Grant Muller

Margaritas - PERFECTED!

April 26, 2008 – 10:15 pm
Squeeze the limes. Thats the secret. I've been working on this for a week now. We went to Catalina Island while on holiday in California and had the best damn margarita we've ever had at a little Mexican place on the beach. I don't recall the name of the place, but I took note of the ingredients in order to replicate it when I got home. Its what I do. Behold! The recipe: 1 part fresh lime juice (THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART. Squeeze the damn limes. Don't use the stuff you put on salads, or the Rose's stuff everyone swears by. Its all HFCS.) 1 part Tequila (preference here...but use a reposado, I like Cuervo 1800) 1/2 part Cointreau (or Triple Sec. I like Cointreau) 1/4 part simple syrup (Optional. its just sugar dissolved in water. Easy) Part measurement is the best way to do this. I use 2 oz. of lime juice an ...

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American Gods and running with the dead

April 2, 2008 – 8:04 pm
So I finally got around to reading American Gods by Neil Gaiman this past winter, and as it turned out I couldn't have picked better circumstances. Actually I didn't so much "read" American Gods as I listened to it. As narrated by George Guidall, who I am convinced is the finest narrator of audio books I've ever had the privilege to listen to. It turns out the story takes place largely in winter, and since this book was to be my running companion for much of the season it turned out to be perfect. Most of the time anyway. Gaiman's descriptions of the sub-artic temperatures in Lakeside made my balmy "barely freezing" weather that much worse. The story itself wound its way through much of the midwest into the south, just as I was training for my pre-season marathon here in Atlanta, and the journey quality to the tale in particular made the 2 and 3 ...

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Music to code by

February 21, 2008 – 10:49 pm
Lately I've been having to step back in to writing a lot of code. I used to have no trouble at all concentrating on the task at hand, but for some reason focusing these days is tough. Its probably the vast number of distractions from co-workers needing help with this, that, or the other thing. At any rate, slapping on a Tool album or Captain Beefheart or something like that certainly isn't going to help matters, so I've gone back to my music collection to find some tunes that are "barely there". Recommendations: Godspeed! You black emperor - Yanqui U.X.O Pole - 1 Basic Channel - Basic Channel Monolake - Momentum Brian Eno - Apollo Pan Sonic - Aaltopirii Autechre - Tri Repetae++ Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works Vol I and II Aerovane - Tides All of these albums are pretty linear, with very few quick changes in time signature or tempo. They'd probably work well for relaxing after a ...

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Imperial India Pale Ale

September 11, 2007 – 1:50 pm
Well, I'm not normally very impressed with my own beer but I must say that this one is worth writing home about. This beer had a worthwhile story anyway, and given the number of "learning experiences" I had making it, it really should have turned out tasting like fermented dishwater. At any rate, Here goes:     07.08.2007 - Brew Day! Nothing beats waking up late on a Sunday and planning a brew day. It usually takes me anywhere from 2-4 hours to cook up a batch of beer, so I typically start just after lunch. Why not just start first thing in the morning? So I have an excuse to drink a very fine beer that tastes similar to the beer that I am brewing. Behold! Avery Brewing's Maharaja Imperial India Pale Ale! Avery makes some fantastic beer, and this Summer seasonal was no exception. Their website lists the hops and ...

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How to eat whatever the hell you want

August 20, 2007 – 1:14 pm
...And still lose weight. If I ever decide to write something just to make money, this is going to be the title. Diet books sell, right? I expect I can get a book with a title like this into the hands of at least 500,000 unsuspecting fad-dieters. Here's the outline: Chapter 1: The food Chapter 2: The training Epilogue? I'm banking on the theory that most dieters won't read past the first sentence, so when they see "Eat pizza, drink beer, be merry. The rippling sinews in your mid-section will thank you" they'll sprint to the checkout. Which is good. They don't know it yet, but they're going to be doing a lot more sprinting, better that they start immediately. In reality I could never write this book. My knowledge of nutrition comes mainly from the crap I read on the web, none of which I believe anyway. The first chapter would literally be a ...

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Introducing…

August 15, 2007 – 1:39 pm
The Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth. Yes, Cary and I have been given another puppy, and as one person has already said: "Holy Zombie Jesus, He's Cute!" Indeed. Here is the eight week old professor now as displayed by proud adopted interspecies care-taker, Cary: So far he appears to be highly intelligent, extremely fastidious (he's already crate-trained...at 8 weeks), and capable of handling himself in complex social situations involving dogs 40 times his size: And to think, when Juno was a puppy we almost bought chew-toys that looked like little pugs. Out cats have taken to him about as well they took to Juno. Fear and loathing best describes the relationship between the cats and the dogs now, and the fact that the cats could easily take the 2.5 lb pug in an old-fashioned donnybrook doesn't seem to change those sentiments one bit. I'm beginning to think that all those calendar pictures of cats and dogs ...

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Statement of Purpose

August 6, 2007 – 3:36 pm
Oh Jeez. Another blog. I groan to myself as I write this thinking about how I am about contribute to the cesspool of opinions, editorials, how-to's and personal diaries that litter the internet. I groan a little more when I think that people are making money on these things. And I sigh loudly when I think that the people who are making the most money blogging are the people who are blogging about blogging. Who started that meta-data circle? So why start one? I need an excuse to write. Plus I like working with web content and screwing around with new frameworks and technologies. This is a pretty excellent outlet for all three. Plus anyone who knows me can tell you that I don't do anything "a little bit". My inability to dabble has given me exposure to a lot of stuff. All of it useless. Expect everything from brewing to drumming ...

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