Double IPA Festival in Hayward, Ca

This past weekend the executive chef at Calvin Crest Josh Haas, my step father Dave Divelbiss, world renown Gear's of War advocate Brad Long, and I made the trek up to the Bay Area to enjoy some serious brews. The weather was a bit sketchy at times, but the beers made up for what mother nature left out. Here is a photo of some of our selections: Hebrew's RIPA (Dark), Pizza Port's Hop 15, and Russian River's Pliny the Younger (light). Of all the beers present (well over 50 different Interpretations of the Double IPA style), Russian River won the day with their incredible Pliny the Younger. I'd like to give a big up's to all the guys for letting me tag along on some seriously "Good Times."

Men at Work's Logical Syllogism: 80's Music in Review

Premise 1: Do you come from a land down under?
Premise 2: Where women glow and men plunder?
Premise 3: Can't you hear, can't you hear the thunder?
Therefore, you better run, you better take cover.

A Brief History of the Nonic Pint Glass

“Conical” glasses are shaped, as the name suggests, as an inverted truncated cone around six inches tall and tapering by about an inch in diameter over its height. More often than not, the glass bulges out a couple of inches from the top; this is partly for improved grip, and partly to prevent the glasses from sticking together when stacked. This style of bulged conical glass is often termed “nonic” by suppliers. This is the most common type of pint glass found in UK pubs.

AAA 2006 VCE

Dause Open Mayne!

a year of the Experience

5 grande vanilla latte's a week
$ 3.35 per latte
52 weeks in a year

$871.00 per year

a latte is steamed milk with a small amount of concentrated coffee.

2 cups of milk at the grocery store costs $0.38

Make a sacrifice to survive Piranha infested waters

As a last-ditch effort, you can try to create a diversion by releasing an animal carcass or a substantial quantity of raw meat downstream from your desired crossing point. Keep in mind, however, that the piranhas can indeed strip the animal to the bones in a matter of minutes or even seconds, so you'll want to cross very quickly before the fish catch wind of you.

Heart's Logical Syllogism - 80's music in Review

Premise 1: Freedom is a kiss
Premise 2: But the prince hides his face
Premise 3: From dreams in the mist
Premise 4: These dreams go on when I close my eyes
Therefore, Every second of the night I live another life

The Good Shepard

All Russia is our orchard. The land is great and beautiful, there are many marvellous places in it. [Pause] Think, Anya, your grandfather, your great-grandfather, and all your ancestors were serf-owners, they owned living souls; and now, doesn't something human look at you from every cherry in the orchard, every leaf and every stalk? Don't you hear voices . . . ? Oh, it's awful, your orchard is terrible; and when in the evening or at night you walk through the orchard, then the old bark on the trees sheds a dim light and the old cherry-trees seem to be dreaming of all that was a hundred, two hundred years ago, and are oppressed by their heavy visions. Still, at any rate, we've left those two hundred years behind us. So far we've gained nothing at all--we don't yet know what the past is to be to us--we only philosophize, we complain that we are dull, or we drink vodka. For it's so clear that in order to begin to live in the present we must first redeem the past, and that can only be done by suffering, by strenuous, uninterrupted labour.

To all the World...

Peace!

Hot Pockets!

Pablo Neruda: Residence on Earth

There Is No Oblivion (Sonata)

If you ask me where I have been
I must say "It so happens."
I must speak of the ground darkened by the stones,
of the river that enduring is destroyed:
I know only the things that the birds lose,
the sea left behind, or my sister weeping.
Why so many regions, why does a day
join a day? Why does a black night
gather in the mouth? Why dead people?

If you ask me where I come from, I have to converse with
broken things,
with utensils bitter to excess,
with great beasts frequently rotted
and with my anguished heart.

Those that have crossed paths are not memories
nor is the yellowish dove that sleeps in oblivion,
they are tearful faces
fingers at the throat,
and what falls down from the leaves:
the darkness of a day gone by,
of a day nourished with our sad blood.

Here are violets, swallows,
everything that pleases us and that appears
in the sweet long-trained cards
around which stroll time and sweetness.

But let us not penetrate beyond those teeth,
let us not bite the shells that silence gathers,
because I do not know what to answer:
there are so many dead,
so many sea walls that the red sun split,
and so many heads that beat against the ships,
and so many hands that have cradled kisses,
and so many things that I want to forget.

The More Things Seem to Change, the More they Stay the Same

"Why is it necessary to develop creative and critical thinking skills in a society that primarily values a service based economy?”

The Clash's Logical Syllogism - 80's music in Review

Premise 1: As soon as the shareef was chauffeured outta there
Premise 2: The jet pilots tuned to the cockpit radio blare
Premise 3: As soon as the shareef was outta their hair
Premise 4: The jet pilots wailed
Premise 5: The shareef don't like it
Therefore, rock the casbah

Pillars of our Society

Values play an enormous role in the society we live in. Strong values are not simply ideas that direct you in the voting booth, but rather are passions that empower daily actions. Probably the greatest value we already teach in school is that of diversity. Nothing is more important than to have a firm, governing understanding of the value of how different things in the world are. Without diversity, we as human beings would be unable to differentiate between each other (or anything for that matter). Without this fixation, a collapse in the hierarchical structure of our society might occur. It is with this value at heart that I recommend we do a better job of differentiating between the more powerful and more latent values that are a part of our culture.

First, students should be equipped with an understanding that desire is paramount. It is through desire that all consumption (the driving force of our economy and consequently our livelihoods) is channeled. Even the youngest of students already can identify this feeling inside themselves and, therefore, should be allowed the linguistic access to reflect and analyze it. Schools are already teaching this lesson through the practice of on campus vending, but this is simply not enough. In the same way that natural resources are unlimited, students can be taught that there is no need to limit their personal desires. We all can desire as much as we want and the fulfillment of our “wants” will lead to our inevitable happiness.

The second value that needs to be addressed more in schools is that of self-centrism. As individuals focused primarily on themselves, our students can be better prepared to learn how society in the United States functions. Most students do not yet have cars, and because of this, are not acutely aware of how the automobile (as well as many other consumer goods) can quarantine individuals and set them apart from others. Students should be taught that collaborative interaction with others is something to be done only at work (or school) and that every person is allowed their own “piece of the pie.” How can they eventually take their place alone in the “winners circle” if they use the help of others? We must teach them that it is through our individuality that we come together as a strong, unified, diverse nation.

Finally, profit is our society's most indispensable value. Students need to be taught about what profit really is so that, eventually, they can business owners in the capitalist economy. There is absolutely nothing wrong with charging consumers more for a product than it is worth. Congruently, there is nothing wrong with paying laborers slightly less than they deserve. Don’t trouble students with the apparent contradictions between the other, lesser values of honesty and integrity. They must come to understand that the business owners of our society are actually doing the consumers a favor. It is because of the business owners that we can have the desires that lead to happiness and eventually enjoy that happiness all to ourselves. Consumers are obliged to pay a little more.

With those three values (desire, self-centrism, and profit) at the center of our values curriculum, our students will be completely prepared to enter into our society and we, as teachers, will have done our jobs.