Energy

Sleep is supposed to rejuvenate. So why do I have absolutely no energy this morning?

Yummy

Props to McDonalds. Their Big ‘n Tasty is both big and tasty. Kudos on putting forth both a product and ad campaign that is honest and truthful for a change. (Unlike that Big Mac which is neither Big nor a Mac.) As an added bonus, you’ve made the price a miniscule $1. Nice move. Not only is the sandwich big and tasty, it’s also affordable.

In other news, the quest for a General Tso’s chicken replacement rolled on last evening. The results were not pretty. The imitation dish was passable but the taste wasn’t even similar. It’s amazing how a dish with the same name is fixed so many different ways. I suppose it’s like that with most Chinese dishes though. Oh well. The quest rolls on. What hurts is that at last night’s restaurant the GTC was the most expensive chicken dish on the menu. The cost to taste ratio was definitely not worth the expense. There’s got to be a Chinese restaurant in the area that makes this dish the way I like it. If it exists, I will find it.

The Death of a Restaurant

My favorite restaurant is dead. Dead to me at least. The China Star Chinese Restaurant as I knew it is no more. New management, new staff, new atmosphere everything is new. But it’s not a good new. It’s a bad new. So far the menu hasn’t changed but the food is different. They used to make the best General Tso’s Chicken this side of the Mississippi and now it’s absolutely terrible. It doesn’t even look the same. Some people went down Elvis Presley Blvd. to see Graceland. For the past 3 years, I’ve gone down Elvis Presley Blvd. to get to China Star. (And to get to church but that’s a separate story) Sadly that will be coming to an end now. (Going to China Star that is. Not church)

The old China Star was like my own personal Cheers. (Without the bar, the alcoholic beverages, etc.) They knew me there. I knew all the staff. They knew what I wanted to order before the words left my mouth. (General Tso’s Chicken, right? You got it!) They knew the little trick you had to do to get their credit card machine to scan my debit card. They noticed (and were overjoyed) when I got a new debit card and they didn’t have to do that little trick any more. When I chose to dine in, they knew which booth I would sit in (middle booth on the back wall in the smoking section even though I don’t smoke. It’s nice and quiet back there.). They didn’t have to ask me what I wanted to drink. (Sweet Tea) When I made my usual General Tso’s take out order they threw in a sweet tea free of charge because in the words of the older gentleman that worked there, “You our special customer!”. They knew that if I came in with a book in my hand I was going to dine in and if not I was ordering takeout. The place had atmosphere. I felt very comfortable there. Now it feels very foreign to me.

I knew something was wrong when I walked in two Wednesdays ago after church. They had replaced the light bulbs in the light fixtures thus changing the ambiance completely. All the familiar pictures and wall hangings were gone. There’s nothing on the walls now though I’m sure that will change. The wonderful carp (which reminded me of the ponds I love at home in Japan) were gone from the fish tanks and said tanks were empty. A bunch of tables and chairs were gone and almost no customers were there. The new workers seemed nice. The lady working the cash register was very easy on the eyes and the lady they had working the floor seemed nice enough but they don’t know me. I could deal with that though if they had kept the same cook. But they obviously changed cooks because their General Tso’s is completely different. Even the color of the dish has changed. It used to be an inviting red color. The new incarnation of the dish is brown. That’s the last straw. I’ll have to find a new favorite restaurant. I have a tough road ahead of me. I don’t see how any place else could compete with the old China Star. The new one certainly can’t. Oh well. I guess my quest will be begin in earnest this evening when I try to find a place to eat. I’ll miss you China Star.

The Peace of Nature

I walked out of the apartment this morning and was greeted with a pleasant surprise. Peace, the peace of nature. There wasn’t a man made noise any where to be found. It was quiet and still. There were a few birds chirping. There was a slight breeze. And that’s it. Nothing else. Wonderful. I wanted to just stand there and soak it all in for a while but I had a 25 minute drive to work ahead of me. If I had waited any longer I would have been late. It’s just as well I suppose. Just as I was about to get in my car, somebody tossed a bag into the trash compactor. The compactor started compacting and thus broke the spell. It was kind of sad. Such is life in modern times I suppose. Everything went back to normal. It’s comforting to know though that if you strip all the other sounds and noise away, that stillness is still out there. It’s not loud or boisterous which is why other things easily drown it out but it’s constant and always there, always beckoning. Kind of like the Spirit of God….

If It Ain’t The Real McCoy, I Don’t Want It

One of the daily commercials I hear while tuned in to the Jim Rome show is a commercial for “The Real Viagra”. My co-workers and I always laugh when we hear this because we’re thinking as opposed to what? The Pretend Viagra? Can’t be too careful you know. There’s no telling what the Pretend Viagra will do to you. But if you buy the “Real Viagra” we guarantee you’ll be happy with the results. We get to hear that at least 4 or 5 times a day. That and the commercial for those with balding problems. I guess that shows what the all-knowing advertising gurus know about the audience they’re targeting. I must be the only listener who isn’t aged 35-50, balding, and experiencing sexual dysfunction. Get it right advertisers!! You’ve placed me in the wrong box. I demand to be bombarded with ads targeted at my proper age bracket as is the God given right of every American!!!

Huh?

One of the companies, who if some digging was done could be considered an employer of mine, has just announced that they’ve acquired, bought out, whatever another company worth x number of millions/billions of dollars. This after claiming that they’re drastically in the red and laying off thousands upon thousands of workers. And yet they can’t afford to give me and my coworkers raises. Or even a simple cost of living adjustment. Hmm…. I guess that should be chalked up to creative accounting. There’s a lot of that going around lately. I sure wish I had their accountant. I’d have her creatively add a couple of zeros to the balance of my bank account while publically releasing a statement saying that I’m broke.

Don’t Place Me In A Box

I’m not a category. I’m not a gift to be placed in a box, wrapped and handed to advertisers in the form of a demographic study. African-American Male, Age 22-25, Bachelor’s Degree, with interests including Computers, Sports, Reading, and Cars is not who I am. I’m not a category to be catered to at church by singing A (as in one) hymn that people feel identifies with my ethnic background in a poor attempt at “Multi-Culturalism”. I’m not a Technical Support Representative. I’m not a Democrat. I’m not a Republican. I’m not a Young Adult. I’m not a white black guy. I’m not ________. (Fill in the blank) What I AM is tired of our society’s politically correct fixation on labeling things. I am tired of our need place every person, place, thing, animal, and vegetable into a nice tidy category. Obviously.

Radio – What’s Up With It?

I have a love hate relationship with radio these days. I’m a music nut so the radio would seem to be a natural outlet for my daily music fix. But the local radio is so monotonous and repetitive. It’s the same stuff over and over again. Sadly that’s also becoming the case with the online radio stations I listen to daily as well.

I always have some sort of station streaming to my computer. I guess I need the background noise. If I’m not streaming a station, I’m listening to a playlist in Winamp. My problem is that I’ve listened to these online stations so long that I’ve pretty much heard the entire catalogue of music that each station has. That’s okay I guess with the Trance channel I like to listen to, Digitally Imported, because I’m a dance music freak but lately (this week) I’ve been listening to a Christian “Modern Rock” station called Webrock.net. I stumbled across it a little over a year ago (much like just about all the sites I frequent). I’ve been listening to KLOVE on the drive in to work this week and wanted to keep that theme of Christian music going throughout the workday. But I can’t take it!! Webrock.net has a very limited rotation of only the most “popular” “Christian” modern rock songs based on whatever rotation list they use with additional input from their “listeners”. It seems like I’m hearing the same song at least twice in a span of an hour and a half. That’s being generous. If feels more like twice an hour. I think I’ll do an experiment. I’ll jot down a random song on a sheet of paper along with the time it came on and then make note of the next time I hear it. I’m sure the results won’t be pretty.

The songs aren’t bad. I question the validity of having some of them being in the rotation because I don’t see the bands themselves as being overtly Christian. Creed comes to mind. They play several of their songs on this station. Now while some of the lyrics they sing definitely have a spiritual bent to them, I don’t see them as a Christian band. They’ve come flat out and said that they’re not a Christian Band and refuse to even come anywhere near that label. There are other examples of this type of thing on the station. I won’t go into those. I like the music I just wish there was more variety. They run their rotation into the ground. That seems to be the in thing to do at modern radio stations the last 6 or 7 years.

Sadly this is why I can only take KLOVE in small doses. Usually a week or two at a time. They play the same songs over and over again. If I take 3 or 4 months off I can usually come back and tolerate it for another couple of weeks. That’s enough time for some new songs to flow into the rotation pipeline. Then after a couple of weeks of hearing those worn out in addition to the old standbys I’m burnt out again. That and the fact that every time I turn around, it seems like they’ve got a pledge drive going. I know it’s callous but I don’t want to listen to 25 or 30 minutes of people begging for my money each hour. I want to hear the music.

It’s like this for me with all radio stations. I’m picking on the Christian stations I listen to because that’s what I’m currently listening to but this frustrating trend is universal. Thank goodness for sports radio!! There’s always something different going on in sports. Now if I could just find a program with a host who doesn’t think soccer is a joke or bad mouth it at every opportunity. Gotta go. I’ve had my daily dose of Webrock.net. It’s time for the Jim Rome show. Late.

The First Win in Our History

The Tornado Football Club got its first win ever. That’s right folks. My new soccer team won a game. It was great and the best thing is we totally dominated. We finally put together a complete game. The thing that put the icing on the cake was the fact that we beat our old team, the Pride. That was nice. I’ll leave it at that. I know nobody cares about this but it means a lot to my team and my teammates. We’re hoping that this is the turning point in our season and not just an anomaly.

I Beat Up Eminem

I had a strange dream the other day. I walked onto a plane and as I walked up the aisle to my seat I see Eminem. He’s sitting there in the middle seat. You know, the seat between the window seat and the aisle seat. Turns out my seat was the aisle seat right next to the Shady One. So I sit down and then all of a sudden we’re (Me and Em) on a dark side walk in some neighborhood somewhere. He starts beating me up. He’s really kicking my butt. Then all of a sudden, I get really mad and start fighting back. I start kicking his butt and eventually he puts an end to it. He starts walking off into the dark. He doesn’t say anything the whole time. (I know some people don’t have sound in their dreams but I usually do.) He just walks off. I got the sense that I had earned his respect because I fought back and kicked his butt. Strange. Is there some meaning in this odd dream?