half food blog. half tech blog. half george blog.
thoughts
blogging.
Dec 5th
Today, while working really hard and stuff at work, I ran across this blog by this girl, full of utter inanity. I suppose inanity would be the basis of any kind of original published work on the internet (holy cow MySpace), but she gets like a billion hits talking about ninjas. In her defense, ninjas are a lot cooler than something like grocery shopping.
Is there hope for me after all? Can I overcome a ridiculous amount of laziness to write something more often than once a month? Do I really need to come up with interesting stories to uplift myself to blogosphere fame?
There’s only one way to find out.
So today, during lunch, I had to go return a movie from the Redbox near my office. Redbox may be the greatest thing to ever happen to occasional one-night new-release movie renters like me. It doesn’t hurt that people online help maintain an entire database of codes for free rentals. That’s not the point of the story.
The point of the story is that I almost died today. Okay, well, maybe not that dramatic, but my little car would have suffered some pain, and that’s almost like dying. I’m pulling in the parking lot to get a parking space, and there’s this big ol’ white Mercury headed directly towards me. I have my eyes on a spot further up and to my left, and in a moment of weakness, I actually WAIT for the other car to pass me before I claim my parking lot stake.
So I stop. I wait. And this BIG WHITE DETROIT-BORN BOAT STOPS RIGHT IN FRONT OF MY SPACE. Wow, annoying. Before I could even think about what’s going on, the cruise liner starts moving again, headed back towards my direction. My spidey-sense goes off, realizing that there is very little room on either side of this moving hunk of metal, and this guy is barreling straight towards the grill of my car. I drop it into 1st and step on it, very narrowly squeezing between the white behemoth and a fatefully parked Honda Fit, giving me maybe centimeters of clearance in a fraction of a second. All I could see inside was this amass of wrinkles, with those super-cool blocky sunglass things that fit over your existing glasses.
Man, that guy was ancient. When he was my age, he probably high-fived dinosaurs. Might have dated a stegosaurus. Or maybe a raptor, if he swung that way. Prop 8 probably was not even a thought back then anyways. He probably planted the giant sequoias and dug the Grand Canyon with a spoon.
So I go return my movie, replaying my near-death experience in my head as I do. I walk back out, fearing for my life, keeping an eye on any other killer senior citizens. And there he was. My potential murderer. Hobbling slowly across the parking lot, fully depending on his cane for movement. It takes him 5 steps for every one I take. I could do nothing at that moment but cry for humanity, realizing that killers like him were on the loose even in nice upscale suburbia where I work.
I’m not an ageist. I do, however, have a problem with people operating large white motor vehicles under the influence of decrepitness. If you or someone you know suffers from constant decrepitness, please, get help somewhere. And stay off the road. Even if you’re in a car. I don’t even care if you’re not the one driving. Just stay off the road.
Join me in keeping murderers off the streets, one feeble old person at a time. Preferably with baseball bats.
think about that for a second.
Nov 12th
Why is it that no one takes IT support seriously?
Granted, working in the field, technical support is the equivalency of fry-o-lator operator at McDonald’s in our world.
But even the fry-o-lator operators get paid their wages.
You can call me selfish, you can call me greedy, you can call me a lover of money – but the I stand behind every word of the following rant.
I get selflessly volunteered a lot by people to fix their computers. Many people I know. Some people I don’t.
When I was in college, I used to do IT-related stuff for this rich Jewish guy. I no longer remember his name, but I do remember he owned all kinds of beachfront properties and he was Jewish. Hence, he was affectionately titled “Rich Jewish Guy”. The best part of RJG was that I felt like part of his little Jewish mafia when I worked for him. I’d get this call – sometimes from him, sometimes from one of his “people” – to meet him at his house (read: mansion) or his office. I’d show up, I’d get my instructions, I’d do my job, and then he’d pay me – always in a sealed envelope, despite it being check or cash. I was never disappointed when I opened the envelope. It always averaged to about $40-$50/hour, which is ridiculous for a college student.
I’d also get volunteered for people I know. Those were done out of favor – there were never any sealed envelopes on my way out the door. A requisite comment of gratitude and I was out, anxious to get home to try to salvage the 3 hours of my evening I just donated. Sometimes meals were given for “payment”, but I really didn’t consider them as payment as I was usually sharing that meal with 5 other people; people who didn’t spend hours trying to rescue their computers from the deep unknown.
I was actually pretty okay with this through college, and even some into the training. Today, I’m working in the industry. I’m no longer trying to rescue people’s computers from the evil clutches of malware and spyware and the like, but the people who do that don’t sit too far away. This is my job, my making of a living, my livelihood.
We all have our jobs. We have our skills. We’ve been blessed with something that we’re good at, or learning to be better at. In my eyes, my job is no different than a doctor, a chef, or a janitor. Even if what we do for a job isn’t always our first choice, we’re only still doing what we’re doing because we’re good enough at it not to get fired.
So after all this, here’s the conundrum: Why is it that people don’t expect doctors to come and treat them for free just because they’re good at it? Why is it that it’s awkward if I asked a chef to come cook for me as a favor because they know how? Why would it be offensive if you called your janitor friend over to clean your mess because he has the skill and ability to do it well?
Think about that for a second.
Now think about this:
Why would it be okay for you to call me over to fix your computer?
being a slacker.
Oct 28th
You know how I had mentioned before about redesigning this thing?
Yeah, it never got done.
You know how I had mentioned before about new things coming down the pipeline?
Yeah, it never got done.
You know how I had mentioned before about writing more?
Yeah, it never got done.
You know how I had mentioned before about not being a slacker?
Yeah. It really really never got done.
olympic fever.
Aug 19th
It’s Olympic season! For 18 days, the entire world becomes engrossed in athletic events of both exciting (Redeem Team basketball!) and pointless (trampoline?).
Let’s talk about the most controversial of topics: Chinese gymnastics. Partly, because it’s probably a popular topic and I like to watch to see who comes here from weird Google searches. The other reason being that the Chinese women gymnasts are uglier than sin itself. They have singlehandedly made me ashamed of my heritage. I hope you’re reading, Hu Jintao. *puke*
It’s been suggested that my disdain for the “women” gymnasts for China sprouts from something very shallow. Fact of the matter is, out of almost all the Olympic women gymnasts competing, the Chinese are by far the hardest to watch, strictly because, well, they’re ugly. It doesn’t help that they get ridiculously high scores for doing stuff like…falling off beams. Let’s not even talk about screwing over Nastia in the uneven bars FOR A TIED SCORE.
Anyways, back to ugly. It doesn’t help that they’re like 13 years old. Every commentator that fields any gymnastic event has been talking about it. Come on, China, heavy makeup isn’t going to hide something like, oh, let’s say, puberty. It’s intuitively obvious to the most casual observer that you collectively, red China, are implementing the modern day equivalent of child slavery.
Please direct all your complaints to 21st century human rights.
leave pinkberry alone!
Apr 23rd
What’s the deal about all this craziness about Pinkberry? Granted, I’m a little biased since I love tangy Korean frozen yogurt (the verdict is still out on Yoforia). But people are acting like Pinkberry fro-yo should be banished from the food world for its use of ingredients that the dumb American public – yes, the same dumb American public who gets bamboozled by Pizza Hut’s Tuscani pasta – can’t pronounce. It even struck the attention of the New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/23/dining/23yogurt.html?_r=1&ref=dining&oref=slogin
“There is, it turns out, a great deal more than yogurt in those costly white cups.
The ingredients list for Original Pinkberry has 23 items. Skim milk and nonfat yogurt are listed first, then three kinds of sugar: sucrose, fructose and dextrose. Fructose and maltodextrin, another ingredient, are both laboratory-produced ingredients extracted from corn syrup.
The list includes at least five additives defined by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization as emulsifiers (propylene glycol esters, lactoglycerides, sodium acid pyrophosphate, mono- and diglycerides); four acidifiers (magnesium oxide, calcium fumarate, citric acid, sodium citrate); tocopherol, a natural preservative; and two ingredients — starch and maltodextrin — that were characterized as fillers by Dr. Gary A. Reineccius, a professor in the department of food science and nutrition at the University of Minnesota and an expert in food additives.”
It’s not like they’re putting toxic waste in it. Since when did people freak out about eating corn syrup and emulsifiers and *gasp* “fillers”? Steer clear from packaged foods then, my friends, because you’re going to be in for a huge shock. Yes, I know the argument is about it being “all-natural”, but the fact of the matter is that all that stuff that is in there is synthesized and extracted from naturally occurring things. No one used black magic to create “emulsifiers”.
News flash: mustard is an emulsifier. Better steer clear from that Grey Poupon.
And don’t even get me started on the fact that it has to be made off-site to qualify as actual approved “frozen yogurt” under California law.
With all that said, Pinkberry and Red Mango, whoever opens first here in Atlanta (and I mean Atlanta ITP – I’m looking at you, Juicy Green) gets the official georgechang.net endorsement. Believe me, it’s a higher honor than that AmEx Plum commercial.