Fun with residential solar power

We just installed solar panels at the sprawling Redcloak family compound. This is something we would never have done without the stupidly generous subsidy that LADWP provides for this not-ready-for-prime-time technology. But, we saw this as a rare opportunity to get back some small portion of the moolah they've extracted from us over the years.

The company we dealt with, who shall remain nameless, but their name rhymes with sunflower, sold us on the project with the quality of their cells. While they're idiots, and their contractor is an asshat, the cells they make are beautiful. But, had we known what sort of semi-trained chimps would be sent to install the system, we would have walked away.

First off, it took 6 months from start to finish. This ain't rocket science! And, the city of L.A. does most of the work for you. Next, the chimps installed their gear in a spot where the building and safety inspector was bound to reject it. The job foreman even warned them that it was a bad location. That added 2 weeks as they tried to con me into additional, and unnecessary, work to relocate an air conditioning compressor. And by additional, I mean they wanted more money from me. The asshat contractor insisted that the inspector was fine with where he placed his gear, but that the A/C would have to move to get it away from the main electrical panel. Numbnuts finally caved when I spoke to the inspector myself and uncovered the lie. It then took the foreman (the one competent person in their entire operation!) intervening with the inspector to get the installation approved.

So now it's up and running. And last night, at about 10, my wife looks out the window and sees something funny in the yard. There are 2 signs out there. At first, I thought they were illegally placed campaign signs. It turns out that they were advertising signs placed by the idiot contractor! You'll be happy to know that I recycled them. I'm waiting for the call from them asking what happened to their signs. I'd love the opportunity to inform them that I wouldn't recommend them to someone I didn't like; let alone one of my neighbors.

Burritobortion

Actually, I thought that Sarah Silverman's abortion tweet was pretty funny; though I'm laughing at a joke she probably didn't intend to make.

What makes the joke funny is the fact that there probably are liberal women out there who would get pregnant just to have an abortion for political reasons. That kind of crazy is really there on the left.

Well that's disturbing

I just checked the spam box on a fairly new Gmail account. There're more messages in the spam box than the inbox!

Beer on tap

Have I mentioned lately how much I enjoy having beer on tap?

The perfect storm of audacity and ignorance

Couldn't he at least have brains enough to remember that he's wearing a mic?

The exchange from Jake Tapper at ABC:

President Obama: On all these issues, but particularly missile
defense, this, this can be solved but it’s important for him to give me
space.

President Medvedev: Yeah, I understand. I understand your message about space. Space for you…

President Obama: This is my last election. After my election I have more flexibility.

President Medvedev: I understand. I will transmit this information to Vladimir.

Spell check is not your friend

I guess you have to leave Tim behind with a shotgun when you're not adequately prepared for a disaster.

Ladyface IPA

I have a long commute, but it takes me past the Ladyface Ale Companie in Agoura Hills. Last night I had some time, so I stopped and had a pint of their signature IPA. This is a very tasty brew; big hop flavor and aroma in addition to the bitterness you expect of an American IPA.

Liberal calculus

On the way into work this morning, I heard that Jerry Brown, in addition to wanting to raise taxes, is still insisting on spending $100,000,000 on his high speed train boondoggle. Now that train may be fine and dandy for someone commuting to Corcoran, it doesn't do anyone else a bit of good. (I suppose that I should say "anyone who isn't latched onto the public teat".)

Just for giggles, I looked into what it would take to use the existing train to go to work. Only $170 per week would do it, provided that my boss doesn't mind me getting in at 10am. Of course, if Jerry Brown gets his way, I won't have that $170 to spend on train fare. It would go toward building a bullet train to Corcoran instead.

Beer on tap

I tapped that keg of "Pooh's Blustery Ale" last night. I had just spent the last day and a half on a plumbing project and needed a drink. But, in addition to having beer on tap, we now have a new hot and cold filtered water dispenser and a new kitchen faucet with a big gooseneck.

Dogs and beer

Did I mention that the new dog is a bit of technophobe? And apparently, a5 gallon carboy is a piece of high technology and thus something to bark at.

Beer posts

Ok.... I just looked at the list of posts... The last three were about beer.

Back to beer!

Ok... So I really didn't drift away from writing about beer.

I finally got around to kegging a beer from November. Either I'm really patient or really lazy. Either way, that beer really cleared out.

I'm writing this at the bar at Ladyface. I'm drinking a wine barrel aged ale. It's a sour that's really tasty.

Drinking in the Big Easy

I'm in New Orleans for a trade show. This is the kind of town where you'd have to work it to have a bad meal. And from what I've had from Abita Brewing, you'd have to work at having a bad beer. These folks brew some tasty beers.

Have I mentioned that AT&T sucks?

More brewin'

I'm in the midst of a brew day right now. I just finished the boil for a new and improved version of my strong ale; new, improved, and slightly improvised!

My mash wasn't as efficient at I had hope, so I goosed up the OG with 2 pounds of brown sugar. I also had to play around with the hops. I didn't have as much of my chinook as I thought I did. So, I lengthened the boil by 10 minutes to pick the IBUs back up. Some people might have gone into freak-out mode at all that, and I might have too, but it was kinda fun figuring out these work-arounds on the fly.

This is all going onto the yeast cake from a batch of a new and improved version of Pooh's Blustery Ale.

With both of these, I did decoction mashes. I really like that rich, malty sweetness that this technique gives. (Technically speaking, the process yields melanoidins which give rise to this flavor.)

An update: OK... So the added sugar may not have been necessary. I forgot to calculate boil-off into the equation. My 5 gallon boil yielded about 4 gallon. So that SG of 1.072 that I thought I had turned  into 1.095.

Oops.

This is gonna be an ass kicker of an ale.

"I'm not dead yet"

Just a wee, pointless post to show that this isn't a zombie blog.

It was just a matter of time

Give the man enough time and he finally does something I can approve of. Obama is brewing beer in the White House

Nekkid Pichurs

Seriously? You mean there are still celebrities around who are stupid enough to keep naked pictures of themselves on their phones? I thought they had all learned by now that anything on a phone might a well be posted on a web server.

And let's be honest: If you take nekkid pictures of yourself, or allow someone else to take nekkid pictures of you, they're gonna wind up on the internet. I don't care what you intended or what that other person promised, your nekkid butt is going online. You want your naughty bits to stay private? Then keep the camera away from 'em.

Too much granularity?

The Obama administration has released a new medical billing code system.  Instead of a mere 18,000 different codes, there will be 140,000 codes. So how does your doctor know that a special code exists for your particular malady? Let's say that you come in with a burn you got on the backyard BBQ. How does he know that there's actually a special code for injuries sustained while grilling or smoking foods? (It's aY93G2, by the way.) And if he screws that up, will your insurance refuse to pay?

Kindle on a Linux box

I'm not sure what Jim Lynch is talking about in How to read Kindle books on Linux. I've been reading Kindle books just fine on my Linux box using Wine. If there are any compatibility issues with Kindle for Windows and Wine, I haven't run into them yet.