A Crash Course in Me

Note to Tom and Rocky:
I have found the "Best People Ever" video. Yes, it is still just as funny. I'm technically retarded (whoops, that came out wrong), and I'd like to find a way to put it on YouTube. Any thoughts, anyone?
Yes, I know it's been more than a year since I've poked my head into LiveJournal. Life is busy but going okay.

Yeah, I'm still alive.
Kim and I are moving on Monday - if anyone would like to help, I'm picking up a truck at 10, loading up my stuff, going to her place, packing up her stuff, then heading to State and Washington and dropping it all off in the new place.
Life's been really busy - the past month has been all about opening this sushi bar at work. A lot of work and frustration, but sales are up, so I guess that's all that matters. I can't say I'm a huge fan of sushi, though.
Time to get some more packing done...

Had a great birthday, lots of pictures that I'm too lazy to upload.
I'm actually just posting to pimp my other blog, chronicling the eating of the biggest ice cream sandwich I've ever seen.
http://biggesticecreamsandwichever.blogspot.com/
Yeah, so go and take a look.

I need a get-rich-quick scheme.
So, it looks like I'm moving to Europe. Seriously this time - if the bank'll float me a loan.
My buddy Eric and I have it set up to work at a restaurant in Florence, Italy for three months, starting mid-August.
So I've got to go to the bank tomorrow and make sure 1) I can even get a loan, and 2) that whatever loan I can get'll give me halfway affordable repayment options.
So, I guess that's all that's going on in my life. Yippee!

Of sorts. I know it's been a long time since I updated, and really, I don't feel like I owe anyone an explanation, but here it is anyways. I've been quite busy, and I leave it at that.
This one goes out to all my homies that I ain't talked to in a while (the last of the unnecessary Tupac references) - Rocky and Tom, I miss you guys. I refuse to allow this to be one of those bullshit Livejournal "Let's go get a beer sometime" things. Who's up for it? (That goes for anyone else, too.)
Well, life's been alright, I guess. Work's keeping me very tired and busy. We're hitting the point of our big convention season, so putting up 150 plates isn't that twice a month oddity it used to be. I fell face first into a lot of responsibility, which is going to turn out to be a great thing.
Anywho. Kim and I went to Denver to see her brother, sister in law, and nephew. It was good times.
I can't think of anything else to say, so TSSSSSSSST.

Stolen from Joe.
Organize your Winamp or iTunes songs alphabetically and list whatever's first, blah, blah, blah.

#-"1-2-8" - Mighty Mighty Bosstones
A-"A" - Barenaked Ladies
B-"Baby Got Back" - Sir Mixalot (yeah, laugh all you want...)
C-"California Love" 2Pac
D-"Damn It Feels Good to be a Gangsta" Geto Boys
E-"Easy Like Sunday Morning" the Commodores
F-"Fa Fa" - Guster
G-"Gainesville Rock City" - Less Than Jake
H-"Halcyon and On and On" - Orbital
I-"I Ain't Mad at Cha" - 2Pac
J-"J.A.R." - Green Day
K-"Keep on Running" - Spencer Davis Group
L-"L'istesso tempo - piu mosso " - Sergei Prokofiev
M-"Mable" - Goldfinger
N-"Naked and Famous" - the Presidents of the United States of America
O-"Ocean Avenue" - Yellowcard
P-"P.S. We'll Call You When We Get There" - Juliana Theory
Q-"Questions" - Goldfinger
R-"Rascal King" - Mighty Mighty Bosstones
S-"S.M.P." - Goldfinger
T-"Take a Picture" - Filter
U-"Ugly Day" - Five Iron Frenzy
V-"Valerie" - Reel Big Fish
W-"Walk Away" - Bricklin
X-"X-Ray Eyes" - Guster
Y-"Yellow" - Coldplay
Z-"Zehn Kleine Jagermeister" - Die Toten Hosen

"The secret's not the recipe, it's gotta be the cooks..."

That's right kids, the NCAA Tourney starts Tuesday. And guess who got Tuesday and Wednesday off of work? (That's me.)
The plan is to sit on the couch for the entirety of it. That's going to be something like 18 hours of coverage, all told.
This is better than Christmas.

What up kids. After having the last two days off, I've got to go back to work today...and I'm none too thrilled about this, really.
But all is right in the world, since the Cubs spring training and the World Baseball Classic both start today. And don't forget about March Madness, which opens in a couple of weeks.
Yesterday was a very weird day. Kim and I headed to the bank and stopped at her house on the way back to mine, where I got suddenly, unbelievably sick. I did finally see Rent, though, and I thought it was actually really good.
So we came back to my place last night, I took some medicine, and woke up this morning feeling great. It's odd how that works out.
It's also a momentous occasion, I ordered new work shoes. The ones I have have been with me since culinary school (about three or four years now?) and are falling apart like you wouldn't believe...so it's time.
And now, I'm going to leave you with an interview with Kristen Romanowski, winner of the Chipp Inn Spelling Bee. Spelling is hard enough. Drinking and spelling is another thing entirely.

(Look for the bolded section)

From today's Boston Globe: http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/03/01/ruling_favors_antiabortion_protesters/

Ruling favors antiabortion protesters
Supreme Court rejects application of extortion law
By Toni Locy, Associated Press | March 1, 2006
WASHINGTON -- A 20-year-old legal fight over protests outside abortion clinics ended yesterday with the Supreme Court ruling that federal extortion and racketeering laws cannot be used against demonstrators.
The 8-to-0 decision was a setback for abortion clinics that were buoyed when the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit kept their case in play two years ago despite the high court's 2003 ruling that had cleared the way for lifting a nationwide injunction on antiabortion leader Joseph Scheidler and others.
Antiabortion groups appealed to the justices after the lower court sought to determine whether the injunction could be supported by findings that protesters had made threats of violence.
In yesterday's ruling, Justice Stephen G. Breyer said Congress did not create ''a freestanding physical violence offense" in the federal extortion law known as the Hobbs Act.
Instead, Breyer wrote, Congress addressed violence outside abortion clinics in 1994 by passing the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, which allows for court injunctions to set limits for such protests.
''It's a great day for prolifers," said Troy Newman, president of Operation Rescue.
Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women, said the decision was disappointing because the injunction had decreased violence outside clinics nationally.
She said the clinic access act is problematic because it requires abortion providers to seek injunctions ''city by city" and turns back the clock to the late 1980s when NOW played cat and mouse with Operation Rescue in trying to anticipate the cities and clinics that abortion protesters planned to target next.
Newman said his group and others have set their sights on the clinic access law, filing legal challenges they hope will lead courts -- possibly even the Supreme Court-- to overturn it.
Abortion opponents hope momentum is shifting in their favor: Last week, the high court decided to consider the reinstatement of a federal ban on late-term abortion, and the South Dakota Legislature passed a bill that would make it a crime for doctors to perform an abortion unless it was necessary to save the woman's life.
President Bush, asked about the South Dakota measure in an interview with Elizabeth Vargas of ABC News last night, said he hadn't ''paid attention to that, to this particular issue you're talking about," but ''I am not going to prejudge how the Supreme Court is going to judge a particular issue."
He said, however, ''My position has always been three exceptions: rape, incest, and the life of the mother." Asked whether he would include the broader category of health of the mother, Bush said: ''No. I said life of the mother, and health is a very vague term, but my position has been clear on that ever since I started running for office."
In the abortion protest case, social activists and the AFL-CIO had sided with the demonstrators out of concern that the extortion law could be used to thwart efforts to change public policy or agitate for better wages and working conditions.
The legal battle began in 1986, when NOW filed a class-action suit challenging tactics used by the Pro-Life Action Network to block women from entering abortion clinics.
NOW's legal strategy was novel at the time, relying on civil provisions of the 1970 Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, which was used in criminal cases against organized crime. The lawsuit also relied on the Hobbs Act, a 55-year-old law banning extortion.
A federal judge issued a nationwide injunction against the antiabortion protesters after a Chicago jury found in 1998 that demonstrators had engaged in a pattern of racketeering by interfering with clinic operations, menacing doctors, assaulting patients, and damaging property.
But the Supreme Court ruled in 2003 that the extortion law could not be used against the protesters because they had not illegally ''obtained property" from women seeking to enter clinics to receive abortions.
Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. did not participate in the decision because he was not on the court when the case was argued.
© Copyright 2006 Globe Newspaper Company.

Hey, Mr. President, this is a pretty important issue...if you're ready to join us back here in reality, would you mind waking up and showing the rest of the class how to do this problem on the blackboard?

I'm watching the US/Russia men's hockey game, and I've gotta say this.
I'M TIRED OF ALL THE CANADIAN ACCENTS. IT"S ANNOYING.
The word is "out", not "out." (See also: outside, shootout, about, etc.) All of those Brits who say Americans "butcher the Queen's English" have obviously never met a Canadian.
Sorry, but I had to get this off of my chest. The rest of the Olympics shall be watched on MUTE.

Ugh. Being sick sucks. I've got this weird cold/flu thing going on that I'm not even sure what it is. My head feels incredibly heavy, and I can't figure out if it's because of the sickness or because I haven't had a cup of coffee or a barely a smoke in two days. I took the day off work today so hopefully I'll be ready to go tomorrow.
Onto brighter news, it's the Dick Cheney Quail Hunt! http://dickcheneyquailhunt.cf.huffingtonpost.com/

I am 40% Ska.

I know the scene, I've heard the bands, and I am burned out. Well, these things happen. I will now go ahead and go through the same thing with Punk and Emo.

Take the
Ska Test
@ FualiDotCom

Happy Valentine's Day, the mother of all non-holidays

So how funny is this whole Dick Cheney shooting? (Was the guy a Democrat?)

I'm again watching women's Olympic hockey - although since it's Canada vs. Sweden, it's not really much of a game (7-1 Canada after two). It's really quite a yawnfest.

From http://www.theheckler.com/index.php?page=0000-DH-06-02-13&idrub=67&idsite=1&PHPSESSID=200aac658940317a553ba5d2092aefc7 :

Sleeveless Sox cause capital stir
The Daily Heckle, Monday, February 13, 2006

Anyone worried about the World Champion White Sox letting success go to their heads can rest easy following the team's trip to the White House Monday. Several Sox players sparked a media frenzy when they showed up in tank tops and baggy pants.

"I don't see what all the fuss is about," said first baseman Paul Konerko. "The President sure didn't seem to mind. Neither did the fans who tailgated on the White House lawn."

When asked why he chose a sleeveless shirt in the middle of winter, Konerko shrugged.

"I am who I am," he said. "I'm not changing for anybody."

Another player who dressed down for the ceremony was shortstop Juan Uribe. The Dominican native arrived wearing a pair of purple wind pants and an unbuttoned denim shirt.

Speedy outfielder Scott Podsednik was seen making out with his new bride, Lisa Dergan, in a corner of the White House. Podsednik was also unapologetic.

"Look man, she's my lady," he said. "If I feel like showing her a little love, it's going to happen. White House … White Castle … I don't care where I am."

Hanging out in my room while the girl and the brother watch ER. I don't really have an interest in the show, and I've already been in front of the TV too much - Red Sox DVDs, the Daily Show, the Colbert Report, basketball, South Park....ugh, I really do waste my days off.
Speaking of the Red Sox, I ordered a shirt today: http://www.stadiumstyle.com/eCart/viewItem.html?idProduct=845 , because I'm too lazy to link the pic. I'll admit it, I have a man-crush on Jason Varitek. Which is probably the gayest thing I've ever said, but, whatever. It's mostly to piss off the Yankees-fan girlfriend (kidding), but I think I'm going to try to find her something that'll piss me off for Valentine's Day. We have a healthy relationship.
Happy birthday, Jeremy - well, tomorrow, I guess.
Off to do some reading.

Like I said the other night, the bitter irony of this situation is that radical Muslims are violently protesting a cartoon...which depicts them as violent.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/02/05/we_are_all_danes_now/

We Are All Danes Now

By Jeff Jacoby, Globe Columnist | February 5, 2006

HINDUS CONSIDER it sacrilegious to eat meat from cows, so when a Danish supermarket ran a sale on beef and veal last fall, Hindus everywhere reacted with outrage. India recalled its ambassador to Copenhagen, and Danish flags were burned in Calcutta, Bombay, and Delhi. A Hindu mob in Sri Lanka severely beat two employees of a Danish-owned firm, and demonstrators in Nepal chanted: ''War on Denmark! Death to Denmark!"In many places, shops selling Dansk china or Lego toys were attacked by rioters, and two Danish embassies were firebombed.
It didn't happen, of course. Hindus may consider it odious to use cows as food, but they do not resort to boycotts, threats, and violence when non-Hindus eat hamburger or steak. They do not demand that everyone abide by the strictures of Hinduism and avoid words and deeds that Hindus might find upsetting. The same is true of Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Mormons: They don't lash out in violence when their religious sensibilities are offended. They certainly don't expect their beliefs to be immune from criticism, mockery, or dissent.
But radical Muslims do.
The current uproar over cartoons of the Muslim prophet Mohammed published in a Danish newspaper illustrates yet again the fascist intolerance that is at the heart of radical Islam. Jyllands-Posten, Denmark's largest daily, commissioned the cartoons to make a point about freedom of speech. It was protesting the climate of intimidation that had made it impossible for a Danish author to find an illustrator for his children's book about Mohammed. No artist would agree to illustrate the book for fear of being harmed by Muslim extremists. Appalled by this self-censorship, Jyllands-Posten invited Danish artists to submit drawings of Mohammed, and published the 12 it received.
Most of the pictures are tame to the point of dullness, especially compared to the biting editorial cartoons that routinely appear in US and European newspapers. A few of them link Mohammed to Islamist terrorism -- one depicts him with a bomb in his turban, while a second shows him in Heaven, pleading with newly arrived suicide terrorists: ''Stop, stop! We have run out of virgins!" Others focus on the threat to free speech: In one, a sweating artist sits at his drawing board, nervously sketching Mohammed, while glancing over his shoulder to make sure he's not being watched.
That anything so mild could trigger a reaction so crazed -- riots, death threats, kidnappings, flag-burnings -- speaks volumes about the chasm that separates the values of the civilized world from those in too much of the Islamic world. Freedom of the press, the marketplace of ideas, the right to skewer sacred cows: Militant Islam knows none of this. And if the jihadis get their way, it will be swept aside everywhere by the censorship and intolerance of sharia.
Here and there, some brave Muslim voices have cried out against the book-burners. The Jordanian newspaper Shihan published three of the cartoons. ''Muslims of the world, be reasonable," implored Shihan's editor, Jihad al-Momani, in an editorial. ''What brings more prejudice against Islam -- these caricatures or pictures of a hostage-taker slashing the throat of his victim in front of the cameras?" But within hours Momani was out of a job, fired by the paper's owners after the Jordanian government threatened legal action.
He wasn't the only editor sacked last week. In Paris, Jacques LeFranc of the daily France Soir was also fired after running the Mohammed cartoons. The paper's owner, an Egyptian Copt named Raymond Lakah, issued a craven and Orwellian statement offering LeFranc's head as a gesture of ''respect for the intimate beliefs and convictions of every individual." But the France Soir staff defended their decision to publish the drawings in a stalwart editorial. ''The best way to fight against censorship is to prevent censorship from happening," they wrote. ''A fundamental principle guaranteeing democracy and secular society is under threat. To say nothing is to retreat."
Across the continent, nearly two dozen other newspapers have joined in defending that principle. While Islamist clerics proclaim an ''international day of anger" or declare that ''the war has begun," leading publications in Norway, France, Italy, Spain, Holland, Germany, Switzerland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic have reprinted the Danish cartoons. But there has been no comparable show of backbone in America, where (as of Friday) only the New York Sun has had the fortitude to the run some of the drawings.
Make no mistake: This story is not going away, and neither is the Islamofascist threat. The freedom of speech we take for granted is under attack, and it will vanish if it is not bravely defended. Today the censors may be coming for some unfunny Mohammed cartoons, but tomorrow it is your words and ideas they will silence. Like it or not, we are all Danes now.

Jeff Jacoby's e-mail address is jacoby@globe.com.
© Copyright 2006 Globe Newspaper Company.

Now I know why I hate Paris Hilton so much.
From today's Fark.com, linked to the Sun.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2006040757,00.html

"AIRHEAD Paris Hilton has revealed she did not know LONDON was in the United Kingdom.

The daft blonde blurted out the admission in a statement for a £5.7million US libel case.

Her catalogue of dumb answers in the witness box gave a fascinating insight into the tiny mind of the hotel heiress, who stands to inherit £30million.

Paris revealed she can’t NAME some of her friends, and thinks everyone in Europe speaks FRENCH.

The American It-girl is accused of planting a false story in the New York Post.

It suggested Zeta Graff started a row with her in a London club last June and was thrown out.

Graff, 35, once dated Ms Hilton’s former boyfriend Paris Latsis, 26.

Ms Hilton was asked if the story appeared in the UK.

She replied: “No. There is stuff in London.”

When informed by her lawyer London was in the UK, Paris said: “Right. UK. Whatever.”

She told a pre-trial hearing she was in Europe last summer and did not know if the story appeared there, because “all there is, like, French”.

Paris, 24, also said: “I meet so many people. I don’t even know some of my friends’ names.”

Pressed for the name of a pal, Paris said: “It is like a weird Greek name. Like Douglas.”

Explaining how the row with Ms Graff began, Paris told the court: “I just said to her, she is old and should stay at home with her child instead of being at nightclubs with young people.

“And just that, I just — what else did I say? Just that she is not cute at all.”

She was asked about an email she sent her publicist Rob Shutner, which is said to praise him for placing the story.

Paris replied: “Whatever I write in email, it doesn’t mean anything. It’s just words that I write.”

Graff’s case against Paris may go before a jury later this year.

I'm sitting on my couch watching Sportscenter as I type this.
Everyone in the sports world, of course, is still talking about Kobe's legendary 81 points scored against the Toronto Raptors on Sunday. Of course, the show must pose the question : where does 81 points rank among the best sports performances of all time?
I apologize for not all of my numbers and dates being accurate - but you get the basic idea. 81 points is no small feat, but in my opinion, it ranks behind these games:

- 4 home runs hit by Mark Whiten in one game
- 5 goals scored 5 different ways (even strength, power-play, shorthanded, empty net, penalty shot) by Mario Lemieux
- Don Larsen's perfect World Series game
- Roger Clemens (twice), Kerry Wood, and Randy Johnson's 20 strikeout games
- Gale Sayers' 6 touchdowns scored on a muddy, rainy field
- Michael Jordan's 62 points in the NBA playoffs (Finals? I don't remember) against a previously dominant Celtics team

Anyone got any more? Notice I didn't mention Wilt Chamberlain's 100 points against a crappy Knicks team. Notice that both Kobe and Wilt had only 2 assists each in their career games. Basketball is a bit skewed - one can score a jaw-dropping amount of points if your team'll feed you the ball enough - in comparison, in baseball there's a finite number of home runs one can hit - the better the rest of your team hits, the more at-bats you get....et cetera. So is it okay for these superstars to take low-percentage shots if they feel like they can't trust their teammates with making the buckets?
So I'm curious to hear if any of you sports fans have opinions on this. I'll freely admit that I'm a little anti-Kobe - I've seen a few of his games this year and agree with Phil Jackson when he says that Kobe needs to pass more.
Opinions are welcome - but first:

Mario Lemieux to Retire...finally (or, as Fark.com says, "Mario Lemieux announces retirement, tired of carrying entire team in Sega's NHL '93."

Kobe's 81 points are being sold on eBay.

I've been trying to put together some Valentine's Day stuff, along with a couple of other new menu items, for the past couple of days. I'm writerblocked like I've never been writerblocked before. I'm coming up with absolutely nothing. My timeline basically looks like this:
9:00 - Open Microsoft Word, stare at the screen for ten minutes.
9:10 - Play two games of Snood.
9:30 - Come up with a couple of crappy ideas, just to have something to write down. Instant message girlfriend.
9:40 - Start looking through cookbooks for inspiration.
10:02 - Write down a couple more ideas, which are a little better this time, and go have a smoke (nicotine stimulates creativity...or something like that.)
10:07 - Shower, shave that godawful patchy "beard" that's been growing for the past five days. Hope being clean and in normal clothes instead of sitting around in my pajamas helps me be more productive.
10:30 - No help. Download the latest "Heute Morgen" Podcast - for some reason, having the news read to me in German relaxes me - it's a nice feeling listening to the radio and trusting that you're not going to be screamed at and bullied into buying a used car.
10:45 - Pour another cup of coffee (cold by now)...dig through more cookbooks.
10:55 - Throw up hands in disgust, play a couple of games of Sudoku.
11:15 - Shoot staples into the garbage.
11:20 - More creativiity stimulation. Serioiusly consider the "Bleeding Heart Tart."
11:28 - I have to leave for work in two hours. It's time to get down to business...and update my Livejournal.
11:30 - Stare at blank "Update Journal" screen.
11:40 - More Sudoku.
11:45 - Throw down the first ideas that come to mind - that's why they call it "brainstorming."
11:55 - Get to that Livejournal entry - now I'm getting somewhere (ha).

So this is what I've got so far, if anyone's curious:

Valentine’s Day

Appetizers

-Butter Poached Lobster and Heart of Palm Salad with Lemongrass and Coconut Milk, Tarragon Oil
-Hearts of Palm wrapped in Bacon, Roasted Artichokes, Balsamic Reduction, Lemon Vinaigrette
-Lobster/Mache Salad w/Carrot Blinis, Basil Oil, Zucchini Puree
-Smoked Foie Gras w/Duck Confit/Roasted Apple/Balsamic Crepes
-Squash Risotto with Pumpkin Seed Oil, Smoked Foie Gras, Marsala

Entrees

-Black Trumpet Pasta with Black Truffles – parmigiano reggiano
-Duck Breast Marinated in Coffee, Cinnamon, and Cardamom, Madeira/Ruby Port Reduction, Apple Cider/Scallion Risotto
-Roasted Poussin w/Polenta and Root Veg

Desserts

-Pomegranate “Panna Cotta” (Greek yogurt)
-Strawberry and Champagne Tortes with Mascarpone and Balsamic Vinegar
-Honey Lavender Ice Cream with Vanilla and Chamomile Tuiles
-Bombolini w/Espresso Foam, Vanilla Zabaglione
-Chocolate/Hazelnut Tortes with Passion Fruit Coulis
-Chilled Chestnut Soup with Crème Fraiche and Raspberries

Tuna Tartare Replacement

-Tuna/Salmon Tartare with Bacon Tempura, Watermelon, Cucumber, Soy/Ginger Dressing
-Tuna Tartare w/Lemon Vinaigrette, Pepperocini, Capers
-Tuna Tartare, Smoked Tomato Vinaigrette, Fennel Salad

Lunch Chicken Pasta

-Chicken Saltimbocca Pasta – sage, provolone, prosciutto
-Smoked Chicken, rapini/broccolini, cherry tomatoes, parmagiano-reggiano
-Penne w/goat cheese, chicken, rosemary, caramelized pears

That'll do for now, I guess.
So I guess this is the part where I talk about my weekend. It was okay, I guess. Kim and I were talking about flying out to Boston Saturday/Sunday, but none of the options for getting there were really good - we didn't want to pay $400 each for round trip tickets, and the generous offer made by

sunnibec18 was nixed because we would've had to fly standby from Milwaukee, and there'd be no absolute guarantee that we'd be able to get back by Sunday night so Kim could get to work Monday. Oh well. So we went to go see King Kong, which was really long, but very well done (minus some over-extended dinosaur/King Kong fight scenes), watched a couple of the football playoff games, fell asleep on the couch, went to Borders, and all of that.
So it's time to stop procrastinating and finish up this menu stuff.

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