A New Experience - Vinting. Part 1

Hello!

Last night I began the process of vinting - that is, making wine. The entire process is rather easy with the right equipment. Each step takes about a half hour, with quite a bit of waiting in between. So last night I started - about 20-30 minutes of work.

For my first time I decided to get a "kit," which saves me the long time of growing, picking, and crushing grapes. Basically, the kit is a 4 gallon bag of crushed/juiced grapes, and a few packets of oak chips and other earthy flavorings. The juice I bought is Australian Cabernet Sauvignon - actually from grapes at a vinyard in Australia - not imitations.

So, the steps from last night are as follows:

1. Rinse and sterlize the fermenting bucket and all tools. I decided to do this twice just to be absolutely sure. I also used a natural sterilizing solution that I bought from a wine store and came highly recommended.

2. Add a half gallon to gallon of very warm water to the bucket, keep the water moving, and add the Bentonite - which is a clay like natural substance.

3. Add the entire container of juice and rinse the bag with clean water to make sure all juice is out.

4. Add the additional flavorings, in this case there were a few packets of oak chips.

5. Stir in all flavorings and juices well.

6. Add more water between 65 and 75 degrees to bring the mixture up to 6 gallons.

7. Stir well again for even distribution.

8. Allow water to settle, and evenly distribute active yeast on top of the mixture.

9. Put an air lock lid on the bucket and the air lock measuring unit on top in the grommet to monitor the bucket pressure.

10. Wait 6-7 days and test the mixture to prepare for the next step!

That's it for now! I ordered my labels last night, and I'm picking up some bottles today or tomorrow. 30 to be exact - that's how much wine I am making this time around!

Thanks for reading - a couple of pictures here:

Cycling, both on and off road, is a nice escape. Especially now that I have a new cell phone - I don't want to take it with me, so I can shut off the world for a little while.

Strategy. 1000 mph all day, ~16 mph in the evening.

current interests:

business

mtn biking

wakeboarding

drifting

hacking

video games

archery

road biking

motorcycles

martial arts

fitness

swimming

i don't know how to fit everything in my day, week, or even month. life is so busy!

Going For It

Nothing seems like enough. I try to think about people that really try to make it happen in their lives. Big business, world travel, extravagant vacations.

The only thing that seems like it would really make life FULLY worth it, is giving. I always say that I want to be so incredibly successful that I can give so much back. There is an organization that I love, that I wish I could partner with. I wish I was able to say, "hey, here is the money you need to take your organization to the next level."

I want to pay it forward. I truly believe that the more you pay it forward, the more it comes right back to you. It's divine power, God's will. It's faith and prayer.

In the last few months, living like this has dramatically changed parts of my life - And I intend to keep growing, and keep serving God, humanity, and my life to the best of my ability.

Make it Happen.

- Matt T.

Work

I've started at a new company. Ogilvy CommonHealth. What a great place to be. It's challenging, exciting, and busy. The best possible contribution to my life - it is inspiring organic growth in my mind. I have books on my desk about PMP exams, HTML - CSS - PHP - and Open Source Coding, mechanical and electrical engineering, and architecture. I just can't seem to not take an interest in something. It's actually a bit frustrating because I can't find the time to learn much, so I really need to pick one topic a week and rotate them. Probably repeat topics every few weeks so I can keep them fresh in my mind. Unfortunately a lot of my mental capacity is filled with work related items - so on top of natural blood thinners, I have been searching for herbal and other holistic ways to boost my brain power. any suggestions?

What's new? Nothing. Merrill Lynch backed down, that was a bummer. Listed my truck online for sale, so my minor source of income will be soon gone. Life is good though, God has a plan for me...I think.

What's next? Tomorrow, another day. I'm going to step up and update my GoDaddy account, so I can finally launch my new website Guerillacharity.org

This will be my newest venture, hopefully three of my other sites will sell, which are all intended for Cloud Computing based businesses. I have them listed cheap as well.

In the last 24 hours;

I refreshed myself in coding HTML

I read a book - The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

I watched a video discussing the expansion of the universe and then subsequently began studying the energy argument of matter vs. antimatter

I collected on my Receivable Accounts

I organized my tax information to be filed soon

I ran 6 miles

I thought of a few new ideas for ventures to start, but they're mostly charitable, doesn't pay

I rekindled a few old business/professional relationships

and I applied for a dozen more jobs in my area

I don't feel productive though. When I look at the list, it seems like I have, but I really feel like I've been sitting around.

I've met a new challenge in life - financially relevant decisions. They're strange, emotional, important, convoluted, clear, cloudy, sunny, whatever else you may want to attach to them. Decisions like my latest - sell my truck that's making me money but is impractical to own and creates a very inefficiently run bank account.

Time to reinvent efficiency in my life.

Life reinvention. I watched "The Social Network" last night. Fantastic. Inspiring and powerful. Facebook is valued at 25 billion dollars. Well I have no choice but to fuel my mind to work at 25 billion . Thoughts - recommendation from my father - Digital Marketing class and certification at Rutgers University. Master in Digital Technology Engineering online at Penn State, and find a job that can foster my growth in these skills as well as fund them! Funding, downfall. So how can I make funding "happen." Well, I could sell things, assets, cars, etc... Do more physical labor, always like that, keeps the mind and body aligned, but it gets old quick. Go through my old binders and notebooks and loose pages with inventions, business ideas, schemes of one sort or another - make one of them work. Who knows. Pray? Hope that works, seems to so far.

I'm sick of inspirational videos and books, radio broadcasts for positive thinking, books that show you how to DO IT ALL! MAKE IT HAPPEN! YOU CAN BE WHATEVER YOU WANT TO BE!

B.S.

Reading books and watching videos isn't going to make it happen. Need to go deeper, positive thinking is superficial. Organic growth of thought is more substantial. Constant and relentless puzzle solving in my own mind is substantial. Relentless. Come across an idea? Don't talk about it, just do it. And don't just do it a bit, be relentless. Rob Dyrdek has "Relentless" tattoo'd on his forearm staring him in the face every day. Look where he is at 30. He doesn't burn the candle at both ends, he burns 50 candles and never lets them go out, be that way. Be substantial, and make it efficient. I will. I am already. I always have been. It's been evolving the wrong ways, it's time to engulf everything.

- Matt.