Groceries and Skynet

I really don't like shopping at grocery stores. Trader Joes is alright, but they never have all the stuff I want. Whole Foods is great but too expensive for my wallet. I guess I've become a farmers market sorta guy. That stuff is great! Its like real food! But sometimes I find myself at these big chain supermarkets and I just don't dig it! The food is mostly chemical ridden shit. But the thing thats really on my mind today is the automated tellers. I've used these things before and it's not hard. But I just feel sorry for all the humans who work there who will likely loose their jobs to these machines. Today I was in one of these stores and I could've gone to the machine, but I chose to get in line for the human teller. A worker came up to me and said "I can help you over here sir" I figured he was gonna open up a new human checkout. Instead he took me to the machines. He wanted to show me how to do it. It was his job to train customers to use the machines which will some day replace him and his coworkers. I've always felt sorry for people who have to do customer service. They have to deal with some pretty nasty stuff. But this job he had was just plane wrong! I said to him "Ya know, these machines are gonna replace y'all some day?" He just sorta nodded blankly and said "Yeah...I know.".

Strange Dream

So I had this funny dream last night.
It was Californias' worst nightmare. A computer virus had spread to all the cellphones and blackberries. They were all dead within a week. Without their cellphones, blackeberries and PDA's, people were in a state of panic. Governor Schwarzanegger issued a state of emergency. The national guard was called in with disaster relief supplies. As their trucks pulled into the cities, they were quickly surrounded by mobs of desperate people. It was like when the UN sends in truckloads of seeds to starving 3rd world villages. The Californians were all yelling and screaming for help. The guards opened up the back of the trucks and went into the crates. They started pulling out cellphones, PDA's and i phones. They just indiscriminately threw these out to the crowds of people who jumped up with anxious hands to claim their relief. People began fighting over the booty. The national guardsmen just kept throwing them out and the scene quickly dissolved into chaos.
Well thats it. I dont know what it all has to do with me. It was more like watching a movie. I just wanted to share it with people.
Enjoy!

Food...ah food!

I just love food. Food is good. So I thought Id make a list of my most favorite foods. Admittedly mostly pretty unhealthy stuff. I know you can do tasty healthy foods, but if healthy foods were the tastiest of all, then we'd all be pretty healthy wouldnt we? Anyhow, its in no particular order and Im sure Im forgetting some beloved dishes. But these are the first 25 I could think of. I think good food is like good music. If you dont enjoy it, theres something not quite right with you. Good food like good music is one of the finest parts of being alive I think.

Top 25 food experiences

1 krispy kreme donuts.-ahh, they didnt look like much when I saw them, but it was surely love at first bite. The classic or the creme filled would be my choices, preferably with a side of milk. They are light and not heavy like other donuts because they get their rise from yeast as opposed to eggs. Soo perfect!

2 prosciutto, aged gruyere cheese, and basil on a baguette- I had this one time in Paris, and it was so simple but soo good. Good bread and good cheese is crucial. My favorite goto sandwich

3 Fu Shing- not a dish but a szechwan style restaurant. Im lucky enough to live next door to the best chinese food Ive ever had (and Ive been to china) . I even got their number on speeddial. PF Changs got nothing on this.

4 pizza - Its all about the crust. Forget about New York or Chicago. The best pizza I ever had was in Italy. The bready part was so good it didnt even need the toppings.

5. beggars chicken - an old chinese dish. I only had it once at a fancy place in Monterey Park. You have to order it a day ahead of time. Traditionally slow cooked in a clay casing with herbs, it all melts together like butter. Soft and delicate and soo good.

6. pulled pork - I love so many types of pork... bacon, baby back ribs, carnitas . But whoever invented slow cooked pork butt (its called the but, but it actually comes from the shoulder) aka pulled pork, deserves a statue.

7. creme brulee - such a wonderful and simple desert makes me proud of my french ancestry

8. tea - weather it be ice tea or hot tea I feel a serious debt of gratitude to the chinese for this invention. jasmine green tea and my homemade suntea ( orange pekoe, lipton black, turbinado sugar, and a dash of aloe vera juice for fun) are my favs.

9 curry- its actually a mix of spices that has many variations through Asia. I prefer the Indian style tomato based curry sauce. I think my favorite of those is the one that I make for myself (Trader Joes has a most excellent curry simmer sauce)

10. pecan pie- I gotta give credit to the south for some great innovation in food. My mom usually gets me this one in place of a birthday cake.

11 cheesecake - not much to say about it except mmmmmm. I prefer the simple new york style with no added flavors, save maybe a dollop of blueberry sauce

12 pastrami sandwich - Tops or the Hat make excellent versions of this. So long as they drain the juices ( you dont want soggy bread with this), and add a good helping of mustard its perfect

13 gelato - Id take this over ice cream any day. Another fine contribution to the world from Italy. Pistachio flavor would be my first choice.

14 bacon- It can be a bit much by itself, but it certainly can spice up a number of dishes. Sandwiches, salads, or if you havent tried it I suggest sauteying some poultry in bacon drippings and then roasting it. hot damn, that shit is good!

15. sesame balls - the best part of any dim sum day. A rice flour crust surrounding sweet red bean paste, rolled in sesame seeds and friend till golden , crispy and delicious. Its only really good when fresh

16 papaya salad - At last something healthy! The best thing I had in Thailand. In traditional thai fashion, its both sweet and spicy.

17 root beer float- I cant imagine who first thought it would be a good idea to mix root beer and ice cream, but they were a genius. Has to be A&W

18. cheese- by itself or as an accompaniment. quesadillas, mac n' cheese, sandwiches, pizza. My favorite would be parmesano reggiano, by itself or on a cracker. The king of cheeses I say.

19. jambalaya - Another fine contribution from the south (though pecan pie and jambalaya were born hundreds of miles apart so I do generalize). Anything that walks, swins, flys or crawls is the creedo here. My preference would be for some shellfish with andouille sausage (gotta have that sausage or it just dont work)

20. avacados- A fine contribution to any sandwich or salad. My preference is for guacamole. Life is always better when theres guac to be had

21 popcorn- My favorite snack and something I make about once a week. And Im not talking about the stuff born of the microwave. While being convenient if you dont cook, the bags are heavy with oils and the sealed environment traps in steam which makes the popcorn less crunchy. I use a wok to make mine and cover it with tinfoil with lots of little holes poked in it to let the steam out. I like Orville Redenbacher for this

22 reuben sandwich - my favorite New York dish. Corned beef, saurkraut, melted swiss cheese on rye bread. Traditionally served with thousand island dressing, but I prefer to skip that part (its icky and makes the bread soggy)

23 chili -Theres a place in the San Fernando valley called Chili Johns. They make the best darn chili. Its super thick and hearty, and terribly bad for you Im sure.

24 pioneer chicken - also terribly unhealthy. This used to be my most favorite thing when I was a kid but the franchise sorta fell apart and now theres only 2 that I know of in LA. Thankfully, they never changed the recipe. KFC and Popeyes just dont compare

25 carnitas - My dad used to fry it in lard for tacos. This is totally unnecessary since it has enough fat in it to fry itself if you use a nonstick skillet and a little Pam. Just add some chopped up onions and cilantro and a tortilla and its the best darn taco (tapatillo hot sauce is optional)

Making Porn

Well its been a while since I wrote in this journal...too long. Its the start of 2009 and I still havent dismantled my christmas tree. Its a live tree in a pot of soil, but I really need to undecorate it and move it oustside into the light of day. It seems so hypocritical to me when I see all the dead trees lying out for the trashman after christmas. People are celebrating a birth by creating a death.
Dont read this if youre looking for good literature. This is just late night ramblings off the top of my head.
I finally got a job.
I now work in the adult entertainment industry. I have no shame for this. I work at actiongirls.com. Its not really porn. Theres nobody on the site having sex. Its just lots of naked girls. Its sorta like playboy except all the girls have machine guns, flamethrowers and bazookas. I dont really get it why people would pay for a membership to such a site but I guess its a nitch. I do art for them. Its way more fun and creative than what I used to do. Im soo completely glad to be out of the printing industry. I pray I never have to go back. My boss is cool and I work half my days at home. With a little luck I'll be able to pay off my student debt and credit card debt by about the middle of the year. Just in time for the global economic meltdown I figure. I really should just save my money and invest it in precious metals. But the debt has been the bane of my existance for almost a decade. And if making porn is what it takes to pay it off, then I will do it... with pride and joy.

Killing Jackie Chan

When I first met him, he was a tiny little orange thing. Just a couple weeks old. I was in college, living at home and out for a walk. He came up and meowed at me. He was all alone and without a collar, not a good sign. He seemed desperate and scared. I knew I couldn’t just take him home, we already had a bunch of cats. But he followed me insisting that I help him. I told him that if he could follow me home he could stay with me. He had a hard time keeping up with me. At 6’4”, I have a long stride and he was only a kitten. He fell behind and eventually I just picked him up and carried him the rest of the way. He seemed to know that he was safe with me. He relaxed in my arms. Now my mother is a sucker for cats. I knew that if I told her I had a stray kitty she’d tell me to get rid of it, but if she saw the stray, she’d fall under his spell. So after showing her the new kitty we agreed to ask around the neighborhood if anybody had lost him. Well we carried him down the street towards where I found him. We knocked on a few doors and asked a few people. But we had both fallen under his spell. We gave up after only a few tries, far fewer than what we had planned. So we had a new kitty and being that he was my find, I got to name him. So I named him after one of my heroes, Jackie Chan.
Jackie went missing once. He just disappeared. I got a picture of him and became a detective. I went door to door asking if anybody had seen him. The first person I asked looked at the picture and recognized him immediately, “Jackies missing?!?!”
“You mean you know him?” I asked
“Sure I know Jackie! He comes by every morning and lets me pet him and feed him”
So the next door I knock on it’s the same thing “Jackies missing ?!?!”
“You mean you know him?” I asked
“Sure I know Jackie! He comes by every day at about noon and lets me pet him and feed him”
And again on the next door it’s the same thing…”Jackies missing?!?!”
“Youe mean you know him?”
“Sure I know Jackie! He comes by every day when I get home from work and lets me
pet him and feed him”
It seems he had a little daily schedule with most of the people on the block. And even people across the street and around the corner had been blessed by occasional visits which included Jackie getting petting and feeding!
Well eventually we got a call from some kids a few blocks away. They found Jackie and fell in love with him. They had intended to keep him but the parents saw Jackies collar and our phone number on it..
Eventually I had to move out of my moms house. I had a really tough decision to make. Jackie had human friends and fans all over the neighborhood. He had a little white girlfriend nextdoor and a Siamese gal across the street. And that’s just the ones we knew about. I couldn’t tear him away from his life there, so I left him with my family. They were happy to keep him.
Its been 12 years since I found Jackie Chan. For the last year his health has been in a serious decline. Hes had digestive problems and had been loosing weight. My mother has been dutifully taking him to the vet over and over, trying all sorts of medicines and even did a daily IV drip for the poor kitty. But alas, it just hasn’t worked out. Once a very athletic and fit outdoor kitty, Jackie has lost half his body weight. Hes been looking like he just got out of kitty Auschwitz. So we had to make a tough choice. I decided that hed be better off if we sent him on his way, or as my brother put it, “murder him” It wasn’t fun but it had to be done. That was yesterday.
I don’t really believe or disbelieve in anything. But if I was a betting man, Id put money on a sort of continuation for the soul after death. Id put money on Jackie Chan being happy to see the family dog Spot who died a few years back.
A few hours after I got home from the vet, I was sitting at my computer checking emails, and I saw a cat sitting on a chair out of the corner of my eye. I thought It was one of my own 2 kitties. But when I turned to look, the cat vanished. I turned back to my computer and saw the cat out of the corner of my eye again. It was Jackie! He was just lying there cleaning himself. He looked like Jackie Chan in his prime, young and healthy. But I could only see him out of the corner of my eye. When I looked directly, he vanished. But for about 20 minutes, he was there,, no question. Im not the first person to experience this. It happens all the time, with pets and people. The departed are with us whenever we think of them. In that sense, I think we are all one all the time and nothing, not even death can take that away.

Burning Man 2008

So Im back home finally but still not unpacked. My vacation was a typical burn. There was some fun stuff and some stuff that was a little terrifying. The burn always seems to have lessons for people and thats not always fun. But Im glad I went and as always there was too much amazing stuff to even mention. The weather was fabulous. It never got hot. It was really strange. It got warm, around 80 degrees F, but never as bad as it had in previous years. There were some good solid dust storms on a couple of the days. We had whiteout conditions and they had to close the gates and people were waiting all day to get in and that sucked for them. I was lucky enough to be in an RV and that was great. We ate good food there. The art was a bit of a letdown this year, but the art cars made up for it. Seems like people were less inspired by the art theme and more inspired to make permenant additions to the playa with the mutant vehicles. The playa was messed up though. It used to be packed dried mud like a big parking lot, but its been getting all broken up and starting to look like a beach. This makes it a lot harder to traverse by bicycle and thats not good. The pyrotechnic display of the burning man was unbelievable. There was a ton of fireworks and explosions and fire, and more fireworks and more explosions and then more fireworks and it was all brilliantly balanced and timed. I mean after 10 minutes of fireworks, and then a huge fireball, the fireworks stopped and he just burned for 6 minutes you thought that the fireworks was done, but then another fireball and more fireworks for a few minutes and then hed burn for a while and there were parts of him just spitting out sparks, and then some more fireworks and then hed burn more and it was quite a display. And did I mention the lightsaber battle? There were only about a couple hundred people this year, but there was soo much enthusiasm!
So anyhow, I got back on monday and found a message on my phone from an old friend at TBWA Chiat Day. They need somebody with my skills and it looks like I might end up working over there. I went in for an interview on wednesday and it looks like a good place to work. Though I think I need to consider the broader picture of what I really want to do with myself and look into the realm of potentiality.
awee... theres a kitty on my lap so I guess I gotta stop typing...

Freedom

So Im going to leave for my vacation on Sunday. Yesterday I was pretty happy and excited about this and the bosses call me into the office and tell me I'm being laid off. The company is cutting 10% of their employees (they did that last month too) and Im one of the unlucky ones. And I must say, this kinda sucks. But Im not gonna let it ruin my vacation. When theres a void in your life, it only means that theres infinite potential. Maybe I can start doing something I was meant to do, or something I enjoy. Maybe I can make some good connections at the Burning Man Festival next week. I must say Im not the least bit surprised. Work has slowed to a crawl lately. The price of gas has affected the economy at every level. I even bet a friend at work $100 that we'd be out of work in 6 months. A couple weeks ago I made business cards. I even saw it in the bosses face a couple days ago...he didnt wanna make eye contact. I guess Im ready for the unknown but it still sucks. Anyhow, I'll be out in the desert next week so I'll be hoping for a couple sympathy messages from my beloved deviant friends when I get back. Thanks in advance.