March 2006 Archives

A little over a year ago I became aware of a web site called Myspace. It was apparently some sort of social networking site. Within a matter of months it seems that everyone began to have a myspace page there (kind of like how blogs are a dime a billion these days). This place can't help but make me cringe. Not because pedophiles and perverts might be preying on unsuspecting / stupid kids, not because it's completely pop and everyone and their dog (or in some cases just their dog, heh) has a myspace page, and not because it's filled with whores and losers that have nothing better to do than post trash on there...

An ad for Sam Hawk that I designed a year ago for a non-design class in school. Mouth watering?

gus·to   (gst)
n.
1. Enjoyment or vigor in doing something; zest.

A number of weeks ago my mom commented that my brother Dan "eats with gusto". Think of the movie "What About Bob?". Similar enjoyment factor, but combine it with vigor and that's exactly how he eats certain foods, like spicy grilled pork from Sam Hawk.

I thought about that today as I ate some Dwenjang Jjigae for lunch (from Sam Hawk, of course). It was rainy today and somehow the Korean soup seemed to be the perfect meal. It's not one that I consider terribly spicy, but then I have developed a taste for spicy foods. I found myself eating it with vigor-- with gusto, if you will. Maybe not as much as Dan, because I was in the atrium at work and didn't want to be as vocal as he is about the enjoyment (seriously, one time last fall the guys went out for Korean, and when Dan finished, Jesse asked "Wow. Are you gonna go out and smoke a cig now?").

But I was interested in the vigor factor at lunch today. You see, my nose was running like crazy and my eyes were watering. Aren't those signs that the food is fairly spicy? I've mentioned this before about Korean food... somehow it gets pretty spicy yet has more flavor than other spicy foods such that the spiciness can't put a lid on the gusto-- I'm not sure that makes sense, but I don't know any other kind of food where I can just shovel it in my face with such vigor and enjoy it so much all while the eyes are watering, nose running and mouth burning (I guess that Dwenjang soup is spicier than I give it credit for).

Any other foods that are so good that you eat them with gusto? Or do you never eat with gusto? If not, you're missing out.

I had a different title for this post, but without a picture to make the quote effective, I scrapped it in favor of just posting this ramble sans pic. Yes, my Canon SD10 does not seem to have survived our recent trip to Moab, it no longer functions, and on top of that it ate the pic I had for this post. How sad is that? I should really get on the ball and get a camera to take pictures with besides my cell phone.

To those of you who don't relate in the least to computers and geekdom, feel free to pass this entry over. The essence of the entry is that Sloanie is now a bonafide Apple whore. Yep, it's true. Nearly a full-fledged Mac advocate. Marianne is just amazed when she hears comments from me about "I don't know why anyone would buy a PC" or comment on how I want people to use Macs rather than PCs. "I'm just baffled at this complete turnaround". she says. I don't know how well written this is, I wrote it a week ago or so, but if you're severely bored... read on. Even this lengthy wordy rambling post doesn't fully explain why I'm such a fan.

So when I answered all those questions for that game of tag, I actually had a bit of fun reminiscing, so here's another old-times post.

Remember being a little kid and going to elementary school? I almost NEVER had "hot lunch" or the lunch the cafeteria provided. I always had "cold lunch"-- which means mom packed me a lunch. I remember there were some years of school where they'd actually let kids go in and help serve lunch. Funny to think that back then it was a privilege, haha:

"Hey there, Derek. My name is little Kleatus. I'm just a regular kid who wants you to know the real truth about child labor laws. Okay?"

"Okay."

"They're silly and outdated. In the good old days kids as young as five could work s they pleased from textile factories to iron smelts. Yippee! Hooray! But today, the age-old right of children to work is under attack. From the philippines to Bangladesh, in China and India and South America too. Boo-Hoo!" --Zoolander

Ok that was a tangent, but that's how my brain works, in movie quotes. I remember the one time I went to serve hot lunch they stuck me at the cook vegetables section. Combine the gross cooked veges with the fact that I hadn't eaten lunch and I got super light headed and almost passed out. So much for helping with hot lunch.

So what I was reminiscing about today was the cool different things I'd get in my cold lunch. I remember Turtle Pies (hostess pies that were filled with yellow custard and had green frosting to be Ninja Turtle-ish). Then there was stuff like Fruit by the Foot. I remember Kiwi seemed to become popular sometime in the late 80s and I had that in my lunch a lot-- I loved it, ate the skin and all. I remember that there was this other kid named Corey who always got the best goodies in his cold lunch and he'd trade with other kids cause he sometimes got tired of the stuff. I miss bein a kid where you could go sit down at the table in the cafeteria, compare your cold lunch with other people and then trade around, like, some fruit snacks for a twinkie.

So did you eat hot lunch or cold lunch? Get anything cool in your cold lunch? (We already know that hot lunch was gross.) Did girls do anything like trade stuff from their cold lunch? I'm just realizing that girls rarerly ate with us. Those were the days when boys and girls were separated pretty exclusively... hehe, when it was a punishment to sit boy-girl-boy-girl. Cooties, gross.

If I needed a reason to one day be rich, it would be so that I could build a home theater like this.

This thought occurred to me last night: I don’t take life seriously. I really don’t. A couple days ago I turned 27 (thanks to those who wished me a happy birthday ;-) and when I got to work I found what I expected— my cube decorated Star Wars fashion (yeah, bring a light saber with you to work on Halloween and you are forever the Star Wars nerd. Which is fine-- they all don’t realize just how cool it is to be a Star Wars nerd, except for a couple guys in the I.T. Department that Mar seems to have connected with on a Star Wars level. Alas, no one quite that cool in the Art department.

On top of the cupboards in my cube there were several Darth Vader masks-- now that was appropriate. I thought they should have given everyone in the department a Darth mask to celebrate my birthday. Lori (one of the illustrators) actually drew a caricature of me dressed up like Luke on Episode IV for my birthday card, which, while cheesy, was fun and provided for more entertaining comments inside the card from co-workers (a more generic card gets pretty standard notes, you know?). Here’s a couple of the comments:

"Hey Mike, Hope your birthday rocks! Can I have your light saber when you die? -Jen"

"Mike, have a good birthday, you must. Are those leg-warmers you have on? NICE! -MV"

Anyhow, it was a good day. Marianne, Jesse, and Mel took me to PF Changs for dinner that night (Mom, Steve, and Kato came too)-- holy cow. That place is my 2nd favorite asian restaurant after Sam Hawk. Is it any coincidence that my clothes smell like the food after leaving either restaurant? I don’t think so. The orange chicken and Mongolian beef were tasty, and the crispy honey shrimp.... All I can say is that it just melts in my mouth and makes me smile like only the best foods do. Oh I can’t forget the desert-- Banana Spring Rolls. The spring rolls themselves were not bad, but the ice cream in the middle was scrumptious: pineapple coconut. Great stuff! So thanks again Mar, Jesse, and Mel... Nothing like good food and good company.

So I’m 27. My dad calls me up just before dinner to wish me a happy birthday, and to add that "When I turned 27, I was a month away from getting married," and then laughs as I laugh. Heh... Maybe if I took life more seriously. Or maybe I just need to find someone that only takes life as seriously as I do. I feel about the same as I did when I turned 23-- not sure if that’s good or bad. Maybe people care about age too much. Just think about it, what’s the big deal with turning 30, 40, 50, etc.? It’s like Hamlet says, "There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so." Life and the world around you seem to depend on the lenses through which you view them, it’s all in your mind. Maybe some lenses are important to have in order to interact with the world around you, but others-- why do we need them? Just a thought for you as I ponder how life is the same today as it was when I was 26 ;-)