Turns out my kids listen, just not to me

I learned last week that my four-year old can listen and follow instruction. This is reassuring as a parent since she starts kindergarten this coming school year and we’ve already had a bit of a disaster experience putting her into ballet. That isn’t to say that my four-year-old is a disobedient child, on the contrary, as four-year-olds go she does an average job of being attentive. But we were pleasantly surprised when we sent her to Whistler Kids adventure ski camp last week and on the last day she came down the mountain in full control of her skis as if she’d had a full winter’s worth of practice. On her end of camp report card she was even given an “excellent” score in listening. After looking back on the week, talking with the instructors, and spying on her from the base of Whistler Kids, I think I’ve stitched a few learnings together.

Tropical Milkshake IPA

There is a trend in the North American beer scene toward low-bitterness, hazy pale ales and IPAs, no doubt propelled forward by the success of the New England IPA. I can’t tell if people here in BC genuinely like these tropical fruit milkshakes masquerading as beer, or whether the style has somehow become a differentiator between craft beer and big beer. As for me, I’d prefer not drinking it. The problem is that it cannot be avoided: it is literally impossible to tell off a menu if the beer will be bright and crisp, or resemble milky orange juice.

Annual Golf Report 2018

I played more rounds of golf this year than in my previous 15 years combined. As I have two young kids at home and something lightly resembling a career, I’m calling this a resounding success regardless of any improvement (or regression) in my game. Despite the success, I wanted to recap the year, look at my game by the numbers, and see how my game has changed if it has changed at all.

AHA beer rankings - Obliterating Taste Buds since at least 2010

In 2011 I began ignoring the AHA beer rankings after it became apparent my walk in beer, and those of my AHA brothers, are following very different paths. After the better part of a decade I am confident that we will never find ourselves hand-in-hand through the flowery meads. I am sure of this fact as I sit here reading the 2018 AHA beer rankings, 7 years after the last time I looked, in pessimistically dulled expectation of little change.

Fall Golf and Lowered Expectations

It is now halfway through November and I have managed to maintain a weekly golf schedule despite our Northwest courses resembling a Louisiana mud pit. And even though November rain in Vancouver is downright oppressive, it has mercifully been dumping its load during the week and clearing up on weekends, allowing me to get out on the course regularly. This being the first fall I’ve braved the weather in hopes of a lowered handicap, I thought I would make a few observations.

Things I will miss about England

The time is fast approaching: in less than three weeks, I’ll be picking up my life in Oxford and moving back to the New World. After all my agony and misery and kvetching about life in England at the outset, I’ve quietly come to love it. People often ask me what I’ll miss about England, with that special wry English undertone that seems to smirkingly say, ‘if anything.’ Well England, there are a lot of things I’ll miss and none of them particularly more than others. Today, on the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, I’ll celebrate this charming country by listing a few of the things that I won’t be able to replace when I return to my own glorious land.

Fighting Modern Aristocracies or What Occupy Wall Street is Probably Trying to Communicate

The Occupy movement has had a couple of months to organize and communicate its desires, thoughts, and solutions. While I still don’t think there is a coherent set of goals or grievances, and certainly no solutions, there is definitely a passion and belief that something isn’t right alongside general feelings of discontent with the proverbial Bogie Man. Because of poorly defined arguments and largely reactionary (read left wing) ways of communicating ideas, more conservatively minded folks, myself included, tend to roll their eyes when such a spectacle of complaining is set before them. To more traditional Americans, the answer to the 99% (see The 53% Tumblr page) is simple: try harder, work harder, pick yourself up by the bootstraps and quit crying to someone for handouts. But these differences can be reconciled in such a way that even the far right and far left can agree: a common hatred of Aristocracies.

Silly British Design: The Magic Roundabout

They can be found all over Europe and Europeans generally approve of them. To an American, roundabouts rarely make any sense, but in some specific circumstances, it is possible to see the cleverness of them. While weaving through vineyards in Southern France for example, the roundabouts keep you moving as traffic is generally sparse. This is not to say I approve of a road system that requires traffic circles, but for the zig and zag roads that span most of Europe, roundabouts often make sense. But then there are some situations where it just doesn’t work. Situations where adding a roundabout to a junction is kind of like trying to square a circle. A prime example of this exists in Swindon, England. It is by far the most ridiculous and yet oddly magical roundabout ever conceived. My description won’t do it justice, so below is the Wikipedia description of this roundabout.

Tradition: We're Doing it Wrong

Every year AHA members vote on their favorite beers, and every year is just as predictable as the next. See if you are able to spot the patterns of the 10 most desired beers as rated by AHA members.

  1. Pliny the Elder. (8% ABV) American Double/Imperial IPA.
  2. Bell’s Two Hearted Ale. (7% ABV) American IPA.
  3. Dogfishhead 90 Minute IPA. (9% ABV) American Imperial IPA.
  4. Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout. (11.2% ABV) American Double/Imperial Stout.
  5. Bell’s Hopslam. (10% ABV) American Double/Imperial IPA.
  6. Stone Arrogant Bastard. (7.2% ABV) American Strong Ale.
  7. Sierra Nevada Celebration. (6.8% ABV) American IPA.
  8. Sierra Nevada Torpedo. (7.2% ABV) American IPA.
  9. Stone Ruination. (7.2% ABV) American Double/Imperial IPA.
  10. Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. (5.6% ABV) American Pale Ale.

You can have anything you want as long as it is a high alcohol citrus hopped IPA or Imperial [fill in style here]. This is annoying for two reasons. First, this list never changes. In fact, Pliny the Elder has been at the top for 3 years running (I think). Second, only one beer comes in at a reasonable session strength. Not a single beer on that list, save Sierra Nevada Pale, I would want to drink more than one of in a sitting.

Criminal insanity as a defence to wounds inflicted during rental process.

We’re in the process of renting a new flat. I’m also in the process of studying for two straggling exams, one of which happens to be on Criminal Law. We received our new Tenancy Agreement and were surprised to discover that it includes what effectively amounts to a £500 move-in fee. At the same time, I happen to be on the “Criminal Insanity” section of my revision. This prompted some timely considerations.