2013 Review

My favorite events in photos from our activities throughout the past year.

Skiing in Breckenridge

To celebrate the group turning 30 we went skiing in Colorado.

Atop the beginner hill.

First major wipe out at full speed.

Rob, Phil, Anya, Earl and Alisa.

Brew Riot

Our second year pouring beer samples for the Brew Rioters, which is always a great time. Checkout our brews on the Necktie Brewery site.

Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks

Our vacation to California to see the giant redwoods and experience those wonderfully mild summer temperatures.

A baby black bear crossing our path.

The trail took us through the middle of this charred giant sequoia.

The Grizzly Giant doesn't disappoint.

Camping

Camping late in the summer with the family.

Flight testing the trampoline.

Robbers Cave

Rock climbing with the family at Robbers Cave State Park.

Craig making his way to the top.

Caddo Lake

Fishing in Caddo Lake State Park.

Halloween

Christmas

An extra surprise is in store for 2014.

Rip ridin' on a wild tricycle.

Necktie Brewery at Brew Riot

We enjoyed a warm, busy day at Brew Riot on Sunday, May 20 in downtown Oak Cliff. Equipped with three kegs, twenty-five 22 oz. bottles and two cases of 12 oz. bottles, the four of us were determined to give it all away.

Our five entries lasted the day and the swarm of thirsty rioters.

Find more about entries at the Necktie Brewery website.

• Atlantic Maple Brown
• Four-in-Hand Milk Stout
• Clip-on Cali IPA
• Collegiate Common
• Half-Windsor Porter

Launchy and Orzeszek Timer

Timers are a great way to ensure you get in the zone, take breaks and check important things periodically. But who wants to fiddle with a mouse when the need for a timer arises?

That began my search for a desktop timer solution. The timer must be easily activated with keyboard controls, accept simple time inputs in a natural language and get out of the way as fast as possible.

This led me to a Launchy based shortcut for the Orzeszek Timer. Orzeszek Timer is an open-source timer that accepts various time inputs via command line arguments. So, giving it 10m as input would start a timer for 10 minutes just as you would expect.

Setup

1. Download and install Launchy.
2. Save the Orzeszek Timer to a known location.
3. Use Launchy's built-in Runner plugin to create a custom command with the following options:

Name: timer  
Program: C:\Path\To\Orzeszek Timer.exe  
Arguments: $$  

Start a Timer

Activate Launchy, type "timer", hit TAB, and input your desired timer length. When your timer expires you'll be notified.

Forget trying to rely on hope to remember your important meeting, just set a timer when you think of it and get there ahead of time.