Rum? Beer? Thanks, I'll have both.

Life is too short for cheap beer. I'm sure we've all done this  and many of still do because they either actually like it (not sure how) or just don't know any better. I'm talking about drinking bad beer.

Well, I've gotten over that affliction. Long gone are they days of drinking "Natty Ice" because, "hey after the sixth one they don't taste so bad". I've moved on and this is the kind of thing I've move on to.

Innis & Gunn oak barrel aged beer is a delightful change from the usual. Don't get me wrong, I like a good IPA and I will gladly drink a hoppy beer, nice amber or good stout. The Innis & Gunn Rum Cask aged beer is unlike anything I have ever had before.

It's hard to describe. It really is one of the roundest beers I have ever had and the rum cask aging gives it a touch of sweetness that is seldom experienced. The flavor has the slight sugary aspect of the rum while being distinctly a beer. It hardly carries any after taste but what little after taste is does have is pleasant and almost vanilla. Also, at 6.6% 7.4% alcohol it is fairly strong. At twelve dollars for a four pack it is definitely a treat, not a staple.

So, I like the Innis & Gunn rum cask beer and I recommend that if you are a beer drinker you give it try. It is not an every day beer but it is nice to treat yourself to something a little out of the ordinary once in a while.

On another note, a couple of friends introduced me to an App that is on both Droid and iPhone called Beerby. It is fun, it combines my love of beer with gaming. I can earn accomplishments for drinking beer. Aside from that, it is a great way track the beers that you have tried and to remember the ones you like. I started from scratch last night so I look like a beer noob but don't let my current ranking fool you. I am a pro.

On Manhhod pt. 1 of ?

Out on my back porch, with a good cigar and and glass of scotch, I got to thinking about my life and about what makes me feel alive. As the cherry on the cigar started to burn my fingers and the 34 degree temperature bit at my face and hands I reminisced about the hard times when I have been tested. I remembered that being a man is dichotomy between the times when it is necessary to be steel and when is is necessary to be caring.

Many of the times when I have felt most alive have been when the odds are against me or when I could (maybe should) have been in danger for some reason. The thing about being a man in today's world is that so much of society wants us to not be what we are. Society tells us that all that we are is wrong, so much of what comes natural to us is seen by the current social order to be destructive and uncivilized. Men live in world where we walk the fine line between being creators and destroyers.

So begins a topic that I hope to explore at different points throughout the year. It should be an interesting ride.

Squirrel Carnage or Pumpkin Zombies

Myrrh promised that once the pumpkins were starting to rot I could take them out in the backyard and shoot them with my airsoft guns. The wildlife around my house thought differently about this proposition. The squirrel (big gray king that threatened to shoot more than once) beat me to it. I rather enjoyed the carnage though. I think he made a bigger mess than I intended to.

Merry Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve in New Hampshire.

Great Food

Great Company

Crafty People

Great Fun

Things are little slower up here, I think I can handle that.

These are ice candle holders made by my wife and my mother-in-law on the front walk up to the Surry house. I am the great position that I actually like my in-laws. How many men get to say that.

Merry Christmas Eve

Getting a Square Deal

I am a businessman at heart. I owned my first small business when I was 19. I was selling t-shirts and wrestling memorabilia on a website. I had little success to speak of, but I was well supplied with drinking money. In retrospect, that was a really bad idea. During college I was also a radio show host with one of my buddies for a local radio show. Josh and Joe's Big @$$ Radio Show on WPWR 97.9 "the power of central New York"; which we parleyed into our own DJ business for weddings, birthday parties ect. I've been a wedding photographer while I was a journalist for the Connecticut National Guard and I've always been dabbling in something.

Finally the business bug has stuck , I am going to opening a business with one of my good friends. Its actually a concept that we have both been dreaming and scheming for years separately. We have even known each other for several years not realizing we both wanted the same thing. Now we are going to make a go of it. I've been working on setting up the corporate structure and doing product research. Which brings me to the point of this post.

During my commute home, I was listening to NPR and I finally learned the origin of the term "Square Deal". It was a fascinating piece on George F. Johnson and his corporation, the Endicott-Johnson Co. They made shoes but what he really did was develop loyalty and turn away from the cold bottom line in favor of a corporate family.

George F. Johnson was a pioneer of fair corporate practices for his day. His factories in the 1940's were not just factories. They included schools, medical clinics, pools, recreation facilities, child care, the 40 hour work week, 8 hour work days, vacation and sick time and he offered the most competitive salaries in his industry. What is better is the fact that he really cared about his employees. He even built home for his them that they purchase at rates far lower than the average cost of home ownership in the rest of central New York. These were not shanties either, these homes where dream homes for his laborers.

My LLC will probably be only a handful of workers. I doubt I will ever run anything as big as Endicott-Johnson. This is because I really don't have an interest in anything that big, not because of lack of talent. This little known piece of history has brought me to two realizations.

First, the corporate structure lends itself to be completely uncaring, so you have to take special interest in running your businesses with the highest ethics and morals. Whenever you give the legal rights of a person to non-feeling entity (which is exactly what a corporation is) it is easy to consider employees as just cogs in a machine. It takes people with heart and conviction to make it be about something other than the bottom line. I want to run my business with heart and conviction.

Second, I am lucky to have my current career in the Army. There are certainly some individuals who think of Soldiers as expendable cogs in the machine, but they don't make it very far in the structure. Despite all the controversies, problems, complaints and politics;  most of us in the military get a square deal. Certainly, we get a better deal than many in the civilian sector. Which is appropriate considering all that we are expected to give for that deal.

Beer Night

Everybody needs a social event. Hermits live in caves but I'm sure that they talk to rocks and other being that they believe are listening. Beer night is my social event. It suits me. There are good people, good conversation and it is a good micro brewery. Have I had better? Yeah, there are obscure beers that have great "tines" and and all the other qualities people talk about when they try to sound smart but really don't know what they are talking about. This is really good quality beer and the location beats all. The manager at City Steam as well as many of the wait staff are considered more than just people who serve me. They are fixtures. They are friends. When it is time to get out of my own head, I meet my friends at City Steam. Thursday happens every week.

Beer night has been going on for about four years now and it is a tradition that I will continue for many more. I started when I was in my mid-twenties and it has continued now that I am thirty. I can see doing this for many years to come.

http://www.citysteambrewerycafe.com/

Veteran's Day

I'm keeping this short today. After my little tour in the sand box, this is the first year that I qualify as a veteran on Veteran's Day. Something about that gives me more of kinship to the warriors that came before me. To all the Vets from WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Persian Gulf I, OIF, OEF and any other unmentioned foreign service; thank you. It has been an honor and a pleasure to follow in your footsteps and and serve along side you. If you are still over there, make it back safe.

LT Brooks out.