Friday, April 30, 2004
"i stand corrected."
geeeez....where's my brain these days? I happened to be looking at a post from a few days ago and came across this..
"Okay, raise your hand if you think that coconut milk is that whitish liquid that comes out of the middle of a pineapple after you crack it open. well, that's what I thought, too..." ...duh...
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geeeez....where's my brain these days? I happened to be looking at a post from a few days ago and came across this..
"Okay, raise your hand if you think that coconut milk is that whitish liquid that comes out of the middle of a pineapple after you crack it open. well, that's what I thought, too..." ...duh...
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Tuesday, April 20, 2004
"blondie, redeemed."
whew. after watching blondie perform on Divas 2004 I feel the band has redeemed itself, or at least Debbie Harry has redeemed herself. A few weeks back I watched them perform on the Today show on a weekday (they also had a better performance on weekend Today a few days later). Debbie Harry was several notes above the proper pitch at the beginning of their new song "Good Boys." I was horrified. Having seen a great performance by Blondie at the 2003 Ribfest in Naperville, IL, I was shocked that something like that could happen. She signaled to the band to stop, they signaled to keep going and finally they worked it out, although at the end of the song, her mic was still on as she began to yell at the band, but I couldn't quite catch what they were saying. Needless to say, she seemed to be in an altered state during that entire performance - her eyes looked distant, she looked confused - the best way I can describe it is as if she had alzheimer's disease. Not sure if it was the screw-up, the small stage setting or some other external factor, but she definitely looked 100% better at the Divas show. Enough that I might actually consider paying to see them perform at the 9:30 club next month. i really like their new song, "Good Boys" - even though my first time hearing it was the aforementioned off-pitch performance. i really really like that song. really.
here are some other comments I found about the Today show performance:
http://jeffgothelf.com/journal/index.php?itemid=131
http://www.woogieworld.org/ - April 10th entry
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whew. after watching blondie perform on Divas 2004 I feel the band has redeemed itself, or at least Debbie Harry has redeemed herself. A few weeks back I watched them perform on the Today show on a weekday (they also had a better performance on weekend Today a few days later). Debbie Harry was several notes above the proper pitch at the beginning of their new song "Good Boys." I was horrified. Having seen a great performance by Blondie at the 2003 Ribfest in Naperville, IL, I was shocked that something like that could happen. She signaled to the band to stop, they signaled to keep going and finally they worked it out, although at the end of the song, her mic was still on as she began to yell at the band, but I couldn't quite catch what they were saying. Needless to say, she seemed to be in an altered state during that entire performance - her eyes looked distant, she looked confused - the best way I can describe it is as if she had alzheimer's disease. Not sure if it was the screw-up, the small stage setting or some other external factor, but she definitely looked 100% better at the Divas show. Enough that I might actually consider paying to see them perform at the 9:30 club next month. i really like their new song, "Good Boys" - even though my first time hearing it was the aforementioned off-pitch performance. i really really like that song. really.
here are some other comments I found about the Today show performance:
http://jeffgothelf.com/journal/index.php?itemid=131
http://www.woogieworld.org/ - April 10th entry
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Friday, April 16, 2004
"it slices, it dices...."
Guess what!!! There was a cancellation in the knife skills class and I got to take it. It was a lot of fun. I'll definitely be signing up for another cooking class soon. We didn't prepare a meal, per se, but all the vegetables that we cut up were used in the meal that the chef prepared. It was a light Indian-inspired dinner with a soup and salad - delicious! I will post the recipes and tips over in my Fill the Void blog.
Funny thing - I never knew what coconut milk was! Okay, raise your hand if you think that coconut milk is that whitish liquid that comes out of the middle of a pineapple after you crack it open. well, that's what I thought, too, but I was wrong. THAT is coconut "water." Coconut milk is actually made from the meat of the coconut, pulverized with boiling water and then strained. Then if you wait for a bit, it will separate and coconut "cream" rises to the top. Pretty fascinating, huh? you can put your hand down now.
So... after I got home from cooking class, it was Apprentice time. I agreed with Trump's choice. I find it fascinating, however, that such a powerful man can be SO BAD at reading a teleprompter. If you didn't catch that, watch it again and pay attention to the parts near the end when he's not actually talking boardroom - horrible! Sure hasn't posed a problem for him though...
well, i've got to get out of here...have a busy day of working outside ahead!
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Guess what!!! There was a cancellation in the knife skills class and I got to take it. It was a lot of fun. I'll definitely be signing up for another cooking class soon. We didn't prepare a meal, per se, but all the vegetables that we cut up were used in the meal that the chef prepared. It was a light Indian-inspired dinner with a soup and salad - delicious! I will post the recipes and tips over in my Fill the Void blog.
Funny thing - I never knew what coconut milk was! Okay, raise your hand if you think that coconut milk is that whitish liquid that comes out of the middle of a pineapple after you crack it open. well, that's what I thought, too, but I was wrong. THAT is coconut "water." Coconut milk is actually made from the meat of the coconut, pulverized with boiling water and then strained. Then if you wait for a bit, it will separate and coconut "cream" rises to the top. Pretty fascinating, huh? you can put your hand down now.
So... after I got home from cooking class, it was Apprentice time. I agreed with Trump's choice. I find it fascinating, however, that such a powerful man can be SO BAD at reading a teleprompter. If you didn't catch that, watch it again and pay attention to the parts near the end when he's not actually talking boardroom - horrible! Sure hasn't posed a problem for him though...
well, i've got to get out of here...have a busy day of working outside ahead!
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Tuesday, April 13, 2004
"Sharpening My Skillset"
I am so excited...I am on the waiting list for a knife skills class! I would be even more excited if someone in the class would cancel, so I could have their spot! They had just filled the last spot right before I called to reserve today. The class is at this cool market that opened up near the downtown mall and it contains gourmet shops like seafood, cook's tools, garden items - some of my favorite things! I'd like to take other classes, but I decided knife skills would be a good one to take first, as the others are full menu classes and the slicing, dicing and julienning skills might be an asset. My dad said he might want to sign up for a woodworking class at a local place, so I might look in to that as well. My schedule seems to be filling up fast - I already feel so busy - I don't know how I ever had time to do things while I was working. Some people think there's nothing to do in C'ville, but I won't complain about that unless I have been to every restaurant and every store and done every activity and gone to every event. And I'll bet that will take quite a while. Speaking of C'ville, it has again won an honor for being one of the best places to live...in fact THE best!
One thing that has residents worried is the potential for three new shopping centers to move to the area. Two have been approved and I am not sure the status of the third. It will be nice to have more stores, but the traffic is expected to explode, which in my estimation would probably not allow it to continue being such a great place to live. Here are links to the development sites:
Albemarle Place Town Center
North Pointe
Hollymead Town Center
I have been toying with the idea of going back into something real estate-related - in fact I spent the whole morning reading all about these developments and the controversy surrounding them. Pretty interesting. At least to me...
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I am so excited...I am on the waiting list for a knife skills class! I would be even more excited if someone in the class would cancel, so I could have their spot! They had just filled the last spot right before I called to reserve today. The class is at this cool market that opened up near the downtown mall and it contains gourmet shops like seafood, cook's tools, garden items - some of my favorite things! I'd like to take other classes, but I decided knife skills would be a good one to take first, as the others are full menu classes and the slicing, dicing and julienning skills might be an asset. My dad said he might want to sign up for a woodworking class at a local place, so I might look in to that as well. My schedule seems to be filling up fast - I already feel so busy - I don't know how I ever had time to do things while I was working. Some people think there's nothing to do in C'ville, but I won't complain about that unless I have been to every restaurant and every store and done every activity and gone to every event. And I'll bet that will take quite a while. Speaking of C'ville, it has again won an honor for being one of the best places to live...in fact THE best!
One thing that has residents worried is the potential for three new shopping centers to move to the area. Two have been approved and I am not sure the status of the third. It will be nice to have more stores, but the traffic is expected to explode, which in my estimation would probably not allow it to continue being such a great place to live. Here are links to the development sites:
Albemarle Place Town Center
North Pointe
Hollymead Town Center
I have been toying with the idea of going back into something real estate-related - in fact I spent the whole morning reading all about these developments and the controversy surrounding them. Pretty interesting. At least to me...
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Verizon Freedom Haunts Me Again*
*Side note--> the use of the word "haunts" is appropriate because tracking real-time sales metrics for this package was actually one of my last responsibilities at VZ and I remember having to do a manual workaround for two weeks, updating the site every thirty minutes for 12 hours a day until the second part of the process was ironed out. Ugh, not an experience I'd want to repeat.
My ex-company has pissed me off yet again! Last Thursday I ordered the Verizon Freedom (unlimited ld) package, something I was ineligible for as an employee. This was spurred by the loss of my concession benefits and the tripling of my phone bill!! Ugh. Living in ruralia can really suck sometimes, we are not eligible for DSL, so we need two phone lines for our trusty dial-up service. And since my cell phone doesn't work at home, i really needed another alternative to have a lower long distance bill. The order was supposed to complete on April 9th, the next day and I was assured that I would know of the switch because I could type '00' on my telephone and I would hear a verizon message. Well, on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday it STILL said MCI. So I called customer service and explained that it still told me MCI even though the order was listed as completed. I explained that when I had called Thursday they remarked that my account was already flagged with VZ service even though I had been using MCI for over a year, so I had a feeling that they never even worked/verified that part of the order. I was willing to bet money. She said she didn't think that was the case and that there was probably just some delay with the "automated system". She said "you know how those automated systems can be...." like she would say to some 80 year old customer that blames every problem in the world on this black whole blanketly labeled "automated systems." ...as if I didn't work at this place for 6.5 years and see the screwups day in and day out... She assured me that they would reimburse for any calls billed by MCI if there was some kind of error.
Well, I really like to avoid trying to get reimbursed for things. I am not a good money collector. I would rather just not pay out in the first place, it's easier that way. So I didn't make any long distance calls for 6 days. Today, I called again and explained the same scenario that I did on Monday, but this time was transferred to a repair person. After about 20 minutes on the phone waiting, the repair rep did a quick check and sure enough the order never switched me to VZ - it was still on MCI. She switched it in less than a minute. Less than a minute would have saved me 6 days of inconvenience, three phone calls and customer dissatisfaction. And if i had made calls it would have saved me endless time trying to get reimbursed for what would have amounted to a few dollars, but it's the principle, dammit. :-)
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*Side note--> the use of the word "haunts" is appropriate because tracking real-time sales metrics for this package was actually one of my last responsibilities at VZ and I remember having to do a manual workaround for two weeks, updating the site every thirty minutes for 12 hours a day until the second part of the process was ironed out. Ugh, not an experience I'd want to repeat.
My ex-company has pissed me off yet again! Last Thursday I ordered the Verizon Freedom (unlimited ld) package, something I was ineligible for as an employee. This was spurred by the loss of my concession benefits and the tripling of my phone bill!! Ugh. Living in ruralia can really suck sometimes, we are not eligible for DSL, so we need two phone lines for our trusty dial-up service. And since my cell phone doesn't work at home, i really needed another alternative to have a lower long distance bill. The order was supposed to complete on April 9th, the next day and I was assured that I would know of the switch because I could type '00' on my telephone and I would hear a verizon message. Well, on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday it STILL said MCI. So I called customer service and explained that it still told me MCI even though the order was listed as completed. I explained that when I had called Thursday they remarked that my account was already flagged with VZ service even though I had been using MCI for over a year, so I had a feeling that they never even worked/verified that part of the order. I was willing to bet money. She said she didn't think that was the case and that there was probably just some delay with the "automated system". She said "you know how those automated systems can be...." like she would say to some 80 year old customer that blames every problem in the world on this black whole blanketly labeled "automated systems." ...as if I didn't work at this place for 6.5 years and see the screwups day in and day out... She assured me that they would reimburse for any calls billed by MCI if there was some kind of error.
Well, I really like to avoid trying to get reimbursed for things. I am not a good money collector. I would rather just not pay out in the first place, it's easier that way. So I didn't make any long distance calls for 6 days. Today, I called again and explained the same scenario that I did on Monday, but this time was transferred to a repair person. After about 20 minutes on the phone waiting, the repair rep did a quick check and sure enough the order never switched me to VZ - it was still on MCI. She switched it in less than a minute. Less than a minute would have saved me 6 days of inconvenience, three phone calls and customer dissatisfaction. And if i had made calls it would have saved me endless time trying to get reimbursed for what would have amounted to a few dollars, but it's the principle, dammit. :-)
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Thursday, April 08, 2004
Quotation du Jour: "The world is our oyster and we're gonna suck that bitch down with a champagne chaser!" - Dr. Christian Troy of nip/tuck
sure enough, ai ended exactly as i thought, with Camile Velasco getting the axe (is it against blog protocol to post something like that in case there are tivoers abound? who am I kidding - no one is even reading this!!). Okay, so it was a bit emotional, but it was still the right choice...thank you, america. interestingly enough, i have never actually voted in this competition - I always tivo the show and watch it in the middle of the night so I assume voting's all closed up by then.
okay, undoubtedly, i must be a reality tv junkie. a lot of my friends are totally against reality tv and I just don't see it - after all, one could argue that time is precious and why not watch something real vs. something fictional. but that is a pretty week argument and definitely suggests i could need some help :-) so... i watched the Swan last night - it has an interesting concept - "ugly duckling" women are completely made over using plastic surgery, lipsuction and excercise/diet. They don't even get to see themselves for three months during the transformation. Then on each episode, two "swans" are featured and only one is picked to go on to a beauty pageant at the end of the season. Their improvements are also unveiled for the first time and their reactions are quite emotional, understandably. c'mon - if you had thousands of dollars of surgery and lost 40 pounds, wouldn't you freak out to finally see yourself? I enjoy watching the before/after (the whole trading spaces phenomenon), but their reactions seemed pretty fake and over the top, like they were acting and it's hard for me to believe it was real. that's the whole premise of the show, but it just seemed so fake when they were unveiled. i plan to watch again next week and compare. these people have serious self-esteem issues...SERIOUS and Rachel is definitely one of those "toxic-man-pickers." I'll bet she leaves her husband now, just wait...
a non-reality favorite of mine is nip/tuck. how good is that show?? fx has started running last season again in preparation for the new season that begins in june. wow - the pilot episode really tied a few things together for me, since i had missed it last year. the thing i like about the show is the efficiency - each episode is just packed with storyline and no fluff. I can't wait for the new season to start!
ok, enough about tv :-) I have another entry for later today about a fun little experience at wal*mart.
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sure enough, ai ended exactly as i thought, with Camile Velasco getting the axe (is it against blog protocol to post something like that in case there are tivoers abound? who am I kidding - no one is even reading this!!). Okay, so it was a bit emotional, but it was still the right choice...thank you, america. interestingly enough, i have never actually voted in this competition - I always tivo the show and watch it in the middle of the night so I assume voting's all closed up by then.
okay, undoubtedly, i must be a reality tv junkie. a lot of my friends are totally against reality tv and I just don't see it - after all, one could argue that time is precious and why not watch something real vs. something fictional. but that is a pretty week argument and definitely suggests i could need some help :-) so... i watched the Swan last night - it has an interesting concept - "ugly duckling" women are completely made over using plastic surgery, lipsuction and excercise/diet. They don't even get to see themselves for three months during the transformation. Then on each episode, two "swans" are featured and only one is picked to go on to a beauty pageant at the end of the season. Their improvements are also unveiled for the first time and their reactions are quite emotional, understandably. c'mon - if you had thousands of dollars of surgery and lost 40 pounds, wouldn't you freak out to finally see yourself? I enjoy watching the before/after (the whole trading spaces phenomenon), but their reactions seemed pretty fake and over the top, like they were acting and it's hard for me to believe it was real. that's the whole premise of the show, but it just seemed so fake when they were unveiled. i plan to watch again next week and compare. these people have serious self-esteem issues...SERIOUS and Rachel is definitely one of those "toxic-man-pickers." I'll bet she leaves her husband now, just wait...
a non-reality favorite of mine is nip/tuck. how good is that show?? fx has started running last season again in preparation for the new season that begins in june. wow - the pilot episode really tied a few things together for me, since i had missed it last year. the thing i like about the show is the efficiency - each episode is just packed with storyline and no fluff. I can't wait for the new season to start!
ok, enough about tv :-) I have another entry for later today about a fun little experience at wal*mart.
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Wednesday, April 07, 2004
Music du Jour: Elton John - Rocket Man
well, well, well...fancy meeting me here two days in a row. i figure i like to talk and can't find too many people who like to listen for extended periods of time, but my faithful keyboard will never stop receiving inputs from me, so i'll just keep typing :-)
now i know that many people are probably tired of american idol - after all it is the third season, but for me, a newcomer of less than a year to directv and having had only nbc as a local channel (which, by the way is the best network to get if you only get one), i had never seen it before. so the novelty has not quite worn off. last night's performances were not the greatest. poor john stevens - i do see a place for him in music, maybe with a frank/dean cover album, but not as the idol and last night's performance pretty much did him in. camile needs to go as well. she has absolutely no personality and/or is just frozen with stage fright at all times. she is the ai version of kwame from the apprentice - riding the coattails and contributing very little. of course i'm saying this in a meager attempt to keep my old buddy jpl in for another week, but we'll see. george, fantasia and latoya were good as usual and jennifer had her first decent performance since the white leather dress rendition of imagine several shows back. it is hard to say who will take it - fantasia's got the energy, but simon's right - she does screech occasionally. latoya's got the voice, but not as much personality and george is very likeable, but not as hip as he could be...i guess time will tell.
well, off to my getdirty blog to post about all the exciting outdoor projects i will attempt to complete today...
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well, well, well...fancy meeting me here two days in a row. i figure i like to talk and can't find too many people who like to listen for extended periods of time, but my faithful keyboard will never stop receiving inputs from me, so i'll just keep typing :-)
now i know that many people are probably tired of american idol - after all it is the third season, but for me, a newcomer of less than a year to directv and having had only nbc as a local channel (which, by the way is the best network to get if you only get one), i had never seen it before. so the novelty has not quite worn off. last night's performances were not the greatest. poor john stevens - i do see a place for him in music, maybe with a frank/dean cover album, but not as the idol and last night's performance pretty much did him in. camile needs to go as well. she has absolutely no personality and/or is just frozen with stage fright at all times. she is the ai version of kwame from the apprentice - riding the coattails and contributing very little. of course i'm saying this in a meager attempt to keep my old buddy jpl in for another week, but we'll see. george, fantasia and latoya were good as usual and jennifer had her first decent performance since the white leather dress rendition of imagine several shows back. it is hard to say who will take it - fantasia's got the energy, but simon's right - she does screech occasionally. latoya's got the voice, but not as much personality and george is very likeable, but not as hip as he could be...i guess time will tell.
well, off to my getdirty blog to post about all the exciting outdoor projects i will attempt to complete today...
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Tuesday, April 06, 2004
Musique du Jour: Gomez - Getting Better
wow, it has been a long time since i've added an entry. sierra has officially turned 5 and we had a nice birthday party for her over the weekend - the kids seemed to enjoy themselves. we had a spongebob themed party and the game "pin the squarepants on spongebob" was a big hit. also had a spongebob pinata, which was pretty cool. they have pull string pinatas now, so they don't get ruined and nobody gets their eyes poked out, which of course was always the fun part for me as a kid, but now that i'm a parent i have different views on certain things. in a few more generations kids won't even know that pinatas used to be hit with a stick, just like they don't know what records are. the world is actually getting better in some respects, i guess. :-)
still unemployed and still not ready to go back. i'll start looking in the fall when sierra starts kindergarten....or when the money runs out....
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wow, it has been a long time since i've added an entry. sierra has officially turned 5 and we had a nice birthday party for her over the weekend - the kids seemed to enjoy themselves. we had a spongebob themed party and the game "pin the squarepants on spongebob" was a big hit. also had a spongebob pinata, which was pretty cool. they have pull string pinatas now, so they don't get ruined and nobody gets their eyes poked out, which of course was always the fun part for me as a kid, but now that i'm a parent i have different views on certain things. in a few more generations kids won't even know that pinatas used to be hit with a stick, just like they don't know what records are. the world is actually getting better in some respects, i guess. :-)
still unemployed and still not ready to go back. i'll start looking in the fall when sierra starts kindergarten....or when the money runs out....
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