Happy Halloween

Check out this Bollywood version of "Thriller." There are no words.

Fattening Lard Bake

A new recipe is up on Fattening Lard Bake!

Guilty Pleasure Saturday #1

A bunch of my blogging buddies seems to have some sort of weekly feature on their blogs. Rusty has Saturday Hotness (sometimes), March has Forgotten Disc Friday, and Pog has Sucky CD Sunday. I thought I'd join the party with Guilty Pleasure Saturday, which will be a sampling of songs I blast at full-volume when I'm home alone or when I'm in my car and quickly turn down as soon as someone else approaches. Let's start things off with Scorpions "No One Like You."



Since I can't tell this song and "Rock You Like a Hurricane" apart until the verse begins, I wait with bated breath for "Girl, it's been a long time that we've been apart." The verses of this song are ok (my favorite part is the way Klaus Meine pronounces "way"), but the head-banging commences at the drum build-up followed by the oh-so-cheesy hair-metal chorus.

This video has anything a video could need: Alcatraz, sharks, an old-fashioned cigarette holder, a crazy prisoner wearing glasses that appear to be made out of forks who decides to bang a guitar against the wall instead of running away, and a leather-clad blonde in a cage full of fire. Yeah, I don't know either, but they're German so I give them a pass on the ridiculousness.

News Quickies

There is a new procedure where surgeons take hair from the scalp and sew it onto the eyelids, creating false eyelashes. That's freaking disgusting. My eyelashes are thin as hell, but I wear mascara and they look fine. Source

"President clarifies 'stay the course.' It really means 'constantly adjusting the tactics,' he declares." Ooooookaaaay... Those ideas are opposites, but whatever. Mr. President, you can call a pile of shit a rosebush, but it's still a pile of shit. Source

Rush Limbaugh is up to his asshattery again. Now he's mocking Michael J. Fox. Fox has been appearing in political ads for people who support stem cell research, such as Rep. Ben Cardin of Maryland and Claire McCaskill of Missouri. Limbaugh's response to Fox's appearance in the ads: "He's moving all around and shaking and it's purely an act...This is really shameless of Michael J. Fox. Either he didn't take his medication or he's acting." Nice. I can't imagine what it's like to have a disease that could be possibly cured by treatments found using stem cell research and have not only the government opposing this testing based on their right-wing agenda but also a blowhard who is constantly kissing the asses of conservatives making fun of my disease. Source

Small victory of the day: New Jersey courts will extend civil rights to gay couples. Lawmakers are trying to decide if they will let them marry or just have a civil union. Source

Brokeback Mountain

I watched Brokeback Mountain the other week and was wondering if anyone else had seen it. Did I miss something? I thought it was incredibly slow and boring (and no, I'm not one of those people who watches action flicks) and I didn't give a rat's rectum about the relationship because I didn't care about Ennis or Jack as people. They did nothing to make me like them. I also felt no sadness whatsoever when (it's been long enough that this isn't a spoiler) Jack died. Am I just a cold, heartless bitch or did other people feel this way too?

The World in Which We Live

This story of the 67-year-old social worker who was killed while taking a child for a visit with his mother hits close to home for me since I did in-home work with families whose children were involved in Children and Youth Services before I took my current position with the company. Fortunately I never had families who I felt were dangerous. Some were assholes or nasty pieces of trash, but never dangerous (and on the flip side, some were wonderful). We had to go to some pretty bad neighborhoods though. My time in that position was relatively drama-free, but I was, quite randomly I might add, accused by a client's husband of plotting with her to kill him. This family's picture is in the dictionary under dysfunctional--I could write a book. It's actually a funny story, but I'll get back on topic. This quote in particular resonated with me:

"Family services spokeswoman Vikki Franklin acknowledged that it is common practice for social aides to travel alone. "But if a worker should be concerned about safety, he or she can request an escort by a police officer or another social worker."

But another social worker said such escorts are rarely requested because workers are typically so pressed that they don't have the time to arrange for an escort."

The notion of having someone to accompany you to a dangerous pace is bullshit. I was going to be given a family who lived on one of the most drug-infested streets of the city (Rusty--Chestnut St.) and when I said I wasn't really comfortable taking that case I was told I didn't really have a choice because I needed to make my hours. Thank Jebus that I left before I got that family. While most of the supervisors and other employees were at their cozy homes with their families at night, we peons were most often walking around in the ghetto at night. I learned right quick that social work was not the job for me and I have the utmost respect for anyone who can do that. It's a low-paying, thankless job. I say fry 'em.

TV Musings

I think Blogger should work on the bugs in its old system before it introduces a new one. Who's with me?

I'm cautiously declaring The Office to be back. Of course I loved the Jim and Pam interaction, but I liked the episode before that point. I loved Dwight talking about planting his seed in Ryan; the long, lonely walk of loneliness; Cousin Mose; "Lovefool;"and the Jim/Karen flirtation. I think the writers need to reign in Dwight a little bit though. He's becoming a caricature. I also thought the soft pretzel thing was over-the-top, but I know how crazy offices go over free food so I'll forgive it. I still consider Season 1 to be the golden season and hope that the show ends soon. There's only so long it can go without becoming a typical sitcom and I think we're getting dangerously close to that point.

ER was pretty good too. I didn't realize that Forrest Whitaker's attorney was Janice at first! I thought she looked familiar. It was nice to see her in a serious role since she's basically played Janice in everything I've seen her in (Friends, Raymond [I don't watch this show willingly; it just happens to come after The Simpsons in syndication on our FOX channel], and Seinfeld). I thought Forrest and Goran did an excellent job (Emmy nomination for Forrest?) and was glad to see Abby back in the ER. Are the writers purposely making callbacks to Uncle Jesse though? Last week we saw that he was living in the attic and then this week he called little Joe a bambino and quoted Elvis, which are all things that Uncle Jesse did. And now I'm going to go kill myself for knowing all that stuff.

A Nation of Wusses

A school in Massachusetts banned tag and other unsupervised contact games because of the fear that parents will sue the school if their children get hurt at recess. I don't know which is worse: the fact that our children are further being coddled or the fact that we live in a society where people would sue a school because their children got hurt on the playground while playing an innocent childhood game. What good are we doing our children by never allowing anything unpleasant to happen to them?

Source

Treehouse of Horror

Edit your own Treehouse of Horror promo here.

Weekend Update

On Friday I left from work to go to my friend's house. She lives right outside of Allentown, so I was pretty close to Scranton. I didn't see Jim though :(. We had a glass of wine and then walked around the extremely cute town. They have ordinances that don't allow chains within the town limits so they had a lot of neat restaurants and shops. After that we went to what my friend called a dive bar (that place was like a tie-required place compared to some of the dives I've frequented). I had an excellent meal and even found a beer that I like besides Corona. Of course I have no idea what it's called, but it was raspberry flavored. My friend was sick with a cold and I had a raging headache after my wine, the raspberry beer, a Coronoa, and a Midori sour, so we went home and watched 2 episodes of Entourage before going to bed. It was decent and it gave me a new TV boyfriend, Adrian Grenier (as if I need another one). I had seen him in The Devil Wears Prada, but he looks hotter in Entourage for some reason.

After doing a little bit of shopping Saturday morning, I came home, cleaned up Chris's mess (which wasn't as bad as I expected--thanks!), did laundry, went grocery shopping, then watched Runaway Jury. I wanted to read the book first, but Netflix didn't take that into consideration when it sent me a movie that wasn't on the top of my queue. It was pretty good and I got to see John Cusack. I understand it's a lot different than the book. After dinner I finally finished reading John Irving's the 158-Pound Marriage. It wasn't as good as Garp, but the thing that really bugged me were all the punctuation errors. There was an apostrophe used to make a word plural! How is that acceptable in a novel with editors? I also wonder how it's acceptable to write tripe like The Da Vinci Code and make millions of dollars, but that's another post.

Yesterday I did a bunch of cooking for the week ahead, did a lot of loads of laundry, and did some stuff outside to prepare for the winter like putting the hose away and finally unpotting the cilantro that I planted on Memorial Day weekend that never grew past 1 inch. Chris and I watched Night of Too Many Stars on Comedy Central. It was a benefit for Autism starring people I love like Jon Stewart, Steve Carell, Stephen Colbert, Jerry Seinfeld, Ricky Gervais, Will Arnet, David Cross, Paul Rudd, Oscar Nunez, and Triumph the Insult Comic Dog as well as some people I had to leave the room for like Martin Short and Jimmy Fallon. "What are you lauging at, boy? If you say Jimmy Fallon, I'll know you're lying!" - Homer Simpson. The highlights of the show for me were Jerry's bit, Ricky Gervais's quote at the end of his set ("Now Steve Carell will come out and do this same bit slightly better and make more money."), Chris Meloni, who came out in an American flag-themed top hat and carrying a puppet, being told he wasn't allowed to perform because he was one star too many ("Stephen Colbert told me you'd do me like this!"), and Triumph's bit. He sang about celebrities with a group of African guys (think of the old Life Savers commercials).

I'm off today because I had some days I needed to use by the end of the year. I'm going to go get some new clothes, which I desperately need. I hope everyone had a good weekend and have fun working today, suckers! :)

TV Musings

Last night's Office was a million times better than last week's but something still seems off. Maybe it's because Jim is at the other office. I think the show is becoming less realistic and more like a sitcom. This is my 3rd favorite show of all-time, but I don't think shows like this were meant to have so many episodes.

Things I loved:

The attention to detail with the Herr's chips, which are local.
Michael blaming Toby for killing the bird
Ryan actually playing along with the "dead relatives" game and not being such a smug asshole.
Dwight's speech about absorbing his twin.
Dwight telling the warehouse guys to clean up the funeral mess and saying, "Mush!"

ER was good again last night. What the hell? This season I actually get excited for the show, not like the past few seasons where I've watched it only because I've watched it for so long (or a couple years ago when I didn't watch at all).

Check it Out

Dammit, March! You beat me to it. Oh well, I don't have anything else about which to post :).

Battle of the album covers. Some of my favorites are in there! It's not letting me imbed, so I'll just link.

Weekend Update

On Saturday morning I got up at 6:30 to go get my oil changed and have breakfast with my dad at Denny's. I learned that my financial situation, namely my credit card balance (which is not at all bad, especially compared to most people my age) is a topic of conversation for my whole family. Gotta love that. I told Rusty I'm tempted to make copies of all my statements and send them out to my family members so everyone can stay abreast of my personal information. After breakfast I went to the grocery store. I couldn't believe how many people were there at 8:30 on a Saturday morning. What the hell?! After that I came home and cleaned, then in the afternoon Chris and I went to the mall to get new cell phones. We were each paying $29.99/month for 250 minutes and that's it. Did I mention that Cingular fucked all of AT&T's old customers up the ass when they bought it? So now we have a family plan which is $59.99/month and we get 550 peak minutes, unlimited nights and weekends and mobile-to-mobile. Plus we got new phones. It's a pretty basic phone but I don't need, nor would I be able to figure out, bells and whistles.

On Sunday morning I ran out to Target to get travel toiletries because I'm going to visit my friend this weekend and I'm 99% sure I'm going to Rusty's place at Thanksgiving. I was so good at Target. I only bought what I planned to buy and I only spent $19! After that I did the normal Sunday stuff like laundry and went out to dinner with my parents for my mom's belated birthday.

I hope everyone had a good weekend!

Food Network

Accidental Hedonist had a post the other week about the Food Network being dumbed-down. The good cooks like Sara Moulton and Mario Batali are being replaced by the Sandra Lees and Rachael Rays. Not only that, but their programming schedule is being filled with, well, filler, like Paula's Party and Rachael's 5 million shows. I don't watch the Food Network to learn about the best steakhouse in San Antonio or how to make an appetizer using only Velveeta and marshmallow fluff. I want to know how to make things from scratch using fresh ingredients and how to apply my knowledge of cooking techniques learned from making one dish to dishes I'm making for the first time. The number of people with actual knowledge on that network is really lacking. Don't get me wrong; I don't hate every show except Good Eats, I just wish they would have more of a balance. I love Paula Deen, but I don't feel that she's an expert. I highly doubt she'd do well making traditional French cuisine. Alton, on the other hand, understands the science that goes into cooking as well as the art, so he can be more informative. I don't learn many useful tips when I'm watching Paula or Rachael or Ina.

I suppose I can't really blame the network. They're just providing the public with what they want: fast and easy. No one sits down to home-cooked family meals anymore. Maybe I should be more disappointed in our society. Next thing we know there will be a cooking show featuring someone going through McDonald's drive-thru and then bringing it home and arranging it artfully on a garish tablescape. Uh oh, I better not give Sandra Lee any ideas.

Worst. Episode. Ever.

Wow. Last night's Office... Didn't like it at all. I cracked a smile once at the dentist named Crentist. I'm not too impressed with this season so far:

Gay Witch Hunt: C+
The Convention: A
The Coup: D

ER was pretty good. I loved seeing Marty Crane as a gay drag queen. Quite a departure from his roles in Say Anything and Frasier. I'm also glad Busy Phillips was added to the cast; it's like a Freaks and Geeks reunion.

I Love Weird Al

Back in the day I was a huge fan of Weird Al. My interest waned for the past decade or so, but I love his new song "White and Nerdy." I was looking on YouTube for some of his classic videos and found this hilarious "interview" with Eminem. Enjoy!



And another funny one with Michael Stipe:



And while I'm posting every video that exists on YouTube, I might as well post the aforementioned "White and Nerdy."

Update

The latest update to the sick bastard who killed those kids is that he molested relatives 20 years ago and that's why he killed those girls. A co-worker said she just read he had lubricant with him; I suppose he was going to sexually assault them. Luckily he didn't get to do that, although what he did is horrific enough. Two other girls died in the hospital, so it's now up to five.

In the News Again

Our area is in the news again, this time for something horrific. Today a man took hostages at an Amish school, killing at least 3 little Amish girls, a teacher's aide, and himself. Before killing himself, the man called his wife and told her this was an act of revenge for something that happened 20 years ago.

Story

On Being Rich

My annual salary + approximately $12,000 = what Oprah makes in one minute.

Ingvar Kamprad, the founder of IKEA and a billionaire, drives a 1993 Volvo.

If I were rich I'd keep my car (2002 Honda Accord) and buy another one in case I get a flat tire, which happens to me every five seconds. I'd never in a million years spend money on a luxury car. That's such a waste.