Name: Picabo Juice
Style: New England IPA
Brewer: Western Collective - Idaho
ABV: 6.7
IBU:
Rating: 5/5
Notes: This is Good

Picabo Juice is our Super G downhill run at the hazy IPA. Comet, Citra, Cashmere, El Dorado hops late in the boil and dry hopped. Fermented with a London ale yeast. Tropical fruits and citrus first meet the nose (mango, passionfruit, pineapple, grapefruit), juicy fruits and citrus in the mouth. Medium bodied, and drinks like your favorite apres beverage. Ingredients – Great Western 2-row, white wheat, crystal 20, mild malt, flaked oats. Comet, Citra, Cashmere, El Dorado hops late in the boil and dry hopped. Fermented with a London ale yeast.

I have been doing the working from home, social distancing shenanigans for about a week or two. Today, was the first day I had the girls with me instead of taking them to the grandparents. Now that Idaho has made stay-at-home mandatory — fkn finally.

I need to figure this out. It’s kind of hard to juggle between having the girls and be dad and being an employee with many responsibilities at the same time. It might take me a day or two but I’m sure that eventually I/we will find my/our groove.

This also means, less Zelda BoW time (😅). Which is fine, now I’m really into the Animal Crossing fake life and it’s awesome. That I play at night.

Stay classy people. Stay safe and soapy. 🧼

Today I revived this text from my wife.

Omg 😆 Duraid was telling me that they had a drunk older woman come in to Winco last night. Went straight to the beer section grabbed a beer opened it and went to the bathroom and passed out. Cops came kicked her out. Not even 15 min later came back in and started beer tastin until she found the one she liked 😂😂😂 and stuffed her pockets. The cops had to arrest her for stealing

Crazy times man! Crazy times!

We got new phones! Today we received two iPhone 11’s, one for me and one for zee lady. Mine was waiting at the doorstep this morning when I got back from dropping the girls off at the Grandparents (that is the only “outing” I am allowed to do nowadays unless it’s for supplies, that is). The second one was delivered in the afternoon and the driver came to the door, we kept a distance, he asked for my last name and there went. It felt safe and weird at the same time. And of course, in both cases, I opened the package, left the outer packaging outside (either straight to the recycling bin or in the garage) and used disinfectant wipes for the phone boxes. I wonder if that was a little overkill? Meh! The paranoia is real! Also scary.

At this point, I have had pretty much all day to play a little bit and get some initial impressions. First off, I had totally forgot that this phone has a 6.1" screen, I am coming from and iPhone XS which is 5.8", I think. Even though the size difference is not that dramatic, yet, it is still noticeable to me. It kinda felt the same way it did when I went from the iPhone 5s to the iPhone 6, it will take me a day or two to get used to it. One of the things everyone raves about this new generation of phones is the camera. So far, I have only taken one or two pictures and there’s definitely some quality difference between the 11 and the now-old iPhone XS. More on that later I guess. Another thing I am gonna have to get used to now is no 3D Touch, I first noticed it when I was trying to activate the cursor by 3D touching (is 3D touching a verb? meh!) in the middle of the keyboard. Now, I have to long-press on the spacebar to activate the cursor thingy.

But yeah, the phone is pretty bitchin'.

That’s all for today’s tale, come back next week for more nonsense like this one. Same Gabz-time, same Gabz-channel.

I normally don’t use cases on my phones but I still do have them around. There are a few instances where I like to have one. That is usually when I am at the gym or any outdoor activities like hiking or outdoor exercising. Today I got an iPhone 11, I had totally forgotten or disregarded the fact that this phone is bigger than my old iPhone XS, thus my current cases won’t work. Not having a case for the phone, or rather, knowing that I don’t have a working case at the moment, makes me a wee bit nervous.

Yesterday one of the accounts I follow on the Instagrams, posted a story with the now-famous “ask me anything”. This account belongs to a Crossfit athlete. Normally I would have tons of questions for these people except when they go “Ask me anything”, then, I got nothing. And yet I asked the first thing that came to mind. Do you train/workout every single day or do you take days off with no activity whatsoever? I don’t have the exact response from her but it was somewhere along the lines of, “yes I do take days off with no activity, I listen to my body”.

Lately, this is something I have been struggling with, knowing when to stop and take breaks. I have this “mission” in my head. Or is it an obsession? That I need to workout every single day, whether is cardio, heavy lifting or some light activity. There are days that I can tell that my body needs a rest but I feel guilty if I don’t do anything. Then I get all these notifications on my watch from friends, so and so finished a workout! And that fuels the guiltiness of not doing anything. If I don’t do anything I am being lazy and won’t achieve my goal, whatever that is.

This one of my struggles, knowing when to stop, rest and not feel guilty about it.

IN OTHER NEWS:

I am, well, we are getting new iPhones tomorrow, I am excited.

I have been playing with my Blot site again. Over the weekend i ask Dave to run my Micro.blog export file, which he did, and then i saved into my Blot’s Dropbox folder. Now, my blot site it’s caught-up with every post i have published so far. I always liked the simplicity of Blot’s system, just a bunch of text files in my Dropbox. At the same time though, my blogging workflow it’s so, i guess i could say optimized, to work with the Micro.blog ecosystem. And starting to move again to blot might disrupt my blogging workflow a little bit.

That being said, even if i end up moving my blot to Blot, i would still keep my Micro.blog account and keep participating in the community. But then it feels like i will be having two different types of blogs, everything will be fragmented instead of one streamlined thing like it is right now. Short posts and full posts in one place.

I don’t want to create too much friction, it gets in the way of the “creating” process.

It is clear to me at this point, that I am the new appointed chef of the house. Today’s menu, meatballs a la Gabz with secret sauce and pata!

Today it was a little different. Had a little bit of trouble signing in to the VPN, not big deal, it was eventually resolved. Had to change my password since in one of my attempts to sign-in I accidentally typed my password into the work group-chat 🤦🏻‍♂️. But that’s not here nor there.

In the afternoon had to take Luna to the doctor. She have been a little fussy and touching her right ear a lot, so mama was worried it could be an ear infection. I was pretty sure it was the just fact that she’s teething but, me-lady insisted. Long story short, no ear infection, just a teething syndrome — as they call it.

More Zelda, I got to ‘rescue’ one of the devine beats! So far so good, I don’t feel tired of it, yet. We shall see.

We played outside! Once we got back from the doctor’s office, it was nice enough outside for me and the girls to play outside in our backyard. We did have a lot of fun!

IN OTHER NEWS:

Marley re-decorated my workout space a little bit by adding more “coworkers”

Day Two, Not that much different from day one xcept that I struggled really bad with my workout. The lack of good sleep might have had something to do with it, I wasn’t feeling it today. Work was, again slow, not too many projects came in. Did some more progress on BoW, I don’t think I have played this game as much as I have been these past two days! Although, I am starting to get that feeling that I am doing way too many chores, and yet, I am having fun – so far. Read that Apple announced some new toys! Now everyone in the mother is either selling or about to break the bank! 😅

Eitherway, we have survived another day.

May the Goddess smile upon you!

The timing for this post can’t be any more perfect! A year ago today I posted, Should I buy an iPad Pro?

So it begs some questions. Is it worth it? Why do I even want to spend so much money in such device? Is it FOMO? Is it because I want to be part of the “New (cool) Kids on the Block”? Will it end up like the 10.5”, used by someone else and neglected from me? Or What if I actually love it so much? What if I don’t love it? Am I overthinking all of this thus writing this post to somehow talk myself out of it?

And we all know what ended up happening, I gave the iPad Pro away. Today, Apple announced a new iPad Pro.

So, should I buy another iPad Pro? 😉

The first day in “quarantine” working from home, not too bad. As far as my job duties are concerned, nothing is different, workflow stays pretty much the same. I get my data and I deal with it, all my coworkers are online, we communicate and what not. One thing that is definitely different is the flexibility and liberties that I have by being at home. For example, this morning I logged in, as I do, checked my emails and a brief chat with my peers over Skype for business chat thing and then I did a home workout! I mean, I could do a 30 min workout in between downtime at work but i don’t think that’s alright. So that was nice, I got that out of the way and I don’t have to leave later to do that.

Since the current situation, I am presuming most things will be slowed down considerably so today was a slow day, as it was yesterday, well, yesterday was weird. Anyhow, in the slow periods I decided to catch-up with some gaming, Zelda Breath of The Wild, to be more specific. This is a game that I have been trying to play since I got it but wither didn’t have the time orde desire to. Well, today I had made far more progress than I ever made before, I actually left The Great Plateou, /me: laughs.

The one thing that kind of frustrates me about the game so far is, how slow it is to get good equipment and gear on this game. I am used to getting good useful stuff quickly, here I find myself struggling a bit. The few times I had to consult the Oracle A.K.A. Google for whatever reason I got upset when I see these people making videos with all these weapons and costumes and I’m like “I want that, like now”.

I am the worse, I got no patience.

That being said, I am having fun, so far, so I think I’ll be sticking with it. Plus I’ve nothing but time.

Social distancing is official – for me. Today, I have been instructed to basically move my office home. Take your monitors, docking station, keyboard, and mouse! Anything we would need to be able to comfortably and effectively work from home. Guess now there will be a lot of Zoom calls and more chats! Never thought we would get to this point and yet, here we are now.

I was having a conversation today, in a super-secret discord channel, about them video games. In the conversation, Zelda Breath Of The Wild was mentioned. Part of me feels Zelda-shamed that I haven’t been able to truly play and stick to this game. I purchased this game when I first bought my Nintendo Switch. What, like 3 years ago maybe? And I don’t think I never left the Plateau. I even remember an ex-coworker lending me the Game-Guide so I could actually play it and so we could geek-out about at work. Long story-short, I never got to play it and then I was laid off el-oh-el.

Anyhow, I need to play this game, I really do. I see images and videos all over the internet and I am always on aw! I have Amiibos related to the game, wallpapers on my phone and computer, a tattoo even, clearly I am a fan of the franchise and its lore. But can’t stick to the damn game!

Probably my biggest drawback or inability to play this game is how open and adventurous it is. These days I rather play something more lineal and with clear direction – I think. I always remember when I was supposed to prepare some dish, I had a hard time figuring out the ingredients, like somehow I was supposed to know that, but really. How the fuck was I supposed to know? I had to google the damn thing. And it also felt chroy, like I was doing chores all the time and dying a lot, that was also frustrating.

By the looks of it, it seems like we are also headed to some kind of quarantine situation here in the Idahos. Good excuse to jump-in maybe.

We shall see!

Akame ga Kill!

Tatsumi sets out on a journey to help his poor village. When he’s rescued by a band of assassins, he joins their fight against the corrupt government.

Another good anime show on the Netflix’s! I have been watching this one pretty much all week. I’m not gonna lie, I am pretty much an easy sell when it comes to anime shows. Give me a lot of action, blood and awesome weapons and I’m in. This sure has all of the above! It has an interesting setting, good action, cool fights and of course your typical Japanese over sexualized characters and whatnot, which it can get a little weird sometimes. It is what it is when it comes to that but it’s still a very good enjoyable show. So far the story it’s good and you really get a feeling for these characters and their motives. I am really into the story as see how it develops.

I give this one 🍫🍫🍫/🍫🍫🍫

Before I have complained about my Powerbeats Pro and the left earpiece to always being dead or with less power than the right one. Which has been annoying me for the last few weeks.

Today, I noticed something. I was playing some music, as you do, on the phone speakers when I decided to better play it on the HomePod. And saw this,

It’s like as if the left headphone never registered that it’s in the case. Could that be the reason why it’s always without charge? Because it’s always ‘searching’ or being somewhat active while in the case.

This game, Blasphemous, it had been in my Nintendo Wishlist since it came out and the other night, I finally bought it.

Blasphemous is a punishing action-platformer that combines the fast-paced, skilled combat of a hack-n-slash game with a deep and evocative narrative core.

I have been hesitant about buying this game, even after playing the demo, which it’s still available. The reason is because like many other games of this style, they tend to be somewhat difficult and a little frustrating.

But I can’t help myself, I love this genre of games, I love the pixel art and its style. Same thing happened when Shovel Knight first came out for the Nintendo 3DS. I fell in love with the pixel art and did play a big deal of it but never finished it. Same with The Messenger, although this one I stopped playing for other reasons, not because it was too difficult. And also with one of my most recent ones Katana ZERO, god knows I love this game but grrrr.

These games are my guilty pleasures. Mainly because, like I’ve said before, the pixelated art. I ❤️ pixels! But they aren’t the easiest games to play a lot of times and yet, I buy them, play them, love them and hate them!

Back to Blasphemous. I have played a few hours of it and so far I am enjoying it. And so far it doesn’t seem too difficult in the sense of the fighting style or the enemies but the gameplay itself. If you die, you re-spawn in one of these altar looking structures and just like Shovel Knight, you’ll have to track back we’re you died to get all your stuff back. These altar looking things are very self apart from each other so that can get annoying.

This game is as if Dante’s Inferno, Shovel Knight and Castlevania had a baby.

The pixel art is beautiful and so the background scenery. The story is creepy and very interesting and you encounter very weird and interesting characters along the way. But, I am afraid that I might not finish this game either, that I will get frustrated and rage quitting it but we will see.

I am not going to lie, this whole Coronavirus situation it’s starting to get me a little paranoid. A simple morning allergy makes go down a rabbit hole. Did I get it?, But from where or whom? It’s just morning allergies!, Is it though?

Again, I am getting paranoid, not scared – yet – but paranoid. Two of my business trips have been canceled, I am truly relieved by that. There is still one conference I signed up for that is not until June but I would not bee surprised if it gets either postponed or canceled.

These are weird times.

🎶 I think I’m paranoid (paranoid paranoid) And complicated🎶

Name: Barreled Treasure
Style: American Imperial Stout
Brewer: Odell Brewing Company - Colorado, United States
ABV: 11.0
IBU: …
Rating: 6/5
Notes: my first reaction was Oh My gOd! Thus the reason I have it 6 out of 5 😉

A reward of hidden bliss awaits the intrepid explorer whose liquid journey brings them to Barreled Treasure. An imperial stout aged in both bourbon and rum barrels and awakened with a hefty dose of coffee, Barreled Treasure has a luscious, complex profile packed with aromas and flavors of rich espresso, blackstrap molasses and baker’s chocolate. Your riches await!

Every major event in the nation it’s been canceled due to the COVID-19. Here in Boise-FKN-Idaho the most important event of the year the Treefort Music Fest, most importantly Alefort, isn’t getting canceled! Whoop! Not even the Coronavirus can’t stop us for experiencing good beer!

In its ninth year, Alefort is pulling out all the stops to make sure there is a craft beverage for everyone.

Update

The damn thing got postponed.

Sad.

Name: Mind Bloom
Style: American IPA
Brewer: Melvin Brewing / Thai Me Up - Wyoming
ABV: 7.0
IBU: …
Rating: 5/5
Notes: delicious

It’s time to open up your senses and experience the Mind Bloom. Mosaic and Motueka hops create bold flavors of ripe melon, mango and mojito in this modern IPA. Fruity and floral things that make you go “Mmmm…”

Name: Cast Out
Style: American IPA
Brewer: Crux Fermentation Project - Oregon, United States
ABV: 8.0
IBU: …
Rating: 5/5
Notes: I pretty much love everything Crux does, this one been one of my favorite IPAs ever.

Name: Pearl IPA
Style: American IPA
Brewer: 10 Barrel Brewing Co. - Oregon
ABV: 8.0
IBU: …
Rating: 5/5
Notes: This is good beer!

Name: The Brewed Abides
Style: English Sweet/Milk Stout
Brewer: Pelican Pub & Brewery - Oregon
ABV: 7.0
IBU: …
Rating: 4/5
Notes: it’s beat if you eat an Oreo after having a sip.

All brewers like a cocktail from time to time, but how about the best of both worlds in this cocktail inspired beer? Taking inspiration from the classic “White Russian” cocktail as well as the movie that made it famous is “The Brewed Abides,” a milk stout with vanilla, coffee and cocoa. This unique beer pours a chocolate color with dense off white head and entices the senses with an aromatic bouquet of vanilla, coffee, and dark chocolate. | Brewed with coffee, cocoa, lactose and vanilla

Have you ever been a fan of a franchise or genre of games, that you are very fan of but can’t play them or being good at them? For whatever reason. I do! There are a few games that I love the idea, the story, the entire lore about them, but man, do I suck at playing them.

A few examples,

Mortal Kombat, love this franchise, i love everything about it, but I suck at fighting games. Especially trying to remember combos and how to od fatalities and such! I can’t remember which one it was, but i was so glad he had cheat-codes to do falatilies. Another fighting game/franchise I have always loved is Street Fighter and I am probably actually decent at this one.

• Castlevania, another franchise I have followed throughout the years, my favorite probably been SON. Again, I have no patience for them, sometimes they can be too difficult or too annoying, love them regardless.

• Final Fantasy, love them, I own a couple of them on different systems and have probably never have finished them. This is the case with many RPGs or JRPGs, I love everything about them and I buy them, start playing them and at some point, i lose interest or they turn to be “difficult” or tedious, feel like i am doing chores. Whatever the case may be, and even so, I keep being a fan of them and buying them.

A few examples of those;

• Zelda, I have actually finished just a few of them. Keep trying to play BoW but the same thing, I feel like I am doing chores.
• Almost any Shin Megami Tensei game
• Star Ocean, I have played many of them and almost always don’t finish them.
• Metroid, love Metroid and always get excited every time a new one gets announced or talked about, very rarely have finished on of them and probably i don’t longer have the patience for them.
• Pokemon, The only ones I have actually finished, Pearl, Let’s Go Pikachu and Sword
• Resident Evil, I think the only Resident Evil I played from start to finish was Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 5. The only reason I was able to finish RE2 was that I had my budy, on the phone with me throughout most of the game. Prepping me to what was to come and what to do. RE5, well, that one wasn’t scary at all so. RE4, couldn’t continue it, it was too scary, I remmber. When the Remake for RE2 was announced I got excited, I remember I downloaded the demo and couldn’t even play the demo! And obviously, I am excited for the remake of RE3, doubt I will play it though,
• KATANA ZERO I LOVE this game, I love the music, the design, the colors, the game-style, the story, the gore, everything about this game! But man, this game is difficult, I haven’t been able to finish it.

I think these are my most memorable examples and again, RPGs, in general, are both loved and hated in some shape or form!