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When I got home today there was a package waiting on my doorstep. I brought it inside and went to open it when I saw that it was addressed to Me Brew. At first I thought it was the long lost box from amazon, but alas, it was not. The return address said it came from Minnesota. Who does Brew know from Minnesota? Luckily, Hyun practically followed me into the door. She gave me a inquisitive look as I preceeded to open the package. What was inside it? A glass Kool-Aid pitcher. Hyun looked at me, as I was holding up this unique gift with a look on her face saying something like "this could only come from you or your side of the family."

I picked up my phone and called my mom. "Hey mom, guess what I got in the mail today? A Kool-Aid pitcher."

"About time. We were wondering when you would get that."

I know many people are probably puzzled by this gift. You are not alone. When I tried explaining to Hyun why I was calling my mom, she looked a little bewildered. So, here is yet another story about the Rodriguez clan. Since before my birth the Rodriguez and Alexander clan having been drinking Kool-Aid. At Gram's it was usually cherry, at our house, it depended on who was making it. Every time we made a batch we collected the points that were on the backs of the packages. We probably had at least two to three batches made a week (on account of there being 5 people in the house). And remember, we have been collecting these since before I could remember. We had a jar we placed them in. When the jar filled, we put the points into a tin in the garage and set the jar back out to be filled again. With all these points adding up you would think that we would have gotten some really cool stuff from the points catalog. Well, we would have, if we ever turned them in.

Now fast forward about ten years or so to June of 2010, when Graham (my sister's boyfriend) asked about all the points. After my family recounted the story of the infamous Kool-Aid points, they decided to go online and see if they could still redeem anything. Fortunately for them they got there just in time. The Kool-Aid company was closing their point system after June 30th. So, what do you think my crazy family did? They bought out the place. Pitchers, towels, shirts, and refrigerator holders were purchased for practically everyone in my family. And can you believe, they still had about a thousand points left! I am pretty sure our fmaily single-handedly kept the Kool-Aid company in business for the past decade or more.

So, now Hyun and I are proud owners of an official Kool-Aid Pitcher. (Now I need to go out and make some sangria for it. )

Disclaimer: This post was shameless stolen from my sister, but all events really happened to me too.

EDIT: The package was actually addressed to Brew. Even more hilarious, wish I had noticed that before first posting.

Over the last year I've been trying to get into shape. I go through phases where I will hit the gym a couple of times a week for a month or so before phasing out. I just haven't been able to stick to anything.

Then, a couple of weeks ago my friend and co-worker Will told me he was going to start the P90X program, and invite me to join him. I knew a few friends who had tried the program and they all told me it was intense, but if you stuck it through it really does have results. I decided it would be worth it to give it a shot, and having someone going through the program with me would keep me accountable and push me to work harder.

So a few months ago on a Monday I started the 90 day program with an eye opening 1:20 workout involving lots of push ups, pull ups, some resistance bands, and over 300 ab ripping repititions on verious exercises. Needless to say, I couldn't get too many reps done on each excercise but I began to lay the foundation.

I continued the program on Tuesday with the plyometrics session. I was amazed that I could get such a cardio workout without a treadmill or exercise bike. The workout consists of a lot of jumping, lunges, and some simulated sports moves like pitching and shooting a basketball. This was a really fun and challenging workout which left my legs stiff and sore after the first time.

On Wednesday, the program made heavy use of weights or bands to focus on the shoulders and arms. Again, it was obvious that I had a lot of work to do before I was going to be able to keep up with the guys in the video, but I was determined to 'do my best, and forget the rest' (this is the p90x motto).

Thursdays routine was yoga. Having never done yoga before, I expected it would be the easiest workout of the week. BOY. WAS. I. WRONG. This routine destroyed me. With my muscles already sore from the first few days of the program, I could barely keep the poses, and could not effectively complete many of the movements. This was a challenging workout, but it progressed much slower than the other routines in the program and I found it to be quite boring.

On Friday, P90X focused on the legs and back. This meant a lot of squats, lunges, and some very different push ups I had never heard of before. The program finishes with the 30 minute ab ripper program, and by this time I am looking forward to Sundays rest.

Saturdays Kempo X routine is one of the most fast paced and fun of the program. It incorporates lots of punches, blocks, and kicks that provide a different form of workout, but keeps you focused on technique and makes the time fly by.

Finally on Sunday, you get to rest. Or at least you get the OPTION to rest. There is an hour long X Stretch workout that will keep you nimble if you're up to it, but the first week I was ready to take a day off.

I repeated this same 7 day structure for 3 weeks. Each week I was able to do more and more repetitions and I could feel myself getting stronger and feeling healthier. The fourth week of the program lets up a little before you switch to phase 2. Its mainly yoga, X stretch, and some plyometrics.

The first week of the program is easily the most challenging physically. Your body is sore and it doesn't let up. The following couple weeks get easier physically, but then the real challenge of the program begins to become clear. I believe the hardest overall part of P90X is setting aside that hour a day, EVERY DAY. Sometime you want to have breakfast with your girlfriend, or you are a little hung over in the morning and just don't feel like getting up early. But if you stick with it, and keep your schedule, you will see results.

This past Friday, my friends and I went to the Eagle Rock Brewing Co, a new Brewery that recently opened not far from our place, to taste some of their brews and visit a Vietnamese noodle truck that happened to be parked out front. The beer was excellent, especially their seasonal Libertine Imperial Amber Wit. The most memorable part of the night though, was the tour that Jeremy Raub, owner and Brew master of the place gave us. You could tell this guy was passionate about brewing, and knew what he was doing. Listening to him talk about the process and challenges of brewing inspired me to finally try my hand at home brewing, something I have been wanting to do for some time.
The Goods
On Sunday, My roommates and I got up bright and early, and headed out at around noon to the Culver City Home Brew supply store. This place is a great resource for new home brewers. The owner was really helpful in getting us going with the right equipment, and all the ingredients to brew our first batch. I highly recommend stopping here first if you are thinking of picking up home brewing. They even offer free classes a couple times a month where they walk you through the brew process step by step (I signed up for the next available class which isn't till mid march).
Mash
We decided to start the brewing on Monday after work since the process takes around 3 hours. When I got home we realized we needed to get some drinking water and a 5 gallon pot that we weren't able to get on Sunday and so we made a run to Sam's club to pick up the supplies and didn't get started until about 9pm. The first thing we had to do was heat up a 2 quart pot to just below boiling to stoop the grains. Once we started this, we also started the 3 gallons of water we needed to bring to a boil. Once the smaller pot was at the appropriate temperature, we added the grains and stooped for 30 minutes. Our house doesn't have the most modern stove, so we were a little worried we wouldn't be able to get the larger pot boiling by the time the stooping was complete, but luckily it began to boil just in time.
Adding the Hops
After stooping, we poured the stooped grains through a strainer into the boiling water to create what is called mash. We then boiled the mash for an hour, adding our two types of hops at the beginning and 45 minutes in respectively. More acidic hops are boiled for longer, and hops added toward the end of the boiling process are more noticeable in the beer's flavor and aroma. While the boiling is taking place, we use a special sterilizing liquid to ensure our fermenting bucket and anything that will come in contact with the beer from here on out is sterile. Once the boiling is complete, we have to cool the mash down before we can add it to the fermenting bucket and pitch the yeast. We cooled it by filling the sink up with cold water, and placing the pot inside the sink, running the water in the sink to keep the temperature low. We also had to make sure none of the tap water got into the pot, as any wild yeast could ruin the beer.
Fermenting Bucket
Once cooled, we poured the mash through a (sterile) strainer into the fermenting bucket. We then added (pitched) our yeast to the mash. The yeast will convert the sugars in the brew to alcohol, and release CO2. We measured a sample of our brew to see home much sugar content it had, and hence the potential for alcohol. Our measurement determined our beer could be up to 6% by volume, although it is unlikely it will be that high. We then sealed our bucket about 12:30am, the whole process taking about 3.5 hours. I was pretty tired after all that, but we had a lot of cleaning up to do. Now we wait, about a week, while the beer ferments before we can move onto the next step. Stay tuned.... UPDATE: I forgot to mention that we did use extract in addition to our grains which we added to the mash pot right before we added the grain stoop. You can find the entire recipe here.

Hello there. It's been a while, hasn't it? I bet you thought you wouldn't be hearing from me any longer. Well, I've decided I've neglected this blog long enough. This year I've decided to make a resolution. That resolution is to make an new resolution every month and keep it indefinitely. In January, my resolution was to read at least one book a month. A resolution I have so far kept by completing "Waltzing with Bears" just in time for February. February's resolution is to write at least one blog post a month. It doesn't matter what it is about. It could be a technical post about one of my projects, or it could be a personal post about the drama in my life. Either way, I've decided I need to keep my writing sharp (or perhaps sharpen it) but continuing to exercise my writing skills. If I feel really ambitious you may see multiple posts from me a month, but at the very minimum I will get one in. As always, stay tuned....

Today America gets a second chance. A chance to change a failing foreign policy. A chance to rebuild our failing economy and infrastructure. A chance to set our priorities straight. This is not, and cannot be the job of just one man. It will take all of us to make America what it once was. It starts here:

President Bush gets attacked by a man throwing his shoes at him during a press conference during Bush's last visit to Iraq as sitting US President.

I am excited to announce the open beta of A Clockwork Green, a side project I have been working on in my spare time. A Clockwork Green allows you to keep track of time you spend on different projects by simply starting or stopping the clock, and providing a description of what you worked on during that time. It started as a tool I was using myself for my freelance projects, but I decided to open it up so others could use it and help with ideas to improve it. This first release is very basic and doesn't provide much reporting, but I plan to use feedback and feature requests from beta users in order to determine what direction I should take with new features. Please take a minute to try it out. http://aclockworkgreen.com/