Mike Gowen

dkeithrobinson:

Another write up of an interesting session by Raph Koster. This time it’s about sporadic play, which is not the same as casual.

I’ve been keeping a list of all the beer I have tried over the years for quite some time. I figured some of you might be interested in seeing it. I did not include beer I have at home that I have yet to drink, but I did include bottles that I am currently aging. I’m sure there are a ton of crappy beers missing from this list, but I’ll add them as they emerge from the blur that is my college years.

** FUTURE AND CURRENT EMPLOYER DISCLAIMER: I do not have a drinking problem. I typically taste 1 or 2 beers a week (which is a different problem…I collect them faster than I could ever drink them).

So without further ado, here’s the list:

Currently Aging

AleSmith Speedway Stout
Deschutes Black Butte XXI
Brooklyn Black Ops
Dogfish Head Worldwide Stout
Stone Old Guardian
Bell’s Expedition Stout
Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout

Favorites

Westvleteren 12 (Yes, the one and only. A true masterpiece and my top pick, hands down!)
Pliny the Elder
Deschutes The Abyss
Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout
New Holland Night Tripper
Bear Republic Red Rocket Ale
Lagunitas Little Sumpin’ Extra
Lagunitas Little Sumpin’
Lagunitas Copper Ale
DFH Punkin’ 2009
Epic Mayhem
DFH 90 Minute IPA
Lagunitas IPA
Lagunitas Censored (aka The Kronic)
Terrapin Side Project
Avery Collaboration Not Litigation (Avery/Russian River)
Terrapin Rye Squared
St Bernardus Apt12
Smuttynose Old Brown Dog
Terrapin Big Hoppy Monster Imperial Red Ale
Founders Old Curmudgeon
Three Floyds Robert the Bruce
Stoudt’s DIPA
Boulder Mojo Risin’
Smuttynose Two Hearted Ale
Deschutes Mirror Mirror 2009
Allagash White
Allagash Four
Long Trail IPA

The Rest

Piraat Ale
Allycat Amber
Holy Makeral
Lost Coast Great White
Kellys Golden
Kellys Wheat
Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale
Highland Kashmir IPA
Shock Top
Titanic 2x IPA
North Coast Old No 38 Stout
Pater Lieven Tripel
Daleside Monkey Wrench Dark Ale
Val-Dieu Blond
Sierra Nevada Wheat
Saxo
Devils Canyon Scotch Ale
Russian River Damnation
Deschutes Twilight Ale
Big Sur Amber Ale
Santa Cruz Mountain Pale Ale
Rogue Half-E-Weizen
Dogfish Head Pangea
Stone India Pale Ale
Stone Arrogant Bastard Ale
Founders Centennial IPA
Brewmaster’s Collaboration Signature Ale (Tomme Arthur and Dirk Naudts)
North Coast Old Stock Ale
Bear Republic XP Pale Ale
Rogue Yellow Snow IPA
Kelly’s Raspberry
Stoudt’s Triple
Dogfish Head Indian Brown Ale
Founder’s Double Trouble
Moa Five Hop Winter Ale (NZ)
Smuttynose Scottish Ale
Allagash Interlude 2008
Allagash Dubbel
Allagash Tripel
Allagash Curieux
Allagash Confluence Ale
Casa Beer
Fuller’s Vintage Ale
Meantime IPA
Steelhead Extra Pale Ale
Loose Cannon (Hop 3) Ale
Lion Stout
Great Divide Samurai Rice Ale
Stoudt’s Scarlet Lady Ale
Otter Creek Copper Ale
Koshihikari Echigo Beer
Nogne Peculiar Yule
Russian River Consecration
AleSmith IPA
Mikkeller Warrior Single Hop
Hair of the Dog Ruth
Green Flash Le Freak
Bear Republic Hop Rod Rye
Butte Creek IPA
Ommegang Crimson
Storm King
St Bernardus Wit
Stone Levitation
Maredsous
Simecoe IPA
Chimay Blue
Chimay Red
Stone 13th Aniversary
DFH Theobroma
Moylens Kilt Lifter
Hair of the Dog: Ruth
Kittens Ale (Mike Lewis Ale)
Heather’s Dad’s Lager
AleSmith IPA
Mikkeller Single Hop Warrior IPA
Bear Republic Hop Rod Rye
Ballast Point El Dorado IPA
Buffalo Bill’s Pumpkin Ale
Nogne O Peculiar Yule
Deschutes Red Chair IPA
Bell’s Hopslam Ale
Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout
La Fin Du Monde
St. Bernardus Abt 12
Bell’s Amber Ale
Brother David’s Double
Bear Republic Big Bear Black Stout
Stone Imperial Russian Stout
Founders Harvest Ale
St. Bernardus Tripel
Great Divide Hibernation Ale
Founders Old Curmudgeon Ale
Terrapin Big Hoppy Monster Imperial Red Ale
Russian River Blind Pig IPA
Sierra Nevada 2008 Anniversary Ale
St. Bernardus Christmas Ale
Rogue Hazelnut Brown Nectar
DFH World Wide Stout
Founders Dirty Bastard
Founders Breakfast Stout
New Holland Dragon’s Milk Oak Barrel Ale
Flying Dog Doggie Style Classic Pale Ale
DFH Aprihop
DFH Chicory Stout
Bell’s Special Double Cream Stout
Founders Centennial IPA
Stone Ruination IPA
Spaten Franziskaner Hefe-Weisse Hell
Avery The Maharaja
Great Divide Hercules Double IPA
Great Divide Oak Aged Yeti Imperial Stout
North Coast Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout
DFH 120 Minute IPA
Duvel
Founders Pale Ale
Moylens Hopsickle Imperial Ale
Stone Arrogant Bastard Ale
Rogue Brutal Bitter
Gouden Carolus Carolus D’Or
Victory Old Horizontal
Sierra Nevada 12th Release Harvest Wet Hop Ale
New Holland Pilgrim’s Dole
Lagunitas Sirius Ale
Lindemans Framboise
DFH 60 Minute IPA
Delirium Noël
Left Hand Milk Stout
Gulden Draak
DFH Olde School Barleywine
North Coast Acme IPA
Rogue Juniper Pale Ale
Stone Old Guardian
Stoudt’s Fat Dog Imperial Oatmeal Stout
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
Lagunitas Maximus
Delirium Tremens
Great Divide Titan IPA
Lagunitas Brown Shugga
Ommegang Abbey Ale
Flying Dog Gonzo Imperial Porter
Duck-Rabbit Milk Stout
St. Ambroise Apricot Wheat Ale
Port Brewing Brewmaster’s Collaboration Signature Ale
Avery Mephistopheles Stout
Aventinus
Bear Republic Racer 5
Nostradamus
Rogue Shakespeare Stout
Duck-Rabbit Brown Ale
Left Hand Warrior IPA
McEwan’s Scotch Ale
Brooklyn Lager
Rogue Santa’s Private Reserve Ale
Rochefort Trappistes Rochefort 10
Great Divide Old Ruffian Barley Wine
Downtown Grill Nut Brown Ale
Stone Oaked Arrogant Bastard Ale
85 Ommegang Three Philosophers
Belhaven Wee Heavy
Ommegang Hennepin Farmhouse Saison
North Coast PranQster
Spaten Optimator
Boulder Mojo
Greta Divide Saint Bridget’s Porter
Bell’s Oberon Ale
Lagunitas Ruben & The Jets
DFH Midas Touch
New Holland Black Tulip Trippel Ale
Rogue Imperial Stout
Hoegaarden White
Boddingtons Pub Ale
DFH Pangaea
Rogue Mocha Porter
Hitachino Nest Red Rice Ale
Great Divide Wild Raspberry Ale
Southend Bombay Pale Ale
Southend Scarlet Ale
O’Ryans Oatmeal Stout
Rogue Chocolate Stout
Southend Ironman Wheat
DFH Fort
DFH Palo Santo Marron
Weyerbacher Hops Infusion
Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier
Trois Pistoles
Avery White Rascal
Wychcraft
Charleston Half Moon Hefe Weizen
DFH Chateau Jiahu
Wychwood Hobgoblin
Anchor Steam
Shipyard Chamberlain Pale Ale
Corona Extra
Sea Dog Wild Blueberry Wheat Ale
Great Divide Denver Pale Ale
Palmetto Pale Ale
Rogue Old Crustacean
Rogue DFH Punkin Ale 2008
Dead Guy Ale
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
DFH Immort Ale
DFH Raison D’Etre
Saison Dupont Vieille Provision
Southend Blonde
Southend Blonde Light
Anheuser Busch Winter’s Bourbon Cask Ale
Shipyard Pumpkinhead Ale
North Coast Old Stock
Southend East Bay Brown
Great Divide Fresh Hop Pale Ale
Hatuey
Natural Light
Natural Ice
Michelob Ultra
Milwaukee’s Best
Busch Light
Busch Ice
Bud Light
Bud Ice Light
Milwaukee’s Best Light
Budweiser
Bud Ice
Corona Light
Coors Light
Old Milwaukee
Old Milwaukee Light
Icehouse Light
Olde English
Schlitz Malt Liquor
Miller Genuine Draft Light
Miller Genuine Draft
Heineken
Amstel Light
New Castle
Sopporo
Kirin
Becks
Red Hook
Red Stripe
Guiness
Harp
Bass
Fat Tire
Gordon Biersch Dunkel
Gordon Biersch Maibock
Sam Adams Octoberfest
Sam Adams Lager
Blue Moon
Grolsch
Odouls
Land Shark
Pabst Blue Ribbon

The folks at cxpartners recently conducted a study on the tendency for visitors to scroll a web page.

The article can be found here

While the study is very encouraging, I can’t say I totally agree with some of the conclusions.

“A quick snoop around the web will show you successful brands that are not worrying about the fold either:”

I would argue that successful brands *do* care about the fold. While they do place content “below the fold”, this does not imply that they place the same value on real estate “below the fold”, as they do real estate “above the fold”. NYT.com surely won’t put their top story below the fold, or Amazon their Kindle 3 announcement. Similarly, you’re not going to see a supermarket put the healthy cereal at a child’s eye level, or Best Buy put the Playstation 4 in the back of the store.

“The surprising thing we learnt was that actually having less above the fold (one large content block as opposed to 2 smaller ones) encouraged exploration below the fold.”

Sure, by placing less valuable content above the fold, you’re likely to compel more people to scroll. However, I’d argue that less people *overall* would find that content than if it were “above the fold”. The experiment really only tells us that putting interesting content below the fold compelled some set of people scroll to find it. It doesn’t tell you if Bristol Airport saw the same response rate for the content in both positions. I’d be curious to know if they could clarify this.

I think the whole “above the fold” discussion is a bit futile. Content that is not in immediate view is always going to be viewed less than content in immediate view especially if an extra action is needed to view it, such as scrolling. It’s not really about the “fold”. It’s about how much effort is needed to reach the content. Nonetheless, the study is very encouraging. It’s great to see that the tendency for people to explore “below the fold” is increasing. This is great news for the long tail. However, I don’t think we’re quite ready to call it even.

That’s right! After 8 years in Miami, I’ll be making my way to Palo Alto, CA to join Andrew Chen (@andrew_chen) and company. I couldn’t be more excited about the opportunity and I am humbled to be welcomed into such an amazing team.

Needless to say, leaving Scrapblog was a very difficult decision for me. Scrapblog was more than just a place of employment, it was my life and my family. It’s been an absolutely amazing ride and not a day has gone by where I wasn’t truly excited come to work. The knowledge I’ve gained has been priceless, the relationships deep, and I’m continually impressed by what we’ve been able to achieve. I can’t wait to see where the team takes it from here.

When I get settled in on the West Coast, I’ll likely reflect a bit more in a longer post. But for now I’ll keep it short and bid Miami a fond farewell…see you on the other side!

Here are my thoughts after reading a few discussions and adding some of my own opinions…

Jacob has been the leader of the island for a long time, and wants to bring people to the island who deserve second chances, and let them live in this utopia forever with eternal life. Forgive them of their sins, so to speak. Very biblical. He does this by physically touching them as we see with his interactions with the young Losties. None of the touched individuals have died during the show.

He also touched Ben when Alpert took Ben to the temple to be healed. But he warned he would never be the same again. He means he will live forever, on the island…like Alpert.

Alpert has been touched and lives forever (as we see by him not aging). He also says “I’m this way because of Jacob”.

The man with Jacob at the beginning is against bringing people to the island. He says it never works and they always end up corrupting the island. Jacob has faith in people and thinks that it can work, and feels he is learning more with each attempt.

Jacob and the other guy can’t kill each other because they have been “touched” and thus can not die. But the man against Jacob has found a loophole. The loophole is that somehow, by channeling dead people, he can in fact kill Jacob.

We’ve seen him channeling many times…
Alex - Told Ben to listen to Locke (who we found out is actually the guy against Jacob)
Christian - Talked to Locke at the donkey wheel
Horace - Talking to Locke in the jungle
…and more that I can’t remember.

There are still a ton of holes, but I’m happy with this general theory. I’ll add more to this as it comes to me.

My girlfriend (@HeatherOT) is busy getting her own business off the ground. She specializes in a form of holistic therapy geared towards helping professional athletes recover faster and perform better overall. As such, she was in need of a few basic things to enable her to begin bringing her services to market. This included a name, a logo, a website, and a solid brand strategy. With these goals in mind, we got to work.

The Brand Strategy

One of the core components of her therapy involves a light massage that clears toxins from the lymphatic system, otherwise known as Manual Lymph Drainage (MLD). Originally Heather had decided on SportsMLD as the name of the company. While straightforward, this had 3 negative aspects. First, it would be difficult to brand given it’s rather sterile and soul-less nature. Second, it effectively closes the door on any additional techniques that could be bundled with her services outside of MLD. Finally, it didn’t let her “own” her technique, as the name was already inherently tied to as existing well-known technique (MLD). That being said, the first step was the decision to package her process as a product rather than a service. If you’re familiar with The Secret, you’ve witnessed this type of approach firsthand. Its very hard to own and brand The Law of Attraction, but wrap a very appealing and compelling brand strategy around it and suddenly you have something much more palatable sell.

The Name

The next step was to come up with a name. Being that MLD is considered to be an alternative medicinal technique, we didn’t want the name to draw upon any stigmas that might be attached to that sort of topic. Alternative medicine is largely regarded as having its roots in spirituality. Professional athletes and trainers who are looking for concrete and measurable results are going to be less responsive to this type of positioning. After a solid 2 days of brainstorming we chose Kysio (pronounced “Kee-zee-oh”). This was a play on words starting with the base word, “Kinetic”, then playing off the interesting “lym” letter pairing sequence in “lymphatic”, and finally appending the “sio” letter sequence from the word “physiological”. Together, Kysio sounded fresh, high-tech and still retained a bit of the zen-like aspect of it’s core technique.

The Logo

Kysio allows athletes to obtain heightened performance levels by stimulating the body’s natural recovery system. This made it important to design a logo that created a juxtaposition between biology and the kinetics. After playing around with a few ideas I stumbled upon two symbols that were visually similar, and spoke to both of the aforementioned concepts: a strand of DNA, and a spring. After a few hours of exploring their visual relationships, I had something we liked. A few rounds of refinement later and I had the basic logo complete. From there I chose a typeface that further clarified the direction, and gave the logo an overall fresh and confident look. Finally, I settled on a blue color scheme to convey a sense of rejuvenation and trust.

We’re both very happy with the finished product and I’m excited to begin working on the website. So without further ado, I present to you, Kysio…

Those of you following me on Twitter have no doubt heard me referring to a “secret project”. Well today the cat is out of the proverbial bag. I present to you…

The Love Machine

What is it?

The Love Machine is a campy little game for the iPhone and iPod Touch that reveals the type of lover you are according to how *cough* dexterous *cough* you are with your finger. It’s currently “In Review” at the App Store and I’m hoping for a Valentine’s Day release (I know, wishful thinking). The Love Machine will be available for $.99. This is the first of hopefully many games to come from Bear Genius, the name of my modest little game workshop.



I plan on doing a series of posts detailing my entire journey building this app. For now, hop over to the website and drop in your email, or follow us on Twitter.

Here is the official description that will appear on the App Store…

See how you measure up, or test that special someone to see if he/she is worth your time. This is the perfect ice breaker and conversation starter. Great on dates or in a bar or club.

As soon as you touch the heart, a timer will begin. You will then have 10 seconds to tease the heart in any way you see fit. Hint: A good lover has the right pace, and knows how to keep things interesting.

• Dr. Awesome iPhone Game
  Super cool new game for the iPhone. Grabbing it now.


• Second Life Foresaw the US Banking Crisis
  Interesting little blurb about using virtual worlds to predict real world behavior.


• Quote
  Brilliant quote from John Gall.


• The Design Studio of Mike Precious
  Some amazing work here! Very inspiring.


• All WotLK PVE Content Defeated
  Nihilum/SK Gaming have completed all the raiding content in WoLK. Wow.


• Google Lively To Shut Down In December
  Um, that was fast.


• SGN’s iFun Turns iPhone Into PC Game Controller
  This is pretty incredible. I’m not sure how practical it will turn out to be, but I love the innovation.

The winners have been announced and Scrapblog has taken not one, but two Adobe MAX awards in both the RIA category and the coveted People’s Choice Award! We could not be more excited about this. We’ve had our eye on this prize since the birth of Scrapblog and we can finally check that off our list. Kick ass!

PackRat has just launched a subscription option for players called PackRat XL. I had a feeling this was going to happen sooner than later. Judging from the forums, it appears to have been well received dispite the backlash of the original ticket launch. This move rounds out a solid revenue model short of advertising, but as Josh has mentioned in the past, ads were never very lucrative for them. I hope it works well, I’ll be watching closely.