Project PALINDROME
On Sunday, Steeze & I had our first webcam story conference in a month. We didn't intend for June's silence, we just kept missing each other. This is due in part to an uptick in his social life; this is welcome news, since not too long ago he moved from Hollywood to the San Francisco Bay, & the isolation of being new to an area is one of the worst parts of moving. But the silence did not mean that June lay fallow. Both of us worked & steady progress continues to be made. First drafts of all episodes of the story are due by the end of August. I'm not sure what the next step will be after that; we need to discuss Project TRIANGLE, the sequel to Project TROIKA (The Ace continues to labor away on Tier 3 of 5), but the turning in of first drafts by no means entails PALINDROME's completion. Steeze worked on PALINDROME for years before he brought me in to help; so, I'd really like to see all his hard work come to fruition. But one thing at a time, first we have to finish up the remaining first drafts.

Grow or die.

Bier!
I've noticed since I stopped drinking pop that my intake of beer has increased. There is nothing even remotely like a one-to-one parity & my average intake over the last fortnight is still less than one bottle of beer per day, but the increase has been substantial nonetheless. My imperviousness to alcohol is not as legendary as it once was, but there are still no discernible signs of intoxication even after multiple beers; I'm not the beast I was, but I'm no lightweight. The not-as-occasional-as-before beer & a daily glass each of milk with dinner & of orange juice in the morning (I loves me some vitamin C) are the only deviations from the daily monotony of water, water, & water, followed by yet more water.

This past weekend I decided to mark America's national holiday with a selection of foreign beers, taking advantage of a "combo pack" special at my local grocer: specially-marked six-pack boxes into which the customer could place six bottles of any variety. I chose six beers with which I had either limited or no experience, viewing this as a perfect way to sample them without having to commit to six bottles of a beer I might not like. The wisdom of this stratagem was borne out by the sorry results of the testing: I disliked four of the beers, neither liked nor disliked one, & liked one, though not as much as any of the five or six brands I usually favor. Those are Guinness, Red Stripe, Grolsch, Beck's, & Carlsberg, with Heineken a passable in situ man-about-town substitute since I know of no local bar that serves Grolsch.

Like
Newcastle Brown Ale

Neither
Beck's Dark ('tis noticeably inferior to regular Beck's)

Dislike
Smithwick's
Stella Artois
Dos Equis
Dos Equis Amber

I still love the "The Most Interesting Man in the World" advertising campaign, just not what it pitches. I don't always drink beer, but when I do, I prefer almost anything to Dos Equis. No profound conclusions came out of the weekend's experiment, but for the nonce my yen for exploration has been quelled. I shall stick to what I know & to what I know I like.

I've never trusted my love of Yuengling. Do I really like the beer, or is it a mania born of scarcity, since you can't get it in the Midwest? Add to that the possibility of affection by association, since I only drink Yuengling when I visit the Eastern Seaboard, a region to which I travel to visit family & friends, occasions on which good times are in abundance. Lest I forget, add patriotism to the pile of doubts: mayhap I like Yuengling more than I otherwise would because it is the only decent American beer I've ever had. I have traditionally derided my own national brews as "American pisswater," & I stand by that.

"Stay thirsty, my friends."

The Rebel Black Dot Song of the Day
The New American Brass Band, "Hail, Columbia" from The Civil War: Music from the Original Soundtrack (T.L.A.M.)