I intend to update this page quarterly with what I’m studying, practicing, and working on currently. The idea of a now page comes from Derek Sivers.

Family

We’re at the occasional-euchre-game-on-the-porch stage, which is a very good stage.

Hobbies

Beer & Brewing

I took about an 8-month break from brewing and then got back into it as my clubmates in the Foam Blowers of Indiana started chiding me to contribute entries to Indiana Brewers’ Cup. Turns out they didn’t need my help achieving a repeat win of Homebrew Club of the Year, but it was fun entering and having some success.

My specific interests:

  • Traditional German beer (lagers, Weißbier, Kölsch)
  • Traditional English beer (bitter, mild, porter)
  • Low-oxygen brewing
  • Clarity and foam
  • Decoction & step mashing

I enjoy competing, but my main focus is replicating commercial styles that when tasted transport me back to a place I’ve visited and had that beer.

See my posts on beer.

See my posts on brewing.

Backpacking

Last year I got really into backpacking and hammock-camping. Unfortunately, the number of people willing to accompany me on such adventures has fallen off quite a bit, so I may be selling some very nice equipment soon.

Me in my hammock

See my posts on backpacking.

Travel

Travel is very important to me and is woven throughout this site so much I don’t have a category for it. My travel has fallen off a bit lately for various reasons, and I’m itching to get back to Europe.

Music

After many years of getting rusty, I’ve purchased a Nord Stage 4 Compact and am getting back into keyboard playing. The bulk of my experience is with the piano, but the organ and synth capabilities of this wonderful device have really captured my interest.

Programming

Programming, both at work and in my spare time, takes me to a place where the outside world fades away and I lose track of time. Most of my projects are little tools and web apps written in Python or Javascript, nothing big. Right now I’m working on:

  • This web site, which is made up of static files generated from Markdown by Hugo
  • tiltboard, a very simple web interface for visualizing Tilt app data

See my GitHub site.

Work

I’m working for a medium-sized threat intelligence company doing information security and compliance, topics which I cover more on my other site, pericule.