DSL - The early returns are not so good as I had intermittent service on Saturday. Drops every five minutes made my quest for DR. Mario online supremacy frustrating. After a few calls and some investigation, I have a weak DSL line and in order to stabilize my signal I had to decrease my stream speeds. Is the inconvenience worth the savings? We’ll see.
Epic Walks - Saturday mid-day was spent walking from my apartment to the lake and back. The fine folks at Gmaps Pedometer tell me we covered over six miles. The reward was terrible service and brown lettuce from the Salt and Pepper Diner. The folks at Yelp are sure going to hear about it.
Watermelon - Purchased a few weeks ago for a picnic by the lake, we never got around to cutting it open. Then we went to a picnic AND a dinner with hopes to cut/slice. Nope. The next best chance to eat the watermelon before I go on vacation will be this weekend. I put the odds of it actually getting eaten at 3:1. For now, it has it’s own chair in my kitchen.
Jasmine Rice - Lighter and fluffier than Milagrosa rice and much easier to digest to Brown rice. Jasmine rice is….well…it’s rice.
Radio Interviews - I’m sort of socially awkward as it is, but put me in front of a microphone and I’ll make sure to find the stupidest things to say; especially when they throw a quick-fire at you with lame questions like: “waffles or pancakes” and “SNL or Mad TV?” The irony is that I have said more to media outlets in the last few months than to my bosses at work. All I need is practice, I guess.
You might know that I fancy myself a serious Brewers fan…enough to purchase a pay-per-view cable package (3 seasons and counting) where I can watch Brewers games throughout the season. Aside from two years in high school when my circle of friends considered following sports “uncool” (stupid me followed along until I discovered independent thought), following the Brewers is a summer tradition dating back to my childhood years. Much thanks goes out to my understanding girlfriend who does her best to tolerate my preferred means of television entertainment.
Anyway, most of my friends in the area don’t follow the Brewers, so I think it might be fun to kick off a weekly update on what’s going on up there (the more you know, y’know?). Tuesdays usually mark the beginning of the week for MLB teams, so this is a good place to start. Ready for some nonsense? Yes!
Week in review: A sweep of the Blue Jays showed us that Dave Bush can pitch if he keeps the ball down…and that the bullpen can blow a big lead at home if you give them the chance. The Baltimore Orioles spent the weekend in Milwaukee and came away with only one victory. I watched 20 out of the 27 total innings of the Baltimore Series on my couch and learned one thing: Jerry Garcia sure knows how to use a grill. Last night the Crew kicked off a series in Atlanta. Ben Sheets went the distance while I was at the Y trying not to bump into other meat heads.
What Opposing Telecasts Taught Me: Toronto: Viagra commercials with Canadian accents? Hilariously endearing. Baltimore: They refer to Camden Yards as “Birdland.” Also: Jim Palmer? Still handsome.
Who Had a Good Week? The entire offense. Scoring 5.5 runs a game thanks to 17 Home Runs…that’s an Average of 2.4 Home Runs a game! Sheesh. Hopefully they don’t forget to do the little things like get on base, swing at strikes, and keep playing defense.
Who “Scuffled”?Dave “landing strip” Riske. He’s coming back from injury and can’t find the strike zone. Hold on to your hats.
The Week Ahead: Two more in Atlanta, Three in Minneapolis, and another series in Arizona. A meager 16-21 road record is somehow sixth best in the league. Still, plenty of room for improvement there. With the way everybody is playing at home this season, a winning road record will earn a spot in the playoffs.
Miscellaneous Nugget of Information:
When you run out of Klement’s, you run out of taste.
A new monday feature! Which really means check in next week and then you’ll never see the random five again.
1. Cleaning Aquariums - I found a murky glass box in my living room yesterday so I decided to clean the sides, change the filter media, and remove some of the overgrown plant life. It turns out I have a fully functioning aquarium in my apartment and there are still 18-20 live red Plattys with a few fish that appear to be only weeks old. Whod’ve thunk it?
2. Raw Tomatoes - I’ve eaten three since Thursday. My mom used to cut them up when we’d eat greasy food…she said it was a good counterbalance (to something). I’ll dice one up and put a few tablespoons of white vinegar and soy sauce. The Filipino way would be to use Tiparos brand Fish Sauce…which I own for cooking, but it possesses a smell I loathe.
3. Sitting at Home - After spending my free time during most of the last three years at band practices, I find sitting at home and being lazy an appealing option always on the table. The hermit existence I tried hard to leave behind in 2004 can be quite fun.
4. Deerhunter’s Microcastle - Currently leaked and will be officially released at some point this year. It’s good rainy day/long drive/setting sun/turn on the headphones/eating fruitsnacks music.
5. Managing Costs - I’m trading in Comcast digital cable for AT&T DSL (at $20/month savings)…if only to make up the amount of money I’ll spend per month to make sure I can track CTA buses on my cellphone as many times as I want.
Reasons to Enjoy A Job
No Micromanagement
Independent Workload
Location
A bevy of food options
Surrounding Architecture
Working in the South Loop makes one feel like they’re a part of things.
Nearby situated employees are nice people
Never really busy
No limit to days taken off as long as work is done
Employers mostly indifferent to early Friday exits
Employment is largely supportive of outside interests
Good Reasons For Leaving a Job
More money could be earned elsewhere with a different job focus
Employee treated as more of an afterthought
Requests to expand skill-sets largely ignored
The absence of an employee might improve budget constraints
Potential Cons of Finding New Job
Restricted environment
More responsibility/accountability
Growing Pains
Conclusion
Find new job with same intrinsic benefits?
- In January a 25lb bag of Milagrosa Rice cost $12.50.
- Last night the same 25lb bag of Milagrosa Rice was $19.00.
That’s a 52% increase in six months.
I know there is a rice shortage in the world, but I didn’t think it was that bad.
According to the market forces which pit supply and demand against each other, it is. At some point you expect the supply to come back up, but will the prices drop? Like high gas prices, this might be something we’ll have to eventually accept as the norm.
