The Champions League Moving To Fox Is The Best Move Ever

I heard the devistating news back in April as I was on my way to the FBI Academy that the bidding for the rights to the Champions League broadcasts here in the US.

I have been watching the Champions League on ESPN2 for the last four years now. It's because of the Champions League that I became a fan of Chelsea.

So to see that the broadcast rights to the premier club competition in the world were going over to Fox Soccer Channel, a station that I don't have, I almost cried.

So imagine my surprise that when I flipped it over to TV Guide Channel to see if Sports Science was coming on, I saw those sacred words, UEFA Champions League.

I have the kettle on, getting ready for my tea and ready to watch Arsenal take on Celtic as they play for their right into the group stages.

So I know have the best of both worlds. I have the EPL on ESPN2 on a weekly basis and now I have Champions League football as well.

Late Summer Saturday Date: Yazoo Brewing Company

It was a hot ass day here in Music City USA but me and my girlfriend had a plan to cool things off just a bit.

We did not hit up the Titans game down at LP Field. Nor did we head over to the Bicentennial Mall and play in the fountains.

Instead, we headed down to the Yazoo Brewing Company to take the tour of the brewery itself and taste the beers that they had on tap.

From the outside, the building that houses the brewery looks like another abandoned factory of Nashville's yesterdays. But once you enter the doors of the old Marathon Motors Co. and take a right, you find yourself in a beer lovers paradise.

The anti-room to the tap room itself is semi-spacious, with chairs, tables, and a rather nice bench. Off to the side of the anti-room is a beer garden that was hosting a party for Vanderbilt alumi. Being an alumnus of UT, I steered clear of their party.

While the area described above is small, the tap room itself is smaller than that. I counted, at most, six tables that can seat four or so people a piece. There is also space at the bar for about six or seven. We happened to show up in the middle of someones birthday, so the spots at the bar were secured.

While the wait to purchase our sampler tray of beers was roughly thirty or so minutes, it gave me the chance to really get a feel for the customer base and the people serving the beer.

I have been to bars with crappy service and bars with good service, stepping up to the bar at Yazoo was like stepping up to my favorite bar from my college days. The service was quick, fast, and to the point. Apart from a few people that were ahead of me, their was no poking or prodding to get up to the bar.

I personally recommend the Nitro Stout. It was by far the best beer that I had out of the sampler tray. It was not as thick as Guinness but it had that wonderful stout taste and texture that hooks the dark beer lover.

My least favorite was the Hopps Project IPA. I'm not really an IPA kind of guy and this IPA surely had enough hopps to last me until next year. However, if you are a fan of IPA's, there is no reason that you wouldn't love this beer.

The culmination of our evening out was the tour of the facility.

Our amazing tour guide walked us through the process by which they made the delicious beer that we got to sample at each step of the way and for a low price of just $6, the tour is truly worth it.

Not only do you get beer samples, but you get a pint glass that you can keep, for tasting your samples.

Pros: Quick tour with multiple times offered (check the website for specific times), decently priced pints and growlers ($4 and $11 respectively), great staff.

Cons: It is balls ass hot in that building.. if you do not like to sweat while waiting for a beer, you may want to wait and make this a fall/winter/early spring outing, if you aren't use to a more trendy crowd then the brewery may not be the place for you.. I know I mentioned this point to my girlfriend and it brought a laugh, it's really cramped at times.. so if you have a problem with crowds you may want to try and schedule an earlier trip and possibly not on a weekend.

Overall:4 out 5

Oooh Look! A Pretty Girl

Boy, she sure is pretty isn't she? I certainly got off the Asian push years ago and therefore, I doubt that I would accept a download from one of my friends who decides to send an image like this to me.

Would you have the ability to resist?

I think most would but there are a select few individuals who would continue to download the image of what they think may be a beautiful girl.

So, lets run through a scenario before I go explain this post.

You are a young guy who is about to leave for college. Got your new HP Netbook or laptop to go with all the essentials of moving into your dorm.

You get to school and unpack your room. You get everything set up on your desk and around the room and before you head out to the Freshman picnic, you log onto your email account and see that your buddy back home has sent you the file containing the picture above.

"Hot Asian girl... I love Asians," you think to yourself and you click on the link. You get the picture and hurriedly send it off to your friends.

A few weeks later at noon on a Tuesday (your only class is at 4pm (you totally scored that sweet time slot for the class)) your dorm phone rings and you roll over and answer it.

It's your mom... and boy is she pissed.

Somewhere over the course of the first three weeks of school used your credit card that your parents have linked to their account (it was for gas and emergencies only) to download $200 worth of music from itunes and you also subscribed to a handful of small porn sites.

What happened?

You were attacked by a Trojan Horse virus.

And according to an post by my friends over at The Dark Visitor, this was common back in the day in the form of the "Maritime Girl."

Read the post. It's good knowledge to pass on to your less web savvy friends who don't really know that the hot Asian is anything but.

What About Bing?

I have seen the commercial for the "discovery" engine Bing, by Microsoft.

I think they over exaggerate the concept of the search engine. The average search will return some pretty oddball stuff. To truly get something out of a search engine, you need to have a nuanced query.

In my project work, I have had to root out some pretty arcane knowledge. In doing so, I've had to wade through a bunch of information that wouldn't normally come up.

I doubt Bing can really offer you a search result that is more nuanced than Google. But I am sure time will tell.

Tips For Phone Interviews

I have my second interview with a company in Virginia tomorrow that I am hoping to go to work for. It's a phone interview so I have the ability to roll out of bed twenty minutes before hand and not really put much effort into my appearance.

While this seems like a good idea, it probably isn't the best thing that you could do for a phone interview. For anyone taking on a phone interview, here's a few tips to remember.

• Remember, the phone interview is usually used as a screening interview. Usually you get the HR person who is doing the leg work for the busier hiring manager who may not really want to interview you. I'm honestly surprised that my second interview is going to be with the hiring manager.
• Make sure you have everything that you may have sent with the application. A copy of your resume, maybe a work sample. You don't want to have them seeing something that you sent them on purpose thrown back at you because you failed to remember it.
• Do your research on the company and possibly, if you know who you are speaking with, research on the interviewer. It's becoming common practice for companies to root out the people who know the company as opposed to someone who just goes through and applies to a butt load of job. Two hours of solid research now will eliminate ten seconds of awkward silence on the phone.
• Silence isn't always a bad thing, though. It's helpful to pause for a moment and collect your words. Unlike a face to face interview, the interviewer can't see the awkward face you may make at one of their questions. So, stop. Think. Then answer.
  
• Dress up. I know that this may seem like a preposterous idea but think about how good you feel in that suit or that skirt. That same feeling will translate over the phone into a higher level of confidence. I don't think many of us would be comfortable going to an interview in our pajamas in real life, why risk it now?
• Make sure you are alone and will not be bothered. Kick the family out of the house if need be. Also, depending on how strong your cell phone service area is, you may want to consider using a home phone if you have it. The last thing you want is a dropped call.

This is just an overview of the things you may want to consider before you step up to the phone and interview for that perfect job. Remember: be confident, be nice, and don't interrupt the interviewer at any time (short of the walls around your house falling down).

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A Quick and Simple Way to Make Noodles Without Water

My roommates have all but moved out, save Karl, and I am down to a teapot, and two frying pans.

So as I was deciding what I was going to do with the pork that my roommate had left me, I got a novel idea.

I took my two pounds of boneless pork loins and cut them like you would for stir-fry and put them into some Ziplock bags that had teriyaki marinade in it. Normally I would have let the meat marinade for a few hours but since it was almost 7:30, I decided to let it sit for roughly twenty minutes.

After twenty minutes, I pulled the pork out and put it into a screaming hot frying pan that I had let gradually come to temperature. Using my wood spatula, I started to fry the meat, moving it around quickly in the pan.

I had also been thawing some stir fry veggies while the meat was being prepared so they would cook faster. I dumped them into the pan with the pork and as I started to rummage through the cabinets, I came across a half a pack of Asian style egg noodles.

But without a pot to boil them in, what was I to do? I took the hunk of noodles and tossed them into the pan.

As the juice from the pork seeped into the noodles, they essentially cooked in the liquid of the meat and veggies. In all, it took roughly ten to fifteen minutes for all of the noodles to come loose and cook.

I plated it up and tossed a bit more of the marinade on top for good measure. T'was delicious.

Because we all have done something like this

This is a VW commercial that I was reintroduced to by a guy that lived on my couch for a month last year. When we would go out out with my roommate, Couch Guy would sit in the backseat and just sing this song over and over again.

I have also been riding around with one of my other roommates and passed a piece of furniture and we stopped and actually looked at it and decided if we wanted to pick it up or not. Fun times.