Be Good Not Bad : Web Design :: Brian Warren : Denver, Colorado

Well, we’re wrapping up details and finishing packing as we plan to board a plane in 11 hours. It’s a direct flight (!) from Denver International Airport to Frankfurt, Germany.

The first half of our trip is meant to be for work (I know, I know). I’ll be visiting locations throughout Germany for that. The second half is total vacation. We plan to head to Belgium, affectionately known as “The Disneyland of Beer”. After a week, we will take a train to Switzerland to meet up at L’Abri with some friends from Alaska.

Expect lots of pictures. But don’t expect them till March. I’ll be posting when I can throughout the trip though. TTFN.

I finally got my Bear Hunt DVD! I was so hoping that it would arrive before I left for Europe, and as I was walking up the steps toward my house I saw a package in my mailbox. No, this wasn’t the package with my headlamp from FedEx (FedEx doesn’t put packages in your mailbox, silly).

I opened up the envelope and there was one beautifully handcrafted DVD. Vance painted each of the DVD covers himself. The pictures don’t do it justice. Mine is #8 of 10. He asked me to pick a number from one to ten. I chose three, but rats, Casey had already chosen that one. That’s ok, I’m extremly excited about this one too.

About nine months ago, I bought a headlamp from L.L.Bean. After a few months of use, it broke. The little clips that hold the lamp onto the strap just broke off. Despite the broken nature, I could still use it with a little fiddling. I always told myself: Hey, L.L.Bean stands behind the stuff they sell, I should get them to send me a new one.

So, in anticipation of wanting to bring it on our forthcoming trip across the Atlantic, I called up L.L.Bean.

(Ring, Ring) “Thank you for calling L.L.Bean, this is Verne, how can I help you?”

This always catches me off guard. I’m used to calling companies and getting a computer routing me to the “right” department. Every time I call L.L.Bean, no matter what time of day, I someone picks up the phone.

I explain my situation with the headlamp, and Verne apologizes that it broke and offers to send me a new one. That’s right, he apologized. Maybe if L.L.Bean had made the headlamp, an apology would seem well-placed. It’s not his fault. It’s not even L.L.Bean’s fault. Still, he’s taking …

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This Article was written by Aaron Orr, Watchtan’s part-time contributer.

I am set to leave Iraq in less than 24 hours. The weather for the last 36 has been cold, rain and wind, with almost no exception.

I spent the last two nights crammed into a new Eureka! brand tent the Army saw bid low enough to purchase with 14 other guys. All night this large, floppy thing that I would be ashamed to stamp my brand name on flops, leans and flaps, while the three main metal poles supporting it threaten to lay down and rest also. They create such a racket I begin to imagine this is what my ancestors may have felt like when they crossed the Atlantic in tiny wooden ships. The creaking and groaning, the dampness and feeling of, “If this thing comes apart there is nothing we can do but struggle against the cold until our bodies become lifeless.” Okay, so it’s not THAT bad here, but I’ve never heard such a cacauphony from a tent.

It helps not that these tents are anchored in sand, or rather, what used to be …

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I wore sandals to work today. It’s beautiful weather in the 50’s with temps reaching into the 70’s later today. I love this state. It can snow and be 60 degrees out later that day.

Note: This spike in Apple-related posts (three in a month) isn’t meant to show a new trend. It’s pretty much just coincidence. I’ve had this blog for 9+ months, and with this one, it’s a total of four posts about Apple stuff. We are still averaging less than 1 post every two months. Disclaimers disclaimed, I bring you today’s post:

Apple announced a whole slew of new products this week. Chief among them is the Mac mini.

This 6.5” by 6.5” by 2” computer costs $499. I have to say, I’m impressed. The footprint of this mac is about the size of a half-sheet of 8.5”x11” paper. But let’s be practical here. You need a keyboard and a mouse, not to mention a monitor. Apple is assuming you already have these items – or don’t mind picking them up on the cheap as all of Apple’s computers work with standard monitors, usb keyboards, and mice (even ones with the word Microsoft on them). So, depending on whether you have any …

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Later this month, Anna and I are going to fly to Europe. We will be gone for just over a month. While there, we’re going to meet up with some friends of ours from Alaska for about a week of our trip. One such friend, who is spending a few months in Europe traveling around, related an email he got from an Austrian pension (kind of like a bed & breakfast). I have nothing against Austrians, I think they’re great people, but this email is really funny:

Very much honored woman/Mr.Power !

We are very happy, that you in Hall statt, wants to spend region inner salt chamber property your vacation and can tell you, this we in time of the 29.04. – 03.05.05 still a single bed room without shower and WC, with balcony and lake view freely has.

The prise amounts to per person and night with breakfast:

Do carpentry without shower & WC 20.-Euro.

Prices are incl.of all depositing.

We would be happy to be able to lodge you in our pension and would hope for a positive message.

I’m at a cafe in denver. We went to REI to search for some stuff for impending trip to Europe, and now we’re finishing up some nachos while surfing the net. There are four laptops open by various people around the cafe. All four of them are Apple laptops. 5% market share my eye.

We’re just finishing up brewing batch #6 of our homebrew. We bought a 7 gallon electric turkey fryer that we’re using to boil our wort. (It’s not meant to fry electric turkeys, but rather it is a fryer that runs on electricity).

This method is taking longer, but we get to boil a full five gallons, which is preferable to boiling two gallons and adding water later.

To cool it down after the boil, we poured it into a big bucket, sealed the lid and packed some snow around it.

So, we will see how it goes.