A home divided

Well, sort of. Recently, Mike decided he would buy a new laptop since his old Compaq was on its last legs. Valiant attempts were made to extend its life (after a manhandling episode by yours truly while Mike was in Spain and a dead battery). I had told him he could use my ThinkPad since I don't take it to school anymore, but it seemed that he rather be punched in the face than use my "piece of crap computer." (Yeah, well so what if the battery is dead, has only 256 RAM, and has never been able to use wireless...It works. [Well, after it has taken about 15minutes to boot up.]) So he resorted to buying a Macintosh. Now, don't get me wrong. I have used Macs many times before. I use to own one. A very old Powerbook in college (I was so fed up with ClarisWorks that I eventually bought a PC) and used a G4 my first two years in the lab.

I am not a PC crazed supporter. I own an iPod and love it. See?! I am not a complete anti-Macist. What does bother me is their ad campaigns. You know, the ones where the oafy Idiot Business Man (though I have to say, this is what my dad told me IBM acronym meant when I was young), who we will call PC, and the urban geek GenX chic dude, we will call Mac, banter (well, Mac banters while PC kind of huffs [and it looks like he might be a heavy breather!]). I hate these commercials. They irritate me because they really create this dichotomy where the blundering business buffoon is too corporate and Mac looks like he might have a vitamin D deficiency (get checked for Rickets!) but enlightens poor old PC. To be hip and cool is to buy a Mac, to be corporate and outdated is to buy a PC. That's what the message says and people buy it.

But obviously it is a functional marketing ploy. I apparently just don't like it and hence dislike their products meaning marketing does work (in the sense that it evokes strong feelings of association [or dissociation in this case- I also felt this way about Jettas]). I'm being bothered by marketing. SO silly, but every time I look over at his Mac, I can't help but think it looks anemic. To think in terms of food analogies, the Mac is a fresh mozzarella and herb panini while my ThinkPad is a generic burger. So slender and sophisticated, asthetic-gleaming like the heavens, compared to my big dark oafy ThinkPad. But you know what, I like cheap burgers (though my ThinkPad was anything but cheap, but you get the point). Plus you can get all kinds of toppings.

Oh, and my hands are always dirty and so I am afraid to soil the Mac.

Oh New Paltz, how I have missed thee!

Today Mike and I went to hike at the Mohonk House to observe the leaves changing colors. We went with Josh, Yilin and two new people, Alex and his wife Sarah. A trip out to the Gunks were in order since Mike and I hadn't been up to New Paltz or out of the city in some time, Josh hadn't been on a hike in almost 2 years (!), Yilin hadn't been up there to see the leaves change, and Alex and Sarah had just moved to NYC from Seattle and hadn't really been out of NYC. The weather was great and had become that perfect fall chilly temperature I wait for all year. We hiked the trail leading us to the crevice and the rock scrambles and then to the mountain house. It felt so good to be back in New Paltz and I could feel myself itching to get on the rocks.
After the hike we went to Bacchus where we had a few beers and then decided to eat (after a few embarrassing escapades) and then drink some more.

It was so much fun to be there again (though we didn't get to meet up with Joe, which is always a bummer), drinking #9 and eating tacos...and we were in such great company that we didn't want to leave. What a great Saturday.

Pics.

"Seduced by Snacks? No not You"

But I am...ALL THE TIME. Put a bottomless bowl of, well, most foods, and you will find me stuffed silly. Until I can barely breathe. Apparently I am not alone which isn't shocking, but this article in this weeks NYTimes was interesting. I would really like to partake in such a study because it involves free food and watching cartoons. I liked how Dr. Wansink prefers graduate student and office workers but doesn't like undergrads because, "with the guys nothing makes sense because they all eat like animals." From this (and personal experience as a grad student) I can extrapolate that grad students are a good population because they are older and hence do not eat with the obscene wantonness as they did once in their youth and because they are poor/cheap, they will eat ChexMix until they are full. I guess the subjects he gets at Cornell University are a bit more mature in the self control department because most people I know here at Columbia still eat like the undesired undergraduates. Maybe it's because our NYC rents are so high that we can't afford to eat regularly and therefore exhibit free food mania. Or maybe I sought after friends/colleagues who are gluttons like myself which skews my perception of the average graduate student.

Anyway, the article was a good read. Read it. I'm off to a science weekend where large quantities of adult drinks will be consumed (but not snacks-these are not as widely available).

Reading is fundamental.

And that is why I am letting all 5 of you know that I just finished reading Julie & Julia. It was great and I highly recommend it. [Especially if you have ever wanted to escape the mundane backdrop of your life and cook.] I give it 4 stars on the Hyunmi-Scale-of-Ratings (and since I haven't actually decided what this rating system actually means [like the beer scale according to Dan], it really is a useless system.) out of 5. I should note To Kill a Mockingbird is a 5 on my scale, but since it is not the same genre, I will have to adjust this pointless arbitrary scale.

Anyway, I am now reading Wicked which is going quite well. This is when I am not knitting on the train to and from work. (You get all kinds of weird looks when you knit on the train.)

Beer Tasting

Yesterday Mike and I hosted our first annual beer tasting party. I figured this was a nice way to get people together under the guise of celebrating fall and Oktoberfest but really to drink a lot of beer on a Sunday afternoon. The plan was to assign everyone a region or specialty and have them bring three beers of different types from their designated region (they would also bring 3 of each type making a total of 9 beers). Since there were 9 of us there were 27 different beers. Each beer was put in a paper bag and taped at the top so no labels could be seen (since each beer was present in triplicate, I put all in its own shopping bag then on ice). In addition, all beers were grouped so we drank from the least bitter to the most bitter (according to IBUs if possible). I would then uncap a bunch of the bags of beer and Mike would pick one bag out of the group and pour. This way I didn't know what beer was going to be served, though I knew what everyone brought, and Mike had no idea what he was pouring. This made it as close to blind as I could make it.

So the regions assigned (not all regions were assigned for this event) were:
1. NY beers
2. US microbreweries
3. Ireland and the U.K
4. Belgium
5. Germany
6. Eastern Europe and Russia
7. Oktoberfest specialties

I also threw in a few choice brews for fun. These were Michelob Ultra as the representative light beer, Kaliber from the Guinness brewing company for the non-alcoholic beer, and Budweiser Select as the generic bad beer. In addition to all this beer there was tons of food including 7 layer dip, lemon roasted chicken, pulled pork, and kielbasa and sauerkraut (thanks Yilin!). The drinking begin at 1pm and thankfully the weather help up (even though Mike and Josh rigged up a great tarp roof system). Thank goodness for the backyard because getting beer sloshed around was not a problem. We also had this bucket for unwanted beer ( i know, it's shameful) and to rinse our glasses out in between beers.
The beers were ranked on a scale of 1-5 for the following categories:
1. Smell
2. Bitterness
3. Depth
4. Clean
5. Smoothness
6. Finish

The total was calculated and the top 3 favorite beers were:
Tied for first were Brooklyn Brown Ale and Boulder Beer Company Hazed and Infused
Third-New Castle

The Least favorites were:
1. Michelob Ultra
2. Budwieser Select

This is interesting because this means these beers were way grosser than the non-alcoholic Kaliber. There was also beer trivia and the winning team won a pair of googly eye beer glasses. ( I kept a pair for myself because as moderator I could not partake. [And they are so fantastic. Mike almost bust a gut when he looked up at me after doing push ups. His comment was, "This is why I married you." Interesting....])

Highlights included Josh and the bucket, everyone being slightly buzzed/drunk for 6 hours, cartwheels and headstands in CP, and the 4 mile walk after the party in CP. The party was awesome and we will definitely be hosting another one next year.

Today I felt all slow and out of it as did many others attendants. Obviously we are getting old. But I like to think it's just because we are out of practice.

Pics.

UPDATE: Videos representing general partiness and CP silliness