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thinking-in-symbols · 4 years ago

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Quinquennial Life Assessment

So, it’s been a few years. When I was 19 I posted a sort of “roadmap” for the evolution of my life on this blog. Today I thought I’d revisit that. I want to take a look back and see what progress I’ve made, and then in a separate post I want to turn to the future, think about how my vision for it has changed, and consider how I can reincorporate these goals into that vision.

This is the list of things I wanted to get done in varying time frames. I’ve crossed off the things I’ve done to get a sense of my progress:

1 year:

At 19, my hopes were to accomplish the following things by age 20:

- Joined, and consistently participated in, at least 2 campus organizations that suit my interests, at least 1 of which should be competitive in nature - well, I joined the ISO and KVRX, my college radio station! Neither of those were competitive, but in retrospect I don’t really care about that :-)

- Made concrete plans to study abroad - Nope, unfortunately I never did this. I’m not quite sure I regret that, all things considered - I traded that experience for other things. I did make plans to spend a few months abroad of my own accord, and I would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren’t for that meddling global pandemic. But as it stands I haven’t done this.

- Learned C++ and python to proficiency - Hm. “Proficient” is a relative term. But I think I have a tendency to downplay my skills, so in the interest of counteracting that I’m going to count myself as “proficient” in these languages. I think that’s fair.

- Gone on at least a several day road trip with at least 1 friend - I’ve gone on several trips with @meeshbug, my very lovely girlfriend and best friend in the world :-)

- Decided on a concentration beyond the extremely vague umbrella of “computer science” - Unfortunately as far as my education is concerned I never really did this. If anything my interests have *broadened* rather than becoming more focused. More on this later...

- Made meaningful, ongoing contributions to an open-source project - You know what? I’ve published the source of everything I’ve ever made, and I’ve gotten to the point where I can make stuff that’s not trivial. So I’m giving myself credit for this one.

- Learned to cook enough meals to eat in most days and not get sick of my own food - I wish. I’ve learned to cook a fair amount of stuff but I still get way too depressed and lethargic to apply that consistently. Whether I consider myself to have achieved this honestly depends on the month.

- Learned to keep my living area clean - I’m much better at this than I was at 19, but at 19 I could barely clear a path to walk across my room. So there’s more work to do. More on these last two later.

- Gotten a pet - Meesh and I have a dog named Courage (after the dog of cowardly fame) and a cat named Jax!

2 years:

- Independently written a piece of software to completion and deployed it publicly - I’ve always pretty bad at actually seeing projects through to completion, but I do have a few full, independent projects under my belt at this point. I’ve built a simple game engine, a pathtracer, plugins for games I like, and some other stuff.

- purchased and begun regularly using some basic amateur radio equipment - Ah man. I got my license but I still haven’t gotten any equipment. I guess I have to get on that...

- purchased and begun experimenting with some basic music recording equipment - This one I’ve done, but I haven’t done as much experimenting as I’d like.

- hosted a party - I did this for my 21st birthday and it’s one of my favorite memories! Honestly this was probably the last time I had all my really close friends in one place. I’m actually getting kind of emotional about that.

- done some kind of hallucinogen - I have now done this. I definitely did get something out of it, albeit not what I expected. This is something I actually only did pretty recently and it’s still having a pretty profound effect. Maybe I’ll write a separate post about this.

- Gone camping with friends - Despite my best efforts, this hasn’t happened yet. Pretty fucked up.

3 years:

- learned to play another instrument besides the piano (guitar?) - I don’t feel comfortable crossing this one off quite yet, but I went ahead and bought myself some guitar equipment and have been messing around with it lately :-) I think I’m going to have to bite the bullet and pay for lessons if I’m serious about this, which I am.

- Written and recorded a song - Damn, I can’t believe it’s been 5 years and I haven’t even done this.

- Met a group of people I can play music with - nope

- Owned a leather jacket. I can’t believe I’ve still never even owned a leather jacket - I’ve done this and wore it frankly too much. Kinda cringe.

- Worked as a professional software developer - Yep! Worked as a software developer for a retail company for a couple years. I’m actually not working as a software developer right now, though; I’m working in a sort of adjacent position. More on this later.

- Participated in research related to my field - That’s pretty ambitious. Not sure I’ll ever do this, unfortunately. But we’ll see.

- Been to a film festival - Oh shit, I totally forgot about having written this. That’s a cool idea. I should do this, it’s not like it’s hard (well, at least in principle. I guess covid kind of changes the situation).

- Gotten a dog - Courage is one of those, I think, although he might also be part rat.

- collected 50 records - Lol, my dumb ass really thought I was going to buy $1,000 worth of records on college money. No, I haven’t done this, but I’m on my way there.

- Purchased a desktop computer - Well, my dad gave me his old desktop. That’s not really a purchase but I think it counts.

5 years:

- Begun accepting freelance development gigs - haven’t gotten here yet and I’m not totally sure this is a direction I want to go in my career. Freelancing has its own stressors as I’ve come to learn from others. No career path is sunshine and roses and I’m trying to internalize this fact.

- Participated in a student film - Nope. I don’t even know why I wrote this down to be honest.

- Gotten laid by solving a 5x5 Rubik’s Cube in front of a girl because surely that’s gonna have to work on someone eventually, otherwise I wasted a lot of time - These are getting weird. Surely I didn’t really expect this to happen, right? Well, either way I now have a long-term girlfriend, so I don’t - wait, Meesh has seen me solve a Rubik’s cube and she saw it before we started dating. So actually I’m going to give myself credit for it. I’m the one who makes the rules here.

- Fleshed out my political opinions - Yes, I now know everything about politics and can answer 100% of questions on political issues. Just kidding. But I know where I stand.

- Participated in a protest or some other kind of political event - Done! Went to a few protests as part of the ISO, participated in lots of their events, and attended some protests with friends as well.

- Studied abroad - Nope :-/

- Learned a language other than Spanish - I took a semester of French! But I don’t quite want to give myself credit for this one because I really would like to learn a different language to something resembling fluency.

- Run a marathon - Lmao. I am in much worse shape now than I was when I wrote this post, and even at that time I could probably do like 7 miles if I really pushed myself. How sad.

- Gone hiking outside of texas - This is weird because I’d literally already done this when I wrote this post. But I’ve done it more since then, so hey!

- Been out of the country with a friend - This I had also already done. I guess the point is to have done it without “adult supervision” or whatever. I haven��t done this since writing this list so I guess I have to leave it uncrossed.

10 years:

- Lived with a girl for an extended period of time - Meesh 🥰

- Spent at least 6 months living on the road in an RV, preferably with a dog and a girl - God, I am so close to being able to do this. I don’t want it to be an RV anymore - those things are expensive. But a van? Still pricey, but doable, especially if I’m willing to sacrifice some comfort. This has actually been front-of-mind for a while. I’ll let you know when I get the balls to pull the trigger.

- Started making Real Money - Well, yep, I have gotten to that point. I do have other thoughts on this, though. Money is weird, man.

- Lived in a long-term living space outside of Texas (i.e. not including RV time) - How long is long-term? Three months? If so, I’ve done this by living in Boston with Meesh for a few months after she went there for law school. However, I anticipate staying there much longer in the near future, so I’ll wait on this crossing this one off.

- Written a book about something, idk - Not yet. I’m halfway to the deadline on this one and I have some ideas, but ideas aren’t worth all that much, especially to me, who rarely sees them through. We’ll see where this goes. It’s not exactly a priority and historically I struggle to get even my priorities done. It might make more sense to replace this with recording a concept or narrative album, for which I also have ideas that I happen to take more seriously.

- Learned to solve a 6x6 Rubik’s Cube - nope

- Gotten laid by solving a 6x6 Rubik’s Cube - nope

- Lived in an apartment where I pay all the rent - Yes! :-))) We love independence

- Earned an advanced degree (this one’s iffy) - This hasn’t happened, and whether it will ever happen is something I’ve been thinking a lot about. I sort of decided half-way through college that I would be totally burned out on school by the time I graduated. But in retrospect it takes way less time to burn out on work than it does to burn out on school, and grad degrees are a different kind of thing. So it’s worth revisiting.’

- Given a best man speech (Sam, this means you have to get married within the next 10 years. Good luck out there.) - Holy shit, Sam, you maniac, you actually did it! Sam got married back in 2019 and I gave his best man speech! It’s another one of my favorite memories :-)

- Gone on a cruise with someone I’m dating - Hmm, not yet. I’ve gone on cool trips, but none on a boat. Maybe that’s something to aim for after the pandemic passes :-)

Retrospective:

1yr: Completed: 5/9

More than half isn’t bad! I’m not gonna worry too much about whether I got these things done within their assigned “time-frame”. I’m a procrastinator in my heart and I don’t see any reason to put that kind of pressure on myself. The point is, they got done. That’s enough for me.

The things I did best in in this category were academic things, and things to do with relationships. I’m proud of the academic achievements, I really feel like doing them has increased my belief in myself and my sense that I’m good at the thing I’ve spent the last four years studying. And of course, I am so happy to be in a loving, fulfilling relationship that brings so many good things into my life. I almost feel like the things I accomplished sort of fell into my lap - of course I’m gonna do programming stuff as a programming student, and getting pets / going on road trips are things I did as a result of my relationship with Meesh. I don’t say that to downplay the accomplishments, but I do think it’s worth noting.

The things I haven’t done are more to do with personal development, which is disappointing. I would like to be able to say, 5 years down the road, that I’ve done the personal development I expected to do in just a single year, but maybe that’s a lot to expect. These are problems I’ve dealt with my whole life. I think what this means is that I can’t expect everything to fall into my lap. Those things are going to take real concerted effort to change. I’m not quite sure how to go about that, though.

2yrs: Completed: 4/6

Two-thirds! Even better!

Lots of these are one-time accomplishments, not so much long-term commitments to personal development. The good news is, I did them, and I think those resulted in some development in their own right :-)

Again, though, the things I didn’t do so well are the things that require long-term, concerted effort. For instance, while I crossed off the one about experimenting with music, it’s really only the initial investment that I’ve really done at this point. It remains to be seen whether I’ll be able to follow through on the commitment to actually experiment and learn.

3yrs: Completed: 4/10

This category also follows the same pattern I’ve noticed with the last two. The other thing I’m noticing is that so, so much of my effort over the past few years has been going towards developing a very particular skill: programming / computer science. Music and art are so important to me, but I’ve done very little real development in those areas. I mean, I’ve done some. But not as much as I would have hoped for half a decade.

5yrs: Completed: 4/10

This is getting a little more fun because less of my goals have to do explicitly with my degree. I’m starting to think beyond college, which is good, because the stage of life I’m in right now requires me to start thinking about the kind of life I want to build now that I’m done with school. Also, I’m at the deadline for this one right now! So this is a particularly interesting category because it really shows where I thought I’d be by this time.

The goals I accomplished in this timeframe are, again, mostly things I’ve done through my relationship, but politics also feature pretty prominently on this part of the list. I spent a lot of time reading and researching political issues during college and really did look for ways to participate. I honestly made politics a pretty big part of my identity over the last 5 years, and I think it will stay that way forever, but I’ve gotten to the point where I think I need to devote less of my mental energy to knowing more. I know what I need to know. It’s time to think about other things.

10yrs: Completed: 4/11 (and counting!)

There’s some career stuff in this section that I’ve been able to do, which is good news. I’ve always been scared about entering the working world. All things told, it’s gone more smoothly than it could have. But I also have lots of lingering doubts about what I want to do in the long term. So one of the most pressing goals I should aim for is to resolve those doubts.

Ultimately, I have a lot of time left, and I’m not even done with this time frame, so I’m not gonna spend much time dissecting the things I haven’t done. What I’ll do instead is say that while I didn’t do everything on this list, I feel proud of the things I have accomplished. I said when I first wrote this list that it’s sometimes hard for me to feel that my life is moving in any particular direction, and I’m still feeling like that five years later, to be honest. But looking back on these things has helped me see that I actually am making progress in my life. Not in all the ways I want to, but that’s OK. There’s still time.

In the next couple days I want to come back to this and reorganize this list into an updated set of goals, for the same time frames. Maybe that will help me think through exactly what it is I want out of the next five-ten years, with the benefit of having analyzed the things that I did and didn’t do well over the previous five.

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wineanddinosaur · 5 years ago

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The Business of Botanicals: How Your Favorite Gins Get Their Flavor

Without botanicals, gin would ostensibly be vodka, meaning no refreshing G&Ts and no arguments over what constitutes a “proper” Martini.

When we think about the botanicals used in gin production, which range from spices to seeds, peels, roots, petals, berries, and bark, it’s easy to let our minds stray to the spice aisle of our local supermarket. In reality, however, we should be browsing the fresh produce section.

Like the grapes used to make wine, or the hops that flavor beer, all botanicals start life as fresh, seasonal ingredients. And, as with any agricultural product, botanicals are delicate and susceptible to disease and extreme weather conditions. Distillers have to overcome the fragility of their ingredients to provide a consistent product year in and year out. Exactly how they achieve this feat is an untold tale of ancient alchemy, scrupulous sourcing, and the kind of foraging that would make Michelin-starred, farm-to-table chefs proud.

Of all the gin botanicals, juniper berries are the most important. Not only is their flavor synonymous with London Dry-style gin, they’re the only ingredient that’s legally required by international regulations.

Grown on juniperus communis bushes, the “berries” are actually fleshy cones that house seeds. Evolution caused this casing to resemble juicy berries, making the cones appetizing to birds, which in turn helped their advance across every region in the Northern Hemisphere, from the subarctic to the subtropic.

But not all juniper berries are created equal.

“If you want soft pine and sweet citrus flavors, you will only get that from juniper harvested in the North Mediterranean,” Jared Brown, founder and master distiller at British gin brand Sipsmith, says. Scottish Juniper, on the other hand, tastes like moss, while juniper from the American Rockies is so sweet and fruity it tastes like bubblegum, he explains.

An avid gardener, Brown tends a one-acre plot in the English Cotswolds, where he grows his own botanicals for research purposes and the occasional inclusion in his brand’s small-batch “Sipping Society” bottlings.

Unable to grow quality juniper in England, Brown decided to work a harvest in the mountains of southern Tuscany to better understand the ingredient. This experience exposed him to everything from the large, “shield-like” instruments used to remove ripe berries from bushes, to the sorting and drying processes that provide the finest berries, rich in flavor- and aroma-giving essential oils.

“The first thing that I’ve taught my team to do is when a sack of juniper arrives, roll up your sleeve and plunge your arm down into it. If it’s light, dry, and warm, that’s a bad batch of juniper,” he says. “You want to instantly feel cold, heavy, and damp; that tells you the juniper is filled with oils.”

Juniper berries are one of 10 botanicals in Sipsmith’s London Dry Gin, the recipe for which is deep-rooted in antiquity. “The preservation methods for these botanicals have been around since the Arabian alchemists,” Brown, who’s also a drinks historian, says.

By researching and implementing these techniques, Sipsmith can purchase fresh ingredients when they’re in season, and then dry them to distill year-round. But while Sipsmith toes the line of tradition and history, not all gin brands look to the past for inspiration.

Eighteen years ago, Bob and Carl Nolet Jr., the 11th generation of a Dutch distilling dynasty, were tasked by their father with launching a gin brand. In 1983, Carl Nolet Sr. had launched the hugely successful Ketel One Vodka, so the pair had sizable shoes to fill.

Bob and Carl Jr. devised a flavor profile that would reflect the “romance” of flower petals, the “succulence” of fruit, and the “tang” of berries, Carl Jr. explains. To convert these philosophies into a drinkable spirit, they placed three non-traditional ingredients front and center in the botanical bill: rose, peaches, and raspberries.

While rose petals are a somewhat contemporary gin botanical, flowers occupy an interesting place in Dutch history. During the early 17th century, prices of rare tulip bulbs reached six times that of the average person’s annual salary before they dramatically plummeted in February 1637. Economists regard this period as the first major financial bubble — and the first subsequent burst.

Nolet’s sources its (much more reasonably priced) rose petals and raspberries from eastern Europe, and its peaches from the western side of the continent. All are bought fresh and individually macerated and distilled in copper pot stills before being blended with a base gin and bottled at 47.6 percent ABV.

Nolet’s distillers collaborate with the company’s sales department to ensure they buy just enough ingredients to meet projected sales. Though it sounds somewhat less romantic than “capturing the essence of flower petals,” it’s a necessary part of working exclusively with fresh ingredients.

The same is true for Monkey 47, but on a much bigger scale. As the brand’s name suggests, the distillery uses a minimum of 47 different botanicals for each distillation. Harmonizing such an extensive list of ingredients is like composing a piece of classical music, founder Alexander Stein says, with lingonberry providing the base notes.

“Lingonberry has everything that we want,” he says. “It’s sour, bitter, sweet, and fruity and it’s super fundamental to [our gin].” Prior to distillation, the lingonberries macerate in a neutral molasses-based alcohol for about a week, with the remaining botanicals added 36 hours before distillation. For Stein, it is this process and the caliber of ingredients that determine the quality of his gin.

Stein has developed close relationships with many of his suppliers. Despite these connections, the whims of the weather and agricultural concerns mean the quality of sourced ingredients doesn’t always meet his exacting standards. At which point, he says, “we don’t distill.” (This typically happens two or three times per year, Stein says.)

Though it doesn’t quite match the 47 botanicals of its German counterpart, The Botanist, a craft gin produced by the Bruichladdich Distillery on the Scottish island of Islay, includes 31 botanicals. Impressively, 22 of those ingredients are hand-picked on the island by the brand’s full-time gin forager, James Donaldson (the only professional botanist to hold such a role in the world, according to the brand).

From the middle of March through the end of September, Donaldson roams the 50-by-25-mile island in an electric vehicle, aiming to pick just the right amount of the 22 items on his list, which include such evocatively named botanicals as Bog Myrtle, Mugwort, and Creeping Thistle.

“Everything needs to be picked in the very best condition,” he says, “and they generally need to come in bone dry, which can be an issue on an island where it sometimes rains 200 days out of the year.”

When he returns to his drying facility — a “few sheds” containing wooden racks built by local joiners — he lays out his bounty to dry. Some ingredients take longer than others, though all require a painstaking amount of time to process: “Half an hour’s picking can take four or five hours,” he says.

Donald’s workload is dictated by the unpredictability of nature, meaning some periods are surprisingly sluggish, while others see him working 10-to-12-hour days. When VinePair spoke with him, the foraging season had finally ended and he was enjoying a brief respite from the arduous labor. But it won’t last long.

“Sitting here now, a week or so later,” he says, “I’m looking at my list of winter jobs thinking: How on earth will I get all of this done in the next few months?” It’s a question that transcends the seasons.

The article The Business of Botanicals: How Your Favorite Gins Get Their Flavor appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/gin-botanicals-nolets-sipsmith/

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johnboothus · 5 years ago

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The Business of Botanicals: How Your Favorite Gins Get Their Flavor

Without botanicals, gin would ostensibly be vodka, meaning no refreshing G&Ts and no arguments over what constitutes a “proper” Martini.

But not all juniper berries are created equal.

The article The Business of Botanicals: How Your Favorite Gins Get Their Flavor appeared first on VinePair.

Via https://vinepair.com/articles/gin-botanicals-nolets-sipsmith/

source https://vinology1.weebly.com/blog/the-business-of-botanicals-how-your-favorite-gins-get-their-flavor

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sportymama · 8 years ago

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Hooray! We made it up and over Muir Pass! We sat and marveled inside the Muir Hut for quite some time. It’s a great gathering place for hikers and we talked to people hiking the PCT and JMT from all over the world. The trail will be a cake walk from here. HA! We still, despite my desire, haven’t seen any bears. I am hoping as we get closer to Yosemite that we will.

Wild Mountain Man

By the water. My little slice of Heaven

I had so many conversations with God today. Layers continue to peel that I hope to share, but honestly, some are SO personal, so intimate that I’m not sure it would be entirely appropriate for a blog. I acknowledged and allowed God full control in healing some pretty deep-rooted hurts in me. One thing I know, I need to be more discerning with people and my tribe. Years and years of feeling that I didn’t measure up when I was younger and feeling the need to people please always opens me up to relationships that I really should be more discriminatory about. I have learned to be better, but every-so-often I get caught up. I love too hard and oftentimes can get caught up in a little too much drama, too much stress, too much emotion, and crisis. I am natural “fixer” I want to fix the problem, fix the outcome, fix a saddened friend, fix, fix, fix, to the point of exhaustion. That’s a by-product of always needing to feel like enough in my younger years. Sometimes wanting to help and fix is a great quality to have but I can also become a magnet for the passive aggressive. As God rolled this out for me and I saw the scenarios play out in my mind, I realized He is the only fixer. “Send them my way,” He whispered. I only need to be praying daily, and allow their burdens to become his. That’s it! I cannot “be” a better friend than that! Of course I’ve known this, but sometimes God needs to really give me another nudge. Before this trip, I had a conversation with someone, who had shared that they felt I wasn’t being a good friend to them. I love the honest, real conversations I can have with the people I love. I only look for authenticity. Transparency. I don’t shy away from difficult conversations and in fact encourage them because I feel like they grow you. Communication is key in all relationships and when you love someone you cannot be closed off to the difficult and messy. Speak the hard things in love and ask for discernment. You’re always better on the other side. You learn things about yourself that maybe you don’t see and learn things about others as well. How can you have an honest, pure, genuine relationship without it? I appreciated the freedom as they spoke to me, but I immediately wanted to fix the situation. To be better. To do better. God showed me that sometimes that’s just impossible. My best is my best is my best, and sometimes it isn’t about me. I can only be the person and friend I am capable of being, that He created me to be and sometimes that’s not going to cut it for some. What I know is that is perfectly ok. I am completely incapable of filling the void sometimes. Does that sting? Yes! As a recovering people-pleaser, that can bite, but I cannot fix everything. I cannot fix broken family members, heal broken/unloving marriages, joyless relationships, un-met dreams, hurt from abuse, hurt from abandonment, the deep, sadness from a lack of feeling unloved, bitter minds, unforgiveness or feelings of feeling less-than. That’s where God steps in for those who are willing. That’s why HE is God and we are human. WE NEED HIM! He is the balm that heals what’s broken in all of us. He steps in and fills the cracks, fills the holes and fills the soul. He does what I am completely incapable of doing.

Many miles passed today and mile after mile I felt like I was coming undone. Unravelling. God was so real and so present everywhere as we camped at Evolution Lake, my second favorite of the trail. The way the sunset bounced off the walls of this canyon onto the water was so spectacular! It was like a painting. I marveled as reds turned to pinks and purples then greens and blues, at the way the mountains took shape under the water as if they were admiring themselves in the reflection and as the stars appeared how hugely magnificent they were. They shot out, bold in the black sky, so close as they reached out their light towards the earth putting on a show to all those laying below to see.

The next morning we stopped at MTR (Muir Trail Ranch) for our resupply. What fun place! We loved all of the hiker buckets, 5-gallon buckets FULL of items that hikers have left behind or didn’t need anymore. They lined the bench and were labeled according to what was inside. Sunscreens, books, MRE’s, oatmeal, peanut butter/Nutella, oils and spices, granola bars, tuna. You name it, it was there for the taking. Like Christmas morning gifts. As I looked through them and gave some of my own resupply for the cause I was SO tempted to take the FULL jar of Nutella. Seriously? An entirely, full, unopened jar! I still wish I would’ve, but pack weight is everything, and a full jar of Nutella, c’mon, really? I battled that one out for a good 30 minutes as we refilled our bear cans with our cache that we had mailed in the weeks before. I still hadn’t had that much of an appetite and had ALOT to get rid of. Maybe the Nutella would make the cut… I opted for a few extra packets of Justin’s Peanut butter. Much smarter! And quite frankly for me; dip anything in peanut butter and I’ll eat it!

At this point of our hike, I was starting to feel like a fish out of water. Hiking styles vary by person, and on a hike this long you learn to adapt to your crew. I am much more lenient, savor nature, beauty, sounds, breathe and smell the air, taste, swim in lakes, waterfalls, and streams, dunk in the natural hot springs type of hiker. “Chase the butterfly!” I stop, take pictures and am captivated by God’s blessing of this gorgeous Earth. I get completely emerged and caught up in the beauty, I rarely keep to an agenda, other than getting to camp by nightfall. I knew God was working on my patience, my willingness to bend for others, my capacity and compliance to endure and yield to others plans, especially when in a group. I was grateful for that but had a few times that I felt a little joyless. Things happen while you’re on a through hike. People get tired, they get overheated, things break, they’re hungry, dehydrated, muscles hurt and frustrations on this particular day were at an all-time high. What a valuable lesson to all of us, that things, OFTEN if EVER go the way they are planned on a trip like this. You bend and lean in, and adapt and go with the flow. You have to, or you break. Even so, just being out here, doing this, living this dream that has been nestled in my heart since…forever, was amazing. I was grateful! I was grateful for all of it. The hard days, the tiredness, the lessons, the leaning into the uncomfortable. I was completely thankful for friends doing life together through the good and bad and in the end loving one another enough to pass the bumps in the road. I was grateful for a husband that appreciates our together dreams as well as the wild dreams of his crazy wife. I was grateful that he encouraged this! Applauds my wild! Inspired me, prayed for me, and talked sense into me on my lowest of days. After feeling a sense of mutiny and revolt on my “natural carefree hiking-self” this night, I cried in my tent reading my resupply card. Which…was a THANK YOU card.

-Paula (to myself) Aug 22, 2016

Be thankful and grateful for the place you are TODAY! You’re at MTR. Easy? No! Worth it? YES! You’re a strong and courageous woman. Keep remembering to look up and out at God’s unbelievable creation! ~I will give thanks to the Lord because of His righteousness and will sing praise to the name of the Lord most high. O Lord, our Lord how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the Heavens. Ps 7:17-18:1 Amen. Happy Trails Paula

And from G

-My PJ, Where you are right now, STOP, sit down if possible and be still. Now imagine one of those kisses we do where we breathe in that deep breath. Close your eyes and do that now. Breathe in this amazing world and life God has given us. Exhale, deep and full. Open your eyes and kiss the beautiful sky. Enjoy the journey and all that it is. Love, G xoxo

I popped out of my tent to talk to my camp partner K and told her I was sorry. Sorry if I was quiet the entire day. Sorry if I seemed out of sorts, but also that I recognized I was like I said, a fish out of water on this hike. I read her the Thank You note, she cried.

Put a cape on a woman and she will SOUR (K with her pack cover on that made her look like Super Woman)

Seldon Pass- We got caught in a thunderstorm. Tons of rain and hail coming down. We broke out our rain gear and pack covers and hunkered down for a while, not being able to get over the pass due to lightning. The last thing we wanted was to be atop a 10, 898 pass with lightning overhead. Once we realized that the rain and hail weren’t going to let up, we continued on. We still weren’t in danger of the top at this point. We had the opportunity to meet the sweetest couple while taking our little rain break. It was their 50th (yes, FIFTIETH) wedding anniversary. They told us that they were meant to hike the entire JMT in 1969, just 3 years after they were married. There was record snowfall in the Sierras that year and they had to postpone their hike. Well, like life sometimes does, it takes a turn and gets in the way of the best-laid plans. She explained that careers, kids, moving, houses, PTA, soccer games, gymnastics, football, swim meets, diving headfirst into family life, etc took precedence. What an incredible story of never giving up on a dream that they made as newlyweds. They FINALLY made it! A little later than expected, by 40-some years, but they kept their dream alive, and made it happen. I hiked with that story floating around in my head all day. It made me miss my hubs, as we are big dreamers and have been since we met. I cannot wait to kiss that man straight on the mouth when I see him!

8-23-16 Made it up and over Silver Pass. Eleven passes in 17 days. Silver seemed easy for some reason. Maybe because it’s a shorty at just 10,754 ft. Or maybe it’s because we are on track to reach Red’s Meadows in 2 days. We camped at Duck Creek and as my pasta Primavera cooks my mouth is watering for a cheeseburger at Red’s. We got to camp early enough today to do laundry. ALL of it, including my night clothes. Thank goodness. PeeEw!

Start my JMT journey from the beginning HERE

Tales From the Trail -Wash Your Spirit Clean Muir, Seldon and Silver Pass Hooray! We made it up and over Muir Pass! We sat and marveled inside the Muir Hut for quite some time.

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isaiahrippinus · 5 years ago

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The Business of Botanicals: How Your Favorite Gins Get Their Flavor

Without botanicals, gin would ostensibly be vodka, meaning no refreshing G&Ts and no arguments over what constitutes a “proper” Martini.

But not all juniper berries are created equal.

The article The Business of Botanicals: How Your Favorite Gins Get Their Flavor appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/gin-botanicals-nolets-sipsmith/ source https://vinology1.tumblr.com/post/188743944359

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robertkstone · 7 years ago

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2018 Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk First Test Review: Power Mad

There’s a line from Moby-Dick, “In a whaler wonders soon wane.” Cetaceans are awesome creatures, magnificent mammalian consequences of evolution. Awesome, in the older, proper sense of the word. And in a life spent in their pursuit, so filled was it with wonder, the whaler soon grew immune to unsubduable excitement. As much as I try and not let myself get numb to the routine of driving fantastic dream machinery, it happens.

So imagine my surprise when, leaving Motor Trend HQ one afternoon, I floored the Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk and found myself laughing like a fool for 30 seconds straight. Mind you, I only floored the big, red Jeep for about three seconds, but that was enough to make me giggle and guffaw for 10 times as long. I wasn’t in Sport mode or Track mode, and I wasn’t using launch control.

As Jimi Hendrix would term it, I am experienced. Experienced with both powerful and crazy. The AMG 6×6 jumps to mind, as does the Lamborghini Urus, the Lamborghini LM002, the BMW X6 M, and even a good old Unimog. I’ve also driven a number of cars with 700-plus horsepower; heck, I had a Dodge Charger Hellcat for a year. Until recently, however, I’d never driven an SUV with 700-plus horsepower.

Well, live long enough, and you’ll see everything. Including the new Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk, the family SUV with a 707-horsepower 6.2-liter supercharged V-8 under the hood. Crazy? By design. It’s refreshing, both personally and professionally, to get whomped over the head by something as utterly ridiculous as the Trackhawk. But is it any good?

I had been in the Trackhawk’s driver’s seat for maybe a minute and just buried my right foot. To brag a little, I’ve hit 171 mph on the front straight of Big Willow in a Porsche 918 and hit 193 mph on the Bonneville salt in an AMG GT S. I’m used to big machines doing big things. But none of them tickled my funny bone like this $100,960 Jeep. I haven’t laughed about a car like that since … I don’t remember.

What’s it feel like? Well, some of the giggles come from how it launches the opposite of a Hellcat. Perhaps not what you’d expect because the two vehicles sport the same engines, same power, and nearly the same torque (645 versus 650 lb-ft). The thing is, although the Hellcat is both a Pirelli shareholder’s best friend and a smoke machine, the Trackhawk—by virtue of all-wheel drive—puts all that screaming supercharged fury down to the pavement. The big Jeep also lurches back on its haunches in a fun but startling way. For a brief moment, it feels as if the Trackhawk’s beak is pointed at the sun. The adaptive Bilsteins are actually fairly stiff (and would be stiffer still if I’d been in Track mode), but with 70 percent of the power hitting the rear wheels, thanks to a fixed torque split, this Jeep is going to lean back when launching.

How does this thing handle? Another reminiscence if I may. Since I’ve driven the Porsche 918, I inevitably get asked how it is to drive. “Fast,” I say. “It’s just fast.” Meaning, I know that I drove four laps around the big track at Willow Springs, but I literally remember nothing about the 889-hp hybrid hypercar, save for how fast it is. Nada. Same is true for the Trackhawk, only in terms of initial acceleration. I know I took some corners in it, but the bulk of my memory comes from that first launch. It’s just so brutally quick that I know I drove the Jeep aggressively on a curvy road, but I just can’t get past the fury of leaving from a dead stop. Speaking of which …

The Trackhawk hit 60 mph in 3.3 seconds in our testing, beating Jeep’s claimed time of 3.5 seconds. The quickest we’ve ever hit 60 mph in Hellcat testing is 3.7 seconds, for both the Challenger and the Charger (both were eight-speed autos—we’ve never tested a manual). For SUVs, the quickest to 60 mph we tested before the Trackhawk were Tesla Model X (3.2 seconds), the Bentley Bentayga (3.5 seconds), the BMW X6 M (3.7 seconds) and the Mercedes-AMG GLE 63 S Coupe 4Matic (3.9). Lamborghini is claiming 3.7 seconds to 60 mph for the 650-hp Urus, though I think we’ll see 3.4. Discounting the instant-on torque of the Tesla, so far, so good for the Trackhawk.

But right now is as good a time as any to mention one little caveat: We weighed the Trackhawk, and the results aren’t pretty—5,448 pounds. That’s a lot of SUV. That AMG, for instance—which coincidently shares the same underpinnings as the Trackhawk, the last remnants of DaimlerChrysler—weighs nearly 100 pounds less (5,359 pounds). The X6 M comes in at a relatively trim 5,187 pounds. All of which makes the Trackhawk’s acceleration that much more crazy.

To continue that conversation, in the quarter-mile test, the Trackhawk runs 11.7 seconds at 116.2 mph. Did you ever think we’d see the day when a production SUV runs the quarter in the 11s? That’s just crazy! Or should I say ludicrous, as the Model X when in Ludicrous mode also runs an 11.7-second quarter mile. However, the Trackhawk’s trap speed is 0.2 mph higher than the Model X’s, so Jeep beats Tesla in a drag race. What a world. Speaking of 11s, the 600-horsepower Bentayga runs 11.9 seconds at 117.1 mph. Some other fast SUVs for you to consider: the X6 M, but that slowpoke took 12.1 seconds at 114.3 mph. The quickest we’ve ever seen a four-door Hellcat run is 11.8 seconds at 124.3 mph. Meaning the Jeep is quicker, but the extra 900 pounds of lard and AWD hardware slows it down in terms of velocity, hence the 8-mph gap at the end of 1,320 feet. The quickest two-door Hellcat ties the Trackhawk at 11.7 seconds, but its trap is higher still at 125.4 mph. The Challenger Hellcat just happens to weigh 999 pounds less than the Trackhawk. (That’s 666 if you invert—coincidence or conspiracy?) Just to further impress upon you how quick this Jeep is, the Corvette Grand Sport hits 60 mph in 3.9 seconds and runs the quarter mile in 12.2 at 116.1 mph. Moreover, the 650-hp Camaro ZL1 with the 10-speed auto hits 60 mph in 3.5 seconds and runs the quarter mile in 11.5 seconds at 125.0. This Jeep is straight-line legit.

The Trackhawk’s stopping power is neither great nor terrible—108 feet from 60 mph , not supercar distances but impressive given its ample heft. The figure eight is another story. The time itself is solid: 24.7 seconds, which happens to tie the single Challenger Hellcat. We’ve tested three different Charger Hellcats and have seen 24.4, 24.5, and 24.6 seconds. Meaning this big Jeep can hustle. The experience, however, is more of a mixed bag. “I just about put my foot through the floor on the first lap because the stopping power wasn’t what I was expecting from the Brembos and P Zeros,” road test editor Chris Walton said. “Granted, it’s a heavy mutha, and it goes across the middle of the course at 79 mph, but I really had to back up the brake zone by about three Jeep lengths to make the corner of the skidpad.

“Once there, it turns in rather slowly, offers only a little hint of the front tires’ punishment, and eventually settles into terminal understeer,” he continued. “The exit, however, is where the ‘Wheeeeee’ happens. You can literally stand on the loud pedal and do a four-wheel drift until it’s pointing straight. Then it simply goes like stink. Finally, all-wheel drive to make use of all that Hellcat horsepower and torque that can’t be fully utilized in either the Challenger or Charger.”

I completely agree with Chris on that last point. I got bored of having to change tires on our long-term Hellcat. Simply put, the 707-hp barcalounger couldn’t put its prodigious power to the ground. This supercharged super Jeep sure can.

Before the Trackhawk, if you would have told me that one day there will be a $100,000-plus Jeep, I would have assumed it would have been some sort of luxurious, reborn Grand Wagoneer—complete with the off-road chops the fabled brand is known for. I never would have seen a dragstrip bruiser in the cards. Yet here we are. I’m sure we can all agree that there’s no need for a vehicle like this. But boy, are we all happy Jeep gave it the green light. I got no problem with crazy, as long as it’s the good kind of crazy. You know, the kind that makes a supercar saturated car scribe giggle like a todder. Ain’t no wonder waning here.

2018 Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk Supercharged BASE PRICE $86,995 PRICE AS TESTED $100,960 VEHICLE LAYOUT Front-engine, AWD, 5-pass, 4-door SUV ENGINE 6.2L/707-hp/645-lb-ft supercharged OHV 16-valve V-8 TRANSMISSION 8-speed automatic CURB WEIGHT (F/R DIST) 5,448 lb (56/44%) WHEELBASE 114.7 in LENGTH x WIDTH x HEIGHT 189.8 x 76.5 x 67.9 in 0-60 MPH 3.3 sec QUARTER MILE 11.7 sec @ 116.2 mph BRAKING, 60-0 MPH 108 ft LATERAL ACCELERATION 0.90 g (avg) MT FIGURE EIGHT 24.7 sec @ 0.79 g (avg) EPA CITY/HWY/COMB FUEL ECON 11/17/13 mpg ENERGY CONS, CITY/HWY 306/198 kW-hrs/100 miles CO2 EMISSIONS, COMB 1.48 lb/mile

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