Microbrews. Gotta Love ‘Em.

With a purposeful growl and a terrible sound
He pulls the rack of kegs all down
He picks up a bottle and he throws it back down
As he wades through the kegs toward the center of town
“Oh no!”, they say, “He’s got to go go Dogzilla”

Quoted from the label of a bottle of Dogzilla

This is my first ever review of a beer on my site.   Truth to tell, the real review would have been if you could have been sitting over my shoulder watching me type about sixteen errors in the first five sentences. 

Dogzilla is brewed in Ponderay, Idaho by Laughing Dog Brewing.   Fred Colby and Michelle Douglass are the owner/operators of the brewery.  Dogzilla is an India Pale Ale (IPA) which has a dark malt twist to it; it is black and very hoppy.  My impression was that the taste was very smooth and the beer offered little to no aftertaste.  My very first swallow actually felt warm as it reached my stomach.  IPA’s are not normally one of my favorite beers but Fred and Michelle have put a serious hurting on that belief with this brew.   The flavor is sharp and unique but not bitter like most IPA’s.  Although I have not had one in years, I think that this brew would go very well with one of my fave cigars - the Macanudo.  DogZilla is bottled in 22 ounce (yeah that’s more than a pint) bottles which isn’t a bad thing either; at least from where I sit.

As a side note, the Pale Ale is also one of my favorites from Laughing Dog and is my choice when out at my favorite dining establishments like this one and rumor has it that there will be a new brew coming out very soon.   If you haven’t had the opportunity to try one of Fred and Michelle’s brews, do yourself a favor and make the opportunity;  you won’t regret it.

As far as Dogzilla’s concerned; be careful of him.  This is one dog that not only walks over the top of buildings but he is an expert at hiding behind them and sneaking up on you when you’re not looking.

 

And You Wonder Why?

My partner and I have had some interesting discussions lately and have both posted on some of those discussions recently over at Trolling for Retreads.  I have also duplicated some of these posts here as well.  We are two police officers who both are libertarian and believe very strongly that there should be less governmental intrusion into our (read as everyone’s) lives.

Some of our more recent blog posts have dealt with issues involving ethics.  One post is about some officers who are currently active and another is about a retired officer.  The truth of the matter is that whether or not one is active or retired is one of those things that just doesn’t mean squat to anyone.   Tim wrote a great paragraph describing that in this post and I want to quote it here because it is so important.

Have you been to the doctor lately? Did your doctor say, “Before we begin, I wanted to let you know that I graduated from the Univeristy of Washington Medical School. I interned at the Mayo Clinic, where I worked with Dr. Nogginkraker, the world-famous neurosurgeon. I am certified in liposuction and rhinoplasty, which I consider the most progressive form of recycling. I also hold certifications in G.H.U., A.S.S., B.S.U., and K.I.S.S.” If he did, run screaming, then find a new doctor.

The people you come into contact with every day (even other officers) DO NOT CARE if you are a D.R.E., B.T.S., C.V.S., A.T.M. (ass-to-mouth, people), etc. They don’t care that you are the “traffic guy” or the “narcotics guy”.

The point I am trying to make here is that we’re all human and unfortunately, just like anywhere else, we are sometimes guilty by association.   That is, when some dumb ass cop in B.F. Idaho does something really stupid or violates someone’s civil rights; all cops everywhere else vicariously look like a bunch of flippin’ idiots because of it.

My definition of integrity has always been, “Do the the right thing even when nobody is looking”.  Some police officers do the right thing under any circumstance and hold themselves to a higher standard.   Cops are looked at differently because of what they do - and rightfully so.  Notice I said that this is “what we do” because there is much misconception by the public (and some officers) that this is “who we are”.  It’s only a job folks; it pays the bills.  Like Tim said, ”We are garbage men”.   When this realization hits one in the head like a brick, life in general and our place in it become crystal clear; it becomes easy for an officer to understand that they are no better than anyone else.   Yet there are some, even still, who have very “heavy badges” and think that the rest of the world owes them something because of it.    That comes under the classification of “just wrong”.

Having said that, in the article I wrote about not being above the law, I said that over the past 12 years I have been able to grow a very thick skin.  There’s a reason for that.   In 2002, I arrested a person for DUI and the next thing I know, I was being investigated by the F.B.I. for a criminal civil rights violation.   Yes it’s true that in this job, even when you do everything right, you can still be sued.   Although that was a really extreme example, it makes a good point.  More often than not, officers get investigated internally for any complaint made against them by the public and the number one reason people complain is that they’re pissed off that they got a ticket, or worse…a parking ticket!!!  An officer can arrest someone and have to use higher levels of force requiring visits to the hospital for medical clearance and they’re just doing their job but don’t you dare write a ticket, that’s like a mortal sin against humanity.  When an officer writes a ticket and the complaint comes in, they are inevitably an embellishment or twisting of the facts;  written in such a way that one would think that the person had received forty lashes on the side of the road.

Now let me show you an example!   Below is a video from my car camera of a traffic stop I did on August 29, 2004 at 9:00 in the morning.  A regular traffic stop, I smelled alcohol, talked to the person for several minutes, issued her a speeding citation and sent her on the way.  The entire thing took about eight minutes.  (Note:  I removed 11 seconds of the video from 9:08:43 to 9:08:54 to protect the identity of the offender)

To make my point, I would now like you to read the letter that was sent to my supervisor by this person, in reference to this stop.   (The link will open to a document.  Clicking on the document will enlarge it)

…and people wonder why the police can be so detached and unemotional!!

 

In Search of a New Sith Lord

Lords and Bishops arrive in Sydney for World Youth Day

What an outstanding place to look for an apprentice.
I have not laughed this hard in awhile.

Many thanks to my good friend Isaiah!

 

Actions - Louder Than Words? Oh My Poor Parents!

I have been able to track down some of my rebelliousness back to my earliest years; those times when I was a child and can remember being the life of some of the parties that my parents hosted at the house – much to their aversion. At least I thought I was the life of the party anyway and there was a reason for me thinking that way. My dad was the absolute king of “one-liner” philosophy. If there was anything that we did that he didn’t like, he had a one liner for it. A couple of his favorites for his children were “children should be seen and not heard” and “actions speak louder than words.”

I think that one of the reasons that I became such a party favor was that I have always had the innate ability to take something that was said and twist it around in order to be able to use it to my advantage; an ability that has not lessened over the years. While my dad was the king of one-liners, I was the king of one-timers; that being something that I would only get to use in my dad’s presence once. In this case, what I did was first combine the two jewels of wisdom and remove any reference to communication since it wasn’t allowed anyway. I was able to come up with “actions from children should be seen.”

Once I came up with the translation that worked for me, I could then add the communicative references back into the mixing bowl; beat it rapidly for four or five minutes and come up with a finished product that sounds like: “Actions from children should be seen because they say a whole lot more than the words you’re not supposed to use anyway.”

I love my parents dearly and I will forever be thankful for the amount of patience that was granted them because the amount that it must have required to raise a child like me can only come from one source; God. I can only hope that I am blessed with as much. My greatest fear is that my son will be either like I was or God forbid, worse. I freely admit that if anyone is deserving of the parent’s curse, it’s me. Let me explain why by telling you a little bit about what my parents went through in the process of raising me. Remember that these are only a few examples and don’t even come close to the totality of what it was to have had me in the household as an inquisitive child with an overactive imagination.

When I was a baby, I managed to figure out how to climb up and over the top of my crib rails; I just didn’t know how to get down properly. Of course, I took the easy route and simply did a header onto the wood floor which required a trip to the emergency room and several stitches in my chin. Then, not to be outdone by myself, one week later I did the same thing again and repeated the entire process to include the emergency room visit and more stitches because I broke open last week’s wound. I also busted the same spot open on my chin during recess one day when I was in the first grade. I haven’t done it since then so there is hope.

Imagine you’re a parent out on a nice Sunday afternoon spending time with the family shopping for plants, shrubs and trees. You hear a loud crash followed by a thud and a grunt. The very first thing that you do is to look around for your son because deep down inside, you just know that he is somehow involved. That was my parents and I was the only kid that I’ve heard of who ever tried this. I decided to go exploring on my own around the nursery and I found my way to the back side of the greenhouses where the big bags of peat moss and manure were stacked up right next to the greenhouse and up to near the roof – and I was like…SCORE!!! I climbed up to the top of the stacks and stood there looking at the roof of this greenhouse for several minutes before it came to me that it would be really cool to walk across to the other side and say hi to my dad. I don’t want to keep you in suspense any longer. Yes, I started walking across. I actually made it across five panes of glass before falling through and landing in the rose bushes. It gets better though. Instead of simply getting up and walking out of the door like a normal person, I went out the same way I came in. That’s right, up in the inside wall and out of the hole in the roof. (I only kicked out one more pane)

My favorite person in the entire world is my Aunt Ginger. She always has been and still is, even today. I used to love to go visit with her at her house in Oakland, California. I absolutely loved her house because it was one of the coolest houses ever for a hyperactive kid to go exploring in. One of my favorite things to do at her house was go out on the deck and hang off of the rails. It didn’t matter to me that they were about fifteen to twenty feet off the ground and that I would have to scream bloody murder to get Aunt Ginger outside to rescue me because I didn’t have enough strength to get back up on the deck. One day, I even found my way onto the roof and decided it was a good idea to go next door and visit the neighbors.

Wow! Actions really DO speak louder than words, don’t they?

 

Reflection

Thanks to my friend Heidi…or at least her friend Michelle, I had to go visit Mr. Picassohead and try my hand at a self portrait after seeing it done on Heidi’s post here.  It actually didn’t turn out too bad.  I call it “Pondering”.

Thanks Heidi and Michelle!!

 

Word of the Month

A Caledon, Germany police Captain claimed to have been given permission by the victim of an automobile crash to take the hubcaps and floor mats from the vehicle even though the victim had been decapitated.  An internal investigation by the department found that the decapitated victim did indeed give the Captain permission.   However, a court of law was not so agreeable.  The Captain was sentenced for theft.   Funny (not) thing was that the very next day, he was appointed as the Station Commissioner.  What!?

In honor of this not so auspicious occasion, the word of the month for July, 2008 is Dopeler Effect.  Dopeler effect is the idea that really stupid ideas seem to be smarter when they come at you rapidly.

Click here for the entire article.

(HT:  Jerry Lerman)

 

Simple?

Black Holes Have Simple Feeding Habits

Black Hole in Spiral Galaxy M81

THEY EAT EVERYTHING

What else does this remind you of?

Click here to see the NASA Site Gallery Photo.

Image Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Wisconsin/D.Pooley & CfA/A.Zezas; Optical: NASA/ESA/CfA/A.Zezas; UV: NASA/JPL-Caltech/CfA/J.Huchra et al.; IR: NASA/JPL-Caltech/CfA

 

An Excerpt

I’m plugging right along on my book although it has gone slower than expected since the arrival of this little person in my life.  That’s totally OK though.  I dig him a lot.   I figure I might be done by the time he’s two or so.

At any rate, I would like to share with you an excerpt from the book that I am writing and I would like you to feel free to provide feedback to me whether it be positive or negative.  This particular excerpt is a lead in for James 1:2-18

Thanks for reading!!

It took me a couple of days to get started on this chapter because I had a serious case of writer’s block and the best I could come up with in two days was the title line. One morning I had an epiphany; writer’s block is a tool used by God to remind me to invite him along, ask for His advice and follow His lead. So after this revelation, I remembered to ask God to lead me where He wanted me to go; and of course, he did. “Ask and you shall receive”. Oh yeah!

While I was sitting and contemplating what it was that I was supposed to write about this section of James, I received a little nudge. Well maybe nudge isn’t the correct word. This was more like what I call a 2X4 experience. That’s when God nudges you in the side of the head with a 2X4 so that there is absolutely no doubt, not one bit of grey area, in what He’s trying to tell you. That nudge was to write about the experiences of my life. “Why?” I asked. The answer was, “Do you remember Job?” You see, once upon a time, I had everything. I was young, energetic and ambitious. I was, in fact, immortal. I had been on foreign soil before my class even graduated from High School and by the time they got out of college, I had been around the world three times and had come back home again. Here at home, I had everything I could ever want; a great job, plenty of money and very few debts. I bowled three times a week, played softball twice a week with tournaments on the weekends and even had time to coach little league baseball. As if my schedule wasn’t full enough, I also made plenty of time for carousing, trolling and other pleasurable activities. I was a happy, happy person. I lived in the best apartments, drove a new car every couple of years and had a near perfect credit rating. I could get anything I wanted, anytime I wanted it. Life was totally awesome.

When I turned 27, my direction changed to a downhill course and the slope was not gradual either. Between the ages of 27 and 30, I got married; I moved to a new state, a new job, watched everything in my life fall apart and then got divorced. I was bankrupted, broken and buried three fingers deep in a bottle of Jack Daniels. In three years I went from having everything to having absolutely nothing. At one point during this time, I actually sold everything that was ever important to me simply go I could go out at night and party.

Job’s life was also about happiness turned to emptiness. His life was about trials and tribulations. It was about losing everything he ever had and still remaining fixed on the one thing in his life that was an anchor for him; the Lord. Job’s life also described my life. The difference was that I had no anchor except for the heavy ones that were dragging me under.

Sometime during 1996, I was working as a full time Air Force Reserve Training Instructor in San Antonio, Texas. One day while sitting on my front porch, I went into a kind of trance and felt an urge from out of nowhere to pursue a dream from my childhood. That urge led me to pick up, move somewhere new and seek a new life and new career as a police officer. I went into the house and laid a map of the United States down across the kitchen table. I closed my eyes and pointed to the map. With one point of a finger, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho turned out not only to be my destination, but also my destiny.

Within two months, I had transferred my military service to Great Falls, Montana, sold everything I owned except what I could carry in the cab of my truck and left Texas. I didn’t have a job, a place to live or any clue that it was the Holy Spirit that was actually leading me to where it was I was supposed to be. I had no idea that everything that was happening to me was the will of the Father. This unknown that I was heading straight for would lead me to my new life, my new wife, my new purpose and to a summer day in 2003 when I would fall down on my knees and cry out to the Father for forgiveness and accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.

Yes, my life followed the pattern of Job’s. In the years since 1996, God has blessed me greatly. Don’t get the wrong idea though! God has not handed anything to me on a silver platter. If I was to write about the totality of my experiences with God over the last eleven years, the text would rival War and Peace for length. It is sufficient for me to say that patience is my lesson in this life and I am pretty darn sure that the Lord delights in teaching it to me.

I have had to wait for everything that I consider to be worthwhile in this life; my wife, my career, my home, my church family and most recently, my son. While that might sound like whining, it really isn’t. I look at life through different eyes now and I understand the purpose behind everything that I have had to wait for. I have been given a glimpse of the bigger picture which is a blessing that a lot of people never get. Very simply, because I have been made to wait on them, I now appreciate the blessings that I receive more and I give credit where credit is due. Everything here is God’s. He just allows us to use it for awhile. I am also learning to let go and trust that God’s timing is perfect. What’s funny is that I almost wrote “have learned”.   AS IF!!

Just like Job, I have now been blessed greatly by the Lord; so much more than I ever was before. The difference between my life and Job’s – I think he deserved it while I question whether I really did or not.

That’s what grace is all about.

 

My Wordle Collage

Click on the the picture for a full size (readable) version.

I think that it’s really cool that the largest word is “SEARCH”. Kinda fitting.

 

A Switch

I finally got sick and tired of getting the infamous error that has become a frequent flier on my computer since I.E. 7 came out.  You know it;  it goes something like this.

Internet Explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close.

Sheesh!!  How many times does it need to close and send error reports before they figure out the damn problem.

I have now switched over to Mozilla Firefox as my default browser and I am going to use this for awhile and see how it operates.  So far, I find it to be more reliable and much faster.  It will take time for me to get use to the browser not displaying graphics and some fonts like I am used to but hey, this could be a lesson in patience.   I look forward to exploring all the add ons!!

Ah, more toys to play with…