Thanksgiving

Things for which I am grateful this year, in no particular order:



1. Babies - Not the cuteness, but the entertainment value... and the tax thing

2. Football

3. Good books - Thank you Brandon Sanderson, and Alan, for the recommendation

4. Graduation - For the last time

5. Sushi

6. Cold Weather

7. Haircuts

8. Garlic

9. RSL for the MLS cup 2009!

10. The Holidays

If it comes from the ocean, it must be better.

I wrote before about how everything in food was trending towards white meat chicken, and dark meat chicken had become a hiss and a byword.

Then I found out that dark meat chicken was being consumed like crazy in Russia.

The new white meat chicken is sea salt. Ordinary salt is not good enough any more. Now salt has to come from the sea. Potato chips now have sea salt. Diet foods now use sea salt. I was at TGIF for lunch today, and they had sea salt in a grinder at the table. What is wrong with regular salt? Isn't salt salt? And of course, where is all the regular salt going? Is non sea salt preferred in Uzbekistan or some place?

I don't get these trends.

Advertising

I assume that I am not alone in this, but I hate stupid commercials. Here are a few common elements in commercials that I really dislike.

1. Butchering a popular song or tune with lyrics about the business.
2. Kids voices.
3. British people, unless the product or business or service has something to do with the UK.
4. Most jingles, especially for local businesses.
5. Commercials that make me feel like I'm not a competent parent and I abuse my kids unless I buy a certain product.

Feels good to rant.

Take Me Out

For the first time in my life, my father on Saturday night took me to a Major League Baseball game. With this right of passage behind me, I can now die happy.

Thanks Dad!

Sleep oddities

Do you ever find that when you fall, or trip, or jump while asleep that your body moves? This mostly happens to me when I am only partially asleep. I will be dreaming, and in the dream I fall over or lose my balance. My body physically reacts to this by shifting or whatever, and that motion wakes me up. Does this happen to anyone else? It is kind of weird and kind of funny.

I also almost always experience a full body shiver as I am falling asleep. This is how Danyael knows that I am almost asleep, because she feels the shiver. Does this happen to anyone else?

A Parade of Human Debris

Does anyone know the movie the title of this post comes from? Gold star if you know it.

I am sick of reality TV. I have never really watched it, and it is taking up way too much airtime. I don't care who can survive in the wild. I don't care who is the best mate for a rich guy or girl. I don't care who is the most popular amateur singer or performer. I don't care about a pimped up car or motorcyle or whatever. I don't care who wins a race. I don't care who can cook under the glare of a jerk. I really don't care how you would do with someone else's spouse for a week.

These shows seem to attract the worst of what we as society have to offer in terms of people. It is a parade of human debris, and I am not enjoying the parade. I want more scripted, entertaining television. I would rather see commercials for yet another lame crime or legal drama than a commercial about the next group of idiots who are going to live in the same house or lose weight or revisit high school memories. Give me more comedies.

A question answered, peace of mind restored.

A while back, I posted an open question about chicken. I wondered, with the proliferation in the US of white meat products, what was happening to the dark meat. Apparently, it is going to Russia. My marketing textbook has informed me that, while Americans prefer white meat, Russian consumers prefer dark meat. According to the text, about 1/4 of American chicken legs are eaten by Russians. I guess I can put my fears and questions to rest.

Venus must be really cold

Why are men traditionally always warm or hot, and women always cold? The ideal temperature for me during the day is about 69-70 degrees. At night - 66-67 degrees. For Danyael - during the day 105-115 degrees, at night 105-115 degrees. That makes it tough for us both to be comfortable. I always argue that we should keep temperatures low, because it is easier to warm up than cool down, but that doesn't always work. Also, in the summer, it wastes energy to try to keep it too cool. According the the below linked article, there are a number of theories, including different surface areas, muscle mass, and body fat that cause the different preferences, but there seems to be some disagreement. Either way, it sucks.

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2396/why-are-women-always-cold

The Red Devil Fiasco

At work, we are having a ping-pong tournament. We were randomly seeded into double elimination brackets and the tournament began the first week of March. The championship match is scheduled for March 17, Saint Patricks Day. When the tournament was announced, I misunderstood it and thought that the entire tournament would take place on March 17th. At my office, I would consider myself a good player, but not a great player. I can consistently beat just about everyone except my boss and 3 or 4 of my coworkers. In order to give myself an "edge" (10% motivation for purchase) and for showmanship purposes (90% motivation for purchase) I purchased some ping-pong paddles on ebay. These paddles, called Red Devils, come from the company which is the official supplier for the Chinese national team and the Chinese Olympic team. They were coming from China. I assumed that they would arrive by March 17th. Unfortunately, and probably because shipping was free, they have not yet arrived. It might not have made much of a difference anyway, because the tournament actually started the week before last but I lost my edge, and more importantly, my chance for showmanship. I won my first two matches, then played James, who I have not beaten in some time. He beat me. I went to the losers bracket where I can still play into the championship, and where I am slated to play Moj. I have a good chance of beating her. I sure would like my Red Devils though! Maybe they will come on Monday. Maybe they will come in late April. Who knows. I will post the results next week.

My Useless Sixth Sense

I have a gift. It is a unique and powerful gift. It is a useless gift. I have the ability to foresee upcoming sitcom episode re-runs. I have had this gift for years, though until recently the scope of my gift was limited to Seinfeld. I would, either out of no where or on a prompt, think of a certain scene from a Seinfeld episode. Almost without fail, that scene would occur in an episode of Seinfeld within 1-3 days, sometimes that same night. I could never explain it, but would often comment to Danyael when it happened. It happens once or twice a month consistently.

Now my gift has expanded to King of Queens. I have now twice foreseen episodes of King of Queens. I know, its amazing.

If any of you can think of any practical applications for this gift, please let me know.

January - Does it have any redeeming features?

January second is the most depressing day of the year. I assume that most agree with me. The holidays are over, it is cold, have to go back to work, and there is absolutely nothing to look forward to in the near term.

I live my life by looking forward to things, the next party, holiday, event, vacation, whatever. This makes certain parts of the year very boring and slow moving. For instance:

January - Terrible. There is a Federal holiday and College basketball, but that does not make up for the lack of more enjoyable holidays and vacations. It does not make up for the snowy roads, or the renewed energy required at work or school.

February - Terrible. There is another Federal holiday. There is more College basketball. This month suffers from the same things as January, plus there is Valentines day to deal with. Which counts against February. (I love my wife, but I really don't need valentines day.) At least it is usually a short month.

March - Bearable - March has March Madness, which is very fun. March suffers from less snow, but it has nothing else really redeeming.

April - Good. My kid has a birthday, it is spring, there is General Conference and Easter. It is spring.

May - Good. My anniversary, spring weather.

June - Good. Danyael's birthday, vacations, etc.

July - Good. It is hot but there are two holidays, fireworks, bbqs, etc.

August - Terrible. Hot. Nothing Redeeming.

September - OK. Cooler weather, football, kids birthday.

October - OK. Same as September, including kids birthday, but you have Halloween. I don't really like Halloween, but the kids do, and it is a gateway holiday to Nov. and Dec.

November - Good. Love Thanksgiving, football, cold weather.

December - Good. Love Christmas, new year, football etc.

The bottom line is that January, February and August are wastelands. You just try to burn through them and move on.

Here we go...