Wine Tasting with Maynard James Keenan

This morning I went out early to grab a ticket for the Maynard Wine event at the local Whole Foods. They only had 500 tickets and I was able to get #291.

The set up was Whole foods would be selling Maynard's wines and offering signing in a private room for the first 500 people. Key points of interest leading up to the event:

#1 Maynard's wines are very hard to get a hold of. If you want to buy them you have to a) visit the vineyard in Arizona or b) catch him on a wine signing tour - this round only had 4 stops. Austin, Houston, San Antonio, and Dallas. c) get lucky enough that they have what you want on line and that they can ship it to you for reasonable cost - these wines are expensive and very limited.

#2 Maynard is known for being impersonal and rude. Not that I minded. It wasn't going to stop me from going. I was hoping this was just hype.

#3 The place was expecting 3,000-5,000 people to show up. I had no plans to be stuck in the crowd all day (people started lining up at 8am for a 5pm signing)

#4 The security was insane - no purses, no phones, no camera, nothing but your ID and $$ to make your purchase. Metal detectors, bodyguards and all...

So here's how I made the most of my Maynard experience:

I called ahead to the store and got a hold of a chef friend. I told him I would be buying at least a case and I wanted to avoid the idiots in the crowd. He told me to show up @8, get a ticket and it would be numbered. Park at the front of the store in a reserved space at 4:40/5pm and he'd get me back to the "curtained area". I told him he was awesome, and he told me I was owed from a referral I gave for a private party. (he has a catering business on the side) It pays to have foodie friends!

I showed up on time and like clockwork I had my #291 place in line, no waiting. By then I was maybe 20 ppl from the door. I found my friend and he let them know I was indeed purchasing a case. I opted for the Merkin Chupacabra - because what makes a better dinner party than hairy goat? Once I had my case, I had them carry it for me to the back. Wine is heavy! There was a small room where people were taking in their bottles to be signed by Maynard with a literal "curtains pulled back" reveal of Maynard and Eric for each customer.

They had sectioned out the line in 20 person segments, so once that current segment had finished up I got to go in with my case and have a seat. It was surreal. I introduced myself and Maynard and his partner Eric immediately asked in unison :what are you planing to do with a case of Chupacabra? I explained my "hairy goat" plan and they laughed. Maynard, in his black tshirt, board shorts and flip flops, asked me if I knew what a merkin was. I nodded and told him that was 1/2 the fun. I guess not too many people in SA know about pubic wigs? The only reason I knew was a BBC Graham Norton episode - which I admitted to them both. We all had a laugh and started talking goats and merkins, and would a goat merkin be for a goat? or made of goat for a human?. Maynard asked if I had tasted the wine. I told him no, and let him know I was fully aware that with only 500 cases made and not living in AZ it would be unlikely that anyone here had tasted it outside of the idiots who might have corked a bottle in the parking lot. He pulled out glasses and poured me a glass from the bottle at his side. This is when I first noticed how short he was. Shiny bald head, beautiful eyes, but really a small guy. Granted most people are short compared to me, but he was much shorter than I would have expected.
We sipped, the wine had a light body with a sweet blackberry tinge and a small citrus finish on the end. Great nose and would pair well with a bloody steak, which makes sense having named it after a blood thirsty goat. We talked about the central cost of CA, food and wine parings, more about goats and merkins, tasted 4 more of the wines from their vineyard and then the bodyguard told me it was time to go. Eric and Maynard told them "give her a few minutes, she bought a case" and they went about signing my 12 bottles.
I said my goodbyes and Maynard shook my hand and told me I sould come by the vineyard next time I am in AZ. I promised (quite honestly) that I would. I didn't quite get the "I'm never going to wash this hand again" feeling with him, but I was seriously in awe and star struck. He was a genuinely nice, well spoken, beautiful, and intelligent man.

I exited the store with my case, watching the thousands outside standing in line like cattle wondering how long it would take a Chupucabra to devour the herd. I think I am one of the luckiest people I know. What a great event!

I am now a proud owner of 1 of the only 500 cases of 2006 Merkin Vineyards Chupacabra. I couldn't resist that it's partly named after a mythical creature that drinks blood from livestock, and partly after a pubic wig that always reminds me of British humor. The bottle’s design is simple but appealing, with a sepia-toned, vintage-looking label decorated with a replica of Leonardo Da Vinci’s “Vetruvian Man” drawing with a bunch of deep purple, luscious grapes hanging over the loins. The back of the bottle has this mystic-cryptic inscription from Maynard himself:

“The Trickster. The Shape Shifter. The ever elusive shadow who mutates with the Sun and Moon. One year a Dragon, another a Snake. This is our Mystery Hand. Think forest, not trees. Think weather, not rain. Stare, and the CHUPACABRA, who dwells in your heart and not in your head, will vanish. Only a True Alchemist can draw holy blood from a stone, and the CHUPACABRA is his opus, his phoenix, his cherub, his child. Bravo, Mr. Glomski, Bravo! – M.J. Keenan, Owner & Novice Winemaker”

Glomski is Eric, his partner in AZ and also quite a nice guy.

I highly recommend checking out the site for Caduceus Cellars (www.caduceus.org), where Keenan maintains a journal and has an entry about the 06 SENSEI that explains the creation and evolution of the Chupacabra wine. You can order some of the other wines from the site (most of the Caduceus wines are limited quantity; and there were only 500 cases made of 2006 Merkin Vineyards Chupacabra). So, if you want to try the Chupacabra wine, wou'll have to come to dinner at my house :) Date TBD.

Xtine - I have an autographed bottle set aside just for you :) I had snuck in my iPhone, and I showed him your facebook post from earlier in the day. He said "that's cute" and then asked me how I snuck the phone in. I told him a smart girl never reveals her secrets.

I should have been sneaky and taken a picture, but the bodyguards were scowling at me with the iphone to begin with.

I am a happy foodie and Tool fan!

My Gaiman History

Last night I re-confirmed one of my own beliefs. Neil Gaiman is one of the greatest modern storytellers.

For me it started in 1989. I was wandering through a comic book shop and saw the beautiful artwork of Sandman Issue #1. I was instantly hooked. I was a faithful reader and collector of the series through 1996. My collection survived my brother twice; once when he burned my issue 8A (the rare alternative print release), and the destruction by shred of my copy of issue #1 that began it all. I was blessed with the good fortune of a godfather who owned his own comic book shop as a "hobby" - he was a FBI agent by day and comic book n3rd by night. He was my guide growing up to the world of fantasy found in the thin paper pages I loved so much. I owe him a million times over for introducing me to the world of comics and gaming.

By 1996, I was starting my life as an adult, but I refused to give up the comics. Lucky for me I married a comic book n3rd and we were able to find a home for our collections throughout our new house. I was sad at the loss of the Endless storyline, but this was about the same time Gaiman's novels began to appear. Neverwhere, Stardust, American Gods, and in 2005 - Anansi Boys - which remains one fo my favorite books of all time. He also started writing children's books. The Graveyard Book, The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish, and Coraline just to name a few.

The Woves in the Walls, one of my favorite of his childerns series, has a frequent appearance in our evening reading schedule, as do most all of his books. I love sharing my love for his work with my daughter. I can't wait until she is old enough to enjoy his comics and novels. We went to see Coraline last night, and although it wasn't a word for word interpretation of the book, it was beautiful and wonderful, and we all adored it on the big screen. The 3D technology was amazing and impressive. The paper mice sequence at the end (post credits) was breathtaking.

I can't wait to see what he has planned next. And yes, I am still holding out for the film adaptation of Death. I have been promised a long awaited Guillermo del Toro and Neil Gaiman collaberation for many years now and I refuse to give up hope :)

I have been a faithful fan of Neil Gaiman for 20 years now. I am thankful for the enjoyment his works have brought me throughout my years, and I hope to continue enjoying his creations for many years to come.

tilted twister

Dear Santa,

All I want for Christmas is a Lego mindstorms kit and the blueprints to this robot.

The blueprints are found here: http://www.tiltedtwister.com/ so that saves you some time. – I just need the legos and a Hitechnic Color Sensor for the scanner arm modification.

I have been good all year. Please reference the snippet from the feature article below, copied from the October company newsletter, for details on just how good I have been.

(*note… the article was written by one of my fans who I think was looking for brownie points… but is still very much appreciated and has totally inflated my Ego)

The article:

Adele recently spoke at the Symitar Educational Conference (SEC) in San Diego, CA, attended by over 800 people from credit unions across the country. The key note speaker was legendary journalist and CBS News Anchor Dan Rather. Adele was a featured guest speaker at the conference, and the only employee of a credit union presenting this year.

Adele's presentation was titled "Rewarding Your Members in Episys", a topic in which she's a recognized expert. The highlight of Adele's session was her solution for automating SACU's rewards checking program, which is now in use by over 23 credit unions. Her presentation also covered promo dividend rate solutions, custom ACS screens, referral solutions, and auto-approvals in ACS.

In this year's "Creative Solutions" session at the SEC, five of Adele's custom Symitar solutions were presented and awarded. She now holds over 30 "Creative Solution" and "Unique Uses" awards given by Symitar at every SEC since 2001. In 2007 alone, Adele won an unprecedented seventeen "Unique Uses" at that year's SEC.

However, Adele does not write her code solutions to win awards; she openly shares these solutions at no-cost to fellow credit unions as Chairman of the Symitar South Central Users Group (SSCUG). SSCUG is the second largest Symitar user group, comprised of IT professionals from over 80 credit unions in 7 states (New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, Kansas, and Missouri).

……. *more about me

All Symitar users benefit from her outstanding technical proficiency and is a prime example of the credit union industry's motto, "People Helping People". Adele’s devotion to this mantra was recognized by the credit union community in 2008, as she was the recipient of two coveted SMUG awards. These light-hearted awards are voted on by fellow credit union programmers and professionals, and presented at every SEC by Trace Security. This year, Adele won the trophies for "Most likely to share free code" and "Most participation in users groups".

In addition to speaking, Adele also hosted a dodge ball tournament for the SEC and ran the Symitar Users Groups booth at the vendor expo. At the closing night of the SEC, Symitar hosted a party at the House of Blues. Adele, a vintage guitar collector and avid video game player, took the stage as part of the opening act for the band. She, and other members of the Symitar community, gave a live performance of the video game "Rock Band".

Their set was followed by the headlining act, actor Jim Belushi and his band, the Sacred Hearts. After the party, Symitar thanked Adele for her continued dedication to the Symitar community with a backstage pass to meet Jim Belushi and the band.

Adele's tremendous talent and dedication reflects greatly upon SACU and the credit union community. Her career path exemplifies this publication's name, "Journey of Excellence". Join us in congratulating Adele on all of her current and future successes!

Thanks and I look forward to the surprise underneath my tree this year.

Love,

Symigoddess

Microsoft blogs about Kev

http://blogs.technet.com/kaiaxford/archive/2008/08/08/death-star-threat-modeling-part-i.aspx
Microsoft blogging about how smart Kev is.
Love it!!!
So very proud :)

Death Star Threat Modeling

Presentation from HOPE 2008

the last hope - cnet article

How cool... Kev just made it into cnet, cnn and a few other news channels

Who would have known that “death star threat modeling” would be so popular?

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-9993958-83.html

power point pressure

“PowerPoint also can liven up an otherwise boring topic. In addition to using vibrant text and background colors, presenters can choose from a wide variety of clip art and photos. And when using PowerPoint's animation and sound options, these graphics can shake, rattle and roll.”

IMHO Power point is causing my current migraine. They need a format all button to go back and make everything pretty for me. I have the content… I have the slide anecdotes and pics added in for humor. Now I just need a magic reformat button so I don’t have to stay late.

In other randomness. I was going to use my Les Paul for myBio pic… but I opted for Elvis instead.

The Last HOPE

The conference series put on by 2600 The hacker quarterly has a new featured speaker…

http://www.thelasthope.org/news_additional-speakers-announced.php

I am hoping all this publicity doesn’t go to his head… Who would have guessed back in the days when he was running a BBS out of his bedroom that he’d be making the conference rounds??? I am so proud J

Gratitude

Gratitude is a lost art in the world today. No matter how much we are told to express what we are grateful for, the thought if often lost in our busy lives. If we all expressed a little gratitude now and then, wouldn’t the world be a happier place?

Perhaps the reason that the joys of gratitude and thankfulness often appear in short supply in modern society is that we do indeed forget to take stock and recognize just how grateful we are toward others and even toward ourselves. We are hurried through the challenges of life at breakneck speed. Once we complete the obstacle course of our daily routines, we turn our focus toward the rigors of the next day. Our accomplishments of the day are forgotten. Most acts of kindness go unrewarded. The enjoyments of the day we rushed through fade into forgotten memories.

To truly be grateful takes some reflection. The moments when we feel less than blessed is the time we need to do this. As we are feeling unfairly burdened, unloved or unappreciated, we need to become more aware of the truths in life. We need to take inventory of our blessings. When we do this, we open ourselves to the infinite number of things for which we are grateful. We might remember the people we knew who shared their knowledge with us. We might remember those around us who complimented us when we were not feeling deserving of praise. We may remember the family, friends, co-workers and neighbors who acted as role models and guided us through life. Countless acts of kindness have taken us to where we are today.

Gratitude, once realized, is a gift that we should never keep in its wrapping. It needs to be opened and shared. We should ask ourselves if we have expressed the joy and gratitude toward others in our lives who are deserving of praise. Now is a perfect opportunity to ask yourself whom in this organization you are grateful for. Is Gratitude is contagious. It's an infectious, healing act. When we share our gratitude with others, it doubles within ourselves. And when we focus on recognizing and celebrating the positive in our life, we make it habitual. Make it your habit and share its positive effects with others.

All that being said, I have yet again been blessed with someone’s gratitude. I feel bad about complaining about a seemingly thankless job all week. Another credit union took the time to send me a handwritten thank you note for some coding assistance they needed with a dividend fix and added in a small token of appreciation in the form of a $20 dollar Starbucks gift card. That token of appreciation has not been lost on me. In fact it completely brightened my day and made me realize I have a lot to be thankful for and I need to do a better job of showing my own gratitude towards others. There is no joy in focusing on the fact that my hard work and loyalty to my organization go unrecognized and I have repeatedly been ignored in my efforts to shine. I have to admit. I am used to being the company rock star. In my short 2.5 years here that just hasn’t been the case. The negativity here is overwhelming and too many people are looking out for themselves and in the process casting a dark cloud over many many deserving people who just want to be recognized for their job well done. I am not alone. SO… rather than focus on what I am not getting from them I am now determined to make sure that I go above and beyond to recognize those coworkers myself. It may not mean as much, but at least they can get the small bit of hope that I have been given from outside that people really are thankful for what we do.

And to the gifter of my ray of sunshine in the form of a green tea frappucino with an extra shot of melon this morning - Thanks for the giftcard – it really did make my day.

Published

I have never been published… (that I know of)

But I am now proud to announce my husband has… this greatly increases his chances of reaching PhD before I do.

Exploiting AutoRun: Threats, Vulnerabilities and Countermeasures of the AutoRun Functionality Associated with Portable Data Storage Devices

http://www.denimgroup.com/know_artic_exploiting_autorun.html

Pretty flowers make my day!

How awesome. A Big Thank You to the mystery sender of the beautiful orchids. The card reads “Thank You SymiGoddess for your help with reward checking. You saved us a ton of money and time.”

I am happy that I was able to help a fellow CU out, but I wish they would have left a name so I knew who to thank.

Getting flowers really made my day extra amazing.

I am a published recording artist with pretty hair

Memphis is on my list of favorite things.


Here' a quick recap of my week:

Went to sun studios, and cut my first album in the very same studio Elvis and johnny cash once recorded in. I even used the mic Elvis sang "that's alright" into ( had to sign a disclaimer that stated I would not "lick, kiss, or touch my mouth to it" I thought that was amusing.
I am in the airport right now, but when I get back I'll post some pics of my recording debut and the trip in general. When we went down to sun, it was early and they hadn't opened yet so we walked across the street to a coffee bar for breakfast. Halfway through breakfast a guy walks up, places a business card on the table, says "this is for you" and runs away (literally). It was so very odd. I picked up the card and read the name -keith something and it was a business card for the tire alignment business next door. I flipped the card over and it read "if you want to talk to someone new... I like to text mess I like your hair it's pretty"
It was creepy. We hung out in the coffee bar trying to figure out the back way in case he was lurking outside. He was, but he just stood at the doorway of the tire place staing me down and I ran back to sun studios. After we finished the tour and recording he was gone, but the whole situation was so weird!
Next we walked back down beale st. Had mint juleps at a side bar, grabbed lunch at a local grill then headed into gibson and took the factory tour. Oh the beautiful toys... My es-335 was made there :) my les pauls were made in nashville I found out and overall it was a ton of fun. I used my willpower and did not buy the light blue dave grohl custom piece I was drooling over. After gibson we visited the memphis rock and soul museum. They had a bunch of great exhibits. We headed back to the hotel for the vendor expo/welcome party. It was nice. A bunch of us headed back down to beale for drinks afterwards and more karoke. I wound up getting to sleep at 4am with a mystery bruise on my shoulder. The next day I gave a session on change control and documentation that went over really well. I got lots of great feedback. That night we went to graceland for dinner, music, drinks and dancing. Graceland was way way smaller than I thought it would be, but still lots of fun. After graceland we headed back to the hotel for a rooftop party and then back to beale for more fun. Yesterday I got picked to play jeopardy and wound up winning an ipod which I traded with some guy for a tom tom gps. I already have more ipods than I know what to do with.
I gave another session on rep dev, and then we went walking around and shopping. We wound up having dinner back at the hotel at chez phillipe. Super yummy 7 course tasting menu with wine pairings (3.5 hour meal)
It was a great end to a great week. Oh... And the waiter at dinner last night wrote his phone number down on a sheet of paper and passed it to me. Wtf? All week I have been getting cards, numbers, and weird looks. I need to find a new perfume or something. The running conference joke was about my "pretty hair". Everywhere I turned someone was handing me a business card with pick up line comments on the back. It was funny for about the first 5 times... I am so over it
Time to get on yet another airplane...

from zer0 to sixty blog posts

I am horrible about blogging, except for when travelling. And now with myspace mobile I am amusing myself via pda. Myspace, twitter, g-chat, and all the other randomness bookmarked on my phone to keep the insanity to a minimum.
I am in portland now, went out for a quick bite to gusteaus... I love their spicy mustard. But now I still have almost 4 hours to kill. in good news, american upgarded me to first class for the rest of the night. That will help with the 4 hour flight between here and dallas. Really doent do much on the midnight flight to sa.
Anyone else out there on twitter? I made fun of it for months, then I realized it's like having an emo type pad for random thoughts. Seeing as how my memory worsens over the years, the mini thought collection of twitter is a fun reminder and has less chances of poisoning me (ink on skin) I think I want a photo twitter. The restaurant restroom had a amusing sign on the toilet handle. It read up for number one, down for number two. Then it had a drop icon for 1 and a poo icon for 2. Very random, cute, yet disturbing potty. I guess it uses less water for pee than other waste?

In other randomness... I got my trader joes fix this trip and picked up a case of dried pineapple stix. I also managed to find mcminamins pear brandy. It's like taking a shot of everclear and then biting into a bosc pear.
I picked up truffles for coworkers and a random assortment of gifts for ppl. Some of which actually read this so I will warn that I suck at the whole surprise aspect.
Short list of fun finds;
Cthulu munchkin
Handmade cufflinks using parts from an old typewriter
Talking pigeon and book
Handmade marcasite swirly necklace
Garbage pail kids (circa 1986 still in original packaging) I wonder how nasty that gum is in there?
Small plastic dolphin
2 pairs of shoes
Baby onesie - dirty dancing themed "nobody puts baby in the corner"
And I am sure I forgot something.. But I don't feel like checking twitter to remember what it was :)

all things work

I have been blogging for years about non-work related topics, each in it's own unique setting. I am dedicating this first blog post to my work related life. New blog engine, new topic, new leaf turned.

Wiki: The term computer programmer can refer to a specialist in one area of computer programming or to a generalist who writes code for many kinds of software. One who practices or professes a formal approach to programming may also be known as a programmer analyst, software engineer, computer scientist, or software analyst.

I am currently known as a Senior Programmer, and in former iterations, Lead Programmer, Programming Manager, Systems Expert, Systems Administrator, Information Technology Manager, Coder, Mensa-Girl, and my most favorite title of all... SymiGoddess.

I have been coding for a little over ten years now in various settings. I am proficient in more languages than I can count on my fingers and toes. When I was little I wanted to become an astronaut. I don't really know how I got to this place, but I am happy and that's all that really matters.