A beautiful song by Staind

The Truth

Lyrics:

It’s 3 AM it’s cold outside you can’t sleep
Is it from your conscience talking to the skeletons you keep
Every time you try to speak only craziness comes out
But she can’t turn the other cheek
And you can’t hide how it comes out
So when did you decide to embrace what you hate to survive
Cause that’s not what got us here

It’s 8 AM and still no sleep
But you don’t care
I don’t know why I keep on calling
Does it get us anywhere?
Cause every time I try to speak
You never let my words come out
I can’t turn the other cheek
And I can’t help how this comes out
So when did you decide to embrace what you hate to survive
Cause that’s not what got us here

(continued…)

Today, I am officially the mother of an teenager…once again. It doesn’t seem like 13 years ago, I still look at him and wonder what happened to those years. Where could they have possibly gone so fast? He was a little boy, with bright blonde hair and cute baby dimples, yesterday or maybe the day before! Time passes, we can’t stop it. Just remember to hold on while you can, because before long, they don’t want you holding and right after that, they are pushing/pulling to get away—on to their own lives.

Happy Birthday, Baby!

To you, to us, a song to reflect…

(to my aunt, who passed away last year on this day)

I am thinking I must really be German as I am drawn to the classic hefeweisens (wheat beers) subtly flavored and crafted with care all over the world, but perfected in Germany.

“German wheat beers are called Weizen (“wheat”) in the western (Baden-Württemberg) and northern regions, and Weißbier or Weiße (“white beer” or “white”) in Bavaria. Hefeweizen (“Hefe” is German for yeast) is the name for unfiltered wheat beers, while Kristallweizen (“Kristall” is German for crystal) is the same beer filtered.

Sour ales such as Berliner Weisse, Gose, and Lambic are made with a significant proportion of wheat.

Weissbier (or Weißbier), as it is called in German, refers to several different types of wheat beer. The term Hefeweizen refers to wheat beer in its traditional, unfiltered form. The term Kristallweizen (crystal wheat), or Kristall Weißbier (crystal white beer), refers to a wheat beer that is filtered to remove the yeast from suspension. Additionally, the filtration process removes wheat proteins present in the beer which contribute to its cloudy appearance.

Weissbier is available in a number of other stronger forms including; Dunkelweizen (dark wheat), and Weizenstarkbier (strong wheat beer), commonly referred to as Weizenbock. The dark wheat varieties typically have a much higher alcohol content than their lighter cousins.

Alternate terms for Hefeweizen include: Hefeweißbier, Weißbier, Hefeweiße, Dunkelweizen, Weizenbock, or Weizenstarkbier. A Weizenbock is not necessarily considered a Hefeweizen unless it is left unfiltered.

The Hefeweizen style is particularly noted for its low hop bitterness and relatively high carbonation, considered important to balance the beer’s relatively malty sweetness.

Hefeweizen’s phenolic character has been described as “clove” and “medicinal” (“Band-aid”) but also smoky. Other more typical but less assertive ale flavour notes include “banana”, “bubble gum”, and sometimes “vanilla”.

Some prominent commercial examples of Hefeweizen are produced by Paulaner, Boston Beer Company, Erdinger, Schneider Weisse (original amber only), Franziskaner, Schweiger, Hacker-Pschorr, Ayinger (Bräu Weisse) and Weihenstephaner. The style is nowadays drunk throughout Germany, but is especially popular in its Southern German homeland.

Bavarian-style wheat beer is usually served in 500 ml, vase-shaped glasses.

Kristallweizen (especially in Austria) and American styles of wheat beer are sometimes served with a slice of lemon or orange in the glass; this is generally frowned upon in Bavaria.

In northern Bavaria, it is common to add a grain of rice to Kristallweizen, which causes a gentle bubbling effect and results in a longer lasting foam. A common item on pub menus in Bavaria is Cola-Weizen, which is a mix of cola and Weizenbier.

In different parts of Germany Bananenweizen (wheat beer with banana nectar mixed in) is very popular.”

(from Wikipedia.org)

(**Bananenweizen—I Have to try this!! It sounds like it was Made for me!!)

“WEISSBIER—AKA: Hefeweizen, Weizenbier, Weisse, Wheat Ale

Pronunciation guide for English-speakers: “vice-beer”

Definition: Weissbier means “white beer” in German. The name derives from the yellowish-white tinge that is imparted by the pale malted wheat from which the brew is made. Another common name for this brew is Weizenbier (“wheat beer”) because of the preponderance of malted wheat in the brew’s grain bill. According to German law, all beer that is labeled Weissbier or Weizenbier must be made with at least 50% malted wheat. Most Bavarian Weissbiers contain 60 to 70% malted wheat. The rest is malted barley.

A typical Weissbier/Weizenbier has a very characteristic flavor that is produced by the interplay between the Weissbier ale yeasts and the trace elements from the large portion of wheat in the brew’s grain bill. This flavor is variably described as clove-like, banana-like, phenolic, sour, spicy, or even bubblegum-like. Because of the complexity of the Weissbier flavor, these beers are only mildly hopped. This puts them in contrast to many blond lagers—such as the Pils/Pilsener, which are fairly strongly hopped for an assertive up-front bitterness.

For extra “spritziness,” most Weissbiers are also, what is called, bottle-conditioned or tank-conditioned. This technique involves adding fresh, unfermented beer to the finished and fully fermented beer, right before packaging the brew into kegs or bottles. At this stage, the finished beer still has plenty of live yeast cells in suspension that start a new fermentation with the added unfermented beer. In this process, the yeast converts the small amount of new sugar into additional alcohol and carbon dioxide. Because this final fermentation occurs in a hermetically sealed environment (the bottle or the keg), the new carbon dioxide cannot escape. Instead it is trapped in solution in the brew. This conditioning creates the Weissbier’s enormous effervescence. Only the filtered Kristallweizen cannot be bottle-conditioned—simply because filtration before removes all suspended yeast cells. Kristallweizens, therefore, are artificially carbonated.

A glass of Weissbier always sports an appetizing, tall, white, creamy head. A beer’s head is mostly dissolved protein that is dragged out of the brew by escaping carbonation. Because wheat has more protein than barley, and because Weissbier is made to be particularly effervescent, a Weissbier head is always particularly impressive.

Related beer styles: Kristallweizen, Dunkelweizen, Weizenbock, Weizendoppelbock, Weizeneisbock, Russ

A Noble Wheat Ale for the Common Man

Weissbier is one of the many beer styles created by Bavarian brewmasters. It was first made in the early 16th century in the Bavarian Forest (next to what is now the Czech Republic), around the same time that the first Bavarian lager styles, such as the Dunkelbier, the Märzen, and the Bockbier, began to appear, mainly in Munich. Today, just about every German brewery of note makes a Weissbier, including many breweries outside of Bavaria. There were periods throughout its almost 400-year old history, however, when Weissbier, like ale-making in general, faced an uphill fight for consumer acceptance, even in Bavaria, its land of origin. In fact, Weissbier-making, along with ale-making in general-almost came to a complete standstill in Germany in the 1870s.

This is when Carl von Linde invented beer refrigeration and installed the first functioning cooler for beer tanks in the Spaten Brewery of Munich. Before this monumental engineering breakthrough, all beers brewed in the summer months had to be made with warm- and top-fermenting yeast strains, that is, they had to be ales, because of the high ambient temperatures.

Only in the winter, when bottom- and cold-fermenting yeast strains thrived, did Bavarian brewers make nothing but lagers. With the advent of refrigeration, however, Bavarian brewers could make lagers year-round. The result was that, in the latter part of the 19th century, ale-making fell out of favor, first in Bavaria, then in the rest of Germany, then in all of Continental Europe and the world, even in the summer…and because Weissbiers are ales, they went the way of ales in general. For almost one hundred years, Weissbiers were relegated to a marginal beer style, brewed almost exclusively in Bavaria.

By the 1950s and early 1960s, the Weissbier share had fallen to below 3% of Bavarian beer production and many breweries no longer bothered with this style at all. The future of Weissbier did not look bright, except as a curiosity and a relict of the past. But a sudden—and largely inexplicable—shift in consumer taste after 1965, not only in Bavaria but in the entire world, triggered a rapid and spectacular Weissbier-Renaissance—a revival that has continued to this day! By 1994, Weissbier started to outsell even the Bavarian Helles, the traditional staple quaff in Bavaria’s legendary beer gardens. Consumer studies have since shown that Weissbier is particularly popular among young adults, both men and women, who are occupationally and physically active and consider the crisp and refreshing taste of Weissbier a fitting and indispensable part of their daily lives. In Germany overall, today Weissbier holds about 11.5% in market share. On its home turf in Bavaria it holds a market share of almost 35%, which makes it by far the most popular beer style there!

Weissbier Drinking Ritual

Because of its high degree of spritzy effervescence, Weissbier requires “special handling“ to ensure its proper enjoyment at the table or at the bar. It is best to store Weissbiers in a cool place before opening the bottle. The cool temperature prevents the beer from losing too much of its refreshing fizz when the bottle is opened. It is also best to keep the beer in a dark environment where the rays of the sun cannot reach it. This rule, incidentally, applies to all beer because sunlight is one of the greatest enemies of beer flavor. Prolonged exposure to sunlight can shorten a beer’s natural shelf-life dramatically, and even make it undrinkable.

Always store Hefeweizen standing up. This allows the yeast to settle at the bottom of the bottle. For a less yeast-turbid glass of Hefeweizen you can pour the entire bottle in one go, while leaving most of the sediment behind. If you prefer a more turbid glass of beer, you can empty the bottle only four-fifth of the way and then roll it flat on a horizontal surface to loosen the sediment. Then pour the intensely cloudy remaining one-fifth of the bottle in one fell swoop into your glass.

To accentuate the bouquet of the Weissbier, serve it in a tall, slender glass with plenty of room for the head—the best being a specially curved Weissbier glass. To prevent excessive foaming as you pour, rinse the glass in cold water but do not dry it. Then tilt the glass as you fill it. Also avoid greasy glasses, because they destroy a beer’s head. Though Weissbier is served with a lemon slice in many parts of the world, this is emphatically not a Bavarian custom. Bavarians believe that the lemon flavor obscures the true flavor of the Weissbier. They also believe that the Weissbier does not need assistance to taste satisfying and refreshing. On a more objective level, they also point out that the oils in the lemon juice have the same effect as a greasy glass, that is, they destroy the white creamy head that is so characteristic of a properly poured Weissbier and an indispensable part of the total Weissbier experience.”

(from the German Beer Institute, http://www.germanbeerinstitute.com/weissbier.html)

So, celebrate October (Octoberfest!!) with a hefty glass of Hefeweisen!

German words for “cheers!”—

“Ein Hoch” =”One up” (multi compatible)
“Ein Prosit der Gemütlichkeit” =”One Prosit to the sociability” (southern expression)
“Nicht lang schnacken, Kopf in Nacken” =”Don’t talk so long, head back” respectivly “Don’t talk so much, head in neck (…in direction neck) (northern expression)
“Hau weg die Scheiße” = “hew away the sh*t” (northern expression).
“Los geht’s” = “let’s go” (multi compatible)
and “Prost” of course.

This song came up under my playlist of “favs,” I had forgotten how much I like the video, it makes me want to get up and dance!

(I was “turned onto” this song by my sister-in-law, who heard it while visiting friends in Peru!)

(If you don’t already know what your Halloween costume will be, girls, why not get an Atrevete Girl costume, dress up with your friends!)

This word has been stuck in my brain since this morning in the shower, I must get it out of my head!

a•lac•ri•ty   n.

1. cheerful readiness, promptness, or willingness; eagerness.

2. speed or quickness; celerity (which will be the next word stuck in my head!)

syn. 1. eagerness, keenness, fervor, zeal 2. sprightliness, agility.

(from Dictionary.com)

ant. 1. apathy, disinclination, hesitance, indifference, reluctance.

(from Wiktionary.com)

a•lac’ri•tous   adj.

alacrity

c. 1510, from L. alacritatem (nom. alacritas) “liveliness,” from alacer (gen. alacris) “cheerful, brisk, lively;” cognate with Goth. aljan “zeal,” O.E. ellen, O.H.G. ellian. (from the Online Etymology Dictionary)

Of course, as I look further into this word, on Wikipedia, several Navy ships are named the Alacrity:

HMS Alacrity (F174), a Type 21 frigate of the Royal Navy

USS Alacrity (MSO-520), an Ability-class minesweeper

USS Alacrity (PG-87), an Action-class patrol boat

USS Alacrity (SP-206), an Alacrity-class patrol boat

(so, use this as your Word of the Day, in any way you possibly can…enjoy! I am off to look up “celerity!”)

(Why do many of my posts relate to me being in the car? I spend more time there than I want to sometimes, even though I love my car—being the chief chauffeur, errand runner, go-to girl finds me there for what seems like hours a day…hence the beginning of this next post…)

Red Lights. The obvious first, the traffic signal. I am convinced that I have some electrical current, that is opposite of what is programmed into the signal, as I approach, the signal changes—to whatever the opposite color it was 20 seconds before—no matter the time of day, the location of the signal, the intersection where it happens to occur, what the guy in front of me gets, whether I am in a hurry or not, if I have my fingers crossed. I am bound to get a red light. What is it about that traffic signal that doesn’t like me?

The first four-way, three-colour traffic light was created by police officer William Potts in Detroit, Michigan in 1920. The colour of the traffic lights representing stop and go are probably derived from those used to identify port (red) and starboard (green) in maritime rules governing right of way, where the vessel on the left must stop for the one crossing on the right. The universal standard is for the red to be above the green, and if there is also an amber it is placed in the middle. If the three-set lights are mounted horizontally, the red will typically be to the left of the green. The standards apply whether the country drives on the left or the right, but the placement of the mountings on the road would be mirror images of the other. (from Wikipedia.org)

The full run-down on the signal light (at Wikipedia) is impressively long, and if you are so inclined, please read on at the following link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_signal

But, we are now brought to other kinds of red lights…

A “red light” is also known as a safety light in photography language. The safelight is used in the darkroom as the source of illumination, it does not have the wavelengths of the light spectrum that would damage the photographically sensitive material affected by normal lighting. There are some films and papers that have different color sensitivities, but for the most part, a darkroom has a red light as it’s safelight.

There is a game we used to play as kids, Red Light/Green Light. We were always the smallest/youngest, either with our cousins or with kids when we traveled, so this game was not much fun—little legs just don’t run fast enough!

Snickers (the candy bar) has a great commercial with “Red light, Green light!”

Red lights are used in New York State as police lights (or has this changed in the past few years?!). A really good warning to slow down and watch out for what is going on around you! You surely don’t want a ticket in New York anyway, they can be very expensive!

Ambulance lights are red, and most nowadays are quite obnoxiously so! Especially at night! Can they get any more distracting? We even have the British-style big diagonal stripes on the backs of our ambulances in our county, I think each one of those big boys costs more than my ultimate dream house!

Another type of red light is the infamous “red light district.”

Described quite well at Wikipedia.org…

A red-light district is a neighborhood or a part of a neighborhood where businesses connected to the sex industry (sex shops, strip clubs, adult theaters etc) exist. In some red light districts prostitution may legally take place; other red light districts are known for their illegal prostitution scene. The term “red-light district” was first recorded in the United States in 1894, in an article in The Sentinel, a newspaper in Milwaukee. Other mentions from the 1890s are numerous, and located all over the United States.

The origin of the “red light” term is considered to be the red lanterns carried by railway workers (which were left outside brothels when the workers entered, so that they could be quickly located for any needed train movement) or the red paper lanterns (which were thought to be sensual) that were hung outside brothels in ancient China to identify them as such. The color red has been associated with prostitution for millennia; in the Biblical story of Rahab, a prostitute in Jericho, aided the spies of Joshua and identified her house with a scarlet rope, which saved her household from the massacre that a successfully besieged city usually suffered. During World War I, there were many brothels in Belgium and France; blue lights were used to indicate brothels for officers, red lights for other ranks.

One of the many terms used for a red-light district in Japanese is akasen (赤線), literally meaning “red-line”, apparently of independent origins from the English term. Japanese police drew a red line on maps to indicate the boundaries of legal red-light districts. They also have the term aosen (青線), meaning “green-line”, for a non-legal district.

They even have a listing of the red-light districts, again, if you are so inclined… (you can find that link yourself!)

There is even an album by Ludacris called Red Light District.

What red lights am I forgetting? Please, feel free to comment! Tomorrow, while you are in the car, count the number of red lights you sit at (remember you are spending precious time, of your life, which you will never get back just by the way!) and I will do the same, I bet I can beat you!

]]> http://mlmgraphic.wordpress.com/2009/10/08/red-lights/feed/ 0 mlmgraphic LED_Traffic_Lights http://mlmgraphic.wordpress.com/2009/10/06/girls-this-is-a-non-penis-day/ http://mlmgraphic.wordpress.com/2009/10/06/girls-this-is-a-non-penis-day/#comments Tue, 06 Oct 2009 21:23:42 +0000 mlmgraphic http://mlmgraphic.wordpress.com/?p=552 ]]>

Ugh!

The amount of frustration I have encountered today from beings with penises is unbelievable! Everywhere I look, whether it be in my rear-view mirror, in front of me on the road, on the side of the road, in the grocery store, in the parking lot, in the line-up at school, driving by my house, in the coffee shop, waiting for the ATM….they are Everywhere! Why?! Why can’t they just deal with the fact that they have penises and move on with it already? They have to display, with any action they possibly can, most of which are completely obnoxious, that they have a penis. And it has literally made them deficient…in so many ways I don’t even have enough room here to list them!

So, I am declaring it a Non-Penis Day! Girls, please, for your own good, just avoid them today. Steer clear, move away, speed up, slow down, veer, run, stop, circle, pass, high-tail it out of their way! They deserve to wait, at least a day—maybe for some, many, many, Many more days—to be given any attention whatsoever. They really are asking to be ignored, they may not say it in as many words (they never will in fact!!) but their penises have brought them to this day, and they must be made aware of the fact. Do Not Pay Them The Time of Day, Do Not Let Them Use Their Penises to Push You Around, Do Not Even Get Near That Sh*t With a Ten Foot Pole!

Sorry, I know I am not normally so graphic in my posts, but I have just had the most frustrating experiences today that lead me to believe that it is all due to the existence of penises in the world. I wish sometimes that they could go, but know very well that the world would not indeed be the world without the existence of all species, all sexes, all the time.

But, please, just for today, ladies—for your own good—leave that stuff alone!

Congratulations to the newly promoted Colonel! A full-bird, all for you!

Here is some trivia to go with that set of new, shiny birds...

In the United States Army, Air Force, and Marine Corps, Colonel (pronounced /ˈkɜrnəl/) is a senior field grade military officer rank just above the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and just below the rank of Brigadier General.

The insignia for a colonel is a silver eagle which is a stylized representation of the eagle dominating the Great Seal of the United States (which is the coat of arms of the United States). As on the Great Seal, the eagle has a U.S. shield superimposed on its chest and is holding an olive branch and bundle of arrows in its talons. However, in simplification of the Great Seal image, the insignia lacks the scroll in the eagle’s mouth and the starry rosette above its head. On the Great Seal, the olive branch is always clutched in the eagle’s rightside talons, while the bundle of arrows is always clutched in the leftside talons. The head of the eagle faces towards the olive branch, rather than the arrows, advocating peace rather than war. As a result, the head of the eagle always faces towards the viewer’s left.

Among all branches of the uniformed services, the rank insignia of the silver eagle is ordinarily worn in matching mirrored pairs, such as on the left and right collar or left and right shoulder of various military uniforms. Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps regulations specify that when worn in such fashion, the head of the eagle will always face towards the front. Hence, on the left collar or left shoulder, the eagle appears to be looking to its left and the olive branch is clutched in the left hand talon. On the right collar or right shoulder, the eagle appears to be looking to its right and the olive branch is clutched in the right hand talon.

However, when worn as a single insignia with no matching pair, such as on the patrol cap, garrison cap, or the front of the ACU uniform, there is a split between the services on which mirror image of the eagle should be worn. In the United States Army and Air Force, the eagle is always worn with “the head of the eagle to the wearer’s right,” with the olive branch clutched in the eagle’s right hand talons (see Army Regulation 670-1, paragraph 28-6 (a)(1)). In the United States Navy and Marine Corps, the eagle is worn with “the head facing forward” on the garrison cap (see Marine Corps Order P1020.34G, Uniform Regulation, paragraph 4005d(1)). Since the insignia is worn on the right hand side of the Navy and Marine garrison cap, the eagle is facing to the eagle’s left with the olive branch clutched in the eagle’s left hand talons, which is a mirror opposite to the wear of the single eagle for Army and Air Force officers.

The United States rank of Colonel is a direct successor to the same rank in the British Army. The first Colonels in America were appointed from Colonial militias maintained as reserves to the British Army in the American colonies. Upon the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, the rank of Colonel could be appointed by a Colonial legislature, where a person would be given a commission to raise a regiment and serve as its Colonel. Thus, the first American Colonels were usually respected men with ties in local communities and active in politics. Such was the origin of the term “soldier and statesman”.

The first insignia for the rank of Colonel consisted of gold epaulettes worn on the blue uniform of the Continental Army. The first recorded use of the eagle insignia was in 1805 as this insignia was made official in uniform regulations by 1810.

In the modern United States armed forces, the Colonel’s eagle is worn facing inwards with head and beak pointing towards the wearer’s neck. Of all US Military commissioned officer rank, only the Colonel’s eagle has a distinct right and left insignia. All other commissioned officer rank insignia can be worn on either the right or left side.

Colonels are sometimes referred to (but not addressed) as “full-bird” or “O-6″ (which is their pay grade) in order to differentiate between Colonels and Lieutenant Colonels, since Lieutenant Colonels are also referred to and addressed as simply “Colonel”. In the Army a Colonel who has been selected for promotion to Brigadier General is authorized to use Colonel (P) (as in Promotable) when signing official documents. In all other branches the officer still uses Colonel until the date of his actual promotion.

An old Army saying, contrasting the leaf insignia of majors and lieutenant colonels with those of a general goes, “Once the leaves fall there’s nothing between an eagle and the stars.”

(from Wikipedia.org)

Go forth and conquer with the new insignia!