Yes it is an awesome video, an awesome song. But what is most awesome is this item:
"America We Stand As One and Dennis Madalone did not authorize or assist in the production, creation, or concept behind alternative "spoof" videos of America We Stand As One."
The spoof is better than the original! You can view the spoof here: http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2668262?htv=12 remix of Team America's "America F*** Yeah!" make sure your volume is appropriate.
PS - Joe V I dedicate this post to you.
Friday, April 29, 2005
Why I love Jane.
Haribo Gummi Candies: "Haribo Gold-Bears Bulk, 5 Pounds
Imported Haribo Gold Bears in a five pound box! A perfect gift for the Gummi Bear addict in your family. This bulk box is sure to get your College Student and their roommate(s) through the next cram session for exams. Let them know you're feeling their pain. Each box contains one large bag of very fresh and very delicious gummi bears.
NET WT. 5 LBS"
It was when Jane expressed her affection for this specific brand of Gummi Bear that I knew we were meant to be together. Ooooh look - a 5lb bulk purchase can be made! Happy Anniversary, honey!
Imported Haribo Gold Bears in a five pound box! A perfect gift for the Gummi Bear addict in your family. This bulk box is sure to get your College Student and their roommate(s) through the next cram session for exams. Let them know you're feeling their pain. Each box contains one large bag of very fresh and very delicious gummi bears.
NET WT. 5 LBS"
It was when Jane expressed her affection for this specific brand of Gummi Bear that I knew we were meant to be together. Ooooh look - a 5lb bulk purchase can be made! Happy Anniversary, honey!
First Lady's Visit To Alameda School
My sister is in this news piece. She was part of a group discussion with Laura. Both my mom & sister said that Laura is "beautiful" and "quite lovely" in person.
Thursday, April 28, 2005
Tuesday, April 26, 2005
Covergirl
Click the above link to see my friend Splash. She's quite sweet. Now she's a famous supermodel.
Friday, April 22, 2005
Salami & Olive Loaf....
Click the above link to view the selection of lunch meat throw rugs. No, not made of lunch meat!
Thursday, April 21, 2005
Wednesday, April 20, 2005
One of these things is not like the others
click the above link... read the caption, look at the picture... does someone look out of place?
American Hiking Society: Volunteer Vacations
American Hiking Society: Events and Volunteer Opportunities: Volunteer Vacations: "
On an American Hiking Society Volunteer Vacation, you visit stunning backcountry locations to construct or rebuild footpaths, cabins and shelters. In the process, you meet new people, explore canyons, peaks and valleys, enjoy quiet evenings around a fire and come home refreshed and rejuvenated. Volunteer Vacations are more fun than work! And best of all, the trips are only $120 ($95 for American Hiking Members)!"
On an American Hiking Society Volunteer Vacation, you visit stunning backcountry locations to construct or rebuild footpaths, cabins and shelters. In the process, you meet new people, explore canyons, peaks and valleys, enjoy quiet evenings around a fire and come home refreshed and rejuvenated. Volunteer Vacations are more fun than work! And best of all, the trips are only $120 ($95 for American Hiking Members)!"
Monday, April 18, 2005
Wednesday, April 13, 2005
Music-Map - The tourist map of music
Enter the name of an artist or band you like and see the web of musical connections. Learn about new music!
Go to this website to add to the mapping network: http://www.gnoosic.com/
Go to this website to add to the mapping network: http://www.gnoosic.com/
Tuesday, April 12, 2005
Good Things
15 Things You Probably Never Knew or Thought About... an email from my mom.
1. At least 5 people in this world love you so much they would die for you.
2. At least 15 people in this world love you in some way.
3. The only reason anyone would ever hate you is because they want to be just like you.
4. A smile from you can bring happiness to anyone, even if they don't like you.
5. Every night, SOMEONE thinks about you before they go to sleep.
6. You mean the world to someone.
7. If not for you, someone may not be living.
8. You are special and unique.
9. Someone that you don't even know exists loves you.
10. When you make the biggest mistake ever, something good come s from it.
11. When you think the world has turned its back on you, take a look: you most likely turned your back on the world.
12. When you think you have no chance of getting what you want, you probably won't get it, but if you believe in yourself, probably, sooner or later, you will get it.
13. Always remember the compliments you received. Forget about the rude remarks.
14. Always tell someone how you feel about them; you will feel much better when they know.
15. If you have a great friend, take the time to let them know that they are great.
They say it takes a minute to find a special person, an hour to appreciate them, a day to love them, but then an entire life to forget them. Take the time... to live and love.
1. At least 5 people in this world love you so much they would die for you.
2. At least 15 people in this world love you in some way.
3. The only reason anyone would ever hate you is because they want to be just like you.
4. A smile from you can bring happiness to anyone, even if they don't like you.
5. Every night, SOMEONE thinks about you before they go to sleep.
6. You mean the world to someone.
7. If not for you, someone may not be living.
8. You are special and unique.
9. Someone that you don't even know exists loves you.
10. When you make the biggest mistake ever, something good come s from it.
11. When you think the world has turned its back on you, take a look: you most likely turned your back on the world.
12. When you think you have no chance of getting what you want, you probably won't get it, but if you believe in yourself, probably, sooner or later, you will get it.
13. Always remember the compliments you received. Forget about the rude remarks.
14. Always tell someone how you feel about them; you will feel much better when they know.
15. If you have a great friend, take the time to let them know that they are great.
They say it takes a minute to find a special person, an hour to appreciate them, a day to love them, but then an entire life to forget them. Take the time... to live and love.
Pork Pork Pork
KQED Food Blog: Bay Area Bites: "Monday, April 11, 2005
The Pork Saga
I walked out of my office on Wednesday evening to the smell of grilling meat wafting down the street, so naturally I got it into my head that I must have meat for dinner. Now, I cook nearly every night -- it helps me wind down from the day and gives me a creative outlet, but, like most of you, I'm tired at the end of the day and at least during the week I'm always looking for ways to save time but still be adventurous and make a delicious meal.
I love pork. I love everything about pork and pretty much every cut of pork. I like to cook pork because I find it so versatile. But I am very careful about where I purchase my pork products. My favorite place is Prather Ranch in the Ferry Building, but I'm typically happy to buy Niman Ranch products as well.
You might think I'm rambling on a bit here, but I actually do have a point. I just needed to lay the groundwork. So back to Wednesday evening. I got it into my head that I would make a pork tenderloin. Too lazy to walk over to the ferry building, I headed to the store near my house (Farmer Joe's) which stocks an array of Niman products. Unfortunately when I got to the store, they were clean out of loins. They did, however, have 'Pork Top Round Roast,' a cut I frankly had never heard of. But, being the adventurous type, I figured I could look it up in one of my all time faves, The Meat Cookbook, and cook it accordingly. I also assumed that it was a lean cut that would probably take well to roasting, similar to a pork tenderloin.
Foiled again. There was no mention of this cut in my tome of meat. Again, too lazy to actually turn on the computer and look it up, I decided to just wing it and roast it like a loin. I rubbed it with a mixture of kosher salt, ground coriander, oregano, basil, thyme, and fennel seeds and let it sit at room temp for about 30 minutes, while I heated up my oven to about 425F, with my trusty cast-iron pan heating up along with the oven. I then seared the outside of the pork on all sides for about 10 minutes, reduced the heat to 300F, and proceeded to roast the pork until it was 145F inside. I then removed it from the oven, let it rest for about 5 minutes (loosely covered with aluminum foil), and then carved it. The pork seemed to be perfectly cooked, light pink, and juicy looking when I sliced it. The herb-crusted exterior was very flavorful, but the pork itself was only mediocre. Even though it appeared juicy, it was a dry and without the rub, somewhat flavorless.
Since I had purchased this mystery cut from Niman Ranch, I decided to visit their website and see if I could learn more about it. I had to dig through the site, but I finally did find the following information: "This small roast is from the inside thigh muscle. It is a great little roast for 2 to 3 people. You'll want to cook it slowly so that it doesn't dry out. Flavor it to your liking, but it goes well with rosemary, garlic, sliced apples or pears."
It was then that I remembered that I had been given Bruce Aidell's Complete Book of Pork for Christmas. This is what happens when you have far too many cookbooks scattered throughout the bookshelves in your house. Oh well, I think I'll go back and get another top round roast and try again!
The Pork Saga
I walked out of my office on Wednesday evening to the smell of grilling meat wafting down the street, so naturally I got it into my head that I must have meat for dinner. Now, I cook nearly every night -- it helps me wind down from the day and gives me a creative outlet, but, like most of you, I'm tired at the end of the day and at least during the week I'm always looking for ways to save time but still be adventurous and make a delicious meal.
I love pork. I love everything about pork and pretty much every cut of pork. I like to cook pork because I find it so versatile. But I am very careful about where I purchase my pork products. My favorite place is Prather Ranch in the Ferry Building, but I'm typically happy to buy Niman Ranch products as well.
You might think I'm rambling on a bit here, but I actually do have a point. I just needed to lay the groundwork. So back to Wednesday evening. I got it into my head that I would make a pork tenderloin. Too lazy to walk over to the ferry building, I headed to the store near my house (Farmer Joe's) which stocks an array of Niman products. Unfortunately when I got to the store, they were clean out of loins. They did, however, have 'Pork Top Round Roast,' a cut I frankly had never heard of. But, being the adventurous type, I figured I could look it up in one of my all time faves, The Meat Cookbook, and cook it accordingly. I also assumed that it was a lean cut that would probably take well to roasting, similar to a pork tenderloin.
Foiled again. There was no mention of this cut in my tome of meat. Again, too lazy to actually turn on the computer and look it up, I decided to just wing it and roast it like a loin. I rubbed it with a mixture of kosher salt, ground coriander, oregano, basil, thyme, and fennel seeds and let it sit at room temp for about 30 minutes, while I heated up my oven to about 425F, with my trusty cast-iron pan heating up along with the oven. I then seared the outside of the pork on all sides for about 10 minutes, reduced the heat to 300F, and proceeded to roast the pork until it was 145F inside. I then removed it from the oven, let it rest for about 5 minutes (loosely covered with aluminum foil), and then carved it. The pork seemed to be perfectly cooked, light pink, and juicy looking when I sliced it. The herb-crusted exterior was very flavorful, but the pork itself was only mediocre. Even though it appeared juicy, it was a dry and without the rub, somewhat flavorless.
Since I had purchased this mystery cut from Niman Ranch, I decided to visit their website and see if I could learn more about it. I had to dig through the site, but I finally did find the following information: "This small roast is from the inside thigh muscle. It is a great little roast for 2 to 3 people. You'll want to cook it slowly so that it doesn't dry out. Flavor it to your liking, but it goes well with rosemary, garlic, sliced apples or pears."
It was then that I remembered that I had been given Bruce Aidell's Complete Book of Pork for Christmas. This is what happens when you have far too many cookbooks scattered throughout the bookshelves in your house. Oh well, I think I'll go back and get another top round roast and try again!
Monday, April 11, 2005
Sesame Street: 25 Of My Favorite Memories - Progressive Boink
These aren't *my* personal memories but I agree 100%.
Sign-upp now for Donate Life California
Donate Life California: "This site allows you to sign up online to be an organ and tissue donor in California. Your organ donation could save the lives of eight people, and your tissue donation enhance the lives of another 50 people. "
Friday, April 08, 2005
Oakland Gas Prices - Find Cheap Gas Prices in California
This morning I paid $2.77/gallon for reg. unleaded. How much did you pay for your last fill-up?
Wednesday, April 06, 2005
Where Are The Good Christians? / The fanatics and nutjobs now running the show sure give honest believers a bad name
By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist
I know they're out there.
I forget, often, too often, just how many there are but I know they exist in much larger numbers than you might be led to believe by current spiritually embarrassing headlines and I know they are just as, if not more, passionate and healthy and deeply felt in their beliefs than the overpublicized sects of angry and frothing "true believers" screeching into the megaphone of the culture, the ones yanking BushCo's chain and pounding their Bibles and hiding their warped porn fetishes and forcing their way into our lives and laws and bedrooms right now.
They are the decent Christians. They are the calm, morally progressive, compassionate, open-hearted Jesus-loving folk who don't really give a damn for archaic church dogma or pious noise or sanctimonious candlelight vigils, for repressing women or bashing gays or slamming Islam and. in fact, turned to Christianity precisely because they believe these things are abhorrent and wrong and, well, anti-Christian.
They are Episcopalians, for example, that most nimble and intelligent and groundbreaking of Christian churches, a rather revolutionary sect that recently elected its first openly gay bishop and supports gay marriage and dares to ordain women as priests.
And they're still deeply involved in amazing charity work, AIDS and orphanages and Africa and stuff that makes you humble and amazed and they have not, due to this seemingly blasphemous dichotomy and much to the shock of their homophobic conservative brethren, been struck by lightning or doomed to hell for all eternity -- or, rather, if they have, they'll go down happy and intelligent and singing and believing in Jesus anyway, all the way down.
They are the legions of recovering Catholics, people for whom the radiant and positive aspects of this most intense of faiths still hold powerful sway but who just can't abide by the ridiculous and outdated and often homophobic and sexist doctrines hurled forth like so much flaccid manna from the unhappy red-robed automatons of Vatican City.
They are the moderate Christians, the ones who do not support illegal wars or the killing of all doctors who perform abortions and who are all for social justice and who think Bush is a bit of an imbecile, and even if they find themselves for some unfortunate reason in support of the Republican cause overall, they still think it's rather abhorrent that the man dares invoke God to support his lie-ridden wars and the smashing down of women's rights and gay rights and abuse of the environment et al.
How do I know they're out there? Because I hear from them all the time, especially when I get carried away and lump them all together in my often overly harsh criticisms of the faith and my utter lack of patience for its more rabid and small-minded and hateful practitioners and its more violently self-righteous elements, stuff so completely antithetical to what true Christianity, what true faith, true spiritual connection, is all about, it would make Jesus wince.
And these Christians -- let us call them "normal" or perhaps "natural" or even "organic" (i.e.;, devoid of poisons or preservatives or Sanctimonious Growth Hormones) -- they are filling all manner of funky or progressive (or Unitarian) churches across many a large city in America, right now.
They are streaming into huge beautiful nonjudgmental buildings all over San Francisco and Chicago and New York and Boston, etc., places that welcome gays and oddballs and spiritual nomads and pantheists and anyone else who might be feeling a divine pull, and please leave your Jesus extremism at the door and let's talk about Sufism.
And they discuss stuff that sounds much closer to mystical or cosmological or otherwise paganistic energy work than the narrow, spittle-filled believe-in-Jesus-or-burn-in-hell angles of approach you keep hearing about and that tend to slash at your heart and insult your soul.
They're not radical. They're not rabid. They're not full of venom and Rapture and they read books other than the childish Left Behind series and they don't loathe sex or despise other religions or hate their genitalia like Tom DeLay loathes congressional law, and they know full well that Mel Gibson is a rather insane misogynistic blood fetishist who knowingly swiped an illiterate 18th-century stigmatic nun's bizarre and ultraviolent hallucination to use as some sort of dangerous literal truth. Amen.
They are, in short, those who understand the deep irony that, when it comes to religion, the ones who scream and stomp and whine the loudest are often the ones who understand their faith the least.
But there is a reason these calm and moderate and private Christians don't make the news, why, despite their enormous numbers, they are not setting the cultural agenda like some sort of sanctimonious meth-addled monkey (hi, Sen. Santorum!) right now.
It's because they are not organized. They are not a club. They do not have a unified attack agenda. They do not have pamphlets or advertising budgets or congressional lobbyists or the complaint line of every TV network and program except Fox News and "The 700 Club" on speed dial.
They do not call themselves the Parent's Television Council or the Right to Life Marauders or the Family Values Coalition or some other dumbly misleading and patently bogus moniker. They are not attempting to cram already gutted public school textbooks with imbecilic "Intelligent Design" BS, nor are they writing uptight letters to the FCC en masse or ranting about nipples or dildos or low-cut jeans on teenage girls while at the same exact moment repressing their own gay fantasies and kiddie-porn collections.
They understand that our children are at much higher risk of moral and spiritual damage from, say, decimated school budgets and violent presidential warmongering and noxious Kraft Lunchables than they could ever be from Janet Jackson or Abercrombie and Fitch or healthy teen sex.
Most spiritually healthy Christians are simply living their lives, praying deeply, carefully, privately, seeing the divine all around them and choosing Jesus' teachings as the best moral compass, especially the parts about love and healing and empathy and acceptance and turning the other cheek, about how God is not some sneering angry bearded puppeteer but rather a radiant energy force inside everyone and every living thing, always, just waiting for you to tap into it. You know, just like every other religion in existence.
They are the ones who understand that Jesus was, quite simply, one hell of a powerful teacher, and healer, and mystic, and visionary, a pacifist, a liberal, a feminist, the ultimate outsider, one of the finest examples in all of history of how to radiate pure love and compassion and divine interconnection and Lord knows we could all use more of that.
The bad news is, the rabid evangelical set is growing, this cluster of lost and weirdly undereducated people for whom the Bible is literal word-for-word verbatim truth and the Rapture is imminent and the Earth is just a disposable lump and the flesh is a disgusting afterthought and should be ignored and loathed and made really really fat and sexless and sad. And, to my mind, these people deserve all the fiery verbiage and raw satire and intelligent ideological counterforce I can possibly lob their way.
But. Just as there are moderate and wonderfully articulate pro-choice Republicans and just as there are moderate and fiscally conservative liberals, so there are millions of Christians who don't adhere in the slightest to the narrow and spiritually numb worldview now being touted by the BushCo Right. And if we're going to get anywhere with this increasingly desperate and fractured American social experiment, we need to remember that.
I know they're out there.
I forget, often, too often, just how many there are but I know they exist in much larger numbers than you might be led to believe by current spiritually embarrassing headlines and I know they are just as, if not more, passionate and healthy and deeply felt in their beliefs than the overpublicized sects of angry and frothing "true believers" screeching into the megaphone of the culture, the ones yanking BushCo's chain and pounding their Bibles and hiding their warped porn fetishes and forcing their way into our lives and laws and bedrooms right now.
They are the decent Christians. They are the calm, morally progressive, compassionate, open-hearted Jesus-loving folk who don't really give a damn for archaic church dogma or pious noise or sanctimonious candlelight vigils, for repressing women or bashing gays or slamming Islam and. in fact, turned to Christianity precisely because they believe these things are abhorrent and wrong and, well, anti-Christian.
They are Episcopalians, for example, that most nimble and intelligent and groundbreaking of Christian churches, a rather revolutionary sect that recently elected its first openly gay bishop and supports gay marriage and dares to ordain women as priests.
And they're still deeply involved in amazing charity work, AIDS and orphanages and Africa and stuff that makes you humble and amazed and they have not, due to this seemingly blasphemous dichotomy and much to the shock of their homophobic conservative brethren, been struck by lightning or doomed to hell for all eternity -- or, rather, if they have, they'll go down happy and intelligent and singing and believing in Jesus anyway, all the way down.
They are the legions of recovering Catholics, people for whom the radiant and positive aspects of this most intense of faiths still hold powerful sway but who just can't abide by the ridiculous and outdated and often homophobic and sexist doctrines hurled forth like so much flaccid manna from the unhappy red-robed automatons of Vatican City.
They are the moderate Christians, the ones who do not support illegal wars or the killing of all doctors who perform abortions and who are all for social justice and who think Bush is a bit of an imbecile, and even if they find themselves for some unfortunate reason in support of the Republican cause overall, they still think it's rather abhorrent that the man dares invoke God to support his lie-ridden wars and the smashing down of women's rights and gay rights and abuse of the environment et al.
How do I know they're out there? Because I hear from them all the time, especially when I get carried away and lump them all together in my often overly harsh criticisms of the faith and my utter lack of patience for its more rabid and small-minded and hateful practitioners and its more violently self-righteous elements, stuff so completely antithetical to what true Christianity, what true faith, true spiritual connection, is all about, it would make Jesus wince.
And these Christians -- let us call them "normal" or perhaps "natural" or even "organic" (i.e.;, devoid of poisons or preservatives or Sanctimonious Growth Hormones) -- they are filling all manner of funky or progressive (or Unitarian) churches across many a large city in America, right now.
They are streaming into huge beautiful nonjudgmental buildings all over San Francisco and Chicago and New York and Boston, etc., places that welcome gays and oddballs and spiritual nomads and pantheists and anyone else who might be feeling a divine pull, and please leave your Jesus extremism at the door and let's talk about Sufism.
And they discuss stuff that sounds much closer to mystical or cosmological or otherwise paganistic energy work than the narrow, spittle-filled believe-in-Jesus-or-burn-in-hell angles of approach you keep hearing about and that tend to slash at your heart and insult your soul.
They're not radical. They're not rabid. They're not full of venom and Rapture and they read books other than the childish Left Behind series and they don't loathe sex or despise other religions or hate their genitalia like Tom DeLay loathes congressional law, and they know full well that Mel Gibson is a rather insane misogynistic blood fetishist who knowingly swiped an illiterate 18th-century stigmatic nun's bizarre and ultraviolent hallucination to use as some sort of dangerous literal truth. Amen.
They are, in short, those who understand the deep irony that, when it comes to religion, the ones who scream and stomp and whine the loudest are often the ones who understand their faith the least.
But there is a reason these calm and moderate and private Christians don't make the news, why, despite their enormous numbers, they are not setting the cultural agenda like some sort of sanctimonious meth-addled monkey (hi, Sen. Santorum!) right now.
It's because they are not organized. They are not a club. They do not have a unified attack agenda. They do not have pamphlets or advertising budgets or congressional lobbyists or the complaint line of every TV network and program except Fox News and "The 700 Club" on speed dial.
They do not call themselves the Parent's Television Council or the Right to Life Marauders or the Family Values Coalition or some other dumbly misleading and patently bogus moniker. They are not attempting to cram already gutted public school textbooks with imbecilic "Intelligent Design" BS, nor are they writing uptight letters to the FCC en masse or ranting about nipples or dildos or low-cut jeans on teenage girls while at the same exact moment repressing their own gay fantasies and kiddie-porn collections.
They understand that our children are at much higher risk of moral and spiritual damage from, say, decimated school budgets and violent presidential warmongering and noxious Kraft Lunchables than they could ever be from Janet Jackson or Abercrombie and Fitch or healthy teen sex.
Most spiritually healthy Christians are simply living their lives, praying deeply, carefully, privately, seeing the divine all around them and choosing Jesus' teachings as the best moral compass, especially the parts about love and healing and empathy and acceptance and turning the other cheek, about how God is not some sneering angry bearded puppeteer but rather a radiant energy force inside everyone and every living thing, always, just waiting for you to tap into it. You know, just like every other religion in existence.
They are the ones who understand that Jesus was, quite simply, one hell of a powerful teacher, and healer, and mystic, and visionary, a pacifist, a liberal, a feminist, the ultimate outsider, one of the finest examples in all of history of how to radiate pure love and compassion and divine interconnection and Lord knows we could all use more of that.
The bad news is, the rabid evangelical set is growing, this cluster of lost and weirdly undereducated people for whom the Bible is literal word-for-word verbatim truth and the Rapture is imminent and the Earth is just a disposable lump and the flesh is a disgusting afterthought and should be ignored and loathed and made really really fat and sexless and sad. And, to my mind, these people deserve all the fiery verbiage and raw satire and intelligent ideological counterforce I can possibly lob their way.
But. Just as there are moderate and wonderfully articulate pro-choice Republicans and just as there are moderate and fiscally conservative liberals, so there are millions of Christians who don't adhere in the slightest to the narrow and spiritually numb worldview now being touted by the BushCo Right. And if we're going to get anywhere with this increasingly desperate and fractured American social experiment, we need to remember that.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)