Happy anniversary. Today is fifteen years since I left the phone company. To this day, and likely forever, that outfit will dominate my thinking about jobs, group behavior, and the IQ of the human race. Nor do I care to shake the memory as I recognize probably five times the spread of abhorrent behavior and repugnant personality types than the average person. It sounds negative, but it isn’t really. I still get fooled, but never as often as what I witness every day and never the same way twice. I actually sometimes miss that job, but only for the money.I may have finally located Julie-K, the babe of the west. She fell out of communication four years ago, moved to a new job, got a boyfriend. Then I was out of the loop medically for another two years. Oddly, I found her on a listing of tennis players and remembered she had mentioned the sport a couple of occasions. I sent off an e-mail to the club president asking him to pass on the message. It would make my month to hear from Julie-K again. She was almost the one, you know.
Sadly, I sent Staci-O the Dear John letter. On the upside, guess who I smacked into on Facebook? Vinny, the guy who sold me the bass I play to this day. He vanished when Mars Music went south but is still gigging out in Pompano. Vinny plays the circuit so he knows who is looking for bassists. I need the break. Neither Vinny or I can believe he sold me that bass in 2001. It eclipsed every other instrument I’ve ever owned.
Getting the updates on what Ray-B and I talked about y’day, the total unemployed (I include part time and underemployed) count in the US is getting close to 25 million. Those that are employed have seen declines in their wages for five consecutive years and most new positions are service sector McJobs. Nobody’s career is safe in such a situation. An economic upturn by itself will barely change things in our lifetimes for the entire system has sunk past the proverbial point of no return.
I think Yuppies were asking for it with their warped sense of self-entitlement. I did not see them in the next chair at evening classes all through the 80s and 90s when times were good and many laughed that I wasn’t in the next chair at the stripper bar with the gang. They thought they had it made.
Imagine turning sixty with five more years of mortgage payments totaling more than half what the house is worth. That’s pure financial genius, guys. Brag to me again about how much money you made on the place. Louder! I can’t hear you. It’s all those banks and credit card companies giggling and rubbing their hands together.
Right after all the above, I got a 5:00 PM callout. I used to get two a week, now it is two per month. The impetus here is that I didn’t give a second thought to driving up to Sunset on the scooter where a car would have been a major effort. The technical response is that the beautiful computer up there was getting bogged down by repeated requests for updates thanks to a serious screw-up over at MicroSoft. Look up rtvscan and the related 100% CPU usage.
Looks like the robotics club finally gets some sensors this month, maybe next. Indeed, it can be as simple as that, one single callout makes all the difference. I bought the washers for the variable air capacitor and they didn’t fit. Same box, same product number but they don’t fit the standard bolt. Standard means they are supposed to be manufactured as a matching set. Something goes awry in the milling process and I have to drive ten miles to exchange three dollars worth of parts. Another sure sign of our deteriorating infrastructure.
Blog guide says I must mention food today. Oh, I know. Rice. Ray-B was unaware that traditional Chinese fried rice is made with day-old white rice. That’s a fact, and here’s more. Restaurants will cook up extra fresh rice to ensure a supply for tomorrow, and a Chinese diner can tell instantly if the rice is aged. I’ve eaten a rice-based diet for twenty years and I can’t detect the difference, but it is there. I’ve even seen Chinese restaurants put up a warning to tell patrons if they use fresh rice. You may never have seen this sign unless you read Chinese.
Speaking of rice, I’m finding out to my surprise a lot of people can’t cook it. I’d forgotten that I had to learn the hard way. When I was in college, I bought a big bag and cooked around ten pots full until I could get it right. Here is my current favorite way to prepare rice. I use white rice, but if you have time, always use brown rice allowing that it takes twice as long to make.
For three to four hearty servings (and I mean hearty, not those miniature weight watcher portions), I use this method:
1 cup rice
2 cups water
1 small vegetable bullion cube
1 dash curry powder
Use a pot with a matching lid large enough to be only half-full for this recipe. Put all the ingredients cold into a pot. Bring to a rolling boil, stirred at first to prevent clumping. Reduce heat to a bare simmer, cover with the lid and wait 20 minutes. Turn off heat, remove cover, stir to prevent sticking.
Things to watch for. Don’t buy instant rice, it has no nutrition. Some recipes say add the rice after the water boils. It makes no difference and forces you to stand there waiting on the event. Using my method, it does not matter if you leave the rice boiling for a few minutes as the cooking does not start until the steaming stage when you cover the pot. There is no need to peek at the rice. I use a kitchen timer set for 19 minutes. The reason for the curry is that it turns the rice a faint yellow color without changing the taste. The bullion cube, vegetable or chicken, contains all the salt you need. Leftover rice keeps in the fridge for several days and microwaves perfectly. While the rice is steaming, it is not unusual for small amounts of vapor to vent out the lid. This recipe can be halved or doubled easily, it is the ratio of ingredients that is important.
[Author’s note: ah, some say, but my diet restricts rice, so I must have been cheating. Wrong. My doctor says no Chinese food, which is different than “rice”. Their preparation contains up to a dozen ingredients not found in natural boiled rice. All that oil, chicken bits and soy sauce equals too much fat, cholesterol and salt. Just settin’ the record straight.]
