Modern Barbarian J

Okay.  If you recall, I wrote about my initial impression of this area and it wasn’t very favorable.  I’ve lightened up bit and have learned to accept the place for what it is: Dumb Fuck Nowhere.  I will, however, recant some of what I said earlier.  This area is apparently home to one of the nation’s largest Indian populations.  One of the city’s biggest events is the annual Indian festival.  So there’s some culture here.  I live in the better part of the city, right smack dab in the midst of the nicer houses (but right next to a trailer park).  Parents let their kids out and about to play, so I guess this part is semi-safe.  The apartment complex I live in is old, but somewhat refreshing.  It has a great view of the pool and some greenery and I like that the back porch doesn’t stare out into a street or parking lot.  In a way, I think I’m gonna miss this part of the city when I move out of here.  But only a bit.

Being on Facebook has been a rather interesting experience.  It’s a great way to hook up with people I haven’t talked to in ages.  But it’s also a dreadful way to waste time.  I would often find myself surfing around peoples’ pages for upwards of two hours, reading up on the quizzes they took, taking a few quizzes myself, posting comments, etc.  I really enjoyed writing notes on there, because of the publicity and feedback I would get from them.  However, there are times when I sorta miss my status as an Internet unknown.  Like now.

Because of a summer course I’m attending, I’m taking a breather from Facebook and taking a small trip back to my roots as yet another blogger.  Yay for writing!  I see that this blog has taken the backslide, mainly due to the fact that I just don’t have to kind of time to sit back and write anymore.  I would wake up, go to work, come home from work late, maybe make dinner, go on Facebook, and go to bed.  I would feel drained.  And Facebook was hardly an emotional outlet; I suspect it contributed to me feeling drained.

So, we’ll see how long I can hold this up, minus the audience of 285 people.

Gawd.  I love wine.  While I’m not too fond of the Californian political and social climate, the scenery is gorgeous and the weather, ripe enough to grow the right sort of grapes to make world-renowned wines.  A wine tasting trip with my husband and Jenna to Napa Valley also proved fruitful this past weekend.

I also became VERY tipsy/borderline drunk.  So, before embarking on a wine tasting trip, here are some useful tips:

- Eat a hearty breakfast with lots of starchy foods.  Or just bring a loaf of bread of with you on the wine touring bus.  Trust me, going on an empty stomach is NOT a good idea - the effects of sparkling wine hit me quickly and it wasn’t even noon.

- BYOW - Bring Your Own Water.  The wine tour folks may or may not provide you with bottled water, so best to have your own handy.  Alcohol dehydrates the body much faster than normal.

- Bring a backpack.  Why on earth would you go on a wine tour and NOT buy a bottle of wine or two or three?  Geez!

- Bring a friend.  Friends are great for lots of other things outside of cameraderie.

- Don’t be afraid to dump wine.  If you don’t like the wine, then you don’t like it.  Don’t force half a glass down in an attempt to make yourself like it.  Wine is an acquired taste and takes time to develop.  Or, sometimes the wine really is just crap.

So there you have it folks.  Tips from experience.  Feel free to use ‘em!

I spent some time reading random blog entries of yesteryear and beyond.  Wow.  Did I really write that much?  It’s enough for a novel, the kind where people will read the first few pages, think “wtf?” and return to the store, adamant for an exchange or a return.  They would then post critical reviews on Amazon.com.  After that, a cult movement would form, fashion the novel as a work of twisted genius, and make it into a reality show. But that is simply wishful thinking on my part.

Speaking of reality shows, my cashier-to-be padawon has told me that I ought to have one.  For reasons not fully explained, he thinks it would be hilarious.  I’m afraid I have to disagree there.  My life, a comedy?  I think not.  I don’t see anything about my demeanor that could suggest something even remotely humorous.  I’m afraid the makers wouldn’t have much to work with: I possess an irrational desire to be perfect, just happen to be in the Air Force, was asked by Marines why I’m not a Marine, been described as a robot, been told by others that they’ve never met someone quite like me, have allergies like crazy, still possess a fondness for Sailor Moon, have serious procrastination issues as well as a fear of hard candy, talk in soliloquies when I think no one is in earshot, can be very opinionated and judgmental when it comes to the decline of morality in America, can live without TV, love books more than I love reading, have been told that my command voice chills to the bone, and can name off all fifty state capitals.  See?  I don’t think I’m interesting enough to make into a show, let alone post on YouTube.

But I digress.  Can you see how long I’ve been blogging?  I have five years worth of material on this blog and still two more beyond that stored at Pitas.  Seven years.  Crazy, isn’t it?  I’ve seriously considered going through, saving the ones that have any real merit or carry enough weight, and throwing out the ones which don’t seem to serve any real purpose except to waste precious bytes.  Because really, why do I even need to carry all that excess baggage around?

If you are expecting an epic lovestory of star-crossed lovers, you are wrong, because Twilight is neither.  But that’s not why I watched the movie.  I just watched it to see what the hype was all about.  The majority of that hype belongs to adolescent girls.  But even if I were an adolescent girl, I think I would’ve seen straight through the movie the way I do now: badly portrayed two-dimensional characters and an uneven storyline.  My underlying suspicion is that the makers of the movie laid out all their cards on the table and hoped the one where a handsome vampire trumps badly written characters (including the vampire) would win the movie over with adolescent girls.  Yup.  I think it worked.

Don’t get me wrong: if you enjoy the movie, that’s great.  You got your money’s worth, so enjoy it all you want.  But for those who prefer something a bit deeper, I advise that you look elsewhere.

Today I tested for my job skill level.  I have major test anxiety and was freaking out over the test.  Frankly, I shouldn’t have been freaking out because the threshold for passing is rather low: a 65%.  How’s that for government standard?  And if you can’t make that standard, then:

a) You obviously didn’t crack the books at all.

b) You will suffer severe consequences at work.

c)  Consequences aside, life at work will suck.

Upon taking the test, my anxieties were put to rest because the questions are exactly identical to the practice questions in the study materials, with a few fresh ones.

Unfortunately, I was not afforded the ideal testing enviroment, which includes silence save for uncontrollable noise, ie printing of scores, occasional shuffles, whispered questions to the test monitor.  It did not help that some inconsiderate dirt bag, who obviously had no discipline in controlling her mouth or her movements, had to comment on every aspect of taking the test.  Even when she was the first one to finish, she continued to run her mouth.

That aside, I got an 88%. Yay!  Now that I know how the questions are set up, I think taking the next test will be a cinch.  I can finish my next set of books in one week each and just study the practice questions.  And when it’s all over, I can finally breathe a sigh of relief, assuming that my higher-ups don’t jump the gun and hand me supervisor-level books.

In observation of Lent, for the first time ever, I am abstaining from ungulates on Fridays.  In other words, if it is meat from a hooved animal, it is a no-no on Fridays.  I’ve decided to substitute fish instead.  When I went over to the grocery store nearby, they were out of salmon.  I spied the other choices: catfish, halibut, something from the Pacific.  They didn’t seem appetizing, so I decided to give shark a try. I also bought some packaged scallops.

I am embarrassed to admit that the shark recipe I causually threw together doesn’t seem to work.  Lemon juice mixed with extra virgin olive oil and cajun spices does not seem to bode well.  At all.  So, my husband and I will eat that damn shark, and I’ll probably never experiment with shark again.  But scallops turned out okay.  Scallops bathed in butter, bread crumbs and sea salt seems to do the trick.

For Lent this year, I decided to give up Facebook.  Giving up Facebook means that I have more time to spend on blogging and getting back into the habit of writing.  I miss writing.  It doesn’t matter whether or not people read this blog; for me, writing is pleasurable in and of itself.

Also in time for Lent, I won an Ebay auction of a bunch of plastic cameras from Lomography.com and just received them today.  Yay!  I have a new hobby!  These cameras range anywhere from $30-$80 each in cost.  Individually bought, it would have cost $360.  After shipping and handling, I paid $114.  It was a much better deal than buying them directly from the source, because honestly, the source is outrageously overpriced (which I will gripe about later).

My Lent will be filled with pictures (I hope).  When it’s all over, you’ll see them on Facebook.

I’ve always known that cardiovascular-related diseases, high blood pressure, high cholestorol, and strokes run in the family.  Especially on my dad’s side.  I’m sure part of it is genetics and the rest is the food that’s a huge part of the culture.  But man, I didn’t think it would hit this early.

With this information in mind, I had my blood drawn for a cholestorol test.  I just spent the last two years in dormitory life, eating tons of sausages, Chinese take-out, and Denny’s.  With sushi on the side.  All that fat and grease had to add up somehow.  I didn’t start eating a whole lot of vegetables until I got to Misssissippi and had a health-conscious roommate at my side.  And now that I’ve finally got a car to haul groceries, I can buy fruits and veggies to my heart’s content and health.

But I digress.  Usually, cholestorol levels should be maintained under 200 mg/dL.  Anything over that puts a person at risk.  I got the results back on Tuesday, first thing in the morning.  It was a bit strange, because at first, I received an email saying that my results were normal.  But then I got a phone call and she read off my results.  I blinked.  I got 248?

Of course, the first thing I did was go to the commissary and stock up on fruits, vegetables, and low fat foods.  No more beef or lamb.  And 1% milk — if I drink skim it may as well be water.  No eggs.  No sausages.  When I got home, I called my mother and asked about cholestorol levels.  She said the same thing - below 200 is how it ought to be.  Then she added that 240 was borderline.  When I told her my results, she didn’t freak out, but she did become concerned.  She ran off a list of what not to eat.  I heard my dad in the background say to stop drinking wine, to which I rolled my eyes.

So now I’m on a low-fat, low-cholestorol diet.  I eat oatmeal evey morning.  I remove the skin from chicken before I cook it.  I read labels at the grocery store.  I always made fun of the people that did that.  Karma sure has a way of kicking you in the rear.  I have one year before I test again.  If at that time, the results are not under 200, then I will have to start taking medication.

Okay.  I now reside in the middle of Dumb Fuck Nowhere.  Seriously, this city has NO entertainment, NO culture, NO major events, and NO future.  There are gangs that traffic drugs from god knows where.  Crystal meth is huge in and around the area, since it’s cheap and easy to make.  The local newspaper has to look under rocks for their news stories.  A local high school has a delinquency rate of 34%.  White extremism is slowly on the rise.  Burglary rates are pretty high.  The people here have no work ethic.

I doubt I will find any redeeming points of this city.  My husband has been adamant about leaving and as soon as I learned about the area after coming here last month, I set my heart on getting out of here next year or early 2010 and going to someplace in Europe.  Germany is high on the list, but not a possibility.  Spain, Turkey, and Greenland are high possibilities.  And never again shall I ever go to Further NorCal unless it’s absolutely mandatory.