Below is a brief, plot-less video from our last Camping Trip at the Cle Elum River. It’s only a 90 minute drive from Seattle, but when you’re out there, it’s like you’re in an entirely different world. Pictures from this trip (including our jaunts into Roslyn and Ronald) are also available on Flickr.
Month: June 2009
Seattle Spring BrewMuster
On Saturday, the CrapMonkey Podcast hosted Seattle BrewMuster at Gallagher’s in Edmonds and the turn-out was great. 
There were four batches brewed by a total of sixteen brewers who encompassed all skill levels. Some had tried their hand at brewing before, and others didn’t even drink beer but wanted to try out the brewing experience. In addition to brewing, the attendees also engaged in fun conversation and enjoyed the tasty beers that Gallagher’s keeps on tap. There were also occasional raffle drawings for prizes ranging from beers to glassware.
Brewers will meet in a few weeks to enjoy and bottle their beers and 
the brews will be judged and awarded later this summer via a BrewMuster webcast (check back at CrapMonkey or BrewMuster for details). Photos from the event are available on Flickr. Thanks to all who attended and to the folks at Gallagher’s for helping us out. I hope to see you at the next Seattle BrewMuster.
Kiss Cafe in Ballard
Last night I checked out Kiss Cafe in Ballard for the first time and was really impressed. It had a nice atmosphere, friendly people, and an awesome beer selection (bottles and cans only). They also have an innovative offering called the “99 Bottles of Beer Club.” View the video below to find out more!
Music provided by Barrett Tagliarino (sourced from the Podsafe Music Network).
Social Redirects
Last night, the race was on for anyone and everyone to get a direct Facebook URL. As a consequence, I had to decide if I wanted to tie my Facebook account to my real name, or to my CrapMonkey brand. In the end, I decided that Facebook makes more sense being tied to my real name as opposed to the CrapMonkey moniker. This also got me thinking about my presence on other social sites like Twitter, Flickr, and Myspace and how my user names and URLs vary accross each service. Then it struck me that I could put a simple logic behind all of these services just by creating sub-domain redirects from crapmonkey.com. Duh… where have I been? So, here’s the logic of how to find me online: just add the name of the service as a subdomain of CrapMonkey.com. If’ I’m on the service, you’ll find me. Here are some examples:
Crypticon Seattle 2009
Crypticon Seattle 2009 was this weekend so Wendy and I stopped by to experience the horror. It was a great event and the horror community in Seattle are a great group of folks. Some highlights from the event are as follows: First of all, there is Night Zero. Night Zero is a photographic novel based in Seattle that is created with high dynamic range photography. Next, there were plenty of horror film greats ranging from Ken Foree (Dawn of the Dead and my favorite From Beyond) to Michael Berryman (The Hills Have Eyes, Weird Science). Panels focused on films like Phantasm and The Fog, but the crew from Field of Screams, Washington’s premiere haunted attraction, were also on hand to expose their world of haunting. Finally, evening events such as a completely improvised horror movie and the Crypticon Costume Contest made nightfall more fun than creepy. Want to see more? Click in the space below to play the highlights video (requires Microsoft Silverlight).
Thanks to The Kits (Horror Movie) and If Else Then (Emeryville Horror) for the songs used in this video (sourced from the Podsafe Music Network).
The CrapMonkey Podcast Episode #134
It’s 70 degrees on a Friday night, so I’m sitting in my office boiling. That said, there’s some fun stuff to mention, so I thought I’d do make a quick podcast. First of all, a new brewery will be opening soon in Fremont aptly called Fremont Brewing. I’m always glad to see a new brewery open up in the neighborhood and their blog is a great way to keep up on their progress. Additionally, the Washington Brewer’s Festival is taking place at Saint Edward’s Park in Juanita on June 20th, so you better get that on your calendar. The Fremont Fair is the same weekend. On June 13th, Seattle BrewMuster is taking place at Gallagher’s in Edmonds, there are still a couple more days to get tickets if you’re interested. Pyramid Brewery rebranded their top beers – seems kind of strange to me, but what do you think?
Want to get addicted to a simple little video game? Try out Shift.
The song of the day is One Day Soon by Mark Colety and the website of the day is bing.com. We end the show on a CrapMonkey Spool Sample featuring Tesla’s Forever More.
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