Memorial Day Thoughts

Today is Memorial Day, and along with 50% off sales, and picnics, it is a day of rememberance for those who have fallen in wars. War is a tragedy. In some instances, it can't be helped. In others, the reasons are a little more questionable, but no matter the war, or your beliefs about war, stop, and give a moment of reflection to those who have fallen, and those who are still fighting.

The Mysterious Fishbowl, or why did one side fall off?

My poor Fishbowl! Ive had it since I was a kid. We use to keep goldfish in it. It is no longer in existence. Two gallons of fresh, clean, de-chlorinated water, all over the counter, dripping onto my stack of books that I haven't read. It broke so strangely, and mysteriously. You see, one whole side detached from the rest of the bowl, while I was setting it down. Very mysterious. Bowls do no break like this.

The fish survived. He was flapping around in puddle of water, not squished by the onslaught of Lake Superior Rocks (shipped in from the iron range... ) that suddenly flowed out. He wasn't happy. He lived in a small clear drinking glass, tinted blue, while I went on a Mission, a Mission to find a new two gallon traditional glass fish bowl. Tried the local Walmart. No luck. Drove 14 miles north to the fish store. It had close 45 minutes before I showed up (this was on Sunday, around 3:45). The antique dealer next door pointed me out in the direction of the local pet food outlet. Alas, they only sold cheaply made plastic two gallon fish bowls, with food and a booklet packaged together. Then, I remembered that there was once a fish store in the local outlet center. They will surely be open on a Sunday afternoon. Drove 35 miles south only to find out that they had moved location. Grrr. Poor fishy. The store next door told me they had moved, but as since it was a Sunday afternoon and reaching 5:30ish I decided to forgo my mission and go home. The poor fish! He was rather gray. I moved him to a much bigger plastic mixing bowl, white in color. He did not like it. The next day, He was really not looking good. I went to work, obsessed about the poor fish, and after work, called the aforementioned fish store 14 miles north (repeating the previous days disaster was not an option) Luck Was With me! They had one, and only one wonderful glass 2 gallon fishbowl in stock, traditional style. Yeah! Me! and they were open late! Success. And No books were ruined, and the fish is looking like his normal red and blue self.

Airplane and Proper ID

I recently heard about this issue on the annoying radio station about proper ID's and plane tickets. The idiot annoucers where going on and on and on, about how they felt unsafe because you could board a plane with almost no id. Now my thinking on the matter is, that as long as they aren't carrying a gun, or bomb or somthing that could hurt, why does it matter, as long as they have the ticket, and thats more important to the airline, than to me. It seems to me that this topic is going in the wrong direction. Not towards creating better ways of stopping dangerous people, but making it harder for people to get on planes. After, all it takes is one person with the proper ID to blow up a plane, and all it takes is one person without proper ID to blow up a plane, so which is more imporant, finding ways to stop dangerous items being brought on, or stopping and making sure everybody has proper ID?

I am So Awesome!

I correctly diagnosed that my soundcard was not working, bought a new with dolby 7.1 surround sound, managed to install it with no problems, and now I can happily listen to Jimi Hendrix.

Carrie

things that stopped working today

-my sound card.

- my discman player which I was going to use to test my speakers, although, it could be that it has been dead for awhile, because I never use it, and its really old.

- things that I am going to do tomorrow- buy a new sound card.

- Im adding this event to reasons why I need to move out of Faribault.

- I blame the fact that IM not listening to Jimi Hendrix on the messed up power outage, which coincidentally enough, is what I blame for killing my sound card.

and yes, it did work yesterday.

If Your Car was a Person, what Would it Be like?

Strange question of the day! --

You see, If my car was person, it would be very dependable, but would complain about life constantly. It would definitely be female, and probably named tiffany, or Michele, or some equally name I equate with minor bitchiness. It needs to know that its loved, or else it will sulk. It does things like make minor aspects of my life slightly miserable (like weird sounds, or funky smells), just to piss me off, but it will never breakdown, because it is loyal, in its own machine way.

Anyway, just wanted to share that bit of insight into my brain.

Blowing My Cover- My Life as a CIA Spy - by Lindsay Moran

I've just finished the Blowing My Cover, by Lindsay Moran, and I recommend it. Basically its about a girl who joined the CIA, and of her adventures. I highly recommend it. The last few chapters, I thought was the most important. All through the book, there's an underline theme that the CIA does not work. But then the last chapters happen, which is right after 9-11. Lindsay is feeling guilt about not finding a source to tell her about 9-11. Her friend asks her "Did you guys Know?" Lindsday responds "No, We Didn't". Nobody in the CIA Knew. Then she actually makes a contact that might give information about terrorists cells. He was a person who ran with a terrorist group, but does not agree with the idea of Jihad- Lindsday asks for permission to keep contact, and was denied, because he was most likely a terroist in the last five years. Now, does this make sense? Here we are, Americans trying to stop terrorist groups from hurting us. The people who are most likely going to have information about terroist groups are other terrorist. But, we can't have spies talking to these people because its against the rules??!! What the Hell asinine rule is that!!! I'm hoping that this is something that has currently been changed.

Now here's the other point from the last chapters in this book. Lindsay was assigned to the Near East division to help with the invasion of Iraq. She meets other operatives who admit that the CIA has no evidence of weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq, or that Iraq posed anything close to an imminent threat to the United States. Another CIA Analyst, when asked about the connection between Al-Qa'ida, and Iraq, shamefacedly replied "They both have the letter q?" and a colleague of hers announced "The president wants us to go to war, and our job is to give him a reason to do it."

This is a true story. Its not made up. You can read the book yourself, and come to your own conclusions, but I believe that creating reasons to have a war, (as opposed to finding) is not ethical and can never be justified. Too many people have died, in a war that's unjustified, and all because Our Oh So Wonderful President (Read with heavy sarcasm), needed to be at war with someone other than the Al-Queda in Afghanistan.

Also, if you do read this book, the first part is mostly fluff- it reads a little like Bridget Jones meets the CIA meets real life, although training at the "Farm"was interesting, but her time in Macedonia, got a little long.

a rant on allergies

Ah yes, good old springtime. Warm Sun, Green Grass, Beautiful flowers, budding spruce tress. Such a wonderful time unless your allergic to things. This year has been the worst. My eyes started watering, along with a stuffed up nose. Previous years hasn' been this bad, but each year it gets a little worst, since Ive been told I have allergies four or five years ago. Luckily, there is generic claritin, which works wonders almost instantly (say half an hour or so).

Anyway, Heres the list so far:

1)grass cuttings
2)spruce tree pollen
3)mold
4)cigarette smoke
5) and maybe cats, but only because if I get my nose right next to one, my nose gets a little stuffy, but very bearable.

Carrie

Alaska Sweet Cold, Alaska

For those you who don't know, I really don't like my job. Im bored, treated like an administrative assistent (read secretary), and I don't have that much respect. I also don't get enough money. I was planning on quitting in September, with me starting to job hunt after my Sister's wedding. But I really don't like work, so I decided to start job hunting now. Today, I faxed in my first job application. Its for a job up in Alaska. So Cold, So Dark, but its Moose Infested! and full of nice scenery. The job pays good money, and allows me to practice what I went to school for. Which is always exciting. The only problem I can see with it, is my sister's wedding. You see, they need someone immediately, and Julie's wedding is in July, so if I get hired, I will have to wait until after the wedding, or move up, and a few weeks later, fly back down. but as since I havn't even had a job interview, let alone an offer, Im not going to worry about it, and send off more resumes.

Carrie

Super Easy Recipe Number 1 - Chicken Nuggets

I really like chicken nuggets- but the store bought ones, while very tasty, are full of things I don't necessarily need to eat. Plus they don't taste that good microwaved.

Heres the ingredients:

Chicken Breasts
Flour
salt
pepper
Optional - some sort of other seasoning, like rosemary, or basil, or cayenne powder

directions:

1 mix flour, salt, pepper, and seasoning in a plastic bag- subway sandwhiches bags do nicely
2 cut up the chicken in chunks
3 put chicken chunks in the bag. Cl0se the top of it. Shake until the mix is evenly coated
4 in pan, add vegetable oil, and heat up to medium high or thereabouts
5 Add the Chicken to the pan and fry until fully cooked

I believe that you can also bake them, but I havn't tried.
my chicken was wet, which made the flour stick to it. You can also dunk them in eggs, and then cover with flour.

Movie Review - Lemony Snickets a Series of Unfortunate Events

I just rented Lemony Snickets a Series of Unfortunate Events, and my thoughts on it was that it was unfortunate that it was made into a movie. The movie had the right elements, with the right acting, but it doesn't work because instead of a deeply seriously funny kids story, it just looked silly or else it just felt creepy, and not in a good way. The dialogue also sounded silly, where in the books, it was very fitting, and seemed to make sense. The books work because its uses the power of the absurd- meaning everything is so outrageous, from the baby with the sharp teeth, to the henchman with two hooks for arms, that in a movie, all these elements get lost. I liked the soundtrack. It worked quite nicely and it caught the mood. The animation during the credits was awesome! I paid close attention to that. It paid homage to the PBS Mystery! opening credits which are also fun to watch.

Look What I found in a Time Magazine!

Its Darth Tator!!!

Movie Review - Shaun of the Dead

I saw Shaun of the Dead last night,and let me tell you, it was the greatest zombie movie I have ever seen. Not that Ive seen a lot of zombie movies, actually, this is the only one Ive seen, but I liked it.

The basic premise is that Shaun (the hero, sort of) must save his mum, recently ex girlfriend, and bestfriend from the zombies. Of course there was all sorts of witty, dry, British Humor (this is a British Movie, Did I mention that?), that works very well in some places, and is utterly boring in others, but the use of a cricket bat, and garden hoe, along with some well thrown toasters (kind of), and a Pub named Wellington, or Chatterlies, or something like that, makes up for the dry, boring parts. OH yeah, and that wonderful scene with small children, um, gorging on an adult... its hilarous. Its kind of like Army of Darkness, and its kind of like a Simpson's episode, and its kind of like a sappy, romantic comedy, all shoved into something thats not entirely quite right.

Carrie

that perfect glass of choclate milk

Have you ever really really wanted a glass of choclate milk, so you go in the cupboard, and lo and behold, there is instant choclate milk mix in it, and then you go into the fridge, and there is the perfect amount of milk left in the milk carton, so you get a glass, and spoon, and poor in the milk, and dump in the choclate mix... and then you stir until its the perfect consistency, and then you lick the spoon... and all those hopes and expectiations of the perfect glass of milk disappear instantly, when you realize that the milk is a week past expiration date.

With Love, Carrie

Men, and thier cologne

The boss guy at work wears cologne. And a lot of it. so when he comes near my cubicle, I almost pass out from not being able to breathe... Why do men do that? He's not the only one Ive encountered, my ex wore too much, usually the high school kid behind the checkout counter wheres too much... Don't they realize that a person can become accustomed to the smell, and not notice? Anyway, thats my nonsensical rant of the day.

Carrie

Here Comes the Sun!

After a weekend of cold, damp, cloudy weather, including snow, the sun finally came out at about 4:15 today. It was a glorious site, complete with imaginary trumpet fanfare. I was excited. Now if only the temperature would go up... That would make my life much happier.

What other news of the day? Well, my attempts at getting a recycle bin delivered to my house was futile. The waste management people seem to close early, and not have any sort of answering machine on thier phone. The wonders of public service... At least they could have a message explaining thier hours of operation. Ill try again tomorrow, only earlier, so wish me luck, because this mission seems to have all sorts of signs pointing to failure!

Carrie

I have succumbed!

I have finally succombed to the dark desire of instant blogging! After much research (about ten minutes of typing "Web blog" into Yahoo, I came across this nifty little site. Blogger.com will even allow me to post to move this site to my a server of my choice, and it allows me to edit the html. I also like it because you don't need a to be member to leave posts, and after viewing a number of blogs hosted, I realized it has no ads on it. So it seems to be a good program.

Im hoping that I will post to it every couple of days, instead of my normal post every six months or so.

Come Back Soon, and Come back Often,

Love
Carrie