Dec 22, 01:41 AM Commenting is closed for this article.
The holiday season is upon us. While most of us are busy reveling in good old fashioned American crass commercialism, it is important to remember the true spirit of the holiday season- Santa Claus. Yes, Santa Claus, that iconic jolly overweight senior citizen who embodies the institution of holiday gift giving in such a way as to make it the sacred duty of every parent in Middle America to spend all of their money putting toys under a tree in the name of Santa Claus. In an effort to discover this holiday cheer so prevalent around me, I set out upon a noble quest to find the Santa in myself.
I am, of course, speaking of Santarchy 2007. I have pictures.
Dec 20, 04:46 PM Commenting is closed for this article.
America is big. Really big. From my plane above, I witnessed it’s immensity, like a giant rock carved out of the ocean floor. I saw the vast stretches of land from coast to coast that consist less of the marks of human civilization and more of rugged empty barren wastelands until, finally, I saw the Pacific spread out before me.
My visit to the west coast made me realize how behind I am in my travels and how little I have seen of the county and of the world. The life that I am used to here is so different elsewhere. There are new places to see, new people to see, and new … experiences to be experienced. If time and the institution of working a day job were not tying me down, I would be gone already.
I read in a travel magazine about how Americans get screwed over in terms of vacation time. Most of us get only a couple of weeks of vacation time, plus holidays off if we are lucky. Meanwhile, everyone is Europe gets far more, which would explain why those wily Europeans are going on vacations all the time. I think France is the best. 35 hour work day plus 5 weeks of vacation! Yet, I can only envy this kind of freedom that comes from having a lot of free time to ones self. I’m sure that I would feel more like an individual, and less like a cog in the corporate machine.
Jul 23, 09:13 PM Commenting is closed for this article.
Many may not know me as one to appreciate the culinary arts. Indeed, I have stated on more than one occasion that I could do without the concept of eating food if it were only practical to sustain bodily functions in its absence. My experiments with cooking in the past have only led to terrible disasters which I need not elaborate on. However, my newfound discovery of tofu marks a culinary turning point in my life. No longer am I content to rely on tasteless dried junk food or frozen microwavable sides for my nutritional needs. I can now realize just how supremely awesome a healthy and delicious home cooked meal really can be.
Okay, admittedly, the taste is pretty bland by itself. Not bad or anything, just tasteless. But tofu acts much in the manner of a sponge, capable of absorbing whatever flavor it touches when cooking or marinating. I myself prefer teriyaki as a flavoring, when mixed in a stir fry of rice and veggies.
The health benefits of bean curd cannot be over exaggerated. Tofu is an excellent source of protein and fiber, and after having consumed an entire family-sized block of it two days, I feel much more confident in my intestinal health. Now I am not only a man of high moral fiber, but of high dietary fiber as well.
Tofu has always been one of those foods that I have never tried, but have heard of and have always maintained a mild disposition of curiosity. It has never been considered to be a part of the typical American cuisine that I grew up with, but there are references in popular culture everywhere. In Monkey Island 3, tofu had to be carved into a mask to get past a certain part of the game. Who could forget the player model turning into a big block of tofu in the original Pirates, Vikings, and Knights? Now, the word of tofu can now be heard in the form of a song by The Beets.
One fact that many people do not know is that tofu has many application beyond just consumption. Because of its unique consistency and molding capability, it can for example, be chiseled into a statue or an abstract piece of three dimentional art, as demonstrated by the artist David Shapiro I myself have been considering becoming a ‘tofu artist’, if you will. This could easily replace clay as a meant to make maquets for 3d digitizing.
I would recommend tofu to anyone, as it’s health benefits are compatable even to those who adhere to the most stringent dietary guidelines.
Jun 29, 11:58 PM Commenting is closed for this article.
I was already running slightly late when I took of for work this morning. No later than a mile from the outbound Millvale ramp on route 28 did I come to a halt in traffic. Bumper to bumper traffic for as far as the eye could see. It could not have been from the construction that had been going on in the area because that was much father along. Trying to figure out what the hell was going on, I switched the radio to the local news station. Instead of hearing the imagined case of a multi-car accident or an overturned truck spilling chemical waste on the highway, the topic on the news concerned the recall of Robert’s American Gourmet Veggie Booty. Yes, the healthy yet delicious green rice and corn snack that I had just ordered an entire case of not more than a month ago, has been recalled due to several dozen cases of Salmonella throughout states.
When I first opened a bag a couple of weeks ago, these puffy nuggets did have a questionable odor, and the slimy green coating made them look like they were manufactured out of someones gastrointestinal tract. But I never expected that it would actually contain intestinal bacteria. To be honest, I had only purchased the stuff because it has a colorful pirate on the cover, saying such phrases as CRUNCHY, GOOD PROVISIONS, and SHIVER ME TIMBERS. I trusted Robert the pirate to provide a tasty, healthy, and bacteria-free food, but he has let me down. Thankfully, I have not yet began running a fever or shitting bloody diarrhea, so I have good reason to think myself spared of the ravages of Salmonella this time. In the future, I will consider switching to the slightly more homo-erotic but equally delicious Fruity Booty
Jun 26, 09:08 PM Commenting is closed for this article.
I live a significant distance away from where I work- approximately 25 miles. With the summer traffic and frequent construction, the daily commute takes about fifty minutes either way. That’s almost two hours a day, wasted by driving along the same familiar hypnotizing path. Over eight hours of my life every week, gone. When I think that I have been doing this for over two years, I wonder to myself how or why I put up with it for so long and I could seriously be doing something better with that time. So in the interest of convenience, I have decided that I need to move. It is fortunate that houses in western Pennsylvania are so cheap. In fact, Pittsburgh leads the nation in population loss, next to New Orleans, primarily as a result of all of the old people dying or moving to Florida to die, the lack of new people coming in, and because most of the younger people that are attracted here solely for the many colleges and universities do not decide to stay after graduating. I can’t blame them. The job market around here is horrible. The upside to all of this is that I can buy a nice small place with a mortgage payment that would be less than the amount that would be paid towards rent in a similar living situation. On the face of it, it seems like a no-brainer. People seem to think that you need a lot of money to afford a house, but even after you add in taxes and other costs it’s really not much. At least, not here. Actually, there are major tax breaks since all of the loan interest paid is deductible
Last Friday after work I looked at three houses, all of them in the Plum boro area, which is sort of like an extension of Monroeville. It’s one of the places here have a lot of houses for sale as a result of the aforementioned migration of the elderly. The first of these houses is actually half of a duplex, separated in half by a shared central entrance and walkway. Constructed in an old colonial style architecture, it’s a fairly large place at three bedrooms, which is space that I would probably never use. The back door leads out to a raised wooden porch that spans the entire rear of the building. I don’t like the idea of sharing a porch, or even the building for that matter, especially since I don’t even know the neighbor. Judging from the pickup truck in the driveway and wide assortments of patriotic American flags adorning the lawn, I doubt that we would along particularly well- especially if there are children. The last thing I would want is some kid bothering me and playing on my side of the porch, or throwing baseballs through my windows. There is also the issue of the yard. It’s fairly large, and there is a garden in it. I know that I’m far too lazy to mow a lawn on a regular basis, so I think I’ll pass this place up.
The other two places I looked at are located in a nice community village, a cul-de-sac encompassing many other townhouses and condos. This location would be nice because, as the real estate lady explained to me, there are many other young and single people who live in the condos. They are both 2-bedroom typical contemporary aluminum townhouses with the architecture and floor layout in almost the exact same way, presumably along with all of the other houses that were built in the same era. Most of them consist of units of three houses built next to each other with a firewall separating them. Of the two houses, the one that interests me is one in the middle, sandwiched in-between two others, probably for the only reason that there is little lawn- only a small patio with a wooden fence out in the back. There is also a tiny garage with barely enough room to fit a single car- but its still garage! No more shoveling snow off my car this winter!
My only reservation about purchasing a home is that I won’t be around Pittsburgh much longer to enjoy it. I would not hesitate to leave here given the opportunity- I’m just not sure when that time will come. It could be in six months, or it would be in two years. I have no idea. It would be stupid to buy a house and sell it back, likely at a loss, in such a short period of time. But I figure it is nice enough place that instead of selling it, I could profit by renting it out in the future.
When I first opened a bag a couple of weeks ago, these puffy nuggets did have a questionable odor, and the slimy green coating made them look like they were manufactured out of someones gastrointestinal tract. But I never expected that it would actually contain intestinal bacteria. To be honest, I had only purchased the stuff because it has a colorful pirate on the cover, saying such phrases as 