Aaron Pearson got this photo of me during one of my two sessions at the 2011 Minnesota Bloggers Conference. Aaron posted the picture with his thorough post about my sessions.

I was honored to recap my recent Silicon Valley trip (with memorable stops at Apple, Google and TWiT) on an episode of the Minnov8 Gang Podcast. As usual, those guys Photoshop-ed up something wacky to go with the post.

Recently, when my wife and son left home for a month on urgent family business, I had a couple of choices.

I could: 1) Panic at this vast expanse of enforced solitude, and curl into a fetal position; 2) Seize this as an opportunity to organize my life, and better myself as a human being.

What followed over about 30 days was an unprecedented personal adventure, a journey of discovery like no other in my adult life.

For one thing, I learned how to make sushi.

For all the details, check out a couple of back-to-back episodes of Enough, the Minimal Mac Podcast, which is co-hosted by England-based Myke Hurley and my St. Paul amigo Patrick Rhone.

For the first part, go here; the second part is here.

What I’m reading: “Robopocalypse”

If the word “Skynet” makes you salivate, you have to read this science-fiction novel about how machines rise up against their human masters.

I am halfway through it as I write this…and I am hooked.

It’s part “I, Robot” (minus the Three Laws of Robotics), part “World War Z” (in the sense of being structured as an oral history) and part “Terminator” (with machines of all shapes and sizes slaughtering humans, and the humans forming a resistance).

Good stuff.

Minnesota Public Radio’s Kerri Miller interviewed the author not long ago. That’s what prompted me to check out the novel (in e-book form) from the St. Paul Public Library.

Behold, my lunch today. I made it, which makes it all the more delicious (though pro sushi chefs would probably be rolling on the floor in laughter).

I recently tweeted:

After a lifetime of ambivalence if not outright loathing, I suddenly…like beer. I have NO idea what brought that on.

I still don’t.  I do know having a next-door neighbor who brews his own cerveza is suddenly…awesome.

Raddly Kulseth (if his name sounds familiar, look elsewhere on this blog for posts about his amazing food-blogger wife) has just shared with me samples from his maiden batch of brewski, and I’m at a loss for words.

That is partly because as a bier newbie I lack the context and vocabulary to do it justice. It’s also because I’m speechless at how yummy it is.

Yesterday I poured one of the beers into a tall glass (as instructed; Radd told me not to drink it out of the bottle), grabbed my e-book reader, and went out to my favorite chair on the front porch for an hour of reading and rapturous sipping.

This was one of the highlights of my summer.

Another bottle awaits. Ahhh….

By the way, that’s Radd in the second picture, on the left, as he readies another batch of beer; I’m on the right as I’m coming into his back yard. His wife took the photo.

Update: From Twitter:

Thunderwater Ale, my Belgian Trippel/IPA (9.1% abv) is bottled.  Two weeks bottle conditioning and we drink. #Homebrew  yfrog.com/kkuocxqj