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A Free-for-all-chat about anything except Computers!

barythrin wrote:

I dunno about walking around brain-dead instead of being cognizant of my surroundings and problems. Sometimes it seems simpler and better but I don't want to live in an illusion. I had similar drugs for my tourettes when I was younger. All they did was take away energy and make you kinda drugged up. I finally figured they aren't really working, I still have them, my body builds a resistant to the drug, and I'm the one fighting them not the drug anyway so I got off the pills period (most were for people having seizure, etc). I still remember walking down the hall in school and it seemed like I was so far away from my eyes and head, I was just looking out of someone elses body. Wasn't the best feeling or days.

I just would have felt that if Drugs don't do what their supposed to do, then it's a waste of time. I'm not overly wild about how people will tell you there's a pill for just about everything - and even if medicine does advance so that pain can be relieved through DNA treatment, there maybe an industry which will stop it before it gets to that in other to save the pill-popping industry. I feel terrible just thinking that the mecidine industry would do that - when it should be in their best interest to keep people living.

With all machines in the world designed to keep people alive - when it's clear their time is up, I just don't understand that. People are get totally emotional and want to keep the person alive - even when the machine is only keeping them alive. Death is something everyone has to live with - it's as significant as living, though I feel uneasy when people want to keep their love ones suffering in situations when it's clear their time as come! I feel sorry for those people who decide to go down that path, but I suppose that Hospitals can also be guilty of that as well - I'm not sure.

But on a different note - I've had Goats Cheese, Colby (which is like a smooth Cheddar), Cheddar, Blue Cheese, Sliced Cheese & some other cheeses which names escapes me! :-D I have Colby regularly which I reckon is a nice Tasty cheese, though I used to get some Goats Cheese from a Farmers Market - which was also quite interesting. Everytime I had it, it would taste different though, but it's always had an interesting about it.
 
Round here we enjoy our local cheeses; 'Pinconning Cheese', which is like an extra smooth colby cheddar, and 'Frankenmuth Cheese', which is like a firmer, more flavorful version of the same (I think it has to do with longer aging periods). I like the Frankenmuth version better. ('Muth, aka 'Lil' Bavaria', is only about seven miles from here (and yes, there is a brewery (used to be three of 'em))).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenmuth,_MI

--T
 
CP/M User said:
What's the Beer like from the Brewery? Is it anything like German Beer?

And what happened to the other two Breweries?!
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IIRC, one of 'em was taken out by a tornado, and AFAIK, the other one's still there, just been out of operation for a long, long time (used to be Carling, IIRC).

The one that's still up & running (or I should say, running again) makes Goebel's, and a couple of other macro-type brews, but they've also jumped on the microbrewery bandwagon, with several 'craft beer' offerings, just to satisfy the damn tourists. The only one I've tried is their bock, which wasn't too bad. Nothing remarkable, just ordinary, but not bad. My Ol'Man used to drink 'Frankenmuth Brou', an amber lager which I think is what that brewery used to make. Pardon my poor memory, but did I mention it's been a long, long, long time?

--T
 
Terry Yager wrote:

IIRC, one of 'em was taken out by a tornado, and AFAIK, the other one's still there, just been out of operation for a long, long time (used to be Carling, IIRC).

The one that's still up & running (or I should say, running again) makes Goebel's, and a couple of other macro-type brews, but they've also jumped on the microbrewery bandwagon, with several 'craft beer' offerings, just to satisfy the damn tourists. The only one I've tried is their bock, which wasn't too bad. Nothing remarkable, just ordinary, but not bad. My Ol'Man used to drink 'Frankenmuth Brou', an amber lager which I think is what that brewery used to make. Pardon my poor memory, but did I mention it's been a long, long, long time?

Oh okay, sounds like those darn tornado's are an absolute pain - guess they should of had insurance to cover for Tornado's huh?

Yeah I guess our part of the world is doing the same thing by trying to get tourists out into the country, except in our case it's Vineyards - a lot has changed around our state since the early 90s with Vineyards popping up all over the place. I went through what was once known as the Apple Center of Victoria (Harcourt) yesterday and there's probably more Vineyards there now than Apple Farms. A couple of them are still going - though due to the tough drought it's become impossible to have a lot of the popular Apples that they used to grow there. The places which are still going I believe are using a different kind of Apple which can withstand the Drought, but geez it's extremely dry in that part of the world! Vineyards though don't have that problem and grape vines can handle little water I guess (since their up and running), Vineyards have an advantage around here of having appropriate signage - so wherever you go your sure to find a road off the main road to get to a Vineyard. Vineyards also seem to get a little place in our road maps, so you can find them that way.
 
Heh! I got so much on this weekend - it's virtually crammed with stuff I need to do to prepare for the week ahead. Putting together a board - full of photos, I also need to draft up a summary for a talk! :) And I've got a couple of other things happening in between all that other work! :-D I'll be mad after all that!! :-D
 
Heh. I always asked myself what would be the beer of choice when I am in the US, apart from the micro breweries. I mean, something that is available everywhere.

Until now I settled for Samuel Adams or a Bass ale.
Where possible, of course I try the micro's.

But just in case- did I miss a widely available one that is worth it?

(for the record, as for beer, my home country is Bavaria (not the MI one..))
 
Jorg wrote:

Heh. I always asked myself what would be the beer of choice when I am in the US, apart from the micro breweries. I mean, something that is available everywhere.

Until now I settled for Samuel Adams or a Bass ale.
Where possible, of course I try the micro's.

But just in case- did I miss a widely available one that is worth it?

(for the record, as for beer, my home country is Bavaria (not the MI one..))

Perhaps it would be worthwhile for you to search the 'net and see if you can find one which will ship from the States? I guess the only problem now is how the economy is running, maybe it'll be difficult to find such a dealer, or I don't know how Beer goes with Shipping - would probably have to be a good business which know how to keep the beer good while shipping it?
 
Beer from exotic locations always tastes better! Or so I thought, until the other day when I was talking to someone who works in a brewery in Adelaide. Apparently all the local beer, all the interstate beer and all the overseas beer is now made locally. It is cheaper to make the bottles and beer locally, and then just ship the labels to other locations. I wonder how much of this goes on in other places? Who knows, maybe they just put whatever is in the vat into whatever bottles they have? I'm not sure I'd notice *grin*.

Maybe I should book myself a "beer drinking" tour of the world, with the aim of sampling every region's finest drop.
 
For a nationally-distributed brew, I have to recommend Michelob Pale Ale (5.0 ABV, 37 IBU). It's the best I've ever had from an American macrobrewery (even better than Bass), and the price is very reasonable. I pay $6.99 - 7.99 for a sixer here (whenever they're all out of Michigan Brewing Co.'s IPA).

--T
 
Dr_Acula said:
I wonder how much of this goes on in other places?
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Up Over here, they're only a few companies doing all the brewing, mostly under contract from the original owners. Even PBR is actually brewed by Miller, supposedly on the same equipment, in the same plant, and from the original recipe, but it don't taste the same as it used to. PBR still owns the company, they just contract the brewing out. This is the case with all national beers these days. Go figger. (See 'beer wars' in your favorite search engine).

--T
 
CP/M User said:
Yeah I guess our part of the world is doing the same thing by trying to get tourists out into the country, except in our case it's Vineyards - a lot has changed around our state since the early 90s with Vineyards popping up all over the place.
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And, I'll bet that the tourist trade has completely ruined a few wineries that were great at one time. Such is the case here. Frankenmuth used to be a pretty nice place, till their leadership decided to abandon the beer, cheese and sausage (cottage) industries in favor of tourism. Now the whole town is just one big tourist trap, all the real Germans have abandoned the area in disgust, taking with them everything that made it the unique place that it was. I can't even stand to go there anymore, 'cept for the occasional beer festival.

--T
 
And, speaking of sausages, we haven't covered that area yet. What's everyone's favorites? Mine currently has to be the homemade stuff I had a couple weeks ago (they didn't have a name for it, just called it 'sausage'). There are still a few Germans in the area, and one farming family happens to be friends with a friend of mine. They were kind enough to share a few pounds with me, and it took me back a looonngg time. (My grandfather was a displaced city-dwelling Pensylvania Deutschman from Indiana). Been awhile though since I'd eaten any sausages that were swine-on-the-hoof the day before. I even volunteered to help out with the butcherin' next year in exchange for a little of the bounty.

--T
 
There was some Ale based beer (as well as a few other kinds) based around the Strzelecki ranges (in West Gippsland, Victoria) - which I believe comes from the Grand Ridge Estate. However the only place I found where they were selling them was the Tea Rooms in Loch. That place has changed a little bit since - they used to be a Gift shop as well - though expanded the Tea Rooms because they were getting more and more business. They probably still have the Beer - some of them had a bit of Alcohol in them too - one having 8%. I thought it wasn't too bad myself but I guess it really depends highly on ones tastes!
 
And please folks feel free to talk about anything else if you don't want to talk about Beer! :-D

I'm under a bit of pressure at the moment because I'm doing this talk in a couple of days and I had to hurry in with some photos to do a talk about. My boss has since gone overseas to do some other business and won't be around for the talk! :-o So I'm a little bit frustrated that I had to quickly put something together in short notice :-(
 
CP/M User said:
Jorg wrote:

(for the record, as for beer, my home country is Bavaria (not the MI one..))

Perhaps it would be worthwhile for you to search the 'net and see if you can find one which will ship from the States? I guess the only problem now is how the economy is running, maybe it'll be difficult to find such a dealer, or I don't know how Beer goes with Shipping - would probably have to be a good business which know how to keep the beer good while shipping it?
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well Bass comes from Burton-on-Trent in the UK and it's the hardest water available here or so I'm told. It's filtered (in the ground) through a gypsum layer which won't let any nasties through but does up the mineral content somewhat. Many micro breweries in this country can have their water burtonified by adding custom mixtures of salts (they get little bags of stuff they add to X number of gallons of their own water) It's a nice beer, but I don't feel it travels well, and it does have nasty side/bottom effects :(

It must be hard if you come from Bavaria, I liked most of what I drank when I visited (Edit - Ah you're in Holland, nice beer there too!). All the US beers that make it over here are "clean, cool" and totally lacking in anything you can't get from a drink of nice water, sadly they're popular too. It really does feel like they've been designed to be as inoffensive to as many people as possible. please tell me (before my brother moves to AZ) that there is more to life (when I visit him) than mild-cheddar-clones, and something that tastes like "wee-wee" in a bottle!
 
nige the hippy wrote:

well Bass comes from Burton-on-Trent in the UK and it's the hardest water available here or so I'm told. It's filtered (in the ground) through a gypsum layer which won't let any nasties through but does up the mineral content somewhat. Many micro breweries in this country can have their water burtonified by adding custom mixtures of salts (they get little bags of stuff they add to X number of gallons of their own water) It's a nice beer, but I don't feel it travels well, and it does have nasty side/bottom effects :(

Are those side effects something which only occurs when the Beer has been transported, or is that part of simply drinking the product as they sell it? :-o
 
Sorry, Nige. That's pretty much what you're gonna find over here. Everything is Americanized (you nailed it, as inoffensive as possible). The object of the mega-conglomerates is to sell beer, cheese, etc. to as many people as possible, including folks who don't really like beer, cheese, etc, by rendering it completely tasteless. (Try selling seafood to someone who wants fish that doesn't smell or taste 'fishy'). At least the sausage industry hasn't gone that route yet, with many great locally packed meats still available in most areas, although a Brit may be disappointed to learn that we don't sell kidneys for your pies in our meat markets. Hell, I can't even find hearts anymore, and I love 'em.

--T
 
And, while on the subject of meats, has anyone else been getting great deals on steak lately? I've been buying 1 1/4" thick Porterhouse, T-Bones, even Top Loin for under $5.00 a pound. Chucks are $1.77/lb. What's up with this? Is it the economy, or what? I'm thinking mebbe everybody has panicked and switched to hamburger (@$2.39/lb.), so there's a glut of high-end steaks on the market at the moment which are more difficult to sell? This has been going on for a couple of months now, and I'm thinking about buying another freezer so I can stock up for Summer grillin' while they're available.

--T
 
Terry Yager said:
And, while on the subject of meats, has anyone else been getting great deals on steak lately? I've been buying 1 1/4" thick Porterhouse, T-Bones, even Top Loin for under $5.00 a pound. Chucks are $1.77/lb. What's up with this? Is it the economy, or what? I'm thinking mebbe everybody has panicked and switched to hamburger (@$2.39/lb.), so there's a glut of high-end steaks on the market at the moment which are more difficult to sell? This has been going on for a couple of months now, and I'm thinking about buying another freezer so I can stock up for Summer grillin' while they're available.

--T
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I usualy go to the local family owned Italian grocer with real butchers (you take a number in the meat department and, cheese department). They have Porterhouse and T-bones for $5-6 a lb all the time, should order NY strip steaks (we get a whole slab cut up thick) soon, and that is cheaper.

Since the prices are cheap, I general buy 4 at a time as needed instead of freezing them (unless I get the NY strip slab).

I would think the economy is killing steak resteraunts because of the cost of going out for a good steak.

A few days ago a friend of my fathers dropped off some polish kilbasi made locally in Cleveland (very thick unlike the store stuff) and it was pretty good. The mass produced stuff tends to have less of a flavor. Have you ever eaten proper Pepperoni, it has a much stronger taste then the stuff that is pre sliced in the stores. I also have never tasted chicken like the kind my grandmother raised in Greece ages ago, it has much more flavor then the mass produced farm factory raised ones here.

Bland food is made to please the most people. I am just happy that spring is here so that in a few months I can maybe eat some home grown vine ripened tomatoes in greek salad with feta, olive oil, olives, spices, cucumber, and a crusty bread to mop up the juices. Store tomatoes suck!
 
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