johnlittle.com

I’ve been looking through a bunch of photos today, and I couldn’t resist…. I know alot of my old workmates are gonna find this hilarious. This is about 18 months worth, with only an occasional trim to clean it up and let the sides catch up with the back. This was taken in June, just a few weeks before I finally had a bunch of it cut off.

And then there’s these other pics… one from approx. 1997 with horn-rimmed glasses showing how dorky I was, one from 2003 that I was always happy with but will have to just settle for remembering as the good old days because I’m too fat to pull it off again now, one from 2008 showing my failed attempt to grow a beard, and then another one from this June before I got it cut again showing how I was having to pull it back behind my ears all the time, especially in this 100 degree heat.

Now what I’m looking for is something in between the dorky book nerd lawyer look and the long-haired southern hippie brewer look. I’d like a style that’ll allow me to show up in court if I get back to doing any legal work on the one hand, and on the other hand a style that makes a different kind of statement… I just haven’t quite been able to articulate what the statement is yet.

I’ve had a few friends ask me these past couple of months about what’s happening with me (I was always such a loudmouth I’ve even surprised myself by how quiet I’ve been lately), so I’ve been thinking about writing an update.

Nowadays I just can’t stand to be behind the computer much. And so many years of legal writing makes me sound so punctuated that I sometimes cringe when I read myself, even when its just informal message board stuff… So, I’m trying to change that… do different stuff.. like with the use of these ellipses… or mybe i shld typ evrythng like i wUd in chat). I don’t know. I guess the trick will be learning to write more readably and with less clauses.

My old about me page was last updated in June of 2008, and alot has happened since then, so I’ve known I need to come up with a new one… this is part of that effort.

Last December or so, I wrote about some health issues I’d experienced and how that had led to take a break from practicing law. The last time I read that account, I decided I’d shared Too Much Information. It was something I felt I needed to do at the time, and I guess I got it off my chest. My sincere thanks to friends and former clients who left some very nice comments for me. I’m getting better, and I very recently had several “all clear” test results for blood clotting and pulmonary issues. Short story: While I remain a licensed attorney, I’m not practicing law right now. It’s no fun to have health issues coupled with the misery of being shackled to a desk manufacturing a product called billable hours. So, I’m taking a break. Maybe I’ll muster the gumption (how’s that for more creative writing) to get back to practicing law one day, but it’ll be in a much different form. I used to be the General Counsel of a healthcare company that served special needs children and adolescents. I like to think that with my healthcare background, I’d be well suited to represent the disabled or people with special needs in litigation. … on substantive issues, that is… I was never a courtroom attorney and don’t know much about civil procedure. I’d need a good mentor on the procedural aspects of litigation. Anyway, that’s just an example of a short list of ways I can still imagine being inspired to practice law. We’ll see.

In the meanwhile, I’ve been working on doing something in the field of brewing. It has been something to keep me busy. Having been my hobby for the last 5 years, that’s really the only other thing I was any good at. I sure can’t cook. Besides homebrewing, pretty much all I’ve ever done is read and write. I can’t even wire a ceiling fan without being dumbfounded. But by golly I’m excited to be figuring out how to wire pumps, temperature gauges, float switches, and electronic ignition gas valves to a brewing system. I’m definitely needing someone to make sure everything is exactly right, but I’m enjoying the challenge of figuring out as much as I can.

It has been a little over a year now, and Priscilla and I have stumbled through a few different possibilities on which direction to take. Eventually, we settled on a nanobrewery, which is a type of brewery alot of homebrewers are starting as a sort of proof-of-concept and is the type of brewery that is possible to start without going into debt. The idea is one we feel good about getting behind, and we’re really happy with the direction its going…

Inspired by Southern culture, European farmhouse brewing and a few of my favorite brewing books, Brew Like a Monk, Farmhouse Ales and Wild Brews, what we’re working on starting is Southern Farmhouse Ales, a small batch brewery for specialized craft brews. No debt, no investors (and I hope I can keep it that way ), just me and Priscilla, and I’m designing and building most everything from scratch… which is a challenge but is a ton of fun! I’m working on a brewing system I call The Bluto 555. I’m loving what I think it’ll be able to do. Facility, fermentation tanks and other equipment are issues that I’m working on too… and man, everything adds up fast. I wish I could move faster on getting the whole thing up and running, but the brewery probably won’t be functional until 2011. And of course my family is my priority, so I’m prepared to extend the plan further if needed.

I remember when I learned to brew, I went to sleep every night thinking about the brewing process, the ingredients, the yeast, the equipment… Ya, I’m doing the same thing now just about every night, only thinking about a bigger better system and increased (hopefully!!) attention to some of the important technical and scientific aspects of brewing. Very exciting!

Many thanks to Chip Culpepper, who works at Mangan Holcomb and has spent countless hours preserving the history of the Alabama’s 37th regiment, which you can view at http://www.alabama37th.com. His great grandfather’s picture (left) is the most interesting I’ve seen on the alabama37th website so far. The look on his face says so much.

Chip sent me this email today, which includes some great additional information…

I’ve hit your site and the scans… good stuff there. You can read about my great-grandfather and the rest of the fellows who served in the 37th Ala on my site in the bios, my guy is John Malcolm Culpepper from Wadley, in Randolph County. To date, I’ve collected information on more than 2,000 individuals and all of it is on the site.

You can click on the flag link on the homepage to see more about the origins of the flag that’s in the Auburn Library’s collection and see the ties between the university and the 37th, and the precursor organization, your Auburn Guards.

It APPEARS that many cadets from the East Alabama Male College, and Slaton’s Young Mens Academy (a feeder prep school) formed the A.V.I. independent company, called the “Auburn Guard.” This was a 12-month term of enlistment, and the unit saw service at Fort Barancas (Pensacola) Florida in 1861. As the terms expired, these men returned to the Auburn area and joined other regular units (many appear to have served in the 1st Ala. Regiment), including the 37th Ala. which was organized by James F. Dowdell in early 1862, Dowdell was a wealthy, prominent retired attorney who’d served 3 terms in the U.S. Congress and also served in the Ala. Convention of 1861 representing Chambers County. He voted for secession. Before the war, Dowdell and Slaton taught at the College. After the war, Dowdell was named the college’s president and helped it acquire Land Grant University status prior to his resignation and death later that year. Slaton is a very interesting man, completely committed to education. Even as a POW, he taught other Confederate POWs and their black Union guards while imprisoned on an island off Sandusky Ohio in Lake Erie. One of his students whom he gave a certificate of graduation written on foolscap paper later became Governor (Samford) of Alabama. Slaton returned to his native Georgia and was eventually superintendent of Atlanta Schools, and his own son, John, was Governor of Georgia. Another son was a famous/infamous Georgia judge.

First, an internet casino’s spam bot found this site and posted about 500 spam comments in one day. So, I had to disable comments until I find an appropriate solution to prevent the spam.

Second, I recently discovered (I should’ve tested the site in several browsers 4 months ago, but I was lazy) that some browsers where having numerous error messages pop up when viewing the blog. This is probably the result of one of several hacks I installed when I first set up the blog software. My apologies. Anyway, I’m not sure which hack caused the errors, so I had to reinstall the blog software without any hacks in order to correct the problem. So for now the email notification feature is gone.

UPDATE 12/24/04 -> modified some files and turned comments back on… hope it works to keep the spammer away..