Winter break in review

Break is over, I head back to Pittsburgh tomorrow. The timing is, in my opinion, perfect. I never got murderously bored here, and I'm absolutely ready to go back.

My original plan was to spend the break learning how to play the guitar. I spent about two days practicing on and off, and realized that I don't really like the guitar. I had way more fun playing my bass here, despite the severe neck warpage. That bass is, unfortunately, beyond saving, even after two weeks of massive torsion bar adjustments. If I want to continue playing, I'm going to have to suck it up and buy myself a decent instrument. In the meanwhile, I'm going to bring the cheap guitar back to Pittsburgh and sell it.

I had a new plan, which came to fruition at the very beginning of my first whole week home. After talking to my dad, I wanted to brew some beer. He wanted to brew again too, so you know what? We brewed some beer. Just bottled it this evening. It won't be ready for another 2-3 weeks, so I'll let you all know how that turned out when I finally get to taste it in March. I had a lot of fun brewing, enough so that it may be a hobby I pursue in the future. After startup costs, it works out to be a fairly economical way to provide yourself with high quality beer. At worst, it doesn't cost more than buying a case of something decent. And, there's some chemistry, biology, and a lot of cool shit going on. Just reading a book about all the different ways you can experiment got my mental juices flowing.

And, on top of all that, I actually left the house. Saw some friends, and saw some people I hadn't seen in a while. Met new people too. That's always fun. So, all in all, I'd call it a productive break. I didn't let a sinus infection get in my way, I did more than be a blob, and I got some skiing in. Now, I go back to my last semester at CMU. Wow. It is weird to say that.