of these things only ever grows shorter as we study more of the natural world... BUT, I thought this was a decent, quick read. It doesn't say anything that isn't patently obvious, but it frames it well.

#psychology #intelligence #society #neurology #humans

"Do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life" et al is great advice for someone who's either not chosen a career yet, or has the financial independence to start over from scratch. Otherwise, it's a useless deflection.

Now that season 5 of The Expanse is about halfway done, I have a few thoughts:

The show is more beautifully shot than ever. It seriously looks major motion-picture quality, in both the real and digital aspects. The overall quality of the writing and acting is good. However, overall it feels too busy to me, with a lot of switching/juggling plotlines that seems to mess with the pacing. They're not entirely to blame for this as book 5 splits all of the main characters into separate stories, but as a viewer I'd rather they spend more time with 2 or 3 of the stronger elements rather than having each one pushed forward by 10 minutes per episode. For instance, I think it would have worked amazingly to make one whole hour that was Amos' entire journey on Earth rather than getting it parcelled out in tiny bits.

Since season 4, one of the things that's worked the least for me are the places where they've added/padded material just to keep certain characters in the story. For example, Bobbie's whole Mars adventure fell kind of flat for me, as did Avasarala's re-election. While Bobbie's was sort of lifted from one of the novellas they both seemed like they were just put there to keep the actors on the payroll, as book 4 sidelines pretty much everyone except the core Roci crew. While there's less of this in season 5 (because the source material gives everyone more to do) I'm similarly underwhelmed with whatever they're doing with Drummer. Like some of the season 4 stuff, so far it really just feels like they're keeping the actor on screen/under contract in an already overcrowded story.

Finally, I wouldn't be fully honest if I didn't admit that knowing we're not getting books 7-9 brought to television has somewhat dimmed my enthusiasm for the show a bit. There's so much I would be looking forward to seeing that isn't going to materialize, which is a drag.

Amazon hasn't done anything wrong with the show under their run, per se, and they've definitely put a lot on money behind it, but I feel like for a variety of reasons the first three SyFy seasons packed a better punch. I guess we'll see what the back half brings.

#theexpanse #jamessacorey #scifi

It's funny how the milquetoasts at NPR summoned the courage to outright call Trump a "liar" only after his defeat. I guess they're not afraid of having their funding pulled anymore. It's all about the $$$.

#trump #npr #media #money

I hope the desperate attention-seeking troll who keeps @mentioning me in 100 posts a day gets some mental health assistance, because he's clearly expending a lot of energy mildly annoying me for about 10 seconds every afternoon, and that's no way to live.

I stumbled on this article. I'm glad to hear The Sopranos is remaining relevant. Kind of makes me want to re-(re-re-re-re-re)watch it.

#thesopranos #genz #capitalism #existentialism #usa

I feel as though I've unlocked a homebrewing achievement: At about 2 weeks in, my cherry mead stopped fermenting. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but when I tested the gravity it was at 1.030, which means there's more than half a pound of sugar left, and based on the original gravity, the brew was only about 9-10% ABV. At first, I tried adding another half packet of yeast an let it sit overnight, but there was still no activity. I've heard/read that honey tends to be low in the nutrients that yeasts need to metabolize sugars. Many brewers add commercially prepared "yeast nutrients" to their must for this reason, but I did not, and hadn't needed to with my previous mead. I hypothesized that this mead was "stuck" because the yeast ran out of available nutrients. I don't have any "yeast nutrient" on hand, but I do know that yeasts will cannibalize their own kind, so I baked 1.5 tablespoons of dry bread yeast in the oven at 170F for 30 minutes to kill it, then added it to the jug. Within 2 hours, it was foaming and bubbling vigorously. Looks like that did the trick! 💯 🏆

#homebrewing #fermentation #mead #yeast

Netflix needs more content warning tags, such as "nonsensical", "unsatisfying conclusion", and "unresolved plot threads". They would have given me 6 hours of my life back.

#netflix #equinox

Thanks to the drunkard who threw an empty bottle of pinot in the trees by my house last night I now have another empty vessel for bottling my wines. That brings my total to... 2. I have 8 gallons of mead and tea wine brewing, so I'm going to need to bring that number up pretty drastically in the next month or so. Ironically, there are probably more empty wine bottles in people's recycling bins today than at any other point in the year, but I'm not sure I want to go out in the sub-freezing weather to pick through the neighbors' trash.

I got a couple of hydrometers for Christmas, so now I can actually measure the alcohol content of my brews. We also have a quart of Grade A Amber (formerly known as Grade B) maple syrup that my wife doesn't like, so I started a batch of maple mead (AKA "acerglyn") which is a 2:1 ratio of honey to maple syrup. I'm expecting this one to taste pretty good.

#mead #honey #maple #homebrewing #fermentation