Sean sees the world

Bucket List

noreply@blogger.com (Sean!) — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 00:06:00 +0000

I never heard the sound of the shutter go *click*click*click* but my hands were up high. Throwing the ever gorgeous Wu-Tang symbol.

It happened. A dream differed is a NOT always a dream denied. I've always said that*, but patience IS a virtue and today I affirmed a dream. Today- my patience paid off.

At long last, my dream of being on Google Street View, throwing up the MOTHA FUCKING WU-TANG SYMBOL has come true. I, Sean Lyon Bibby, have seriously just been captured by a Google Street Car.

Delivered by time and fate, I was walking home from the corner cafe after relaxing through two Green Flash IPAs. This afternoon marked an excellent anniversary for me. More on that later...**

While I was about to come up on the house, I stone cold RoboCop'd*** a Google car taking pictures!! The dude driving had about a $100k camera outfit on his car, but he was rolling with the windows down**** and he was rocking a t-shirt.

I went into Red Alert.

(They DID JUST announce Google Fiber in the ATX you know?!)

I holla'd "Yo man. I need you to tell me RIGHT NOW that this contraption is about to take my picture throwing the Wu Tang fucking symbol up in the air as part of Google's official record of my neighborhood". He laughed and said "yeah man, but your face will be blurred". I told him "who da fuck cares" and that "as long as my hand-drawn Wu-Tang hat is visible" it would be truly important to me.

The computer took the photos even as I was wondering what lies in front of me in this world. What other life goals can I blunder into? How many of them do I have to scout out?
Meh, Wu-Tang. I'll figure it out. Bucket List, here I come.

A life goal. Achieved. How many life goals are left? Only the ODB knows, and he can't say.

*L. Hughes did, but he was more pessimistic
** After only two weeks at my new job, my financial situation is trending upwards.
***kinda what i meant
****lol! Windows down! down with Windows! Google FTW
****i was also wearing this shirt

New job!

noreply@blogger.com (Sean!) — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 23:34:00 +0000

This is the retail shop I was working at since Thanksgiving. Now I'm across the street in the corporate office working with the shoe buying team! Movin' on up!
View Larger Map

Here is a link to the Google Street view of the inside.

The clouds were strange.

noreply@blogger.com (Sean!) — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 01:54:00 +0000

I got out and went to the screen door. Jane Lee was standing in it with her eyes cupped toward the sun. "Jane," I said. "It's me. It's us."

She knew that. "Yes, I know. Bull isn't here now. Isn't that a fire or something over there?" We both looked toward the sun.

"you mean the sun?"

"Of course I don't mean the sun- I heard sirens that way. Don't you know a peculiar glow?" It was toward New Orleans; the clouds were strange.

when your work is done. you'll want one.

noreply@blogger.com (Sean!) — Sun, 19 Aug 2012 05:47:00 +0000

welcome to another Bibby Adventure.

tonight we'll be brewing a 5 gallon batch of beer, more on that later. and we'll be racking another 5 gallon batch into a pin lock keg, with priming sugar.

get your seat belts on.

so far i have had 3 Shift beers from the new belgium brewing company. hey, it was a long day.

it is 8:53pm western mountain time. i'm ready to start sanitizing everything. lots of iodine. today is different for me because i've never kegged and brewed on the same day. a lot of the parts are the same, but a lot are different for each activity. the keg has 5 gaskets, 2 valves, and one lid. along with a CO2 tube and a liquid tube.

8:56 and 2.5 gallons are attempting to acquire a temperature of 150. then i'll steep 0.5 pounds of crystal malt in the water for 30 minutes . this is especially important to note tonight because i'm not following a recipe, i'm going at this batch with a little guidance and a lot of gut. in order to check my methods, tools and techniques, i'm going to attempt basically the same batch in a month or so. good notes will be difficult to maintain, but handy to have.

i generally don't wear a shirt whilst brewing. its more adventurous that way.

after 30 minutes of steeping, the grains will come out for Beyonce to enjoy, and the liquid malt extract will go in. the extract is because i don't have a fancy set up that lets me do 10 gallon all-grain batches. not yet. i always put the 6.5 pound tub of extract under hot water to losen it up from the container. that way i don't have to do as much scooping.

after that i'll go into hi-hop mode.

1 oz. Motueka* at the start of the boil (begin 60 mins)

1 oz. Motueka at the 10 minute mark

1 oz. Motueka at the 5 minute mark

1 oz. Motueka at the 0 minute mark (flame out)

then we'll go into the fermentor, sticking with the hops though, i'll use the last oz. to add during the primary fermentation, about 3 days before racking the beer into a secondary fermenting unit. that will really zest this shit up.

but after the flame out, my job is to cool the wort from the ~202 degrees to about 75 degrees. that involves a sink and lots of ice, cold water and patience. then i'll pour from the brew kettle to the sanitized fermenter. when it is close to 70 degrees, i'll add the liquid yeast (WYeast woot woot!!) and then close'er up for about 5 days. then comes the dry hopping and then racking to a keg. a hopefully empty keg.

9:14 i don't have the strongest burner, so the 2.5 gallons is at 139 degrees. 11 to go. then steeping.

9:17 that didn't take long! the steep begins!

- stable temp at 152.8. i can live with that. the water is now wort. mmmm wort. its like the egg of beer.

using this time to sanitize the fermentor.

9:46 still waiting. 1 minute left. i'm also making some delicious ramen noodles at the same time. its a good bet that next month when i make a tweaked version of this brew, i'll also be eating ramen noodles.

10:09 hop time! begin the boil. ish.

11:46. well. everybody left and the brew is in te basement. so i guess there is nothing to do but wait.

*the Motueka hops are from the Motueka area of New Zealand. my first beer was a new zealand IPA, so i thought i would throw it back there for #13. by the way, that first beer was the best one yet.

birfday

noreply@blogger.com (Sean!) — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 22:04:00 +0000

WHOOOOOO!!!

my birthday is on monday!

floating on

noreply@blogger.com (Sean!) — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 02:03:00 +0000

We were talking about traveling and stuff like that on the way home last week and you said "we all float on". that modest mouse song just came on and I was thinking about what you said and one of the lines jumped out at me:

"I like songs about drifters, books about the same"

the next three lines of the verse are:

"They both seem to make me feel a little less insane
Walked on off to another spot
I still haven't gotten anywhere that I want"

Good call on that lyric!! i totally identify with what he's saying.

In my opinion, he's talking about books by Jack Keruac, Allen Ginsberg, Hunter S. Thompson, Ernest Hemingway, and other people that write about traveling and how some people just don't feel right unless they're moving.

listen to the song for me when you wonder where I am. i'm gonna write another post about songs like this one, songs that are musical versions of on the road.

great day

noreply@blogger.com (Sean!) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 00:13:00 +0000

Massively successful day today! I managed to (in no order):
do laundry
wake up in time
make lunch
clean the house
play with Beyonce and Amy
work a solid 8 hours in the field diggin holes
buy essentials (and nothing else*)

and now it is time to relax and it is only 6:30.

How was your day?

and i wore the above shirt today!

*ok fine i bought some sweat pants i didn't need.

noreply@blogger.com (Sean!) — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 17:36:00 +0000

oh yeah!!

a year in the same world

noreply@blogger.com (Sean!) — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 21:36:00 +0000

I've spent the last 365 days in America. Josephine picked me up in the Austin airport one year ago today. Granted, I had spent the past 20ish hours on the road in the States, but I consider my touchdown in Austin to be when I finally circumnavigated the world.

A lot has happened this year, is anything else possible in a year?

I'm not happy being so sedimentary. I pick up hitch hikers as often as I can because it gives me someone to be jealous of. The other day a couple of dudes were hitching "as far west as we can get". I've never been so jealous. They left home with $28 bucks 44 days ago and haven't had to spend any of it. They're up. People have given them hundreds of dollars in cash and even more in food, lodging and rides. At one point we were talking and one of the guys said "it changes your life when you realize you can..." and before he could finish by himself all three of us said "you can go WHERE EVER YOU WANT AND DO ANYTHING!"

That's the ticket. But that's my ticket. Most people have other ideal lives. Mine is living in a state where I know I can do anything and go anywhere.

So I'm issuing a call for like a minded person. I want a travel partner for my next adventure.

Qualifications

-passport with at least 4 free pages

-a big, sturdy backpack

-must know at least one song by heart

-map literacy

I don't care where we go, and I'm not sure when it will be. But I'm sure* it will be in less than 2 years, but in more than 6 months.

Don't get me wrong, life is good. I'm happy to be around my family and my friends. But I was happier in the world, traveling. Who is coming with me?

*I'm not sure

noreply@blogger.com (Sean!) — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 13:55:00 +0000

2 days!

noreply@blogger.com (Sean!) — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 05:23:00 +0000

5 more days

I rule at driving!

noreply@blogger.com (Sean!) — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 16:06:00 +0000

gettin that paper!

View Larger Map

Austin

noreply@blogger.com (Sean!) — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 16:00:00 +0000

Austin this weekend! I'm excited! Austin Home Brew Supply is having their 20th anniversary party!! Whooo!!!

Get ready for my first brew!

noreply@blogger.com (Sean!) — Sat, 21 May 2011 06:15:00 +0000

I laid on a dune I looked at the sky
When the children were babies and played on the beach
You came up behind me, I saw you go by
You were always so close and still within reach.

Sara, Sara
Whatever made you want to change your mind
Sara, Sara
So easy to look at, so hard to define.

I can still see them playing with their pails in the sand
They run to the water their buckets to fill
I can still see the shells falling out of their hands
As they follow each other back up the hill.

bike or walk?

noreply@blogger.com (Sean!) — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 16:41:00 +0000

in an attempt to drive less i'm creating a map of my city that will help me decide when to walk/bike or drive. anything in blue i should bike to, anything in red i might walk or bike to. anything outside f the blue i wont feel too bad about driving to.
hopefully my bike range increases gradually all the time. we'll see- maybe i'll make it to Lufkin one of these days.

check out the map here.

View bike/walk in a larger map

yeah

noreply@blogger.com (Sean!) — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 23:40:00 +0000

lots of travel last month, and this month is lots of work.

let's goto Malawi.

my trip to West Texas

noreply@blogger.com (Sean!) — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 16:07:00 +0000

i love going to West Texas to do archaeology. there isn't any dirt- so you don't have to dig!

pictures here!

A-1

noreply@blogger.com (Sean!) — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 18:33:00 +0000

My dad made me this A-1 belt/holster for xmas!

doof

noreply@blogger.com (Sean!) — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 03:19:00 +0000

food.

i love it. and i love to cook for myself. most people don't, but that is crazy.

but-

since i've gotten back from wherever, i've only had two modes of "hungry"

1. i want a hamburger
2. i don't want a hamburger (because i just had one)

i'm attempting to fix that with a nice dinner tonight.

i'm cooking rice with fresh-ish veggies and seared tuna with a lemon-pepper sauce.
(read- some rice i found in my mom's pantry, some veggies that are in the fridge, and canned tuna heated up*. the lemon pepper sauce is lemon juice and black pepper mixed in with all of it.)

it is going to be epic.

*an old standbye/favorite of mine actually.

Make like a leaf

noreply@blogger.com (Sean!) — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 21:38:00 +0000

I'm taking this as a good omen for my trip back to Austin today.

Sisters house

noreply@blogger.com (Sean!) — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 19:45:00 +0000

These dogs love me!

New tires

noreply@blogger.com (Sean!) — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 19:06:00 +0000

Well, not new, but new to me. The ones I had were getting pretty sketch.

Roofs

noreply@blogger.com (Sean!) — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 05:08:00 +0000

This is how we roll.

packing

noreply@blogger.com (Sean!) — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 05:23:00 +0000

i just packed more clothes for a 5-6 day trip to nacogdoches than i had total in Africa.
ultimate (hopefully)
archaeology field work attire
business casual (for the louisiana state historical office)
post work relaxing in hotels
going out in nacogdoches
not to mention sweaters, jackets, hunter's orange, socks, underware, hats, computers, phone, camera, shovel, screen, books, ipod.

life is crazy!

today is the last of november, does that mean an end to my mustache? i supported my good friend Jamsie in his quest to cure prostate cancer! it's not too late to help him out.

http://ie.movember.com/mospace/1179048/

the mustache stays!

thanksgivings

noreply@blogger.com (Sean!) — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 02:10:00 +0000

this was two thanksgivings ago-
http://seanlb.blogspot.com/2008/11/i-woke-up-to.html

this was last year-
http://seanlb.blogspot.com/2009/11/i-win.html
http://seanlb.blogspot.com/2009/11/cricket-thanksgiving.html

and this is this year-
my mom is having a party and that means she's making pies! (fruit pies of course, sorry rest of the world that isn't america and doesn't understand fruit/nonmeat pies)