Friday, January 18, 2008
Saturday, January 12, 2008
THE WOMAN OF MY DREAMS IS LEAVING ME...
Anyone that knows me knows that I get crushes on semi-famous people. Not so much the Jessica Albas or Jessica Simpsons of the world (though if either one of those ladies would like to ditch their significant zeroes and get themselves this HERO, I wouldn't mind), but rather the ladies who are just on the fringe of being famous.
My latest crush is Dallas Observer columnist Andrea Grimes, whom I fell in love with after I read her feature article Douchebags in the Mist, about the $30k millionaire that plague our fair city. I literally peed my pants reading her article, and realized I had read other articles of hers that I had enjoyed, most notably her trip to the haven of douchery here in Dallas, The Ghost Bar. I told a friend of mine about my crush, and she asked me what she looked like.
"I have no idea, but I love her and want to marry her words."
She told me I should Google her, but I thought that was a bit too stalker-y. Luckily, she did it for me, and sent me her Myspace profile.
Holy cow, I really was in love. Not only is this woman a gifted journalist whose prose flows off the page like honey over...um....well, she's a good writer, but she's really cute too. And she's a stand up comedian! A million plans to run into her began to run through my mind, none of them with the "When Harry Met Sally"-ness that I was hoping for.
And then, tragedy struck. I found out that my dream woman was moving out of town. And worst, she was moving to Austin.
Don't get me wrong, I like Austin as much as the next person, but I don't understand the fascination with it. The artistically minded people here in Big D look to Austin like Muslims look to Mecca, as the end-all, be-all of life on this planet. It's a fun city, sure, and it's got some cool places to go, but is it the best city in the world? I don't think so.
And I hate the label that Austin has given itself, as "The Live Music Capital of the World", which is bullshit. I've heard more live music walking down Music Row in Nashville than I ever have in Austin. Unless homeless people snoring is music.
And people who live in Austin think that everywhere else sucks. They look with derision north towards Dallas and southeast towards Houston (I can understand that, though. Houston sucks). And this isn't a defense of Dallas either. I am not a fan of Dallas, and in the past five or six years, it has gotten all kinds of douchey. But my favorite places in Texas are Fort Worth, with it's "Gateway to the West" feel and it's laid back attitude, and San Antonio, which I think is one of the most beautiful older cities I've ever seen. Both those places have history and culture, whereas Austin seems to be trying to invent that for itself.
In her last post, Andrea goes on and on about the reasons why she's leaving Dallas for our hippy cousin to the south. And at first, I was a little pissed off, getting defensive of my birth city. But then I got to thinking. All the reasons that she's leaving Dallas are all the reasons I want to leave Dallas. I guess it's envy, seeing her go off to another city to start a new life, while I'm stuck here with the douchebags and plastic Barbie dolls that make up the majority of the young people in my city.
But maybe I'll find myself in Austin, having just moved there because I just got a new job working for "Friday Night Lights" (best show on TV, if you aren't watching it, you don't have a soul.) And I'm enjoying a Guinness at Fado's, which is my favorite Irish pub that isn't in Ireland (now that The Blarney Stone has closed down), and this cute girl saddles up to me, and starts talking about how much she loves Austin and why she's glad to get away from all the $30k millionaires up in Dallas, and I'll remark that I read an article about that, and she'll say...
"I wrote that article."
And that'll be it. Closing credits, the end.
My latest crush is Dallas Observer columnist Andrea Grimes, whom I fell in love with after I read her feature article Douchebags in the Mist, about the $30k millionaire that plague our fair city. I literally peed my pants reading her article, and realized I had read other articles of hers that I had enjoyed, most notably her trip to the haven of douchery here in Dallas, The Ghost Bar. I told a friend of mine about my crush, and she asked me what she looked like.
"I have no idea, but I love her and want to marry her words."
She told me I should Google her, but I thought that was a bit too stalker-y. Luckily, she did it for me, and sent me her Myspace profile.
Holy cow, I really was in love. Not only is this woman a gifted journalist whose prose flows off the page like honey over...um....well, she's a good writer, but she's really cute too. And she's a stand up comedian! A million plans to run into her began to run through my mind, none of them with the "When Harry Met Sally"-ness that I was hoping for.
And then, tragedy struck. I found out that my dream woman was moving out of town. And worst, she was moving to Austin.
Don't get me wrong, I like Austin as much as the next person, but I don't understand the fascination with it. The artistically minded people here in Big D look to Austin like Muslims look to Mecca, as the end-all, be-all of life on this planet. It's a fun city, sure, and it's got some cool places to go, but is it the best city in the world? I don't think so.
And I hate the label that Austin has given itself, as "The Live Music Capital of the World", which is bullshit. I've heard more live music walking down Music Row in Nashville than I ever have in Austin. Unless homeless people snoring is music.
And people who live in Austin think that everywhere else sucks. They look with derision north towards Dallas and southeast towards Houston (I can understand that, though. Houston sucks). And this isn't a defense of Dallas either. I am not a fan of Dallas, and in the past five or six years, it has gotten all kinds of douchey. But my favorite places in Texas are Fort Worth, with it's "Gateway to the West" feel and it's laid back attitude, and San Antonio, which I think is one of the most beautiful older cities I've ever seen. Both those places have history and culture, whereas Austin seems to be trying to invent that for itself.
In her last post, Andrea goes on and on about the reasons why she's leaving Dallas for our hippy cousin to the south. And at first, I was a little pissed off, getting defensive of my birth city. But then I got to thinking. All the reasons that she's leaving Dallas are all the reasons I want to leave Dallas. I guess it's envy, seeing her go off to another city to start a new life, while I'm stuck here with the douchebags and plastic Barbie dolls that make up the majority of the young people in my city.
But maybe I'll find myself in Austin, having just moved there because I just got a new job working for "Friday Night Lights" (best show on TV, if you aren't watching it, you don't have a soul.) And I'm enjoying a Guinness at Fado's, which is my favorite Irish pub that isn't in Ireland (now that The Blarney Stone has closed down), and this cute girl saddles up to me, and starts talking about how much she loves Austin and why she's glad to get away from all the $30k millionaires up in Dallas, and I'll remark that I read an article about that, and she'll say...
"I wrote that article."
And that'll be it. Closing credits, the end.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
RECIPE: Pickles and Chicken
And for something completely different:
Cooked something that sounds a bit odd today however it came out quite nicely. Here is what you need:
1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 jar of Woody's (or any other brand) sweet and spicy pickles, ...mostly empty with 1/3 of pickle juice and small amount of jalapenos and pickles left
1 small jar of sweet and spicy salsa/relish.
4 T of medium chunky salsa
1/4 C oil
Pound chicken to break up connective tissue and help cook more evenly. This can be done easily by laying the chicken between two pieces of plastic wrap and pounding with tenderizer or a ice cream scoop turned around backwards. Mix pickle juice, salsas, and oil and place in a non-reactive dish. Marinate overnight, or all day if you choose.
Heat grill to high heat. Pour all marinate into pot and bring to a boil. Place chicken on lower rack of hot grill and turn heat to medium. Cook for four minutes on each side. Take off of grill and let rest. Boil marinate for 10 minutes total. You can remove some of the oil if you choose. I did. Let marinate cool a little and serve over chicken.
This recipe has a wonderful sweet and spicy flavor with a unique pickle/salsa sauce to compliment the poultry. Don't be afraid when you are eating a pickle with a bit of chicken. It tastes delicious. Only bad part is you have to eat almost all of the pickles in the jar to get down to the good juice. And don't you dump out the juice first with a few pickles to make the marinate! You will ruin all of the wonderful sweet and spicy pickles in the jar. Unless you plan on eating them as an appetizer!
Cooked something that sounds a bit odd today however it came out quite nicely. Here is what you need:
1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 jar of Woody's (or any other brand) sweet and spicy pickles, ...mostly empty with 1/3 of pickle juice and small amount of jalapenos and pickles left
1 small jar of sweet and spicy salsa/relish.
4 T of medium chunky salsa
1/4 C oil
Pound chicken to break up connective tissue and help cook more evenly. This can be done easily by laying the chicken between two pieces of plastic wrap and pounding with tenderizer or a ice cream scoop turned around backwards. Mix pickle juice, salsas, and oil and place in a non-reactive dish. Marinate overnight, or all day if you choose.
Heat grill to high heat. Pour all marinate into pot and bring to a boil. Place chicken on lower rack of hot grill and turn heat to medium. Cook for four minutes on each side. Take off of grill and let rest. Boil marinate for 10 minutes total. You can remove some of the oil if you choose. I did. Let marinate cool a little and serve over chicken.
This recipe has a wonderful sweet and spicy flavor with a unique pickle/salsa sauce to compliment the poultry. Don't be afraid when you are eating a pickle with a bit of chicken. It tastes delicious. Only bad part is you have to eat almost all of the pickles in the jar to get down to the good juice. And don't you dump out the juice first with a few pickles to make the marinate! You will ruin all of the wonderful sweet and spicy pickles in the jar. Unless you plan on eating them as an appetizer!
The Hammer is hung up for good.
The Ticket is the sports radio station in Dallas - Ft. Worth, Texas and has been on the air for fourteen years now. It employs a mix of sports geeks and goofballs that make about a quarter million listeners' days a bit brighter through sports therapy and giggles.A few months back on The Hardline, one of the afternoon show hosts, Greg "the Hammer" Williams arrived to the show late and was reported to be acting a bit strangely. He left about an hour later in the midst of a broadcast and no word was stated regarding his odd behavior.
It was reported later that he may have a drug problem and may have checked into a drug therapy clinic. Greggo, as his fans know him, has openly discussed drug problems related to pain killers in the past however this possible bout with drugs may have taken him over the edge.
Today on The Hardline, Mike Rhyner (Greggo's former co-host) announced that Greggo had formerly resigned. It is a crushing blow to fans of the Ticket who have known Greggo to be lighthearted about everything except boobs and baseball - both of which he took very seriously. He politely returned emails and was always pleasant outside of the studio.
Nonetheless he leaves the show with many unanswered questions and a void the station may not be able to completely fill.
Hope you get better soon Greggo. Good luck.
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Thursday, January 3, 2008
The Hard Drive Fails Again!!! UPDATED
Ever had a hard drive crash? Probably didn't back up your files like you told yourself you would, did you? Sucks when you have to wipe your hard drive clean and reinstall the Operating System or send your computer into Best Buy and have them send you a brand new one with none of your old files.
Never again! As hard drive capacity get larger and larger, they are most more and more prone to errors. While you sleep, eat, surf the web, your computer is constantly running, creating write errors, and moving sectors around on the hard drive. A genius known as Steve Gibson created some software named SpinRite that can solve your hard drive problems.
Stop by www.grc.com/spinrite and check out the testimonials and reviews. See it for yourself. It can be bought for $90 and is worth every penny. Realize if your hard drive fails and is unreadable by the operating system, that does not mean it is a hunk of worthless steel. It may just need to have a few sectors here and there cleaned and moved. SpinRite reads each sector, each bit, each cluster and performs a heavy scrub with 5 different layers of cleaning. I have corrected many hard drives that have failed. I had one that kept failing and freezing my computer. I thought my computer was done for. Ran SpinRite, it crunched through the bits, corrected a few, and all was back to normal. Now I must note that SR runs using the BIOS which Mac's do not have. SR also typically cannot be run on USB drives however there are workarounds detailed in the forums. I am currently waiting on an adapter so I can plug in my 3G ipod drive into my PC to run SR and clean it up. It is constantly failing and resetting and I have a good chance it needs a bit of scrubbing. I will give you a heads up later if it works.
BTW - Steve has a podcast on security, privacy, cryptography, and sprinrite on http://www.twit.tv/. Check it out. Long live the twit army!
UPDATE: I have been running SpinRite on a 30 Gig HD for over a week now. It is 58% complete with quite a few lost sectors of data. I had to let my computer take break and halted the process. I am now running it on a 3G iPOD which had a failed HD. I had to purchase a few adapters to connect it via IDE (see http://www.addonics.com/) but it is off and running and is looking good so far. Lots of defective sectors but about 10% in and all have been recovered.
Southwest Airlines
I fly a bit. Not a lot, but I have made my rounds throuth the short jumpers and long haulers. My short trip airline of choice is Southwest. I am bit biased due to the the fact that I live in the home of Southwest, but nonetheless I never flew with them until 2007. Now first I have to discuss the website. Very simple, straight forward, clean. I am a Rapid Rewards member because I fly enough to get a free flight every so often. That is what I do like: flight credit rather than miles. Miles are nice when you have a ton of them. You have the opportunity to upgrade or purchase tix. With credits you get a credit for a flight, and two if you fly round trip. You can get half points for hotel stays and car rentals. Much simpler and to me much quicker to yield a free trip. Now I do realize that with miles you can fly anywhere the airline flies, which gives most big carriers the leg up on a cool free trip however, sometimes it is nice to know next time you are going to NYC or wherever that it will be FREE!
I find the overall staff at Southwest to be much more cordial that other airlines. I have seen and met many. I know a few personally. Southwest promotes a great work environment and in turn it shows in their staff. They are nice at the ticket counter, patient in times of stress, and more often than not have a smile on their face. That is not consistent in the business. Recently I had a flight cancelled, which has never happened to me with Southwest, and when I walked to the ticket counter I asked "Can you help?" The response was cordial, a new ticket was issue quickly, and I was on my way. That has not happened in the past with other airline carriers. When I have flight cancellations or misses, I do not get a cordial response and am typically treated as a cow running through a chute. For anyone that deals with customers: A customer may be your 1000th for that day, but you are their first. No matter what any customer has said or did to you in the past, the next customer didn't.
Recently Southwest changed from the bum rush of group A/B/C to a more organized system of A 1-60, B 1-60, and so on. I won't go into detail except make every attempt to check in online within 24 hours or as close to 24 hours as possible. The sooner you check in, the better number you get. The lower number you get, the sooner you get on the plane and get a seat. The free for all is great! You delay, you get to pick center seats or seats in the back. It is up to you. Recently I was A55 and had three front row seats to pick from! Not too shabby and it is always nice to get off of the plane quickly.
The planes are typically clean and their pilots seems to do a good job getting you back and forth from home fairly uneventfully. The attendants are typically very positive, cordial, and sometimes sing to you. Yes, you read that correctly. Sing.
Well, enough of that. Try em out sometime. They have very competitive rates and fly out of many locations. They still cannot fly direct all over the place but that is changing slowly. I Luv SW.
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