Mark’s Life in Western Mass

So about eight weeks ago I bottled my second batch of beer, an Irish Cream Stout. As you would expect, I cracked a bottle on St. Patrick’s Day and was wickid disappointed. Sip, swallow, and BAM!; fusel alcohol. So I let it sit in the bottle, trying one bottle every weekend to see if it cleared up. Tonight I cracked the fourth bottle and took a sip. Wow! What an improvement. Hardly noticeable now, the fusel taste has merged with the rest of the flavor and I’ve got to say that it adds a little dryness (and still a bit of a “zing” on the back-end). Not unpleasant at all.
I can’t say that I’m an impatient person by nature, but I usually have to adjust my expectations when embarking on a new project. Brewing is proving to be one of those things that require a lot of care at first, then a lot of neglect after the fact. I bet this stuff is going to be even better after another couple weeks.

In an attempt to organize the elements of my new-found obsession hobby, I’ve added a recipe database. I’m pretty excited about this because I can share recipes with other people and they can share them with me. Assuming that I actually get any visitors. If nothing else, this is a great way to backup important data. So…

Anyhow, the link is on the right under “My Other Sites”.

Looks like I am sticking to my habit of updating this thing once a year.
Once again, a lot has changed. I enjoyed the summer of 2009 quite a bit. I started back to work in late July; just after my parents came to visit as a matter of fact. So now I am a technical consultant at a small company right here in Holyoke: Atlas Technology Consulting. I gotta’ say that I am finally doing what I’ve always wanted to do. During the course of one day I might manage a CentOS server, configure a firewall, and rebuild a PC. A little of everything. Nice. Of course, the fact that my commute is now only 10 minutes doesn’t hurt my quality of life either.

I’ve picked up a new hobby, I’m brewing my own beer. I like it… A lot. With that in mind, I think I’m going to start using this space as a brewing log. Share my brewing experience with anybody who accidentally pops by. I am on my second batch right now; I’ve got five gallons of stout ageing in bottles in my basement. I’m learning new things about this hobby/craft/science with every new batch and I can’t wait to start the next. When that happens, I’ll be posting everything here.

Until then…

The inevitable has occurred; I have been laid off.
As of May 15, 2009 my position at Accellos Software has been terminated due to a “lack of work”.
Well, that last part isn’t exactly true since I’ve always had a TON of things to do, but that’s what the state of Connecticut calls it. The actual reason is a lack of revenue. That’s okay. I understand. Like Spock says: “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few”, and I’m one of the unlucky few.

So here I am. Looking at my options and planning my job search. I’m not too worried (yet). I can get by comfortably on severance pay, unemployment, and savings until I find something else. From what I can see my options out here in the Valley are kinda’ limited, but I really haven’t done a serious assessment yet so I may be mistaken. I certainly hope so. For the time being I think I am going to get a certification or two, brush up my resume, and start marketing. I really love the IT biz, so I think I’m going to stick with it for now. Who knows, maybe I’ll finally get the opportunity to work at a college or university; there are plenty around here. That would be cool.

I always get excited when it’s time to update my distro. Ubuntu is now my primary OS; I rarely boot to XP anymore unless I need to play a game or rip a DVD. Every new release of Ubuntu has more cool stuff. It’s like opening presents on Christmas morning. Actually, a lot like that because it usually takes HOURS for the update process to complete and it’s early morning by the time you can finally boot into the new version. Early morning, bleary eyed, excitement!

Canonical day. New distro release holiday. Happy Canonical Day everybody!!!