Random Rants and Raves

Faith in Humanity

2009-07-09T01:00:00.000-07:00

A few nights ago I was on the phone with my best friend. His wife was watching their local news (they live a few states away) in the background. Loki (my friend) commented on the story.

"Some idiot pistol whipped his three year old." Loki (who is an ex-con himself) followed this up with "He'll be somebody's bitch inside." Then he said "Things like this are why I have no faith in humanity, sick fucks who do shit like this."

I said "Actually what you said is what gives me faith in humanity."

He asked "What?'

I answered. "Think about it, he's going to be raped many, many times in prison. Why? Because even hardened convicts get it, that pistol-whipping a three year old is something you just don't do."

Loki was quiet for a minute. Then he turned to his wife. "Honey, Rigel just made me think that maybe there is something to this whole 'Humanity' business."

Writing Exercise 06/03/2009

2009-06-03T09:27:00.000-07:00

"You ever heard of the pink monkey?" Jansen asked.

Stevenson looked over the jittering technician. "That some kinda' drink?" Jansen's disdainful eye roll was familiar from many previous iterations but Stevenson, more than a little nervous himself, was in no mood for it. But before he could say so, Jansen interrupted.

"No, it was an experiment. Some behavioral psychologists, who by and large are sick fucks, took a brown monkey and painted him pink."

"And?" asked Stevenson, curious despite himself.

"And then they threw him back in with the brown monkeys. They tore him apart."

"What the hell does that have to do with anything?!"

"I think we've been painted pink and the sick fucks are about to throw us back in the cage."

Before Stevenson could respond the signal sounded for them to join the meeting.

Workout 06/02/2009

2009-06-03T04:09:00.000-07:00

Cardio Day

Walk/Treadmill-25 minutes 1.4 miles
Elliptical Machine-28 minutes Program#6 4,000+ Strides
StairMaster-5 minutes 14 Floors
Cool down-Treadmill 5 minutes
Stretch-Flexible 5 15secs each+10 toe-touches

Good workout. 4,000 strides is a personal best for me on the elliptical.

Writing exercise 06/01/2009

2009-06-02T02:28:00.000-07:00

Jake Fletcher was very annoyed.

Since he didn't want his book to get wet he closed it up and returned it to his bag. Jake did not appreciate Mother Natures sense of humor this morning. He'd left home in such a hurry that he hadn't even realized it was raining until he was more than a half a block away.

Jake hadn't wanted to return for an umbrella because he didn't want to miss his bus. But the bus was late. Almost 10 minutes late. It wasn't a heavy rain, but still more wetness than Jake wanted to deal with.

Finally the rain stopped, and Jake felt things were looking up. Especially as he saw his bus less than two blocks away. To pass the time Jake read on the bus as was his habit.

The bus arrived at the connection for Jake's next bus and he get off, still reading. Then as the bus pulled away the rain started again.

Timing really was everything.

Workout 06/01/2009

2009-06-02T02:12:00.000-07:00

Resistance Day

Walk/Treadmill-25 minutes 1.38 miles
Warm-up Elliptical 10 minutes
Smith Machine Bench-100lbs.&bar 1/10
Vertical Butterfly Machine 115lbs. 1/10
Behind the neck press 50lbs.&bar 1/10
Upright Row 50lbs.&bar 1/10
Squat 16lbs. 1/10
Leg Extension 85lbs. 1/10
Lying Leg Curl 60lbs. 1/10
Seated Cable Row 115lbs. 1/10
Front Lat Pull down 115lbs. 1/10
Dumbbell curls 25lbs. 1/10 (each hand)
Tri-cep Extension Machine 115lbs. 1/10
Back Extension Body weight 1/10
Reverse Crunch 1/10
Crunch 1/10
Calf Raise 80lbs. 1/10
Cardio Elliptical Machine Program #6 28 minutes 3,800+ Strides
Cool down Treadmill 8 minutes
Stretching-Flexible 5 156 secs each+10 Toe-Touches

Now that's more like it.

Workout log catch up

2009-06-02T02:07:00.000-07:00

05/28/2009
Skipped

05/29/2009
Skipped

05/30/2009
Skipped

05/31/2009

Wogging-4 miles 1hr5min
Stretching-Flexible 5 15 secs each + 10 toe-touches.

Wow, that really sucks. I seriously need to get my shit together.

Because some people are just too stupid to figure it out for themselves...

2009-05-31T01:43:00.000-07:00

You will not die letting someone else finish their sentence.
Just because you let someone else finish does not mean you've agreed.

If you don't mean to be rude, there's a very simple solution, DON'T BE!!!

Because some people are just too stupid to figure it out for themselves...

2009-05-31T01:42:00.000-07:00

Lazy Man Cooking: Spaghetti Lemon Pepper Chicken

2009-05-30T01:26:00.000-07:00

This recipe is my own concoction, and is (so far as I know) original with me. Though I do owe my inspiration for it to Hell's Kitchen.

One night not more than a couple of weeks ago I was watching an episode of the show on Fancast and Gordon Ramsey was (as I'm sure you can guess) berating one of the executive chef aspirants for a mistake.

But in this case I had to agree that the verbal beating was deserved as it was a fairly big mistake. The dish in question was spaghetti lobster, and the chef had forgotten the lobster. A pretty significant error I have to say.

I'm sure this was not the first time the show mentioned spaghetti lobster, but for whatever reason this time it stuck in my head. You see my own gastronomical ventures are fairly pedestrian. The idea of someone putting something in spaghetti besides the sauce and some Parmesan had never occurred to me. But my brain got to working on the idea...

Now, as the title of this post implies when it comes to cooking I'm a lazy guy. But I do like to eat real food. And I'm too broke to eat out at restaurants more than occasionally. So I keep it simple stupid with box dinners (the various helpers and mac&cheese) and things that can be made with a minimum of effort. Which is why I love the crock pot.

Put in whatever meat you're craving at the moment, season to preference, add water and go read for a few hours. Come back, warm up a can of vegetables on the stove and butter up a couple of pieces of bread and you're set.

By this method I made some lemon pepper chicken the other day and came back to do the rest when I started thinking about the spaghetti I'd made a couple of days before. (I still had a bunch leftover as well as some sauce.) After a minute I said "What the Hell!", and the eponymous dish was born.

First the ingredients:

Chicken
Water
Lemon Pepper
Spaghetti
You Favorite Sauce
Salt
Parmesan

(Use whatever amounts seem right to you.

First put the chicken, some water and lemon pepper in the crock pot on high. That should take around three hours. So go read something. When that's about ready (if you don't have some leftovers already, like I did) start on the spaghetti. From what I understand you can really fancy with preparing spaghetti, but I never do. I just boil it for around 10 minutes or so and toss in some salt if I think of it. Then drain.

While the spaghetti's boiling you can warm up the sauce, if you get it in a jar. Put it on medium and just stir occasionally. If you make it yourself I can't help you at all as that's way beyond my competency level.

If, like me, you're too cheap to spring for boneless now's the time to de-bone some chicken. It's actually easier than it sounds. Just a knife and fork and pay some attention. The tricky part is getting those little slivers out. Once that's done get a bowl put in the spaghetti, chicken and sauce and mix them up.

After that season with salt and shredded Parmesan to taste and enjoy!

Carrie Prejean Fuss w/Bikini Pics

2009-05-29T02:42:00.000-07:00

It might seem a little late to be coming to this particular party, but I watched something the other day that got me thinking about it.

First I want to say that the primary reason for this post is the always noble goal of putting up pictures of hot chicks not wearing much clothing and thus inspiring the imagination. (For those curious as to where I stand on the gay marriage issue, I don't. That is stand on it. I'm neither gay, nor religious in anyway and I have no intention of getting married, so I can't see any importance to myself in the issue. Note: The previous is not an invitation to explain the importance of the issue to me.)

Miss Prejean claimed that she would have won with different question, or a different answer.

While pageant officials said that she might not have been anywhere near winning. Me, I find both assertions a little lacking. Miss Prejean's because it is more than a bit self-serving , both to her ego and to her framing herself as a martyr to her convictions.

And the pageant officials because she did win runner-up, even with the question, so she had to be in the ballpark. Still I do have to disagree with the idea (as put forward by Miss Cynthia Yockey, amongst others I'm sure) that the question was fair.

To understand the question's unfairness you have to understand the reason for the question portion in beauty pageants. You see the idea (and I'll leave it to the reader to judge the accuracy of it) is that beauty pageants aren't just about pretty girls in hot outfits. ( Why this would be wrong if that's all beauty pageants were about, I don't know, but some people believe it to be so. All I can say about that is that I hope these obviously mentally ill people get the help they desperately need.) They have minds to. And the question portion is to test their minds, specifically in the area of elocution.

That's why the questions tend to be bland nothings about world peace. It's not about what the contestant answers, but how. But when the question is about such a controversial issue, that for good or ill, has a lot of people agitated; the judges can't help but be swayed by the content of the answer rather than the delivery.

The funny thing is, speaking in a forensic sense (Not the CSI kind of forensics) the answer wasn't very good. She started off trying to say something bland and as empty of actual meaning as possible, then mid-way switched to a strong statement staking out a clear position. If she'd started out that way it would have been a much better answer.

That said I don't see that Miss Prejean's been hurt by this. Ask yourself this, can you name the reigning Miss USA? Probably not, but almost everybody knows who Carrie Prejean is.

Oh, and what did I watch that got me thinking about this? Miss Prejean co-hosting Fox and Friends. I think she'll do okay.

(If you're interested in more in depth coverage you might consider The Other McCain who's done a yeoman's job on it. And by yeoman's job I mean you'll find a lot of links to hot pictures and videos.)