Mayor Bloomberg's milkshake

My milkshake brings all the cops to my door,
They're like "Don't sell any more!"
"Drop the popcorn, get down on the floor!"
Bloomberg's got a new nanny-state war.

God help me.

I tried soy "milk" in my cereal this morning, and it was disappointingly tolerable.

I see more marshmallow mateys in my future.

*sigh*

Shame on the residents of Irvine California!

Support your local cops.

I was at Subway ordering when a cop came in. I rarely get these opportunities, so I waited for him to finish his order, and then asked if I could pay for his lunch. He said it was alright, but I insisted, and he gave in. He said he appreciated it and that this was the first time anyone had bought him lunch!

C'mon people! Your local cops are out there every day, dealing with all kinds of bullshit so you don't have to. They don't know what's going to happen when they pull over a car for a broken tail light. It's a hard job with long hours that isn't paid nearly enough for the job they have to do.

Show them some love.

Seriously guys?

I work in an office, so every once in a while there are donuts in the break room.

I guess I can understand cutting a donut in half, and only eating half, but lately, I've seen donuts that have a quarter cut out of them!

Today there are bagels, and one has an EIGHTH cut out of it!

Who are you fooling?

Apparent deliciousness of pecan pie, by time/interaction

Arizona Peach Tea is still the shit

(An update to a previous post)

Such an undertaking is inadvisable

It is not recommended to bypass fast food for a long time, and then return to it.

Brain says, "I ate this stuff all the time, it tastes good."
Body says, "Sorry dude, I ain't eating this stuff."

mmmm jalapalanios!

My jalapeno-containing lunch has yet to be blocked by the FDA.

I'll let you know if I get tomato AIDS.

We're from the government, we're here to help smash your tomatos

During one of my inevitable arguments on government intrusion on our lives, I often hear the argument, "Well, at least you can't argue about the need for agencies like the FDA. They protect us all." Before now, I didn't really have an easy-to-understand argument (as they are precisely what is needed in arguments of this type) to put against the FDA.

This is certainly not an indictment of the idea of a Food and Drug Administration, I can see the need for oversight in tracking outbreaks such as these. My argument is against the bureaucracy that confuses, stalls, overreacts, and applies politics to health matters.

Secret Ingredient; A Puzzling Food-Done-It for the Feds

The National Restaurant Association figures the epidemic has cost the food industry $100 million, and one trade magazine has estimated that growers and distributors will lose $250 million.

"Whoopsie doodle! Our mistake. That was our bad. We're really sorry about that. So, uh... See you guys later, we've got more FDA stuff to do. Good luck with that whole... $250 million in losses thing."

It's Not Salmonella on Tomatoes....It's No Brain at the FDA

Take the ongoing saga surrounding the salmonella outbreak, where nearly 1,000 people have been sickened in 36 states. The Food and Drug Administration, in its infinite wisdom, has reassured the public about how to protect themselves. Key to that advice is what types of tomatoes to avoid, and which ones are acceptable for consumption. Sounds great, except for one small problem.

They have no idea where the salmonella originated, and, in fact, have no evidence that tainted tomatoes are the source of the salmonella at all.

The author then asks;

Failing to find an answer, what's next for the fearless FDA? Will it move on to the next haphazardly chosen food source to decimate another industry? Wouldn't be surprising.

Well lets give Chris Freind a tomato-free cookie.

The suspicion has reportedly shifted to other common ingredients of fresh salsa, which seems to be implicated in many of the cases. Jalapenos are said to be high on the list, but the FDA now understandably cautious about pronouncements has not issued any new warnings, nor has it completely backed off of the tomato advisory.

So who's suffering here?
The consumers, scared unnecessarily of the produce at their market, and the vegetables on their food.
The populous, fearing terror attacks from all angles, must now worry about the sickening ineptitude of a government agency protecting the safety of the very food we eat.
The nation, which very publicly suffers a government that can't pick its collective nose without poking the country in the eye.
The growers, who have been forced to destroy their livelihood for absolutely no reason.
The market, which suffers instability at the faltering of vegetable futures.

So what happens now? Does the government repay the growers for the crops they kept from being sold? Does the government spend more of our tax dollars solving a problem that they created?

Who cares?

They obviously don't.

Heads will not roll, because there is no accountability in government bureaucracies.
If they are forced to pay out tax dollars for their ineptitude, they will simply demand more, because they're now underfunded. (and they'll get it too)
Things will change for a short while, but we are almost guaranteed to see a similar overreaction in the future.

This embarrassing action will likely spawn demands that the FDA be "better" funded, to prevent these kinds of "oversights." More of our money will be given to them, and more bureaucrats will be hired, and further apply their broken process to the very sustenance we derive from the Earth, with the exact same results. Perhaps the FDA should get out of the food industry, and get back to denying potentially life-saving drugs to terminally ill patients.

Honestly, if you made a comic book that featured FDA-Man; he would be so evil, it would surpass the villain caricature, and become unbelievable.

Certainly, government is stranger than fiction.

"Now I'm off to burn farmers' crops, spin stories of poisonous vegetables, and take medicine from cancer patients! FDA-Man AWAY!"
ET glances skyward, and welcomes the sound of anti-aircraft fire.

Hungor!

mysql> INSERT mouth SELECT food FROM lunch WHERE type='fast' AND deliciocity='10';

Empty set (0.07 sec)

;_; <(hungor)

What the fuck is wrong with me?

Seriously?

I love spicy food, but it wasn't until a recent event that I began to wonder if I love it a bit too much.

My mom made some posole, but added too many habanero peppers and apologized for making it so hot. I assured her it was no problem, and thanked her for making it so spicy. I quickly filled a bowl and went to town. She was right. It was hot. I eat a lot of spicy things, and this was extremely spicy. It was a challenge to finish the bowl, and was a very enjoyable (somehow).

A few days later, I returned to finish the soup and mentally prepared myself as I prepared the soup. I also commented aloud at the spicy damage I was about to inflict upon myself. I withdrew the reheated soup from the microwave and placed it on the table, sat, and stared at the hazardous soup.

Then, in what hindsight can only conclude as an attempt at self torment, I formulated a sentance that must have originated from a deeply detached part of my brain, and understanding fully how this soup treaded dangerously upon my limit for spicy food, said;

"Maybe I should add some Tabasco."

My girlfriend looked at me in disbelief, "What?!" It took a little bit for me to realize the implications of what I'd just suggested out loud. I say a lot of weird things, but this really confused me. "What the fuck is wrong with me???"

Why DO I like spicy food? I usually order the spice level of my food with words like, incapacitating, deathly, or coma-inducing. This crossed a line somehow. Why do I do this?

mah Berfdey

I took the occasion to spend a few hours at the range. The G22 seems to be getting better at digesting the cheapo remington golden bullet bulk box. I only had one FTE and one FTF. As usual the G22 loved the thunderbolt, but somehow I was shooting better groups with the cheap stuff.

The trigger seems to have stiffened up since the recent trigger mod, and I was shooting smaller groups as a result. The scope remains removed in favor of some more enjoyable iron sight practice. Though I feel I'm rather close to maxing out my iron sight ability with this gun, and expect the scope will be making a come back after this remission. The space gun seems to be capable of some pretty good accuracy. I still long for a 100 yard range with good conditions to really explore the accuracy of this enjoyable plinker.

Since it was my birthday, I decided to celebrate by bringing my baby along for some quality time. She has been sadly neglected with the cost of .45 lately, but there was no way I was talking myself out of some 1911 range time on my birthday! Oh boy did I miss shooting that gun. Crisp trigger breaks, quick resets, smooth controllable recoil, and (of course) a big boom! There's no one thing I love about that gun, it's just the perfect complete package. I shoot it so well, I surprise myself. Shooting tiny groups never gets old. The only thing I find lacking for quick, aimed fire is the mil-spec sights which are low and slick, but difficult to find in a hurry. I think I might be tempted to take a file to the rear sight and open it up a bit. I can't bring myself to replace them since the snag-resistant low profile of the sights was one of the selling points.

After returning home I relished a detail strip and cleaning of the 1911, and enjoyed its beautiful, brutal simplicity.

That night it was time for the birthday dinner of delicious sushi. My sister and her husband go to a sushi bar that serves lots of interesting rolls, so we usually go there. While I'm usually more of a nigiri kind of guy (because I enjoy the taste of fresh sushi), the interesting rolls they make there are too good to pass up. I also had about a bottle of Soju, which is surprisingly good with a lot of lemon. Family, friends, and all the sushi you can eat is the perfect way to enjoy a birthday. If I hadn't drank and ate so much I would have likely attempted to watch the entire Indiana Jones Box set I got as a gift. I suppose I'll have to leave it for another time.

Great birthday. Looking forward to the next one.

Make ramen de-fucking-licious

In an effort to combat the scourge of bland ramen, I've experimented with different additions, and have found a winning combination.

Here's what you'll need...

Ramen, the seasoning packet that comes with the ramen, an egg, red pepper, a seasoned pre-cooked chicken leg, black pepper, your spice of choice (in my case, curry) and optionally tapatio, tabasco, or seasoning salt.

Fill a small pot half way with water, you need enough to cover the ramen block plus 3/4" or so. You'll need enough water to evenly heat the chicken leg. Add the seasoning and spices early to speed the boiling. Stir up the spices so they're evenly mixed, and no clumps of seasoning form at the bottom of the pot and burn. Add two or three times the amount of your spice of choice, so the ramen and chicken really pick up the flavor.


Add the ramen block when the water reaches a light boil. Keep the ramen at that heat, and poke it with a cooking utensil until it starts to loosen up. Turn off the heat when the ramen is cooked enough to be stirred freely. (the ramen is still undercooked at this point)


With the heat off, add the egg, and break it apart like you would if you were scrambling it. Adding the egg while at a boil causes the egg to cook into large pieces instead of cooking into lots of small pieces that you'll get in each bite, instead of a few large pieces of egg.


When the egg is pretty well mixed in, turn the heat on low and continue mixing. The ramen should still look a little undercooked. This is fine, since it doesn't need a constant boil to cook the noodles.


Add the chicken leg, and try to submerge it completely, and cover it with noodles if necessary. Keep the heat low, and stir occasionally. You're just finishing the ramen, and heating the chicken leg.


Serve in a bowl, eat with your face!

I had too little water in this one, make sure you have enough for the extended boiling time.

Happy holidays!