The Itchy Lot

Am I the only one who has come to despise Real Player? I *always* used to use it. But now it's such a pain in the ass that I choose Windows Media Player when given the choice. In fact, the last time I restore my computer, I never even bothered to reinstall RealOne. It's too bad, because I occasionally come across some audio or video that's only available in realplayer format, and my response is, "oh well, I guess i won't be able to watch that after all."

It's bloated. It hijacks my file formats. It changes settings without my permission. It's incredibly slow. I also have major concerns over spyware with RealOne. Screw it. It's Winamp for me, and when necessary: Windows Media Player.

Why are we keeping these red states in our country?! I mean it! Why?! What the FUCK do they add to the world that is good?

The Muslim Society of Memphis wanted to use a plot of land 20 miles outside the city as a cemetery. Naturally, the locals rose up in protest. Although there's a good quote comparing the the purchase of this cemetery lot to the Nazis infiltrating Germany, my favorite quote is from a woman who yelled, "We don't need bin Laden's cousins in our neighborhood!"

Reggie White has died. Boo-freakin'-hoo. What, we should mourn the loss of a racist homophobic biggot just because he's good at knocking people down?!

From Hatespeech.com:

Gays are like liars and cheaters

" 'Homosexuality is a decision, it's not a race,' White said. 'People from all different ethnic backgrounds live in this lifestyle. But people from all different ethnic backgrounds also are liars and cheaters and malicious and back-stabbing.' " - Reggie White, Associated Press, March 25, 1998.

Gays hurt children, kill our people

"White said he stands by his remarks regarding gays. `I am going to speak the truth and I am going to speak out against things that's hurting our children, that's killing off our people,' White said. `If people think that's a contradiction and that's hate, they need to take them up with God, not with Reggie White.'" Associated Press, April 26, 1998, quoting White's 20/20 interview.

Gays are like backstabbers and malicious people

PEGGY WEHMEYER of ABC's 20/20: "Are you saying there that homosexuals are like liars, cheaters, backstabbers and malicious people?"
REGGIE WHITE "Yes." - ABC's 20/20, April 27, 1998.

"Sodomite community"

"White, the Green Bay Packers defensive lineman who retired and unretired last week, used ethnic stereotypes and called homosexuality `'one of the biggest sins'' in the Bible in his remarks last month. 'They were too scared of the Sodomite community is what they said,' Sara White told ABC's '20/20'." - ASSOCIATED PRESS, April 26, 1998

Gays responsible for STDs

"As America has permitted homosexuality to establish itself as an alternate lifestyle, it is also reeling from the frightening spread of sexually transmitted disease. Sin begets its own consequence, both on individuals and nations."- Remarks by Reggie White to the Wisconsin Assembly, March 25, 1998.

Homosexuality one of the biggest sins

"Let me explain something when I'm talking about sin, and I'm talking about all sin. One of the biggest ones that has been talked about that has really become a debate in America is homosexuality."- Remarks by Reggie White to the Wisconsin Assembly, March 25, 1998.

Gays have problems

"Now, I believe that one of the reasons that Jesus was accused of being a homosexual is because he spent time with homosexuals. I've often had people ask me, would you allow a homosexual to be your friend. Yes, I will. And the reason I will is because I know that that person has problems, and if I can minister to those problems, I will."- Remarks by Reggie White to the Wisconsin Assembly, March 25, 1998.

Being gay compared to lying, gays hurt nation

"But the Bible strictly speaks against it, and because the Bible speaks against it, we allow rampant sin including homosexuality and lying, and to me lying is just as bad as homosexuality, we've allowed this sin to run rampant in our nation, and because it has run rampant in our nation, our nation is in the condition it is today."- Remarks by Reggie White to the Wisconsin Assembly, March 25, 1998.

Offended that gays say deserve rights

"Sometimes when people talk about this sin they've been accused of being racist. I'm offended that homosexuals will say that homosexuals deserve rights. Any man in America deserves rights, but homosexuals are trying to compare their plight with the plight of black men or black people. In the process of history, homosexuals have never been castrated, millions of them never died. Homosexuality is a decision. It's not a race."- Remarks by Reggie White to the Wisconsin Assembly, March 25, 1998.


White also made stereotypically racial comments like:

"Hispanics are gifted in family structure. You can see a Hispanic person and they can put 20 or 30 people in one home. "

"White people were blessed with the gift of structure and organization. You guys do a good job of building businesses and things of that nature and you know how to tap into money pretty much better than a lot of people do around the world."

"the Asian is very gifted in creation, creativity and inventions. If you go to Japan or any Asian country, they can turn a television into a watch."

Every passing day makes me prouder to be from a blue state:

"NEW ORLEANS. A judge who wore blackface makeup, handcuffs and a jail jumpsuit at a Halloween party will be suspended for six months, the Louisiana Supreme Court ruled Monday."

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&ncid=718&e=7&u=/ap/20041214/ap_on_re_us/judge_blackface

This guy is 70 years old. He's been out of the armed services for almost 25 years. And they're recalling him into active duty. America, you voted for it, and you got it.

My sister and I have a different sort of philosophy when it comes to making and saving money. Let's say say you buy something for $25, and then a year goes by, and then you sell it for $50. You have just made $50!

Another example: Let's say you buy something for $100, and then a year goes by, and then you sell it for $25. You have just made $25!

My loving boyfriend ridicules me for this attitude, but when you think about it, we all think the same way to some extent. Let's say you have a garage sale (remember those?). You run around the house, finding old books and tchotchkes to sell for a quarter or maybe a couple of bucks. At the end of the garage sale, you count up your cash and consider all of it profit. You don't subtract the cover price of the books you sold. You don't take away the price of the stuffed bunny you bought when you were in college. It's all profit.

Fishy's quote o' the day:

"People put too many quotes around things. The whole world has gone quote-happy."

So all these athletes are taking steroids now. Uh-huh. Am I the only one who doesn't give a rat's ass?

First of all, let's say that everyone agrees that this is a big awful terrible thing. Well, the solution is quite simple: random (and regular) drug tests. The players generally oppose this solution, probably for the reason that it's so effective, but presumably because it invades their privacy. Many of these players make millions of dollars for running around in tight pants throwing a ball around or slapping a puck with stick. Jason Giambi's contract alone is worth $76 MILLION over the next four seasons. For that kind of dough, they doesn't deserve privacy. For that kind of money, the media should be allowed to put cameras in the locker room showers and broadcast them on the internet. Screw their privacy. For the kind of money they make, they can pee in a damn cup before every game (preferably while the media broadcast it on the internet, of course). In the interest of being open minded, however, we could also make the drug tests optional: pee in the cup and make your full salary, or don't pee in the cup and have your salary capped at $100,000 per year.

But the truth (for me, at least) is who cares if they ARE using steroids. Oh no! A bunch of men desperately trying to prove their masculinity and hang on to their rapidly waning youth by dressing up in tight pants and playing with balls and wooden sticks while whoring themselves out to advertisers for millions of dollars to let men desperate to find something to fill the void in their lives get drunk on coors and watch them, are taking steroids, thus risking shrinking of the testicles, reduced sperm count, infertility, baldness, developments of breasts, high blood pressure, jaundice, liver tumors, and cancer. Whatever shall we do?!

I'll tell you what you do: pick up the remote control and turn off your fucking television set, play with your kids, take your wife out to dinner, and start a hobby that doesn't involve frittering your life away sitting on your ass in front of the damn idiot box.

The problem with decorating cookies is that it takes a very long time. First you have to bake them. Then you have to cool them. (And that's a whole-day affair as it is) And then you have to decorate them. And then you have to dry them. This is an incredibly time-consuming process and can scare off even the most dedicated baker (like myself) who just doesn't want to devote the time and energy necessary, especially during the dark, depressive days of November, December, January, and February. I was talking about this with Mariella at Fantes last year, and she suggested baking the cookies ahead and freezing them until I wanted to decorate them. I was shocked; I'd never even considered the idea before. But when I was little, I have fond memories of my grandmother keeping blue coffee cans of cookies wrapped in waxed paper in her freezer, which she'd store there for as long as a year sometimes, and bring them out for company (or, Lisa and I would just steal cookies straight from the freezer while Nona was watching her "stories" on the tv). To be honest, they tasted like they'd been in there for a while, but most people don't freeze cookies for a year. Also, she seldom defrosted them. She just serve a plate of frozen cookies. (I wish I had her recipes. Especially for blondies and those iced cookies she made.) So I knew that freezing cookies was possible. I'd never gotten that idea out of my head, but my freezer was too small and crowded to store much of anything for long, let alone several batches of cookies.

And then I got the freezer this summer from Sears. Oh what a glorious freezer it is, too. Now that my basement was finally accessible from *inside* the house, I'd planned on getting a small chest freezer where I could store butter and vegetables. But when dad and I got to Sears, we discovered that there were no frost-free chest freezers, and they needed to be defrosted every 6 months. Fishy pointed out that I'd never defrost it (guilty!), and that the space in the freezer would get smaller, and smaller, until finally, instead of defrosting it, I'd just say, "ok let's get a new freezer." And of course, he's spot on. So, I ended up coming home from Sears with a wonderful full-sized stand-up frost-free freezer, which I love. And I keep it at zero degrees F, which is considerably colder than the freezer in the top part of my fridge, so things keep well even longer than usual.

In the last few days, I've baked several batches of cookies: sugar cookie xmas trees to be decorated, rugelach (both apricot and raspberry), and some white chocolate cranberry pecan cookies I made this morning, and except for a few i kept aside for the insatiable Fishy, they're all in the freezer now. I'm a little afraid they won't taste good when I finally pull them out and defrost them, closer to Christmas, and that I will have baked them all for nothing, but for now, whenever I have the energy, I bake some more. Tonite I'm making more sugar cookies--either xmas trees again or snowflakes; I haven't decided yet.

Hey, give me a day's notice, and I'll defrost some for you if you'd like to drop by.

tvdetective, Fishy, and I met up today for a long anticipated event. TvD and I have been talking for the *longest* time about going down to Miel, the new-when-we-first-started-talking-about-it bakery on 17th, just south of Walnut. For months, we'd had a plan to go the next time both of our bosses were out of the building for the day, but that day never seemed to arrive, and when it did, it was too cold/rainy for the trek. To be honest, i'd all but given up. But today, it happened. Fishy and I met TvD on 22nd street, and together we walked to Miel. The desserts in the case looked just amazing, and we knew it was going to be a tough decision. In a surprising move, Fishy suggested we buy the "Miel Sampler," a plastic covered tray with smaller versions of about 10 different desserts. (thank you, Fishy!) You'd think it would be really expensive, but it was only $18, which is the same cost as getting 3 full-sized desserts, and to be honest, it looked like more food than we could eat anyway. (Even as we left the store, i was trying to figure out how we'd split up the loot we couldn't finish, since we only had one tray to carry it in.) The little lady and I both got small coffees, too. Fishy likes the smell of coffee, but can't stand to drink it, so i got him a bottled water later.

Since there's little to none in the way of in-house seating at Miel, we decided we'd walk a couple blocks over to Liberty Place and sit in the food court. When we got there, though, we decided we'd much rather eat at one of the tables around the balcony on the 2nd floor. It took us a while to get one (and we lost our first one thanks to some jerkoff who probably thought he was better than us), but we ended up with a great seat, thanks to Fishy's sharp eye and fast hand.

Tiramisu, macaroons, apple tart, something we agreed that Fishy accurately described as "butterscotch mixed with something butterscotch isn't supposed to be mixed with", Opera, something chocolate and raspberryish that you might find at the office holiday Xmas party, a cream puff, red velvet something, a berry fruit tart with gelatin (accent on the 2nd syllable), and a few other somethings i'm forgetting. Everything was pretty much fantastic (except that butterscotch creation). And we had no problem finishing everything.

tvdetective was making dinner for Snaps tonite, so she had to get a move-on so she could buy the groceries (and the pyrex dish to bake it in, which we bought from some old guy at KitchenKapers who clearly didn't like her) I walked her to K.K., and then we parted ways at 17th and Walnut and headed to meet Fishy at Borders, where he'd gone to get some work done for work.

Good times.

Fishy's quote o' the day:

"You know, people can do some really amazing things with stuff."

Here's Fishy's best line of the week:

"I wish I had a job I hated less."

Katsuo sushi. Tuna and Avocado roll. Salmon and Avocado Roll. Hamachi and Scallion Roll. Spicy Crunchy Tuna Roll. Madai sushi. Avocado Sushi. Inari zushi. TORO!

tvdetective and I had one of our special lunches at Pod today. We love Pod. We adore Pod. We are hopelessly devoted to Pod. We'd eat there every day if we could afford it. (and, if we're being honest, we've certainly been known to go even when we *can't* afford it) But Thursdays are the best. Our favorite sushi chef is working and the fish is so damned fresh. We discovered this by accident several months ago, and now we try to go every thursday possible. We *always* sit at the sushi bar and order directly from the sushi chef. They're very nice there, and we're fairly certain that they love us almost as much as we love them. We even have a favorite waiter, who's been known to bring us each a Shirley Temple before we even had the chance to order them.

It seems to us that a lot of people sit at the tables in Pod and order non-sushi items, which is a complete waste of money if you ask us. It's all about the sushi, people.

I was looking at the new book bin, down on the first floor. This is an area where various selected new books are placed for users to browse to see if there's anything new and interesting. The thing is, all the books have had their dustjackets removed. Now, I don't know if you've ever seen a hardback book before, but if you have, you've probably noticed that all of the important information a person might want to know about a new book (reviews, plot summary, info about the author) is located on the inside flaps of the dustjacket. You don't even have a cover to judge the book by. So basically, all you have to go on is the title and the author, printed on the spine of the book. So imagine you're looking at these books. There's a book called Eclipse by John Smith, a book called Dragon Run by Julie Anderton, and a book called Living in Ken's House by Michael Cruz. Which ones are fiction? Which ones are non-fiction? What are they about? Let's say you determine that Eclipse is fiction by paging through the book. What KIND of fiction is it? Historical? Mystery? Sci-fi? Gay erotica? You really don't know, do you? How about Living in Ken's House? Maybe it has that non-fictiony look to it. But what is it? A feminist critique of Barbie dolls? Or the story of Kenneth Lay and Enron? Or something else entirely different? YOU CAN'T TELL! And partly that's because i made up the titles and authors, but even if I hadn't, you still wouldn't know jack about these books. So unless you come across a book you happen to have heard of (and a large academic research library like ours does not focus their collection on books you've heard of), you're S.O.L. Isn't that a great and useful way to display new books? That's what libraries are here for--we're experts at organizing information.