The Sounds Inside My Mind

Last night I started a beer related quest that is on par with the great 16 County Trips of the past three summers.  Novare Res now offers their own version of a mug club—The Uprising, and I’m the newest member.  What the Uprising involves is drinking one bottle each from a list of 200 beers that they offer within one calendar year.  If successful, your $20 deposit is returned to you.  Even if it takes longer than 12 months, once complete, you will receive a personalized chalice to be stored on-site.  This 16oz glass will be used for all your purchases from then on, which will be priced at a discount.

Not only is this a fun game for beer lovers (every member gets a list of the 200 bottles to keep track of what you’ve tried), but it exposes you to all sorts of new beers.  As it says in the official Uprising rules, this is about exposing the drinker to new beers: beers you’ve never tried and beers you never thought you’d try.  I’m not so scared of trying something I think I may not enjoy, I’m more concerned with the prices of some of the bottles available.  I don’t know if any of the $50+ bottles are on the list or not, but I wouldn’t be surprised if a few rarer (read: more expensive) beers are.  I guess that’s what they mean when you’ll be drinking beers you never though you would.  [For me, it’s more like I’ll be buying beers for prices I never thought I’d pay.  For example, Brooklyn Local 1 is about $18 at RSVP.  At Novare Res, it’s $25; and yes, it’s on the list.  Too bad I can’t check off the beers I’ve already had.]

One fun aspect of the Uprising is that any 750ml bottle can be split between two members and it still counts towards you total.  I think I’m going to have to plan some gatherings with other members so we can share some of the more expensive beers.

Lastly, in a move that would make Robert Paulson proud, the first rule of the Uprising is to talk about the Uprising.  So if you are at all interested in beer, get yourself over to Novare Res and sign up.  And get in touch with me.  We’ll split some vintage JW Lees and toast to the Uprising and the noble pursuit of new beers.

In other news, this is the 100th post made at this site.  Thanks for reading!

WMPG has seen fit to give me a regular show, airing 4-6:30am on Monday mornings.  You’ll notice a new entry in the links listed above, WMPG Playlists, where I’ll be posting my weekly playlists and other important information (such as how you can listen to the show live over the internet).  There is one entry there, from the first show I did, which was on this past Monday.  Sorry I didn’t get the word out sooner, but I didn’t find out until late on Friday that I got the show, and Nissa and I have been busy with moving.  Still, you’ve now been informed.  So if you find yourself up an ungodly early hour on a Monday, and you ahppen to be near a radio or a computer, give my show a listen.

Nissa and I have signed a buyers’ representation agreement with a Realtor and spent a couple hours in Brunswick this afternoon looking at four homes.  The four properties appeared good on paper, but only one of the four would we consider living in.  We’re not about to make an offer on it or anything; we’re also looking in South Portland and Westbrook and want to see what’s out there.  It is reassuring to view a home that we could see ourselves in for the next few years.  The Raltor will keep us updated on any Brunswick properties that come onto the market and fit our budget, plus go over what’s available in South Portland and Westbrook and e-mail us with some listings.  From there, Nissa and I will plan another trip to visit some potential purchases.

Nissa and I have been discussing buying a home for a long time. We’re now going ahead and hope to have a place of our own by the summer. In the first two weeks of February we attended a first-time home buyers course offered through hoMEworks. This past Saturday we met with a representative from my credit union, who referred us to a local mortgage company that they arrange their home loans though. We have an appointment with the lender on Friday morning. Since it is wise to shop around for the best deal (which isn’t necessarily the lowest interest rate), we also have an appointment with a lender from Nissa’s credit union on Saturday morning. We are hoping to get a loan that will cover the kind of house we can both be happy with. Each of us has good credit, but also a bit of debt in the form of auto and student loans. I think we are being reasonable with our home buying expectations. We certainly aren’t going to look for who will loan us the most money and then buy as much as we possibly can. We’ve determined how much money we’d like to spend each month on the house (the mortgage, home insurance, heat and taxes) and we’ll find a home that fits that budget. I’m quite confident that the amount we will qualify for will more than cover the amount we are willing to spend on a house.

Being a first time home buyer isn’t easy, but luckily there is a lot of great information out there. The home buyers course I linked to above offered a wealth of information, as well as some contacts in the banking/real estate/title law fields. The Maine State Housing Authority page has a lot of information for first time home buyers as well. I’ve begun to read the Get Rich Slowly blog for economic advice that goes beyond the home buying process. There is also good advice available the The Motley Fool. Lastly, we’ve had some fun looking at what homes are available through Realtor.com and Zillow.com.

I’ve just confirmed that I’ll be performing my first on-air duties at WMPG this afternoon, from 3 to 5.  Tune in to 91.1 or 104.1 if you’re in the Portland area.  Otherwise, head on over to the WMPG Listen Live page and stream the broadcast over the internet.

Tonight Nissa and I will close out the year of the pig at Jeff’s place, enjoying the three bottles of Champagne we got for Christmas.  Although it’s been sad lately, 2007 has been very good to me.  I got married!  We lost one pet but adopted another.  I bought a new (to me) car, a new computer and created this website.  I’ve listened to more music than any previous year.  I completed my training at WMPG, began working on my comic book, and became an avid bicyclist.  I saw some great concerts (Josh Ritter, Rustic Overtones, White Stripes, Watson Twins, Old Crow Medicine Show), some great movies (Zodiac, Grindhouse, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, American Gangster), and became a fan of some wonderful TV shows (Alias, Lost, Heroes).  I traveled to Kentucky, vacationed in Lobster Lake, and watched Nissa graduate from library school in Boston.  I completed my long standing goal of drinking a glass of port on a sailboat.  I was able to spend more time with my brother when he moved to Portland, and got to see my oldest friend Pat’s band play when they came to the Big Easy.

2008 looks to be another major year, with plans to buy a house, travel to Florida, get another cat, and self-publish my comic book.  I also want to read more books and update this blog as much as possible.   I hope you all have a fun night tonight!  Best wishes for 2008!

On Christmas Day, our beloved cat Ellie revealed to us a serious hear condition that rapidly proved to be fatal. Franklin, Nissa and I all loved her so much and really miss her. She was always ready to be pet or snuggled. She loved to play fetch and hide in boxes or under a blanket. She chortled like Yoda and loved to knock small objects off of tables. She was a great pet. Head over to my Flickr page to see some pictures I’ve collected of her, or click on the above photo to be taken to a slideshow.

My new MacBook arrived at work today!  It looks like my big plans of going out and socializing this evening may have to be put on hold so I can set it up.

The additional RAM I ordered, as well as my new Wacom bluetooth tablet arrived yesterday, so all I was waiting on was the laptop.  Now that it is here, it’ll be a whole new computing experience.  I’ll post my reactions to the new machine, Leopard, using a tablet, and dual-booting into Ubuntu soon.

Late last night, Apple released the rumored update to it’s MacBook line.  This was the sign I was waiting for to tell me it’s time to buy a new machine.  There are so many things about the new MacBooks that I’m excited about: Leopard and all it’s features, a fast Intel processor, the ability to dual-boot ito Ubuntu, a DVD burner, Airport Extreme wireless speeds, a huge hard drive for my music; the list goes on.  I’m going to supplement my new machine with a Wacom bluetooth tablet.  With that, I can get down to business on my comic book ideas, and start posting those!  I’ll think I’ll put together my order tonight, so by this time next week I could very well be posting from a shiny new machine!

Nissa and I went shopping for Halloween costumes today.  I was looking for a bathrobe to complete my “The Dude” costume, and she was looking for a fancy dress to be a corpse bride.  Neither of us found what we were looking for, but I was hit with a burst of inspiration, and we’re going to have much better costumes than we originally planned.  Want to know what they are?  Well, I guess you’ll just have to come to our Halloween party (or wait for me to post some pictures to Flickr).