Beginning

This is my first post. I decided to gear up for the new year (yes, I know it's five weeks away) by starting to blog about a few of the things I enjoy.

Free: I like freedom. I mean real freedom. I am a staunch anarcho-capitalist. I believe the saying that "that government governs best which governs least", which (according to Thoreau) means that the ultimate government would govern not at all. I believe that taxation is robbery (money taken from you at the point of a gun), that the military are hired killers (albeit our hired killers), and that everyone should have the right to have (and defend with force) their life, liberty, and property.


Beer: I like good beer. This does not refer to beer made by Anheuser-Busch, Miller, or Coors. Even though I spend time in Mexico, it does not refer to Corona, Sol, or Tecate. (Although I have been known to drink the latter in a pinch.) I prefer ales with body, flavour, and bitterness. Pale Ale and IPA are generally my favorite styles, followed by Porter and Belgian Ale. Guinness, which seems to be a favorite of amateur beer snobs, is only moderately good beer, and generally overrated when bought and consumed in the US.


Shots(1): I like good tequila. The word "shots" is a bit of a misnomer since I don't actually "do shots" of good tequila. Good tequila is for sipping, like good scotch whiskey. I don't drink Cuervo, especially Cuervo Gold. That is nasty tequila. I prefer reposado tequilas, which are barrel-aged and have wonderful, complex flavors. Sometimes I even drink añejo tequilas, which are aged even longer, but sometimes are too mellow and lose the agave flavor. My current tequila of choice is Afamado reposado.

Shots(2): I like to take pictures. I take posed pictures of models, and I take pictures of events. I take pictures when I travel, and pictures of my friends. I got an annual pass to the San Diego Zoo so I can go take zoo pictures, but I have only been once so far. (My trip to the Wild Animal Park was postponed because of the wildfires last month.) I will certainly be sharing some of my pictures here, since I love creating photos for fun, photos for art, and photos to share. Over the past year I have started doing more photography in Mexico, and with my photo partner Thomas, have been delivering a lot of photo prints to various people in Tijuana (my usual site for non-US photograpy). I'm always looking for beautiful people, places, and things to take beautiful pictures of.


The World: I like to travel. I've been to more than half of the fifty US states. I've been to Canada and Mexico, several countries in Europe, and to Brazil. I enjoy learning languages (I speak German and English fluently, and study Spanish and Portuguese at the moment). I love to experience new cultures, meet new people, eat interesting foods, hear different music, and see fantastic places. One of my favorite college classes was Intercultural Communication, and I hope to work toward a college degree in International Culture & Commerce. I love that the Internet is allowing people around the world to have greater understanding of each other, while cursing those who attack and denigrate those whose culture is different.


You'll likely see a few other topics come up from time to time. I do enjoy computer gaming, so I'll surely talk about that. I'll probably talk about my "day job", which is managing Unix computer systems for a major US defense contractor. I've started paying more attention to health and fitness in the past few years, which is becoming more important as I near age forty.

And that's all for today!