Devil's Cut

Well, it is a holiday weekend.  Not just any holiday, but the 4th of July.  The celebration of American Independence.  What better way to celebrate, than by enjoying something all American, like bourbon?  After all, bourbon was invented here in the USA.

Okay, I know what you are thinking.  What, no post here for months, and you just drop on in and start in like everything is normal?  Okay, so sue me.  I am literally running out of bourbon ideas.  The ones I do have seem to be food related, and are being saved for my new venture, Alphageek Talks Food.  I just have not been trying new bourbon as often, so not much has been happening here.  Sure, I could write some old stale jokes that Mrs. Alphageek is tired of hearing, but I am starting to run out of those.  I asked for ideas, but I am not getting much for the audience.

In an attempt to get right to it, I am going to start off by saying I don't know much about this bourbon, other than several people, including the helpful person at the ABC store, told me that this bourbon is made by extraction of bourbon from the barrels.  I guess I am okay with that, but at first read it sounds like an attempt to take something that was previously thrown away, and sell it as a product.  Sometime this kind of thing works, and sometimes it does not.  Pictured below is the bottle that I took a picture of, just for you.

Jim Beam Devil's Cut (click to enlarge)

First, I poured a little to try neat.  My first impression is: wow that is a strong smelling bourbon.  Not bad, but really strong, and I guess somewhat sweet too.  I take a sip, and the impression of strong continues.  I can't say it is bad, but it is like a concentration of bourbon, without the smooth element that I personally care for.  I decide to add an ice cube or two.  I let the ice melt for a minute or two, to see if some water might cut down the strong taste, and introduce some more smooth that I am always looking for in bourbon.  I take another sip, and am pretty sure I have never had a bourbon respond as dramatically as this one to a little ice.  While it cut the harshness, I am not sure I got the smooth I was looking to find.  Instead, I got something different.  Not bad, but different.  Think of it as concentrated, without the burning harsh bourbon sometimes has.

How would I recommend using this bourbon?  Use it in something that you would like to maintain the essence of bourbon in, without using large amounts.  I am pretty certain a little goes a long way.  Personally, this won't be something I buy another bottle of.  After all, not every bourbon can be the best.

Alpha Know it All

It has been quite a while since you have seen an update over here on Alphageek's Thoughts.  That is because my other projects have been taking up some time recently.   You can go over to my other web site venture, where I review restaurants, and see what is going on.  Because you are likely not the geek that I am, I have to tell you to CLICK HERE!  It is okay, I do the thinking around here, and you do the, well, whatever it is you do.

One day, Mrs. Alphageek asked me if I was always a big geek.  When was that moment when I realized I was going to have to go with being a geek, rather than trying to hide away from it?  I said I was not sure, but I knew with cold certainty, when I was a pretty big dummy.  I told her the story, and she said it was pretty funny, so now I am going to write this for you to enjoy.

Modern web sites, like Facebook, will make the reaction, or lack of reaction, an interesting study.  The people who going to read this story fall into three categories.  1) You knew me before this happened.  2) You were actually there when it happened.  Okay, maybe not there, but you went to Europe with me.  Yes, there are two friends on Facebook who met me there.  What are the chances? 3) You have no clue I ever went to Europe, or at least you met me after I went to high school.  For all of you, I recommend you sit back, read and contemplate.  Maybe even have a bourbon, on me.

Let's set up who we are dealing with.  This guy, let's call him Alpha Know it All or AKNA for short.  AKNA set the goal of going to Virginia Tech in the sixth grade.  He was accepted (early decision) of his senior year of high school.  He spent the rest of the time telling everyone about it.  AKNA knew everything about getting into college.  He got an invite to travel Europe for the weeks, playing a musical instrument.  He was really good, if you had asked AKNA back then.  He was in New York city, at rehearsals, for the band that was going to tour Europe for three weeks.

A friend loaned him a Sony Walkman.  What a concept, you could listen a whole 45 minutes before turning the tape over!  This friend had suggested that he might want to get some headphones.  AKNA had been looking around New York City for a great pair of headphones, and found plenty of them.  There was only one problem: AKNA was a cheapskate.  AKNA simply was not willing to pay the prices that folks were asking for cool headphones. 

AKNA had been wandering around, looking at these interesting electronics stores that are all over NYC.  They have really cool looking stereos, Walkmans and headphones in the windows. There is only one problem:  they had brands like Cony and Pinehere in the windows. 

Right before the band was to leave NYC, a group ran out to one of these great electronics stores to get some tapes.  AKNA went along, and started looking at headphones.  Undeterred by the strange brand names, because he knew it all.

As he looked at the headphones, a kind sales guy began to bargain with AKNA.  AKNA said the headphones were too expensive.  Besides, AKNA had to leave, and AKNA's associates were busy paying up.  The salesman said he was getting ready to put all the headphones on sale.  He reached down, and said, "how about this pair for half off"?  AKNA knew that was a great price for a great brand, so he paid up and walked out the store, smug in knowing that AKNA got a great deal.

AKNA got on the plane, and headed to France.  You fly forever to get to Europe, at least that is how it seemed to AKNA.  During the trip, AKNA decided to get out his new headphones, and listen away.  He eagerly plugged them in, and put in something great to pass the time.

The headphones did not work.

While you probably saw this coming, AKNA felt like he had been kicked in the balls.  "How could I be so stupid?  He saw me coming a mile away!"  AKNA was not happy.  To add insult to injury, the return paperwork was still in the headphone packaging that had been carefully stitched back together.  AKNA obviously had some things left to learn. 

Feeling terribly disgruntled, AKNA had to put the headphones in the trash, the next time the flight attendant came around. 

This was an important turning point for AKNA.  It probably kept him from losing money playing some sort of gambling game somewhere in Europe, or losing his money in even more embarrassing ways in Amsterdam.  Sometimes in life, you have to pay the stupid tax, and this was AKNA's turn.  This began the unusally slow climb to Alphageek, but it would take many years, but the pre-Alphageek would never again be quite that gullible. 

Web Site Changes

It has become clear that this site does not have much of a following. As a part of this ego crushing revelation, I have learned several things. These lessons are extremely disjointed, so I am just going to ramble on a little here. If you don't like rambling, move on until the next post. If attempts at quick satire are what you came for, you may be disappointed. Come to think of it, I might not have many readers due to lack of self confidence. I guess that is easier to take than saying "your site sucks".

Nobody cares about the cool stuff over on the left. I put up some plugins that make the site unique and interesting. I mentioned the other day that I have "bourbon in the news" to my Wahoo friend.

My friend replies "you have bourbon in the news?"

I said "its been there a while, probably months".

"Really?"

I have removed a bunch of the content along the side. Maybe I will add a poll or something interactive, to actually make you move your head around when you read this site.

A bunch of you are running outdated computers and/or software. I can collect statistics on my visitors. All of you need to update just about everything on your computer. Operating system, Java, flash player, you name it and you need to update it. When your computers get taken over by some criminal organization, don't say I didn't warn you. The good news is I run one computer using Linux, so my computer is relatively secure. If you don't understand this paragraph, you are probably one of the ones who already has had a credit card stolen, or a pornographic movie ordered at your house. At least you can now tell your wife that excuse.

Very few of you click on the pictures. I like taking pictures. I put the pictures on flickr and write about the pictures here. You then ignore my pictures. Oh, my fragile ego.

You are totally ignoring any links I put in the articles. I have cool tracking software installed to show me how many clicks everything on the site has. That is how I figured out the lack of interest on the left hand side of the page. I can bring up a cool display that puts the number of clicks right over the web page. It keeps saying 0 0 0 0 no matter what I do. Oh well.

Obviously, I am going to make some changes here at Alphageek's Thoughts. While I could try a bunch of fancy ideas, I will probably just give you what you want: my endless ranting about whatever the heck it is I think about. I will have to admit I am a little suprised that is all anyone reads, but I guess I will take it.

I left bourbon in the news. You should at least know that I believe it to be the only bourbon news aggregator on the internet. I just thought it was really cool to be the first.