Night Life and Trendy Dining at Whiskey Girl

Whiskey Girl in the historic Gaslamp District is a trendy restaurant bar combination that offers breakfast, lunch and dinner combinations. With 20 HD television sets and an open to street design it is a favorite for those who watch sports. Restaurant by day and dancing at night it draws a youthful crowd on the weekends. 

Whiskey grill hosts a full bar with domestic and craft beers. Beverage selections are discounted during happy hours as much as $3 with more exotic mixed drinks available at a higher price. Pricing is under $15 and includes appetizers, sandwiches, burgers, salads and pizza. 

Their signature dish is the Whiskey Burger. It is a serious burger for someone with a big appetite. Stacked with cheddar cheese, apple wood smoked bacon, Philly sirloin steak with sautéed onions and mozzarella cheese you won’t need anything to eat for at least a couple of days. 

Nearly every night of the week they offer a special on food/drinks and some form of entertainment. DJs, karaoke, and dancing are hosted to draw in the crowds and get them excited.  Lines can wrap around the entrance so you might want to come early before it gets busy. 

Whiskey Girl

702 5th Ave,

San Diego, CA 92101

http://www.whiskeygirl.com/

The Craftwork of Classic Car Auto Restoration

Last weekend I went down to Old Town San Diego and came across the Old Town O’Reilly’s Artist Alley offering the latest craft work on muscled and antique automobiles. Restoring an old car is not easy work and I can testify as there is always something that needs to be reworked and improved.   From painting, engine work, and electrical problems the task is daunting. 

The event hosted some of the best restoration work I have seen in a while. Many of the cars have been improved beyond their original factory glory with deep paint jobs and almost new interiors. The type of vehicles on display included everything from ice cream trucks to California style SUVs. I thought a few pictures are helpful. I believe this event was hosted by O'Reilly's Auto Parts.

The smallest part can sometimes give you the biggest problems. You can search and test for a month to find out that a $50 part would have solved all of your problems. Unfortunately, you just spent plenty of hours and lots of money fixing every other related problem. The people who restored these vehicles have a lot of patience and did much of the work themselves.

Healthy Living: Simple Brown Rice and Chicken Soup

The famous music composer Ludwid van Beethoven once said, “Only the pure in heart can make a good soup”. On this particular day I must have been pure of heart as I was able to pull off a solid Brown Rice and Chicken Soup. No point in eating out of a can when you can make your own food in a manner that improves health and nutrition. 

The ingredients of this soup are low in fat while still packed full of helpful nutrients. Chicken is loaded with protein that improves bone strength, improves metabolism, and enhances skin health (1).  Brown rice is equally beneficial as it contains fiber, encourages weight loss, and is a natural anti-oxidant that removes pollution from the body (2). 

I would suggest using lean white meat chicken but either type will work fine. In my case, I had left over rotisserie chicken and it was going to become bad unless promptly put into sandwiches or used up in some other way.  A few slices of dark meat may have made its way into the recipe.

The soup is around 120 calories per serving with 19 grams of protein.  Nutritional stats can be found HERE. 

Ingredients:

-3 cups cubed chicken

-1 cup brown rice

-1/4 cup onions,

-2 garlic cloves

-3 cups mixed vegetables

-8 cups chicken broth

Directions:

-Sautee the onions and garlic.

-Put in all of the ingredients except the vegetables.

-Bring to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes.

-Add the vegetables and simmer for 10 minutes.

 

Congressional Report Highlights Reduced Deficit With Looming Long-Term Problems

The Federal Deficit shrunk in 2014 by $170 billion according to the Congressional Budget Office. The report also argues that future problems with budgets may occur if federal laws relating to taxes and spending remain unchanged. The next few years look bright for the federal deficit and the labor market which will lose some slack as higher corporate profits push for expansion and the rehiring unemployed workers. The positive news comes with significant long-term risks where proactive solutions are needed.

A 15% increase in spending on Medicaid and a 5% increase in Social Security are putting pressure on the budget. Revenue is expected to increase 6% for individual income tax, 8% for payroll tax and 15% for corporate taxes to help release some that budget pressure. The increased revenue and high costs will have an impact on spending priorities.

Federal deficit held by the public will increase to 74% which is the highest since 1950. Additional debt held by the public will rise in 2018 irritating higher interest payments and other financial obligations. The higher debt will likely force large buyers of government debt to start raising interest rates thereby making the debt more costly and a greater burden to the nation. 

The actual report provides a stronger overview of debt in America and the recent improvements in economic development. Government should seek to find ways to simplify the tax structure and reduce the complexity that hinders investment in the country. Simplicity allows companies to make predictions and calculations further into the future and this has an influence on choices of companies to invest here or somewhere else.

Government spending is also a problem as a number of large programs create legacy costs that are difficult to maneuver around.  Large fixed obligations reduce flexibility.  Adjusting spending to shorter-term commitments and renewing those commitments when necessary helps to create some flexibility in handling debt while not locking down national resources.

Government is expensive and often not up-to-date in its overall operations thereby wasting taxpayer money and resources. Adjusting the system upwards in a way that improves efficiency, lowers fixed costs, improves infrastructure, and enhances the lives of its citizens is beneficial. Such movement requires a new way of thinking about government and its functionality. 

The processes of stagnation and rapid change are just as common in government as they are in business. As costs rise, revenue flat lines and competitors improve all organizations are either forced to change or wither into irrelevancy. Proactive small changes today lead to bigger solutions tomorrow. What happens if public servants focus on effectiveness and efficiency? Effectiveness being successful solutions and efficiency defined as the most cost effective way of operating that solution.

Research has taught us that there are many ways the government can adjust its operations, internal incentives, processes, procedures, revenue and spending activities to create a more effective and cost efficient system. Tradition and resource seeking stakeholders that benefit from large government spending are often the main catalysts behind a failure to change when that change is needed.

In the corporate world, companies that continuously innovate to overcome hurdles are more successful than those who are stuck in tradition or ineffective structures. Proactive management requires taking best practices from both research and governance successes in other parts of the world and incorporating them into the larger American model to push it to a higher level of functioning needed in modern markets. This cannot happen unless open-mindedness and proactive thinking focuses on short and long-term solutions.  Starting to change when revenues are high and balancing the budget with cost reduction can thwart significant problems in the future. As improvement continues additional savings are found and applied to reduce the debt and further improvement in the operational functionality of government entities.

If you want to get a highlight on teamwork and the type of personalities that can work together read a blurb on teamwork research HERE

Report

The Economic Outlook for 2014 to 2024 in 15 Slides from Congressional Budget Office

Webinar: From Silver Bullets to Embedded Assessments: Focusing on What Counts in a Distracted Educational World

Date: September 25^th, 2014 at 2-3:00 PM Eastern

Virginia Tech

Website: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/322017114

Education, writ large, has a tendency to look for and accept "silver bullets," uber-easy and uber-effective solutions to complex and complicated problems, without the necessary scrutiny. Unfortunately, this silver bullet search has taken our collective eyes off of more solid approaches to assessment in education. This webinar will move the conversation from silver bullets to embedded assessments in the teaching and learning process, resulting in "assessment for free." The concept of "assessment for free" results from situations where the focus is on creating learning environments/activities/experiences that naturally yield an artifact - presentation, product, paper, processing, performance - that can then be used to assess student learning and development. There is plenty of rhetoric and noise in today's educational systems; it's time to move forward proactively in creating instructional environments that focus on student learning and assessment, using the process itself as a catalyst. 

 About the Presenter 

Peter E. Doolittle is Assistant Provost for Teaching and Learning, Executive Director of the Center for InstructionalDevelopment and Educational Research (CIDER), and Professor of Educational Psychology in the Department of Learning Sciences and Technologies at Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia. His academic background includes 25 years teaching undergraduate and graduate students in public and private universities; using traditional, blended, and online formats; across several subject areas, including advanced educational psychology, cognition and instruction, constructivism and education, and college teaching. In addition, he created the International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, the Conference on Higher Education Pedagogy, and the Mastering Flipped Classes: Building Better Learning Environments professional development seminars. At Virginia Tech, he was awarded the University Alumni Award for Excellence in Teaching, the Certificate of Teaching Excellence and Graduate Student Advising Award from the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, and the Outstanding Teaching Award from the School of Education. His current research focus includes the investigation of working memory capacity and learning efficacy in multimedia learning environments. He has published more than 40 peer-reviewed articles and chapters, provided over 50 keynote and invited addresses, presented at over 100 conference presentations, and received in excess of $2 million in grants.