The Beauty of the Beach and HDR

For the past week and change I've been vacationing down at the beach again. For the most part, we had cloudy weather, so the fantabulous pictures didn't flow as freely as they would have if it were sunny.

But, I do have a few to share.
Since the weather wasn't great we decided to go down to the Fort Fisher Aquarium and check out the fishies as well as the old Civil War Fort.


We did have one night where we were able to get some good sunset shots. Here's some regular shots along with some HDR sunset shots.

For the brews update, the Milk Chocolate Stout (Porter) is currently being cold-crashed for the next week to try to clear it up as much as possible and get as much sediment out.

Boone Goons!

The SWMBO and I recently took a trip up to the North Carolina mountains this past weekend for a bit of camping in Julian Price Park. Since both of us went to Appalachian State University, we both know the area around Boone fairly well, and know quite a bit about the Northern NC Mountains.

The weather was absolutely amazing, cool days, chilly nights, and big puffy clouds that made for dramatic views! We visited Linville Falls and Howard's Knob, the mountain overlooking Boone.

Here's some pics from the weekend.

Pics and Pucks

The past week has seen quite a bit of hockey news, with the Free-Agent signing day of July 1.

Marion Hossa signed with the Chicago Blackhawks for more money per year than I will make in 105 years. Does he enjoy signing with his previous teams' rivals, or is it just me?

The Canes re-signed both Erik Cole and Chad LaRose (the Chuck Norris of Hockey) to two-year contracts. Both players tested the open market, if only for a little while, before deciding to stay in Raleigh.

The more recent news is that Restricted Free Agent Tuomo Ruutu has filed for arbitration. I guess the Canes offered him his qualifying offer to retain his rights, but it must not have been up to what Ruutu wanted. Ruutu has definitely earned a raise over what he made last season. I would imagine he may only want a 1-year deal, arbitrators normally give 1-year deals, so that he can become an Unrestricted Free Agent next summer and cash in a bit more. I'd bet that the Canes have probably offered him a multi-year deal for a bit of a hometown discount.


And recently, we went down to the beach for the July 4th weekend for a nice little vacation. Here's some pics from the trip.

Let's Get Back into This!

Bleh, it's been a bit too long since I've written in here. Quite a bit has actually been going on that's kept me from posting. So we'll get it going.

A New Car!

The SWMBO and I recently picked up a new 2010 Honda Insight. Yep, a hybrid. I gotta say, I really enjoy driving it. It's a very interactive car. Through a dash-screen, it tells you if you are driving with a "ecological mind" or if you're using more gas than you have to. A 3-D display in the speedometer glows green if you are driving with gas-sipping practices, blue if you're a little lead-footed, and teal if somewhere in between. Plus, having a car that gets better that 50 mpg (unless you're driving in the "Blue") is definitely pretty nice. It'll only be nicer when gas prices start really creeping back up.

Now, on to the brews. The Belgian Witbier got down to a nice acceptable FG. 1.011. It was promptly bottled and is now aging along with the IPA. Speaking of the IPA, I'm learning more and more about making better beers. A lot of the learning process is making mistakes and figuring out what you've done, and what you need to do to correct it. I did an early tasting of the IPA after 1.5 weeks of aging, and although "green" I learned a bit.

The main point I used is that I need to use a lot more finishing hops if I'm going to want the flavor and aroma I want from my hoppy beers. My IPA really didn't have much flavor in the way of hops other than bitteness. ; It was pretty dissappointing. Including dry-hopping, I used 4 oz. of hops. When I plan another IPA, which may be soon, I'm easily going to double that amount. However, most of those will be late-additions.

I easily hit my targeted IBU's with my IPA. It's plenty bitter, but there wasn't much actual hop flavor. I was really looking forward to some citrus notes from the hops, but there really wasn't any. I probably didn't need any of the Summit hops I used, I just should have used a lot more from the other hops. So I took that lesson to heart and made an American Pale Ale.

The Pale Ale is a really simple quick recipe. Here it is as follows:

• 6.6 lbs. of Pale LME
• 4 oz Crystal 10L
• 4 oz Crystal 120L
• 4 oz Dextrose (to boost the final ABV)
• 1 oz Centennial at 20
• 2/3 oz Centennial at 12
• 1/3 oz Centennial at 10
• 1 oz Centennial at 7
• 1 pack of Nottingham Dry Yeast

Hopefully, with only late-additions will help this beer have the proper hop flavor that's it's supposed to have, rather than just bitterness.

We'll see...

Playing Catchup

That's what the Bruins said.

Wow, so the Canes find themselves up 2-1 in their series with the "juggernaut" Boston Bruins. They have done so simply by playing their game and keeping their feet on the gas. They've even kept Boston from throwing them off of their game by matching Boston's physicality.

One would have expected Boston to have come out with guns blazing last night, especially after being shutout at home 3 days earlier. This was not really the case as the Canes were able to effectively cut out the neutral zone.

I'm really looking forward to Friday's game 4. This will be the true test of this series. Will Boston continue to fold or will they roar back and make this a best of 3 series. Can the Cardiac Canes keep up the speed with which they're using to best Boston? Around 7:30 on Friday, we'll begin to find out.


Picture time! I've got plenty from the trips, plus some really cool eye candy. First off, the Desert pics.

The water in Lake Mead is looking pretty low at the Hoover Dam.

Constructing the new suspension bridge over the canyon at the Hoover Dam.

A little birdy decided to check us out eating breakfast.

The Vegas Strip shortly after takeoff.

The Grand Canyon, from 20,000 feet.

Now, for some Beach Pics.

Now, for the really cool pictures:

I've discovered HDR, or High Dynamic Range Photography and Tone mapping. It produces some really cool pictures. It basically takes several pictures of the same scene that are of different exposure levels and blends them together. The above picture is what happens when you merge and tone map the following three pictures together.

Here's a few more HDR images from the desert and the beach.