i heart culinary arts

on my way home from work yesterday i decided there was nothing i could have for dinner except quiche. so i made one.

results are pictured above.

it was mighty tasty.

Politics, and Scandal, as Usual

By N.R. Kleinfield

Published: March 11, 2008 in the New York Times

It keeps happening. Recklessly, shamelessly, cavalierly — as if this time they’re the ones who will somehow manage to get away with it all.

But many of them don’t.

Congressmen, senators, governors, presidents, mayors — politicians at all levels keep starring in this familiar and non-partisan soap opera rerun. They engage in clandestine sexual entanglements, commonly cloaked in the tawdry textures of hotel pseudonyms and airport bathrooms and pay-by-the-hour copulation. All too often, their stealthy frolics then poison their political careers.

And now add to the lengthening list Gov. Eliot Spitzer, husband, father of three teenage daughters, who authorities on Monday said had been involved with a ring of prostitutes.

“I think biologists could tell you this has something to do with natural selection — the person who acquires power becomes the alpha male,” said Tom Fiedler, who teaches a course in press and politics at Harvard’s Kennedy School. He was involved in reporting Gary Hart’s notorious fling with Donna Rice in 1987 that terminated the senator’s presidential bid.

Politics and sex is an old story, and as Mr. Fiedler and others point out, it simply reinforces the lessons of the aphrodisiac of power taught in Shakespeare. Its prime characters constitute a crowded society.

Governor Spitzer’s startling appearance with his wife, Silda, at his side is itself something of a contrapuntal answer to New Jersey’s 2004 entry in this dubious catalog of political misbehavior, Gov. James E. McGreevey’s relinquishing office after disclosing a gay affair.

By now, many of the more publicized escapades have become embedded in political lore, from President Bill Clinton encounters with Monica Lewinsky to Senator Bob Packwood and his unwanted advances on women to Representative Mark Foley and his lewd e-mails to House pages.

Who can forget the late Wilbur D. Mills, the one-time powerful head of the House Ways and Means Committee, and his dalliances back in 1974 with the stripper Fanne Foxe? She’s the one who barreled out of Mr. Mills’s car and waded into the Tidal Basin in Washington when the park police stopped them. Enterprisingly, she went and changed her name from the Argentine Firecracker to the Tidal Basin Bombshell, and got a book out of her adventures.

There was, as well, Representative Gary Condit, whose career imploded when it came out that he had been involved with Chandra Levy, an intern who was murdered. And Wayne Hays, the Ohio representative, who quit in 1976 after it was revealed that the job requirements of Elizabeth Ray were less as a secretary than as his mistress. In her famous words: “I can’t type. I can’t file. I can’t even answer the phone.”

Sexual missteps among politicians are nothing peculiar to the United States, having firm grounding in England, for instance, and turning up with good regularity throughout the world. But they seem to reach more absurdist proportions in this country, and have almost the quality of a catch-me-if-you-can game at a time when private borders have gotten extremely porous.

“There is a broader anxiety about what is private anymore,” said Paul Apostolidis, a political science professor at Whitman College and the co-editor of the book “Public Affairs: Politics in the Age of Sex Scandals.” “It’s not that politicians are behaving more badly. We’re just learning about it more often.”

But why does it go on repeatedly when the ramifications can be so dire?

“I don’t see why we would expect politics to be more free of the psychological contradictions of other humans beings,” Mr. Apostolidis said. “People do self-destructive things that are not rational.”

Psychologists mention the sense of entitlement felt by those who attain political standing that blinds them to the consequences of their actions. And they say that ambitious politicians are invigorated by risk and feel impervious.

Not always, of course, are political careers ruined by sexual irregularities. Rep. Barney Frank continued to win re-election in Massachusetts even after it was disclosed in 1989 that he had hired a male prostitute who ran a brothel out of his apartment.

It is sometimes speculated that certain politicians, at least subconsciously, want to be caught and have their careers upended. But do they?

“I’ve never seen it,” said Dr. Farley. “I don’t believe it’s a factor with these people. It’s just in their nature to push things. I don’t think they have a death wish. I think they have a life wish. They just love all aspects of life — some of it too much.”

the internet is Chris Skeene's bitch.

Dove Onslaught

One of the awesomest commercials ever.

i want a glass of wine and spiritual conversation.

a quaint village in vermont?

no, it's just the view from my new apartment.

my hair, a truly vapid topic of conversation

so, my hair does not look like this. i'm pretty sure it looks better than this, maybe i'm wrong, i dont know. my point being, the other night i was going to go out with some friends and my mom followed me to my room and said, "i was wondering how you were going to wear your hair..."
me: "ummm why does it matter?"
her: "well i just dont understand why you like to wear your hair so messy, and i'm worried that men aren't going to be attracted to you because you wear it so messy."

at this point i dont know what to say since i think this is the most ridiculous thing i have ever heard. so me and my mom had a fight about my hair not being neat enough to attract men.

if i am single because of my hair, i hope to be single forever.

oh and for those of you who were wondering, this is why i can never live my parents ever again.

The Slowsky's

this website is seriously one of the best websites i have ever seen. it was designed by this awesome firm called Honest, which was how i found it. i totally want something like this for my portfolio site. for my first website i stamped all of the text on paper and then scanned it, which was incredibly time consuming and i think it came out ok, not the greatest thing ever or anything but it worked (i am too embarrassed to post the link). tee hee.

Flight of the Conchords - Bret You Got It Goin On

bret does have it goin on. i'm sure you would agree.

LaGuardia is Crappia

New York's LaGuardia airport is by far one of the worst airports i have ever been in. I exited the plane and because my connecting flight was in the Gate C areai had to go through security AGAIN. plus they don't really have any food options except these little kiosks with pre-prepped food. i've been eating like 3 eggs with veggies for breakfast lately, so my body doesnt really want just an apple.

come on

so i was sitting in the airport watching CNN and they were covering/hosting a debate with the presidential candidates from the democratic party. i guess all of the questions were taken from the studio audience, which for the most part was fine, until the last question, which came from this sorority girl. She asked Senator Clinton which she preferred, diamonds or pearls.

so you're sitting in the audience at a CNN sponsored debate with all these influential people discussing topics that matter in the upcoming election and i dont know but you just cant let Hillary go until you find out her preference for diamonds or pearls (it's both by the way).

if i saw Hillary Clinton walking down the street and i had the opportunity to ask her anything, i sure hope to God it would have nothing to do with jewelery.

jumping on the bandwagon

So I'm sure you have heard by now that the Writer's Guild of America (WGA) is on strike...and rightfully so. I'm sure there is a lot more to the story but here are the basics, as i understand them:

writers aren't compensated for the full episodes currently running online on NBC.com, ABC.com, and CBS.com. they are not compensated because it is "promotional" material. "promotional" material that has advertisements. They are also not compensated when their show is sold digitally, like on iTunes. The Office made $7 million on iTunes, the writers got nothing. Ironically you cannot buy the current season of The Office on iTunes, if i were to guess i would say this is because it became harder for NBC exec's to not give the writers their share of the money, so they did it their way. So say you go on NBC.com and watch a full episode of the Office with five commercials in it and the writers don't see a dime of this because it's promotional, but the dudes running NBC get money because they know, as does most of America, lots of people watch stuff on the internet. Another example is that the writers of The Office won an Emmy for the webisodes on NBC.com (which also contain advertisements) and NBC did not pay the writers for this, in fact they did not even pay the $28 for the writers to have the actual Emmy statue. so basically the writers are striking because they recognize new media as a new avenue for their work to be seen, and also a new way for them to be exploited.

i am pretty angry about this not only because i am a huge Office fan, but mostly because i am an artist and can understand the frustration about new media. this is a fight that needs to be won, or artists are going to continue to get screwed over.

For more information to make up your own mind:
United Hollywood
MIT
Pam's Blog
"The Office is Closed"

oh yeah...

i forgot to mention that i almost ran over illeana douglas on the day i was moving. She was in Savannah for the Film Festival. i secretly wish i had actually hit her, not hurt her at all, just nudged her a smidge, just so i could say "I hit Ileana Douglas with my car"
i would much rather have hit her than to have actually met her. i think this means that there is something profoundly wrong with me.

moving out and moving on

so i moved out of Savannah and into Atlanta, where i am currently boarding with Chris and Kendra. Let me just say... it is awesome. My bathroom is bigger than my old kitchen and bathroom were combined. And i can ride MARTA (the ATLs version of the T) places without driving, which is fantabulous. and there is a HUGE farmer's market where i bought FRESH pasta. (FYI i once went looking for fresh pasta in savannah and the clerks at the grocery store looked at me like i had three heads)

all in all it is just really amazing living somewhere where i...
a) enjoy cooking again
b) enjoy showering again
c) dont feel like my apartment might explode
d) am less concerned about being mugged or shot or both simultaneously

i have yet to figure out the job stuff (which i am definitely looking into, don't you worry) but overall i feel more at peace right now than i have in months.

it's a good feeling.

so long, farewell

so i finally did it, i gave my notice at work.
i am leaving the hotel i have worked at for 3 years.
let me tell you, it feels good.
oh and i'm moving to atlanta.

crazy, i know.

you get what you pay for...

so all things considered, my super cheap apartment has been a major crap-hole. The crazy thing is because i have had so many issues i keep getting free stuff. case in point: my internet was recently turned off because apparently when someone else moved into the apartment building, comcast thought that i had moved out, and they shut off my internet, without notifying me. in dealing with them on this issue for over a week they kept asking (to my complete annoyance) "Are you sure you still live there?" Finally, it was turned on, and then when i went to pay my bill, i found out that they had paid it for me, also without my knowledge. so even though things about my apartment really suck sometimes, when these annoyances get me out of having to pay for things i really love it. sometimes you get what you pay for, and other times, things go so badly you just stop having to pay.

I love this show (and this song)

Process Enacted: by Jordan C Greenhalgh

Pol-A-Roid coolness.

legos + fruit snacks = awesomeness????

you would think this would be the awesomest idea ever, but alas it is not. First of all the fruit snacks do not taste very good, and i am a fruit snack lover. Also they do not fit together (as you can see). I know this is a tall order for a snack food made out of gelatin, but i mean come on, they're LEGOs.

point being: the idea is better than the actual follow through, unfortunately.