Pretense in the Wine Circles

Shit, I just blogged like an hour ago, but I got inspired real quick(probably due to the boredom here at work).

I attended my 4th bartending class last night and it was about wine. I liked white wine and could stand red wine before this class, but I left with a greater appreciation for wine culture as well as a 1/4 of a bottle of fume blanc. It was awesome. I learned to properly serve wine at the table and i learned the proper way to drink wine. It's quite the complicated process, but does it ever make a difference! Wine that tasted austere and acidic and overly tart became agreeable and grassy when you applied the right method of tasting. FYI, those are some of the proper words to use when describing the quality of a wine. But, along with all the good, I learned of the snobbery of wineheads. Now, I knew they were pretentious asshats. But, I did not know how much pretense or asshattery was, in fact, involved.

"Still wine" (all the wine that people drink, not including champagne) is only still wine if using the classic set of french grapes. It's got to be made of Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet, etc to qualify as wine. You can make alcohol from concorde grapes the same way as other grapes from france, but you can't call it wine. It's "Fortified Wine."

Did you know that wine packaging does not matter for the finish product of wine? I was led to believe, due to the my impression formed by the winers that only in a corked bottle does wine mature properly. But, if you put the same wine in three separate containers, a corked bottle, a screwtop bottle and a plastic bladder for boxwine, THEY WILL TASTE THE SAME! The reason why boxwine is usually not good is not because putting it in a plastic bladder makes is awful, it's just that the younger vineyards, who don't have as reputable and good wine are more likely to be putting their product in such contraptions. "Legitimate" wineries (the old and established) legitimize their wine through adherence to traditions. They scoff on the cheaper packaging of box or screwtop wine for fear that they would be considered of lower quality by those aforementioned asshat wineheads.

True, wine in a bottle just looks so much better than wine in a box, but hey, its potentially the same shit. And yes, part of the experience of wine is screwing off the cork. Boxwine and screwtop wine should be served when this experience doesn't matter. But, due to the potential judgment that those winos could pass, restaurants don't usually serve this less expensive alternative.

Now, I'm just ranting, so ignore me.

Point is, wine is awesome, and it could be more awesome if stripped of its elitist snobbery.

But, at the same time, it's probably from this elitist snobbery that winemaking has been refined into the art form it is today.

Webcomics to read...

So what does BISM (bored in san marcos, i'm totally going to use this as my blog moniker) do with his free time while he is, in fact, bored in san marcos? Well, BISM reads webcomics. He's always looking for new ones, but he's loyal to a handful. Also, he enjoys spontaneously switching from third person to first person...

These are the webcomics I adore:

Order of the Stick (OoTS) is based on a D&D (dungeons and dragons) world complete with the battle systems and everything. Specifically, it's the on going quest of a set of PCs (player characters) to defeat the ever evil, yet ever hysterical Lich, Xykon. It's quite the laugh, but presents a good deal of drama.

Questionable Content (QC) is about a group of friends in Massachusetts. The ongoing story arc has been about Marten and his roommate Faye (with whom he had been infatuated with, without her reciprocating) and their ragtag group of friends who include eccentric baristas, a girl with OCD and metalheads. It's laced with dry witty humor and is chock full of indie music references. Art in the beginning is crap compared to what the new ones look like.

Erfworld is the story of Parson Gotti, a tabletop gamer (warhammer and other turnbased strategy games) who is sucked into an alternate reality in which he must lead troops to hold back an invading army. In this alternate reality, wars are not realtime, but turn based, like his games he played.

Misfile is a totally fucked story. The premise is that our existence as human beings lies in a manila folder within celestial filing cabinets. to alter the contents of a folder would change the person that folder represents. For Ash, he wakes up one day to find out he is and has been a woman all his life. For Emily, she wakes up to find out that the past two years of her life had disappeared and that she was back in her sophomore year of highschool. The only way to get it fixed is to help a pot smoking angel get back into heaven. Sounds contrived? I know, but it's actually really not once you start reading.

Abstract Gender is the story of two friends who are abducted and on whom experiments were performed. Ryan Hawke wakes up and is a girl. Brian wakes up and finds out the same, except he switch back and forth on command. The story revolves on Ryan's adjusting to his situation in the high school setting.


The Noob is based within an MMORPG called Clichequest. It follows Oforf'ssake throughout the world leveling up and meeting all other PCs in Clichequest.

Fuzzy and OJ is a tale of two endearing misogynists. Enough said.

Sexy Losers is a creepy and odd set of comics that revolves around the topic of sex. Unfortunately, they stopped updating two years ago, but it's worth a read through if you've ever been disturbed by the Japanese sense of sexuality.

From barista to tender of bar...

I'm almost halfway done with a bartending course I'm taking. I love it so very much. The types of people you meet are some of the coolest people to hang out with (though i hear they are a bunch of a-holes to work with). Like being a barista, it's minimally about skill as you can learn to make a perfect cappuccino just as easily as learning how to make the perfect martini. What is most important to both fields is the character behind the person. No one comes back to the same coffee shop day in day out only because they have good coffee. Shit, some people come back to starbucks every day despite the sludge they get. What matters is the barista behind the bar, whether they be pleasant or sassy or flirty or whatever floats that clients boat. for some different barista personalities, read this webcomic.

Anyways, it is the same with bartending. A bartenders personality will get him the jobs he/she wants and will keep the same customers ordering drinks from him/her and will rake in the money.

What I want to find out is if my charm as a barista will translate to this foreign world of drinkology. I like to think I'll do just fine.

Anyways, here are 4 of my favorite drinks thus far (which I have ingredients at my bar here at home):

Grasshopper (chocolate mint cream drink served chilled in a martini glass)
Brandy Amaretto Alexander (i tweaked the Brandy Alexander, its a chocolate almond cream drink with brandy in it)
Appletini(sour apple schnapps and vodka... John Dorian's drink of choice, except he likes him "easy on the tini")
Watermelon Martini(watermelon and vodka duh, but i totally wouldn't order this at a bar, actually none of the above would I order at a bar, I'd lose my "guy-cred")

What i will continue to order when I'm at a bar is my Johnnie Black and Coke, which, incidentally, I found out is a bartending faux pas.

Next week, we learn all the fuck me up drinks eg Adios mother fucker, long island/long beach iced tea, Tokyo tea etc along with maitais and margaritas.

too much on the proverbial plate

It seems like the most cliche way to start a blog or journal or something is to introduce an even more cliche saying pertaining to what you will start to talk about. As for myself, I choose "when it rains, it pours." Also, I think that "the grass is always greener..." falls in very well as well. This last quarter has been everything I wanted from school. And, there should be a strict emphasis on last. Sure, I've got summer school. And sure, I might be taking that Econ 199 in the fall. But, as far as regular school goes, I'm almost done.

I've made new friends, gotten closer to others and just finally have gotten as involved as I can. And it has been so much so that other parts of my life have started to suffer. I've been constantly late and flakey. I haven't been making enough time for school. I'm writing this very blog while i should be taking notes. Interesting lecture, but frankly i don't care enough to take the notes that I have been doing since the beginning of the course. I think I have senioritis. I don't have too many free nights anymore and now that I've achieved more or less what I wanted, I want a good nights sleep and a quiet night at home.

But, all in all, life kicks ass. I love the person I am becoming as a result of everything. I've chosen only people that I want to associate myself with based on what I can potentially gain from being around them.

School is almost done and I will hate to leave it. But, I really can't wait for all the free time and the freedom of money (due to the possible bartending job, but i'm being way too optimistic) to just spend time with friends that I have not been able to spend time with and do all the things I've been wanting to do but haven't had the time to.

I have alienated my readership

So my entire readership of 4 or 5 has been alienated due to my incessant econ speak. So, at least for this post, I will not mention it (except in mentioning it's being incessant.) Instead of that topic which shall not be named, I will spend my time posting about yogurt

I love Yogurt World. Back in LA, maybe half a year or more ago, some lady started a craze called Pinkberry. Simple idea, charge a good amount of money for yogurt and fresh toppings. But, the catch is that it's not your run-o'-the-mill yogurt, but something else. If you're truly asian, let me just say it taste like yakult. If you don't know what I mean, you're not really too asian. But, anyways, this shit is bomb. So a mountain of special yogurt with fresh fruit/cereal toppings.

Fast forward to Kearny Mesa, in little SE asia, convoy street. There is a place called Yogurt World, which I just mentioned, I LOVE. It has the flavors of Pinkberry (and then some, and by some, I mean like 6 times as many) and the toppings of Pinkberry (and then some, and similarly, a factor of 6). The greatest part though?

YOU BUILD YOUR OWN YOGURT!!!

Sure, it'll cost you a pretty penny if you just happen to go nuts and get everything your heart desires, but once you get a hang of it, it's quite affordable. I am about to go, if Lindsey ever calls me. I'm almost about to just up and leave cuz I'm craving it bad.

So, my favorite combinations:

Plain Tart yogurt with strawberries, mangos, kiwi, fruity pebbles and mochi

Cookie and Cream/Vanilla Custard with Graham Cracker crumbs, strawberries, blueberries and mochi

Combinations I want to try:

Cheesecake yogurt w/ graham crackers, strawberries and blueberries

peanut butter w/ nuts and more nuts

If you ever want to get some Yogurt world, lemme know. I'm always down for Yogurt World. FYI, if you're scared of mobs of asian people, it would be a bad idea for you to hit up Yogurt World.

quest for knowledge

You know that cliché saying about: the more you learn, the less you realize you know? It's hitting me hard. I have read bits and pieces of a few articles and intros to books and realize how much and how many disciplines are involved in my chosen field. I may be decently studied in econ, but there are sub schools of econ and conflicts between them that I was unaware about. Anthro and Ethnography are entire fields upon themselves that I must gain proficiency in.

But, simultaneously, I truly am learning more. It forces me to constantly reevaluate what I wish to pursue and what I want to write about.

Consider this:

Economics (in the traditional sense, which typically still captures the majority of the field) tackle the issues of progress and innovation as such. Innovation is necessary for progress and growth. The mechanisms for stimulating innovation are issuing patents to guarantee monopoly and subsidies or other forms of monetary compensation. By economic standards, the innovations we produce are far too few. The number of innovations we create are said to be “inefficient” (the notion that the sum of societal costs are not equal to the sum of social benefits). Society would gain, as a whole, if we were able to convince people, who are primarily motivated by profit, to undertake these tasks. But, the values involved in such a model are values of A WESTERN SOCIETY. Economic Anthropology would argue that a society with a differing value set, in which “the base” (Gudemen), a set of norms, culture, and other defining aspects of a people, could have a more efficient number of innovations. If I lived in a society in which my values put my community ahead of myself, I would think not of my own gains (personal or Private Benefit) but that of society as a whole (Social Benefit). Thus, I would gain value from pursuing the innovations because I value my community because of the norms and morality instilled in me.

Though this analysis is starkly different from that of traditional Econ, this is not at all inconsistent with some aspects western society! Consider teachers, social workers, people that do nothing but surf, the homemaker and others. Each does not solely pursue the profit motive. Each puts a certain weight on wages (probably considering some subsistence wage, for the surfers and homemakers, it would depend on their support systems). And each puts weight on another facet of life, be it teaching children, helping others, surfing and being at home with the kids (also, eliminating costs of fast food, cleaning services, babysitters, and other functions which can be seen as part of the profit motive).

There is a varied distribution of people and their respective values of differing aspects of life. Economic Anthropology is a cognizance of this fact that tries to add to the Economic models without taking away their validity within the western sphere.

Traditional econ tenets include that people want to maximize their utility (happiness) and that in “a perfect system”, if everyone tries to do so, we will reach a point of efficiency. This “perfect system” is one where everyone’s incentives line up perfectly. Every choice I make, I must feel the full costs. This Econ-Anthro analysis is consistent with traditional econ but realizes that value we get form a choice is a function of culture.

Jumping the Academic Gun

I've being doing my research for my chosen field of Economic Anthropology. I emailed a few professors that came up on google, which led me to Dr. Chris Gregory at Australia National University, and he recommended I get in contact with Stephen Gudeman at University of Minnesota.

What have I learned thus far?

1. It's an infant field. Very few schools have a program and very few professors specialize in it.
2. As such, I would probably be doing a lot of inter-disciplinary academia. I've already put a request for a book from the guy from ANU. And I'm about to leave for school and pick up a few books from Dr, Gudeman at UMN. Also, I'm reading some entries from a blog called "This Blog Sits at the Intersection of Anthropology and Economics." The author is a very fascinating Ph D of Anthro and a man interested in Ethnography and Economics. He shows much interest in my "dismal science" and shows a few good understanding of the material. But, his anthro bleeds through. I hope to emulate some of his integration, but truly make my Econ side come out.
   
3. It's an anthro field. So far, it's been all schools of Anthro that offer the programs. If i want to do things my way, I would really have to do things from the ground up. And truly, that's fine with me. It seems like a wonderful thing to spend my life doing.
   
4. I love academics. Fuck, I love studying for the sake of studying. It's a thrill doing all my research, even at this stage.