Write what you know. Words of wisdom handed down by one of the many knowledgeable English teachers I had in college. And I plan to do that very thing right now.  

Some call me a beer snob, beer geek, beer connoisseur or aficionado. However unpleasantly or bourgeois (or unpleasantly bourgeois) you make it sound, I like beer and I know it well! What follows is the list of the best beers I’ve imbibed in the last year mind you. Not the beers released this year (I’m not that hardcore). I recommend you find these beers immediately, and indulge you inner beer geek-ness, you won’t be sorry. 

Best beer + drinking experience

1. BrewDog Tokyo- At 18% ABV and $8 per glass you really have to earn this beer. So I drank it after running a half marathon. This incredibly unique beer, added a nice needed numbness to my legs and body that was well appreciated after running. Considering the alcohol it is not too boozey, the booze is covered up by complex fruit, oak, and maybe herbs(?). It kicked my ass almost as much as the ½ marathon. 

2. Bitches Brew- I drank this with some great company on my birthday. My wife arranged a beer-luck (beer + a food paired to go with it potluck). I drank this with amazing brownies made with  Bitches Brew... beer-gasm! Chocolatey smooth beer with chocolatey spicy brownies = amazing!

3. Monks mistress Midnight Sun- I drank this delicious Belgian strong ale while with my in-laws looking out at a beautiful cloud covered lake a few miles outside of Seward, AK. I bought this and a few other  Midnight Sun beers to share with Steve Reed, who wanted to get to know some new types of beer. So we talked, watched the rain fall and drank delicious beer. Later we visited the Brewery in Anchorage and were impressed by other beers too. I thought we’d be stuck drinking Alaskan amber, and MGD for the 2 weeks we were in AK but low and behold Midnight Sun Brewing saved the day. Just check out their page on ratebeer, an amazing array of good and unique beers.

Best beer-  uniqueness

1. Stone Belgo RIS- Wow. I love Stone’s Russian Imperial stout to begin with but mix in some Belgian yeast and the resulting chocolate/ coffee/ fruity goodness was fantastic.  

2. Green Flash Grand Mantis- Merlot barrel aged Belgian with brett (sour yeast). This beer just overwhelmed me. Sour, fruity, a little bit of wood and wine smoothing it out = Amazing! Since I had this beer at a special Hamilton's night I doubt I’ll ever see it again.

3. Marin Old Dipsea Bourbon Barrel Aged Barleywine – Had this at Hamilton's and was amazed at the bourbon smell and flavor. I prefer my bourbon barrel aged beer to taste a lot like bourbon and this one did! At the same time the rich boozey vanilla of the barleywine balanced it out. I drank this too fast, but loved it.

Lists of 2010's bests

I've spent a lot of time in the last few weeks considering my top albums, films, beers, and books of the year. A friend of mine loves lists and encouraged me to do so. I've really enjoyed the process. I've found some great music, drank some insanely delicious beers, read some great and not so great literature (grad school), and watched altogether too much TV and movies. As I went through these lists, and poured over which I should pin the ribbon of "best of the year" onto, I realized that my focus has been in the wrong place this year.

For one, I am way too indecisive and found it nearly impossible to nail down a list of the best, just doing so makes me terrified that I might make a mistake (God forbid I leave out something out on a website that no one else reads). I have since changed my approach. Instead of fretting over which beer is better than another beer, I’ve decided to focus on using this time to savor what I have read, drank, watched, etc. And, if I’m lucky and someone does read this, I also hope that these lists leave him or her with some suggestions as to what to partake in next year, as well as give them a brief understanding of who I am and what I value.

So along with that, the second revelation I had while looking back at the year was that most of my bests didn't have to do with things that I consumed (though I still am going to put those up here since I spent so much damn time thinking about them). Most of the best moments of this year cannot be summed up in a list of beers that I drank or the music I listened to. These moments may include beer (most assuredly they do!) and music (again, undoubtedly!) but they are also interwoven in with faces, conversation, scenery, and other things that add meaning to them. So as I go about listing my bests of 2010 I intend to mix in a lot of memories, pictures, and lessons learned along the way, and I hope that as you finish up the year consider your best memories, creations, revelations, and challenges overcome. 

  Salud!

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Faded High by Gayngs (one of the best songs of the year)

Faded High by mjgonzales

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▶ Anaïs Mitchell w/ Justin Vernon - Wedding Song

via soundcloud.com

Folky melodic, sweet

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Half Marathon.

Before:

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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The End of History

Fitting name for this new beer by Brewdog. This 55% alcohol Belgian
ale (which is technically whiskey since it's been cold-distilled) is
packaged in the friendly taxidermied bodies of local Scottish wildlife
(think beer + action figure). I hope the intention of this beer is to
highlight the extreme lengths that brewers go to make their beers
standout (i.e. vortex bottles, and cold activated cans). If that was
the case then they have succeeded because the beer sold out in hours.

Surely, I love that more people are drinking good beers and less
mass-produced corn and rice drink (aka Coors, miller, and Bud), but
this seems to be a case of the pendulum swinging too far in the
opposite direction. At the same time there is something intriguing
about a squirrel with a beer coming out of it's mouth. Hooray beer!

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Party with the in laws only male in a room of females. Lord help me...

Today I decided to hang out with my inlaws in Escondido. I was the
only guy there. We read people magazine, talked about IUDs, discussed
the joys of pregnancy, and drank white zin. This has truly been an
amazing evening.

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First of the Hops

Hello little baby hop nubbins. In a few months you will be in a tasty IPA.

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Contradiction, or Life Imitating Art?

Don't get me wrong I appreciate this piece of art in the hood. I'm just wondering if the placement isn't a little ironic. Wheat pasted on the side of a very busy Urban Outfitters is a mural that, amongst other things, critiques the blind consumer mentality of the average American. Perhaps it is the artistic mastery of Mr. Fairey, a commentary on the people stuck within the of the Urban Outfitter mindset, except that the opposite is in fact happening. While I was admiring and taking pictures many of those who were admiring alongside me decided to browse the  sidewalk sale that Urban Outfitters was having. In essence the artwork condemning consumption is acting like the invisible hand of the market ushering people into vendor of overpriced unescessary goods. I can't imagine that this wasn't the intention of Shepard Fairey, but I'll bet it was a consideration of the owners of the business.

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Here it is folks. Buy all the independence you want. Everything is for sale. 

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The picture you couldn't see. 

Mosaic Gardens, art v. Reality

This image sums up a lot. The mosaic of writing above the shopping cart says  "real world". That combined with the illegaly parked shopping cart provide an interesting intersection of the beauty and poverty which compete for attention in the "real world." Beauty, often synonomous with money, is constantly creating murals and mosaics, rules and redistriticting,trying to rid the world of unsightliness. And poverty, continually rearing its unsightly head, with its homelessness and graffiti, slums and trash, keeps encroaching on the "beauty" of the world  that the rich try to create.  This type if beauty, one that ignores reality, is a false beauty.

Taking a step further back reveals that this is just part of the phrase the mosaic spells out. The whole thing reads "art is the center of the real world." So, if there is any truth in the photo, the cliched mosaic quote, and the placement of it in a poor neighborhood, then it must also be that art exists everywhere someone is digging into and exposing the difficult reality we find ourelves in. Art exists when we cut through the false beauty and see the truth in what surrounds us.

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Attempting to be rocky, like every Other tourist around. Except I had to film myself. I am a dork.  

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As you can see I'm in Philadelphia now. And in case you're wondering they make really aweseome vegeterian Philly cheesesteaks. 

Gag Reflex- Picante de Cuy

I pride myself on having a bit of a culinary adventure every now and again. So far on this trip I haven't gone wrong. I've ordered several and eaten several Peruvian, Nicaraguan, Israeli, Chinese, Italian, and Amercan food dishes never knowing quite what it was that I ordered or received. Random mystery meats, odd pastries, new fruits, funky smelling cheeses, unusual animal parts (cow's feet, heart, liver, spleen) But I finally met my match.

It's called a cuy, it looks like a rat. Some say it tastes like chicken and has crisp delicate skin like a suckling pig, but eating just a 1/4 of one almost made me a lifetime vegetarian.

Most people know it as a guinea pig, and it was my dinner last night. These rodents originate in the Andes and usually find their way into the western world via hamster ball, or small wire cages. Here in Peru and many other Andean countries, however, they are a delicacy, and are prepared in a myriad of ways: baked, fried, cooked in a spicy sauce (picante - the way I had it), in soups, casseroles, fricasseed, barbecued, etc.

The animals were also used to predict the future. Shaman during Inca, and pre-Inca times would spill the guts of the small creature and the resulting layout of carnage could forecast the future or diagnose medical ailments. Clearly, they were damn important. The Spanish realized this and tried to make cultural inroads via the cuy in this painting found in Cuzco's cathedral. (Take a close look at Jesus' main dish).

Now as far as food goes I would recommend keeping cuys as pets not livestock. I was a litle concered when I ordered the guinea pig, but my fear was assuaged by the amount of people ordering them in the restuarant I was in, and by many others who told me that it was very similar to chicken. When it arrived I was even more reassured by the delicious aroma of spices and peppers floating up from the plate. I took a bite of potato first and it was delicious, soft and tender, perfectly spiced. Then I tried to take a bite of the cuy. I started sawing with my knife. The skin was like a rubber armor protecting the scant amount of meat. I thought it would be easier when I finally got to the meat below, but it turned out the meat was stringy and almost as tough. Three minutes later I cut free my first bite, I was already kind of nauseated but I went for it anyway. Chewing the skin felt like eating overcooked beef gristle, or old a piece of an old pair of sandals. The taste was about the same, old shoe and sandal mixed together. I cringed as I ate. I sawed off a few more pieces and scraped and yanked out what little meat I could, but after a few bites I was fighting back a gag reflex. Maybe it was the taste, or more likely the texture, or perhaps it was the fact that my third grade class had one as a pet, but by the end of the fourth bite I was thoroughly disgusted. I had to throw in the towel. Even looking around the room at the others who were gnawing on cuy bones almost put me over the edge. I am seriously looking forward to a less carniverous diet when I return to the states.

Estoy en Nicaragua y traigo que apprender espanol. Es muy dificil, pero me encanta.

I took my 3rd glance at the clock in an hour and I forgot what the teacher was asking me about. Something about the subjunctive tense and conjugating a verb that I only marginally understood (from her rudimentary explanation in Spanish) "Como?" I asked and slumped onto the table. "Esperas un momento" she responded and went off in search of a dictionary. I took a deep breath and enjoyed the minute break. As I wiped the sweat from my face (80 degrees and humid  at 9 in the morning) I looked around the room. Both of the students we met yesterday (straight A students, one of them attending Berkeley)  had looks of desperation on their faces. The girl had strings of blonde hair sticking out from between her fingers and seemed to be trying to massage the vocabulary into her mind, and the other student was slumped so far over his books that it looked like he was trying to take a nap (which wasn't a bad idea, I thought, after a week's worth of twisting my brain into a new way of thinking).

Had I been teaching, this the lack of energy would have been discouraging. I would have been disappointed with what I saw (disappointed with students behaving as I was now) but now that the tables have been turned a bit I see that it sucks to learn a new language. I have become just like my worst students, unmotivated, tired and even losing track of and not doing my homework. So as I sat there and tried to re-energize myself I realized that if I have a hard time learning another language but have had the benefit of one on one tutoring, 18 years of formal education, and 4 years studying Spanish, then what the hell is to be expected of  students who have no foundation for their education or of this language.

How to apply this is a different matter, perhaps a lot of encouragement and leniency on my part. But for now, as I go back to studying through my packets of homework (very high school-esque), I suppose I'll take a page out of Nicaraguan history (or even a page out of the lives of some of the people living on the streets of this city) many of whose boundless energy seems to show the capacidad y necesidad para luchar (especially if my struggling is only for 4 hours a day and involves beer and sightseeing)

A woman working to support her family




Mi lucha no esta dificil en este momento!

this guy said he goes into the streets each
night to beg for food to eat.

!Viva Cerntroamerica! 

! Que buena esta viaje! Hemos visto muchas cosas interesantes. En el avión vimos la cuidad de Panama. No se que aquel ciudad tiene edificios grandes cerca del mar. cuando llegamos al aeropuerto vimos médicos ( para la H1N1). Los médicos hicieron muchas preguntas y usaron una camera termal y ellos chequearon si los viajeros tienen fiebre. Mas adelante fuimos a la ciudad Granada, cerca del lago Cocibolca. En este cuidad hemos visto iglesias antiguas, hemos conocido gente interesante, hemos bailado la salsa, y por su puesto hemos tomado cervezas. Hemos muchas cosas y tenemos dos semanas mas. En los semanas siguientes iremos a una ciudad que estaba importante en la guerra contra, y finalmente subiremos un volcán vivo (y va a tomar ron y cervezas también).

Se extrañaron mucho,
hasta la próxima vez,

Mateo

The National Pandemic We Should Care About

In the last week the principal at my high school has been more proactive on the campus than any time in the history of her employment there: making announcements posting bulletins, sending ridiculously long emails, and supplying every classroom with soap water, and paper towels (so that desks may be washed daily). All to address the swine sickness, the improbable infirmity that has inundated news coverage and has even recently caused residents in Spain to barricade themselves inside their homes. And though the news would have us believe swine flu  or ______________ (substitute other illnesses with animals modifiers, i.e.- avian flu, or a mad cow disease) is the next black plague, I am reluctant to hop on the hurtling bandwagon of hypochondriacal hysteria. So, before I scour the depths of of the a surplus shop for hazmat suits and black market retrovirals, I’d like to address another issue of a deeper and more pressing concern - slaktasyck-idleritis, or more commonly referred to as apathy.

This a common disease which spreads more expediently and thoroughly than an even the hysteria surrounding the would-be-epidemic of swine flu, it also seems to be a plague that is resistant to the remedies that have been devised to restrict its spread. Someone you know may have been affected by this disease if they suffer from slouched shoulders or a slow shuffling walk. This malcontented malaise often leads to instances of prolonged sluggishness, evidenced by heavy eyelids or, alternatively, blank stares. Perhaps its most deleterious effect, however, occurs in its later stages (often too late to cure) when the general lethargy gives way to out and out slovenliness. Patients often shirk responsibilities regardless of result, are troubled with a shorter attention span, and fail to wake up until late in the afternoon (those suffering from acute cases are even know to suffer from bouts of narcolepsy, falling asleep even during the most important or interesting occasions). This illness is spreading through high school campuses and suburban neighborhoods everywhere.

Case study to follow

I found the answer to my previous blog post:

Mr. T as a role model and teacher. "I pity the fool who gets bad grades" We'll have to get someone else for the resisting materialism, and cosmetology classes, but its a start.

Is this what I want to do for the rest of my life?
This week of blank stares & disaffected teenagers has been  tough one, one that makes me reconsider teaching high school

"There is one thing you need to make sure that you include in your essay: connection to the real world . It's time to go beyond the literature and into the real world, like we did in our discussion last week. You need to take what ruined Macbeth's life, what caused him to kill, and connect that with a troy that you are familiar with." I said to my class two weeks ago, emphasizing its importance and underlining important words on the board. When I had finished my two minute tirade I glanced out hoping to see students taking notes but was instead met with  blank stares (some slackjawed with eyes glazed over - just short of drooling- two minutes was apparently too much direct instruction). I let the silence hang for a minute and whispered "you should probably write this down." One or two students moved which dragged a handful of other students out of their stupor and caused them to ask their neighbors what was going on. As 1/2 the class slowly scribbled down the short notes (the other half not yet aroused from their daydream) I stared into this future pool of humanity and sighed.

Flash forward two weeks into the future. It is essay deadline day, and looking back I feel like I have taught these students, as best I know how, what they need to do to create a strong essay. I repeated instructions and tips for roughly two weeks, at least twice a day. WE brainstormed ideas together and they made connections in their notebooks. I created an online discussion board that students shared ideas on to ensure they were headed in the right direction. I handed out examples of an essay that successfully did what I was asking, and together we broke down the elements of the argument (I wrote the examples myself because I had not taught it before). I organized students into groups to check for this concept in each others papers. I put the students through workshops to make sure that they had honed this concept in their essays.  I gave students several hours to write and work in class. These are all of the most effective techniques that I have learned to create a successful community of writers from some of the best teachers in San Diego County, and yet upon reading these essays (now three weeks in the making) I see that it was not enough. Half of the students never included what we discussed, and to put it bluntly, their papers suck!

Sure you could argue that they have been undereducated for so many years before, and they come from poorer families, which make them much less likely to succeed. They are part of a digital age which makes focusing on an essay much less easy. It could even be argued that because I am a new teacher I am destined to be much less effective at teaching writing to my studetns. I will grant that these reasons contribute to some students poor acheivment (except the last one, my teaching is flawless -ha), but it's an explanation that just feels lacking. It seems the problem goes deeper. This poor acheivement seems to stem from one of our culture's major flaws. It seems that these students, who plan to go to college and become well paid business professionals, are living the new version of the American dream, one that tells Americans something comes from nothing. A dream that allows them to have the world handed to them without having to work for it. There are many contributing factors: doting parents, poor role models (think popular musicians, movies, and even business professionals) lack of consequesnces for bad decisions (invincibilty of being a teen), irrelevant teaching etc. etc. I am not so concerned with searching out the blame, but I am very interested in searching out the cause and combating it using the education system. What are teachers doing to battle apathy? How can these subdivided separately assessed skills be affixed, in a meaningful way, into studetns lives? How can we team up with other organizations to change the culture of the sutdetns who attend our schools?

Big questions without immeadiate answers. But I suppose the fact that I am willing to ask after this week, shows that I stilll care about teaching. We'll see if I feel the same way after reading all of the essays! ARGH!