I’m REALLY an elitist now. I’ve upgraded to my own domain because it was $9.24.

Go here: MY NEW WEBSITE.

Because I’m super awesome.

Last week there was a break in our segment, mostly because I forgot about it, but we’ll just say it was because it was spring break.

This week, I have to complain about this fantastic article:

10 Children in Arkansas Drink Wiper Fluid at Day Care

WHAT.

To summarize, because I know you won’t click on that link, the day care staffer claimed that she mistook a bottle of wiper fluid for a bottle of kool-aid (as these things were all bought at the store recently) so she put the wiper fluid in the refrigerator.*

This could only mean two things:

a) She’s lying. She was trying to create a suicide cult but did it backwards.
b) She just didn’t fucking read the label.

Either way, SHE’S AN IDIOT.

Just sayin’…


*Luckily, thusfar, none of the children died.

This means we’re totally fucked.

Congratulations, US Government, you’ve done it again. You’ve put our national security in the hands of someone who works for a company who sells sub-par software on a regular basis. Their products. Fail. All. The. Time. Yet, you think someone there MUST know what they’re doing if they’re a multi-billion dollar corporation. Of course they do; they know how to dupe their customers into thinking they need shitty software.

Don’t be surprised when our intelligence is hacked because you used Microsoft’s version of “security.”

I made bean burrito … stuff. Beans + tomatoes + peppers + onions + awesome = superawesome bean burrito … stuff. It tastes very good. My only complaint is that the recipe called for 1 tsp of cumin … and I should know better than to add the entire (if any at all) amount of cumin called for in any recipe ever. It doesn’t taste weird when you eat it, but say, if I burp later, all I taste is cumin. And let’s face it, when you weren’t raised with that spice, it’s a strange and relatively unpleasant taste. Or maybe it’s just that only middle eastern women know how to add just the right amount.

I also made guacamole to put on the burrito and I make the world’s most awesome guacamole. I also added a jalapeno to the guaca because it made it awesome x 22.

Nevertheless, this was a successful attempt at cooking something new. It took me 2 hours, but it was a very pleasant 2 hours. I like cooking, but I REALLY like cooking mexican food. Probably because it reminds me of my mother. She lived in Texas for 7 years, and learned how to cook like they actually cook in Mexico (not in Dallas). So I’ve always felt a certain sense of pride to be able to cook that very well, and part of it is because I was taught by my mother.

For the past few weeks, I’ve been taking a class “Food and Faith.”  It’s taught by a pastor at a local Lutheran church.  We sit around a huge table, and are served food (lately, lenten food), and then he’ll talk to us about the significance of food and dining within the christian faith. At first it was very scripture-based. A lot of it was sitings in the bible about how things were prepared in those days, and later it was about how Jesus used dining  as an opportunity to teach. We also learned about food in our society today, and how far we’ve strayed from the traditional dining experience, and the effects its had on our life (and of course, the effects our lives have had on the dining experience). I learned a lot of valuable lessons about the importance of food, of breaking bread with others, and of the general dining experience. For instance:

1) Know from where your food comes. Know its origin. I’m an adult now, and so I know that my hamburger comes from a cow, etc. However, there really are children who don’t understand that food doesn’t magically appear in Giant Eagle. It’s also important to know what’s in your food. It wasn’t a “change your diet to all organic!” lecture, because that may or may not make a huge difference anyway. Just be aware.

2) Take the time to eat. It’s a pretty obvious health issue that a lot of people know – if you eat too quickly, you tend to overeat, your body can’t digest the food well, etc. But the traditions that we have for eating make these issues obsolete, and we’ve lost these traditions in the way we live our lives in this country, and in this post-modern society. We live out of our cars, for instance, or in front of the television (or now computers). So take the time, when possible, to sit down at the table and eat with your family. It is important to have conversation to slow down the eating. It’s also important to “break bread” with people because it opens new doors, new levels of trust, gives you time to actually enjoy your food, and makes the whole dining experience that much better.

3) I always feel like I should have 3 things in a list. However, I feel like I covered most of it in the previous two. So this is just here for show.

Also, learn how to cook if you don’t how! Eating your daily meals out of a box or a bag will definitely make you less healthy (duh) and decrease your standard of living. I don’t mean you’ll become poor (although you do save money if you don’t eat fast food), but I mean you’ll be more miserable. Whether or not you realize it.

Education learns you for better great good! Learn stuff about food! It makes it that much more interesting to eat it.

I’m a huge advocate for learning everything about everything.

And bean burritos are tasty.

And I’m spending it where? In the United States. …how boring.

Really though, it’s a little bit disheartening to think about:

a. This is my last “spring break” ever.
b. Not only am I not going on some awesome trip to France, but I have never EVER spent a spring break in a cool-super-awesome place that isn’t home.
c. The last Saturday of my spring break is a St. Patrick’s Day parade. Problem? I’ll probably be at my mother’s house.

I just want to spend a day or so being trashed and making unlawful decisions. Is that so much to ask?

So normally the search terms that lead people to my blog are relatively normal, full thoughts. Such as “xomb bare bones” and while I’m not sure why someone is searching wordpress for information on a barebones operating system, at least it makes sense that it lead them to my blog. However. My favorite random search term for this week:

“ex-boyfriend downgraded”

Why would you be searching wordpress to read about that?

Also, it seems rather specific. In fact a lot of the search terms are SO specific that I wonder if someone is stalking me… What? Someone could want to do that. I’m kind of pretty. Of course I barely ever leave my house. It’s Saturday night – look at me. I’m writing a blog. Yeah, I don’t know why anyone would stalk me.

But whatever brings you here. :) I don’t judge. I hope you enjoyed whatever I might have written about that. Hopefully this means you’ll be coming back.

Please come back. The number of readers I have per day helps perk up my self-esteem. You wouldn’t want to make my self-esteem low, would you?

Yeah that was pretty creepy.

But so are you.

(Just kidding! Readers, you are my favorite! Keep reading my blog!)

Time for our second ever weekly segment. Last week’s didn’t seem to go over all that well. Probably because it was all serious and boring. And LONG. So very long. I’ll try to keep them shorter.

This was my favorite family for the last few months, while I watched this entire show from start to finish via Netflix. Why via Netflix? Because FOX, as we all know from countless experiences, fails at advertising the GOOD shows well enough to get them watched. They wouldn’t know a good show if their Alphabet cheerios told them every morning. …actually, I think it did. They didn’t get the message.

I had heard about Arrested Development when it was on, but I never had a chance to watch it, and *poof* it was gone. This show was hilarious, and remained hilarious throughout 3 seasons of awesome. When you thought the story had nowhere else to go, they would throw a ridiculous plot twist that you never saw coming. However, it was never so ridiculous that it caused it to be less funny. To add to the ingenious physical comedy is the endless wit. I was always laughing, and frequently had to backtrack it to catch what I missed while I was laughing.

The good news: there are rumors here and there of a possible movie follow-up to the abruptly ended, yet smartest sitcom ever. Ever. And here’s what Keith Olbermann (a pretty cool newscaster from msnbc*) thinks about it:

and I couldn’t agree more.

Just sayin’…

*this guy tends to be a pretty biased liberal, but being that he tends to be biased in the direction I tend as well, he’s cool in my book. I can understand why people may disagree with him, but from what I’ve seen from his quips and statements, he’s very level-headed, and mostly stays away from the backstabbing and stereotyping that is easy to do when you have a spot on TV.

THIS is something I recommend watching. Take 20 minutes. Do this for yourself. It’s very, very good.

I’ve decided to start a new segment of this seemingly growing blog. It will be once a week, when I point out something that should be obvious but is apparently lost on most humans. The length and subject will depend on how strongly I feel about the subject, whether it is a funny or serious subject, my mood that day, the way the wind blows, my current workload, and of course, availability of material.

Disclaimer: I am not responsible (actually I am) for any catty, offensive judgments made during this segment. It is mostly for ranting about things that tend to disappoint me.

So, I present to you, the premiere segment…
*drum roll*

I hate gender roles.

I said this nearer the end of class the other day after someone made an indirect analogy of weakness to women. He was kidding, and so was I. I mean I wasn’t, but I know when people are joking. I don’t get offended. Getting offended is futile, and it just makes people dislike you.

However, a guy who we’ll call ReallyAnnoyingKidInClass came up to me and said, “Well here’s a question that will test your true opinion on the subject: What do you think about women being part of the Draft?”

Really.

I said, “Well, that’s a bad way of judging it, because the Draft in itself is fundamentally flawed.”

Unfortunately, I did not care enough to rant on my soapbox for this kid, because he’s basically intolerable in every way. So I’ll give you, Internet, the pleasure of hearing my very thorough opinion.

It has been debated for years that women in combat is a bad idea. I honestly can’t say I don’t agree. I will be the first to tell you that Men and Women are biologically different in a number of ways. We have a different level of ability for depth perception. We have wider hips for child-bearing. We have VAGINAS. It doesn’t make us any less ABLE in combat (OR ANYTHING FOR THAT MATTER). I, personally, couldn’t handle it – probably mostly on a mental level, let alone the fact that I’m a twig. But there ARE women in the military, and I respect them a lot for going through all those soldier-type-things. Let alone putting up with, I’m sure, an immense amount of bullshit from the men who think women don’t belong there.

My question: What does the DRAFT have anything to do with Gender Roles? I can see where he was coming from, and I can put it up to the fact that he probably just worded the question badly. However, let’s look at this more closely…

-War. Is. Inexcusable. There is always another way. If you’re attacked, there’s a reason for it. Groups of “terrorists” don’t go blindly killing people for no good reason. I am not saying they are justified, but instead of ignoring them (or killing a number of innocent civilians), we can, oh I don’t know, TALK.

-The draft (is, and) would be obsolete if we didn’t have to worry about going to war. Someone defended my opinion in class that day, saying that you shouldn’t depend on people to defend the country who aren’t volunteering for the position; if they don’t want to defend the country, they probably aren’t going to do a good job. That is part of a good point. The rest of it: YOU’RE FORCING YOUNG MEN, WHO BARELY KNOW WHO THEY ARE, TO KILL FELLOW HUMAN BEINGS. Even if we were, in our own country, fighting off invaders – you can’t force someone who may or may not be mentally prepared for something as emmersive and traumatizing as combat. Remember Vietnam? Yeah, that was pretty terrible. The government screwed up an entire generation. Way to go.

However if that were the situation; if for some reason they thought it was a good idea to kill off a generation in a completely unjustified war (not that they aren’t now, they’re just choosing Brainwashing techniques instead of The Unlucky Lottery technique); while I don’t want to go into combat, I think that women are just as capable as men.

———-

The thing is, I feel that this doesn’t truly display what I MEANT when I said that I hated gender roles.

I MEANT that I hate how the biological differences between men and women have been exaggerated and exploited into what we are STILL having trouble fighting today:

-Women are considered passive, weak, servile, and overly emotional.
-Men are considered strong, brave providers and decision-makers.

There are now these “male” and “female” qualities, and most of the time the “female” qualities are insulting.

I’m not going to get into Feminism 101 because I think that while they had good intentions, a lot of those in the feminist movement went in the opposite and extreme direction of thinking that men are useless as well. And well, sorry, but I like my boyfriend, and I plan to keep him around.

I, for one, am an advocate for equality. Does that mean I think I am the same as a man and the man is the same as a woman? NO. We are biologically different. Because we have to come together to BREED. However, we compliment each other in ways that make us need each other. THAT’S OKAY! It doesn’t make one less useful and efficient than the other. It just means that together, a man and a woman can survive.*

So I dislike when someone will call someone else womanly when they really mean weak.

Just sayin’…

*I left out any mention of gay relationships. This does not mean I have any negative opinions of those who prefer their own sex. It just had nothing to do with this subject. I’ll probably get to that one day. But trust me, I am friends with a ridiculous amount of gay people. They are, ya know, people. And wonderful.

XOmB Barebones has been released!

This is an offshoot project written by Steve Klabnik and David Wilkinson. XOmB, the main project, is a 64-bit operating system kernel written by students. If that means nothing to you, it’s okay! Just know that students at the University of Pittsburgh are doing cool and innovative things for fun.

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