Short Bits 2024
Updated on 2024-12-13
Short Bits is my method of sharing information that would be too short for a separate blog post. Following are my short posts for 2024.
Contents
- 01 – Dalton Thomas Resigns from Frontier Alliance International (2024-02-19)
- 02 – I Tried a Different Upgrade Method for the Debian Bookworm Release (2024-04-20)
- 03 – Magnesium Glycinate – A Natural Sleep Remedy and More (2024-08-24)
- 04 – Black Mulberry Fruit Butter Using Dried Fruit (2024-11-09)
- 05 – My First Attempt at Making Gyudon (2024-12-13)
01 – Dalton Thomas Resigns from Frontier Alliance International (2024-02-19)
Updated on 2024-05-20
I was getting ready to contribute to the Five Dollar Monthly Giving Campaign at Frontier Alliance International (FAI) in the early morning of Feb 08. A banner at the top of the organization’s site stated that Dalton Thomas, the founder and president, had resigned.
I loved Dalton Thomas. He was the best teacher of the Bible I’ve ever encountered. You can view videos of Dalton teaching on the FAI Studios YouTube channel or on the FAI app. I was dumbfounded when I read the details about his resignation. I’m very saddened, hurt, and confused about what Dalton did. How could he continue to falsely represent himself as a man of God and hold the leadership position that he held at FAI while having an adulterous relationship?
I searched the Internet for an image of Dalton Thomas to use for this post. In the search results, I came across another post on The Roys Report site about Dalton’s resignation and I learned that this wasn’t the first time Dalton was involved in the sin of adultery. According to The Roys Report post, Dalton’s wife was also involved in an adulterous relationship a few years ago. Wow, what a mess!
In my opinion, Dalton should have been removed from the FAI ministry after his first adulterous affair. The fact that he lied about the affair, according to The Roys Report post, indicates to me that he was not truly repentant about what he had done. I think it was a gross decision by the FAI board to allow Dalton to continue, especially given the position that he held within the organization.
02 – I Tried a Different Upgrade Method for the Debian Bookworm Release (2024-04-20)
Debian 12, codenamed Bookworm, was released on 06/10/2023. In the past, I have always deleted the existing Debian Stable release on both of my computers and then I installed the new release. However, reinstalling is time consuming. I came across a post on 07/23/2021 on performing a Debian Stable in-place upgrade, so I decided to try the in-place upgrade method to upgrade Debian 11 to Debian 12.
The in-place upgrade went smoothly, but I noticed that I had about 3 GB less drive space on both of my computers for the Debian Stable partitions.
I thought using the apt autoclean command should regain my lost drive space. I used the command and it seemed to work on my laptop, but not on my desktop. Eventually, the drive space I regained on my laptop reverted back to about the same amount of free space I had after the in-place upgrade.
I did a bit of research and I discovered that Debian put out an in-place upgrade guide for upgrading from Debian 11 to Debian 12. After reading through the in-place upgrade guide for Debian Bookworm, I discovered the apt purge ~’o’ command. However, that command deletes all files considered obsolete. I manually install some programs which would be considered obsolete, so I didn’t want to purge those. I eventually manually removed all of the older files under the apt package cache (/var/cache/apt/archives) on both of my computers to regain some drive space.
I’m not sure what, if anything, I did or didn’t do that resulted in the loss of drive space. If I don’t find a solution, I will go back to deleting the old Debian Stable installation and then install the new release when there is a new Debian Stable release.
03 – Magnesium Glycinate – A Natural Sleep Aid and More (2024-08-24)
Updated on 2024-10-15
In 2021, a video on the DrNickZyrowski Bitchute channel caught my attention. The video covered 10 warning signs that you have a magnesium deficiency. One of the signs of a magnesium deficiency discussed in the video was having trouble sleeping. I had been having trouble sleeping for a few years, so I was very interested to learn that magnesium may help.
I later watched videos on the Dr. Eric Berg DC and motivationaldoc YouTube channels about magnesium deficiency, reinforcing my desire to begin supplementing with the mineral. Dr. Nick Zyrowski also has a YouTube channel.
Based on the videos I watched, I learned that magnesium glycinate was best if you suffer from sleep issues and it also doesn’t cause diarrhea like some other forms of magnesium do. In October 2021, I made my first purchase of magnesium glycinate and I began taking 100 mg 5-6 days a week.
I don’t remember when the magnesium glycinate began to help with my sleep, but I was surprised by how well I began to sleep and I dream more than I ever have my adult life. Prior to supplementing with magnesium glycinate, I would sometimes wake up and then I couldn’t go back to sleep. Other times, I would need to get out of bed to urinate and then I couldn’t get back to sleep when I went back to bed. Magnesium glycinate has helped quite a bit with my being able to get back to sleep if I wake up.
I gradually increased the magnesium glycinate dosage that I was taking and I now take 600 mg 5-6 days a week. An additional benefit is that I’ve had more blood pressure readings in the optimal range than I previously did.
I finished reading Magnesium: The Missing Link to Total Health (Revised), by Dr. Carolyn Dean, MD ND earlier this summer. In the book, Dr. Dean provides a full abstract of a seminal paper written by Dr. Jayme Workinger. Dr. Workinger stated in the paper that magnesium is involved in 80% of known metabolic functions. In Appendix A of the book, Dr. Dean lists 18 major functions of magnesium. The book is excellent; I highly recommend it.
I take Doctor’s Best magnesium glycinate and I usually purchase mine from iHerb.
04 – Black Mulberry Fruit Butter Using Dried Fruit (2024-11-09)
Updated on 2024-11-10
Growing up, I lived next to a vacant lot that had once been a small farm. There was a large black mulberry tree about halfway to the back of the vacant lot. During the summer, I would go over to the tree to pick and eat the mulberries. It was a large tree and it was loaded with mulberries.
I began making my own muesli a few years ago and one of the ingredients I have used is dried black mulberries. I then desired to try black mulberry jam/preserves and I found some on the Internet, but the prices were quite high.
I don’t remember what I was researching, but in November of last year I came across a post on the Plant-Based Tips & Tricks blog (site is not functioning correctly as of the date of this post) about how to make homemade jam in 10 minutes using dried fruit. I recorded the recipe in my Emacs Org Mode recipe database.
In April of this year, I purchased one pound of dried black mulberries to use to make jam. I didn’t get around to making the jam until September.
The recipe was very easy to make, but what I thought would be black mulberry jam actually turned out to be black mulberry butter. Perhaps there isn’t enough, or any, pectin in mulberries to make a jam. However, the black mulberry butter turned out well. One pound of dried black mulberries yielded forty plus ounces of black mulberry butter.
I made the recipe without sugar, but I should have used sugar. Black mulberries aren’t sweet enough on their own, at least when making fruit butter or fruit jam in my opinion.
I like using the black mulberry butter on homemade gluten free oat bread and in homemade yogurt.
What do you think about making fruit butter or fruit jam using dried fruit? Have you ever eaten mulberries? Let me know in the Comment box at the bottom of the page and thank you for visiting.
05 – My First Attempt at Making Gyudon (2024-12-13)
In March 2022, I was reminiscing about a dish I had one time when I was in Tokyo, Japan. I was in the military at the time stationed at a base about an hour train ride from Tokyo, but I don’t remember why I was in Tokyo.
I got off at a train stop and I began walking around. I was hungry and I saw a restaurant with a caricature of a steaming bowl. The smell eminating from the restaurant was delightful, so I decided to go in. The restaurant served what I ended up calling Japanese beef bowl; thinly sliced beef in some kind of flavorful sauce over a bed of rice and topped with a fried egg. The dish was delicious.
I attempted to locate the restaurant when I went back to Tokyo on another occasion, but I was unable to locate the restaurant.
I decided to see if there was a recipe for the dish on the Internet. I used the search term “Japanese beef bowl” and I came across a recipe on the The Woks of Life site for gyudon, which is Japanese for beef and rice bowl.
There are a number of Korean grocery stores in my area, so I went to the closest one to find out the price of thinly sliced beef. The store I went to wanted $22 per pound for thinly sliced beef; too rich for my wallet.
Trader Joe’s is one of the stores where I do my grocery shopping. I checked out their meat section on one shopping trip and I noticed that they sold something called shaved beef. The shaved beef was much cheaper than the thinly sliced beef sold at the Korean grocery store I visited.
In February 2024, I decided to make my first attempt at making gyudon. I purchased about a pound of shaved beef at Trader Joe’s for $11.43.
The original recipe called for cooking the eggs sunny side up. However, I planned to freeze the recipe, so I cooked the eggs over hard.
The gyudon tasted great. However, there wasn’t enough liquid after heating up a dish of gyudon and rice in the microwave. I don’t know if shaved beef is too thick to use for the recipe or if the liquid called for in the recipe is enough. I’ll need to experiment a bit more to find out.
Post header image courtesy of zohanoor on Pixabay.
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