Left Coast Cowboys

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted a technical winemaking post. So here goes.

Andy has perfected the ultimate homemade topping up system for wine for less than $200 for the whole system, which in the winemaking world is a huge bargain.

A bit of background: when your wine is in barrels and resting, you want to make sure as little air as possible can get to it to oxidize it. But you still want to siphon out some for periodic tasting. Which means that you are lowering the volume, therefore introducing more air. What to do? Obviously, you need a methodology for “topping up” your barrels easily and quickly.

Here’s the homemade system Andy devised:

Andy has a selection of every one of our varietals in a separate tank under very low pressure, topped off with nitrogen, similar to Coca Cola in a soda fountain.

So when Andy pulls out some wine from a particular barrel (as he does here with the appropriately named “wine thief”), he can top up the barrel to prevent the air from oxidizing the wine.

Removing some Grenache to mix with the Mourvedre to see how they might meld as a Rhone-style blend.

Now the barrels can be topped up with fresh wine from the pressurized cannisters, thus avoiding the dreaded air contact.

Topping up the barrels.

Dr. FrankenWine mixes Grenache and Mourvedere. Results: very encouraging!

Verdict on the Mourvedre, Grenache and Cabernet: Much better than expected. High hopes for this very first vintage.

I’m still sort of in shock at the fact that I attended my first organized Marathon event, the Las Vegas Marathon. Okay, I did the Half. And I walked. Slowly (3.5 hours). But I finished. And I even got a medal.

While I’m glowing over the accomplishment, I’m trying to get myself kick-started into a regular fitness program again (sadly abandoned over six weeks ago, thanks to a “grape picking related injury”.) So now I’m in Motivation Mode. And for me, it’s all about the technology.

My hot list of Technology Motivators:

1) iPod Nano and Nike+ Kit

This is a little chip that fits in specially designed Nike running shoes and communicates with your iPod to record your distance, time, speed and all the other details of your run. Then you can sync it to the Nike site which will keep a log of your runs, let you set yourself challenges and do other fun stuff. Best part is, if you run faster or further than the chip has ever recorded, one of the Nike athletes comes on and congratulates you. Loved having Lance Armstrong tell me, “Keep up the good work.” Did I mention that this package is pure marketing genius on the part of Nike and Apple? The chip kit is $29.00. But you need an iPod Nano and special Nike shoes to make it all work. So my existing iPod and shoes had to be replaced. Many expensive purchases later, I’m kitted out. I hear there is now a wrist band that works with the whole apparatus which may negate the need for new shoes. But where’s the fun in that?

2) Polar Heart Rate Monitor

I have the F11 model which, I think, has been recalled. At least my local REI has stopped carrying it because there were so many returns. Never mind. It took me so long to set it up and get it working, I can’t be bothered to get a new one. Now, it’s not as if I ever train hard enough that my heart rate is going to get in any sort of danger zone. But it’s still fun to have. And lately, now that the battery is wearing down, it occasionally veers from 280 BPM to 0, which means, I guess, that I’m clinically dead at either end of the spectrum. I’m sure there are better monitors out there. If you know of one, let me know.

3) JustFinish.com Website

This is one of those Ning community blogs. If you’ve ever done NaBloPoMo, you know what I’m talking about. This one is geared to be a support group, bragging board and resource for runners, walkers, cyclists and other athletes, especially those involved with organized events. I didn’t find them, they found me after I posted my wrap up of the Las Vegas Marathon. Browsing through the profiles, it looks like I’m the least serious athlete here. As in “not even really an athlete”. Maybe I could be team mascot. Anyway, it’s inspiring. Except that most people are trying to break that elusive 3 hour Marathon time. Not figure out a way to stroll across the finish line of a Half Marathon. But my father always said, “Associate with your betters and they’ll lift you up.”

4) Runners World Magazine

Not really technology, although they do have a great website with lots of stuff like BMI calculators. I picked this up yesterday for a laugh, since I haven’t been a runner since college and can’t imagine I’ll become one anytime soon. I was surprised at how many great articles they had for Newbies. And their comprehensive 2009 Running Event Calendar is a great resource. I’m already mapping out events I might sign up for. My criteria: walker-friendly, great views from the course and lots of prizes and parties at the end. Oh, and a start line right outside the event sponsor hotel. If I have to get up for six AM starts, I better be able to roll out of bed and out to the elevator pretty quickly.

Well, that’s my motivating list. As you can see, I operate largely on guilt. Spend enough on the gadgets and I’ll feel that I HAVE to get out of bed and at least go around the block. I’ll keep you posted on whether any of this is getting me any closer to a goal of restarting a regular fitness plan. Until then, my credit card, at least, is getting workout.

Especially in the early stages, blogging can be like crack. You know you should get out and get a life, but there is always that one new plug-in to install and test that will FINALLY make you the new Dooce. For me, the blogging drugs of choice are stat counters and traffic analyzers. Last month, I thought I’d died and gone to Digital Heaven when I installed TraceMyIP. Remember this was the electronic version of the old Romper Room Magic Mirror that let me see (with the help of Google Maps, avatars and live tracking) an almost stalker-level of information about my blog visitors.

But TraceMyIP has just been trumped — at least in the flash department. A few days ago, I received two emails from Woopra saying I’d been approved to beta test their web tracking and analysis program. Don’t know where they got my name from. I’d never heard of them before. But from Googling around, apparently invitations to beta test Woopra are about as sought after and hard to come by as backstage passes to a Rolling Stones concert. Sign me up.

After installing Woopra and running it for a few days, I’m still waiting to get my jaw off the keyboard. This program is AMAZING. It brings flash and dazzle to the normally pedestrian world of stat counters and analysis. Instead of boring bar charts, there’s a snazzy colorful interface with icons and flags to identify visitors countries and lots of bling. There’s even a live scrolling ticker that gives you updates of visits, time on site and compares them to your average traffic levels. For that I’ll forgive them for naming this thing as if it were a joint development of Oprah and Woopie Goldberg.

This is not your mother's statistics program!

But the real difference is the Live Tracking feature that lets you look over your viewers’ shoulders right as they are browsing. Even better, you can send them a real-time chat request. Can you imagine the implications? Can you see how that will FREAK OUT your readers? It’s as if someone was reading Hustler in the privacy of his bathroom and you could send the centerfold to knock on the door. (Although I’m not sure my chat request would be as welcome as my analogy.)

Besides the Internet stalking fun, the depth of information and the ease of viewing it in Woopra are just amazing. At a glance, you can see where your visitor is surfing from, what browser and computer he’s on, what keywords he typed, how many clicks he made,  and how long he stayed. Even better, if he or she leaves a comment (and you have spam protection on that requires a sign in) that viewer is tagged by name and email. And Woopra remembers them by ID every time they come back. So instead of facing a long list of IP addresses, your viewer list for the day lists “Herbie and Hieronymous and Heloise”. And I didn’t even have to say “Romper, Stomper, Bomper, Boo” to active the Magic Mirror.

Only one small issue. There doesn’t seem to be any logical, easy path to excluding my own IP from this mix. So as I clicked through my own site gathering links and double checking that my posts were displaying correctly on all browsers, my own computer was driving traffic up into the stratosphere. Then I left a Safari window open for an hour with my latest post on it and skewed my stats all to hell.

That sent me back to my solid, homely, reliable boyfriend, TraceMyIP. Yes, my relationship with Woopra is like a yearning for the bad boy when you are already dating the President of the Math Club. Woopra is flashy and dangerous, but it never quite tells me the truth and I can’t really trust it. TraceMyIP wears plaid shirts and has a pocket protector, but I can always count on him.

Until Woopra decides to straighten up and fly right, I’ll just have to sneak out to see him on the side. Knowing that good old TraceMyIP will always be there.

Sometimes I wonder why everyone seems to know more camera stuff than I do. Maybe that’s why I’m on my second photography class at San Francisco Community College. This one is Outdoor Lighting Techniques. And just like the Beginning Photography course I took earlier, everyone, but me seems to know this stuff already.

However, there may be a few of you lurking out there who don’t know about Polarizing filters (this week’s lesson), so, for you, I’ll pass on what I’ve learned.

You’ll remember that Tuesday, we had a field trip to Pacifica’s Mori Point to seek out glare and neutralize it with a Polarizing filter. You’ll also remember that the fog came in thick and fast in that Northern California way. No sun. No glare. No dice with a Polarizing filter. So this week has been spent praying for sun and trying to fulfill the assignment.

Here’s the scoop on a Polarizing filter or at least what I’ve learned:

1. First of all, this is one of the most valuable, versatile filters you can have. It allows you to mitigate bright, glarey light. In that kind of light, it brings out details and contrasts that you wouldn’t normally see. And, if you get more advanced and try to create that “fuzzy waterfall” look by shooting in low light, the filter will let you simulate an even lower light to keep the shutter speed slower. (But that’s getting way ahead of ourselves.)

2. It’s relatively cheap as camera accessories go. I got one for $40. But it gives you a lot of flexibility.

3. The Polarizing filter is one of the easiest filters to use. Instead of having to take it on and off, you just twist it to select or deselect the effect. 

Here is the photo evidence.

Here is the back of our barn looking up toward the olive orchard. Note how blown out the sky is. Lots of glare and bright sunshine.

Now, I’ve twisted the Polarizing filter to activate Polarization.

Look at the clouds! Those wispy ones to the right were barely visible without Polarization. And now the sky is a more intense blue.

So here’s how it works with water. This is a shot of the pond in full sunlight.

As you can see, the reflected light from the water is bleaching out the color of the reeds.

Now look at it with Polarization:

The colors are more intense, both in the water image and in the color of the reeds.

In the right light, the Polarizer can change the whole nature of the photo. Here is the barn shot up against the bright sky. 

The glare of the light is sort of blackening out the windows. Bonus question: What's wrong with this picture?

 Now look what Polarization does to the glare in the windows.

Suddenly this is almost like Magritte's Barn.

The interesting thing I learned from this exercise: you don’t necessarily have to be standing out in bright sunlight for your Polarizer to help you. Look at this photo taken under the eaves near the stalls in the barn.

Although you wouldn't think there was a lot of glare here, apparently that metal strip toward the front of the eave is bouncing light back. As is the reflection of the white gravel.

Now check out the subtle, but important difference the Polarizer makes.

You can see how all the glare on the metal strip is gone and look how much deeper and richer the colors in the wood are.

I should offer full disclosure on Polarization. It’s not always as easy as twisting the Polarizer to “on” position or “off” position. Light and glare are tricky little suckers. They bounce around from all angles. In my experience, you just have to play with it. Maybe move yourself around at different angles to the light. Then practice with Polarizer off and on to see what works best.

Oh, and note to self: Make sure, as your stubby fingers are fiddling with the Polarizer, they aren’t still in the way when you snap the shutter. (See the non polarized photo of the barn above!)

And don’t take my word on all this. I’m just an an amateur. Here and here are some great articles on using a Polarizing filter.

Remember the old Romper Room when Miss Vickie (or whoever your RR lady was at your local affiliate) used to hold up the Magic Mirror and intone: “Romper, Stomper, Bomper, Boo.” Then she proceeded to say that she could see all of us ankle-biters in “TV Land” and would call our names: “I see Jimmy and Mary and little Ryan. . .” Even if I didn’t get a shout-out, it always creeped me out. SHE COULD SEE ME THROUGH MY TV! Romper Room usually ended at my house with me hiding behind the couch.

I lead you through Memory Lane for a purpose. Suddenly I have THAT power. Yes, the Romper Room Magic Mirror has been passed to me!

Because it’s the 21st Century, it comes in the form of a bit of code for my blog called TracemyIP.org and I got it here.

I don’t usually enthuse over plugins, widgets and code. More likely, I’m cursing at them or weeping tears onto my keyboard over them. But this thing is AMAZING.

It gives me a report of every single person who lands on my blog. No, not just a visitor count, but as accurate a profile as I would get if my blog were a high-security airport and my visitors had to go through a full body cavity search to get in.

A lot of counters can tell you who your visitors are by IP address, server and location, as well as by where they came from on the web, what circuitous route they used to get to your blog and how long they hung around. Yeah, TracemyIP.org can do that. But then it goes one Secret Squirrel Super Spy trick better.

I can actually click on a visitor and zoom in, through Google Maps, to see exactly WHERE they are by block and street. Well, I’m actually not so sure how completely accurate this is as one of my San Francisco visitors was shown to be in the middle of four lanes of Geary Boulevard while still on-line. May I put on the record that I want readership, but not badly enough to risk a pile up on San Francisco’s busiest street during morning rush hour.

But wait. Don’t order yet. There’s more. And to someone like me who is still struggling to figure out what an IP is, this is the best feature.

TracemyIP.org shows me little pictures of each of my visitors. Yes, little Jimmy, Mary and Ryan out in TV Land, I can see you through my Magic Mirror.

In the interest of full disclosure, I have to say that these pictures are little avatars, but they are interestingly distinct.

This is one of my San Francisco visitors surfing my blog in the middle of Geary Boulevard. Kinda nerdy and techie looking.

And, hey, my visitor from Arkansas even has a mullet.

 My Florida visitor sports a killer tan and bleached blond hair.

This woman from the Ukraine seems to be a real fan. She’s logged on to my blog four times in the last day. She looks sort of like that annoying woman in the Progressive Insurance ads.

Michigan kind of threw me. I’ve got a good friend there, but he’s a former Navy SeAL. This doesn’t look like him. But he could be logging on from a friend’s computer in an attempt to confound my new super powers.

Likewise I have a typical blonde Swedish-looking friend in Minnesota and this isn’t her. Unless she’s decided to get a make-over with dreadlocks.

 This visitor is just plain scary looking. But at least I can see where he lives — down to street level — on Google maps. Thank goodness he’d have to drive hundreds of miles to get to me.

So how accurate are these avatars?

Here’s what TracemyIP.org says in their FAQs:

Q: I am curious, how are those visitor avatar images assigned to each visitor. Do you know my visitors’ gender and age?

A: Since everyone deserves privacy, we do not go as far as determining the gender and age of your visitors, however, their behavior and demographics are analyzed by our proprietary algorithms (while adding some random factors as well) to approximate the mood and the gender of each visitor. Thus, the incognito avatars are assigned to each IP address. On the other hand, no guarantees are made at any point as for the accuracy of the representation. The visitor identification algorithms are primarily established to help you to differentiate each visitor to simplify the navigation within your logs.

I’m reading that to mean, they’re peeking through the InterWebs and WE CAN SEE YOU! WE CAN SEE WHAT YOU ARE WEARING! MMMMMWWWWAAAAAHAAAAHAAAHAAA.

Just being able to see you in your jammies as you surf my site is only the beginning of my fun with this doo-dad. I’m starting to get a picture of why people come to my blog. And it’s not what I was thinking. You all are fascinated by our Green Acres adventure from City Slickerdom to established vineyard owners, right? Well, not exactly.

A shocking number of you are looking for Christmas Songs. Okay, I did once write an entry called The Greatest Christmas Songs You’ve Never Heard. Many of you are also searching for Country and Cowboy Songs and I wrote a blog for you about The Top Ten Cowboy Songs of All Time. Now that I know what my audience wants, expect a post on the Top Ten Cowboy Christmas Songs. Watch this space.

Not sure I can fulfill all requests. Three people landed on this blog after a google search for “where did cowboys get food and water”. Well, I can tell you where they got wine.

And all those visitors still landing here after googling “Ryan Lochte naked”: yes, I wrote about the Olympics during my Beijing trip in August, but I NEVER posted nude pictures. (Well, Michael Phelps’ Speedos were a 

little “low” when he leaped out of the pool after the qualifying heat we watched.)

And the rest of you, come back and set a spell. But before you surf, you might want to change out of that raggedy underwear.

I CAN TOTALLY SEE YOU! Romper, Stomper, Bomper, BOO!

I’m getting myself geared up for NaBloPoMo or National Blog Posting Month, where you commit to posting once a day, every day for a month. And no cheating and writing 5 advanced posts on Sunday!

This is my flight check week.