The Wayward Celt

After a series of unfortunate events resulting in loss of some configurations and some regressions in features, we have redesigned the www.3DrunkenCelts.com website to provide an easier, more user-friendly approach to the 3DC.

We are very excited about this new iteration of the 3DC website and hope this redesign will inspire increased usage and contribution of content. We are hoping for big things this coming year and have already doubled our group size for the Whiskies of the World 2008 expo! (Which means YOU ALL should come too!) But I am getting ahead of myself here…

Some of the key new items at www.3DrunkenCelts.com are:

Easier Navigation- All posts are categorized based on parent categories of Regions, Events, News, or Miscellany with sub-categories to contain the actual information. This will allow you to quickly find all posts which contain information on what you’re looking for.

RSS Feeds- We have set up RSS feeds for both Posts and comments, you can subscribe and read our content with your favourite RSS reader. SIMPLE!

Post Comments- Unlike the previous site, as a registered user on the new site, you have unfettered access to comment on any article posted to the site. This should help encourage discussion over the information posted and get better information out there and searchable to help us all learn about whiskies!

Post Articles- Yes, if you register on the new site and request to be made an author, you can post articles too! In fact we WANT you to post articles; the only reason you need to be approved as an author is to combat potential spammers. Once set as an author, you can post short articles, long articles, reviews, news, or other bits of information as they relate to the 3DC. Raz and I can not and should not be the only ones driving the content of the site. We KNOW you all have opinions and ideas, so here’s your sounding board to get those out there! To be set as an author use the contact form on the site, or send an email to admin@3drunkencelts.com and include your username so we can easily identify it.
 
Rate Posts- Find a post you LOVE? Rate it at 5 stars… find one you hate, rate it at 1 star. Help us learn what you like to read about. Think the author is full of himself and just likes to read his own words? Rate it and then comment too!

PDA Access- The site has now been configured to support PDA or Mobile access. Just point your mobile browser to www.3DrunkenCelts.com and away you go! I am working on mobile posting access as well for those who wish to be authors, but this feature will be in a future iteration.

And of course, no more splash page!!! This really excites me more than you know, and more than it should.

The YahooGroup here will still be available, however we’d prefer to take some of the more pertinent and content rich discussions off of this list and make them even more publicly visible on the 3DrunkenCelts.com site. This means instead of emails, we will see a single post with multiple comments by registered users. We hope this will help build a larger community on the website and hopefully encourage more content to be posted by users other than just Raz and Seamus.

So there you have it. Come one, come all. We hope to see the site grow into a fabulous resource of opinions and discussion on whiskies of all kinds!

To take a line from Raz…
Yours in Scotch,
Seamus O’Domhnaill of Devil’s Beef Tub
Mka Jason O’Donnell

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I received my bottle of Lucid via UPS on Monday afternoon… After waiting for Jean to get home, we worked our way into the kitchen and began the “ritual” of la louche’.

La Louching gone bad, then remarkably corrected….

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Love him or hate him, you can not deny his profound influence on the worlds of liquor. It is with mourning that I pass on the news of Michael Jackson’s passing as announced on http://www.allaboutbeer.com/

For clarification: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Jackson_(writer)

Mr. Jackson was a world renowned author who had devoted his life to liquors of all sorts, though he is most famous for his work in the Beer and Whiskies circles. His insight, wisdom, and humour will be missed… even if he could be (what Jim Murray referred to as) a “prat”.

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Is being -quoted- in a published article. As of yet, I am uncertain as to what portion of my interview with Camper English was quoted, but I DO know that the article is in the most recent issue of Imbibe Magazine.

Camper interviewed me with regards to my association with the 3 Drunken Celts, and since I am the unofficial “PR Spokesperson” (by default since Raz and Fergus don’t want to be) I was compelled to oblige. Camper asked me a number of questions bout the 3DC and how we do things. Unfortunately (or fortunately) any mention of the 3DC was cut, though that is probably a good thing since we’re not really ready for national exposure like THAT.

It also seems that there is an article on Mead in the same issue, though, which also mentions the SCA. All in all it should be an interesting issue.

I will, of course be picking up a copy tonight to see exactly what WAS left in the article I was interviewed for. So you can sit back and relax and expect another update either reveling in the publicity, or bemoaning the fact that you can’t even tell it was “yours truly” being interviewed. Either way, it should be an interesting read.

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Yes, the title does seem a bit egotistical, but that isn’t the intent. Really, these past 3 weeks I have not had much time to think for myself, let alone about what all is happening in my life…

I apologize, faithful readers, for the lack of communications since we accepted an offer on our house and began making all necessary arrangements for the impending move. I can assure you more frequent updates will be seen once the move is complete. And fear not, the thrilling continuation of the 3DC’s trip to the Whiskies of the World Expo in SF will be forthcoming once things have settled a bit.

For now, some minor life updates will have to suffice:
First, and probably most importantly, our last day in Southern California is set to be May 18th. That is when the movers show up and take all our crap. We actually drive out on the 19th so we can be in Beaverton, Oregon by 10am on the 21st without rushing or in fear of missing our scheduled appointment with the property management group to sign paperwork and pickup our new keys for the rental.

My last day in the Irvine office will be May 16th. Because of this, I am dealing with a bit of short-timer’s disease even though I am not leaving the company, just moving into a home office. This past week, and presumably the coming week as well, I just don’t feel like working. I know this will change once I have settled in the new place, but it is really annoying me currently as there is a metric ton of work to be done and a decided lack of motivation to do it.

In the midst of all this hustle and bustle, I picked up a new ride last Wednesday: a 2007 Honda ST1300A with only 10 miles on the odometer.

This has replaced my 1998 Honda VFR800Fi, as the riding position on that bike was a bit too hard on my wrists. Because I have mild carpal-tunnel/tendonitis in my right wrist, riding the VFR was becoming painful and difficult to handle for more than an hour or so at a time. I realized after my last ride out with John that I would need to do something if I wanted to continue riding AND working. So, as much as it pained me, I traded the VFR in for the ST which has a much more relaxed riding position and takes the weight off my wrists. I can now continue to both work AND ride without fear of further damaging my wrists.

This new purchase will also allow me to ride up to Oregon instead of shipping my bike as I had previously arranged with the VFR. Setting out on a ride like this is something John and I have been talking about for a while now, and is a nice precursor to the Alaska trip we plan to make in the future. In fact, just yesterday I purchased my plane ticket down from PDX so I can come pickup the bike from John’s on June 8th and ride her up to our new home over that weekend!

Other than that, life around the house (and at work) has been keeping me unbelievably busy, with very little time to read LJ, let alone comment. For that I apologize. I am sure my internet habits will return to normalcy after the next few weeks have passed. With this move to Oregon taking us away from all of our friends and family, I will be counting on LJ and Email to keep us in touch and up to date with everyone. Big adventures are ahead of us, so keep an eye out for my posts detailing the journey!

For now, I need to return to work…

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The alarm buzzed at 4:15 am on Friday, April 13th, 2007. I hadn’t much sleep from the night before, but I knew that wouldn’t matter much; I was going to be high on excitement and anticipation the rest of the day. Today was the day I joined my compatriots in whiskies and flew up to San Francisco for the annual Whiskies of the World exposition. We had attended last year, and had decided before that event was even over that we would be returning this year for more!

And return we did. The flight up was uneventful. Raz and I got in to Oakland around 8.30am and found ourselves on the B.A.R.T light rail heading into the city soon after we touched down (Fergus was to meet up with us later once we was able to leave work). We emerged form the subway somewhere around the Montgomery exit, and began to get our bearings in the City. While it was still very early, and we knew we wouldn’t be able to check-in quite yet, we still made our way to our hotel to drop off our luggage.

Another lengthy entry where the 3DC take over San Francisco’s nightlife

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Last week was Estrella War XXIII, an SCA event which takes place in Arizona. As many of you know, the 3 Drunken Celts got their start in the SCA at Great Western War, and have since been expanding our empire both inside and outside of the SCA.

Well, last week was the first tasting in which the 3 original members were not in charge, and in fact only one was able to even attend! Our “East Coast” contingent (see that’s funny cause Arizona is east of California, but no where near the east coast) decided to take the reigns this go around and put on an Irish Whiskey Tasting as an Official 3DC event.

To hear people talk about it, this tasting was on par with the first one we held some 6 years ago, which will always hold a special place in my heart. This entire week I have been amazed at the feedback I have heard about the Irish tasting, and have been all smiles to think something I had a hand in starting has grown so much, to the point where it is beginning to run its self (ie. without intervention by myself, Raz, or Fergus). It is kind of like watching your child grow up, I suspect… I feel like quite a proud pappa right now.

With that said, the following link will take you to the summary of the tasting event along with the text of the presentation given to begin the tasting and introduce the whiskies provided.

http://3drunkencelts.com/Mambo/content/view/44/2/

While the write-up is indeed a bit lengthy, it does contain some wonderful bits of information about Irish Whiskies specifically which should help to educate any burgeoning taster.

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