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Being an American Business

October 2, 2008 – 10:46 am

…means that you use American workers: Regardless of which area of the America’s they come from or reside - right?!?. I took this over a year ago at Rice to Riches in NYC and never posted so it’s a bit old:

Nice Sombreros Americanos!

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Motivation

October 1, 2008 – 11:01 am

Everyone needs a little insight so why not get it from a poster like all the rest of corporate America:





Back to Original Post

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Opa!

September 20, 2008 – 5:25 pm

This last evening I was able to make it out healthy enough to have a full dinner. Some friends had met one of the owners of Kellari’s Parea Greek Bistro and we stopped in last night which happen to be their Rebetika Greek Music Night.

We sampled a few apps: spanakopita, keftedes, and saganaki. The restaurant specialized in whole fish and why not partake, so I had a grilled tsipoura. We also had some Plaki (Chilean sea bass in a tomato braising), paidakia, and what they call yesterday’s lamb. Most enjoyable though was the few bottles of Tsantali “Rapsani Reserve” (Greek wine) and the atmosphere which brought me back to a few Greek festivals in Oakland. Unfortunately we didn’t get into the Greek dancing but I was fine being a voyeur that night.

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John McCain Gets BarackRoll’d

September 9, 2008 – 3:38 pm

hhaaahaaahaahaaa….

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Why smart people defend dumb ideas candidates

September 1, 2008 – 7:21 pm

I was thinking why are there so many people in this country backing a candidate that I find obnoxious, impetuous, reckless and unqualified. I used to say that the American general public was perpetually stupid but that’s a little brash. Maybe many of these people are really smart but just make stupid decisions. Why?

  • Because they are good at arguing and more over have a need to be right (ego).
  • Because they “all drank the koolaid” or they see no other truth than their own. If there is a group of people who all think the same, there is nobody to stop the homogeny. James Surowiecki who said that for the wisdom of crowds to take place, diversity of experience and levels of knowledge have to be present. A homogenous ’smart’ crowd actually makes worse assessments.
  • Short term thinking. Quite often people put forward quick fixes without considering the long-term consequences. …country first or win at all costs?
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Suggested words John McCain should avoid

August 7, 2008 – 4:35 am

In order to remove the stigma that the candidate is “too old”, John Stewart has made a list of suggested words McCain should not be using any more, including:

contraption
dagnabbit
whipper-snapper
negro league
daguerreotype

And words that are older than he is:
telegraph
fossil
sarsaparilla

Some additional words I think should be added to this list:
dotard
flummoxed
hobnob
revelry
merrymaking
turnip
varmint
yore
maverick

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Two bound Mice

July 27, 2008 – 7:28 pm

Monday on my lunch break, I had the fan permanently focused in my direction, sitting on the couch watching the dvr replay of Countdown from last Friday. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a gray flash under the closet door. I quickly open the closet and out scurry a small mouse darting for the fridge across the kitchen. Shit we have a mouse.

The night of the party, Olly had told me he had a mouse and when I picked up my equipment one of my boxes was open and would have been accessible to a mouse to hide in. Great I’ve acquired Olly’s guest, or so I thought.

I remember having mice come in to the house from the local fields near our house and remembering how dad took care of em: snap traps with a spread of peanut butter. Still at “work” I blocked of the access to the apt from the fridge with glue traps for bugs. Later that evening I met E at Ace and she encouraged me to buy the glue traps because she had though they were more humane (according to Peta they apparently are not).

I bought four trays of death, placing them around the fridge, office and near the front door and then waited. It was a few days before I saw the mouse pop out again, only to avoid my traps and snap tosses of Tupperware to snag the rodent.

Thursday after work, I was wrapping up the day and ready to head out to happy hour when I heard a rustlin’ by the fridge… A mouse had been snared in the trap and with one foot out of the trap was trying to wiggle free. Sweet!

Friday, however, was not so sweet. E spied another one and we resolved that one was not a fluke, we have an infestation and it’s based behind the fridge. I hadn’t known if that was the only source so we put out the traps again and on Sunday we had the battle royal.

Today, again, Mickey scurried to the closet but it would soon be his last adventure from the dusty domain of our fridge. We quickly created a rodeo ring around the French door opening with the only exit giving access through a glue trap run. Extracting all the shoes, bags and winter gear we forced the second one through the hall of death and caught him in his tracks. This one two didn’t ’scream’ as I was told and I’m sure it struggled for a few days in the trash bin as two glue traps clasped it to it’s death. The trapped mice problem was superficial and I resolved this begrudgingly by extracting all our house appliances. With steal wool in one hand and a fat tube of cock in the others, I filled all the holes and secured our status as rodent free.

I can now rest easy with my bedroom door open to the A/C and frequent breeze.

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Happy Birthday Lady!

July 20, 2008 – 6:14 pm

Just a quick shot out to the woman for her birthday this month. I took her to L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon in the Four Seasons over the weekend and it was by far one of my top restaurant I’ve been to in the city. JR focusing on French with Japanese influences. We had the 6 course tasting and each was more unique and exquisite than the last.

By the time of writing this, this restaurant is voted the best in NYC by the user community at Yelp.

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Russian partiers blinded by rave lasers

July 14, 2008 – 3:39 pm

photo by loupiote (Old Skool) on Flikr I’ve seen many a laser show in my day and have even booked the guys at UV99 for one of our last blow outs but this news is crazy and unique to the idiots running the lasers at this out door festival in Russia - revelers were subjected to intense laser burns when they were refracted down to eye level.

MOSCOW (Reuters story here) - Dozens of partygoers at an outdoor rave near Moscow last week have lost partial vision after a laser light show burned their retinas, Russian health officials said on Monday.

Moscow city health department officials confirmed 12 cases of laser-blindness at the Central Ophthalmological Clinic, and daily newspaper Kommersant said another 17 were registered at City Hospital 32 in the centre of the capital.

Attendees at the July 5 Aquamarine Open Air Festival in Kirzhach, 80 km (50 miles) northeast of Moscow, began seeking medical help days after the show, complaining of eye and vision problems, health officials told Reuters.

“They all have retinal burns, scarring is visible on them. Loss of vision in individual cases is as high as 80 percent, and regaining it is already impossible,” Kommersant quoted a treating ophthalmologist as saying.

Attendees said heavy rains forced organisers to erect massive tents for the all-night dance party, and lasers that normally illuminate upwards into the sky were instead partially refracted into the ravers’ eyes.

“I immediately had a spot like when you stare into the sun,” rave-attendee Dmitry told Kommersant.

“After three days I decided to go to the hospital. They examined me, asked if I had been at Open Air, and then put me straight in the hospital. I didn’t even get to go home and get my stuff,” he said

More at Reuters

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A water sommelier?

July 2, 2008 – 8:43 am

Now this is getting ridiculous. The absurdity is far reaching including, diluting desalinated seawater from Hawaii (at $33.50 for a two-ounce bottle, what type of cheap water do they add to dilute it) and Bling H2O is marketing a “luxury” brand of water that costs over a million dollars of what you get from the tap ($40 for 750 milliliters, with special-edition bottles going for $480). Read the rest of Shankar Vedantam’s report in the Washington Post.

I’ll stick to New Yorks finest for now…

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