How are you? A very common question with – under ideal circumstances – a simple answer. And yet. Why is that I have a hard time answering it sometimes? How are you doing? The usual response would be, “I am doing well” or “I’m good”.

Very often when I am asked this question, I go down this rabbit hole of questions in my head. Should I just say, “I am doing well, thanks for asking”, you know the normal BS? Shall I say “I am okay”? It’s like this simple question makes me double guess everything in my life up until the moment I am asked. Like what doing well or good really entails? Is it been alive and kickin'? Or is it having a job, especially in the pandemic? Is it not having the COVIDs? Having all your bills paid up, having three beers in the fridge, or having a Gigantamax Charizard in your Pokédex? So many unnecessary questions about what should be a simple answer.

Now this is me opening up a little bit. Many times, when I get asked my head goes to a place of insecurities and darkness. Years ago, when I was working at a company that shall remain nameless, I often was comparing my life to others. Thus, oftentimes I found myself frustrated, very unhappy and maybe even depressed because I wasn’t meeting “the standards”. Standards that I definitely got in my own head, I think.

Again, nowadays, I don’t think about those things anymore or at least not as much as I used to but it lingers. I guess this is why, to me, answering this question is hard at times. Am I doing good because I may or may not be good financially? Am I doing good because of my job title? The car I have, the size of the house I have, etc, etc.

Or just well because I have blessings?

So, let me count my blessings.

1. I have a wife that loves me (more like she puts up with me lol)
2. I have two beautiful and healthy daughters.
3. I have a job that pays for my Micro.blog hosting.
4. I have three beers and a camera (Ha! Three beers and a Camera, sounds like a good podcast 🍺 📷 🎙 ).
5. I don’t have a Gigantmax Charizard yet but I will have it soon 😜
6. And beta 5 just came out!

I am sure I have more blessings but those are the top 6 at the moment. I think I am doing well enough.

That being said, if you’re reading this, I hope you’re doing good. Or as my friend Justin would say, fabulous 😘

Me: i need to restore my Mac back to factory settings

Mac:

Me: hm, I think I am missing something 🤷🏻‍♂️, back to Disk Utility

Mac: LOL

Me: 😱😱😱😱😱😢

Me: 🍺 🤦🏻‍♂️ 🍺

Me: not giving up 💪

Mac: LOL, JK

Me: 🎉 🎉 😎 🍻 phew

Yesterday I had posted this picture on my Instagram as a tbt, as kids call it. Then I started thinking a lot about this picture, about those times. This had to be back in 2002-03 , somewhere around there, in Aibonito Puerto Rico. This was my second year of college I think. A simple kind of men (or kids rather) back then, different and much simpler times those were. I even remember I had just broken up with my girlfriend of three years at the time, or was it two years? Eh, it doesn’t matter. Ugh we were drinking Budweiser and smoking cigarettes 🚬

I cannot remember the reason for the “party” though there was a lot of beer and strong alcohol and even a “punk-rock” band. I remember we all, well most of us had a good time. I remember I met a nice girl too, don’t remember her name though.

I miss my friends, haven’t seen any of them in years. Certainly, don’t miss the Budweiser neither the cigarettes 😅

Bonus Points if you can tell which one is me. 😜

Today was my, both my last day working from home and a day off. Like I had said before, I had an itch that need it to be scratched. This morning I took the girls to the grandparents, as always and head out to downtown Boise. In my mind I was going to spent like 3 hours snapping pictures. It was actually about 40 mins or so. It was very strange, Downtown Boise looked like a ghost town of sorts. But I had a good walk and manage to capture some pictures. It is always interesting how I snap so many pictures and only 10 of them, I am happy with.

Here are a few,

I think some of them are okay.

Having scratched that itch, then it was time to head back home. Once I got home, some self care. Had coffee and breakfast. After breakfast, it was time for a workout. Kept it simple and yet effective, did 10 double handed swings and 10 push-ups, alternating between them until I had completed a hundred of each. Then some extra one handed swings, just for good cardio.

Next on the list was yard work. Spent a little over and hour working on the yard. Usually just mowing takes me about 30 to 40 minutes max. Also while still keeping an eye on my work email. A few things that were due today and even thought other people could take care of them, I still felt compelled to be around for. Finished with the yard, cleaned the girl’s kiddy pool and made it ready for them for when they got home.

Next, I knew my car needed some care. It’s been a mess on the interior for months now and it was starting to grows me out in a way. Guess that’s what happens when you’ve got two little ones riding with you. Went to the local car wash, mainly for their “free” vacuums rather than the actual “car-wash”. Now I won’t be ashamed if someone asks me for a ride.

I feel accomplished, not too shabby, if I say so meself.

Now it’s time to relax, beer and pizza — and Trolls. That’s the new hotness around here, Trolls World Tour.

There is something that happens quite often when I have a few beers in the evening. I get nostalgic, specifically about music. Last night for example I had a few beers, as you do, the girls went to bed and I was left alone. I put on a movie, Angel has Fallen, to me more specific, when then I picked up my phone and started browsing for music. When I do this I usually go down memory lane and into a rabbit hole.

This morning I woke up and after some coffee and time with the ladies, I decided to go out for my usual walk/sprinting thing I have been doing lately. Usually I would be walking and or running while listening to an audiobook, today though, I just wanted music. I open the music app, look for my downloads, songs and press shuffle. The first few songs that came on were the usual ones in my phone, or at least the ones I knew for sure I had intentionally downloaded. It’s about .30 miles from my house to the track. Once I got to the track, well, one of the random songs I had downloaded kicked it, X Gon' Give it to Ya by DMX, which it got me all pumped up and took of sprinting. Next was Wu-Tang Clan Ain’t Nothing Ta Fuck Wit, and I’m like “all right”! The next song, Girlfriend (feat. Nelly) by NSYNC.

What?

Right now, my local library is a mess! el-oh-el! I have everything from Wu-Tang Clan to Hilary Duff, to Britney Spears and or course, my favorite latin music!

Name: Big Mother
Style: American Imperial IPA
Brewer: Mother Earth Brew Co. - California
ABV: 10.5
IBU: -
Rating: 5/5
Notes: This is pretty smooth and semi-floral for a triple IPA.

Name: Voodoo Ranger 1985 IPA
Style: New England IPA
Brewer: New Belgium Brewing Company - Colorado
ABV: 6.7
IBU: -
Rating: 5/5
Notes: Slightly sweet juicy mango that fades to moderate bitterness and lingers slightly. This is good!

Name: Black Betty
Style: American Black Ale
Brewer: Sockeye Grill & Brewery - Idaho
ABV: 6.2
IBU: -
Rating: 4/5
Notes:

Every once in a while I will by or come across with a beer that has a very cool (to me) label. And some of them can be easily removed without spoiling them and I stick them to a piece of paper. So I had this idea of keeping them and maybe make some kind of beer-scratch-book. Here’s the first, and I am almost sure I have another one somewhere around the house. I don’t know, seems like it’d be a fun little project.

Name: Hazy by Nature: Down with IPA
Style: New England IPA
Brewer: Eel River Brewing Co. - California
ABV: 6.3
IBU:
Rating: 5/5
Notes: never heard of this brewery before. It’s really good stuff!

Name: Profuse Juice Hazy IPA
Style: New England IPA
Brewer: 10 Barrel Brewing Co. - Oregon/Idaho
ABV: 6.5
IBU:
Rating: 5/5
Notes: floral, juicy and thick! GOOD!

Name: Melty Hops
Style: American Imperial IPA
Brewer: Belching Beaver Brewery - California
ABV: 8.8
IBU: 70 Rating: 5/5
Notes: Collaboration with Revision Brewing Company

We are proud to collaborate with our good friends from who happen to be some of the best hoppy beer brewers in the world. This beer is loaded with Citra, Simcoe, Cashmere, and Azacca to create a bouquet of tropical fruit, pine, mandarin orange, and tangerine.

70 IBU

First tap beer, in months.

As most of you may know — and if you didn't know, you will now — I am a pretty big craft beer enthusiast. Although I am into IPAs and Stouts mostly, I still like to try different styles from deferent breweries. Every time I travel I make it a point to visit — if possible — as many of the local breweries as I can or at least buy local beer if I happen to stop at a local restaurant or market.

I have used different methods in the past to keep a record of what I have tried and any notes about them. The first app I ever used was Untappd, the problem I have with this particular app is that with time it kinda became the Facebook of beer tracking and there a lot of features and things I neither care nor need. Then I had discovered, probably the best beer tracking app ever made, TapCellar and god knows how much I miss it! Sadly this app was retired. Later, Mr. Drafts himself, Tim Nahumck created a Drafts action to try to mimic what TapCellar would do and it was perfect! The only problem was (or is) that I never see Draft as the final place for notes thus I always had a problem deciding where to send them after. I did try DevonThink, tried Bear Notes, Apple Notes, and even Ulysses. But for whatever reason, they never stick with me.

Another app that was made and that it was also a beautiful simple app was BeerTap. It had more scoring components than TapCellar but it was simple and beautiful. This app is dead (in my best Olaf's voice). Sad.

So, what have I been doing? I have been logging them into my second brain -- my blog. It's great, it works, I have this fancy Shortcut that was made by @sku_b in the Micro.blogs that lets me document and format it in a manner where I can then just sent it to my blog via Drafts. The problem comes when, maybe I forget to tag the post so it goes to my beer category or if I need to search. It is not as easy as if I had a dedicated app for beer tracking.

The ideal would be to have a place to store all this information that it's not just my blog. Someone needs to get into making one of these apps again and take my rupees !!!

In the meantime, well, let us see what I can come up with.

IN OTHER NEWS

I did not fix my Joy-Con drift issue, I am sad.