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Readers Picks: Top Three Posts for January 2013
The winners are rated by you, my friends of this blog.
They are rated by how many page views each post received in January 2013
What I find unusual, are the two posts that made it to the top three that were not written 2012. Many of these page views for the older post were originated through internet searches.
What I find unusual, are the two posts that made it to the top three that were not written 2012. Many of these page views for the older post were originated through internet searches.
And the top posts are:
The Third Place Bronze Winner:
Is making a sale a random event, like throwing a dart at a dartboard?
Is making a sale a random event, like throwing a dart at a dartboard?
Dec 8, 2012
The First Place Gold Award Winner
In January 2013, there had been 1112 page views for this blog!
As a FYI, in the right hand column there is a listing of the top blog posts for the last seven days.
Thank you visiting and reading my blog.
It is you, that made these posts the Top Three Posts for January 2013!
Anyone still uncertain as to what a "Low Information Voter" is?
Watch this clip from Jimmy Kimmel Live
What Are the Pros and Cons of Going Off the Grid?
People see big power companies ever increasing their costs. As energy cost go up for the long term, more people look for ways to use less energy to save money. People keep paying and paying the utility company and the bill gets higher and higher. With the cost of energy ever increasing to new highs, there are more people then ever looking into using alternative energy in their homes as a cost savings. The Mother Earth News article dated June 19, 2009 What Are the Pros and Cons of Going Off the Grid? by Linda Pinkham talks about the overall scope of going off the grid. Pinkham discusses some of the basic equipment advantages and drawbacks but didn't go into the true depth of the issues of costs versus benefits.
On May 21, 2009, Pinkham also wrote What’s the Average Cost to Install a Solar-Electric System to Power Your Home? The average home has an incoming electrical line of 240 Volts that delivers 100 Amps. Using Ohms law where Volts X Amps = Watts, the average home is capable of using up to 24,000 Watts (24 kW) of power. In Pinkham's article the installation and materials of a "10kW Gigantic" off grid system, less then half the average home's total capacity, would be over $100,000. He also lists a 5kW larger than average system costing $52,000.
When is it going to pay back?
Once a a good estimate of the cost for installation and materials is obtained, people want to know when it's going to pay off. Using the PVWatts Version 1 Calculator and, assuming a 7.9 ¢/kWh, from where I'm at in Minnesota a solar system installed would provide a cost savings of $406.22 worth of energy per year. Can that be right? With the $52,000 - 5kW larger than average system, it would take over 100 years to break even.
What isn't discussed in those articles is the lifespan of the extra electrical equipment that is needed to be off grid. Deep Cycle Batteries used in these systems have a limited lifespan. The most popular Deep Cycle AGM would have an average life of only four to eight years (http://www.windsun.com/Batteries/Battery_FAQ.htm#Lifespan%20of%20Batteries).
I have heard people who are interested in going off the grid say that their energy costs were too high. Those who are interested in going off the grid should start slowly by decreasing their energy consumption while on the grid. I think that it's good there are people like Ed Begley, Jr. out there that have their sustainable homes just to help the environment. At the same time, to go off the grid thinking that one would actually save money just doesn't make sense.
Readers Picks: Top Three Posts for December 2012
The winners are rated by you, my friends of this blog.
They are rated by how many page views each post received in December 2012
What I find unusual, are the two posts that made it to the top three that were not written 2012. Many of these page views for the older post were originated through internet searches.
What I find unusual, are the two posts that made it to the top three that were not written 2012. Many of these page views for the older post were originated through internet searches.
Then the Second Place Silver Winner:
Is making a sale a random event, like throwing a dart at a dartboard?
Dec 8, 2012
Is making a sale a random event, like throwing a dart at a dartboard?
Dec 8, 2012
The First Place Gold Award Winner
In December 2012, there had been 1903 page views for this blog!
As a FYI, in the right hand column there is a listing of the top blog posts for the last seven days.
Thank you visiting and reading my blog.
It is you, that made these posts the Top Three Posts for December 2012!
I wish 2013 to be the best for all of you!
Have a happy New Year!
Have a happy New Year!
St. Gabriel 2010 Riesling (Mosel)
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| Inside Cossettas Italian Market |
Being that Z is not totally crazy about Proscuitto, a well-aged salted ham that tastes best sliced so thin that light can be seen through it which flavors complement melons, I had to pass on getting that.
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| Sliced Prosciutto that I love served just like this. |
The reason that I had purchased a couple of Riesling wines from different vintners, and parts of the world was to compare them to the 5 gallons of Riesling wine that I made and is currently aging in my cellar.
I measured the Specific Gravity at 1.010. This would be a sweet Riesling. I hoped it wouldn't be too sweet for the cheese and occasion. The color is clear and pale pear in color. It has a light bouquet on the nose of lemons, pineapple, and a hint of earth. Though not unpleasant, my first observation on the tongue is that it felt of effervescence (small bubbles in the wine), as if not all of the gas was removed from this wine. There seems to be a good balance between the sweetness and the tannins. The taste brings out more of the pineapples than lemons, and leads one to taste a bit of pear, as well.
Overall this is a good wine that I would purchase again. I may even back-sweeten a gallon or two of the Riesling I made to imitate this style of Riesling.
If you have tasted this brand and year of wine please be a friend and comment below on your experience!!
Fact or Fiction: Cover up of the Benghazi cover up??
Clinton accused of faking illness to avoid Benghazi testimony - latimes.com
and
Rep. Allen West accuses Hillary Clinton of faking concussion to avoid Benghazi testimony - NY Daily News
It looks suspiciously like a delay tactic. If she would resign her position as Secretary of State, it would make it difficult to call her in to testify. Then the next Secretary of State (John Kerry) could claim that he has no knowledge of what happened.
Possible cover up of the Benghazi cover up???
Liberals and the democrats shouldn't be too worried. I'm sure fact she had a concussion or might have been faking a concussion and missing her appointment with congress will be long forgotten by her, due the concussion, and forgotten by her supporters, due to them hitting their palms against their head too hard in disbelief, by the time she starts her campaign to become the Democratic Presidential candidate in a couple of years.
Can this be true?? Woman hoards "30" Government Life line phones
This woman says it is so easy to get free phones from a government program that she has 30 of them.
Don't sign any petition before seeing this video
Is making a sale a random event, like throwing a dart at a dartboard?
I work in a sales environment. Four of us do outbound phone sales
as inside Account Managers with three outside Territory Managers who are out on
the road over 20 weeks a year. The other
day I was logging a call into CRM software and one of the outside sales guys came
in to our inside sales area and began chatting with my colleague on how sometimes
his job of finding quality clients is like the random chance of throwing a dart
at the dart board. My colleague told him since I throw darts competitively, that
he should talk to me about his dart analogy.Periodically, I hear the analogy that getting something is luck, as random as throwing darts at a dartboard. I know they are completely incorrect! Seneca, a first-century Roman philosopher, allegedly said, "Luck is where the crossroads of opportunity and preparation meet."
A person that is great in dart-throwing just doesn’t throw a
dart at the dartboard - and just hope to get a Bull’s-eye. A great dart-thrower knows exactly where the
dart is going to be after a couple of seconds after it is thrown from about 7
feet. Being a great dart-thrower also takes many hours of preparation and
practice, as well as, physical and mental discipline.
A great dart-thrower has to know the playing field. This playing field is not only knowing the competition but also the type of dartboard, either bristle board or electronic, and what game that is being played on the board, like 501 or Cricket. With any type of dart board or dart game, a great dart-thrower needs to adjust the objectives, tactics and tools that are available. There are much different objectives and tactics to assure a win in 501 than there is to win a game of Cricket. For example, a great dart-thrower would use a different, heavier dart on a bristle board dartboard than electronic dart board. As I said, a great dart-thrower would change the objective, tactics and tools based on the game environment.
A great sales person, like a great dart-thrower, also has to know the playing field. A great salesperson must know what the competition is bringing to the game. Both the competition’s weaknesses and strengths have to be known. A great sales person must be able to have insight about the competition’s product or service to relate a higher value of their product or service to the customer - than the competition has. Know thy competition.
To a sales person there is an assortment of audiences. There
are people in the sales audience who are drivers, analytical, amiable or
expressive. The great sales person should know the
audience and adjust the objectives, tactics and tools to communicate ideas
effectively to each type of personality in the audience.
Sales and darts are quite similar in the process of getting the win. At the same time, both great dart throwers and great sales people do not believe in random chance or luck. Success is when both opportunity and preparation meet. Now, go get those bull’s-eyes!By: John A. Stefani
Black Friday Shopping Then North Pole
Z and I went Christmas shopping on Black Friday. We went to Herbergers on University Avenue in St Paul as our first stop. They have pretty decent Black Friday specials and they tend to keep their Door Busters items in stock. While we were at Herbergers we heard a young preteen say, "Mommy, Mommy"-- We immediately thought of Family Guy and this scene:
After we finished there, we ate an early lunch at Leeann Chins nearby. Since this is the second year we've done this, I guess going to Herbergers and eating at Leeann Chins is starting to become a Black Friday tradition. (Shhh, don't tell our friend Keith H. who manages the A.V. Leann Chins store that we bought gift cards with extra free money from there!)
By the time we got done eating we figured we had enough time to get to Kohls Department store before their Door Buster Specials ended at 1:00 pm. We drove up to the Kohls in Roseville. As usual there was a check out line that went through the store around the outer aisle. By the time we got in line it was about 12:15. We had heard while we were in line that they would allow most of the people in line to take advantage of the Door Buster Specials even if they were in line after 1:00 pm. We did the tag team shopping where Z stayed in line first while I wondered around the store and did a little shopping. Then I let Z have her turn to shop while I held the place in line. Once we checked out and left the store we attempted to drive over to the Guitar Center but we just couldn't get in there.
We then drove down Snelling Avenue and then headed east on Grand Avenue. We then made our way toward Robert Street and decided to shop for some toys at Kmart in West St Paul and then after that we would cross the river and pick up a gift certificate at a small cafe in New Port Minnesota, called appropriately "The North Pole". We finished our shopping at Kmart and proceeded to the check out. The cashier handled everything correctly and even gave us a bonus gift cart. which was very cool. Another stop gained our fancy, The Dollar General Store. Z had to get the Almond Windmill Cookies for a buck a pack. (Really, they are quite good with coffee!) and so we filled our dollar store basket! As I was loading the last plastic bag from the register back into our cart I said to Z, "Now off to the North Pole!" I heard the young cashier chuckle. Like I was making a Christmas joke. I then turned to the cashier and said, "No. Really. We are going to the North Pole. The North Pole Restaurant in Newport to pick up a gift card."
And how was your Black Friday shopping experience? Do share...
Finished Apple Wine
Here is what I've finished this week:
A few of the labeled bottles. Each label is slightly different. Per my fathers suggestion the the brand is "G. Antonio". Guess why.
The labels are completely in Italian text. Each bottle label have different sayings in Italian. My father helped me get the Italian correct.
A few of the labeled bottles. Each label is slightly different. Per my fathers suggestion the the brand is "G. Antonio". Guess why.
The labels are completely in Italian text. Each bottle label have different sayings in Italian. My father helped me get the Italian correct.
Matthew Fox White Zinfandel
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| Price: $4.99 Producer: Matthew Fox Vineyards Region: California Varietal: White Zinfandel Container Size: 750 ML |
We opened it up Friday night and enjoyed it. Here is what we observed. Its color was a dark peach and it was very clear. The bouquet was like peaches, matching the beautiful color.
Even better, it tasted like it's wonderful bouquet, though we did find it a little on the sweet side. It's not a bad wine if someone is looking for a sweet wine. I thought it would be a good idea to measure the S.G.(Specific Gravity) so I can adjust the wine I was making not to be as sweet. I measured the S.G. at 1.012.
Lucky Bottle Score
She told me how she went to Walgreen's and then onto a garage sale where she bought a case of empty green bottles.
She said that these bottles had imprinting on the glass on the lower back and a cool design molded in the front of a face. She got a case of 24 of these.
I told her that I have some bottle cleaning to do.
When I pulled in I took the case of bottles out of her car and brought them into the house.
Looking at them in the light, I knew right away that these weren't wine bottles.
If I make some beer, could I reuse these?
Apple Wine
Last week I started a five gallon batch of apple wine.
Being that I pitched the yeast last Friday night, I though I started out too slow. By Saturday at 1:00 pm I saw no bubbling action and wasn't smelling any yeast odors like I had with my one gallon batches. I stirred it anyways. I thought it was because of the water that I used. I used 1 gallon of spring water and 4 gallons of purified water.
I didn't check it again until Sunday at 5:00 pm. There was a good amount of bubbles on the top of each bucket and had the tell tale or yeast. I should say that foam covered each bucket. I stirred it. Looks like the fermentation was well on it's way.
On Wednesday the S.G. reached 1.000 so I racked the wine into a carboy.
I'll definitely let you know about how it finishes.
Being that I pitched the yeast last Friday night, I though I started out too slow. By Saturday at 1:00 pm I saw no bubbling action and wasn't smelling any yeast odors like I had with my one gallon batches. I stirred it anyways. I thought it was because of the water that I used. I used 1 gallon of spring water and 4 gallons of purified water.
I didn't check it again until Sunday at 5:00 pm. There was a good amount of bubbles on the top of each bucket and had the tell tale or yeast. I should say that foam covered each bucket. I stirred it. Looks like the fermentation was well on it's way.
On Wednesday the S.G. reached 1.000 so I racked the wine into a carboy.
I'll definitely let you know about how it finishes.
Apple/Passion/Mango
Today I picked up 6 frozen cans of Old Orchard 100% Apple Passion Mango concentrate. Each one mixed with water makes 48 oz of juice. With coupon I paid 50c each.
I was wondering how it would taste as a wine and would like to try.
I was figuring on a starting S.G. of somewhere in the range of 1.085 to 1.090.
Would anyone have any advice or guidance for the recipe?
I was wondering how it would taste as a wine and would like to try.
I was figuring on a starting S.G. of somewhere in the range of 1.085 to 1.090.
Would anyone have any advice or guidance for the recipe?
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