Desert of the Mind

Blog - Analog Edition

2009-10-25T17:51:00.001-04:00

Blog - Analog Edition
Originally uploaded by LarimdaME

Five Dollar Dinner: Sausages, Sauted Peppers, and Salad

2009-10-01T21:48:00.001-04:00

FIve Dollara Dinner: Sausages, sauted peppers, and Salad
Originally uploaded by LarimdaME

Not pictured: the salad.

"Why sausages all the time?" I get asked. Because it's one of the cheapest meats you can get, and when you're on a $5 budget, $4 for meat just doesn't work. $2.50 for 6 sausages, $.40 for a mixed pepper, $1.25 for red leaf lettuce, $.60 for carrots, $.25 for small red onion.

Wash and chop 6-7 leaves of the lettuce. Thin slice and dice the red onion. Grate the carrot. Viola! Salad that easily feeds 2.

Slow cook sausages in pot over low heat, approx 30 minutes. Remove coked sausages and drain most of the oil. Rough chop the other onion half, the pepper, and maybe the carrot. Saute over medium heat. Add garlic to taste. Maybe some salt, although the sausage juices should have enough. Add back sausages after 10 minutes, saute until hungry.

Serve with rice, makes 2-3 servings.

$5 Dinner: Sweet Pork Sausages, Rice, and Sauted French Cut String Beans

2009-09-23T21:00:00.001-04:00

$5 Dinner: Sweet Pork Sausages, Rice, and Sauted French Cut String Beans
Originally uploaded by LarimdaME

It's a lie, really. The food cost $5.05, and I'm not counting the cost of the rice. But otherwise, it's all there. Sausages, simple sauce, and some sauteed green beans ( a staple nearly on par with rice in my cooking arsenal) for a quick cheap dinner.

6 Premio suasages from Associated - ~$3.30
1 large package frozen french cut string beans - ~$1.30
1 small can Associated tomato sauce - ~$.40

Add 1/4 cup water to string beans in small pot. Add generous amount of garlic, pepper, salt. Add 1 bullion cube chicken stock. Saute gently over low heat until all liquid is gone (or nearly gone, you can add a tablespoon or two of olive oil at the end to keep it from burning).

Saute sausages in pan or small pot. After sausages are cooked, drain oil. Or don't, consult with your doctor. Add can of sauce, 1-2 teaspoons of sugar, oregano. Simmer for ~3 minutes.

Serve with rice or starch product of your choice. Serves 3 people, or 2 hungry people.

$5 Dinner: Pork Chop and String Beans

2009-07-06T21:09:00.001-04:00

$5 Dinner: Pork Chop and String Beans
Originally uploaded by LarimdaME

Center cut pork chop from Associated: $3.50.
French cut frozen string beans from Associated: $1.50

Approx 20 minutes to cook.
Serve with rice, feeds 2, possibly 3.

saute pork chop in a glaze of soy sauce and pepper and sesame seed oil (olive or any oil will do, mostly to keep the meat from sticking to the pan). Soy sauce for color, pepper for the fat (it sticks to the fat like bees to honey, I dunno why).
2 table spoons soy sauce, 1/2 table spoon pepper, 1 table spoon of oil, if you insist on measuring. I don't, and all I have are tablespoons.

Marinating ahead of time would be bettter, but who has time for that fancy shit, yo.

Simmer string beans in a small pot with a splash of water, garlic powder, pepper, salt to taste, and a chicken bullion cube. Don't add more than a splash, the frozen veggies have plenty of water.

Reduce until almost no water, then add 2 tablespoons sesame oil and keep reducing until threatening to start burning. You can stop earlier and avoid the oil step, but I like my string beans a bit dry.

I'm a single guy, so I usually just throw everything into the pot i was cooking with and eat it on the couch while watching TV. But people asked to see it all plated, so I did it for a change.

Rice is about half a cup uncooked. Possibly 2/3rds cup.

Moving On to Wordpress

2007-05-10T00:25:00.000-04:00

I've finally up and had it with Blogger. I'm still trying to arrange for my own hosting and the whatnot, but in the meantime I've migrated most of the posts to http://larimdame.wordpress.com/. I debated posting that info, because I'd rather not force my 1 regular reader (Hi mom!) to switch bookmarks twice. But then I realized that I've been trying to move off Blogger for a year now, so this "Temporary" phase with Wordpress.com might last a year or two as well (I'm hoping not). Anyhoo, this will be the last post here, so it was nice while it lasted, but it's time to move on.

Blogger Sucks. It Really Really SUCKS

2007-01-21T00:12:00.000-05:00

In case you haven't noticed, I haven't been posting in a while.

Actually, that would be totally wrong. I have been posting fairly regularly, it's just that Blogger refuses to actually publish what I post. I've tweaked every setting, I've even switched to the "new" Blogger. You know what's new in the "new" Blogger? SUCKING.

Don't expect posts anytime soon, Blogger's still eating them all.

Oh, and don't use Blogger if you can help it.

Holidays Are For TimeWasting

2006-12-27T18:47:00.000-05:00

Wake up
Eat
Walk short distance to some restaurant
Eat
Take train back to bed
Nap
Eat yet again
Talk
Nap
Eat a snack of some sort (perhaps cake and cookies)
Sleep

Repeat for FIVE STRAIGHT DAYS.

Happy Holidays!

Too Much Halo

2006-12-06T19:07:00.000-05:00

I managed to get my hands on the Halo PC demo, which is surprisingly well featured, and have been playing it on and off for the past week. What I find really funny is that the demo level on the campaign mode is one of the levels I really like, Silent Cartographer. Not so many dark hallways, lots of outdoors action in the sunlight, plenty of ammo for the standard marine weapons. The beginning is nice and fun as the AI marines actually help you out (for a change). I really don't feel the need to get the full game now.

After having won the game a few dozen times now, the next step is modding it to be patently ridiculous. What I don't like is that the editors out there are not as intuitive as others I've dealt with. Of course, the trade off is that the editor doesn't crash nearly as often as editors for other games. But so far it's been fun turning the pistol into a machine gun and so on.

Of course, all the procrastination is not helping my Christmas shopping plans or my side projects plans. I should get on those soon, paying my bills on time is always a good thing.

Pity People

2006-12-01T19:03:00.000-05:00

Sometimes It's hard to feel pity for people. They put themselves into unwinnable situations all the time, and pray for some sort of miracle that the inevitable won't happen. They ask for your help, waste your day, when a little foresight on their part would have solved everything before it became a problem. And then they simply sigh, and chalk it up to the unchangeable nature of life.

It's not.

And it is.

It's hard for me to judge, because I do it all the time. I know what the problems are, but I'm slow to make the corrective actions. It doesn't take much time, but it's easier to pass on the task to a tomorrow that's never going to come.

I often whine about my weight, and contemplate working out, just a little. It's not hard, just 10 push ups every day, not more then 5 minutes and 14 sq. feet of flat terrain. And yet, every day I go to bed thinking that I'll do it in the morning. I never do. If I can't do something that simple, how can I be so judgmental towards others over their much larger problems?

What do I do? What can any of us do?

Help out as much as you can, I suppose. Bite your tongue when you feel the urge to pass judgment you're not qualified to make. And try to focus on being supportive of the improvements, and not dwell so much on the failures.

And maybe do at least 5 push ups after writing in your blog.

A Lot To Say But Unable To Speak

2006-11-30T20:08:00.000-05:00

It's something I'm sure all blogger go through in their blogging blog goodness (blog blog blog, there, have I said the word enough times now?). Lots of stuff is happening, but I really can't say anything, because people involved might read about it in the blog. Well, realistically, they won't, but they might. Actually, they probably will, for the first time ever.

"Hey Ted, have you ever checked out Gene's blog before?" "Why no, Judith, it never really occurred to me." "Let's look it up now, while we wait for our ebay bids!"

[Dec 1, 2006: I've finally had it with that bitch Judith and her screechingly annoying "boyfriend" Ted, if you can call that horse a "boy" at that. Tomorrow I'm supposed to meet them for ice-skating, when I'd rather just sit at home and puke up my guts. Which would probably look better then Judith, in that thing she calls a sweater. I wish I had some real people to be my friends.]

"I'm going to punch that fucker's head off tomorrow. Judith, call my lawyer!"

The appeal of an anonymous blog is growing, after all, it is the supposedly the inevitable result of blogging. But I can barely muster the effort to maintain this mountain of self-absorbed crap, so that seems a dubious prospect at best. Instead, I'll probably just fester inside for a few months, and insert a opaque post in between updates on which toenail is growing the fastest (right pinky toe). Maybe I'll start political blogging, and that way guarantee that nobody will read my blog.

Oh, and Ted, I'll see you tomorrow.

On the Road Again

2006-11-21T20:27:00.000-05:00

I'm off to cold cold COLD Michigan for the holiday. Except for the inevitable snow I shall encounter in Pennsylvania, looks to be pretty fun. I should probably call people, but then what's the fun in all that advanced planning?

Oh, and hot tip, the Toys R Us store in Times Square has a couple of thousand Wii units for sale. They only let a few hundred be sold a day, promptly at 10am. You need to get in line and get a red ticket from the guys outside to buy one. You can pick one up off the shelf, and you can wait in the cashier line, but without that red ticket you aren't taking diddly home. It's very organized and relatively calm. I'd get one myself, but I can't think of anybody that I know that would really want one.

Liveblogging Heartbreak.

2006-11-18T19:30:00.000-05:00

1-5 against Jim Tressel and Ohio State is simply unacceptable.

There's only ONE game in the year. All the rest of it, the bowls, the Big Ten championship, the national championship, it can all go to hell as far as I'm concerned. NONE of it matters.

There is only ONE GAME out of the year.

3 losses in a row is UNACCEPTABLE. 1-5 out of the past 6 is UNACCEPTABLE. I hate to say it, but it's got to be done.

Lloyd's got to go.

Shuffle Me (2nd Try)

2006-11-18T16:56:00.000-05:00

Blogger seemed to have eaten this yesterday, so another try.

I finally got my iPod shuffle yesterday. W00t!!1!11!one!1!! Of course, I don't have iTunes, and I don't have internet at home. I also didn't know that unlike my previous player, the iPod Shuffle doesn't simply allow you to drag and drop mp3 files and play them. The shuffle needs a database file with all the track names and locations. So most of my night was spent sitting forlornly looking at my new toy and begging it to play something.

Thanks to the Internets, I am now a free man. I have a install of iTunes I could use, but instead, I found <a href="http://agoraphobeus.free.fr/iShuffle/index.html">iShuffle</a>. Small program, freeware, sits in the shuffle and builds the database file for you. Just drag and drop the mp3 files onto the shuffle as if it were a USB flash drive. Run iShuffle, and viola, you are ready to play and have fun. Which I finally intend to do.

I also predict that I will lose this tiny toy in under a week.

Let The Spending Season Begin

2006-11-14T19:53:00.000-05:00

The summer months are usually a time to store the harvest of my hard labors, as are the first few months of autumn. For as soon as we enter the November, so begins Spending Season, where all the big bills come due.

The official start of Spending Season is not, as one would expect, Black Friday, but in fact the day my insurance bill comes due. I save a few bucks by paying annually, but it also means that one of my paychecks automagically disappears before it's even deposited. From there it's all downhill.

This year promises to be a big season, as it has come time to replace a few items I've been putting off for a few years now. With my jean jacket finally retired (it's still wearable, if a bit dated, but I am preserving it as it is my last physical connection with my now passed-away aunt), and sweaters not cutting it, a new fall/spring jacket is being demanded. I lust for the LL Bean barn coat, but I also have my eye on this nice moleskin blazer from UniQlo. I think I might get both.

Next up on the paycheck killer is the 401(k). I just found out I can contribute to a Roth 401(k). Who needs to eat now when there's so much eating to be had in the future?

And lastly, but not leastly, is iPod shuffle. My current solution is just too bulky, and it only holds 125mb worth of songs. Granted, it's the only 20 songs in my collection I like, but the battery life is really getting pounded nowadays. I've resisted the urge to get one for so long, but I cannot hold out much longer. In fact, I'm planning on caving tonight, depending on how late the Apple Store is open. It's so damn small!

So there you have it, $140 out the door in the next 2 hours (I'm thinking of getting the moleskin jacket, the store is just down the block from the apple store), and I haven't even begun budgeting for the gift giving season yet.

Perhaps McDonalds gift cards for everyone?

The Perfect Blog Post

2006-11-13T20:24:00.000-05:00

Riding the subway I thought of the perfect blog post. One of those pithy posts about some insignificant thing that poetically opens up into a deeper philosophical post about life. With a little wry humor on the side, of course. The problem, of course, is that I haven't the foggiest recollection on what that perfect post was supposed to be about, just that it was exceedingly clever (for me). I struggled to compose some suitable alternative, but all the prose just gets jammed together (much like this very post).

Instead, I shall simply report that I had a hamburger for lunch, and leave it at that.

Reagan Said It Best

2006-11-10T09:18:00.000-05:00

I tend to lean conservative. Not THAT conservative, I am a NYC'er after all, but conservative nonetheless.

Today I survey the political landscape, and what do I see? I see a so-called conservative party spending out of control, totally inept in governing or keeping corruption under control, without any real plans besides blaming things on the gays, and totally devoid of any moral standing. I see arrogance, I see greed, and I see a complete betrayal of everything I once stood for. If we're going to get Tax and Spend, if our politicians are more interested in grab-ass then their jobs, if we're going to send our boys to die in <s>vietnam</s> Iraq without a plan or a reason, and if we're going to let the country go to hell in a selfish corrupt handbasket (provided via no-bid contract by Haliburton), then we might as well let the Democrats do it, because frankly they are a LOT better at it.

I voted Democrat today (except for Pirro, who I think is a good prosecutor if she would just let them send her idiot husband to jail once and for all), because those assholes at the RNC need to be sent a message.

I didn't leave the Republican Party. It left me.

Red Letter Day

2006-11-08T20:02:00.000-05:00

Got a letter in the mail, from the step sister of all people. Which isn't to say that it unwelcome, just unexpected as I used to write to a lot of people. A lot of people who have since stopped writing or emailing or anything all together. But then, that's partly my fault, as I used to be so good in responding, and I'm not so much anymore. I've been blowing people off on the phone too, for that matter, but mostly because I am running a little busier these days. In addition to a running favor for a month I'm doing for someone, work has been a little more hectic. Oh, and I'm tring to fit in some late night practice at the golfing range once a week, where the discount rate kicks in starting at 9pm. Hmm, maybe I should put this all in my letter.

Still Out Of Reach

2006-10-26T20:04:00.000-04:00

I have long lusted for the Sony Clie PEG-UX40 or UX50, although both are quite old products. Mainly because they feature compact clamshell design, and I can write my blog entires in them on the tiny keyboard whenever I get a good thought (which is usually on the subway). I figured that it being 2 years since the last model rolled off the line, and that standalone PDAs are no longer in vogue, I'd be able to pick one up pretty cheap on ebay. Man, was I mistaken. Still looking at $200 range, which is still quite a discount from the new price of $500-$600 back in the day. Formfactor wise, it's prefect for me, as I eskew from the blackberry/treo model of single piece input. The sidekick might work, but it seems a little too small, and besides, it's just as expensive. I just long for a simple text entry device to compose my little blog entries on the go, without the bells and whistles of a phone or web surfing. But I suppose that it apparently too much to ask for.

Back In The Swing

2006-10-23T20:49:00.000-04:00

After a three year hiatus, I've once again picked up some golf clubs and hit a ball around. Specifically, a ball around a golf course, for a change. And besides rediscovering the wonderfully refreshing act of being on the links on a brisk fall morning, I've also found that I totally suck. Years and years of hitting the golf range gone to naught, as I could only manage weak tee shots and fairway drives that kicked up more clods of dirt than a backhoe.

And like my refound passion for photography, I find that I really do love hitting the ball around, money be damned. And though it physically hurts to pay $20 for a bucket of balls, I am budgeting away to hit the early bird special at Chelsea Piers at least once a week. I wonder how long the passion will last, as winter fast approaches, but if I can manage a decent improvement in my swing, especially my irons, another round of golf will be had before Thanksgiving is over.

Fun With Numbers!

2006-10-20T20:47:00.000-04:00

One of those things I shook my head at back in the go go dot-com era was how numbers became to flexible, and manipulation became to widely accepted and embraced. Nowadays, everything is open to "interpretation".

An economy is a tricky thing to measure to begin with. It's like trying to take the average temperature of your house, it all depends on where you measure. It's cold in the fridge, warm by the water heater, and damp in the basement. If you pick and choose the right spots, you can get wildly differing scenarios. If you only measure in the freezer, the attic, and the basement, the house is too cold. If you measure inside the lit stove, inside the furnace duct, and above the living room lamp, it's too hot. Most people just mean what it feels like when you walk in the frot door, sitting on the sofa, and lying in bed.

The economy is harder to measure, because getting a consensus on which spots are the "best" spots is difficult at best. And best for whom? The majority? The middle class? Recent immigrants? City dwellers? Farmers? Guys named Bob? You have to sharpen the mind to process all the math, to get a picture that's accurate for the economic rung you inhabit, and aspire to reach.

I was reading the George Will piece in the Washington Post [note: piece in not linked as a protest. Newspapers hardly if ever link to relevent blog posts, even if a national story breaks on a blog. So I refuse to link to newspapers. Google around, you'll find it.], and he mentioned that wages were stagnant only if you didn't include benefits. Which is silly, because they're called benefits for a reason. I think this is a classic measurement connundrum, because he's right and totally wrong.

Medical coverage, group life coverage, group disability coverage, dental, and penions are very valuable benefits. Trying to purchase any of these coverages individually outside of your employer is prohibatively expensive for many people. It's not unusual to hear of people taking lower paying positions in exchange for full coverage. George Will is right, this ia valuable benefit that is unfairly ignored.

But he's counting it in the wrong category. It's not like your employer hands you a wad of cash, and then you spend it on coverage. The employer picks the health plan, and the premiums, and how much you have to pay. This reality is reflected in the Consumer Price Index, as the CPI doesn't count employer paid health care premiums. While benefits are a benefit to employees, it's NOT INCOME; it's a COST to the employer.

A quick example might help things out here.

You work for ABC company. You get paid $40,000 + major medical, which costs an additional $5,000. To keep things simple, the employee pays nothing (this is getting quite rare nowadays, most people have to a pay a percentage towards their coverage). George is saying that you are really getting $45,000 worth of compensation: $40,000 cash + $5,000 benefits = $45,000 compensation.

Next year premiums increase to $10,000. To stay profitable, the company lays people off and freezes wages. By Will's math: $40,000 salary + $10,000 benefit = $50,000 compensation. Yay, you're wages are rising my friend, live the American Dream well! But wait, what's that? You don't feel like you got a $10,000 increase? Well, I hate to tell you, but you're right. Let's take a look at take home pay, that little statistic that Geroge has just dimissed. $40,000 this year's salary - $40,000 last year's salary = $0 increase (assuming you didn't get laid off). I hope you didn't get laid off, because 0% increase vs. 3% inflation hurt enough as it is.

Although the medical premium doubled, it's not like the quality of your medical care doubled. In fact, the premium probably tripled and the employer reduced the plan coverage to lower the price. So what you're probably REALLY getting is worse medical coverage at a higher price. Plus, as the co-pays probably got higher, you get to take home less money to reinject into the economy. You just got whacked with the nasty end of the health care inflation stick, and it hurts.

George is right in that Benefits need to be counted, they are very valuable. But it should be counted as a cost against corporate profits, or as an income stream for the health care sector, not as personal income. It's something you can lose, not something you can spend. That would be take home pay, which George points out, has been stagnant for quite a number of years.

Oh, what's that? Your company is doing well enough to absorb the premium increase and still pay a raise? Man, it must be nice to work at Google or Exxon.

Abandoned

2006-10-16T19:23:00.000-04:00

Last night I literally got buried under a pile of garbage. I needed a little help, and got just a little help. Somehow, it's going to turn out to be my fault because I got upset, while that whole pile of crap thing is somehow not going to play a factor.

I'm not going to forget this.

Moment

2006-10-12T20:48:00.000-04:00

I spent last night getting my shoes wet, walking in the pounding rain that would not let up. It was apparently the same sort of night that preceeded Sept. 11, which was something I didn't remember at all, although now that I think about it, must be true. There was a reason I decided to stay underground that night, browsing the Borders bookstore at the World Trade Center. I recall lugging around a wet umbrella, worrying about getting the books wet. I didn't bother buying anything that night, for it would have been a great hassle to lug it home in the rain, and I knew where my desired purchases lay, they'd still be there the next day.

Minor words trigger my buried memories, and getting together with a foursome of trade center survivors is a running dialogue of forgotten remembered moments. An hour passes in an instant, as memories merge to sort out the inconsistencies, and resolve those nagging doubts about what really happened when. I felt out of place as they discussed who was first or last or first again in the stairwell coming down, or how long the fire raged, the doors stayed jammed shut, and who was where when the other tower fell.

What was interesting was how everything came back to those few terrifying moments, how everything led back to that morning. Time, life, emotion seems permenantly fixed in those few short hours, whenever they meet. The reunions get smaller and smaller, maybe the others can't bear the burden of these continued reawakening of memory. I can't say for certain if there was talk of the present of the future, I joined at the very end of a 4 hour night. The past, however, remained very much alive, made up of small moments, walking in wet shoes.

What You Really Need To Know About Vermont

2006-10-10T20:49:00.000-04:00

I don't pretend to imitate a great traveller. I haven't been to every state in the union, and others have done far harder, longer, and more often road trips then I. But I have logged a lot of miles, and been down many a highway, and I can say that Vermont has hands down the cleanest and most pleasant rest stops I've ever been too. Not the malls of Ohio Turnpike, or the dingy backwaters of Connecticut, nor the non existence of New York. Simple, clean, bright, and welcoming, they are truely welcome beacons on the migratory path of the Northeastern Leafer. I only wish there were more of them.

Leafers

2006-10-07T21:22:00.000-04:00

Normally when Dad and I take our annual pilgrimge to Vermont, to see the wonderful foliage, the extent of the planning involved is making sure we have enough cash to pay for gas. As would be expected, the net result is that nights must be borne in the car, as every hotel and motel is booked solid for the night. And while it would be nice to relive childhoom memories of sleeping under a comforter in the trunk of the hatchback while parked in the middle of the scary scary woods, I'm a little too old for that crap now. So I booked a hotel instead, at a ski lodge at the top of a mountain no less. It's costing me a pretty penny, because I got silly and reserved a nice room with a balcony. Which doesn't make much sense at all, as we'll be driving up and then driving back down, spending only enough time at my expensive room just for sleeping.

My modestly, and admittedly mildly crazy, plans have drawn some scorn, which peeves me. It's one thing to laugh with people, it's another matter entirely to laugh at people. But then I sit back and I think about what's really going on. I'm going to take a 6 hour drive to Vermont, whereupon I'm going to drive around Vermont for a few more hours, sleep in an overpriced room on a sofabed, drive around Vermont some more, and then drive 6 hours late at night back from Vermont. It does sound pretty silly on the face of it, so why would I do something that makes so little sense?

Because I get to spend 48 hours of quality time with my Dad.

There's a lot of people who would spend a lot more then I did to get that again.

Gene's Single Guy Crappy Beef Stroganoff

2006-10-06T19:30:00.000-04:00

1 can chopped tomatoes
1/2 lb. egg noodles, cooked
1 can Dinty Moore Beef Stew

Ta da!