Beer Sampler by JMR_Photography

I love beer. Most people would probably consider me a beer snob in that I can’t stand Coors, Budweiser, or other popular brands. I like craft beer and exploring all the different tastes and styles from IPAs to stouts. Though if you really evaluated me to real “Beer Snob” standards I’m still very much of a newcomer, and I’m happy that way. I just like exploring tasty things, and don’t really care much about IBUs and brewing differences required for different grains.

I’m also a bit of an Arizona nerd, and am of the firm opinion there is far, far more to see, do, and experience in this state than most people realize. Complain to me there there is nothing going in Phoenix (or Arizona) and watch my eyes start to twitch. So when a commentor on a local board said there were “no good Arizona beers”, it hit two of my nerd buttons at once. The person is, quite simply, an idiot.

Great Arizona Beer

Being a Baby Beer Nerd, I did not want to craft a rebuttal on my own. I kicked it up the food-chain and asked the Arizona Craft Beer Lovers group on Facebook for their favorite Arizona beers. I specifically did not ask for “best Arizona beers” as this was not a competition, and beer preferences are very subjective. I just wanted to know what the Serious Beer Nerds in Arizona really like. They delivered!

Thirty-three different craft beers…
across thirteen Arizona breweries…
in nine different cities!

It’s a great list. Some of these I haven’t tried myself, so I got my own homework out of the deal to correct that issue.

Beers listed in Green were the most popular in the group, and everything in Yellow also received multiple votes. I put in each brewery’s home city, but most of these beers are available throughout the state. I also added a link to the brewery’s website so you can get more info.

No Excuses – Drink Arizonan!

If you just weren’t sure where to find great beer made in Arizona, or were intimidated by unfamiliar names and labels, you’re out of reasons to procrastinate. Arizona has tons of great beer and brewries, so get out there and try some.

I know there are many others out there, so if I missed your favorite, tell me about it!

In brightest day, in blackest night, in a galaxy far, far away, the Geeks gather to do battle, and the question on everyone’s mind is… who will survive, and what will be left of them?

Only one will walk away supreme in the Phoenix Ultimate Geek Smackdown!

Many will enter Phoenix Comicon thinking they could hold this title. They may know Boba Fett’s middle name, or the specific yarn used to knit Freddy Krueger’s sweater. They may know twelve different colors of Kryptonite, or be able to diagram Mario and Luigi’s family tree. But do they know all of the above without phoning, or tweeting, a friend?

That’s the challenge laid before the Phoenix Geekerati as contestants debate each other in topics drawn from the areas of Comics, Horror Movies, Science Fiction, Gaming, and the dark and foreboding… Wild Card. Each debate will feature a classic selection from one of these categories, like Who is a better Captain, Kirk or Picard? Winners will advance until they have proven their universal Geek wisdom against all challengers.

If you’re coming to Phoenix Comicon (and if you’re not, you lose your Geek cred right there), then it’s free to enter! Just visit http://phoenixcomicon.com/registration/pugs and cast your hat into the ring.

Either way, be sure to come check out the event as part of the Horror Track, at 8:00pm on Thursday, in room 129A, courtesy of the queen of local grindhouse, the Midnite Movie Mamacita. The crew at Lightning Octopus also plans to represent with some cephalopodic braggadocio.

Somewhere out there is the Ultimate Phoenix Geek. Is it you? As everyone knows…

…there can be only one!

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Shops around Phoenix have been rolling out the new customizable Coke machines. These are called Freestyle Coke machines and they let you make your own flavor from 106 different combos. The entire thing is driven by a touch screen, and has sub-menus to help you refine your flavor. For example, if you pick Diet Coke, the next screen lists Diet Coke Vanilla, Diet Coke Cherry, Diet Coke Orange, etc.

Sociologically, it is hysterical watching people faced with this overload of choice, standing there with their cup in front of the machine as if taking some sort of strange test. Added fun is watching them taste some of these bizarre flavors for the first time. Many are, in technical terms, butt-nasty.

Technically, I wondered how these things worked. I got lucky today as I stopped in while one was having its soda cartidges changed. I snapped a few quick pics.

Freestyle Coke Machine - Admin Screen

This is the admin screen that pops up when a flavor cartridge is being changed (click image to view on Flickr and see larger version). The user takes a flavor cartridge of concentrated syrup and swipes it near the lower right of the top panel of the machine. It senses which flavor it is (RFID, I assume) and goes into maintenance mode. It pops open the access panel (below), and brings up the step-by-step admin screen that you see above. Here he is changing a Powerade cartridge.

Once he is done, he just uses the touchscreen to step through the rest of the replacement process. The machine can tell when flavors are not only running dry, but also approaching their expiration date. He said the OS is a custom system written by Microsoft. I asked him if any of the sodas Blue Screened, but he didn’t seem to get the joke.

This is the open panel on the bottom half of the machine. Each of the flavors is in a long cartridge that slides into a slot. It reminded me immediately of a printer with ink cartridges. The major flavors are in the bigger cases, with the modifiers (grape, orange, etc) in the narrow ones at the bottom. When a cartridge is slid into place it is clamped down with a little latch. A status light initially showed red, but switched to green once the machine accepted the new insert.

Old cartridges are just thrown away. The guy working it said the syrup is so highly concentrated that if you get any on your clothes, you are just going to have to throw them away. Every cartridge replacement required closing the access door and letting the machine come back online. Then he would swipe the next cartridge and repeat the process. This seemed rather inefficient from a human operator perspective, but I imagine make the machine easier to troubleshoot and program.

You can click the pictures for larger versions on Flickr. I tried to get as much detail as I could without getting in his way. These are cool little machines, and it was interesting getting a peek inside.

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Image by Al_HikesAZ via Flickr

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While not blogging nearly as much as I should of late, I do still read voraciously online. I read blogs on everything from webcomics to tech to social media to screenwriting to skeptics to the inability to punctuate long lists of items in sentences to self-referential references^*.

I’ve always lacked a good way to share the cool things I’ve found. I tried Friendfeed, Shared Google RSS items, and other methods, but they never seem to really work across the board.  So now I’m giving Posterous a try.

From the Using It Wrong department, Posterous is intended to be a central syndication point for content, with the ability to publish to many different streams. I’m just using it’s quick clip/post feature to grab articles and put them online. I’m also going to try and always add a comment, as if I’m sharing something I find interesting it seems like I should at least be taking a moment to explain why.

If you want to follow my stream of shared items, you can find it at my jmoriarty Posterous site, or subscribe to the main Posterous RSS feed.

If you just want to follow the social media items I find interesting, you can follow my social media Posterous items, or subscribe to just my social media Posterous feed.

Hope you like them, and let me know if I miss anything spiffy.

* I want to formally apologize for this sentence. It falls well below my normal standards of butchering the English language.

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Image by hradcanska via Flickr

Last week while I was at the Taser International offices, they said they would be willing to tase me if I wanted to know what it was like. I knew right away I had to try this out, and a quick poll on Twitter confirmed this should happen.

None of my coworkers were willing to give it a try, so I was doing it solo. They were very willing to take pictures and the video below. I was nervous, which they didn’t help by informing me they would be using their top of the line law enforcement X26 model taser. This thing looks all business, and fires two unfriendly looking probes into the target to transmit the electricity. Lucky me, I was gonna get the full show.

I took off my dress shirt so it wouldn’t get punctured by the probes, and put on mandatory protective eyewear just in case a probe went wild. Two people held my arms to lower me down, and one of their certified trainers got ready behind me. That leads into…

Given how some people handle being tasered, I think I did rather well. Not much I can add about the experience that isn’t in the video – very intense, like a massive charlie horse across your entire body.

Image by Moriartys via Flickr

The coin they gave me is pretty slick, and I kept the cartridge with the probes. It really didn’t bother me that much when they yanked them out, but it’s probably a good thing I didn’t look at them too closely beforehand. They look like little harpoons.

Why would you get tased?

After it was over they asked if I was an adrenaline junkie since I didn’t really scream or swear. I’m not addicted to adrenaline, but I am addicted to trying new things and having new experiences. Here was a chance to try something everyone knows about but few people have experienced, in about the safest way possible.  Painful, sure, but now I know things about tasers (and myself) that I didn’t know before.

Why did you want to do this?  I can think of a lot of things to do for the experience instead of that.  But that’s my boy.
~ from my mother after seeing the video

I believe life is meant to be lived and explored in all the strange ways you can find it. I love problems that I haven’t solved, and things I haven’t done. I don’t always have an end goal, and often the exploration itself is enough. About the only thing I’m really scared of is losing that interest, and no longer wanting to try anything new.

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oob_pics on Flickr

I’m a long time Improv fan, being a former member of the most excellent Oxymoron’Z Troupe, and a founding member of the Jester’Z Troupe here in the Valley. I haven’t performed in ages, but the topic still nibbles at me, which is what led to my interest in Improv + Social Media.  So I was flattered when I was invited to be a Guest Monologuist for the wonderful Galapagos Improv Troupe’s this coming Saturday.

Galapagos does long form/Harold type improv, so I’ll be riffing on some things from my past and right in front of your eyes they’ll be bringing it to scary, scary life. My improv skills are rusty as hell, but not having any idea what I’m doing rarely slows me down. So if you want to catch some great local comedy, support an awesome local theater, or just want to see me get made fun of for an evening, come check it out!

Where: The Trunk Space – 1506 NW Grand Ave. Phoenix, AZ (map)
When: Saturday, March 6th, 8:00pm
Cost: $5
Evening of Laughter: Priceless
Reusing Old MasterCard Joke: Cliche
Final Item In This List: Thank God

Hope to see you Saturday!

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I just finished listening to an NPR Podcast narrated by Howard Dully.  At the age of 12, Howard was the youngest person to receive an “icepick lobotomy”.  He never spoke about his surgery with his father, or his step-mother who forced it onto him.   Now, as an adult, he tries to understand what happened to him and why.

How could anyone ever think this is a good idea?  How do you come to terms with knowing that part of you who you were was scrambled in your own skull?

It’s not easy to listen to, but riveting.

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If I ever go so nuts I’m fully Tom Cruise Crazy, I hope someone puts me out of my misery and sends me back to Xenu.¬† Fortunately, Jonathan Coulton (of Portal theme fame) has boldly gone where I hope never to go… and wrote a song about being Tom Cruise Crazy.¬† It’s a year + old, but still sadly relevant.

I wish I had some semblance of musical skill so I could even attempt stuff like this.  This guy really has a knack for the absurdly fantastic.

Found via WWdN.

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ABC has an amazing article about Kevin Connolly, who was born with no legs.  He gets himself around on a modified skateboard, and with a Silver Medal in the 2007 X Games he seems more active than most people I know.

He’s also started his own photography exhibit by taking pictures of people who stare at him. ¬† Many of his pictures are posted at therollingexhibition.com¬† and make for some interesting viewing.¬† I’m not sure where the line is between rude starting and just being curious about something different, but as much as Kevin gets stared at I wonder if the difference matters anymore.

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