| Random Thoughts From a Confused Mind | ||||
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Thursday, July 31, 2003 ( 8:52 AM ) MB
Permalink ( 8:47 AM ) MB The Courier-Journal has a story in their food section about some cooks who have been frequent prize winners at the Kentucky State Fair. It includes this recipe: Susan Prewitt's favorite pecan-pie muffins 2 jumbo eggs 1 cup packed dark brown sugar ½ cup flour ½ cup melted butter 1 cup pecans Heat oven to 350 degrees. Fill 12 muffin tins with paper, and spray papers with non-stick spray. Whisk eggs until foamy, stir in sugar, flour and butter. Add nuts. Spoon into muffin cups. Bake 20 to 25 minutes. The top will puff a little and form a chewy pecan-pie-like layer. Makes 12 muffins. I feel a Homer Simpson moment coming on...mmmmm, muffins. Permalink ( 7:09 AM ) MB Why is it that most of the articles I've read about the decline of American tourists going to France mention 9/11-induced fear as one of the causes? Tourism this year is down as much as 80% from last year. Seems to me that a fear of flying would have had a greater impact last year...must be a delayed reaction. Permalink ( 1:12 AM ) MB Parents, read this. Print it out. Post it on the bathroom mirror. Or better yet, send it to your kids in an anonymous email, that will increase the chance that they will actually read it. FOURTEEN RULES KIDS WON’T LEARN IN SCHOOL 1) LIFE IS NOT FAIR. GET USED TO IT. The average teenager uses the phrase "it’s not fair" 8.6 times a day. The kids got it from their parents who said it so often they decided they must be the most idealistic generation ever. When the parents started hearing it from their own kids, they realized rule #1. 2) THE REAL WORLD WON’T CARE AS MUCH AS YOUR SCHOOL DOES ABOUT YOUR SELF ESTEEM. It’ll expect you to accomplish something before you feel good about yourself. This may come as a shock. When inflated self-esteem meets reality most kids complain that it’s not fair. (See rule #1.) 3) SORRY, YOU WON’T MAKE $40,000 A YEAR RIGHT OUT OF HIGH SCHOOL. And you won’t be a vice president or have a car phone either. You may even have to wear a uniform that doesn’t have a Gap label. 4) IF YOU THINK YOUR TEACHER IS TOUGH, WAIT TILL YOU GET A BOSS. He doesn’t have tenure, so he tends to be a bit edgier. When you screw up, he’s not going to ask you how you FEEL about it. 5) YOUR SCHOOL MAY HAVE DONE AWAY WITH WINNERS AND LOSERS. LIFE HASN’T. In some schools, they’ll give you as many times as you want to get the right answer. Failing grades, have been abolished and class valedictorians scrapped, lest anyone’s feelings be hurt. Effort is as important as results. This, of course, bears not the slightest resemblance to anything in real life. See rules #1, 2, and 4. 6) FLIPPING BURGERS IS NOT BENEATH YOUR DIGNITY. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping. They called it opportunity. They weren’t embarrassed making minimum wage either. They would have been embarrassed to sit around talking about Kurt Cobain all weekend. 7) TELEVISION IS NOT REAL LIFE. Your life is not a sitcom. Your problems will not all be solved in thirty minutes, minus time for commercials. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop to go to jobs. Your friends will not be perky, sexy, or predictable as Jennifer Aniston. 8) BEFORE YOU WERE BORN YOUR PARENTS WEREN’T AS BORING AS THEY ARE NOW. They got that way paying your bills, cleaning up your room and listening to you tell them how idealistic you are. And by the way, before you save the rain forest from the blood sucking parasites of your parents generation, try delousing the closet in your bedroom. 9) LIFE IS NOT DIVIDED INTO SEMESTERS. AND YOU DON’T GET SUMMERS OFF. Not even Easter break. They expect you to show up every day. For 8 hours. And you don’t get a new life every 10 weeks. If just goes on and on. While we’re at it, few jobs are interested in fostering your self-expression or helping you find yourself. Fewer still lead to self-realization. See rules #1 and 2. 10) IT’S NOT YOUR PARENTS FAULT. IF YOU SCREW UP YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE. This is the flip side of "It’s my life," and "You’re not the boss of me," and other eloquent proclamations of your generation. When you turn 18, it’s on your dime. Don’t whine about it or you’ll sound like a baby boomer. 11) BE NICE TO NERDS. YOU MAY END UP WORKING FOR THEM. WE ALL COULD. 12) SMOKING DOES NOT MAKE YOU LOOK COOL . . . IT MAKES YOU LOOK MORONIC. Next time you’re out cruising, watch an 11-year old with a butt in his mouth. That’s what you look like to anyone over 20. Ditto for "expressing yourself" with purple hair and/or pierced body parts. 13) YOU ARE NOT IMMORTAL. See rule #9. If you are under the impression that living fast, dying young, and leaving a beautiful corpse is romantic, you obviously haven’t seen one of your peers at room temperature lately. 14) ENJOY THIS WHILE YOU CAN. Sure parents are a pain, school’s a bother, and life is depressing. Someday you’ll realize how wonderful it was to be a kid. Maybe you should start now. Permalink Wednesday, July 30, 2003 ( 6:48 PM ) MB Hackers hijack Transportation's computers "Since April 2, unknown hackers have used the state Transportation Cabinet's computer system to distribute pirated movies, music CDs, TV shows and video games, state Auditor Ed Hatchett said yesterday." They also did a random test of 30 computers used by Kentucky cabinet workers and found "6,000 hits on pornographic Web sites in just four days' time this year." But wait, the best part of the article is this: "Bobby Russell, the transportation agency's inspector general, said late yesterday that the cabinet had not yet been able to put up blocks in its computer system to stop the hacking, because the auditor's office hadn't told it which one of its more than 100 computer servers has been violated." Yeah, let's just secure the one that's already been hacked and leave the rest alone. Can't waste time doing all of them when we could be surfing the web for porn. Is it just me or does only securing one server make as much sense as leaving for vacation and only locking the front door while leaving the back door and windows unlocked? Permalink ( 1:45 AM ) MB Hi-Tech Study Fails to Find Nessie The Loch Ness monster is a Loch Ness myth. At least according to the British Broadcasting Corp., which says a team which trawled the loch for any signs of the famous monster came up with nothing more than a buoy moored several yards below the surface. The team used 600 separate sonar beams and satellite navigation technology to trawl the loch, but found no trace of any monster, the BBC said in a television program broadcast Sunday. I didn't believe in the Loch Ness monster before but now that the BBC says it doesn't exist, I'm reconsidering my opinion. Permalink Tuesday, July 29, 2003 ( 5:44 PM ) MB First the senators leave (again). Now 54 representatives are missing too. How do I get a job where I can leave anytime there's work to be done that I don't like? Permalink ( 5:20 PM ) MB Fire bombers kill Britons A mayor described the arson as "a new form of terrorism". Luc Jousse, mayor of Roquebrune-sur-Argens, said all the fires had been started deliberately. The prime suspects are vandals who have been behind fires in previous years. But the apparently orchestrated nature of the fires suggests that they could be the work of terrorists, possibly separatists from Corsica or the Basque region. President Jacques Chirac said of the culprits: "The guilty will be sought out with extreme rigour" and that sentences handed out to them "will be of an extraordinary severity." What, no plans to try to deal with the terrorists peacefully? Permalink ( 4:52 PM ) MB Bryon Scott comments on John Edwards' health plan. Parents would be legally responsible for providing their children with insurance or obtaining government insurance if private coverage was unaffordable. While I believe that medical care should be available for children, what if I belonged to a religion that only supported healing through prayer? Would there be a religious exemption for me or would I be required to purchase something that violates my religious beliefs? Permalink Monday, July 28, 2003 ( 6:34 PM ) MB Cut on the Bias talks about Kentucky's tacky license plates. From the article: In an e-mail from his Massachusetts law office, Ball said the problem is with Kentuckians, not the plate. "Regrettably, I can't explain why the smiley face brings out the worst in people (in Kentucky). I've never run across it up here," he said. "I guess, though, with almost 300,000,000 people in the country ... there'll surely be some that don't like anything. Maybe they gravitate toward Kentucky for some reason. Sounds like a case for the X-files." I think I will get some paint and "modify" Mr. Smiley. I wrote about getting my plates here. Permalink ( 1:26 PM ) MB Bob Hope died last night. When I was younger my family lived near a golf course in Louisville, KY that had the annual Foster Brooks Pro-Celebrity Golf Tournament. I remeber seeing Hope several times when he came to play. You could always tell when he was approaching by the large number of fans that surrounded him. Unlike many of the other celebrities, he always took the time to say a few words to the gallery and chat with fans. As he got older, he would get too tired to play the full 18-holes but he would still ride the full course in the golf cart so as not to disappoint the fans who were waiting to see him. The golf tournament began during the Vietnam War years so my memories of Hope are ones of his humantiarian side, the charity golf tournament and his visits to the troops. I never found his jokes especially funny but they still made me smile and even laugh...he was Bob Hope, he just had that effect on people. I'm thankful we had Bob Hope among us for as long as we did. He will be missed. More about Bob Hope: ABC News: A Lifetime in Laughter Internet Movie Database: Bob Hope New York Times Obituary Some of his jokes from Reuters Entertainment News And from CNN Bob Hope on TV, these are the listings that had been part of the regular TV schedules. I expect there will be many more soon. Lyrics to his signature song, Thanks for the Memory Permalink Sunday, July 27, 2003 ( 9:16 PM ) MB A recipe for ice cream sandwiches from the Dominion Post Newspaper on August 9, 2000. The page credits the Seattle Times with the original recipe. Ice Cream Sandwiches with Cocoa Cookies 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1/8 teaspoon salt Scant 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 2 tablespoons cocoa 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened 1/2 cup superfine sugar 1 egg, lightly beaten Parchment paper Vanilla, chocolate or strawberry ice cream, or a more exotic flavor such as white chocolate raspberry, slightly softened Sift together the flour, salt, baking powder and cocoa. Cream together the butter and sugar with an electric mixer or food processor. Add the egg, then the dry ingredients just to blend. Turn the dough out onto a piece of wax paper. Mix together with clean hands until all the ingredients are incorporated. Flatten into a disk, wrap and refrigerate for about an hour. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside. Roll out the dough between lightly floured sheets of plastic wrap to about 1/4-inch thickness and cut with a 2-inch round cookie cutter. Place the cookies on the prepared baking sheets and bake, one at a time, about 10 minutes, or until firm to the touch . Cool the cookies on the baking sheets about 10 minutes before transferring to racks to cool completely. Working quickly and in small batches, sandwich 2 of the cookies with a small scoop of ice cream, pressing lightly. Place on a plate in the freezer and freeze until hard, at least 2 hours. The sandwiches can then be wrapped individually. Permalink ( 2:16 PM ) MB My daughter Emma will be thrilled to know that Barbie has a weblog. Maybe she'll be more impressed with mine now. Permalink |
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