Every few years, I invite readers and colleagues to contribute guest columns in the series Technology and my Hobby/Passion. Over a hundred contributed in the last decade on their birding, charities, cooking, music, sports and every other passion, and how it keeps evolving with technology. Click here and scroll down to read them all.
This time it is Eric Dirst, a repeat contributor to this series. 6 years ago, he wrote about his real passion - hockey. He is a technology and operations executive who figured out how to enjoy the quarantine by teaching his drinking-age sons how to make a few of the classic cocktails.This also allowed him to keep his family and friends entertained. And I mean entertained - check out this three minute video where they concocted the Painkiller. He generously embeds the recipes and images of many of their masterpieces throughout the text.
When Eric isn’t crafting cocktails, he advises small and medium size businesses on their technology strategy, product roadmaps, security and risk mitigation, and talent development. Eric also enjoys his board of director roles at Carrington College, Brent Sopel Foundation, and ThingLogix
The quarantine in March had started to really sink in and the food bills had started to skyrocket from having my three sons back home due to college closing, furloughs and work-from-home requirements. I was thinking how we could inject just a bit of ‘fun at home’ into our family life, while also sharing some of that ‘fun’ with others. Now, my sons had expressed interest in learning more about cocktails, because they were tired of consuming craft (if they could afford it) or cheap beer (really, Natty Light?).
I had recently read an article in Bon Appetit (no I do not subscribe, but somehow got on their email distribution) about the 25 best cocktails you should learn how to make. I suggested we have a Family Quarantine Cocktail Night to try these out, and everyone agreed. Of course, to make it more social, I initially decided to post pictures of the finished drinks on Facebook, along with the recipes. I was quite amazed at the positive feedback I received from friends and family. People told me they looked forward to seeing the posts, and got upset if I skipped too many days in between postings.
Here's the Whisky Smash
Soon, other friends started their own cocktail posts along with drink shot and food pairings. Certainly, leveraging social media and pictures was easy. However, after a couple posts I was asked to up-my-game and add videos showing how we made each drink. I conscripted my sons to help with video prep and sometimes the actual preparation. They also helped me pick out background music for the videos…to match the theme of the drink (e.g. smooth jazz for Manhattan).
I have not moved to FB Live yet, since pre-recording and uploading seems to work just fine. The only challenge was how to upload 450 Meg video files recorded on your phone to FB. If you use the phone-native ‘send to Facebook’ feature it does not usually work with files this big. So, thanks to cloud drives I was able to save it to Microsoft OneDrive from the phone and then upload it easily from OneDrive to Facebook.
Here's the Tequila sunrise.
Gladly (ok, sadly), due to my profession, I have access to many cloud storage options. I could have saved it to Box.net, iCloud, Google Drive, or DropBox, since my customers use all of these options. Of course, any cloud drive would have worked just fine, since they all integrate well with your iPhone or Android phone.
On a separate topic, I received quite a bit of feedback on how stable the videos were and questions about whether we used a tripod to create the videos. Nope, thanks to technology in the iPhone X we were using, the non-jitter and stabilization tech made it seem as if we were using a tripod. Actually it was my oldest son filming…and he shakes a bit because he is a high-energy young adult. No one ever noticed his shaking, which he certainly thought was cool.
So, overall, it was a fun way to learn new things, share a topic I enjoy with family and friends, and use the power of video and social media to quickly get feedback from the community…even when we had to stay quarantined for our safety.
Finally, here's one that some of you may not have heard about - the Boulevardier.
Cheers!
Eric,
Great job on the video, and passing on a legacy to your sons. I have fond memories of my father teaching me how to make bloody mary's (at a very early age on vacation .. That made sense when I got older), Lemon Drops he served to my friends.
And of course, the dirty, blue cheese stuffed olive Gin Martini that you introduced me to many years ago.
Your son's will look back on this and have fond memories too.
Posted by: David LaRue | June 22, 2020 at 04:44 PM