Laptop Hunt

Yesterday, I entered a transitional phase of life, leaving Nacho Daddy. This is for the best. I have a lot planned for 2018, and new opportunities are already presenting themselves.

I'll write a bit more about my experience going into this transition because I think there's a decent story there, but I first have to find a new laptop.

And since I've been trying to get my Amazon Affiliate game stronger, I figured I'd try something new: Native Ads. So, buried in this post is a chunk of code that should give me suggestions on which laptop to buy. My plan is to click on that ad and let it guide me to my Amazon purchase. 

I basically just need something to help keep me creative. I need a laptop that has a camera so I can continue ruining songs with my FG820 blue sunset guitar and meteor mic. Starting and maintaining a podcast is one of my resolutions for 2018, so I need to get that going ASAP. Anyway, I need a Laptop... and it has to be blue.

If you're wondering about the photo to the left, I googled "sexy girl transitioning from one job to another in the sexiest way possible" and that's what came up with a link to this sexy article »

The Eats Counter

Interestingly, there seems to be a problem with people in Las Vegas understanding Beerhaus is a bar that happens to have some food available. Most people get it: we have an Eats Counter where, if you're drinking and want some food, you can go get some. Servers and bartenders serve drinks, and there's a place to get food if you get hungry.

But there are still a few who act like this is the craziest thing they've ever heard. We even have a cool neon sign showing them where to order. This is wasted on such people. We have pagers we give out to alert patrons when their food is ready, and they come and get it, and they are happy with our simple menu, but still there are others who throw up their hands and won't have any of it. It's strange to me.

Anyway, I've been working at Beerhaus. I work 12-15 hours a day and haven't had two days off in a row in almost four months. Everything I was doing in my life has been put on hold for this project, and it's been a crazy experience I hope to write about more as we go.

Do you like bars? Do you like beer gardens? You should check out Beehaus. You'll love it. If you get peckish, follow our retro neon illumination to a successful sating of your hunger.

Highland Brewing Trip in Asheville

The first place I stopped when I got to Asheville was Table, where my good friend Connie Coady works as a manger. It's a great restaurant with great cocktails. I missed Connie Coady a lot. It is one of the great tragedies of living a peripatetic life that one rarely gets to spend time with the he people he loves. But it's also, then, even more wonderful seeing long-lost friends across chasms of time.

Minouche is kind of lady in charge over at Highland Brewing Company. She's a wonderful person who is a credit to the industry. She gave Connie Coady and me a tour of the brewery. We'll get to that later. First we tried a bunch of wonderful beer. I love this brewery. They're the best-selling craft beer in North Carolina, and I'd really like to see them do more up here in Virginia.

Asheville is filled with breweries. You can just wander around the town and find something cool to check out if beer is one of things you find cool, and why wouldn't you? Above is a picture of Lexington Avenue Brewery (LAB). LAB makes some good beers, but what I like about their brewery the most is their streetside outdoor eating area. I met some new friends out there, and they drove me to the next brewery--people are really nice in the south.

The next brewery we I went to was Asheville Brewing Company. They had a firkin going. I'm always trying to get more spots to do firkins. It is a one-of-a-kind beer every time, and it's the perfect reason for a person to go out and visit a bar or restaurant instead of sitting at home. If you're looking to give your guests a special experience and get more folks to pay attention to your beer program, talk to your vaeagle rep about firkins today!

Then a friend from Staunton, VA came to meet me there. Nuit is a person who's full of awesome energy, so she was up for continuing my adventure with me. . . after a few drinks, of course.

More beers need to get ninja.

After hitting a drum circle and a couple more breweries, we made it back to Table. We hung out with Coady's S.O., Alex Matisse, and he took a picture of me with his friends from Texas. Upstairs, there's a great cocktail bar. We closed the bar.

Ornate entrance to the brewery.

Taps at Highland.

Giant Papier Mâché Scottish Highland mascot.

Master brewer on a lift.

Even the coffee bars have craft draft in Asheville. Fantastic. I hate it when people tell me they don't have the space for draft beer. This is a tight space pictured, and it works fine.

A cup of coffee was the last thing I drank with Conn Coady and Alex Matisse. I wish it were in one of his incredible cups.

If you haven't been to Asheville yet, go. It's a lovely town filled with lovely people and lovely beer. There are great restaurants, cool bars, and even a store that only sells belt buckles. I bought one that says JACK because I was told that was a thing in the south back in the 70's or something.

I can't wait to go back.

Share Something with an American You Love

I've been thinking a lot about tea in America. I've been thinking a lot about how Americans drink and maybe just how Americans are.
Before beer and wine and spirits and tea and cola, there was water. Just like animals, the only thing we drank was water, and it was by far the most important thing humans did. The first non-water drinks people got hold of was considered magical or to at least possess supernatural powers and a connection to gods and the cosmos.
Ancient people drank from shared vessels with long straws, and rituals were built around drinks. The vessels were held aloft in a gesture of thanks or offering to the supernatural. Then people shared drinks.
Unlike food, drinks can actually be truly shared. When everything is coming out of the same pot, it's not like cutting up pieces of bread or pizza, where everything is unequal and maybe you got an extra mushroom on yours and I didn't get as much onion on mine. Everything in the pot is the same when it comes to liquid, and when we're drinking from straws, we are literally drinking the same thing.
Eventually ceramics and glass and silver became more readily accessible, and people were all able to afford to drink from their very own cups. When people drank, though, they did it together and when they had their own cups, they raised them up like they did shared vessels and then clinked them together as gesture representing that what they were drinking came from a single vessel.

Drinking is a magical necessity of life. And it's something that we build our cultures around. Everything else can be put on hold as long as you keep drinking. Without drinking, you're dead.

Tea, is still drunk today–for the most part–out of a shared vessel that is displayed on or around the table. If you drink alone, it's still great, but not the same. And this brings me to Americans...
Americans like things in their OWN cups that they pour THEMSELVES. Approximately 85% of tea drunk in America is iced. They drink it in bottles from 7-11and big cups from Hardy's. This separates them from an important part of their humanity because it turns them into islands separated by liquid rather than members of a community that's connected by drink. Drink brings us together, don't let big businesses and corporations and politicians and other interests keep us from that. Share a bottle of something today. Share a pot of tea. Share a carafe. Whatever it is, do it with someone else and have an experience.