Marc's Musings

Eating dinner with the kids tonight, my 7 year old daughter asked me if they could ask me they could repeat the all the words they’re not allowed to say and ask me what they mean.

What an interesting dinner discussion! Fortunately too, they didn’t throw me any curve balls.

We covered definitions, etymology, gestures. And why people use them even if my kids can’t.

I was so proud when the conversation moved into how God wants us to use our words. And how we can use our words to tear others down or build others up.

I was even more proud when my 7 year old daughter pulled out Wise Words For Moms. This is a useful matrix of negative behaviors, probing questions, and Scripture with to show how to put off the bad and put on the good. But my 7 year old daughter read it to her brother and sister.

My heart is very full right now.

(Even more so because she said the title should’ve said “Moms and Dads.”)

My sister-in-law is a crafty person. In alot of ways.

She knitted me a really cool looking thing. But didn’t tell me what it’s for.

Here’s a slide show of my family’s attempts at guessing what it could be.

Interestingly, there was nothing like it on her Etsy store (although there are really cool project bags there!).

What do you think this is?

Whipped this up for tomorrow’s Yankee swap. It’s a sampler of my three most recent brews:

• Stormy Seas Stout
• Fruite of Eden
• O’Darn Irish Red

It was a very popular gift item!

I did forget that six packs have four sides. So after the Yankee swap, I created this fourth panel.

A couple weeks ago, I shared a recipe for making muffins with beer. These were so good, I decided to try again.

This time I used my Stormy Seas Stout. The muffins were definitely darker than those made with the O’Darn Irish Red! But still tasty. And incredibly easy!

So, I decided to try out an almost too easy beer bread recipe that my friend Renee pointed to on the Farmgirl Fare blog.

 

This bread is, as we say in Maine, “wicked” easy!

Here’s the loaf I made with my hoppy Fruit of Eden beer. This tasted amazingly good. Especially with a ham and cheese sandwich!!

Stormy Seas Stout is my latest homebrew. I love stouts. My first beer, Bombadil, was a coffee stout.

This time I brewed a stout from NorthernBrewer.com called “St. James Gate Foreign Extra Stout.” I renamed it because it was brewed during a summer thunderstorm, racked the first time during a torrential downpour, and bottled six months later during a snow storm!

The addition of a second strain of yeast and the aging both work to mimic the funky, fruity undertones that developed in process of brewing a beer sturdy enough to withstand travel on the seas in Victorian ships. Guinness originally brewed this for travel to the Carribean, Africa, and Asia. Apparently, Nigeria is the largest market for this stout today.

Out of the bottle, the first thing you notice is this beer is black. Opaque. Black as midnight on a moonless night. (Remember that from Twin Peaks?) This is the way I like my beer.

Funky, fruitty it is. Not what I expect from a stout. But much more drinkable than my Mo Joe Stout Porter. It turns out, this stout is a lambic. So it’ll age well for over a year or more.

Which is good. I’m still now sure what I think about this one. But I’ve been assured the flavor will continue to change!

After putting up the tree today, I felt like doing some work in the kitchen.

I like baked brie, and my wife bought me a pottery bowl thing so I decided to give it a whirl.

The bowl was a bit smaller in diameter than the round of brie so I had to do a bit of “shaping” to get it in.

For a mix, I used

• 1/2 Cup of brown sugar,
• 1 T of a mixture of David Gulack’s amazing green jalapeño sauce, some yellow mustard, and a couple drops of Dave’s Hurtin’ Jalapeño Sauce
• 1/2 Cup of dry roasted sunflower seeds

The sweet and salt and spicy make a great flavor combination!

Getting in the mood, I even made some muffins. Beer muffins. Hey, when you’re a homebrewer and make a brew that doesn’t taste as good as you’d like, you’ve got to do something with all that beer!

The recipe was up at site called Group Recipes. These were almost as simple as the brie. Just mix:

• 4 cups baking mix
• 12 ounce bottle of beer
• 4 tablespoons sugar

Mix it and pour into muffin tins. Bake at 400 for 15 minutes. Voilà!

Easy muffins. Great brie. Settling in for the evening.

Tom Peters writing has had a big influence in my life. So when I saw this list of 46 things to do on the Business is Personal blog, I naturally grew interested!

That blog had you link to Tom’s PDF here.

For those of us who would rather read a list than click on a link, here are Tom Peters ideas of 46 things to be doing during this recession:

1. You come to work earlier.
2. You leave work later.
3. You work harder.
4. You may well work for less; and, if so, you adapt to the untoward circumstanceswith a smile—even if it kills you inside.
5. You volunteer to do more.
6. You dig deep, deeper, deepest—and always bring a good attitude to work.
7. You fake it if your good attitude flags.
8. You literally practice your “game face” in the mirror in the morning, and in the loo mid-morning.
9. You give new meaning to the idea and intensive practice of “visible management.”
10. You take better than usual care of yourself and encourage others to do the same—physical well-being significantly impacts mental well-being and response to stress.
11. You shrug off shit that flows downhill in your direction—buy a shovel or a “pre-worn” raincoat on eBay.
12. You try to forget about “the good old days”—nostalgia is self-destructive.(And bores others.)
13. You buck yourself up with the thought that “this too shall pass”—but then remind yourself that it might not pass any time soon, and so you re-dedicate yourself to making the absolute best of what you have now.
14. You work the phones and then work the phones some more—and stay in touch with and on the mind of positively everyone.
15. You frequently invent breaks from routine, including “weird” ones—“changeups” prevent wallowing and bring a fresh perspective.
16. You eschew all forms of personal excess.
17. You simplify.
18. You sweat the details as never before.
19. You sweat the details as never before.
20. You sweat the details as never before.
21. You raise to the sky and maintain at all costs the Standards of Excellence by which you unfailingly and unflinchingly evaluate your own performance.
22. You are maniacal when it comes to responding to even the slightest screw-up.
23. You find ways to be around young people and to keep young people around—theyare less likely to be members of the “sky is falling” school.
24. You learn new tricks of your trade.
25. You pass old tricks of the trade on to others—mentoring matters now more thanever.
26. You invest heavily in your computer-Internet-Web2.0-“cloud” skills.
27. You remind yourself that this is not just something to be “gotten through”—it is the Final Exam of Competence, Character and, even if you’re not a boss, Leadership.
28. You network like a demon.
29. You network like a demon inside the company—get to know more of the folks who“do the real work,” and are/can be your most important allies when it comes togetting things done seamlessly and fast.
30. You network like a demon outside the company—get to know more of the folks“down the line,” who “do the real work” in vendor-customer outfits and can be your biggest allies and champions.
31. You thank others by the truckload if good things happen—and take the heat yourself if bad things happen.
32. You behave kindly, but you don’t sugarcoat or hide the truth—humans are startlingly resilient and rumors are the real killers.
33. You treat small successes as if they were World Cup victories—and celebrate and commend accordingly.
34. You shrug off the losses (ignoring what’s going on in your tummy), and get back on the horse and immediately try again.
35. You avoid negative people to the extent you can—pollution kills.
36. You eventually read the gloom-sprayers the riot act. (Gloom is the ultimate WMD at a time like this.)
37. You give new meaning to the word “thoughtful.”
38. You don’t put limits on the budget for flowers—“bright and colorful” works marvels.
39. You redouble, re-triple your efforts to “walk in your customer’s shoes.” (Especially if the shoes smell.)
40. You mind your manners—and accept others’ lack of manners in the face of their strains.
41. You are kind to all mankind.
42. You keep your shoes shined.
43. You leave the blame game at the office door.
44. You call out the congenital politicians in no uncertain terms.
45. You become a paragon of personal accountability.
46. And then you pray.

I really like 25 and 38.

What are your favorites?

Check out more free stuff from Tom’s site here: http://www.tompeters.com/freestuff/index.php. There’s lots of great stuff there.

And if you haven’t read The Brand You 50: Or Fifty Ways to Transform Yourself from an ‘Employee’ into a Brand That Shouts Distinction, Commitment, and Passion!yet, go to your local library and get it now! (Or buy it on Amazon.)

I just finished writing a syllabus for MK337 “Marketing on the Internet,” a course I’ll be teaching in the spring at Thomas College.

I’m very excited about these 16 weeks! One of the projects for each student will be to actually market something, a prodcut, service, membership site…just about anything!

In addition to blogs and articles on the web, the text books include:

It’s an undergraduate course, but if you want to join us, I’m sure the Thomas College registrar might be able to help.

Did you see this story from Brazil: “Brazilian man shows up at own funeral”?

A Brazilian bricklayer reportedly killed in a car crash shocked his mourning family by showing up alive at his funeral.

Relatives of Ademir Jorge Goncalves, 59, had identified him as the victim of a Sunday night car crash in Parana state in southern Brazil, police said.

As is customary in Brazil, the funeral was held the following day, which happened to be the holiday of Finados, when Brazilians visit cemeteries to honour the dead.

What family members didn’t know was that Mr. Goncalves had spent the night at a truck stop talking with friends over drinks of a sugarcane liquor known as cachaca, his niece Rosa Sampaio told the O Globo newspaper. He did not get word about his own funeral until it was already happening Monday morning.

The whole story is on the Globe and Mail’s website.

Reminds me of Mark Twain’s

“The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated”

At least Goncalves is in good company!

This is my latest ale. A tribute to my enjoyment of hops.

This is a great beer. (It’s called Tongue Splitter from NortherBrewer.)

This is hoppy and fruity. Sort of citrus-y. In a really yummy.

And only 3% ABV. So you can enjoy more.