Category Archives: administrative

Well, well, welly welly well. Six months since my last post. (Or if you want to be technical about it, six months less a day. Which sort of sounds like a prison sentence, doesn’t it?)

Yes, once again, this poor li’l blog has been pushed down my list of priorities, constantly overshadowed by one thing or another. Canadian Beer News has become the main focus of my online activities, growing in comprehensiveness of coverage – as well as readership – since I redesigned and relaunched it late last year. I’ve also started a spin-off Tumblr blog called Canadian Beer Notes as a place to post quick reviews of Canadian beers, and have been having a great time presenting and hosting the Canadian Beer News Dinner Series (the next CBN Dinner on June 18th – a beer vs wine dinner with Amsterdam Brewery and Flat Rock Cellars at Beast Restaurant – is almost sold out, so book soon if you wanna be there!). And I’m still doing a bit of writing for TAPS Magazine, as well as other occasional bits of scribbling here and there.

That said, I’ve got the usual growing pile of blog post ideas percolating, I just need to find – or make – the time to knuckle down and get on with the writing. History has shown that I’ll never be as prolific as some of my more disciplined compatriots (Hi, Alan! How’s it going, Mike?), but is one post a week too much to ask for?

Probably, yeah. But I’ll see what I can do.

Back when I launched this blog, my original intention was for it to be primarily a place to write about beer and food, but to also feature occasional posts about music as a sort of extension of the previous years I’d spent as a music writer and DJ. But in the almost half-decade that has passed since, I’ve written a grand total of five posts that are related to music in any way, which rendered the blog name I’d chosen to use – Beer, Beats & Bites – at least 33.3% inaccurate.

At the same time, the last couple of years has seen an increase in my interest in exploring and writing about spirits – especially whisky – and I felt like the name of the blog should be changed to reflect this.

With that, I’m happy to announce that after a couple of months of waiting for the appropriate URL to come out of post-expiration limbo, Beer, Beats & Bites is now known as Beer, Booze & Bites, with a new address – beerboozebites.com – to go with the new name. (Although the old address will still work as well, at least for the time being.)

Along with the new name comes a new banner, and a hope on my part that changes that have been happening with my other projects – most notably Taste T.O. – will leave me with some free time to get new content up here on a more regular basis. Based on my past record, I know enough not to promise anything, but I reckon that given the increasing number of Canadian beer blogs out there, I really need to step things up a bit to stay relevant.

In the meantime, while everything seems to have gone smoothly with the switch over, there’s always the chance of bugs lurking around the edges, so please let me know if you notice anything funky going on with the site. Otherwise, thanks as always for reading, and I hope you’ll continue to do so.

You might notice that things are looking a little different around here – the reason being that I’ve moved the ol’ blog from WordPress.com to a self-hosted WordPress install. This will allow me to do more with it – some things that will be noticeable to readers, others more back-end in nature – and will eventually allow for more integration with my other sites, like Canadian Beer News.

(This is the second time I’ve moved the damn thing – the first was a move from Blogger to WordPress back in 2007 – and hopefully, it’ll be the last.)

It still needs some tweaking – I haven’t decided if I’m completely happy with the theme, for example – but all of the old content is here, and everything seems to be working the way it should. If you happen to notice anything weird, please let me know.

So, my big plans to fire things up over the holidays and start getting more frequent content up on this ol’ blog got kind of scuttled, mostly due to a Head Cold From Hell that’s still lingering after more than a week.

Once it clears, I’ve got an interesting assortment of liquids here that I’ll be consuming and critiquing. And I’ll also dig through my notes from some older tastings and events to see if they’re post-worthy, even despite the lack of timeliness.

For now, however, my snot-filled nose and I are off to bed.

Only one more day in the month of November, which means one more day of Movember, which means I’ll be able to shave this goddamn beer-foam-catching thing off my face in 24 hours or so.

In the meantime – I need to make one final plea for donations. ‘Cause I didn’t grow this ‘stache just for the fun of it. And all those cancerous prostates ain’t gonna heal themselves!

If you’d like to make a donation, please click here to support me and my mustachioed team, and help to raise awareness and money for the fight against prostate cancer. If enough of you come through for me, I promise that I’ll try and actually write a couple of proper blog posts later this week!

If you’ve noticed a number of your usually clean-shaven male friends and acquaintances growing moustaches in the last couple of weeks, it’s probably not a coincidence. While some of them might just be getting ready to keep their upper lips warm this winter, most are probably participating in Movember, an annual event where men worldwide help raise awareness and funds for prostate cancer by growing a moustache.

Yes, really.

Personally, I’ve never been a big fan of facial hair. When I was young(er) and stupid(er), I did have something on my chin for a few months that I called “a goatee” and my girlfriend (now wife) called “that fucking thing on your chin”. But until a couple of weeks ago, when one of my co-workers convinced me to join in on the Movember fun, I’d never considered growing a ‘stache.

Now that I’ve done so, I understand why, as it’s started bugging the hell out of me and looks kinda ridiculous. Although that latter problem is mostly due to the fact that I’ve foolishly opted for the full-on trucker/porn star/Hulk Hogan style. But what the hell, it’s only for a month, and it’s for a good cause.

Speaking of which – the main point of me growing this monstrosity is to raise some bucks for prostate cancer research, so I’d be much obliged if you click here and donate. If enough of you do so, I might be convinced to post a photo of myself at the end of the month when the mo’ should be getting nice and shaggy.