Ben Reichelt’s Weblog

UPDATE: Erin tells me that she just got an email from Netflix, saying that due to feedback, profiles will NOT be removed, whew!

Erin and I use Netflix and we’ve each got our own queue so that she can get her movies and I can get mine. Actually, I even have two queues for myself - one for movies and one for TV shows.  Erin got an email from Netflix yesterday:

“We wanted to let you know we will be eliminating Profiles, the feature
that allowed you to set up separate DVD Queues under one account,
effective September 1, 2008.”

…..

“While it may be disappointing to see Profiles go away, this change
will help us continue to improve the Netflix website for all our
customers.”

I’m trying to think how removing an incredibly useful feature helps them improve the website? To me, managing separate profiles seems like something that many households would use to manage different movie tastes. On top of that, if you DON’T need separate profiles, just don’t use it.

I’m guessing what they meant is: “this change will help us save money.”

A couple weeks ago I noticed the gmail widget on my Google home page was adding check boxes to the side of each email that was displayed:

The check boxes were inconsistent - I could refresh the page and they would be gone, and then back again. I haven’t seen them since that one day a couple weeks ago. I’m hoping they’re adding some features to the gmail widget, like the ability to multi-select messages and delete them, or mark them as read.

I did my second triathlon last Saturday morning in New Brighton. The weather wasn’t bad like last years, but being that it was early June the water isn’t warm yet in the lakes. The temperature was around 65 degrees and the triathlon web site said that wetsuits were “recommended, but not required.” I don’t own a wetsuit and I wasn’t about to buy one the week before a triathlon, never having used one, so I decided to tough it out.

I was NOT prepared for how cold 65 degree water feels. It’s unbelievable. I got into the water about five minutes before starting to get used to the cold,  and it shocked me. I couldn’t breathe and I was SERIOUSLY considering just walking out, getting my stuff, and leaving. It was that cold. But, I had made Erin get up before six on a Saturday morning, and I had also recently bought a bike for this purpose, so I figured I better stay.

The swim was absolutely horrible. It took me nearly thirty minutes to swim a half mile (that’s real slow). The bike was fourteen miles and went much better, but my lack of training was showing during the run as my legs were weak. I had to stop and walk several times.

But, I finished and that’s fine by me.  I knew I was going to get a crappy time as soon as I started,  so that wasn’t a shock. My final time was 1:56 I think. The winner’s time was something like 1:01 which just blows my mind. In the time that it took me to do the bike, this guy could nearly complete the whole triathlon.

(Erin thinks I look like a big dork in this one. I have no idea why I’m smiling, I’m NOT happy

I brewed a Hop Head Double IPA from Midwest Supplies several months ago, right in the middle of winter. Because of the low temperature the beer takes a little longer to ferment in the winter, so this one took several weeks to finish. This beer was fun to brew because it was a dry hopped recipe. Dry hopping is when you put some hops in the beer while it’s in the primary fermenter. These hops are supposed to influence the smell of the beer more than the taste, so you should get a real pungent hop smell when it’s done.

I was disappointed with how it turned out from the hoppiness perspective. It wasn’t as hoppy as the Bell’s Hopslam that I had earlier this year, and that was what I was going for. It still tastes great and I’ll have no problem finishing the beer, with the help of friends of course.

Another reason I took awhile finishing the beer was that I was adding another keg to my kegerator setup in the basement, so now I’ve got two taps, the java stout and the double ipa are currently in there.

Unfortunately, I must have forgotten to write down any of my measurements for this beer, so I don’t have dates or readings for you on this one

Here are a couple photos of the keg setup in the basement, I don’t think I’ve ever posted pics:

This is a shot from inside the fridge. You can see the two kegs, the co2 tank and all the tubes coming from the kegs to the taps that are drilled into the door.

And here’s a shot of the door from the outside, showing the taps.

I want to get some cool tap handles at some point, but it’ll take some modifications to the fridge. If I made the existing handles any longer then whenever you opened the freezer on top you would knock the taps forward and spill beer. What I think I’m gonna do is  put a piece of metal to connect the fridge door with the freezer door, so that when you open either of them, they’ll both open up and no beer will be spilled. I also need to add the drip trays, I have them but I’ve just been too lazy to put them on. There’s a bucket to catch the drips right now that you can’t see in the photo.