John Carrier

This weekend my wife and I watched season 3 of Weeds on DVD while we sorted through our junk in preparation for our move to Los Angeles.  I love Weeds.  One scene that got stuck in my mind was when Shane is riding in a Mexican drug lord’s limosine to his first day at a new school.  A henchman gives him the sage advice, “Sometimes you eat the bear; sometimes the bear eats you.”

This adage was all I could think about as I completed my Mishnah & Tosefta placement exam for rabbinical school in the wee hours of the morning.  When I went online to email my exam to the dean, I googled the saying to find its source.  Turns out, it’s The Big Lebowski.

I finished the exam not knowing who had eaten whom.  I was at once mentally exhausted, humbled by my own ignorance, and proud of deciphering as much as I did, knowing how far it means I’ve come with my Hebrew (regardless of how far I have to go).  It was actually kind of “fun”…in the sense the rabbinical school deans and others told me my admissions interviews would be “fun”.

Which I guess presents me with an awkward segue for the highlights of what has happened since my last post.

My wife gave birth to our daughter.  My wife is awesome.  Our daughter is perfect.

I have run two marathons — Knoxville, 3/29/09, 6:23ish and Minneapolis, 5/31/09, 5:26:30.  The former I ran with virtually no training — and generally under-slept — about 6 weeks after my daughter was born.  I was dead last among the people who finished the race in under the 7 hour mark.  I zig-zagged the last 50 yards because they’d taken all the bunting off the finish line and I couldn’t find it.  I learned my lesson, trained harder, and finished Minneapolis in my second-best time out of my 4 marathons run to date.

I picked a rabbinical school.  This fall I will begin learning at the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, on the gorgeous Los Angeles campus of American Jewish University (formerly known as University of Judaism, or the UJ).

We picked an apartment.  We found a great place in the heart of the Pico-Robertson neighborhood of Los Angeles, just south of Beverly Hills and just east of Century City, less than 8 miles from the Pacific Ocean.

Now we’re getting ready to move to Los Angeles.  I can’t believe it.  The couple of months since my last post have been like the culmination of the total dream-come-true that my last couple of years have been.  My life now revolves around my great wife and three great kids, making beer, running marathons, and serving God.  How awesome is that? 

Sure, there have been ups and downs, but in all, I’m glad I took a shot at the bear.  I think I nailed it.

Thanks for being there.

About a year ago, I read a little book by a big thinker, Seth Godin’s The Dip.  A principal idea of the book was that it pays to be the best in the world at something (however narrowly you define “best”, “world”, and “something”), and in order to do that, you should be prepared to quit other things so that you can focus your time and resources on what you want to be best at.

While “quitting” often carries a negative connotation, in the context of serving a higher goal, it can be the right thing to do.

Lately I’ve had to quit some things that I really enjoy and feel strongly about to serve the higher goal of being the best husband and father, if not in the world, than at least within the reasonable expectations of my family.  I was balancing several important and rewarding (to me) responsibilities before the baby came along.  Now that we have a new, beautiful, healthy, and incredibly demanding member of the family, and now that we need to start preparing for an interstate move (stay tuned!), I’ve had to quit most of them.

I quit volunteering at the Ronald McDonald House.  It was an awesome experience, one I hope to return to one day, and I’d highly recommend it to anyone looking for a regular volunteering gig.  I completed my initial six-month commitment, the end of which I knew would coincide with the birth of our daughter.

I quit training and fundraising for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Team In Training Century Ride in Lake Tahoe this summer.  The event comes when we’ll likely be in the middle of a move, and as I don’t own a bike, I can’t afford the time or the expense of starting a whole new sport now.  It’s a great cause that I’d love to get involved with again someday soon.

I haven’t quit my Beer Judge Certification Program class, but I’ve had to skip several sessions, either to keep up with my job or help out with the baby.  The instructor has been gracious and generous enough to let me stay in the class and sit for the exam in April, so with a lot of studying (and sampling!) I may become a certified beer judge yet, despite my lackluster attendance.

All this is to say, if you feel like you’re spreading yourself too thin to give your best in all the things that are important to you, don’t be afraid to prioritize your commitments and quit a few that aren’t at the tippy-top of your list.  Quitting isn’t always a bad thing…take smoking, for example.  Don’t be afraid of appearing inconsistent or inconsiderate; just keep your higher goals in mind.  Remember: Quitting one thing may be necessary to be the best in the world at something else.

What’s something you loved that you quit to focus on something else?

This morning on the Today Show I saw a very informative segment on how to barter.  I can’t quite put my finger on it, but something about highly paid people in expensive suits under studio lights giving me tips on how to participate in a prehistoric economy gives me a whiff of the Next Great Depression, 21st-century-style.

Next: Rachel Ray cooks up some hobo chili, Martha Stewart makes origami figures to stuff in her poncho for insulation, and Jim Cramer goes long on toothpick-enhanced cigar stubs.

 Today’s Iron Chef ingredient: a dented can of expired beans.

Just over a year ago I decided I wanted to become a rabbi, and I began the process of applying to rabbinical schools.  A couple of months ago I announced that I was accepted by the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at American Jewish University in Los Angeles to begin studying to become a rabbi this autumn.  Today I’m happy to announce that I have been accepted to the Rabbinical School of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York as well.

On one hand I couldn’t be happier about this.  I’ve been accepted by two of the finest schools in the world for Torah study.  Being accepted to one changed my life; being accepted to both is a dream come true.

On the other hand I now have to make one of the most difficult decisions I have ever faced.  I love New York.  I love Los Angeles.  Ziegler is breaking new ground in the training of future leaders of the Jewish community.  JTS, over the las 120 years, has trained the finest rabbis in the Conservative Movement, including most of the rabbis at Ziegler.  I have a lot of friends in New York.  I can run outside year-round in Los Angeles.

I have about a month to decide where I want to go to school — and relocate my family — this fall.  During that time I’ll be consulting a lot of rabbis, doing some serious thinking and serious talking with my wife, friends, and family, and more than a little praying.  I welcome any comments, questions or suggestions any of you have.

But for the moment I’m going to enjoy the fact that through a lot of hard work over the last year and with the help of many, many kind and generous people, I have made a dream come true.

I just joined Team In Training (TNT) to raise funds and awareness for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.  While my preferred endurance event is the marathon, this time I chose to participate in America’s Most Beautiful Bike Ride, a one-day, 100-mile bicycle ride on the shores of Lake Tahoe in Nevada.  The event takes place on June 7, 2009, and I’ve committed to raise $4,200 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society for the honor of participating and helping this great cause.

Please consider making a donation today to help me fight blood cancers like leukemia and lymphoma.  Your donation is 100% tax deductible, and 73 cents of every dollar goes straight to cancer-fighting research and direct assistance and support for families struggling with these diseases, while the rest helps us promote endurance events around the world to raise awareness of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and the important work they do.

Thanks for reading, and thanks for your support.

 By the way, does anyone know where I can get a decent pre-owned bicycle?

I have not written much, if anything, on this blog about the child that my wife and I are expecting. Maybe it’s because this is too much of a cat blog already, and maybe it’s out of fear of compromising the little darling’s privacy online before she’s even born. In any case I am incredibly excited and happy about it, so I thought I should finally share.

She’s definitely a Carrier: She’s big, she’s healthy, she has a good head of hair, and she’s late.  The ultrasound technician estimated that she weighs 9 lbs., give or take a pound.  My two sons, now 11 and 13, were 9-10 lbs. each and both born with a full head of hair.  The oldest came about 2 weeks after his due date.  Their father is late for absolutely everything.  And this new baby is definitely a girl; the technician was as certain as one can be from an unltrasound image.

We don’t know when she’s coming.  My money (or at least $3 of it) is on Wednesday.  I hesitate to post the final date and stats on this blog, as date and place of birth are the kind of information now used to verify people’s identity when logging on to one’s bank account.

What do you think of the privacy issues presented by sharing an event like this?  The last thing I want is for someone to a) rob my house while she’s being born or b) stealing the baby’s identity 20 years from now based on our birth announcement being dug out of the Google cache.  Comments?

I’ve let my perfectionism in crafting memorable, remarkable prose get in the way of posting anything for a while. So much is going on in my life right now, it’s hard to sit down and focus on any one thing long enough to write a single-subject post. So here’s a summary.

• With God’s help, my wife and I are having a baby sometime in the next couple of weeks.
• We celebrated my oldest son’s becoming bar mitzvah last Shabbat. He did an outstanding job reading his Torah and Haftarah and leading the service.
• My application to rabbinical schools proceeds apace. I’ve been accepted to one school, and I have an interview at another in the next month or two.
• I’ve been slacking in the exercise and fitness department, but I have big plans for 2009, including several marathons. Stay tuned.
• I’ve been taking a class to prepare for the Beer Judge Certification Program examination. I’m hoping this will give me a broader understanding of the beer world and improve my own brewing.

With luck and perseverance, I’ll expand on the above topics soon. All have had wonderful and abundant effects on my life, many that I’m still unpacking and processing. In short 2008 was one of the best years of my life, and I bet 2009 will be even better. I hope to share it all with you.

Also, I have a new tool for sharing joy and ideas. My wife’s coworkers threw her a baby shower, and among the gifts was a digital camcorder. Jackpot!

Have a great year! I know I will.

For friends familiar with my many hobbies — and the short life expectancy of those hobbies — my year-long venture into amateur brewing must appear as a paradigm shift of stick-to-it-iveness.  I’ll have to check the spreadsheet, but I believe I just brewed my 13th batch of beer yesterday, a simple porter destined for great things. 

I gave an update a couple of days ago on all my current beers in various states of fermentation.  I plan to continue writing about beer and the process of brewing, but instead of make those with thirst for cereals wait to read the serials (sorry), I’m adding a couple of features to this blog to help keep you up-to-date at all times.

First, I’ve added the page “John’s Beer” for you to bookmark and check back whenever you what to know what I’m drinking, brewing, or planning to brew.  Check out John’s Beer here.

Second, I’ve given my beer (my delicious, sentient beer) its own Twitter feed to give regular reports on its bubbles, its troubles, and its make-it-a-doubles.  Follow John’s Beer’s Twitter feed here.

Thanks again for reading, and keep those empty bottles coming.

I’ve been sitting on this for more than a week, but I have leaked the news slowly to family and friends — which probably includes all eight subscribers to this blog — and I feel the time has come to put in into the ether. Perhaps then it will seem more real.

I have been accepted to the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at American Jewish University in Los Angeles, California, USA.

I flew into Los Angeles right before my marathon in Vegas, had some great conversations with the rabbis on their faculty — great lights in the Conservative Movement and in Am Yisrael as a whole — and also with a really inspiring rabbinical student. Now I’ve been accepted into their program, and I could not be more grateful for or humbled by the application process or its outcome.

I’m still in the process of applying to the Rabbinical School of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City. It will take a couple of months to know the outcome of that process and make a final decision about where I’ll be studying to become a rabbi.

The punchline (tachlis?) is that, God willing, as of next fall I will be a full-time student again, starting the path toward a life in the service of God and His people. Even though it’s still only a beginning, few moments in my life have made me happier than the phone call notifying me of my acceptance to Ziegler.  Many thanks to the many, many great people who helped make this happen.

Some people have asked what I’m brewing now. Over autumn I added additional fermenters (5-gallon buckets and carboys) to my productive capacity, which has allowed me to accelerate both production and experimentation with new recipes.

I also have a lot to celebrate soon — the holidays, my older son’s bar mitzvah, my younger son’s birthday, and a new child’s birth, God willing.

Long story short, I’ve been brewing a lot of beer lately, and it’s been hard for my friends (and me) to keep track of what will be on tap when.

Bottled and drinkable:

• Pumpkin ale
• Holiday ale
• Orange-spice hefeweizen

Conditioning in the bottle:

• Lemon-spice hefeweizen, drinkable New Year’s Eve

In the secondary fermenter:

• Ferocious — a Surly Furious clone that Midwest Supplies formulated with the help of the furious folks at Surly Brewing, drinkable early January
• Imperial stout — a thick, hoppy, high-alcohol substance to be bottled late January and best served after 1 month to 1 year in the bottle
• Mead — a kind of wine made from fermented honey, possibly the earliest known alcoholic beverage, favored by Beowulf and his chums, ready by Rosh Hashanah (next fall)

In the primary fermenter:

• Roggenbier (pronounced like bloggin’ beer, not like Seth Rogen beer) — “rye beer”, actually mostly a wheat beer with the addition of rye malt that supposedly gives it a crisp, tart finish, good on a hot day, but this batch will be drinkable mid-January

On deck:

• Another plain-Jane or possibly fruit-enhanced hefeweizen
•  Vanilla bourbon porter

…both hopefully ready for the bar mitzvah and birthdays in late January and early February.

If you’ve noticed a heavy emphasis on wheat beers, there are two reasons. First, wheat beers are easy to make and don’t take too long (4-6 weeks) from the brew pot to the glass. Second, my wheat beers to date have been wildly popular, appreciated by beer snobs and wine-preferrers alike, I think because of the dearth or absence of aromatic hops in the recipes. I like ferociously hoppy beers myself, and the imperial stout and Surly clone will fit the bill, but everyone likes a good hefeweizen, even people who usually hate the taste of beer (like my wife).

After all the high-volume celebrations are over, I plan to spend a few batches in a hoppier place — double IPA, anyone? — and experiment with more of my own recipes, including finding a good style to support the addition of garam masala to the brewpot and my first chili pepper beer.

A final note: I’m always looking for empty beer bottles. I’ll be bottling 8-12 cases of beer over the next six weeks, and even with the holidays coming, I can’t drink that much myself. If you can set aside for me any pop-top (not twist-off) beer bottles you “generate” I will be much obliged.