For Real Things I Know

Why Stay In An Abusive Relationship

2009-04-14T10:53:00.000-07:00

Anyone who shakes their head in disbelief at someone staying in an abusive relationship should read this: Why Do They Stay? As one of the commenters said, "While I've read a number of articles that provided an intellectual framework for understanding abusive relationships, this is the first that gave me a gut-level understanding that 'there but for the grace of God go I'."

Bonnie Bassler: The secret, social lives of bacteria

2009-04-08T10:07:00.001-07:00

Ramble

2009-04-01T18:31:00.000-07:00

See, I read all over that you're not supposed to write or text or blah, blah, blah, when you're intoxicated.

This is a public world now.

Yeah, yeah, someone could look at this tomorrow or years from now and say, "AHA! Look at what a fool you were!" But, c'mon, I'm a big enough fool that I'm gonna do enough foolish shit that this isn't going to be the worst of it.

So, yeah, I'm intoxicated. Tonight, on cherry wine from a little winery called Pentamere Winery in Tecumseh, MI. [which I should probably link to just for the etiquette of it all, but frankly linking isn't as fun as typing when I'm drunk.] [Now, if I was high on pot, that would be different, then I would find the most mundane things interesting. But I'm not. . . . sigh... I haven't been high on pot for a long, long time. Damn responsible parenthood! :) ]

Now, I do feel a need to explain that I don't usually get drunk on wine, and I don't usually drink cherry wine. In fact, I blame the fact that it's cherry wine on my getting drunk. Pentamere makes a few actual wines and then two fruit wines, an apple and a cherry. Now, I'm sure the cherry wine is fine cherry wine and all, but there's a reason why grapes have the position they do in the world of alcohols; complexity, nuance, varietal differences that are AMAZING... cherry wine tastes like, well, cherries. Nothing wrong with cherries, but I don't want to think about them, I just want to drink them. That's why I couldn't buy the apple wine, it was fucking apple juice. I mean, it was good apple juice, but I would have chugged the whole bottle. If something isn't rich or complex or ponderable when I eat it, and just tasty, then I want to eat a lot of it, in big bites or drinks.

So... damn cherry wine... it was tasty, now I'm drunk.

I like being drunk. As long as I don't get all weepy or think too much, I'm a pretty fucking happy drunk. It really breaks down those social barriers that I have left inside; those defenses that have hardened like arteries as they've aged. And since I'm a pretty happy person inside, when the social barriers go down... tah dah! Happy drunk!!!

I wish I had more alcohol really. Not enough to get wasted, but enough to keep the buzz.... Oh, wait. I have rum! (from Thailand, I think)

I'm back.

Why'd I start this? If I had just wrote what I was thinking of when I started, I wouldn't have forgotten... but a couple glasses of cherry wine and a swig of warm-tummy rum later... can't really remember why I started typing.

It could have had something to do with work. That's what I think about a lot. Well, I think about food a lot. Not eating it, just food. I think about food. When I see a piece of food, I start comparing it. I compare it to other foods that are just like it. "hmmm... cherry wine... wonder how this compares to other cherry wines... how's it compare to the taste of a cherry... how do different varieties of cherry taste... what flavors of the cherry only come out because of alchohol vs. what flavors only come out because of the process by which the wine was created... how does the process affect the final flavor... what could I do with this, how could I cook with it, what could I add to it to make it different, what could I add it to to improve a dish or a drink... and i think and i think and i think.

And nothing in the world, not cheese or wine or miso or anything makes me think as much as olive oil makes me think. I love olive oil. Olive oil makes me think, it draws out questions upon questions upon questions... they just never stop.

There's this thing called Cha Cha, it's an 800# that you can call and ask ANY QUESTION to, and they'll send you a text with the answer. Free. All you have to pay for is the text messages that you receive (which have a little ad attached to them.) I get unlimited texts through my plan, so I'm having a ball with it. It hasn't gotten an olive oil question right once, though. It's gotten close, very "what the layman might think" in it's responses. But in the scheme of things, just plain wrong; and I won't bore you with examples of it's olive oil ignorance, because almost everyone is olive oil ignorant--it's not Cha Cha's fault. It might get wine answer right more often since there might be some people knowledgeable about wine answering the questions instead of people saying, "What the fuck, another olive oil question?"
The number is 1-800-2CHACHA and it really is free.

I will let you know the questions I've asked it so far, though, so you can know what it got wrong:
"What's the chemical that causes the burning in the back of your throat with olive oil?"
"What are the main 3 or 4 olives used in the region of Puglia in Italy for their olive oil?"
"What month is late harvest olive oil picked in Provence, France?"
"What is the earliest month of the year you can harvest olives for olive oil?"

That was a ramble, wasn't it?

Kamal Meattle: How to grow your own fresh air

2009-03-22T06:07:00.001-07:00

Romantic Comedies Destroy Relationships

2009-03-22T04:58:00.001-07:00

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/7784366.stm

A study blames romantic comedies for ruining marriages and giving people unrealistic expectations. "They found fans of films such as Runaway Bride and Notting Hill often fail to communicate with their partner."

One of the expectation that changes is, "he should know what i'm talking about or what i'm concerned about without me telling them."

The university's Dr Bjarne Holmes said: "Marriage counsellors often see couples who believe that sex should always be perfect, and if someone is meant to be with you then they will know what you want without you needing to communicate it.

"We now have some emerging evidence that suggests popular media play a role in perpetuating these ideas in people's minds.

"The problem is that while most of us know that the idea of a perfect relationship is unrealistic, some of us are still more influenced by media portrayals than we realise."

Dan Ariely: Why we think it's OK to cheat and steal (sometimes)

2009-03-19T03:43:00.001-07:00

Fascinating

Gervais + Elmo = Hilarity on 'Sesame Street'

2009-03-13T20:26:00.001-07:00

Outtakes... hilarious

Incantos Foie Gras letter

2009-03-11T04:32:00.000-07:00

http://www.incanto.biz/letters_-_shock_and_foie.html

In recent years, the attention focused on this issue has caused many of those who enjoy eating foie gras to regard it as a guilty pleasure. We do not. We believe that dispassionate examination of the practices of the handful of small American foie gras producers supports the conclusion that their methods are neither cruel nor inhumane

...

Much of the outrage being stirred up over foie gras production centers around the practice of gavage, the use of a funnel inserted into the duck's esophagus to force-feed grain to the duck over the final 15-21 days of its life. Those who oppose gavage assert that the ducks choke, vomit, and suffer greatly because of this process. This sounds reasonable. After all, how would you like to have a tube stuffed down your throat three times a day?However, this approach is the crux of the problem with an argument meant to play upon human empathy: it anthropomorphizes an animal whose physiology is fundamentally different than ours. Ducks and geese are waterfowl. Their digestive tracts evolved to accommodate swallowing of whole fish, the occasional amphibian, and rocks for the gizzard to assist in digestion. They lack a gag reflex and their esophagus is lined not with the delicate mucus membrane found in humans, but a thick cuticle. Their windpipe opens in the middle of their tongue and they do not breathe using an abdominal diaphragm as humans do. Air passes through air sacs located in the upper torso, prior to entering the lungs. Ducks are able to breathe, even during the brief 10-15-second process of gavage. Dr. Jeanne Smith, an avian veterinarian who investigated Incanto's foie gras supplier, Sonoma Foie Gras, in 2004 testified before the California legislature that tube feeding is the medically accepted way of feeding ill or injured ducks and geese, a practice she regularly teaches her clients to perform for home care of their birds. The principal difference between the feeding she saw at Sonoma Foie Gras – compared to her clients' injured tube-fed birds – was that the foie gras ducks were unstressed by the process.

...

The only way to understand this issue is to regard it for what it truly is: naked political opportunism

...

the anti-foie gras movement is – at best – founded upon a shrewd political calculation in which the professed indignation of a few is used to harness the indifference of the many to the inherent political cowardice of elected officials, in order to achieve a desired political outcome. In essence, it's a confidence game in which participating meat-eaters, by agreeing to condemn something that they don't care about, receive the equivalent of a get-out-of-jail card, i.e., the right to feel slightly less guilty as they bite into that factory-farmed McNugget. Guilt and moral superiority are tradable currencies; the anti-foie gras camp exploits this to the hilt. And we let them

...

Our (naïve) hope is that someday our country will have a constructive dialogue about food, in a calm adult voice and considering our food systems in their full context. We hope that more people will be in a position to consider the impact their food choices have on the world. We recognize that the cynical political choice to use a wedge issue like foie gras to divide and conquer public opinion is easier, faster, and more effective at promoting a bigger cause. But it's a mistake to confuse success in a political campaign with being on the right side of an issue. If the argument against foie gras and against the consumption of meat in general boils down to "the ends don't justify the means," then for goodness sake don't prove your point by the backwards manner in which you achieve your political victory.

Psychobilly!

2009-02-27T21:13:00.000-08:00

Tiger Army? Psychobilly - A cross between punk rock and rockabilly... OMFG!

Jayhawks? Wilco?

2009-02-27T20:12:00.000-08:00

FUCK! I wish I took more time to explore music. Ryan Adams, Richard Buckner, Wilco, The Jayhawks, Uncle Tupelo, Neko Case? People/bands I've never heard of before but strike chords like few music ever does for me. There hasn't been one artist that's played so far on this Slacker station centered around The Jayhawks that I haven't enjoyed and wanted to hear everything the artist does. I am fucking blown away. I'm only listening to music because Janella went to bed early; I've got to listen to music more often.

Everything's amazing, nobody's happy

2009-02-27T10:25:00.001-08:00

"how quickly the world owes him something he knew existed only 10 seconds ago"

hat tip to The Bellman, www.thebellman.blogspot.com

Bill Clinton & Barack Obama on stage together

2008-10-29T23:54:00.000-07:00

Bill Clinton seriously stumping for Barack Obama

Wow! The best political ad I've seen

2008-10-27T11:17:00.001-07:00

I watched the entire thing and I just couldn't stop laughing after it was over. Dadaism meets politics.

Obama family about clothes (not $150K)

2008-10-23T04:50:00.001-07:00

The World's First Bionic Burger

2008-10-21T08:57:00.001-07:00

Obama Roasts McCain at Al Smith Dinner

2008-10-17T08:36:00.001-07:00

Light and funny and wonderful. A must see for those who are sick of listening to politics.

The Photoshop Effect

2008-10-02T12:55:00.001-07:00

John McCain Says HORSESH*T During the 9/26 Debate

2008-09-28T04:55:00.001-07:00

What a maroon!

2008-09-25T11:56:00.000-07:00

Watch CBS Videos Online

Jonathan Haidt: The real difference between liberals and con

2008-09-19T08:29:00.001-07:00

Worth watching, especially if you think that there's Jesusland in the U.S. south and the rest of the country... or that 2000 and 2004 elections were won by Bush because of Dumbfuckistan in the middle of the U.S.

"Psychologist Jonathan Haidt studies the five moral values that form the basis of our political choices, whether we're left, right or center. In this eye-opening talk, he pinpoints the moral values that liberals and conservatives tend to honor most."

Jack and Jackie and Family: Delilah is 1, 8-17-08

2008-09-13T20:24:00.000-07:00

Jack and Jackie and Family: Delilah is 1, 8-17-08

How To Tell People They Sound Racist

2008-07-22T09:15:00.001-07:00

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

2008-07-20T19:11:00.000-07:00

Dr. Horrible is far from horrible. Go Joss Whedon!

NOTHING is happening right now, regardless of the presence of details

2008-07-01T07:23:00.000-07:00

Cafe Talk | Talking Points Memo | TPM Community, STOP LOOKING AT THE SQUIGGLES!!!:

"He won. He won Iowa. He won 36 other states. He won the nomination, and he beat the most powerful machine in current Democratic Politics doing it.

Why do we assume, suddenly…that this man has forgotten how to run a campaign??

So what’s happening now, now that’s it’s the silly season? Now that we’re in the Veepstakes holding pattern; now that nothing’s really going to happen between now and the announcement of the Vice-Presidential nominees?

Apparently, y’all are going to freak out.

...

You do remember, that despite the five month time frame, this is a marathon, not a sprint, right?

C’mon it was BREAKING NEWS on MSNBC last week that on the night before the Unity Rally Barack and Michelle had maxed out to Hillary’s campaign. Red-banner BREAKING NEWS, the kind you get when a Airplane goes down, or someone famous sudden[ly] and tragically dies. But that’s the standard we’re messing with now. Barack and Michelle following through on easing Hillary’s campaign debt…is breaking news.
Do we really want to go there?

Nothing is happening right now, nothing (as far as the actual campaign is concerned).

Senator Obama is leading McCain by fifteen points in National Polls, as well as polls in major swing states. That and five bucks’ll buy you a gallon of gas.

The FISA Capitulation Debate has gotten toxic enough to have Glenn Greenwald of Salon and Keith Olbermann slugging it out.

Are you kidding me??"

Dried red peppercorns

2008-06-27T12:08:00.000-07:00

Seems worth investigating...

Spice Pages: Pepper (Piper nigrum, Black Peppercorns): "Dried red peppercorns are even harder to find, and are to my knowledge, only produced by one single company in Kerala (Southern India)."