To wine and not to wine

I was given a gift by Greg during Christmas of 2008 that I finally got around to tasting.  It was a bottle of 2007 Zinfandel wine from the Sehhesio Family Vineyards. 

I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Thanks Greg.  I opened and got inspired.  I started cooking some pasta sauce.  It ended up being very good also.  

I remembered that Greg said that his father had enjoyed this particular wine.  He had good taste I think.  

I looked up the vineyard and started to go shopping. I think I'd like to get some more.  Greg ??

Meanwhile my batch of wine, a Chilean Merlot is progressing nicely. I'm at the clarification stage with about 6 weeks till  is ready.  

 

 

Parallels

There some funny parallels between electrical engineering and life.  Like the title of a book I've begun at work - "Grounding and Shielding".  A book that most of you would not find so interesting, but the parallels are. 

If you were grounding yourself you would be doing something that would be bringing you back to earth. But if you are grounding out, you would be turning off your brain.  You are not going to be able to think.   

If you were shielding yourself wouldn’t you be protecting yourself from something bad or threatening?  Or hiding from something like what’s real or truth. 

I just got back from a Lutheran Synod Gathering last weekend where I witness a lot of shielding and grounding going on. In this case some people had grounded out their brains.  Checking their brains at the door like you would check a coat at the cloak-room.  To ground out is to kill potential, to eliminate all energy from, to short out consciousness.  It was very sad to see in action.   Thank God it was a small minority of people.

I wonder how someone becomes so engrained in a viewpoint that they cannot see beyond their myopic views.  Is it their shielding, or their blinders?  Maybe it's fear.  Maybe it's lack of curiosity or ambition.  They surround themselves with like-minded people breeding contempt for others who might think differently. 

Please let me know if you detect any of that in me, because the picture of this does not look so pretty.  

What's green anyway

I started doing some research into using renewable energy, solar, wind, water reclamation and the like. After our sustained drought we had, it occurred to me that if the predictions about our climate are even half right, we will be faced with a growing energy crisis.

I first thought about water. How much do I need? Do I collect just water runoff from the roof, or think about how to use the grey water I produce? I imagined putting in a 50 to 10 thousand gallon underground tank and initially use it for irrigation and pond supply. Underground since our neighborhood association is anal about things that stick up above fence line.

One of my colleges here are work quoted a very alarming statistic, "50% of the electricty generated is lost in distribution." Wow!

Faced with ever growing prospects of not having a job, gets me thinking what I could do to reduce my dependence on the grid to help reduced my costs. Maybe start an installation business on my own. PV modules at $1000 a pop for 200W are sorta over the top expensive. Inverters and storage are yet another major expense. I could just design my own inverter system. I have that knowledge.

More when I have more time. Anyone use Power4Home and can tell me whether it's a waist of time?

What is about life?

I was watching some archive footage of a gentleman giving His "Last Lecture" on Ophra show and want to comment.

I recommend it. Here's the link.
http://www.clarin.com/shared/v8.1/swf/fullscreen_video.html?archiv o=http://videosfla.uigc.net/2008/07/29/rp.flv

My step mother is dying of pancreatic cancer, but has taken the Eeyore approach and given up. It was hard for me to accept but she did not want visitors. She didn't have a phone so I sent her one of mine, but I never got through to her on it. She didn't want to talk with anyone either. According to by step brother, she barely tolerated him being there. Soo sad!

Something I've heard twice in the last week that made me stop and think. Once from Dave Ramsey and then again from the man giving this lecture. The character traits that I think are so important. Have integrity, show gratitude, and play hard. The lecturer has this to say and I agree with him. He summarizes it's not just "how to achive your dreams" but "how to live your life".

A. If you want to achieve you dreams you need work and play well with others and that means you have live with integrity. Simple advice that you'll find very difficult to follow. Just, TELL the TRUTH.
B. When you screw up, Apologize. Apologize the right way. It has three components.
1) Tell them "I'm sorry!"
2) Tell them "It was my fault."
3) Ask them "How do I make it right?"
The third element of the apology is very important, it show sincerity.
C. Show Gratitude.
D) Don't think complaining or wining solves any problems. You can choose to take your finite time, energy and effort complaining or playing the game hard. This is probably going to be more helpful to you in the long run.

Sorting My Thoughts

I start this with an eye towards sharing my ideas and inviting responses.

I'm reminded in this season that I have so much to be thankful for and so I'll start there.

I'm thankful for:
1) Life - It's definitely better than the alternative.
2) Family - I have a wonderful, gracious wife, 9 lovely children that keep me humble.
3) Job - My job is actually fun to do and keeps me learning.
4) Music - I do enjoy playing bass and guitar, especially with a group.
... I'll have to continue this later when I have time.