Made In The U.S.A.?

Do you remember when it actually meant something to buy a product made in the U.S.A.? Can it really have been that long ago?

Years ago Wal-Mart proudly advertised that they sold items that were made in the U.S.A. Now it's a almost a struggle to find a product in their store that isn't made in another country. Perhaps I exaggerate a bit, but they sure don't promote "Made in the U.S.A." anymore.

Personally, I prefer getting products made in this country when I can, and supporting US companies. I'm not saying that I would avoid a foreign made product, but if I have my choice of equal quality products, I would rather have the US made version. Some items don't have equal counterparts, leaving no choice, of course.

Why do I bring this up? Recently in the news has been talk of the failed launched of the Obamacare website. Regardless of how you or I feel about Obamacare in general is not the point of this post. The thing that really struck me in the news, other than the extremely high cost of the website creation, was where the company responsible for most of the work is located. The work was done by what is essentially a Canadian company, not a US company.

Why? Someone please explain to me why a government would give such a large contract of work to a foreign company. Shouldn't there be a law that government contracts go to companies in the country. I can understand if there are no domestic companies that provide the product or service, then reach out to foreign companies. I'm willing to guess that there are plenty of companies in the United States that are more than capable of creating websites. Maybe the problems would be the same, but why are we sending tax dollars to another country for a product that is supposed to "serve" U.S. citizens?

Playing Around With Photos At Work | According To Craig

I'm a photographer, and I even have a photography blog and fledgling photography business, Craig Pifer Photography. My day job at the Enchanted Forest Theme Park doesn't involve photography, but I still really enjoy the job. On Friday I took my camera to work with me just for the fun of it. I snapped a few photos and played around with them a bit.

This little waterfall can be found at the Tiny Tune Train ride in the Kiddy Ride area. It, and the surrounding decorations, were built by Roger Tofte, the creator of the Enchanted Forest Theme Park. I've dubbed this little fall as Tofte Falls.

Barbeque Chicken with Homemade Sauce - Yum!

I've been playing with making my own barbeque sauce. Why? you may ask. Frankly it's an effort to avoid some of the garbage that goes into store bought BBQ sauce, mainly high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). In my opinionated opinion, HFCS should be avoided as much as possible. I'm sure there will still be certain vices, perhaps a Dr Pepper or two, that I will partake in, but if there is an option without HFCS, that is what I will choose.

Anyway, I've come up with a recipe that is acceptable enough that it's worth repeating. It's not too spicy, which the rest of the family appreciates, not too sweet, which the wife appreciates. It tastes enough like a BBQ sauce to go ahead and claim that's what it is.

The first couple of times I made sauce, I then added in some canned roast beef (from CostCo) to make some BBQ beef sandwiches. Tonight chicken was on the menu and BBQ sauce was mentioned. The children all thought that sounded good, so I went with it. I had a bit of a mishap to start with, but our Vitamix solved that.

Reasons why I don't celebrate x-mess

A few years ago, I wrote a blog post here titled 7 reasons why I'm glad I don't celebrate x-mess. All 7 of those reasons are very true even to this day, but I've decided to go ahead and write a post about why I don't celebrate x-mess.

I could really make this a long post by quoting scriptures and articles and, well just a whole lot of things. That is not the purpose of this post. If you want more detail information, let me know and I can direct you in the right places.

Who Doesn't Like Pecan Pie?

Well, if you are one of the odd few that don't like pecan pie, then this blog post is not for you. I rather like pecan pie, although it seems that I don't have it, or make it, nearly often enough. Recently I remedied the issue of not having made it in quite a while.

I would like to share my experience, and recipe, with you. I hope that you enjoy it, and that you decide that it's been too long since you have pecan pie. Go ahead, you know you want to, try this easy recipe.

Just a quick blog post of nothingness.

I haven't really updated this blog, or any of my others, for some time now. I really should be more diligent with the blogging, but it seems that I am always busy with one thing or the other.

The main point of this post to to see if Google has managed, yet, to form some sort of integration between Blogger and the new Google+. More specifically if they have initiated an easy way to share a new blog post on the Google+ service. I'm sure that it would be fairly simple (what do I know, I'm not a programmer) to add sharing options to the publishing options in Blogger.

Anyway, that's the extent of my post for now as I investigate this.

Until next time...

Review: Roku XD digital video player (Part 2)

Well, I'm finally going to write up part 2 of my review. This will focus on connecting the Roku and going through the initial setup procedure.