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http://www.principiadiscordia.com/forum/index.php?topic=27318.0

We all like drinking.

Neocons aren't even pretending to respect the machinery of policy-making anymore.

Speaking at a security conference in Canada yesterday, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) took it upon himself to make U.S.-Iran policy, declaring that "Containment is off the table":

    The South Carolina Republican saw the United States going to war with the Islamic republic "not to just neutralize their nuclear program, but to sink their navy, destroy their air force and deliver a decisive blow to the Revolutionary Guard, in other words neuter that regime."

In a recent article, Ken Pollack of the Brookings Institution wrote that an attack of the sort that Sen. Graham is calling for "will likely mean the end of the international effort to contain the Iranian nuclear program altogether":

    Tehran will probably withdraw from the NPT, arguing (rightly) that the vast majority of the information that the United States relied on to mount the air strikes came from the IAEA inspectors—and since the NPT was a vehicle for American aggression against Iran, there is no reason for Tehran to remain a party to it. As for the international community, they will doubtless blame Washington for having driven the Iranians out of the treaty. Gone too will be the international consensus to compel Iran to end its nuclear activities through sanctions. America would have violated a critical provision of the resolutions, not to mention the UN Charter, and will have to expect that China will lead a stampede of countries away from that effort and back into the arms of the Islamic Republic.

    A repeat attempt by the United States (or anyone else) to destroy Iran's facilities by force will then be impossible. Once the IAEA inspectors are gone, so too will be our best and most comprehensive sources of information on the Iranian program. Washington won't have the option of bombing Iran again if the regime begins to rebuild its nuclear capabilities after the first round of strikes. And serious international pressure on Tehran will come to an end.

Pollack determined that, "Under current conditions, attacking Iran is more likely to guarantee an Iranian nuclear arsenal than to preclude it."

Iranian democracy activists have been very vocal against a U.S. attack on Iran. In a recent interview with Think Progress, Nobel Peace Prize-winning human rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi stated unequivocally that the military option would be disastrous:

    "The military option will not benefit the U.S. interest or the Iranian interest," said Ebadi. "It is the worst option. You should not think about it." Ebadi said, "The Iranian people — including myself — will resist any military action."

    An attack on Iran "would give the government an excuse to kill all of its political opponents, as was done during the Iran-Iraq war." For this reason, Ebadi suggested that the Iranian government probably "wouldn't mind the U.S. throwing a missile at them."

Ebadi also criticized the Bush administration's "axis of evil" approach in the Middle East, saying that Iran and Ahmadinejad, had become more popular in the region because of U.S. policies, particularly the invasion and occupation of Iraq.

In a May interview, Iranian dissident Akbar Ganji described the destructive impact of Bush's "axis of evil" rhetoric on pro-democracy Iranian moderates. "The belligerent rhetoric of Bush didn't help us [the Iranian democracy movement], it harmed us," Ganji said. He insisted that "jingoistic, militaristic language used by any foreign power would actually be detrimental to this natural evolution of Iranian society."

It's amazing that, having been proved catastrophically wrong about Iraq, neocons like Graham are now calling for yet another war in the Middle East, defiantly ignorant of the actual consequences. Is it too much to hope that America has learned to stop listening to them?

http://thinkprogress.org/2010/11/03/rand-paul-plutocracy/

Last night, Kentucky elected Rand Paul (R-KY), the son of Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), to the U.S. Senate. Speaking to CNN's Wolf Blitzer, Paul announced his intention to do anything it takes to shield the privileged rich and corporate America. Asked if he would end the $830 billion, unpaid-for Bush tax cuts to the rich and return tax rates for the wealthiest bracket to Clinton-era levels, Paul snapped and said such a move would cause a "second great depression" and declared that "anybody who proposes such a policy really is, I think, unfit to be making decisions."

Paul then clarified his delusional worldview by telling Blitzer that "there are no rich" and "there are no poor." In Paul's mind, even taxing yachts would somehow punish the working poor in Kentucky. "We all either work for rich people or we sell stuff to rich people," concluded Rand:

    PAUL: I would say that they must be in favor of a second American depression, because if you raise taxes to that consequence, that's what will happen in this country. Raising taxes in the midst of a recession would be a disaster for our economy. And anybody who proposes such a policy really is, I think, unfit to be making decisions.

    BLITZER: What if they just raised taxes on the richest, those making more than 250,000 dollars a year?

    PAUL: Well, the thing is, we're all interconnected. There are no rich. There are no middle class. There are no poor. We all are interconnected in the economy. You remember a few years ago, when they tried to tax the yachts, that didn't work. You know who lost their jobs? The people making the boats, the guys making 50,000 and 60,000 dollars a year lost their jobs. We all either work for rich people or we sell stuff to rich people. So just punishing rich people is as bad for the economy as punishing anyone. Let's not punish anyone. Let's keep taxes low and let's cut spending.

I love this decade!

enough with the fucking ATTN threads already.

there isn't even a dead horse left to beat, you're just whipping a fine equine mist now.

My life hasn't left much time for fuckery lately.

And by "lately", I mean since sometime in 2007.

This has been weighing on me recently, as it occurs to me more and more often that all the career success and financial stability in the world doesn't mean fuck-all if I can't parlay it into the time and resources to go inflict my kind of FUN on my surroundings.

Norfolk and the surrounding area (colloquially known as Hampton Roads) is, culturally speaking, part of The South. Not the south of backwater Mississippi or tar-paper shacks in the Appalachians of Tennessee; this is the genteel South of refined accents, sweet tea, and the kind of christianity that is so self-assured that it doesn't feel the need for evangelical fervor. This is the mannered and cultured South, where good looks go far and good manners even farther.

This place has been growing on me as I've spent more time here. I sense that there are opportunities here for someone who is willing to use the superficial framework of this culture to their advantage. I could think of no more appropriate time to put this to the test than a holiday dedicated to appearing as something you're not.

Also, the rest of the crew was going to Joe's Crab Shack and then Hooters. This did not appeal to me in the slightest.

Now, I may be a jeans and black t-shirt scumbag at heart, but I know how to dress well when I have to, and I keep a few outfits handy because you never know when you might get invited to a horse race or a high-class backroom poker game. Since your hair is an important part of your overall look, I stopped on my shopping trip to stock the ship and got my hair cut at an old-school barber shop. Nice short conservative cut with a straight-razor trim around the ears and on the back of the neck.

On one of my excursions to explore Norfolk, I had come across a very posh-looking residential high-rise on the edge of downtown, over towards Ghent, which is the artsy "uptown" part of the city. The kind of place with a doorman in a tuxedo and water views in every direction. The cheapest car I saw in the parking lot was an Audi; Benzes and Porsches were more common. When I brought it up to a casual acquaintance, I was told that the bottom-floor condos started at around 350K, the penthouses on the upper floors were all well over a million. He also told me that he had been in there on occasion when his manager had invited people over for drinks, and that there was a complex on the rooftop with a gym, sauna, hot tub, huge balconies with sweeping views, and best of all...a literal pool on the roof.

A plan began to take shape in my mind.

I cashed in some of the brownie points I earned by helping the Captain impress all the rich yachties on the saturday night dock crawl and took the company car for the evening so I wouldn't have to worry about catching the last ferry back to Portsmouth at 9:45. Showered, shaved, used some of the expensive aftershave I keep for just such occasions, made my hair perfect, threw on the pink Izod shirt and black corduroys, grabbed the best bottle of wine I could find in the ship's wine cupboard, and headed toward the midtown tunnel over to Norfolk. I took advantage of the free parking for shoppers at the MacArthur Center (figuring a Chevy Cobalt would never pass muster at the tower), ran in to buy an energy drink at Mr. Convenience and get my merchant ticket for the parking garage, then walked about a half-mile down West Brambleton Avenue to my target. I was afraid I'd have to come back early and move the car when the center closed, but luck was with me and they were having a halloween festival that would keep them open until midnight.

Having had to learn to talk like a white American when I moved to the states at the age of 5 has allowed me to develop an knack for mimicry. I was always the best student in any foreign-language class I ever took because in addition to the vocabulary, I could always nail the accent. I got good enough in Russian to switch between Muscovite and St. Petersburg accents. A couple of months in the area was more than enough time to learn the idiosyncracies of the unique Tidewater accent found in Southeastern Virginia. As I approached the entrance to the tower, I flipped an internal switch and became Carter Jackson, junior railroad executive and new inhabitant of 904 (a unit that, with a little internet research, I had learned was being sublet). I wasn't technically moving in until tomorrow, of course, but the lease was already signed and I had been informed that the unit was empty and ready for me to move into and who wouldn't want to come check out their posh new condo a night early if given the chance?

In the end, as I had been hoping, the look and the manners got me in the door without ever having to resort to the story.

The last potential obstacle to my mission never materialized. Once in the elevator, all floors were accessible without a key or card being needed for the upper floors. I pushed the button for the 21st floor and headed up to the pool on the roof.

To say that the rooftop complex was "nice" or "posh" wouldn't do it justice. It was fucking stellar. Wearing swim trunks under my pants wasn't terribly comfortable, but it was immediately worth the temporary testicular restriction I had endured as I slipped into the heated olympic-sized pool. After a few laps, the sauna beckoned, followed by another dip in the pool. by this time, some of the resident yuppies had joined me, so I "introduced" myself, opened the wine, and we sat in the hot tub drinking and talking about how nice it was to be rich, white, and good-looking in a modern Southern metropolis. I even got a phone number from the lone single lady among the 6 of us, a number which (though I can never use it) lent a final judgment of legitimacy to my act. I hung out, soaking and mingling until around 11:30, then dried off, dressed, and walked back to the car feeling more satisfied than I have in a very long time.

This, for all of it's success, was a practice round. Society around here operates within a very specific framework. Nice clothes, good manners, a charming smile, a good fake accent, and the occasional "god willing" thrown into your dialogue can open all kinds of doors here. I have no real social or emotional investment in this area, so I have nothing to lose if things go horribly wrong at some point. I intend to see how far I can push this. I want to see if Carter Jackson can get invited to a swank downtown athletic club, or a luxury suite at a horse race, or even one of those society balls. I want to see exactly how deep I can get just by being superficially correct.

I have a mission. The fuckery is back.

I'd like to revise/clarify the rules concerning deletion/snipping/splitting of threads.

as of now, threads/posts are only to be deleted or snipped for the following reasons:

contains content that could land the board in legal trouble. (PI, copyright, porn, etc.)

image bombs.

thread is too large and needs to be restarted (a la Pics or open bar)

that's it. posts from trolls can stay. we're big boys and can deal with trolls, even ones who are banned and using proxies. We re-ban them, but their posts stay unless they've violated either of the first two abovementioned rules. posts from people who later wish they hadn't posted that will stay. those people need to learn to think before they post. if the person who started the thread asks for it to be split because of a derail, that's fine, but the split thread stays in the original subforum until it sinks to the bottom and dies a natural death. I hope this doesn't cause any of our esteemed posters any undue stress, but if it does I'll be happy to tell them to put on their big-boy pants.


ALSO...


we only ban people for a handful of reasons. One of those reasons is evading a previous ban.

BUT...

we ONLY ban people for being previously banned when we are 100% CERTAIN that they are who we think they are (football fans will get the joke here). Not because they post in a similar manner. Admission by the poster in question and/or IP traces verified by and discussed among at least a majority (if not all) of the admin team are the ONLY reasons we ban posters for being previously banned. I'd rather let ALL of the previously banned posters back in (even Durko) than lose ONE new poster because one of us was suspicious of them.

That is all, gentlemen, thank you for your time.

[FFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!]

...WHO FUCKING INSIST ON FINDING A REASON TO TAKE EVERY SINGLE POST ON THIS FORUM PERSONALLY OR COMPLETELY TWISTING THE ORIGINAL MEANING SO YOU CAN BITCH AND WHINE ABOUT SOMETHING THAT THE DISCUSSION ACTUALLY OBVIOUSLY HAS FUCK-ALL TO DO WITH:

KNOCK IT THE FUCK OFF. SRSLY. OR GO TO FUCKING TCC OR MYSTICKWICKS OR GAIA FUCKING ONLINE. HOW FUCKING OLD ARE ALL OF YOU ANYWAY? I SWEAR TO CUNTING CHRISTWAFFLES I WILL MAKE A FUCKING "CORNER" SUBFORUM AND FUCKING PUT YOU IN IT UNTIL YOU STOP BEING WILLFULLY FUCKING RETARDED, CRIES OF ADMIN ABUSE BE DAMNED.

IF YOU THINK THIS IS DIRECTED AT YOU, IT PROBABLY FUCKING IS. IT'S DIRECTED AT A DEPRESSINGLY AND INCREASINGLY LARGE NUMBER OF YOU.

FFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!


OK, I feel .000000003% better now.

...to eat too much pork. My pee smells like bacon.

http://www.regretsy.com/2010/10/11/pink-spanker/

NSFW.

NSFLife.

NSFSoul.

So now that I have this awesome new job....I just got offered an awesome job. The chef I worked for in St. Thomas a few years ago is opening a couple of gourmet food carts in Austin, TX and wants me to help him run them. It would be hard work and the pay would, at best, be equal to my current pay if not a c-hair lower, but I'd be home every night and I really liked working for him before. Dude knows his shit and isn't shy about sharing the knowledge, and he works as hard as he asks his people to work rather than using their hard work as a reason to slack off, something too many people do when they end up being top toque. So basically, I see it as being a choice between a job that's exciting and takes me to exotic places and allows me to be in on cool secret stuff but isn't really advancing my career path any and a job that puts me back in the mundane world but would be really good career-wise and I'd learn a ton of new things and my fortunes would be tied to a chef who has a long track record of success. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this dilemma, particularly from anyone who has any experience with Austin, TX.

Sorry I never got a chance to hang out with you guys while I was home. I ended up camping on the WA coast and Olympic Peninsula for 3 days, and that rocked but it ate up pretty much all of my free time. I'll try to catch up to you guys in December when I have more time off. In the meantime, keep kicking the shins of the squatters on Hawthorne for me.

Why did you name yourself after a crappy christian nu-metal band fronted by a white guy with dredlocks?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOESyEljmFE

http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/last-days/Content?oid=4887839&hp

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 11 Nothing happened today, unless you count the ninth anniversary of the worst day in modern American history, or the operatic tragedy that unfolded in Enumclaw, where tonight a group of friends gathered at a bar for a birthday party, on the way home from which one of the guests fatally struck a bicyclist, realized the dead cyclist was the friend whose birthday they'd just been celebrating, and immediately committed suicide with a pistol. "We're investigating to see if alcohol was a factor on the part of the driver," said Sgt. John Urquhart of the King County Sheriff's Office to KING 5.

http://exiledonline.com/how-christopher-hitchens-robbed-hunter-s-thompsons-grave/

So I meet this girl that I've been talking to online for a few days, she ends up being really cool (and pretty cute), and she takes me to this kickass bar in Virginia beach that has BEERPONG INSIDE THE BAR, and introduces me to a bunch of her friends who are all really cool and very welcoming and pretty much make me feel like part of the clique right off the bat. They're all pretty normal dudes (at least, normal as far as the kind of people I usually hang out with), not yuppies, not white trash, just solid blue-collar dudes out having a good time on a holiday weekend. However, after a few hours something dawns on me. This girl and her friends all have something in common...


They're all Juggalos.

And they were all cool as hell to me all night long and I'm really glad to have some local friends. So I apologize to all the Juggalos for basing my opinion on stereotype, hearsay, and a few chance encounters with a few random assholes who would still be assholes no matter what subculture they chose to identify with.

Sorry, wicked clowns. I'm pretty fuckin' far from running out and getting a hatchetman tattoo, but it might be fair to say I've got clown love, even if I still think the music sucks.

It's good to be reminded to keep an open mind about everything.

go to google maps and search for "nTelos wireless pavilion, portsmouth, VA". a short distance southeast you'll see where 1st street starts, and there's a large building between the street and the water. Just off the SE corner of that building is a lot with several ships in it, the large ship tied up next to that lot is the one I work on.

for comments, suggestions, feedback, tips, tricks, etc. dealing with the recipes in the recipes only thread.

recipes ONLY please.

...ASK ME ANYTHING!

So, I'm getting 3 weeks off between Sept. 23rd and Oct. 15th. I'll be flying to Maine, then driving from Maine to Oregon on an as-yet undetermined route. I'm pretty sure that I'll be stopping in Lincoln, Nebraska, and I fully intend to swing south and hit Tucson, San Diego, and LA before heading north up the coast.

If any of you spags want to hang out, post it here and I'll do my best to work you in to the tour, geography and time permitting.

[CHAPTER 1]

yeah, yeah, I know I never finished the first one, but that hasn't prevented me from writing the sequel. So without further ado...

CHAPTER 1

If I had known that Manny was in the hospital in Puerto Rico and not expected to come out of the hospital alive, I probably wouldn't have gone home.

If I had known that Malik was one of the 5 prisoners that escaped from the territorial prison on St. Croix, I not only wouldn't have gone home, I might have decided that it was a good time to spend a year in Europe.

I was blissfully ignorant of these two facts, which was why I found myself stepping off the plane at Cyril E. King International Airport at around 8:30 pm on a Friday evening in early December. This time I wasn't here for a visit, I was moving home. In the end, my desire to be back on The Rock and to leave the failure of my business venture in the states behind had won out over common sense, better judgment, and all of my instincts for self-preservation.

When your family knows they only get to see you for 10 days, they go out of their way to accommodate you during your time there. When you're moving back in to their house, you get to pay for your own cab from the airport. I grabbed a rum punch from the airport bar, hailed a taxi, and told him to head for the Northside.

"No, man, not this way. I want to go through town down Back Street and then up Mafolie Hill."

"Dat gyan cost extra, m'sun. Way outta my way an' I gyan have lot of calls from de clubs tonight."

Technically the taxis here are legally required to charge a flat-rate based on the destination, and it's really only going to take an extra five or ten minutes, but he's right about being busy on a friday night during tourist season so I pad the normal fare with an extra $20 and tell him to drive slow down Back Street. On an ordinary night, there would be plenty of things to catch my attention here, Dominican hookers, drug dealers with waist-length dredlocks, drunk tourists throwing up in gutters or getting mugged in dark alleys, pimps, hustlers, addicts, and degenerates of every imaginable permutation infest Charlotte Amalie after dark like maggots on a shitheap, but I only have eyes for one thing, and there it is, on my left. And much to my surprise (and immense relief), Sky High is still shuttered and abandoned, almost 15 months after the shootout and the subsequent fire that ravaged it at the hands of one pissed-off and desperate white boy. I give no indication that this burnt-out husk of a former strip club and whorehouse is the object of my interest, and the cabbie takes no notice of my intense scrutiny of the site where I probably signed my eventual death warrant. We reach the end of Back Street and turn left up Bunker Hill, hook another left up Mafolie Hill, left again on Skyline Drive until it turns into Hull Bay Road, and then I'm home.

By 9:30, I've showered, shaved, and changed into shorts and a t-shirt. I haven't told anyone I'm not related to that I'm coming back, for obvious reasons. As I'm pondering whether to call Devin or Tim first, the decision is taken out of my hands. My cell phone starts ringing, showing the caller as an unfamiliar number with a Los Angeles area code. Relieved that it's not a call originating on St. Thomas, I answer.

"Hello?"

"J! how the fuck are you, brother?"

It's Linkey. My best friend since birth, only son of my father's former smuggling partner. I haven't talked to him since we had a falling out when I lived in LA, 5 years ago. From my perspective, he still owes me a substantial amount of money. Still, he's my best friend and 5 years is a long enough dose of the silent treatment.

"Uhh....I'm good, man. How are you doing? It's good to hear from you, man. For real, I mean that."

"Never mind all that. Water under the bridge, man. Listen, I need a favor from you."

"Uhh...OK, but that might be tricky, you see, I'm...."

"Yeah, you're on St. Thomas. Listen, drop your shit off, put a couple days worth of clothes in a backpack, and get your ass to Red Hook. If you hurry, you can still catch the last ferry to St. John."

My brain is vapor locked. What the fuck is he talking about?

"Uhh..."

"Seriously, you need to hurry. The last ferry leaves at 11. Remember where the old Back Room was in Cruz Bay?"

"Yeah..."

"Well it's called the Lizard Lounge now. Get there as quick as you can, it's urgent."

"Waittaminute, what the fuck is going on here? What are you talking about? And why would I run off to St. John? I just fucking got here, bro, I want to say hi to my family. What's in St. John that's so important?"

"Nevermind your mom and Doc. They'll be there when you get back. Just get your ass to the Lizard Lounge. When you get there, ask for the Manager."

"Why?"

"Because, that's me. I bailed on LA about 6 months ago. I need a bouncer. One that can deal with white people and West Indians. My last bouncer was a statesider, and that didn't work out well."

"What do you mean by that?"

"He got stabbed last night. Don't worry, he was an idiot. You won't have any problems. Just get here tonight. I need you man, I'm serious. I need someone here that I can trust."

No sense arguing. He and I  both know that I'm going to say yes. My mom comes in as I'm stuffing some clothes in my backpack.

"Hi honey, welcome home! Wait, why are you packing that? You're not going somewhere, are you? You just got here!"

"Umm, yeah mom, I gotta get to Red Hook before 11. Linkey called, he needs me to work tonight."

This has exactly the effect I hoped it would, which is to leave her confused and speechless. Best to cut her off at the pass before she gets a good head of steam up. I kiss her on the cheek and head out the door.

I call Cuz for a ride from the bottom of the driveway. He shows up ten minutes later. Red Hook is a 30 minute drive from the house. 15 minutes later, we're pulling into the ferry dock parking lot.

"Jesus, Cuz, I see almost dying hasn't done anything to slow you down."

"Nah, J, gotta live life every minute, y'know?"

I can't argue with that. I thank him for the lift and promise to catch up to him later, and get on the last boat to Cruz Bay.

I just found out that:

1) when we get back to port in VA on the 31st, we have a week off (paid), followed by a 4-month job that will have us leaving port every week on monday and returning on thursday. We get the entire weekend off (again, paid) for 4 straight months.

2) when that job ends, we will get the entire month of january off (not paid, but still sweet as hell. STT, here I come.)

3) when we resume work again in february, we will either be reprising the job that gets us paid weekends off, or we will be going to the bahamas, tying up to the dock, and not leaving. We would essentially be a floating hotel, which means that when I'm not busy making the food I get to go fuck off and go scuba diving, bonefishing, and exploring the vast emptiness of Andros Island.

4) There's a very good chance that, come June, we will be taking a job that will have us working in motherfucking NORWAY for the entire summer.

I love this job.

Srsly, do never attempt to deep-fry anything while taking 20-degree rolls. Makes frying bacon while naked look like a vacation on the Riviera.

What the shitting asspolyps is up with the new retarded postcounts? Is this some blisshippie bullshit that we enacted to try to make this board more egalitarian?

And why the fuck would we WANT this place to be more egalitarian? This is fucking PD, you have to EARN the right to not have your ideas chopped into dogshit carpaccio for opening your noob mouth. It's bad enough we invited a bunch of pagan cunts over here without beating every last trace of paganinity out of them on the way in the door, now this?

what the fuck is this forum trying to turn into?

I'll be in town for a few days. I highly suggest locking up your women and your whiskey.

I accidentally some unsterilized lake water while up at camp this weekend and I'm pretty sure I have Giardia now. Mere mortals consider this insidious microbe to be some sort of affliction, but I think of it more as being touched by divinity.

http://www.helium.com/items/1882339-doomsday-how-bp-gulf-disaster-may-have-triggered-a-world-killing-event

I got offered a job today. I'm going to give notice at my job tomorrow and ship out on August 10th as the cook on a research vessel. My first gig (which will serve as my probationary period) is 3 weeks in the Bahamas. My job is to cook 3 simple and reasonably nutritious squares a day for a maximum of 17 people (7 ship's crew plus up to 10 science team members) and to keep food expenses within the budget. For this fairly simple task, I will be paid handsomely on a per diem basis, 7 days a week since I have to feed the crew everyday. If my performance is deemed satisfactory, the cook job on that ship will be mine for as long as I want it. Or until I've become proficient enough in that aspect of the trade to "jump ship" to a larger vessel for higher pay. The captain of the ship was probably my best customer when I owned a pizzeria (and an occasional poker buddy) and most of the crew of the ship are people I have known for years and get along with really well. I just more than doubled my current income and swapped a job I've come to hate for a job that oughtta be pretty fuckin' sweet.

I GET PAID TO HANG OUT ON A BOAT IN THE BAHAMAS, MOTHERFUCKERS.

A BOAT, MOTHERFUCKERS.

ECH,
not personally experiencing a recession.

My finger smells DELICIOUS.

so....GO!

...I really couldn't find the words that would make you understand.



but I found this picture.

...if you want me to call you a whiny fucking pussy.

seriously, people, it's annoying and stupid as all hell but it's just a little drama.


"BAWWWW THEY'RE BEING MEAN TO EACH OTHER ON PEEDEE AND MY FRAGILE LITTLE MANGINA CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE. I'D BETTER CRY ABOUT IT FOR A BIT BEFORE I PROCEED TO EATING AN ENTIRE TUB OF ICE CREAM AND NOT GETTING LAID ANYTIME IN THE FORSEEABLE FUTURE. BAWWW BAWWW BAWWWW!"
\

I'm leaving tomorrow. Leaving this valley of torpor and contentment to cross 2000 miles of wasteland and another 1400 miles of a different kind of wasteland in pursuit of my own personal boomtown. I have a week's worth of food, water, and cold-brewed retard death coffee. A laptop with wifi. A rat named Robot Nixon for a co-pilot. A blanket and pillow, some flares, and 2 duffel bags full of clothes. A case full of ridiculously sharp knives, plus some more knives. A full complement of hand tools. Oh yeah, and I'm armed to the fucking teeth. I'm driving into the mouth of a storm, apparently. I can stop short of SLC and hope that by the time I cross the wasatch range on thursday temperatures will be high enough that everything will be rain from there to the continental divide. Or, I can push on and try to get all the way to Evanston, WY before I stop for the night tomorrow, leaving the worst of the storm to pass west of me on thursday morning but knowing that I will be spending a night in my truck in the high empty wastes of western Wyoming in the snow and the wind with nothing but my rat and my gun to keep me company and of course that high keening wail outside is just the wind whipping through the canyon. These are strange times and there are strange things on the road. The empty places aren't empty any longer...


...or, at least, not the kind of empty we wish them to be.

I intend to be antagonizing rightpunks in Omaha with Z3 by friday night, but I don't expect anything. For all I know, I could end up taken captive by some strange mormon cult. I could end up being some sadistic cop's newest chewtoy. I could just end up as wendigo food.

I know this: we live in interesting times, and I intend to live them right to the fucking hilt. The only thing that terrifies me more than the thought of someday finding the truth behind this highway is the thought of never finding the truth behind this highway. It's time to find out what's out there, and Robot Nixon and I are just the trigger-happy bastards for the job.

I'll talk to you again on friday

[Smoked Sea Salt]

I have several. Little things I use in dishes for that little extra something that elevates a dish from good to remarkable. I'm gonna share a few of mine, since I believe that recipes should be open source and that excellence in cooking is determined primarily by technique and skill rather than creativity.

Smoked Sea Salt

Sometimes I want to add a smoky flavor to a dish. I don't have a smoker at hand, and by the time I've gotten around to finalizing a dinner special I usually don't have the time to smoke a protein anyway, as it takes several hours at the very least. Liquid Smoke has a flavor that is both overbearing and instantly recognizable as fraudulent. Smoked Sea Salt brings that smoky flavor in a controllable dosage and paired with something normally added to food anyway (salt) that helps to subtly blend the added flavor in rather than highlighting something that should be a background note. I also frequently add this to garlic mashed potatoes when using them as the starch for a beef or game dish, and almost invariably get a few "the customer wanted you to know these were the best mashed potatoes they've ever had" out of what would otherwise be an unremarkable and almost trite side dish.

Bonito Flakes

Essential for brothy soups. Seems obvious for seafood-based soups, but I also use it in much smaller amounts in beef and pork-based soups and stews for a hint of "umami" (I dislike the term but can't think of a better one myself). Not for use with creamy soups or tomato-based soups, IMO.

Coconut and Cane Vinegars

I've been using this stuff in everything lately, and not just savory dishes. It;s found it's way into some dessert experimentation lately, which is something I normally don't even do. But I love pickling things, and quick-pickling some sugar-laden tropical fruit in either of these sweeter and milder than normal vinegars makes a great basis or addition to many warmed-fruit desserts. I've been adding a splash of coconut vinegar to my Bananas Foster. The cane vinegar transforms a basic blood orange reduction into something you can't live without on top of a slice of cheesecake. I also use the coconut vinegar liberally in both my adobo and posole recipes. And either one is a great addition to ceviche.

Matamis Na Bao (Coconut Jam)

Basically, it's caramel sauce made from coconut cream instead of a dairy product. The dessert applications are numerous and obvious, and the stuff is delicious just smeared on some toast or a piece of fruit, but it's also quite useful in savory applications. Its high sugar content causes it to burn easily, so you generally want to use it in things that are either cooking at a lower heat (braising, poaching, slow-roasting) or us it in something that will be added towards the end of cooking. My current favorite uses for it are in barbecue sauce (the kind you baste on for a glaze at the very end of cooking) and as an ingredient in stir-fry dishes to balance out the saltiness of the soy sauce and give some body to the sauce without having to use any cornstarch.

http://blogtown.portlandmercury.com/BlogtownPDX/archives/2010/04/01/prank-renames-interstate-ave-to-tonya-harding-ave

...I've decided to rescind the ban on Daruko and allow him to post here again.

OK, now that I've pissed off 2/3 of the posters here (but only the 2/3 that deserved it), who wants to have a beer with me next month?

I'll be leaving PDX sometime around april 18th-20th, and arriving in Maine no later than April 29th. Still not sure which route I'm taking, as I may or may not have to pick up one of my cooks from Colorado and give him a ride back to Maine also.

Definite tour stops:

Tri-Cities, WA
Omaha, NE
Pontiac, MI
Portland, ME

Likely tour stops:

SLC area
Denver, CO


Anyone on or near I-84, I-15, I-70, I-80, I-90, or I-95 should let me know if they want to get together for beers and potential mischief. I'll be camping in my truck for the most part, so offering crash space is appreciated but not necessary.

I wasn't very eloquent about trying to present this idea before, so instead of trying to cut through 20+ pages of idiocy to revive the first thread I started on the topic, I'm making this shiny new one. I'd really like everyone's feedback on this, provided it's thoughtful rather than some lame attempt at a snarky one-liner.

I think the problem is that for whatever reason, PD has become less a place where people trade ideas and thoughts about what's going on in the world around them, how their interactions with the world around them effect themselves and others, and how we might be able to harness and/or direct that and more about presenting everything from a personal and purely self-centered framework.

IOW, we used to bitch about our jobs/politicians/etc. and apply these gripes to a larger framework or use them to build to an overarching point about something besides ourselves, now we just bitch about our jobs/politicians/etc. BECAUSE of how it effects us. It's one thing to occasionally interject an interesting or amusing purely personal story into the dialogue. It reminds us that we're some bizarre permutation of a tribe and that we're here to help each other progress and build. But when that kind of dialogue overtakes everything else and becomes the FOCUS of the site, we've really literally become nothing more than "facebook for weirdos". The foundation of this site is the desire to understand the processes that rule our environment well enough to be able to use them for our own ends (even if we have wildly differing ends amongst ourtselves), not the desire to know what you and your boyfriend did last night or what petty personal tribulations you are going through on a daily basis. I apologize if that's not what some of you want out of PD.com, but you are free to discuss all of those things amongst yourselves via PM, or IRC, or, you know, some other forum that's meant for that sort of thing. I used to think that unfettered growth of this site was to be desired for its own sake, now I realize that was just ego talking for me and that really this place might be better off (in the context of it's original stated purpose) being smaller and leaner. I don't know what can be done to impose this, and I'm not certain that I should even attempt to impose anything here anymore, but I want everyone to be very clear about what my problem is, at the very least.

So...my bracket is ranked #40 out of EVERY facebook user who filled out a bracket (several million). And none of the 39 brackets currently ahead of me has all of their final 4 teams left like I do. I think this means there's a pretty good chance I might win the $10,000 grand prize.

ECH,
will probably end up getting screwed by Cornell, though.

Any and all ideas I had about restraining our impulses and being nice to people because as long as we got them to stick around here, they'd eventually smarten up and we wouldn't want so badly to choke them with toothpicks?

I was wrong. WAY wrong. Not only was I wrong, but my wrongness has jeopardized everything that once made this site special. PD.com is now just barely better than Mysticwicks/The Cellar/TCC/etc. Alot of people might not agree with that, but in my mind that's just one more glaring symptom of the problem. I am guilty of trying to impose massed-infantry tactics on what is clearly an arena suited for 5GW, and it worked in all the wrong ways, and I apologize for that. I don't know what to do about it, or if there's even anything effective that CAN be done about it, but I know one thing, and that is that I am absolutely through being nice to people just because they're here. We raised this place from the rubble with the intent of it becoming a hangout/resource/network for a certain kind of person, and there are too many people here who aren't interested in our program. Most of them probably don't even know we HAVE a program, and again, I take the blame for that. It may be too late to shove the toothpaste back in the tube, but it may not be too late to switch to brushing with lye. In short, I think we need to re-start the other site, and remind ourselves that no matter how far the screaming yahoos have penetrated into our inner sanctum, once we have found our resolve they will never be able to dig deep enough or fun far enough. In any such endeavor I will, of course, need Commander Ringmeat at my side, "inspiring" the troops in the usual way. This place may have run its course in terms of usefulness, but the ideas that started it are still good ones and I don't want to abandon them just yet. I have a little over a month to make plans before I thrust myself into another cross-country adventure, and I'd like to arm myself to the teeth (metaphorically speaking) before I go. I can't go "lone wolf", because anything with "wolf" in it is sucky, but I am sick to death of being the admin of "Facebook for Weirdos".

So...are you in?

Just got my new knives in the mail today.



and



these are pretty much the nicest things I own, and sharp enough to cut you without you even knowing it.

...asking about who was planning on returning for this summer before she starts advertising for job openings, and the following was the reply from one of our bartenders (real names obscured):

B***, I'd really like to work there again, but I'd like to have a situation addressed that has been causing me a bit of distress, on a busy saturday night a keg had kicked and I ran out back to perform a quick keg switcheroo(bar lingo for replacing an empty beer receptacle) in my haste I yanked open the kitchen walk in, which you know is located right next to the beer cooler. I walked in to find Mike B***d and Larry M**n*r in a romantic embrace, engaging in a "french" kiss, I have no issue w that. Larry turned to me, looked me in the eyes and said "I heard u like Sriracha on EVERYTHING." He then grabbed a bottle of hot sauce and started spilling it all over the front of his pants(groin area!!) And rubbing it with his palms, him and Mike started cackling at me, I slowly backed out. I'd love to make drinks at D****s again, but feel advances like this are "over the top"
Thank u
Randy

WE HAVE A PUD SIGHTING!

www.blippy.com is his new website, in conjunction with the guys who founded Twitter.

The Sunday Oregonian describes him as "entrepreneur Phillip Kaplan, the joker behind a profane website that mocked failed startups during the dot-com bust".

Srsly, I would actually maybe feel good about voting again if this dude threw his hat in the ring and had even a whisper of a chance (which would, obviously, not ever be the case).

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/ynews_ts1134

In order to simplify things for myself, I am thinking of doing away with "The Mgt" and making this account the one with REAL ULTIMATE POWER. I only kept them separate at the beginning because I wanted PD.com's new MGT to be anonymous for a month or two until I figured out what I was doing and whether or not it would be worthwhile. Since then, I've just been lazy and having to logout and back in as a different account has kept me from bothering much with anything MGT-related.

But then...

But then those of you who have been here a while understand the inherent danger in even contacting The Mgt, let alone trying to dispose of The Mgt. I have a hunch that it will respond like HAL in 2001:A BORING PIECE OF CRAP (best case scenario) or IT in A Wrinkle In Time (middle-of-the-road scenario) or Skynet (most likely scenario).

so I want your feedback. Should I tempt fate?

Inspired by our conversation on deep-frying, I went home and made the following, and it was awesome.

NOTE: everything I cook at home is gluten-free, since ECHGF has celiac's. Usually I post recipes here as though I were using them for work and change over to regular ingredients but in this case, the gluten-free flour mix actually lends a flavor and texture that work better for these than regular wheat flour would.

2 cups leftover mashed potatos
1 15oz can golden corn kernels, well drained
1/3 cup finely chopped red bell pepper
1/2 cup powdered parmesan cheese
1 large egg
tbsp kosher salt
tbsp black pepper
tbsp paprika (smoked paprika is especially good, if you have some)
tsp garlic powder

mix ingredients together thoroughly, put in refrigerator to chill for an hour (mixture is much easier to work with when chilled).

FLOUR MIX:

4 parts garbanzo bean flour
6 parts medium-grind cornmeal
1 part cornstarch
1/2 part kosher salt

form chilled corn & potato mixture into small round patties about 2" in diameter and 1/2" thich. dredge in flour mixture and deep fry in canola oil until deep golden brown on both sides. serve with dipping sauce of your choice, I used a mixture of 3 parts Mae Ploy sweet chili sauce to 1 part ketchup.

Brand: Four Loko

Flavor: "Loko Uva"

Booze: 12%

Serving Size: 23.5 oz.

Stimulants: Taurine, Guarana, Caffeine

Other Known Ingredients: Artificial Flavor, FD&C Red #40, FD&C Blue #1

Tastes Like: A mix of grape soda and paint thinner

Verdict: Barely tolerable, as long as you're thirsty and it's kept ICE cold. Will probably drink again someday.

Rating (out of ten points): 3

http://www.portlandmercury.com/portland/letters-to-the-editor/Content?oid=2090614

Pretty sure you'll be able to tell which one is me.

I SPENT A HALF-HOUR SHAVING MY FACE INTO THE 70'S PORN STAR CONFIGURATION AND WHEN I WAS ALL DONE I REALIZED THE STRIP OF HAIR ON MY CHIN WAS A HALF-INCH OFF-CENTER.

FACE ROONT.