Real Men Do Drink Pink

Over the past many years, family members and friends alike have continually laughed and mocked me for ordering the Strawberry Margarita, the Pina Colada, or other frothy drinks. I take issue with this. Having a “Jack up” or a Vodka Martini does not indicate ones’ manhood. 

Yes, having an extra-large Dominos Pizza box in a man’s refrigerator does indicate an aggressive side, but a cool, “pink” Strawberry Margarita is also an indicator of ones’ confidence and fear nothing attitude.

So please put aside your biases and go ahead and order a Bahama Mama, we are strong and united!!!

How to make Bahama Mama Cocktail -

 Ingredients:

 1/2 fluid ounce rum

 1/2 fluid ounce coconut rum

 1/2 fluid ounce grenadine

 1 fluid ounce orange juice

 1 fluid ounce pineapple juice

 1 cup crushed ice

 Directions to make Bahama Mama:

 1.Combine the regular rum, rum with coconut flavoring, grenadine, orange juice, pineapple juice and crushed ice in an electric blender.

 2.Blend until the drink’s consistency is slushy.

COLLEGE CHRONICLES - Arizona covers less than 1 percent of the budget for the Maricopa Community College District. The 10-college system, which enrolls 265,000 students, now receives an annual state contribution of $8 million.

One upside to Arizona’s near-complete disinvestment in its community colleges, Maricopa’s leaders say, is that the years of budget cuts have forced the two-year system to get more entrepreneurial. They are particularly excited about the money-making potential of the new Maricopa Corporate College, which landed Marriott International as a client in its first year of existence.

Maricopa is a member of Global Corporate College. Officials at the district said the connection is a big part of the draw for their 20 corporate clients. Global Corporate College is a consortium of more than 50 community colleges, which allows institutions to cross state and even international borders with their training centers.

The price varies depending on the range of training companies need. And members of the consortium share revenue for programs that multiple colleges help run.

 “We have sold to Marriott,” said Eugene Giovannini, president of the Maricopa Corporate College. “The network will deliver that training across the country.” Giovannini and Glasper are confident that the new college will bring in money.

 After studying the possibility of creating a corporate campus, Maricopa estimated that the district was tapping less than 20 percent of its possible job-training business. Over the next few years they hope to triple the $1.5 million in corporate training revenue they earned in a recent year. The college also offers consulting services to companies.

 College officials aren’t shy about talking up the fiscal potential of the Corporate College. It’s part of the privatization of Maricopa, which is beyond their control. The community colleges have a solid product to offer, they said, so they are getting into the sales game.

MICROSOFT TO SLASH 18K JOBS - Microsoft Corp.'s ... new chief executive is wielding the ax as he seeks to remake the company. Satya Nadella, the CEO since February, said Thursday that he would cut about 14% of Microsoft's workforce and take charges to earnings totaling up to $1.6 billion over the next year in his biggest move so far to reshape the software giant. ... The majority of the cuts - about 12,500 of the 18,000 expected - would come from areas of overlap with Nokia's mobile-phone business, which Microsoft acquired in April. Microsoft absorbed about 25,000 workers in the Nokia deal.

The layoffs will be the largest in Microsoft's history, surpassing the more than 5,000 positions eliminated in 2009. Microsoft also disclosed it would stop making mobile phones powered by Google Inc.'s Android operating system ... The Nokia X line will give way to lower-priced phones running Microsoft's own Windows Phone software, though the company said it would continue to sell and support existing Nokia X devices.

ECONOMY BETTER THAN YOU THINK - Roger Altman writes in TIME magazine: "Nearly seven years after the onset of the Great Recession, the national mood remains troubled. ... Despite the pessimistic mood, America is experiencing a profound comeback. But in terms of the growth outlook, the news is good. Goldman Sachs and many private-sector forecasters project a 3.3% growth rate for the remainder of 2014. The first half of 2014 saw the best job-creation rate in 15 years.

"Total household wealth and private employment surpassed 2008 levels last year ... As halting as the U.S. recovery has been, the economy is now leaner and more capable of healthy, sustained growth through 2016 and beyond. Our outlook shines compared with that of the rest of the industrialized world, as Europe and Japan are stagnant."

BIRTHDAYS THIS WEEK – Birthday wishes and thoughts this week to: Sandra Bullock (50), Bob Dole (91), Peggy Fleming (66), Bobbie Gentry (70), Mick Jagger (71), Jackson Krich …happy first birthday to “Action Jackson”, Kevin Spacey (55), The Swami …a good head of hair (no dye) and a sense of humor.

THREE SCORE YEARS, THE COUNTDOWN – As The Day approaches we remember only one thing special, Mom. Sure wish she was here to celebrate.

PROTECTING EMAIL FROM UNWANTED EYES - Pursuing digital security should be as much of a no-brainer as locking your door before you leave the house.

Identity theft, corporate security breaches and an increased interest in personal privacy are forcing some changes. Many of us are choosing stronger passwords and changing them more often, locking down social media accounts and being more conscious of how we communicate. If you haven’t taken these steps, you should.

But one of our favorite forms of electronic communication — email — remains one of the hardest to secure. Security experts say email is a lot more like a postcard than a letter inside an envelope, and almost anyone can read it while the note is in transit. The government can probably read your email, as can hackers and your employer.

What’s the solution? Make your email more like a letter inside an envelope. The best way to do this is with a process known as encryption, which scrambles a message into unreadable code that needs a key to be unlocked, providing a layer of protection if someone intercepts your email.

The downside to encryption tools is that they are usually difficult to install and use. In addition, they require the person on the other end to be using the same tools. Thanks to a renewed focus on privacy and security, however, new tools are arriving regularly that should make it easier to encrypt email.

One promising new encryption tool is Virtru, a feature that can be added to Chrome and Firefox browsers or installed on the Mail program on the Mac and for Outlook on Windows. One of Virtru’s big selling points is that it works with web-mail services like Gmail, Yahoo and Hotmail. There are also apps for iOS and Android.

Another big benefit of Virtru is that recipients don’t have to be using the service or any other encryption program to see your email. They receive an email that contains a link to your encrypted message. Once they click a button to verify their email address, they can read the unencrypted message in a separate web page and reply.

THE SWAMI’S WEEK TOP PICKS:

Major League Baseball Game of the Week – Saturday July 26: Detroit Tigers (54-41) at Los Angeles Angels (58-38), a matchup of two of the American League’s best: Angels 5 Tigers 3.

2014 Season to date (40-36)

MARKET WEEK - A busy week for corporate earnings gets off to a relatively slow start today, with oilfield services provider Halliburton (HAL) leading this morning’s list. Genuine Parts (GPC), Six Flags (SIX), and SunTrust Banks (STI) will also issue their numbers this morning, while Netflix (NFLX), Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG), and Texas Instruments (TXN) are among the companies set to release quarterly earnings after today’s closing bell.

TECHIE TIME OUT - APPLE BETS ON BIGGER iPHONE SCREEN: Apple Inc. is preparing for its largest initial production run of iPhones, betting that larger-screen models will lure consumers now attracted to similar phones from Samsung ... and others. The Cupertino, Calif., company is asking suppliers to manufacture between 70 million and 80 million units combined of two large-screen iPhones with 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch displays by Dec. 30 ...

Its forecast for what is commonly called the iPhone 6 is significantly larger than the initial order last year of between 50 million and 60 million versions of the iPhone 5S and 5C - which had a display measuring 4-inches diagonally ... Both of the coming models are expected to feature metal cases similar to the iPhone 5S and likely come in multiple colors.

Next week: The lost of art of cleaning the garage.

Until Next Monday, Adios.

Tucson, AZ

July 21, 2014

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