Archive for category Hobbies
日本語の日記 - 弓を買いました
Posted by bradinator in Hobbies, Japan, Japanese Language, Language Practice on February 2, 2012
日本語の日記 - 弓を買いました
先週末に 弟と 妻と 大きいデーパトに行きました。 そのデーパトに 銃猟屋が あります。 妻は 服を買いに 行った 私は 弟と 銃猟屋 行きました。 弓を買いました! 弓を買うのが 長い 時間かかります。。。 まず 弓を 私に 計りました。 その後 弓を 適するべきでした。 その弓は 張りが とても 強いですよ! ちょっと 高かったですが いつも 弓を 持ちたいです。。。
今週末に 外で 弓を 使う予定です。 弓の照準は 大切です。 たくさん 練習と 私の弓の照準は よくなります。 そのうちに 弟と 銃猟に行きたいです。
New Words —
弓 (ゆみ) - Bow and Arrow (N)
銃猟 (じゅりょう) - Hunting, Shooting (N)
計る (はかる) - To measure (V)
適する (てきする) - To fit, to size (N―する)
張り (ばり) - To stretch, draw (N)
照準 (しょうじゅん) - Sight, aim (of a gun, bow) (N)
そのうちに - Eventually, someday (Adverb)
Hobbies – Impulse buy.
Posted by bradinator in Hobbies on January 30, 2012
I don’t impulse buy often, but when I do the wife becomes very, very upset.
I bought this on a whim. A very expensive whim. I have wanted to get into archery and eventually into bow hunting for a long, long time, but could never get myself motivated enough to do so. I went to the Bass Pro shop with my brother, who is an avid rifle hunter already and got fitted for a bow. Its an entry level compound bow, but it has gotten very high reviews from its owners.
I cannot wait to get it sighted in this weekend!
Year in Review (in English)
Posted by bradinator in Beer, Fitness, Hobbies, Home Brewing, Japanese Language, Misc on December 31, 2011
Time to say goodbye to 2011. Bye 2011!
This year was one where I broke some long standing personal records and achieved some challenging goals. For strength related personal records: I made a PR for Bench Press, an exercise I sucked at pretty bad, pressing 215lbs once (30% over my body weight). I set a PR for deadlifts just last weekend, lifting 265lbs once. I did a hanging clean of 145lbs once yesterday as well, another PR. For calisthenic related goals, I did my first Muscle Up early this year, followed up by reaching a PR 7 consecutive last month. I completed the 100 Days of Burpees Challenge and managed to make 75 Pullups in under 5 minutes. I also did a lot of running to train for the 5KM Run for the Cure, which I did while wearing a 20lbs training vest in just under 25 minutes total time.
This year was also very beer heavy. I believe I made over 20 beers this year, plus a couple ciders and wines. I made the switch from extract brewing to all grain this summer and began to produce vastly better beers. My last 12 or so batches have all been from grain to glass and I have no intention of switching back to extract. Ever. Through time saving brewing techniques such as no-chilling and BIAB I have cut my brew day time down to under 4 hours. I also tried a few money saving techniques such as yeast harvesting, yeast washing and bulk buying grain (which I believe I still have around 100lbs of in my basement…). Don’t even ask me how much of that beer I drank.
As for my Japanese study… Well… I could have done a lot more this year. I studied quite a bit of low level kanji and can recognize around 200+ characters now (well if I reviewed them again over a week). I know my vocabulary has gotten a smidge larger and my ability to write (on a computer… I can barely write in English on paper anymore) has improved. Overall though I don’t think I made very much headway in the area of Japanese in 2011.
I do not know what 2012 will bring, but something tells me its going to be a very amazing year.
Hiking – Raspberry Ridge
Posted by bradinator in Hiking, Hobbies, Photography on October 24, 2010
I really wish I got out hiking every weekend. Calgarian’s are blessed with some of the most amazing hiking trails in all of Canada, if not the world. Raspberry Ridge is another gem, snuggled away 100km South West of the city, somewhere at the entrance of the Rockie Mountains.
The first hour of the hike is quite easy, but the second hour is a where all the elevation gain is making it challenging.
You can check out some of the other pictures in the Canada Photography gallery.
Home Brew – Update, it’s Science!
Posted by bradinator in Beer, Hobbies, Home Brewing, Photography on September 21, 2010
Beer is fermenting. Hard Lemonade is fermenting. Mead-Beer-Thing is fermenting.
My basement looks like a science lab.
Home Brew – Bradinator’s Hopasaurus Rex
Posted by bradinator in Beer, Hobbies, Home Brewing on September 19, 2010
I am bored. Lets make beer.
Bradinator’s Hopasaurus Rex
Ingredients -
Sugars/Extracts -
- 3.75 lbs Lager LME
- 1 cup Light DME
- 1 cup Dextrose (added after cold break to raise gravity)
Grain Bill – 30 Minute @ 75-85c in 2 gallons of water, sparged with 2 liters of 75c water
- 1/2 lbs Munich Malt
- 1/2 lbs 2-Row Malt
- 1/2 lbs Special B Malt
Hop Bill -
- 2 oz Columbus @ 60min
- 2 oz Chinook @ 60min
Others -
- SafAle S-05 American Ale Yeast
- 1/2 tbsp Yeast Nutrient @ cold break
Followed same steps I do for all partial mashes, though this time my original gravity was reading a 1.022! I had added 1/2 gallon too much water at the end. To fix this mistake (and hopefully not create a new one) I added an additional cup of dextrose sugar to raise the OG to 1.030. Still lower than I wanted but I did not want to risk it anymore.
I did however have a stroke of home brew genius today: Cooling the wort after flame-out is tough without a wart chiller. It takes lots of ice which can add an additonal $4-$6 to the final brewing cost, or a ton of preparation before hand.
While I was eating a freezie pop it came to me. I have an entire box of freezie pops in the freezer downstairs. And there you have it, for only $2 I have a reusable ice source for the ice baths!
The estimated IBU for this beer is a whopping 110. That is a VERY bitter beer. The Chinook and Columbus have very high alpha ratings and with the price of hops it was hard not to buy 4 oz.
The original gravity was 1.030. The total bill was around $30 for a 5.5 gallon batch.
Hiking – Old Goat Glacier
Posted by bradinator in Hiking, Hobbies, Photography on July 25, 2010
I cannot think of a better way to spend a beautiful summer day than on a mountain. I highly recommend Where the Locals Hike in the Canadian Rockies if you are looking for both rewarding and challenging trials. It should be noted that the couple that wrote this book are avid hikers and when they say “moderate to challenging difficulty” be prepared for a physically demanding hike.
Yesterday we located Old Goat Glacier trial with the help of that book.
The rest of the pictures can be seen in the gallery.










