Review – Saint Arnold Oktoberfest

Well, well, well, it’s been quite a while since I posted to the blog.

Saint Arnold Oktoberfest Microbrew

I’ve been way busy and just have not had the time to spend writing anything up. That changed today, because I had to come to Houston, TX, for some SQL training. I went to Whole Foods Market and got some beef stew, good bread, Icelandic butter, Italian Salami and English recipe corned beef, and had an excellent dinner at the hotel, and am now sitting at the company laptop typing up this post, enjoying an excellent micro-brew, Saint Arnold Oktoberfest.

Having grown up in Germany and having enjoyed some real German beer, I have to say that this micro-brew is just as good ans the genuine article from Deutschland. It is very smooth without too much carbonation, but not flat tasting like some American beers.

This definitely a beer I will buy again, and I will pick up a 6-pack before I head home on Friday. I got this at Kroger just across the parking lot from my hotel, and they had single bottles to be combined into a 6-pack so you can sample, so I have 5 more beers to go, and will try to review one per night.

So, for right now i will call this good, and wrap this up so I can watch and interesting show on the Discovery channel.

P.S.: I forgot to mention GoodBrews, a cool beer website I was told about by my co-worker, Dave.

Related articles

• Happy Oktoberfest! Tapping into the Health Benefits of Beer (healthland.time.com)
• Cooking with Beer for Oktoberfest (wholefoodsmarket.com)
• A Vegan Oktoberfest with the Beer Wench (wholefoodsmarket.com)
• Frontier Soups Reintroduces Baker’s Dozen Soup Mixes with Free Shipping (prweb.com)
• The Oktoberfest…Citizen?…! (roseofeurope.wordpress.com)

 

Virgin (insert business here)

Image via CrunchBase

Well, Richard Branson has done it again, he’s now officially in the banking business, having opened his first Virgin branded bank store.

All I can say, I’m not too worried about Virgin, I just wished I had even 10% of the business prowess that Richard Branson has. Just because we share the same first name doesn’t mean anything.

If I were in his shoes, I don’t know if I would have been able to grow a business like his.

Impressive and scary at the same time.

Related articles

• Entrepreneur profile: Richard Branson (cashzilla.wordpress.com)
• Virgin Trains staff in “constant fear” of Branson’s ‘fire-at-will’ policy (leftfootforward.org)
• Richard Branson’s ‘weedy’ good idea for Spain (theolivepress.es)
• Finally We Get To See What A Virgin Bank Looks Like (businessinsider.com)
• Virgin Atlantic planning Heathrow to Moscow flights (guardian.co.uk)
• How Young Entrepreneurs Turned a Tweet from Richard Branson into $1 Million (youngentrepreneur.com)
• You are not Richard Branson (blogs.constantcontact.com)

 

Riparian Buffer Zones

View of urban runoff discharging to coastal waters (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I have noticed how when civilization encroaches on the riparian buffer zones, that the watershed always suffers in process, eventually to be reduced to storm water runoff channels and canals.

Being someone that can see the environmental impact of people on nature, I am always appalled by the results of civilization. Lately, I have noticed the effect a lot when looking at Google Maps or Google Earth.

Lately I have thought I should start a non-profit organisation that finds angel investors that are willing to invest into the non-profit, and use the funds to buy up Riparian Buffers Zones, and hire environmentally aware people to live on these lands and to manage them, gathering runoff from the city and filtering it, catching the nastiness like engine oil and tire dust and other gook, and then using the partially decontaminated water to grow fuel crops on small patches and parcels of the purchased land.

In some areas of cities, the runoff ditches would not lend themselves to living on them, but the easement strips along those runoff channels and ditches constantly require mowing and weed management, so they could be used to grow more fuel crops instead, so with some smart water channeling, the runoff water would grow crops, the crops would convert waste water and organic compounds in the water into fertilizer and irrigation, and the fuel crops in turn could be used to run part of the operation’s equipment and vehicles, either in the form of converting the biomass into ethanol to run in E85 vehicles, or turned into Syn-Gas to run electric generation plants which then power some of the operation’s infrastructure.

There are other positive side effects to doing this, one of which is turning areas that normally grow invasive or allergy causing weeds that use up precious fossil fuels (for weed control), into areas that produce a product for the amount of fossil fuels utilized to manage the areas, and if managed properly, these areas would not require toxic weed management techniques or supplies, and the land would slowly become less and less toxic as the biological action in the soil can begin to break down the toxic compounds already deposited on the land.

Then, if we use IP enabled remote sensors and a WiFi private LAN to manage and record the sensor data, we can monitor and manage the Riparian Buffer Zone(s) with minimal personnel, and concentrate on planting and harvesting fuel crops and improving the environment.

Anyway, I needed to record this phase of my though processes, hopefully I can pursue this further in future posts.

Related articles

• Lexicon of Sustainability: Salmon safe (grist.org)
• Foresters, Tree Farmers, and Conservationists Applaud Rep. Wilcox for Protecting Rural Jobs & Renewable Energy (prnewswire.com)
• May 20-21, 23-24: Riparian grazing workshops connect clean water, profitability (wsunews.wsu.edu)

 

Donations

Image via Wikipedia

You may or may not have noticed that I added a donations sidebar item.

If you would like to donate to me, you can send me whatever you think my efforts are worth to:

Bitcoins - 1B5RFwzekriFHPmffjhKWChchWtydCooii

(make sure you are aware of the current rate Bitcoins are worth)

PayPal – rmolby@yahoo.com

(I can only accept personal PayPal transfers, no credit or debit cards. You need to fund your PayPal account before sending me money. Thanks!)

All donation proceeds will be placed in a savings account that I also contribute to every pay period, and once I have enough to buy three years of Hostgator service, I will set up my own domain and site and transfer this blog to it.

Related articles

• PayPal Here Trumps Square’s Tech By Taking Camera Scans of Paper Checks and Cards (teechy.com)
• PayPal’s pitch to small businesses is more than just a card reader (gigaom.com)
• Re: Armory: That Bitcoin client unassociated with the weapons marketplace (bitcointalk.org)

 

Values Test Results for Feb 2012 and discussion of Value #1

From time to time I like to go to http://www.douglaswagoner.com/ValueTest.php and build a list of values that are important to me.

Now all I have to figure out is how I should act upon these values/feelings/emotions…!

Here are the results of today’s values test ranked by importance:

1. Liberty	(16 votes)
2. Privacy	(13 votes)
3. Imagination	(12 votes)
4. Serenity	(11 votes)
5. Self-reliance	(11 votes)
6. Sexuality	(10 votes)
7. Financial independence	(10 votes)
8. Realism	(9 votes)
9. Craftiness	(7 votes)
10. Prosperity	(7 votes)
11. Vitality	(6 votes)
12. Perseverance	(6 votes)
13. Frugality	(6 votes)
14. Comfort	(5 votes)
15. Economy	(4 votes)
16. Honor	(2 votes)
17. Making a difference	(1 votes)

So, maybe I can try to address some of these over the next few days, and maybe I can set some goals to accomplish those goals or act upon those values.

Let me address #1 – Liberty, right now:

I choose to live my life according to my own free will. I don’t care what other people think and do, as long as their actions and choices do not infringe on my own life, liberty and pursuit of happiness (LLPH)!

The United States Constitution protects my right to LLPH, but does not grant it. No one can grant one the right to LLPH, it is given to you at conception by the love of your parents, and reaffirmed by the pains of your mother throughout maternity, and the efforts of your parent(s) to raise you to become a responsible human being.

Some people think that god, the almighty creator, or whatever they believe in, gives you that right, but that is just a bunch of crap. You are born with the right – it’s greedy, spineless humans that try to take this right from you with laws, religion, or any other such contrivance(s).

So the right, the freedom, the liberty to choose to do whatever you feel like without infringing on someone else’s right to the same is what I am after.

The biggest thing I hate is when people feel the need to convince me of something. If I am interested in a subject, that is fine and I will be glad to discuss it with you, but don’t tell me what to eat, how much exercise to get, what to believe, or not to believe – I’m fully capable of making my own decisions, and research myself any subject I’m interested in.

So, basically, leave me be and all is good

Related articles

• If There is NO Constitution, There is NO Fed| The Post & Email (gunnyg.wordpress.com)
• What Gives You the Right To……. (asecondcup.wordpress.com)

 

Tired of Corporate

I am getting increasingly tired of the corporate environment.

I hate my boss and technical manager telling how I should behave, dress, keep my cube arranged… getting really tired of it… too bad I’m having to depend on this job right now…

I will be looking to build my future doing something other than what I am doing now… especially since I don’t anticipate that I will be able to draw a government retirement since I don’t thing the current form of government and it’s financing will be around when I get ready to retire…

Soooo, time to move on, use this damn job to tide me over until I can build my own future.

I am studying some material on http://www.jackspirko.com, and hopefully with some other material I’ll be able to start my own business where no one tells me HOW I should do my job or HOW I should live my life… I hate my liberty being treat on…

Related articles

• Drone Bee (coceyea.wordpress.com)
• sick and tired (portal2mysoul.wordpress.com)
• Sick of Being Tired (futurefocused.wordpress.com)

 

Biblical Judgment, Personal Actions and or Performance

Image via Wikipedia

I have been extremely busy as well as dealing with some personal issues, hence no time for posting to this blog.

However, I did manage to catch the latest episode of the History Channel‘s Brad Meltzer‘s Decoded http://www.history.com/shows/brad-meltzers-decoded/videos#brad-meltzers-decoded-apocalypse-in-georgia which was interesting. There are several informational references that are interesting and intriguing.

I like the scene where they were interviewing the Rosicrucian Reverend, and she made a good mention of a reference in Revelation about us being judged based on our actions, not on our faith.

So I looked up the reference, and it is in Revelation 20:13, although you really need to read all of Revelation 20 to take it in context. There is another reference to judgment in 1 Peter 4:5, and again it pays off to read all of 1 Peter 4.

There is  another reference to judgment in James 2:12, and the fact that faith alone is useless, in James 2:17, and hence we will not be judged by faith, for it is our actions we will be judged upon.

So, that brings us to laziness. 1 Timothy 5:8 states that “Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. ” To me that means if I am lazy and don’t do what I feel is necessary to support my family, I am worse that a radical (insert your favorite terrorist religion here) extremist.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 states that “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” Another way this could be stated is that “as a man of God or of the Faith in God we are equipped to perform ANY type of work, and do it well.” So we again speak of action, or performance of your worldly duties that will reflect upon your final judgment.

Basically, all of those religious people that believe that if they go to church and pray for forgiveness of their sins and then break God’s and man’s laws and commit sins right after going to church are in for a surprise upon judgment for your bad actions will reflect upon you just as much as your good actions, and if your name doesn’t get recorded in the “Book of Life”, then God have mercy on your soul.

I don’t believe in being idle when there is work to be done, Proverbs 28:19 states “Those who work their land will have abundant food,
but those who chase fantasies will have their fill of poverty” and Colossians 3:23-24 advises that “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.”

So, when looking at the Bible, we see that slothfulness or laziness is frowned upon, and if you are able to perform work that helps you and your family, then its the right thing to do, and something you must do, not for your sake, but for the sake of your family and because it is the right thing to do.

Related Articles

• Brad Meltzer’s 7 Favorite Conspiracy Movies (splashpage.mtv.com)

 

Constitution – Preample

Image via Wikipedia

This is to follow up on my previous post about the Constitution.

The Preamble of the Constitution was written to convey the dreams and hopes of the founding fathers and their fellow citizens, the common man, the people of the states. Here is the Preamble as written in the final draft that was signed by all the signatories:

Preamble

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

I took the liberty granted to me by the Constitution to rewrite the Preamble using a little more modern English to convey :

We, the people of the states united in the effort to establish a nation of liberty, hope to present this Constitution for the United States of America – in order to form a more perfect union, to establish justice, to insure domestic peacefulness and cooperation, to provide for the common defense, to promote the general prosperity and well-being, and to secure the blessings of freedom to ourselves and future generations.

So, this makes it a little more readable; and maybe a little easier to comprehend.

Anyway, there is quite a bit to the Preamble; even though it doesn’t grant any powers or rights, it just summarizes what the founding fathers hoped the new nation would become – a country where ANYONE could hope for freedom to do as they please – without violating anyone else’s rights to the same.

This means that you can say what you want, and do with your own property what you want, but don’t expect anyone to listen to you, or anyone not to steal your property if you don’t secure it or identify it as YOUR property. I will cover all this when I get to the Amendments.

Cheers.

Related Articles

• The House GOP Weaponizes the Constitution (politicsdaily.com)
• “Democrat Rep.Jerrold Nadler: GOP Reading Constitution “ritualistic reading” on the floor “total nonsense” and “propaganda”" and related posts (theodoresworld.net)
• Preamble for the Constitution (pumabydesign001.wordpress.com)
• A “more perfect union?” (jer979.blogspot.com)

 

United States Constitution

Image via Wikipedia

Blogging, or standing on a soap box and telling others what you think, is a guaranteed right under the 1st Amendment of the US Constitution, or so people interpret this Amendment.

I plan on reading the entire constitution over the next few weeks, examining what the Constitution REALLY says, and then I will report what I find here.

Along with my own interpretation I will also comment on how our “inalienable  human rights” are being slowly taken away, and how our founding father looked at some of these issues and why they wrote the content of the constitution the way they did.

Reading and comprehending the Constitution of the United States of America should be mandatory, required reading in all United States Schools.  Having grown up in Socialist West Germany (before the unification) I have a somewhat different point of view when it comes to education and human rights, and I cannot understand how a vast portion of the United States of America populace is so blasé about their vanishing rights and freedoms that ultimately define us as uniquely “American.”

It is this unique level of liberty that brings so many people to this country in the first place!

I don’t like politics, but many people would probably classify me as a Constitutionalist or Libertarian, but I really don’t side with any political party, I rather consider myself an Independent, so if you want to comment on that, please leave politics out of the picture.

However, leaving politics out of the picture still leaves the fact that I believe in certain rights and freedoms that are part of these political affiliations, so I cannot completely disassociate myself from the politics.

Because of this I will also be studying up on the actions and policies of the political groups and commenting my thoughts on the whole political business how it relates to me and how it may affect my political leanings in the future.

Anyway, keep your eyes peeled for future posts regarding these subject matters and my feelings on what it means to be an American.

Related Articles

• The United States Constitution in Simple English Now Available (prweb.com)
• Why Call Us Adults? (socyberty.com)
• The U.S. Constitution: The Source of ALL Authority (dakotavoice.com)