Where's the opt out button?

Sometimes I think that people like to make a big deal out of the holidays just so they’ll feel better about themselves and the fact that they don’t do much the other 11 months of the year. I’m sure I’m just cynical and grouchy, but the only thing I actually like about the season is the frequent gatherings of family and friends. I wish we did things like this more often or consistently, but we don’t. So I like the holidays because it’s the time we do those things… but I don’t like much else about them.

<>Being in social work, it’s weird that this is the one month of the year I don’t have to worry about the basic needs of my clients. There’s tons of food, winter clothing, winter shelter, and even gifts. Most people know that the holidays are difficult for people without social supports or people with emotional or seasonal disorders, but for a lot of my clients it’s actually a better time of year because it’s the one time of year people give a crap about helping other people. I wish people would pick a different random month of the year to go work at a soup kitchen or give food to a food bank, because it seems to be either feast or famine… literally.

So wild and free

Now lean forward... slowly...

So here's the thing.

When Emily came to town a while back, several of us were hanging out and naturally the topic of all of our respective blogs came up.

One or two people remarked that it bugged them that I took the links off of my blog and they have to go back out to look at other friend's blogs. I just smiled. I like that my blog is a dead end, it warms me somewhere in my chest. In truth, it happened when I changed the template and lost my links, but time makes fools of us all, I guess.

Halloween

Yeah... I don't think I'm going to support trick or treating. It's really just panhandling. I don't want to train anyone to be a hobo.

I love the rain. I came out of my office today to a nice steady Portland rain. Growing up in the Pacific Northwest rain is more normal than sunshine. Many of my happy childhood memories of playing in the backyard were... in the rain! So there's a certain level of familiarity when it gets wet outside. I didn't like rain in Utah, it was too hard, too nasty, and there was lightning and thunder. Nothing wrong with lightning and thunder, but it's not what feels like home to me. I just like the smell, feel and look of a steady Northwest rain.

Drop some knowledge.

So, we got a new TV. LCD flatscreen, high-def, digital state of the art. So, what that means is that I'm able to use HDMI cables instead of the ol' yellow-red-white RCA cables. HDMI takes digital signal from DVD players... computers... anything that sends out a digital signal. Now, anyone that's into stereos knows that the cables are where they "get you" as far as price gouging goes. The digital area is no different: Cheap Cable vs Expensive Cable. Now, back in the day, there was an audiable difference between cheap ol' speaker wire and expensive monster cables, because with an analog signal, shielding and quality of wire could make a difference. However, with digital cable, it's all digital signal. Ones and zeros.

There's just not much of a difference between an HDMI cable of one brand or another. That is, not so you’d notice. There may be differences in cable construction (insulation, cladding, the core, etc), but not in the bandwidth they carry. There’s a minimum, which the HDMI protocol specifies, and that’s it. Also, most HDMI cables (cheap and expensive) have gold contacts. Take a look. The quantity of gold doesn’t make a cable expensive, nor does the process involved in plating them. Gold in these quantities is very cheap. You’re certainly not getting $20 or $50 of gold in each cable. It’s a layer that's only a few molecules thick.

But you’d be very hard pressed to determine any kind of signal quality difference between a low-priced and a high-priced cable. First, unlike analog signalling, with digital signalling a cruddy cable doesn’t mean a poor picture. It means no picture, or horrible artifacts, or errors in the rendering, audio garbling, etc.

I can't make this up, seriously.

So, in a prison in the Philippines, I imagine they were having a difficult time in coming up with ways for prisoners to spend their time. In the USA, most of the time our prisoners spend their recreation time playing cards, basketball, and making stabbing instruments. Some guys come across more constructive ways to spend their time. I once knew a fella who, over the course of spending 10 years on the inside, taught himself to play guitar. This prison managed to put together a complete dance routine set to Michael Jackson's "Thriller", complete with zombie moves and a dude in drag playing the scared girlfriend role. I'm pretty much speechless watching this. Since I can't hear you, I assume you are too.

Aggro opinionated moron!

I frown at people who simplify a complex issue to a singularity in order that they can soapbox about their point of view. I frown harder when it infringes on my area of... I guess I can say expertise. I was out the other day and had to listen to this woman babbling about how it's wrong how some of the kids at her precious and unique snowflake's school are overmedicated and *gasp* on Ritalin. Yeah, heard it before lady. Seems like everyone from Volvo driving soccer mom to Tom Cruise has an opinion on psychiatric medications. I guess the stupid television and radio commercials don't help.

Spent elsewhere

Went on vacation, came back, working hard, sleeping more. When I started blogging, I promised myself that I would travelogue as little as possible. Indeed, I'd like to take this opportunity to remind all of my friends in Portland that I was indeed the first and originator of this whole blog thing in our circles mwa ha (though I got it from Zannah, to give due credit). At any rate, no travelogue. But also in my at home life I've been doing my best to leave work at work. Most of my musing and ruminating processes are centered around work now, or inspired by people I meet and relationships I have with clients. But somehow coming home to write about them doesn't seem like something I usually want to do. And so my blog has been notoriously silent. Muted. Part of me starts to feel bad about that, but then I remembered that I have been writing it for me and not you, so lay off!

I don't understand people under the age of 25 who are conservative... what is it you're being nostalgic about? You don't even remember Ronald Reagan, let alone enough to worship the guy. Sometimes on commercial breaks on SportsRadio 1080 I flip over to NeoCon news radio 750 where they have Bill O'Reiley and Lars Larson. It's good for a laugh. I don't remember the early to mid 1980's being this paradise that they do. Sure, Star Wars, Transformers, and Teddy Ruxpin ruled, but I don't get the desire to recreate it with my vote or legislation.

Sleep, and the enchancement therof.

So, here's the thing. I had a sleep study done, and they got me a CPAP machine. It's this machine that has an air pump, a tube, and a mask that goes over my nose. It provides like a constant stream of air pressure to keep my soft palate from collapsing and me snoring and choaking myself off. It also lets me feel like Darth Vader, a definite plus. What was interesting about the whole thing was the information I got from the sleep study I had done. I had to go sleep at this lab with electrodes all hooked up on me wired to a computer. The data showed that not only was my sleep interrupted 187 times in two hours (holy crap!!!), but in the 2 hours without the machine, I had no REM sleep at all. Zero. That blew my mind. I literally haven't been dreaming. I didn't even know this was possible. So anyway, I've had this machine now since last Thursday, and last night I had what might be my first dream in years!

It was a nightmare.

Sheesh.

I'm older. Hooray me.

So... I'm older today. I'm often nonplussed about birthday celebrating. Way to be born me! However, it's been a great year, and I have a lot to be thankful for.

Short Stories

So here's the thing. I used to write a lot, and now I don't so much. I think it's because I am always doing paperwork at work, and my enthusiasm for creating the written word has waned. Hemingway once wrote a story in just six words ("For sale: baby shoes, never worn.") and is said to have called it his best work. Wired magazine did an article where they asked many other established people to try to do the same. Read theirs, and join me in posting your own. More than one entry is encouraged. I'll be disappointed if there aren't 20 replies to this eventually. First, enjoy some of these (some classy names here!)

Gown removed carelessly. Head, less so.
- Joss Whedon

Clones demand rights: second Emancipation Proclamation.
- Paul Di Filippo

Thought I was right. I wasn't.
- Graeme Gibson

Heaven falls. Details at eleven.
- Robert Jordan

The baby’s blood type? Human, mostly.
- Orson Scott Card

Automobile warranty expires. So does engine.
- Stan Lee

Machine. Unexpectedly, I’d invented a time
- Alan Moore

Wasted day. Wasted life. Dessert, please.
- Steven Meretzky

Longed for him. Got him. Shit.
- Margaret Atwood

As for my own... hmm... let's see...

The sun foils Icarus' brilliant plan.
Somehow I forgot to remember her.
There isn't much time left to
Colder in hell than I expected.

Have fun.

Paul and Dani got married

It was cool to attend Paul and Dani's wedding... it was the first wedding I'd been to that was as much for the people attending as the people being hitched. Kudos.

It was strange to see people from personal and professional lives, both old and new, colliding.

sometimes I feel like...

Godwin's Law

Godwin's Law (also known as Godwin's Rule of Nazi Analogies) is a mainstay of Internet culture, an adage formulated by Mike Godwin in 1990. The law states:

"As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one."

Godwin's Law does not dispute whether any particular reference or comparison to Hitler or the Nazis might be apt. It is precisely because such a comparison or reference may sometimes be appropriate, Godwin has argued, that overuse of the Nazi/Hitler comparison should be avoided, as it robs the valid comparisons of their impact.

Although it's basically memetical theory, I've observed Godwin be correct a few too many times for comfort.

A Haiku About How Much I Love Grapes
by Tobias Skünke

Grapes, how I love thee
Munching and playing with you
Play play play, munch munch
More?

The Decemberist's "The Crane Wife"

If you love indie rock, you probably already have this album, NPR's album of the year. Snagged it two days ago and have fallen in love with it.

The album was inspired by a Japanese folk tale, and the album is based on two "macro" song concepts, The Crane Wife and The Island, the latter of which was inspired by William Shakespeare's The Tempest. If you know me well, you can already see why I might like it. I love Japanese culture, and I love Shakespeare. It's really a beautiful album. I'm sure if you listen to the radio, you've heard the Valencia song, but trust me, the rest of the album is more and better.

But, what is the crane wife?

The Crane Wife is an old Japanese folk tale. A poor man finds an injured crane, takes it in and nurses it back to health. After releasing the crane, a woman appears at his doorstep with whom he falls in love and marries. Because they need money, his wife offers to weave wondrous fabric out of silk that they can sell at the market (the song talks about clothes, but in the version I've heard, she makes magical sails for ships), on the condition that he agrees never to watch her making them. They prosper and live a comfortable life, but he asks her to weave them more and more, as his greed increases. Unnoticed by the man, his wife's health is diminishing. As these tales go, curiosity gets the best of the man, and he eventually peeks in to see what she is doing to make the silk she weaves so desirable. He is shocked to discover that at the loom is the crane plucking feathers from her own body and weaving them into the loom. The crane, seeing him, flies away and never returns.

What I like best about this story is that the "moral" differs from person to person, and isn't so obvious.

What

Finger Lickin' Good.

I like fried chicken, but it’s always lacking something when I get it from a resturant. KFC is way too greasy, and uses puny chicken pieces. Popeyes is too crispy, supermarket deli chicken is flavorless. So a while back when I was living at the Brooklyn house, I decided I’d fry some up myself and make it exactly how I wanted. The first effort was well received, wife and a roommate or two were impressed. Ever since then, every so often, I make some fried chicken and try to hone and perfect the recipie. It’s not perfect yet, but it’s darn good and I’m proud of it. You know you’re on to something good when you’d rather have your own version of something than a professional’s.

How I make fried chicken:
Get some boneless, skinless chicken breasts. I don’t like bones, I don’t like skin, so I might as well start it in that state, y’know? I have found smaller-to-medium sized breasts to be ideal, the big huge ones you can sometimes get are difficult to get cooked all the way through.

Take a bowl and put a small container of buttermilk in it. Add a firm couple shakes of tobasco sauce, and a generous amount of pepper (I don’t measure, nor should you). Crack and egg or two (depending on size of eggs), beat them separately, then mix them with the buttermilk marinade. Put chicken breasts in mixture, marinate for an hour or three in the fridge.

Take another bowl, pour in a box of tempura flour. Add a good tablespoon of pepper, some onion powder and garlic salt, some thyme, oregano, paprika, and seasoning salt. A doable shortcut here is to take a packet of Italian salad dressing mix and add it with the pepper in lieu of other spices. The only things I’ve found to be very necessary are black pepper and garlic salt. There are many things that will give your chicken some savor. I’ve even gone with Cajun spice mix from Winco (nice but the cayenne gives it an earthy taste). Mix spices with flour.

Then coat the slimy chicken in the flour and spices. The time tested paper bag method works fine, but I usually use a place with the flour and stuff on it, and press and work the flour all over the chicken with my fingers. The downside: fingers get coated as well. Additional downside: Kentucky fried fingers are… not as good.

Take a large pan, put it on the stove, and pour a good inch of oil into it, and let it pre heat on medium to medium high. Here’s one of the tricks I’ve learned: How “brown” the chicken gets is a function of how hot the oil is, not how long you cook it. Hotter oil = browner chicken. It will vary on your stove, of course. Takes about 10-12 minutes on the first side, and 5 on the other… if you’re unsure if it’s done, cut it open and take a look.

Take it out of the oil, and let it sit on paper towels or a pizza box (don’t laugh, a pizza box works better than paper towels, which get soaked. Dab with a paper towel to get the oil off the top. More oil you take out now, less that goes in you! Let it cool for a good 10 min… don’t try eating it right off. Nice thing about homemade fried chicken is that it’s great hot, lukewarm, or cold!