Romance Novel weblog by Carolyn Jewel

Writer's Diary

Friday, July 06, 2007

It's a Red Stripe* Day -- or finding info in the oddest places

Coupla things before I succumb to another day of panic mode. So, I have this day job. In the words of Patti O'Shea, an Evil Day Job or EDJ. Yeah. I have one of those. I have to explain the EDJ in order for this post to make sense, sorry. I'm a SQL Server Database Administrator (DBA). As such, I work with Enterprise level databases that run on expensive hardware and software. Yada yada yada. As with most things that involve the need for the development of expertise, there are mailing lists. For the EDJ I belong to one such SQL Server mailing list. Mostly people post questions and answers about, well, yes, SQL Server. The list members are from all over the world. Literally. Not so interesting and not so relevant to the writing, you'd think. Au contraire!

For quite some time I have been jotting down the many cool and awesome names these people have. I've probably got at least 100 names. Some of which I am using in Magellan's Witch. Not complete names. There are very few that are cool and awesome on a total name basis. Like, Harsh. There's some DBA somewhere whose name, I think it's his first name, but I'm not sure, is Harsh. Then there's Kynan. Both of them are in Magellan's Witch. So, I've been really pleased to be building up such a solid list of cool names. Today, I hit the motherlode. Not of names, but alcohol.

I'm not much of a drinker and I don't watch TV or read many magazines that have liquor ads in them. This makes me clueless when it comes to choosing alcoholic drinks that alpha males might sit around drinking. This morning when I came to work there were already 150 emails from the DBA list, and fully half of them were of the subject Select unique records or something like that. Easy, easy thing to do in SQL.

SELECT DISTINCT [SomeFieldName] FROM [SomeTable]

So, like, 150 emails about this. Uh, no. 150 emails about what to drink on Friday nights, with amusing and even insightful comments. Like these:

Vodka... made by the French who we all know have been purveyors of fine Vodka since Czar Louis XIV was on the throne of Ireland....

What!!
I bloody well hope not!
As they're [Boddington's] canned/bottled in Manchester I 'm assuming they're using Imperial measurements... but then the UK measures stuff in that Froggy invented metric system... so god only knows...
Zut alors!

However, I do know that it just fills a pint pot fashioned after a German beer steinl [sic], whereas when I use a US standard beer glass I have to drink down the first third of the glass before topping it off... boo shame...

On a cold day you need Laphroaig or Lagavullin... perhaps Macallan or Dalwhinnie, Cragganmore or Talikser or Glenkinchie Single Island and Highland Malt whisky laddie!!!!

Yeah, I used to get Lagavullin for $40.00, not it hovers around $80, so at the bar I get Laphroaig for 6.50 (happy hour) or around $8.00. Lagavullin is $15.00 for a measured shot. Out of my league.

Of course, to be fair, I can get Lagavullin for $10.00 at other bars...
but still...

See? The motherload. I have like a page and a half of alcohol from around the world wisdom.

*Red Stripe, as probably everyone but me knows, is a Guinness beer, and it's probably mentioned at least once a week. Big in the UK it seems.

OK, off to panic mode.

Labels: Magellan's Witch, research