Shockwaves

I realized today that at long last all of my promises to buy beer, may finally be collected upon. I have been actively developing software and participating in the Director community for more than 15 years and in all that time I have eagerly thanked fellow developers – with the idle expression – “Hey – when i meet you, I owe you a beer!” I have been graciously invited to speak at this years Game Developers Conference (GDC) and now that the appointment approaches – I realize that the beers I owe far outweigh those that I may have earned.

So I’m clearly thinking a lot now about beer. Where in San Francisco will I find cheap beer? How cheap can it be without causing further offense? How much beer can we 40 something developers really drink? And a host of other beer related nonsense.

A friend heard my concerns over beer and offered me a recipe – for beer bread. I don’t really cook, so i have no idea what beer bread is exactly. But i can presume that making beer bread might be both an amusing pastime and a potentially addictive micro-game. So I thought i could at least spread the recipe for beer bread. The tax for sharing said beer-bread batter recipe? A beer of course.

4 cups flour

2 tbsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 HALF can of beer

*Beware the forward slash

Mix ingredients, pour into a greased loaf pan. Bake at 375 for 70 minutes. Remove and cool.

I asked my friend if the bread was any good and he claimed it was ‘yummy.’ Apparently more so if you use a dark beer. In fact, recent studies suggest that beer is quite good for you. Though I’m not sure that substantial quantities of beer are recommended.

When I was in Bangalore, my friend Vivek Pai introduced me to Kingfisher Beer. I was immediately in love with the brew and knew that I would now be forced to find a US distributor for this wonderful fluid. A little web search and voilà – i was able to order a case. But I have no plans to bring it with me to GDC.