Rookie Guru

So these chicken pizzas are really easy to make and super tasty.  They require just a few ingredients and just a little kitchen know how.  With just a little effort and a little time, you will have something tasty to satisfy any craving! Ingredients: Here is what you will need to make 4 mini chicken pizzas: 2 Chicken Breasts (I use Costco frozen breasts) 1 Tomato 1/2 Small Onion 1/2 cup Shredded Cheese or to you liking Naan Bread (Pita bread can also work) Mrs. Dash Garlic Salt Optional: Accent (MSG) Prep: Preheat oven to 400 deg F Dice up the tomato Dice up the small onion Shred Cheese (or just buy pre-shredded) Cook Chicken Cook Chicken So for the chicken you can cook it a couple ways and doesn't really matter.  Just depends on your preference.  I like to fry mine in a fry pan seasoned with Mrs. Dash and some Accent (MSG).  So just fry it till it's done to an internal temp of 165 deg F.  Another option is to just boil it which is really

The King never dies so I have brought him back for Flashback Friday...  You know, to hit 10 million albums sold now days is not as huge of a feat as it was in 1956.  Now days most music is purchased electronically.  But back in the day they actually had to make records.  So making and selling 10 million was a big deal! Elvis's music career began in 1954 where he started recording with Sun Records with producer Sam Philips.  In 1955 RCA took him on and continued to manage him for more than 2 decades.  In January of 1956 "Heartbreak Hotel" was released and soon became the number one hit.  Elvis went on to make movies and had an off and on again relationship with his music..   He spent most of the 60's focusing on films and in 1968 he finally returned to live performances.  Sadly in 1977 he passed away at the age of only 42 at his Graceland Estate. Whether you like his music or not, one thing is certain he was the king of blues and rock and roll that launched

Ok, this past week our well pump died and we had no water for a few days till we got it fixed.  Even though it hurt the wallet to have to fix, I was grateful to have running water again!  Made me realize how important water really is and how bad it sucks when you don't have it.  So today I am thankful for running water! As I went a few days without running water I learned, I need to be more prepared!  We did have drinking water, but what about flushing toilets, washing hands, washing dishes, doing laundry, taking showers, and water for the animals?  Water is so vital to every day life, what do you do when you don't have it?  Luckily I have some friends who had a water truck and brought us a bunch of water to get us by.  None the less, it still wasn't running water and oh how grateful I am for having running water again! So many people in the world currently don't have or may never have had this amazing blessing of running water or clean water for that matter.

So we have all been there... TV remote no longer works, we open it up and BAM!  Batteries are all kinds of corroded and nasty.  Well, why does that happen?  The answer is the batteries have gas. Maybe too much Mexican food the night before eh?  But seriously, they do get gassy...  So why? First off, what are batteries made of?  (sorry, some chemistry is about to happen...)  Typical batteries are made up of Magnesium Dioxide, and a moist paste of  Zinc mixed with potassium hydroxide. Then has a carbon rod and metal end caps to finish it off. Source: Wikipedia So batteries can leak for a couple reasons.   Outside forces such as heat or physical damage causing  it to leak As the battery runs dead some things happen chemically...  I am not going to focus on #1 since that is pretty self explanatory, so will focus on #2 and what happens to cause that battery to leak in your precious TV remote. Batteries can run dead in a device due to heavy use, small standby leak

So, I don't like to shop as it is, but when I go shopping and it's super crazy, I definitely don't want to go shopping.  There is nothing worse than trying to get in and out of a store for the things you need when oblivious people are walking all around!  When I shop, I like to get in and get out as fast as I can.  Unless that store is a guitar store or hardware store, then I may just get "lost" for while... There is almost nothing more frustrating than people that walk around oblivious to their surroundings.  Walking slow in front of you, stopping and blocking the entire isle, or just cutting you off as you walk between isle's.   Or even that crazy fast person just pushing their cart like they are in the Indy 500 and almost running you over (oh wait, maybe that's me sometimes...). At any rate, lets all be aware of our surroundings.  Be courteous, aware and don't stare... :) #RookieGuru #GiveMeMore

I love cars, especially the fast and cool looking ones.  I used to drive a 1972 Chevy Nova and was a fun fast car, but how I have dreamed to drive a "super car" as they are called.  Well, for Fun Day Monday, I thought I would share my list of dream "super cars"!  We can all dream right?!  So here are my Top 10 dream cars.  And I love charcoal grey and white :) 10. Tesla Model S ($90k-$140k) This may not be so much of a "super car", but it sure is iconic and beautiful.   Would love to drive one of these bad boys with the huge LCD display/dash, fast acceleration and sleek design. Not to mention it is electric, so has that cool factor! 9. 1968 Ford Shelby Mustang GT500 (~$150k) Ok, this car was made super famous from the movie "Gone in 60 Seconds".  None the less, I have wanted one of these sweet rides since I can remember.  I am not a huge ford person, but I would take on of these in a heartbeat.  Pure American power and dreams right t

Man, I love these stories, well, the movies anyway... lol  I have not ever read the books, but perhaps some day when my kids are grown and maybe when I'm retired will I find the time!  At any rate J. R. R. Tolkien is amazing to have created an entire world, creatures, languages and awesome story line that has grown into a huge movie franchise. When "The Hobbit" was published in 1937, it started it all.  Soon to follow was the lord of the rings saga which consisted of 3 books.  But it all started with a lowly hobbit named Bilbo Baggins, who goes on an adventure of a lifetime.  He is to sneak into a dragon lair and steal the heart of the mountain stone from him.  This one book became 3 movies.  There was of course some material added beyond the books, but none the less, they made great movies. And how can we forget our favorite little dude that used to be a hobbit at one time Gollum.  lol via GIPHY At any rate, I am so glad J. R. R. Tolkien came up

Today, I am thankful to be a citizen of the United States of America.  There is so much turmoil in our world and so many countries that struggle with major life issues.  Is the USA without flaw?  Of course not, but one thing is certain.  To me it is the greatest country on the planet. No where else do you get the freedoms and opportunities as you do in the USA.  Through the Constitution and Declaration of Independence, the founding fathers set the stage to give the power to the people and keep wayward government in check. As I see the world and some of the things people have to live with in other countries: famine, poverty, war, terrorism, oppressive governments and so on.  I am more and more grateful.  The opportunities are here, the freedom is here, and everyone has the capability to go above and beyond their dreams.  It may be harder for some than others, but the fact remains, anyone can be and do what they want and dream. So today, I am so thankful to live in the grea

If you are a golfer, you may know the answer to this, but many others may wonder.  Well, you are about to find out.  How many of us have ridden in a car or plane?  The same engineering theories that apply to drag and lift also apply to a golf ball.  So the simple answer to this question is having the dimples decrease drag and increase lift.  This allows the ball to travel farther.  A ball without them would only be able to travel half the distance. This has nothing to do with dimples, but looks cool! via GIPHY Drag When an object is moving, it has a higher pressure on the front side.  Along with this, it also has turbulent area left behind as it disturbs the surrounding air while traveling through it.  These two things slow the object and create resistance.  So how do you fix this?  Well, in cars and airplanes they make them more aerodynamic.  In other words, they make it so the air passes over them with less resistance and disturbance to that surrounding air.  So ins

To start things off, I consider myself a "good" driver, but that doesn't mean I like to drive slow.  I like to stay pretty close to the speed limit and be cautious, but one thing drives me crazy, SLOW drivers!  I'm talking those people that go well below the speed limit and stay in the passing lane so no one can go around them. I understand there are some older folks and cautious people, but what really drives me crazy are people who are just oblivious to their surroundings or are on their phones.  I saw some dude literally watching a show on his phone as he drove.  Or the lady doing her make-up while she drives.   My issue is that if you want to drive slow, stay in the right lane and allow normal people to go around you.  Also when people pull out in front of you and then drive super slow causing you to slam on your brakes.  They could have just waited 2 seconds for me to pass, but instead choose to pull out in front of me and drive like a tortoise.

So I grew up watching a lot of science and discovery channel.  What I learned is there are some strange animals in this word, so thought I would share some for fun. Star-Nosed Mole This thing looks like something straight out of a horror movie!  This little dude is about the size of a hamster, but sure doesn't look like one!  So what are those fleshy fingers on it's snout for?  Well it has ~25,000 sensory receptors in it so it can feel it's way around.  Guess living in the dark all the time you need some way to see...  He has some pretty sweet claws too reminds me of the monsters from the movie "The Village".   Maybe that is were they got the inspiration? Source: Nation Geographic Tufted Deer I don't know if I should try and eat this guy or run because he might eat me...  Although this little guy is less than 3ft tall.  So probably would make a cute pet, a good guard deer?  Not sure what his fangs are for, but sure looks cool. Source: ZooCha

Space the final frontier... So we have all heard of the space race back in the mid 1900's.  The USA and Russia were in a race to get to space and specifically the moon.  The USSR was actually able to get the first unmanned spacecraft the Luna 2 to land (hit) the moon surface. On September 13, 1959, it hit/crashed on the Moon's surface east of Mare Imbrium near the craters Aristides, Archimedes, and Autolycus. Source: Wikipedia The Luna 2 (Lunik 2) This little dude was a spherical spacecraft with protruding antennas and instrumentation. They included: Scintillation counters to measure any ionizing radiation Cherenkov radiation detectors to measure electromagnetic radiation The Geiger Counter had the primary scientific objective of determining the electron spectrum of the outer radiation belt. Fluxgate magnetometer to measure magnetism. Micrometeorite detectors well to detect micrometeorites of course... "Launch was scheduled for September 9, but the Blo

No matter how our day is going we can always find something to be thankful for.  So every Thursday, I will put something that I am thankful for. Today I am thankful for refrigeration.  Now this really encompasses two things: Fridges/Freezers to keep things cold and/or frozen Air conditioning 1. Fridge/Freezer How amazing is it that we can store food for longer times and keep beverages so nice and cold.  I just love me a nice ice cold soda on a hot day.  Or how about some ice cream for a bad day?  Looking back at the days that this technology didn't exist makes me wonder how did they ever survive?!  Food would spoil much sooner, we couldn't eat our tasty frozen treats, and we never have cold soda or other beverage of choice...!  That is no way to live.  So needless to say, I am thankful for this! 2. Air Conditioning Air conditioning is a must where I live in the desert.  When temps surge to 120 deg it ain't no joke!  So having that AC in your home and ca

So who doesn't like money?  We use it every day, although nowadays I think I mainly just use my debit card.  Very rarely do have actual cash.  But we all like a little jingle in our pockets.  And with that jingle, have you ever wondered why some coins have ridges on the edge and some are smooth?  Well there is a reason and answer! Let me start out by saying that except for a few coins, today the ridges really aren't needed.  So why have them?  Well it was to keep people honest back in the day.  Back in 1792 the Coinage Act established the US mint.  Along with that they specified coin values and materials they were to be made from.  Back then coins were  made at face value in a specific precious metal.  That also is the reason coins come in varying sizes.  They were literally their weight in gold and silver.  That's great right?  Wrong! They soon learned people were schemey (don't think that's a real word, but I will use it anyway!). Would be criminals

So this is my first real song I have written.  I consider myself an intermediate guitar player and singer, but until now have not been able to write my own songs.  I have tried to write many songs and never felt they were that great.  This is the first one I think came out pretty good.  My wife sure loves it since I wrote it for her.  Hope you enjoy! #RookieGuru   #GiveMeMore

I am an electrical engineer by trade and had my share of science and physics classes over the years. The one thing that has always fascinated me is light and more specifically the speed of light. Now how fast is that? 3x10^8 m/sec (671,000,000 MPH). Yes that 671 million miles per hour! We rely on this fact for our every day lives whether we know it or not. Our communications from internet, cell phones, TV, and even radio would be pretty terrible if it weren't for that super fast speed.  We have gotten so used to technology, but do we really appreciate this universal constant called the speed of light? So I thought I would dedicate a post to the wonder of light/information and it's speed! So How Fast Is The Speed Of Light Really? Going 671 million MPH is no small feat.  That number is considering a vacuum (no air), but lets say you could accomplish it, what would you be able to do?!  Well for starters that equates to ~186k miles per second.  Man made space crafts

Monday is here, so I thought I would just compile some funny Meme's and Gifs I have found to ease into the week... via GIPHY via GIPHY via GIPHY via GIPHY via GIPHY #RookieGuru #GiveMeMore