Saturday, December 26, 2015

It's beer:30

Beer Fact:
Beer is the world's most widely consumed and likely the oldest alcoholic beverage; it is the third most popular drink overall, after water and tea.
According to Wikipedia the United States consumes about 638,926,526 gallons per year!

Today is my welcome letter to the world of beer brewing. A few days prior me and my wife purchased on SurLaTable a beer brewing kit and it arrived today. Nothing fancy. Just everything you need to brew 1 gallon of beer (which I learned today really isn't much). Oh and bottles not included they are like $17 for 6 resealable 16oz bottles. There has to be a cheaper way to bottle my beer.

I opened it all up and unpackaged it on my counter and read the instructions. They were shockingly easy to read and understand. Honestly the hardest part was keeping the concoction at 155 degrees, but they were thoughtful and  included a 18" mercury thermometer(I thought those were all but banned in the early 2000's).

Looking at a lot of sites to buy "refills" and I got to thinking why do I want Kerug style beer I want Maxwell House where adjust and tweak it. Know what I mean? To have a bag of this and a bag of that and measure it with a measuring cup not opening a single serving packet and pouring it in.

Anyway anyone who does this as a hobby and would like to give me some information or pointers it would be appreciated.



Stay thirsty my followers,
~Daved1058

Tuesday, December 15, 2015

What is in a value?

What is a value?
A fair return or equivalent in goods, services, or money for something exchanged. 

When you go to let's say a dollar store, and you buy "value products" are you really getting a good value? I think not. Too often value has been associated with cheap or inexpensive. That has in essence devalued the word value. 

Words that come to mind: Cheap (generally both in cost and quality), watered down (soda, juice, cleaning products), flimsy, etc.

Think of 3 products you use every day and put them in order from 1 to 3. I would like you to organize them in such a way that priorities them in order of the importance of quality. Then find comparable "value brand" products and actually compare the two together. Are you getting a good value? Post your list in the comments section at the bottom I am interested in hearing some feedback.

When I hear an advertisement talking about value, the first thing that comes my mind is "what corner did they cut". Something I use every day, steel toe safety shoes. Generally I buy Keen because I know it's a good shoe, fits well, and made of high quality materials. I have purchased a Walmart brand boot before, Brahama I believe. Over all they felt cheap and they didn't hold up. I saved money in the short term, but spend more in the long term.

Sometimes you do have to buy what you can afford, but when it costs you more in the end, did you really save any money? Here is an example of a sale. Slight back story first to get a picture in your head. My wife used to work at a department store in the jewelry department. Depending on the day/week they ran sales on let's say gold jewelry. Sometimes it's buy one get one free, 50% select items, or buy one get one 50%. They both sound pretty good right? Wrong. When there is sometimes upwards of a 1000% mark-up both you have to pick the sale that best matches your budget. Side note, 50% off 1 item is the same as buy one get one free.

Before I end this some final words.
1) Reconsider buying bulk grocerys at Walmart unless you price checked it first, check out a "grocery store" such as Kroger, Shaws, Food Lion, etc. Grocery items tend to be more competitive.
2) If you shop for a family, or like to save money buy buying in bulk take a look at stores such as Costco, BJ's, SAMs Club. You end up spending more, but the savings in result tend to make it worth it. Last week I went and bought chicken at $1.75 per pound and I came home with 10+ pounds. 

Shop smart and keep your wallet happy.
~Daved1058




Thursday, December 10, 2015

Every Day Shit Happens

Today, the degradation of the inner life is symbolized by the fact that the only place safe from interruption is the private toilet.
Lewis Mumford

So today I am going to talk about something that is on most everyone's mind at least once a day. You guessed it poop. Before you give that sentence a glance and say "I'm out of here". Hear me out. I will be making valid points and that might make you go hmm or wow.

I'd like to start off by pointing out how drastically society has changed about their bathroom habits. Back in 1887 Massachusetts enacted the first laws about mandating segregating men and women's restrooms. So 128 years ago someone thought that this idea was good. Why? Women were entering the workforce and men wanted to protect them from basically the disgustingness of men. Don't blast me of I'm slightly off, but if I am completely off let me know, leave a comment.

So let me get this right because women are working the need to use separate bathrooms when in public arose, and at around the age of 5 or 6 we then start training our children to think the same way.

This might be out of context but when the there were black only seats on the bus or black only water fountains that was called segregation and that was ended in 1866 and then we deside it is a good idea to do again 11 years later? C'mon people lets be serious here.

I was doing some article browsing the other day just following links where ever they may take me, some better some worse, end result i stumbled across a couple interesting points I will address.

The first. Co-ed bathrooms, showers, locker rooms, etc. In the right light I think all of them could be great options.
Co-ed bathrooms could be as simple as a gender undefined bathroom with a sign that does not say men, women, laides, gents, etc, just bathroom, lavatory, restroom, water-closet. Shh you just fixed the ongoing problem of when there is a massive line to get into your gender specific bathroom but the opposit sex is empty. Co-ed showers could good, but be a little tricky due to the hyper sexualualization about everything(there is a fetish that is basically furry's more or less eating other furry's and this gets someone off?), although many colleges have co-ed bathrooms and here is an article showing other opinions.

As this article comes near the end, I want to bring this post away from the debate it is starting to stray towards and over to the lighter side.

Segregated bathrooms might have helped start the notion that women dont poop, they excreat Hersey Kisses. Now if that is actually true that once a girl becomes a lady they make chocolate, remind me never to make a road trip to Hersery Pennsilvsainia for a tour of Hersey chocolate factory(shudder). Now there is this book called Everybody Poops. I think I will leave my trust in that book title.

For my closing words I am going to leave you with an informative, possibly long winded story to follow up with unique question twards the end.

Statistically speaking most people reading this article have probably changed a diaper(or a million). With that said there is a very extensive isle at nearly every grocery store and at least a small one dedicated to baby care in every convince store. One of those products are called baby wipes ranging in scents, brands, price, etc. What are baby wipes for? Wiping baby bottoms is the obvious answer, but as any parent can tell you they are great for wiping everything. When it's time for you to do some wiping of your own you reach for a roll of your trusted brand of bathroom tissue. Here I ask the question. Why? We wash baby's bottoms yet we dry wipe are own. Isn't that like taking a step in the wrong direction? They sell flushable personal wipes marketed to adults. They come in small packages and charge exuberant prices. Granted they do the job great and feel that extra sense of clean, mean while your wallet gets the crappy end of that deal, no pun intended. Why pay 10x the price when they are really only baby wipes. It's like putting a different hat on and becoming a different person. I have read many articles shunning the use of flushable wipes and refers to them as a sewers worst nightmare or something if the such.  I know a few of you are reading this thinking something along the line of if it don't back up in my house it's not my problem. If we follow several city's public works departments statements we're going to be throwing the soiled wipes into that trash can that sits near your toilet or sink.  Now maybe it's just my way of thinking, if I can't flush flushable wipes why would I buy them. If I liked the extra feeling of clean why not take a trip down the baby isle. Not that someone would question you, but if they did and you didn't feel comfortable with telling them why just tell that your [Insert person here] ran out and you were already going where ever.

Sorry for the long windedness bad habit.

Charmen says it all;
Enjoy the go
~Daved1058






























Monday, December 7, 2015

Love is a battlefield

Sorry I haven't made a post in a while, I've been busy with a lot of things the biggest is my recient marrage.

That directly brings me into today's blog post.

"The rules of fair play do not apply in love and war" John Lyly (est.1578)

The first night of our marrage was going amazing. Everything was happening perfectly. We went out to our afterparty and had a few drinks, went home, and what happened next is a mystery to me(I know she will probably end up reading this later and I'll hear something along the lines of "You know what you did", but honestly I haven't the foggiest.)

What I can say is we had some amazing sex afterwards. We consumated our marrage with all the wonderful emotions of marrage. Love and hate.

Changing everything over is a bit of a pain. Send a copy of this here, an original there, update things such as auto insurance and life insurance. 

Everything still feels the same. Only differences I can say I've noticed is acknowledging her as my wife not fiancée.

This wasn't really supposed to be a long blog post just a reminder I haven't forget about my blog and look back and I should have new content soon.

Remember as the song goes "love is a battlefield".
~Daved1058