good bye!

clean desk clean head. I'm gone.

Note: I don't like dougnuts

As mentioned here and here, quoted from the NYT:

"Noted avant-garde film auteur, philanthropist and fashion designer, Alice"Bojangles" B----, said candidly in an interview with Fast Company that doughnuts are played out, too sugary and mostly, too round.

"What's with the shape? A circle with a hole in it? Come on - so predictable. Sheesh. I mean I get the whole campy - white trash thing, but can't the same effect be achieved with Rice Krispy Squares and Tang?"

She further criticizes doughnuts by calling them the "Hitler" of snack food and claiming responsible for keeping the working man down."

I'm looking for employment in Ithaca.

OMFG! MY DREAM JOB! I'M SO EXCITED I'M SHOUTING!

Bloomberg Television

Finally, a network where the subjects of the interviews are even uglier than the people on C-Span.

Yesterday there was a guy with some form of arsenic poisoning and today it's tracheotomy man. The only reason these guys are allowed anywhere near the lens side of the camera is because they are very very very very very very very very extraordinarily very very rich and everyone wants to know how they became very very very very very very very very extraordinarily very very rich.

Hypocrite!

So only just the other day, I was complaining about the Life of Brian and how the ending is awful. So awful, in fact, that I pretend that I've never seen it.

"Oh you're English? I just love British Comedy. Have you seen The Life Of Brian?"

"Yes, just not the ending though. For some reason, despite the fact that I've seen it a few hundred times, mostly on Comedy Central and in fragments, I've just never managed to catch the ending."

You see, I think Eric Idle's songs are awful. I think that they are trite and pandering and so unlike the rest of the comedy associated with Monty Python. They're instantly the first thing Americans like about the program because it's really obvious, dumb humour (no offense). HOWEVER last night, while feeling frustrated and sorry for myself for a number of reasons*, I found the following and have posted it for mutual enjoyment.



So I am, indeed a hypocrite. I don't know why I think it's so much funnier than "Always Look On The Bright Side," it's certainly just as inane.

Lists: Angsty nervey ouch!

+ Last night my shoulder cramped, painfully. If I had not done as poorly as I did in Human Anatomy, I would be able to tell you what muscle it was. It is still bothering me.

+My mother 64 year old mother has decided to buy a six year old Arab. Arab horses are well known to be ridiculously smart, flighty and insane. I disapprove. I am wary. She consistently disregards my advice and prefers to listen to some woman she knows named Tracy. This is because Tracy does endurance and not hunter/jumpers and as such, the things coming out of Tracy's mouth are things my mother has not heard before, and therefore "correct." I'm worried my mother thinks she's buying one of these:

When, in fact, it might be one of these:


+ Speaking of horse, I have been looking in Ithaca for places to ride. I have sent 2 emails and not heard anything. I am worried that I am asking too much of the places I am emailing. All the places I have found in the area look like weekend rider* barns. I do not wish to be a weekend rider. I am anxious because I am already terrified about what I will be when I go there. I don't have a job, I don't have any nearby friends, it doesn't seem to have much of a nightlife. I'm having trouble sleeping because of the raised eyebrows from people who know me and who know Ithaca.

"What are you going to do there?"

+The place I found that I thought would be great for the wedding is great. It's just half the size it needs to be. Not to mention some guy I went to high school with works there. So that source of frustration is back on the plate.


*weekend rider: the horsie equivalent of a crazy cat lady. Usually a Monty Roberts (a "horse whisperer") fan, they wear sweat shirts that say awful things like "Use the Force" and "A Woman's Place is On A Horse!" They usually have not bothered to educate themselves about proper horse care, preferring to get most of their information from such films as Black Beauty and Flicka and other films that feature horses as "magical saviours for all of life's problems" when really they are just like any other very expensive thing and not at all like really big Labrador Retrievers.

Craigslist (again)

Doing more research on Ithaca and I've found a job!

a little more than a assistant.

---

ATTENTION LADIES LOOKING FOR A FUN and informal part-time situation/job.

I am a Business owner, executive, looking for a hot personal assistant who can serve as my personal assistant and hot playmate. Please send your information, qualifications, picture and contact info ASAP.

Must be sexy and stunning! Great personality and playfulness required! I will only respond to candidates that provide a picture.

I am respectful, professional, mid 30's. Contact me today to explore this opportunity. Understand what I am looking for, an attractive female, honest, has some brains and business experience (can add up checks, make bank deposits, etc), and willing to be a 'playmate' of sorts.

If this is something you are interested in, please drop me a line today. I am a normal guy, not crazy, not weird, just trying to fill a gap in my life. "I'm not crazy or weird." HA!

Researching Ithaca | European Presidency

I'm trying to find out what it's going to be like to live in Ithaca. In addition to researching the geography of the area, weather patterns and what's available on Craigslist, I went to Sperling.com and looked up some statistics about housing and living costs. I found this comment, by Rob from Cortland:

"Finding a place to live is virtually impossible if you aren't loaded to the gills with money! Rent is out of this world and buying a home is out of this universe."

This alarmed me. I already live in a place where housing costs are out of this universe.
Then I read this:

"However if you have a good 1000 to blow per month on rent and dont mind that then its the town for you."

And breathed a sigh of relief, tinged, slightly, with snobbery. $1000 a month? That wouldn't get you a refrigerator box with a hot plate in this town. Maybe in Mountain View. Not here though.

"The county is very poverty loaded. Jobs are few and far between unless your a teacher or medical professional."

Once again, a little anxiety. What the hell am I going to do there?

"It is well known to be a haven for the Hippy type however they must be yuppie hippies since a real hippy couldnt afford to live here."

Oh dear.

"Its also a well know haven for upstate gay people they have domestic partnerships."

Indifference. It makes no difference to me how many gay neighbours I have, as long as there are plenty of gay bars.

"They dont list the crime rate for the city here but it seems to me to be a high one compared to nearby towns."

I wonder what he means by this. As far as I can tell, there aren't any nearby towns worth mentioning.
----------------------
In other, much more important news, Tony Blair wants to run for President of Europe. Fortunately, people are already rallying against him. Can you imagine a world with Hillary Clinton as President of the US and Tony Blair as President of Europe? It seems my dreams of moving to Bhutan might need to be examined more closely.

Bollywood Archive

Forgot to add this link and spread the word:

www.bollywoodarchive.blogspot.com

A hilarious misuse of work time, provided you have the ability to listen to the tracks.

More lemmings.

Much more watchable for me than Life of Brian:

Lemmings

-I've been asked to locate a specific American Idol clip, download it and turn it into something that can be used to demonstrate individuality. Apparently the show (I've not watched it) is "deep" and exemplary of the current popular temperament of approval seekers - "it's not about the contestants, it's about Simon Cowell" and his ability to command legions of idiots with his approval or disapproval.
I don't want to watch any American Idol. Ever. Ever, ever, ever. Yesterday it was Life of Brian which was mildly tolerable but still irritating. I find it funny that I'm supposed to demonstrate "lemming*" mentality and how pervasive it is by using a film that everyone has seen, too many times. "Oh you're English? I just love British Comedy! Have you seen the Life of Brian?!"

-6 more days of waking up early. 6 more days.

-Rain!


*by "lemming" mentality, I am of course referring to the early 90's video game because in actuality, the small rodents do not follow each other around, committing mass suicide. This was a myth that was made famous by a Disney documentary, where they chased lemmings over cliffs in order to make their "facts" "true".

Ryan's Birthday Feast

It was Ryan's birthday yesterday and he is firmly entrenched in his middle late 20's now (I am still in my late middle 20's). I want to start keeping track of the delicious meals we make, so I thought I would start with this one (although technically, I have entered recipes here before).

We had:

Garlic, Chick pea and Spinach Soup
Field Roast Grain Meat Co. Celebration Roast with onions and mushrooms
Tomatoes with tahini-yoghurt dressing

For the soup (From Vegetarian Flip Book for Cooks, edited by Martha Day, published by Hermes House, 2001):

30 ml/2 tbsp olive oil
4 garlic cloves (more if desired...)
1 onion, roughly chopped
10 ml/2 tsp ground cumin
10ml/2tsp ground coriander
5 cups vegetable stock (I used Better Than Bouillion)
12 oz potatoes, peeled and finely chopped
1 tbsp cornstarch
2/3 cup of double cream (I couldn't find it so I used heavy whipping cream and Ryan & I took turns beating it until it was reasonably thick)
15 oz. can chick peas
2 tbsp tahini (I actually used more, I can't get enough of this stuff)
7 oz. shredded spinach
cayenne pepper
salt & fresh ground pepper.

I started by chopping everything and getting it all ready. Then the onions and garlic went into the soup pot with the olive oil. I got them nicely browned - the onions should be translucent and it should start to smell yummy. Next, I added the cumin and coriander. The instructions said to cook for 1 minute - I almost burned everything here, because I don't think I used enough olive oil to brown the onions and also get the spices in. No matter though, the brown stuff at the bottom is just flavour!
Next, I added 5 cups of water plus the Better Than Bouillon and the potatoes and let that boil for 10 minutes. This was followed by the chick peas. While that cooked, I mixed the tahini, cream, salt, pepper, cayenne and cornstarch. This involved whipping the cream a little bit. When the chick peas and potatoes were tender, I added this mixture plus the spinach.
This cooked for a bit, until it was ready to be eaten.

In retrospect, I would have added more cayenne and possibly would try the recipe sans cream if I made it again. Don't get me wrong - the cream was delicious and added nicely to the rest of the soup, I just prefer to not eat lots of cream, for several reasons.

Ryan was responsible for the roast, he cooked it in a bread pan with mushrooms and onions he cooked in a red wine reduction. All of these were basted in more Better Than Bouillon.

For something fresh, I sliced up some tomatoes and mixed tahini with yoghurt, minced garlic, salt and fresh ground pepper. It tasted delicious and was really creamy (something about mixing the yoghurt with the tahini produced a lovely texture) but next time I might try to make it less cream and more dressingy (read: pourable rather than spreadable).

Wine pairing: This meal would have gone quite nicely with a nice red wine, maybe a cab, however we had ginger beer instead.

Stuff White People Like

Stuff White People Like

143 million pounds of beef

I'd like to point out that 143 million pounds of beef was recalled -the largest amount ever- due to abusive mishandling of sick cows, namely prodding and harassing "downer" cows (ones that are unable to walk) with electric prods and forklifts, to slaughter. I'm pointing it out because I think it deserves more attention than it received and I'd like to say "fuck you" to the beef lobby, I'm sure it was you who was responsible for the Sunday release of the story and it's subsequent burial. I'm also pointing it out because I think that the fact that the term "downer cows" exists is disgusting, as it demonstrates exactly how prevalent "downer" cows are.

Here is the NY Times version of the story, published yesterday (I heard about it on the radio on Sunday) but buried in the Business section. As far as I know it did not appear on the front page, I had to find it by using the search function.

I'd also like to direct my dear readers who simply must eat meat (must you?) to this website:

www.oliverranch.com

It is a much more humane way to get your meat and, I'm told, much tastier. Carrie is a very nice person and has done a lot of research putting the project together.

Malicious and Ilegal Activity

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We're sorry, but we could not fulfill your request for /wp-comments-post.php on this server.

Your Internet Protocol address is listed on a blacklist of addresses involved in malicious or illegal activity. See the listing below for more details on specific blacklists and removal procedures.

Your technical support key is: 4a5f

You can use this key to fix this problem yourself.

If you are unable to fix the problem yourself, please contact NOSPAM at site.com and be sure to provide the technical support key shown above.

Received after trying to post a comment regarding an animated gif of a dachshund wearing a construction helmet and floating up and down by power of flapping it's ears. I posted this because I think it's funny that my work IP address is listed as "blacklisted" and "involved in malicious or illegal activity" by my brother's blog.

Malicious or illegal activity like increasing rich people's power and wealth and doing so by riding on the backs of the People and absolving oneself of responsibility by claiming hard honest work, despite the fact that hard honest work didn't really get you the money in the first place, you inherited it from people who themselves obtained it by using/abusing the working man?

Lists: apprehension and exhiliration

Last night, Ryan and I came to the conclusion that we could possibly afford to own a home in Ithaca. The median house price there is $255,000 as opposed to where we live now, where the median house price is $1.5 million.

This was an amazing excitement and I went to sleep thinking about what color I would paint the walls and what sorts of bulbs I would plant in the garden and how much money could go towards horse shows if we were spending less on a mortgage than we would on rent.

-----

I do have some reservations about living there. I'm concerned about the long dark winters, particularly the first one where I might not have many (any?) friends. Something I have learned about myself is that despite the fact that I really need time away from people, I am desperately unhappy if I do not have a social outlet. It's part of what I hate about this job - I constantly felt isolated, marginalized and ignored, sitting in my little corner while the same people walked passed my desk every day and barely nodded in my direction. In addition to this, I was never given an opportunity to prove myself because every independent move or decision I made was met with disappointed discouragement. I constantly felt Jennifer Aniston in this memorable and frequently quoted scene from Office Space:



Particularly when I was told that I needed to be a "Superstar [sic]" but then not being given a definition of what that was. Nina's suggestion was something along the lines of this:



But with more glitter strewn.

But I digress. Things I am excited about with regards to the move:

*Snowy winters
*Living near a lake
*Living near the Moosewood Restaurant
*Riding again
*Buying new winter clothes on sale this spring
*Maybe getting a 2nd Jeeves. Although Ryan said -not another cattle dog- I think that we need one that will most certainly play with him until he gets tired. So something lazier but not too lazy.
*Only having one car.
*Lots of hiking and outdoorsyness
*Not knowing anyone
*Lower cost of living ($800 rent instead of $1800)
*Being sort of close to NYC, Boston & Toronto.


View Larger Map

Things that fill me with apprehension:

*Being cold a lot
*Not knowing anyone
*Suburbanness
*College Townness
*Not having a job or any idea what sort of job I can get
*Being poor

Jesus loves ClipArt

Far be it from me to be overly judgmental. I found this blog and will leave you to draw your own conclusions about how bored someone must be to master the Microsoft Word "Draw" tool.

http://freeprintablesforyou.blogspot.com

Elephant Teenage Pregnancy

There is a "Jumbo" outrage in Australia regarding an elephant's teenage pregnancy. Apparently, she is only 9 and according to Erica Marting of the International Fund for Animal Welfare, this is like allowing your 12 year old daughter to get pregnant.

Here's the thing.

I find zoo's generally upsetting places. I realize that a lot of them are working towards animal conservation and a lot of them are make grand efforts to make the enclosures habitable and as close to the natural habitat as possible, however places like the San Francisco Zoo or worse, the Santa Barbara Zoo leave it quite obvious that the animals are completely bored and have had their lives stolen from them so that people can stare at them all day long. They resort to eating their own shit and pulling their hair out.

BUT.

Erica Martin is missing a large chunk of information here. Sexually mature 12 year old humans are totally capable of mating and breeding, just as sexually mature 9 year old elephants apparently are. She might find the idea abhorrent but that doesn't make it physically harmful. I think the world is a better place for one more elephant being brought into it and she shouldn't be anthropomorphizing - Thong Dee gets enough of that being stared at all day long.

The reason why it's such a tragedy for a 12 year old human to have a child is that our society is not equipped for these things and modern 12 year olds are not emotionally equipped. Our bodies certainly are - I've talked to ob/gyns that find it a crying shame how easy it is to deliver babies to teenage mums, we're supposed to start giving birth at a young age, no matter how horrifying that thought may be.

I've put in my notice.

I just told them that 29 February would be my last day. This is funny because it will be exactly a year since I left FHS, trying to forge a non horsie career.

I am going to work part time for a publicist which is going to be interesting work. I'm excited to do it because I really like Paula and she shares the same attitude as me with regards to being totally invested in the projects we are involved with.

A lot of people have told me that this is a bad way to work. I end up not making enough money or working too much or not enough, if I don't like the project (honestly how invested can you be in an expense report other than discerning sordid details about someone, such as they eat at the same nasty airport restaurant every time they fly, including after the return flight home, which can only suggest that they enjoy eating airport food). Unfortunately, this is the only way I know how to work - to do fantastic work when I love the project and not finish things I hate, with mildly tolerable jobs finishing somewhere in the middle.

I am attempting to improve this aspect of myself and frustratingly put this mindset into practice the first day I started this job. I say frustratingly because it my tenacity, well-meaning and positive attitude didn't mean anything with regards to nebulous job descriptions and an absent minded boss.

Karen inspired me greatly once with a post - it note stuck on her computer that read:

I give myself permission to do a mediocre job.

I have applied to be an instructor in Walnut Creek. I have really good credentials for this and hope that they hire me. I think that any drawback that I may present is that I live so far away. I will actually be quite upset if I don't get at least an interview - I am quite aptly qualified. This is one of those jobs I would love and consequently do a fantastic job. It appears to have none of the drawbacks of my previous instructor position and all of the positives.

I constantly wrestle with the fact that I am no longer involved in the horse world. I used to complain about people trying to identify with me when I told them what I did for a living and now I find that people have nothing to identify with me.

I wonder if looking for another job with horses is some kind of manifestation of my personal insecurities. I feel like I really miss riding and I know that's a huge part of it, but am I also terrified of spending the rest of my life explaining to people at cocktail parties that I used to be interesting and now I'm not?

Which brings me to my almost former job. At first I threw myself into it and loved it. Then I became complacent and bored, when I started getting piled on with menial tasks. Then I got to loathing and resenting it - my banking on the goodwill of completing these tasks did not result in any sort of increases in responsibility, attention or position improvement, indeed it just resulted in even more menial tasks. With this frustration, I stopped running (well, I was also injured and the injury has taken a stupidly long time to heal), stopped hiking, stopped seeing friends as much and became seriously frustrated and at least for a few weeks, I'm sure, rather unpleasant to be around. My personal self improvement goals, such as being more organized and keeping a neater house have gone by the way side.

I have been released however. I will receive 3 months severance and in 5 months, we will starting on our big drive across the country as newlyweds. In the mean time, I will finagle horses into my life again, take classes, work for Paula and clean my fucking house.

Nasty Little Grape Eater.

The above is a picture of Jeeves. Up until recently, we referred to him as a House Otter for obvious reasons.

That has all changed though.

1. He is, surprisingly, a terrible swimmer.
2. He stole grapes off the counter last night.

Ryan, in a fit of discipline, sent him outside and yelled:

"Don't eat our food! Nasty Little Grape Eater!!"