Second verse, same as the first

ok, so, we tried out the recipe last night, and as you might have discerned, there were some uh "mixed successes"
(wait, was that a cocktail pun? it wasn't meant to be)
Anyways, I was thinking I'd have another go at this, building on some of the lessons that have been learned, etc
(maybe I will make six of these recipes, and you can determine which one to use by the roll of a die! let's hope I don't do that)


Aleatoric Highball #2

Blindly throw a die into the liquor cabinet. Whichever 80-proof-or-higher non-liqueur it comes to rest closest to is your base spirit*. Pour 1.5 oz (or however much remains in the bottle, if less than 1.5 oz) into a tumbler. Add the seasonal-birth-appropriate number of ice cubes, and fill with soda corresponding to the number of minutes past the hour:
multiple of 4: lemon-lime
multiple of 2 but not 4: club soda
prime number (not including 2): ginger ale
odd composite: cola
0: Red Bull.
(If it is one minute after the hour, it looks like you're drinking sherry instead. Swig the already-poured spirit, and chase it with a glass of sherry. Or vice versa, depending on how you feel about sherry.)

Flip for the garnish: first flip two coins, if both are heads, use an orange wedge; if both are tails, use a lime wedge; if you get one of each, use a lemon wedge.
Regardless of outcome, continue as in the previous recipe.



*optional rule for the brave: if the closest bottle contains a liqueur or something weaker than 80 proof, add half an ounce of this to your drink and throw again for the base spirit.
extra optional rule for the insane: re-apply the optional rule for successive throws
(To remain true to the spirit** of this recipe, one might decide by coin toss whether to apply either of these rules)


**man I am just Mister Unintentional Pun today

Everybody knows that the dice are loaded

Augh...So much grading left...

So I was recently reminded of aleatoric literature and music etc, and decided that one area where these methods have not been sufficiently exploited is in recipes. The following represents a very modest attempt to remedy the situation:


Aleatoric Highball

In order to determine your base spirit, flip a coin, then cover your eyes and throw a 12-sided die into your liquor cabinet.
If the coin comes up tails, the bottle that the die is closest to when it comes to rest will be your base spirit.
If the coin comes up heads, the first bottle that the die hits will be your base spirit. Since your eyes were covered, you might need an assistant at this point in the drink's preparation. If you are unable to find a willing assistant, or if you or your assistant is unable to determine which bottle was hit first, pour yourself a glass of sherry; The End.

Otherwise, pour 2 oz of the base spirit into a highball glass. Add a number of ice cubes corresponding to the season of your birth (Spring: 1, Summer: 2, Autumn: 3, Winter: 4). Fill the glass with club soda, unless the current number of minutes past the hour is a prime number, in which case, use ginger ale.

Flip a coin. If it is tails, garnish with a wedge of lime; The End.
If it is heads, garnish with a wedge of lemon and flip again.
If it is heads again, add a maraschino cherry to the garnish and flip again. (If tails comes up here or subsequently, you guessed it...The End)
If it is heads again, add a sugar cube to the drink and gently stir in a dash of bitters, and flip again.
If it is heads again, add something green (other than a lime or olive) to the garnish, and declare "I HAVE SURVIVED THE ALEATORIC GARNISH CHALLENGE."

Enjoy the drink and reflect on the nature of contingency.
Serves: 1

You're searching for good times, but just wait and see

The end of my last post reminded me of all the diversions I've been meaning to engage in this quarter but have been unable to spare the time for

(There is an irony here in that, as I write this, I am still profoundly lacking in free time and have had to forego all sorts of fun stuff today due to grading...(you may ask, "is there not a further irony in that you are now wasting hells of time posting on your blog?" Well, I'm just taking a break to let my eyes refocus and such. I have 8 minutes left in which to write this before going back to work.))

The following ideas sure sound like a bunch of fun to me
(those of you who live close by might consider these passive-aggressive friendly suggestions for things that we could do with all the glorious free time that momentarily awaits us next week
(and those of you who do not live close by can do the same, I suppose, or otherwise shake your fists with envious rage):

-I still have a box of imported Tim Tams in dire need of slamming
-We could drink Dark and Stormys (...Stormies?) and Corn 'n Oils, presumably for broadly pirate-related reasons (also conjunction-related reasons?)
-Movie and cartoon watching is essential. I particularly want to watch Red vs. Blue and Gormenghast, both recent acquisitions.
-Star Wars RPG? Paranoia?
-Other games, including but not limited to Santiago, Seafarers, I'm the Boss, or any number of new Cheapass expansions.
-Whoops, out of time...maybe I'll edit in links for those games later. Probably not.

You made me a shadowboxer, baby

My laptop monitor, after five years of faithful service, is beginning to go a bit fuzzy and pink. While I laud its newfound femininity, I am also considering how to replace it if and when it finally fails.
I confess, I am considering getting an overpriced hunk of flimsy white plastic as its successor. I'll still have my home computer, and in principle, will only be needing the laptop for word processing and Internet, so I am thinking that I might be willing to sacrifice some of the functionality of a real computer for whatever modest benefits those damn things allegedly offer.
Blech. Actually, maybe I just talked myself out of it again. We'll see.

On a happier note, they are finally reprinting Die Macher, the exciting board game of German politics! I repeat, exciting! Really! Stop looking at me like that!
No really, I hear this is pretty good, and I think I'm gonna pre-order a copy. Downside is, I also hear it's long and insanely complicated, and so I don't know whether I'll actually get to play it with anyone.
C'est la vie. Maybe people would be up for some Clone Wars Risk instead?

Got a receiver inside my head

So, in case anyone was still wondering about that Rockridge thing (myself, I had pretty much stopped by now), I got an email saying that they weren't able to take on any new employees at this time, which it attributed to "the volitility of funding in the progressive non-profit world," but they plan to re-post the jobs as soon as long-term funding is more secure. So I'm not sure what I think of that. I'm marginally more content with the academic life these days (in large part due to working for MMW, which has led to my both feeling like a halfway competent teacher and being able to manage ridiculous amounts of work), but it might well still be the sort of thing I'd like to spend a year (or more) doing, depending on when the chance comes up again.

Here is a project that a certain birthday-Noski has undertaken, to cover a song a day for all of March. I especially recommend the Dio and Mancini.

Oh and speaking of weirdos' recordings, here are those shortwave numbers station things that have been freaking Miranda out so much. I dunno, I am not finding them all that spooky, but they're still pretty cool, especially in principle.

Furry sobbing monsters feeling sad

Though everybody has politely refrained from pointing this out, I have myself just now noticed that several of my recent posts have been blisteringly dull.
Sorry about that. No more discussions of legislative process, I promise.

Let's see what I can come up with instead. I am pretty captivated by this here video (thanks to pinguino for the link). Steve Jackson's obsession with legos has brought the following contraptions to my attention: the Lego Difference Engine and Lego Pinball Machine.
And oh. I'd forgotten to tell you about Toom's Very Small Monsters. It's still pretty new, but I am enjoying it so far, and look forward to future developments on the very small and monstrous fronts.

Lastly, I've had this sudden urge to get into some Batman. Any recommendations? Slogging through Amazon has revealed these (1, 2, 3, 4), but I admit that this is an area about which I know embarrassingly little.