babbling blue

You know you were a bit out of it in the morning when you use the restroom at work and discover first that your underwear are on inside-out and second that you missed a belt loop on your pants.

Maybe I need to start getting more sleep.

Here’s something on the lighter side! This is from an English web site on “eating and drinking”, which are two of my favorite things. I got it from the blog of a cyber-acquaintance, another Josh.

Source

Below is a list of 100 things that I think every good omnivore should have tried at least once in their life. The list includes fine food, strange food, everyday food and even some pretty bad food - but a good omnivore should really try it all.

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:
(Note: With very few exceptions, I no longer eat fish or seafood, so that eliminates a number of things)

1. Venison (won’t eat it now)
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding (gross!)
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp (Might have tried this as a kid, but I don’t recall)
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi (”How will you find a husband if you can’t make aloo gobi?”)
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream (I think I have anyway)
21. Heirloom tomatoes (not to my knowledge)
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
Read the rest of this entry »

And the City.

Yes, I’m a little embarrassed to admit that I went and saw Sex and the City opening night. But the girls (by which I mean the boys) were going, so what the heck? I did watch the whole series, after all.

The crowd was about what you’d expect. A sea of women, many of them all gussied up for the big premiere… and handful of gay men… and a smattering of pussy-whipped straight men, dragged there by their wives or girlfriends. Interestingly, it would have been a good place for a single straight guy to meet single straight gals. There were girls everywhere, and no competition to speak of.

The movie itself was decent. I’d say about 7 out of 10, which was slightly better than I was expecting. The plot was certainly no masterpiece. It was often predictable and heavy-handed (downright anvil-icious, I’d say). But it fit with the series and it was generally fun to watch. True to form, Carrie Bradshaw continues to make bad decisions (and wear hideous outfits) and sabotage her own happiness. But if that wasn’t the case, where would the drama come from?

Am I a Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte or Miranda? Well Samantha is my favorite, but I certainly can’t claim to be anything like her. I’m more of a combination of all of them (probably more Miranda and Carrie than Samantha and Charlotte though) but I think that’s the case for most people. Let’s face it, the girls are not well-rounded characters, they are all extremes. But who would have watched a show about four well-rounded New York women?

Wow, I can’t remember the last time I was as busy as I’ve been the last couple weeks.

I just moved to a new apartment yesterday. I have class tonight. I also have homework due for this class tonight. I had to take a midterm online earlier this week (I did it Tuesday after work). I had a group project assignment due last Sunday. Oh, and I had to work Saturday morning and I had to take an accounting midterm (closed book/notes) last week Thursday. Oh, and I forgot to mention the bowling banquet last Friday. Did I say that bowling was finished? No? Bowling is finished! YAY! At least that time period (Friday evening) is now freed up in my schedule. Of course, tomorrow I have a group project meeting after work. Le sigh!

Anyway, with work, school, bowling and moving, I haven’t really had any free time. In fact, I’ve had negative free time, since I took time off of work to accomplish moving tasks. I haven’t even WoWed in over a week!

Anyway, I’m moved into my new place, but I have a lot to do yet. Things to buy, things to unpack and arrange, etc. The fun never ends! More on the new place to come…

(Pretend this was posted yesterday, 5/1/2008. I was too busy to finish this when I started it and had to come back to it the next morning. WordPress used to allow you to change the date of a post, but I don’t see that option any more.)

I survived Christmas. . . barely!

I decided to drive up to Wisconsin to see the family on Sunday. Now, I checked the weather beforehand, and I realized it was supposed to snow a bit. But I figured, a little snow isn’t a big deal. I’ll be fine. And for a long time, I was fine. It was very, very windy, but the snow was intermittent and fairly light. It just blew across the highway. Then as I got farther north the snow became constant, and heavier and visibility got worse. Still, it was just blowing across the road. But as I neared Green Bay, the snow started to stick. So I was dealing with poor visibility and a poor surface as well. Finally conditions detoriated to the point that I realized I wasn’t going to make it to my final destination. I got off the highway at the next exit. Luckily I have family everywhere up there, so I was not far from an aunt & uncle’s house. They let me seek shelter there for the night. They happened to be having their family Christmas with my three cousins, their spouses and kids. And three dogs. It was a full house!

The next day the weather cleared up and driving was fine. I made it to my final destination and got in some Christmas eve visiting with a Grandma and aunt. Christmas day was a full day of visiting various (3) families. My bio-dad was there which is always. . . uncomfortable. I have nothing to talk to him about. My gay cousin was not there, which was disappointing.

I ate too much, of course. I’m so fat!

The drive home was delightfully uneventful. The weather was nice, traffic was fine until just before Chicago (where it’s always bad). When I got home, I took a nap. The futon I slept on the night before wasn’t exactly comfy.

All in all, my Christmas was OK. I didn’t get to see my mom or siblings, since they were up in bumblefuck and didn’t come down to see the rest of the family in the Home Town. I saw my grandparents and various aunts & uncles, cousins and their spouses and kids. The drive up sucked. Food was good. Visiting was fine.

In general, I’m over Christmas. It used to be a lot of fun, but now it’s meh. I go because I get to see people I only see once a year. It’s not really fun any more, it’s just a lot of stress and running around. I didn’t even get to spend Christmas with my close family this year, since they didn’t bother to come down with most of the rest of the family. Unfortunately, there are people I only see at Christmas. If I want to see them, I have no choice. Blah! Well I have another year before I need to worry about that. Coming up first, New Years trip to London and Berlin!

I woke up this morning, and groggily looked at the alarm clock. My vision was still blurry, but it looked like it said 10:30-something. Holy shit! I had way overslept. I was supposed to be up 4 hours ago! I frantically get up and start looking for my phone, so I can call my boss and let him know that I’d be in soon. I’m freaking out. . . oh my god, 10:30! But I can’t find my phone, and I can’t really focus on the alarm clock for some reason. I’m trying to verify the time and call my boss. All I can find is this one phone that I used temporarily but I can’t get it to show the time. Where the hell is my phone? I know it was on my night stand. I was sure of it, but I can’t find it. I look in pockets and my backpack. Something is not right here. Things are here that shouldn’t be. This can’t be happening! Then I realize what is happening, and I calmly lay back down in bed, concentrate . . .

And then I wake up. For real. It’s 5:19am and my room is dark. I was merely dreaming that I woke up late. Some how in the dream I knew I was dreaming and was able to force myself to wake up without any external stimulus. And this sort of thing has happened before. It’s not common for me, but it’s not exactly rare. Is this normal? Do other people realize they’re dreaming and force themselves into waking up? It comes in rather handy, especially when having a bad dream.

In an interesting twist, I went back to sleep after that (and a trip to the W.C.) and then I did oversleep for real, though only by about 20 minutes. I screwed up setting the alarm on my phone. I wonder if I subconsciously realized the mistake and the dream was a warning that went unheeded…

I’ve been rather derelict in my blogging duties, but at least I’ve kept true to my word in not posting when I don’t have something to say. This will be a post of brief mini-updates just to keep all 2-3 of your readers apprised of the exciting goings on in my life!

First, how do I love gmail? Let me count the ways… No there are too many. But in addition to the constantly growing mailbox size limit (I’m using 6% and I have “thousands” of emails), they keep adding cool new shit. For one, I think the new color tagging is nifty. But it is nothing compared to the ability to sign on to AIM through gmail! How cool is that. For those of us “secured” behind overzealous corporate firewalls during much of our day, gmail’s chat can be our only communication with the outside world. . . and link to sanity. But I didn’t know many people who used gtalk/gmail chat. However, that’s rather moot now since I can chat on AIM right in the gmail web client, firewalls be damned. Thanks, Google.

Second, we got our second real snow of the season last night. It was pretty but a minor pain to trudge through this morning before many sidewalks were shoveled. I’m sure I’ll be tired of the snow in . . . 8 minutes.

Third, I went to Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico over the Thanksgiving holiday. My Thanksgiving dinner was fajitas, and much of the day was spent at the pool or beach. I had a freakin’ blast! I love it there. All I have to say is: Pinga, pinga, pinga!

Finally, I knew it was only a matter of time before I did it. Yesterday I was trying to call my cell phone from my desk phone so I could check my voicemail (terrible cell reception in this high rise) and I dialed 911 by mistake. As soon as I saw the number on my display I hung up, thinking I had been fast enough and the call hadn’t gone through yet. But I was mistaken. The 911 Center called me back immediately, and I sheepishly told the operator it was a mis-dial. At least she seemed friendly.

Last week at work, everyone got an email from the company about accidental calls to 911. Apparently the city’s 911 center has complained that they are getting 911 calls from us, and people frequently hang up when they realize they’ve dialed the wrong number. This results in them having to call back and–if they receive no response or voice mail–dispatch someone here to make sure everything is OK (or so they claim). The email asks us to be careful when dialing and to stay on the line and explain that we mis-dialed if we do call 911 by mistake.

What I want to know is, what genius decided it would be a good idea for most corporate phone systems to require users to dial 9-1 to get an outside line and make a long distance call?! After that, it’s a simple slip of the finger to hit another 1 by mistake. I’m sure there was a reason for this choice–and I’m too lazy/busy to research it–but honestly, what do they expect? It’s going to happen.

Also what makes people think it’s ok to hit/bang on my cubicle wall when they walk past? For my first 10 months or so here, I had a window seat. It was nice! Now I am in a terrible location; I’m on an aisle outside the print/copy room and across from the drinking fountain (the water from which tastes like it came out of a rusty bucket, so I use a different one). And people walk past and tap on my wall. I guess they think it’s a friendly greeting or something, but it annoys the shit out of me (and often startles me too). Knock it off!

Oh and I got a promotion.

Just some little tidbits to let you know I’m alive and still sporadically blogging.

Luciano Pavarotti died of cancer at the age of 71. He was one of the Three Tenors. This is sad news. There are now only two tenors: Placido Domingo and the other guy.

NFL Football starts this weekend. Go Pack!

I’m hot. My part of the office is not adequately air-conditioned. I had a desk fan but the cheap piece of shit stopped working a couple days ago. And do you think you can buy a fan this time of year? Well certainly not around here (the Loop). I’m fucked. Sweaty and fucked.

New iPods and an iPhone price drop. Neat, but I’m still not going to buy an iPhone. Probably not an iPod Touch either. It’s an ironic name since you can’t control it by touch like you can a classic iPod. Now I can just reach into my pocket and adjust the volume, pause or move to the next song by touch. The iPod Touch requires you to look. Perhaps it should be called the iPod Look.

The state government has still not given the CTA the money they are asking for. The fare increases and service cutbacks are 10 days away and counting. The measure has yet to pass a single house of the Legislature. And if it does, our illustrious governor has vowed to veto it. So either Governor Ratface has to get a clue or the Legislature has to pass it by enough votes to override his veto.

Updated 1:15pm: As it turns out, I did find a fan. I stopped into a Walgreen’s as I was passing by during my lunch break, and they had 6 fans! Not 6 models, mind you–6 actual fans. They now have 5 (or fewer). The new fan is bigger and noisier than the old one, but at least it moves air. We’ll see how long this one lasts. It seems I’m no longer sweaty & fucked.

Another jewel from Scott Adams’ Dilbert Blog.

I always wonder why people do research to discover the obvious. Now researchers have “discovered” that smart people have less intercourse than people of average intelligence.

http://www.gnxp.com/blog/2007/04/intercourse-and-intelligence.php

One reason the dimwitted get so much action is that they tend to be more attractive than smart people. That’s not a coincidence. It’s genetics. Hot/dumb people are more likely to mate with other hot/dumb people and produce hot/dumb kids. Here’s a headline you’ll never see: “Nobel Prize winner for physics thanked his supermodel parents for all of their support.”

Seems to be about right to me…