Note of the Living Deb

Sometimes we have different words for the same thing based on whether the living creature is still using it or whether people are using it. For example:
* pig vs. pork
* cow vs. beef
* skin vs. leather

But not everything like this gets two words. For example:
* chicken
* fish (and other seafoods)
* fur

Interestingly, this phenomenon also exists in Spanish, but not for the same concepts. Here are some concepts for which they have different words:
* vaca vs. carne (del rez) (cow vs. meat/beef)
* pez vs. pescado (literally fish vs. fished - live fish versus fish for food)

And here's where it seems like they don't have two words:
* pollo (chicken)
* cerdo (pig/pork)

And I just learned two words for leather: cuero (leather) and piel (skin).

On a similar note, I've noticed that people in the US who are from Iran like to refer to themselves as Persians. If they have a restaurant with Iranian food, it is called Persian. Yea for American ignorance keeping them safe!

Craft blog entry of the day

Especially for Texpenguin, I recommend Miser Mom's Well, now I can cross "make penguins" off my to-do list. But it's fun to read even if you don't do crafts and don't love penguins (or canning jars). "Some animals look cute with really big eyes. I pulled out my button stash to do some experimenting, and I decided the large buttons would make my penguins look stoned. So I chose small black buttons for eyes instead."

Illustrated blog entry of the day

You know how little babies are always making hilarious faces at random? Well, Miser Mom has captured a bunch of these faces on her new granddaughter and used them to illustrate her guide to throwing a good party, Ocho de Mayo. "Then we sit down to lots of yummy food: rice, hamburger and beans, cheese, lettuce, bananas, and salsa. How was that salsa, Baby A? [illustration speaks for itself, but is captioned anyway for extra fun] 'Yoicks! Hot! But good!'" [Don't worry--no one fed the tiny new being salsa; she was just the illustrator.]

Ha! Just kidding about the volcano insurance. I'm not getting any.

I don't have very much to say today involving the letter v.

I did cook a new vegetable (asparagus) for the first time recently. It came out edible (duh, it's asparagus) but not great, so I'll have to try again.

And no little victories are coming to mind. In fact, I'm actually getting a little burnt out on a couple of things. I'm having real trouble dealing with this last chapter in my Spanish II class and am looking forward to having a long break before Spanish III. And I'm also burning out on my brother-in-law's exercise challenge and am looking forward to being able to include all exercise in my daily goals and not just exercise beyond my normal daily activities.

I'll leave you with a few links.

Tax article of the day

From the New York Times, Tax Day: Are You Receiving a Marriage Penalty or Bonus? - 'In most wealthy countries, married people file separate income tax returns, reporting their individual income, just as they would if they were single.' - I never would have guessed that. This article discusses various factors and has some pretty cool charts.

The charts show that if R and I were married (in the US), our taxes would come out about the same as they do now even though he doesn't generally make all that much more than I do because our total income is in the middle of the no-children chart. However, an important factor they omit means we'd actually have a penalty. That factor is itemizable deductions. I have most of them, so I itemize. He has basically none (but the newish sales tax deduction), so he takes the standard deduction. Together we would just take the standard deduction.

Chemistry article of the day

From Wonders & Marvels, Savor Flavor: The History of Artificial Flavoring - 'Redesigning yeast to create flavor molecules offers some potential benefits. For starters, fermentation requires none of the harsh chemicals that are often used to extract essential oils from plants or react with petrochemical precursors. Engineered yeast also offers the possibility of democratizing rare, expensive flavors, like saffron, and, Patrick Boyle points out, it can “relieve some of the supply issues that come from using really rare plants.”

'But the main attraction of this new technology for food companies is that the resulting flavors can legally be labelled as “natural”—they are produced by a yeast, after all. What’s more, because there is no yeast left in the final product, cultured flavors actually don’t contain genetically modified organisms.'

On the one hand, I don't like how this is a loophole to use GMOs for food. On the other hand, it's good to not need harsh chemicals and it's good to be able to get previously expensive things more cheaply (who can be opposed to letting human insulin, produced the same way, be widely available?). Currently my main problem with GMO's is that most of them are made by Monsanto, Dow, and other slimeball companies. This article is about other companies, which may not be slimy.

Another issue is that this article refers to 'vanillin, the main ingredient in the world’s most popular flavor.' Yet I've heard that some people are sensitive to vanillin who are not sensitive to vanilla. So I don't know why that would be.

I was just telling someone that our only discount theatre was in Round Rock. Wrong! There's also Southwest Theaters, which I learned about from Austinite Tips.

In spite of the name, it's in far northwest Austin and there's only one location: the old Lake Creek Alamo.

My favorite thing about it is that movies are $2 for matinees, $3 for regular movies. (There's a $1.50 upcharge for 3-D movies.) Amazing.

I also like that they show good movies (though old) and that they were not sold out when we went, unlike the last time we went to the one in Round Rock. In fact, it was still basically empty like back in May when the above review was written.

Also, no waitstaff try to ask you questions when you're trying to watch a movie.

The seats have all been re-done--now there's lots of regular movie theatre seating with vinyl seats and no tables, so the theatre feels huge. And they have all the regular movie snacks if you're into that (we're not).

The pre-show is horrible--loud and obnoxious. Bring something to do while you're waiting.

For more information, check out the review linked to above. It's informative, amusing, and has lots of pictures (but also mild swearing). For example: "Important note for people going on dates here! As I mentioned, the leather seats are brand new. As a result, they make farting sounds more or less every time you move. Hilarious? Yes. Mortifying? Possibly. Just be prepared." (I did not notice these sounds; perhaps the seats are now broken in and are now safe for dates.)

I like the idea of posting daily. But I don't want to talk here about my work frustrations, which today lasted from 7 am to 6:20 pm.

I did learn a new way to deposit checks at my credit union when the line was super long. I can feed checks into some of their ATMs--they read the checks to see how much you're depositing and, in this case, the handwriting was legible. Modern times! Well, except for having a hand-written check on me. Heh.

Article of the day - Why Aren't Women Advancing At Work? Ask a Transgender Person. - 'Ben Barres is a biologist at Stanford who lived and worked as Barbara Barres until he was in his forties. For most of his career, he experienced bias, but didn’t give much weight to it—seeing incidents as discrete events. (When he solved a tough math problem, for example, a professor said, “You must have had your boyfriend solve it.”) When he became Ben, however, he immediately noticed a difference in his everyday experience: “People who don't know I am transgendered treat me with much more respect,” he says. He was more carefully listened to and his authority less frequently questioned. He stopped being interrupted in meetings. At one conference, another scientist said, "Ben gave a great seminar today—but then his work is so much better than his sister's." (The scientist didn't know Ben and Barbara were the same person.) ... “I have had the thought a million times: I am taken more seriously.”' Fascinating.

Also, "take-charge" and "aggressive" may mean the same thing in the workplace but are applied to different genders.

Once again, I see yet another way that I am super lucky because I have not experienced this crap. (Admittedly, I am rarely a take-charge kind of person.)

Today I enjoyed Messy Breakups with Exercise, which is not about exercising your way out of a breakup but about people telling other people they should exercise and about people lying about exercise and weight loss: "We are told that exercise will lead to weight loss when the research suggests no such thing." It's a fun rant.

"Even if exercise has health benefits, that doesn’t mean that anyone is required to do it, or that exercising creates some sort of health guarantee wherein you are immortal unless you get hit by a bus. Besides, there are lots of things that are shown to improve our odds for health and we can choose some of them if we want, but aren’t all obligated to do any of them. When we insist that people “owe” society healthy habits it very quickly becomes a slippery slope. If we “owe” society exercise do we also “owe” it 8 hours of sleep a night? A vegan diet? A paleo diet? To quit drinking? To not go skiing or play soccer or anything else that could get us hurt? Who gets to make these mandates? I recommend that people not try to tell others how to live unless they are super excited about someone else telling them how to live."

I don't have to deal with those problems, so it was a little educational to read this and the comments are great, too, though some are quite sad.

The thing that really stood out for me are how so many people do exercise they hate in order to lose weight, but then it doesn't make them lose weight--it's not working, so they quit in disgust.

The author says exercise doesn't make you lose weight, but that's not what it's for. What it's for is being healthier, feeling good, and having fun.

So what are your goals for exercise, and is your exercise working?

Jogging

My main goal for jogging is to be able to run faster and farther than I would otherwise in case I want or need to, like if I'm late for the bus. It definitely works for that. Actually, right now, I'm happy to just maintain my ability to run (slog) three whole miles in a row every week during the rest of summer because it's so hot.

I also want aerobic health benefits. When I was younger, I noticed that when I was doing a reasonable number of aerobic activities, my resting heart rate was 70, and when my ankle was sprained for a year, my resting heart rate was 80. I haven't measured my resting heart rate recently, but I'm happy just assuming that jogging helps.

Finally, I wouldn't quite say that I enjoy jogging like some people do. I enjoy running fast for about 20 seconds because I feel fast and macho and it's fun. But jogging while panting is not so fun. Still, I enjoy seeing how my neighbors are dealing with their yards (or having one-car driveways, or having windows taller than normal curtains) as I jog by and I also enjoy spacing out and thinking about things.

Ballroom Dance

This is just fun and also helps with aerobic health and balance. Since getting into dancing, I definitely keep my balance better in the situation where suddenly you come to a complete halt mid-step. And having good balance is probably good for reducing your chance of the dreaded breaking of one's hip.

Pilates Video

Doing many of the things in my video just feel good. It actually feels best when I do it after work (though I rarely do) because there is some good stretching and relaxing. Also you do stuff you don't normally do, like balance on your butt, or wave your legs around in the air while lying down that's kind of fun. And I get to point my toes and pretend I look elegant (except for when I'm falling over).

I feel like there are loads of health benefits too. I definitely breath hard sometimes. I use my core muscles, as might be expected, plus some other ones. There's loads of balancing practice, too.

Walking

I like walking. I like seeing things at that speed. I like to be able to stop and take a closer look at things. I like to be able to handle obstacles that are annoying on a wheeled vehicle. And getting up and getting blood pumping helps me feel less like a slug. Supposedly it's good for you, but I haven't noticed that being true for me. I'm guessing I've never gotten so out of shape that adding walking was an improvement.

Other benefits of walking include being able to get places and not worrying about parking (finding it or paying for it) or putting wear-and-tear on the car, buying more gas, and adding more pollution.

Strength Training

My favorite thing about strength training is getting stronger.

The first time I worked at summer camp was the main time I have experienced this benefit. The first week the counselors were all in one unit while we were getting trained. Then we moved to the units we were going to be working in during our first session. I was going to be in the same unit but a different tent, so I just carried my trunk over there. I was holding it by the handle on one end and resting the other end on my foot while I walked, thus allowing me to use my stronger leg muscles to move my trunk. Another counselor came up to me and said, "Oh, let me do that," and picked it up by the side handle like it was a suitcase and just walked it over, again, like it was a suitcase. I was amazed.

At the end of the summer, my dad came to pick me up and he offered to carry my trunk for me, but by then I was able to just pick it up by the two side handles and carry it myself like it was just a box of books. Fun! Also, it was easier to open the heavy doors at college.

And what was I doing at summer camp to make me so much stronger? One thing was carrying a big cooler full of ice. It was the cylindrical kind with a spigot at the bottom. Every morning we would bring one from our unit to the kitchen at breakfast to be filled with ice and then bring it back to be filled with water. Then we'd have cold water all day plus access to ice for first aid if necessary.

At first I'd take one handle while someone else took the other. We'd have to trade sides after a while. Then I would sometimes carry it by myself, holding it on the bottom. Then I would sometimes hold it by one handle and throw it over my shoulder. So macho!

I also swam a total of 10 miles that summer (various strokes, not just freestyle). And I might have practiced doing pull-ups on the rafters of the pavillion in the parking lot while we were waiting for the kids to come for a new session. (I definitely did that some of the summers.)

I think rock climbing is really effective, too. At least I can get a large number of my muscles to feel like jello after some crazy-short amount of time like five minutes, which seems amazing.

Tam likes weight training because it's so easy to see results. I haven't noticed this with weight training as much as I have with jogging, but that's definitely fun, too.

Oh, and you can get bigger muscles, not just stronger ones. I definitely got bigger biceps at summer camp. (And even though I'm female, I like seeing bigger muscles on me. I'm not immune to the thrills of feeling macho. At all.)

I also like being able to help people move. Moving sucks and I like when I can make a bunch of trips (generally up and down stairs) carrying boxes for people.

Blog Posts of the Day

I also enjoyed the post that inspired the one I quoted above, My Breakup with Exercise, which in turn was inspired by a speech the other author made! It's about learning that a moderate amount of exercise is a good amount--going overboard may seem better, but a reasonable amount is not nothing--it still has benefits.

Mostly I liked this quote:

'For most of 2013 I was sedentary. I had multiple false starts as I tried to “get back into the gym.” Each time I returned, there was a new manager at the personal training company who would spot me on the elliptical and approach me, saying “Congratulations on taking the first step towards a better you!” or some bullshit like that.

'I wanted to punch them every time. I am already a better me. I have hobbies now. I have friends. I have a life.

'Then the manager would encourage me to try personal training because “beginners always need someone to show them how to do things properly.”

'“FUCK YOU, I am NOT a beginner,” I would think.'

I just want to get her a t-shirt to wear at the gym that says "I'm not a beginner" in the front and "I'm already a better me" on the back. Just like I want a t-shirt for the mall that says "I don't need any help" and one for bike riding that says "Please don't kill me."

I also enjoyed My Big Fat Marathon by the first writer again where she decides she wants to walk a marathon. I've never thought of doing that. I think now that I've heard of it, I want to do it myself someday.

'Then one day I got bored and restless which lead to me Googling terms like 300 pound marathon. What I found were a bunch of blogs where people had done marathons to lose weight and were devastated to have accomplished neither, and then a blog from a doctor who said that you should never attempt a marathon unless you are within 20% of your “ideal weight” Thirty minutes later I was committed to the Seattle Marathon, 31 minutes later my best friend, Kel, responded to me e-mail with “I’m in” and we were off to the races.'

I love that she responds with more of an "I'll show you" attitude than an "I guess you're right and I'm a loser" attitude. Raaga123 and I have discussed this choice with girls doing math as well. (Apparently research shows that most girls choose the latter attitude." My mom had the same "I'll show you" response for standardized tests when she was told that it's impossible to finish them.

'The question that people ask most is “You seriously want to do a marathon?!” My answer is that no, I really in no way want to do a marathon, but I want to be someone who has done a marathon and I’m not willing to buy a medal in a thrift store and lie my ass off, so let’s get to training for this bad boy.'

Another quote - 'What I am doing: Attempting to walk 26.2 miles, cross a finish line, receive a medal and a shirt that doesn’t fit, and be able to say that I completed a marathon.' - Mmm, tempting. Especially if it's in a pretty place I've never been to.

I'm a little jealous--I mean admiring--of my friend P_J_Cleary who updates here daily. So what's up with me?

I recently received my county's notice of appraised value. It's 10% higher than last year's. That's actually very good news because Zillow thinks my house is worth 44% more than last year. And that's even good news because last month's Zillow estimate was 48% more.

Actually, I'm just now noticing that the appraisal isn't for now but for January 1 (when Zillow's estimate was--oh--still 33% higher).

**

This year I've decided to do this thing I've heard about where you only itemize your deductions every other you, and you clump those deductions into every other year. For me this means that this year I will hold off on making my charitable contributions and paying my property taxes until after January 1 and I will take the standard deduction. That will be just a little lower than my usual deduction.

Next year I will make my charitable contributions and and pay my property taxes before the end of the year. That should lead to a much higher itemized deduction than usual.

**

UT System has challenged us to walk 10,000 steps per day or the equivalent for five days per week (by which they really mean 50K steps per week) for the six weeks starting on May 1. The UT System branch that does the best will get to possess the coveted traveling trophy for one year. Heh. So motivating. But we also get free pedometers. I'll say more when I have my 1-week update, but so far I'm meeting my goals.

Also, I found out one of my chickadees is also participating. Today I did that quick-draw thing that Indigo Rose and I like to do where we compare the numbers on our pedometers, but she wasn't wearing hers because it made a big lump in her outfit. (I'm too sexy for my pedometer.) So she's submitting an estimate today.

**

I tried the Trader Joe's canned chili. It's too sugary for Robin, plus it has beans. And it tastes too much like vegetables to me and is too spicy. Bell peppers and jalapenos. Bleh.

**

I'm on my third try for party-grade double chocolate banana bread. The first time I followed the recipe exactly. Which turns out to mean I changed almost every ingredient, but they were all small changes which I feel sure don't matter. It came out delicious but too crumbly to be party grade.

So then I tried just adding cocoa and reducing the flour in my own banana bread recipe. Not as yummy.

Then I tried reducing the baking soda in the original recipe because supposedly when you use regular cocoa instead of dutch processed cocoa, the bread rises too much and then falls. The bread was still delicious. And still crumbly.

Then searching for "crumbly" in the hundreds of comments for the recipe, I found someone who recommended subbing oil for half the butter. But when I told Robin, he recommended adding an extra egg instead. Eggs are called binders, after all--and that certainly sounds like a cure for the crumbles. So I have two more possible experiments lined up.

**

We started watching two new (to us) TV shows. One is "Community," about a bunch of people in a study group at a community college. After two episodes, we like most, but not all of the characters. We'll watch more. The other one, I forget what it's called, is about a gal who discovers a group of women who all look like her and are trying to find out why--but who are also getting killed off. Also, she's switched places with one of the dead ones. Stressful. But gripping.

**

Speaking of stress, my computer got replaced at work and has all updated software so I have to re-learn how to use things again. At least I got rid of the surfing wave backdrop which at first seemed pretty, but quickly began to feel like impending doom.

**

I have collected all of the mushrooms in Plants versus Zombies without having to buy any. I still need many of the land plants and two of the three water plants.

Song of the Day - "You Are My Sunshine" by "Jenny and Lottie." They can't help smiling too much during this rendition that shows you how creepy it is (just like the Civil War's version does), but they sound really good.

When I found out my boss lives in my neighborhood, I realized I can no longer recommend commuting by bus.

It used to be a no-brainer. You could drive in rush-hour traffic, polluting the environment, putting wear and tear on your car, surrounded by people who are thinking "If only that person in front of me were dead, I could get to work two seconds earlier." Then park far away from your office and pay for the privilege.

Or take a shuttle bus for free, adding only your relatively miniscule weight to an already-running bus. The good ones used to run every 3-5 minutes, the terrible ones every 9-11 minutes. If you're at the very last stop before campus, you might not get picked up because the bus might be full, but you can just get on the next one.

Well, things have changed. The buses come less and less often. My shuttle was coming about once every 20 minutes which means if something happens to one bus, you might wait 40 minutes. Then it got discontinued. Now I take a city bus that comes every 20 minutes or so.

The buses take longer to get to campus. When they built up the old airport, they diverted the bus to wander all around that before heading downtown. (In the middle of the day, it's even worse, crossing the highway and going in a big circle and then crossing back to wander around the airport--check out the ugly spirograph in the middle of the map at the bottom of this page.)

Basically, if I want to be sure of getting to work on time, I have to leave an hour before I want to be there. I live 3.5 miles from my office. Coming home is better; I can often be home 45 minutes after quitting time. Unless I miss the good bus or--like today--the good bus never came, so I took the bus that drops me off a mile away from home. Then it's more like an hour and a half.

And this is after a couple of weeks of strategizing--if I go to the bus stop that's one stop earlier than the most convenient one, I'm less likely to have to stand during most of the ride home, plus there are two usable routes at that stop, so I just take whichever bus gets there first.

I mostly read during the commute, but sometimes my book isn't engrossing enough to keep me patient during the 15 minutes I'm walking to the stop and, today, the 24 minutes I was waiting at the stop, then the 15-minute ride and the 5- or 20-minute walk home. Many parts of the book are amazing (you will get excerpts soon), but I like a break from it sometimes.

Recipe of the Day

Mix and match heritages the American way with this Italian Ashkenazim creation, Nutella hamantaschen. Okay, I haven't tried it, but it sounds good and looks pretty. Feel free to make some and bring them to the next party we're both going to.

My sister's going to try making some, but I can't get to her place very easily these days (even though it doesn't require taking a bus).

The problem with non-stick pans is that they have to be replaced periodically. Oh, yeah, and something about poisons.

My pan has suddenly started to stick, so I guess it's time to replace it. After only about fifteen years! Since non-stick pans never last that long, I am not allowed to complain.

My current pan

Still, it's time to figure out what to get next. Things I liked about my pan (some sort of 6-inch T-fal teflon skillet):

* non-stick, even for eggs (which is pretty much all I use it for: scrambled eggs, omelets, fried rice, French toast, and the occasional crepe)
* lightweight
* no rivets - keeps it easy to clean
* pretty (mostly black)
* the perfect size for a one-egg omelette or a crepe, and big enough for two scrambled eggs or a piece of French toast
* the bottom is flat, so the raw egg is about the same thickness, so long as my burner is flat
* has a hole in the handle, so I can hang it from a nail

Things I didn't like:

* I guess there was poison, but since I don't use high heat or metal spatulas, maybe it wasn't so bad
* needs replacing periodically

Other negatives I didn't mind:

* not safe for dishwashers (I don't have a dishwasher)
* easily scratched - I totally didn't scratch up this one (I'm out of the habit of using metal utensils on this pan and I store it buy itself hanging off a nail rather than nested with other pans)
* supposedly it's too lightweight for even heating, but I never noticed a problem with that
* Supposedly using something besides rivets weakens the handle connection, but maybe if you have a lightweight pan and don't hit people over the head with it, you don't need a super strong handle connection.

Cast iron

So I've read over and over again that the obvious choice for someone like me is cast iron--buy it once, season it, and there you go. Just don't buy a cheaply made one that's not smooth inside.

Except many, many people say that it's only perfectly nonstick for everything except eggs. A small minority of people say it works fine with eggs. Maybe it works fine with eggs if you season it right. Many of the people for whom it didn't work with eggs felt that they had seasoned their pans right and sounded very convincing when they listed their steps. That alone is turning me against this option.

It also squicks me out a bit that you are supposed to keep it covered in baked on grease and never use soap, but I could probably get used to that.

Also, it's too heavy to hang off a nail, so I'd need to find a better hook or just find a whole different place to store it.

Environmentally nicer nonstick pans

I see mixed reviews on these. Anyone have one they like? Examples I've seen in my brief online search:

* T-Fal Professional Total Nonstick frying pan - Cook's Illustrated likes it. Apparently some or all of these have convex bottoms. (Wha? I didn't even know that was a thing to watch out for.) Also, rivets.

* Martha Stewart Ecocook pan - Somebody at TheKitchn/Apartment Therapy wanted one. It's ugly, has rivets, and most importantly is probably discontinued.

* WearEver Pure Living pan - AllCookwareFind likes it. Apparently the ceramic can chip off even with careful use. Or not. Definitely has rivets.

And dude, what's with these names? You know that game where you make up band names? (I did this just yesterday: "Loaner mouse." Yes, I was at work.) Well, you could probably also have a game where you make up nonstick pan names:
* Extreme Nonstick Ecstasy
* Egg-stra Slippery
* Continent-wide Forest of Green Pure Clean Pan of God and His Favorite Angels

Teflon again

Apparently I can handle Teflon now and no longer abuse it. Either that or I had a pan that was whatever you call the opposite of a lemon, the likes of which I will never see again. How can I know?

Blog entry of the day - Root Simple's Why are the pockets on women’s clothing so lame? (which made me think of Indigo Rose--and pretty much all women everywhere).

There are some nice, ranty bits:

"What is with women’s clothing? Why are all of the pockets sized somewhere between tiny and non-existent?

"There seems to be some misguided belief that women inherently carry lots of stuff, therefore must carry bags, therefore do not need pockets. This is false. Women carry bags because we have inadequate pockets, and we figure we may as well carry extra stuff–because why not? We have to carry the !&^%$ bag anyway. It’s a terrible cycle."

Oh, oh, and "True confession: I have inner breast pocket envy. The inner breast pocket is the one of the most secure, useful pockets ever created, and yet they are scarce as hens teeth in women’s clothing. Whence this tyranny??" Yes! Yes! Interior jacket pockets!

But then she also decided to take control of her life. Or at least two of her pockets:

"I suspect the proper way to enlarge pockets is just to replace them entirely, but the stitchery and zipper closures on this particular pair of pockets intimidated me, so I decided to enbiggen them by simply adding fabric to the bottom of the existing pockets." Fabric from a bandana--hilarious. Follow her adventure. And maybe copy it.

I feel better today, though not yet well.

Today I learned once again that at Lupe Tortilla, it is not clear enough to say "I just want two crispy tacos," at least not right after another person orders the make-your-own plate with four puffy tacos. It gets interpreted as "I also want the make-your-own plate but with just two crispy tacos." I have to say "I want just two crispy tacos a la carte."

News Article of the Day - Jim Hightower's A whiff of cheese on Wisconsin streets - "So, naturally, Wisconsin would be the state to come up with the idea of spraying its city streets with cheese brine. This is not some sort of cheesy tourist promotion, but an actual attempt to have two problems blend into one clever solution."

It really sounds awesome. Don't know how it smells, though. (You can experience this article in two different ways. Reading it quicker, but if you'd like to hear a strong Texan accent, you can listen instead. Make sure to open the mp3 in another window if you want to do both at the same time.)

Today I passed my final and am officially qualified to work the tax prep job. The next step is: I will probably get a call tomorrow about what the next step is.

**

Monday I got an e-mail from my contact in one of the three colleges I have worked with before. And as of five minutes ago, it has been decided that I will do some more work for them starting next month. They have had a very high turnover and need some training plus some help getting the new catalog ready.

This will probably be quite a short job, with probably 30 hours a week for two weeks in December and maybe 20 hours a week briefly in the following year, for $20.19/hour.

I really like these fun these little jobs, so yea!

Blog of the Day - The Good Old Days at Ombailamos - "I'm starting to think the single most destructive force in human nature is not violence, not greed, not lust, not envy ... but nostalgia." At least politically. Interesting viewpoint.

Quote of the Day - I found this in How to Say No Gracefully, giving me even more respect for E.B. White (which, who even knew that was possible?):

Dear Mr. Adams,

Thanks for your letter inviting me to join the committee of the Arts and Sciences for Eisenhower.

I must decline, for secret reasons.

Sincerely,

E.B.White