Olbermann: Jesus vs. Tom Cruise

The Bible vs. Top Gun... Who will win? This is absolutely hillarious!

Idiot alert

This article reminds me of when I was a sophomore in college. I lived in a dorm that had a community kitchen on each floor. We had a fridge in our room, but every once in a while I would make some noodles or a small casserole or something to eat (sometimes it was better than the dorm food, sometimes not).

Anyway, I was cooking something on my skillet when I noticed that another girl walked in. I didn't recognize her, and our hall was VERY small (as we had the cafeteria basically right next door) so I assumed she was from upstairs. I gave her a quick smile and nod, then went back to stirring my noodle thingy.

About a minute later, I saw flames out of the corner of my eye. Chickee had put a pop tart IN THE FOIL WRAPPING into the microwave and started it up. In the meantime, she was just standing there, looking at the light display. Pretty impressive, I must say. There was no one else in the room, so I grabbed a cup, filled it with water, opened the oven, and splashed it on the fire, which immediately went out. Chickee was still just standing there staring.

I had previously complained that we weren't allowed to use a microwave in our rooms, but I didn't complain any more after that! You have to wonder how a girl made it to be at least 20 (this was an upperclassman dorm) without learning that you can't put metal or foil in a microwave?!?!?! I guess it's not that rare of an occurrence after all!

Yes, we all aspired to be fry cooks...

According to this blurb, there is an industry backlash against a commercial which features K-Fed as a fry boy, daydreaming of being a rapper. No, it's not a documentary. Instead, the restaurant group says that the commercial implies that a fast food career is "demeaning and unpleasant".

I worked fast food a little bit in high school and college. Nothing helped me to see that I REALLY needed that college degree more than having to deal with the joys of the restaurant biz. And I wasn't even in a hot steamy sticky kitchen, either!

Yes, it is good, hard, honest work. But let's face it, no one aspires to be the head fry cook at a drive thru restaurant. I'll have to reserve judgement until the Super Bowl airs the ad, but it just sounds too funny for words ;)

The sad thing is, I met several people who were in their late 20s and above who were still working the fry machines. That is NOT a life to aspire to, and I hope that they eventually were able to find better work. One man in particular worked both at my catfish restaurant and at the Mexican place next door. I couldn't believe how many hours he put in. He was a very pleasant, hard working person, but he worked so hard for so little money.

So for the restaurant CEO who wrote that fast food work isn't demeaning or unpleasant, I'll bet he never had to work in the back of one of those fast food places. It's not demeaning for a high schooler or college student, but for those who wind up career fry guys, it's just too sad. I'll be forever grateful that I left that world behind at 19.

An open letter to President George W. Bush

Dear Mr. President,

I have been a supporter of some of your policies and a detractor of others. I was excited about your presidency at first because I thought you did a downright swell job as governor of Texas. Even with the whole death row executions thing. But now, I feel I need to speak out on one of the most heinous proposals that your administration is behind.

For a few years, I've heard about the idea of drilling into Alaska for oil. This was supposedly going to take place in a wildlife refuge, which was quite a quandary for me. It's a refuge for a reason. And with all the global warming sequelae starting to hit us, now is not the time to be playing God with God's creatures. Especially cute furry ones like the Panda bear and baby seals.

But tonight on the news, I heard a much more ominous report. This administration is tricking us all. They are not drilling into the wildlife refuge, but into a REFUGEE!!!!!

Now I know that foreign policy just isn't your strong point, but come on. What have these refugees done to us? Why should we commit the cruel and unusual task of drilling into them.

When I was watching the news tonight, I was surprised, amazed, and alarmed to find that the teenage intern repeatedly stated that we were considering drilling into the refugee. The Alaskan refugee. Alaskans are Americans and they deserve all the same rights as those of us who reside in the contiguous American states. What's next, drilling Hawaiian refugees?

Or maybe the chickee just mispronounced refuge about 5 times in a row. No, that can't be right. She's obviously one of the news interns from the University of Missouri. Home of one of the nation's most prestigious journalism schools. Most of these kids are rather stale in their presentation, and tend to shuffle paper like they're generating a new form of energy, but there's no way that she could have mangled that word and no one caught it, right?

Oops... Maybe I was too quick to judge. And maybe we REALLY need to get cable again. Because you don't get shit like that on CNN! But it does remind me of the movie Anchorman - so Stay Classy, Columbia ;)

Happy New Year!!!

Well here it is, early on the morning of January 4th before I'm able to wish both of my readers a happy new year. I guess one of my resolutions should be to inform more people about the blog ;)

I'm up this late because my sleep schedule is just totally crazy. Here's my schedule from the past week or so:

December 27, drove back from Alabama (ooh... Christmas in the Southland)
December 28, worked 7p-7a, wished Tom a happy birthday (he's 37)
December 29, worked 11p-7a (actually got cancelled for part of the night, then got slammed!)
December 30, GOT CANCELLED FOR THE ENTIRE SHIFT!!!!!!!! WOOHOO!
December 31, worked 7p-7a
January 1, worked 7p-7a, missed the Rose parade for the first time since 1989 :(
January 2, called in sick.

I have this problem that happens when I work too many nights in a row. We'll not discuss this problem in depth, but we'll just say that night shift can do a number on my digestive tract. So I can either do the Pepto Bismol macarena all night or call in and save everyone from doing my work for me.

I always hate calling in. Always. I feel lazy, but it's really for the best. I really shouldn't have attempted a 6 night row of shifts, but I really thought it would work out once I got the third night off. So much of it is really psychological, so I thought that by making December 31 my "first" shift, I would be able to skip this. Oh well.

I'm hoping more of the Rose Parade footage gets on Youtube. So far there's not much, and it's mostly of people shooting video of themselves once they've figured out that they can't see the parade since there's about 8 rows of people in front of them. The Rose Parade has been my personal New Year's tradition since childhood. I hate blackeyed peas (the one year I did it was my worst year ever!) and I'm not much for champagne toasts (doesn't really work out in the workplace) so that's what I've got left. When my high school band was in the parade, I didn't get to see it right away, but we had legions of people taping different channels, so we could see the parade from different viewpoints. At one point one channel did a closeup on the clarinets two rows in front of me, then they cut away :( Alas, my network TV premiere would have to wait for 14 more years.

Yesterday was also the anniversary of my first appearance on Jeopardy! What fun... Still have most of the money. Just can't seem to work out a time for that England/Ireland/Scotland trip. I wanted to go with Tom years ago, but that will NEVER happen. Kind of like our "New Orleans Trip". Each time we've tried, some sort of disaster has befallen our lives. We did NOT try to go in 2005, but Katrina did hit on August 29, which is our anniversary. Maybe it's best that we never go!

Anyway, Tom's wrapping up his law school (thank GOD), I'm starting back on my doctorate with advisement this afternoon. Supposedly I only have 30-something hours left, which is less than I would have had at UTA, plus there's no language requirement. Although I'm really thinking of taking Spanish anyway.

I'm also going back to weekend nights at the end of this month. Yep, I just can't stay away. This will open up some opportunities for me, though, as I'll be able to keep better track of school work (the kids are REALLY loving me for that!) and the house (Tom has less opportunity to bomb the kitchen back to the stone age). Plus, in the summer I'll be able to take the kids on lots of mini-trips, which will be SO nice!

So anyway, here are my "resolutions"
1. Lose weight (isn't there a law that we all have to resolve this anyway?)
2. Get more exercise (should help #1)
3. Restart my doctorate (teehee, sounds like a nobrainer, but I have to actually register)
4. Travel (why not?) - especially a Mom's Only trip with my mom buddies. That was SO worth it last year!
5. Redo the living room and den. Pretty much just need some paint and a little bit of new furniture. Tom's already moving his crap out and I'll get my great-grandfather's desk!!!!! Perfect to study with.
6. Do something with the deck. It's really atrocious, and we could use something much nicer.

I'm also starting to do the "cook meals ahead and freeze them" program. I did this a few years ago and it was helpful, but this time I have an actual separate freezer :)