Sunday Stealing: The 29'er Meme

This meme brought to you by:


1. What bill do you hate paying the most?

I'm going to go with the highest one...my mortgage. Ugh!

2. Where was the last place you had a romantic dinner?

Florentine's (an Italian place)

3. How many colleges did you attend?

Does a technical school count? If so, one.

4. Why did you choose the shirt that you have on right now?

I'm in my PJ's so there really was no thought process.

5. First thought when the alarm went off this morning?

I didn't set an alarm. I don't have to work until 6ish tonight. My first thought waking up was trying to remember what I had to do today.

6. Last thought before going to sleep last night?

I was thinking about how that was the first night in a long time that I went to bed before 2 am. :)

7. What do you miss about being a child?

I miss what I'm sure a lot of people miss...not having the worries/responsibilities that I do now.

8. What errand/chore do you despise?

Vacuuming. My cat and I shed a lot of hair and after I'm done vacuuming, I always have to cut the hair out of the bristles. Pain in my arse.

9. Have you found real love yet?

I'm gonna' say no on this one. I've been in love and had others say they love me but I've never had the "head over heels, I would die for you" type of love.

10. What do you get every time you go into Wal-Mart?

I only go through the living hell that is Walmart for one thing...contact lenses.

11. Do you think marriage is an outdated ritual?

I have so many thoughts when it comes to the topic of marriage but the short answer is no.

12. What famous person would you like to have dinner with?

Gotta' go with Tim Burton on this one. Although it would be him eating and me just watching and babbling away.

13. Ever had to use a fire extinguisher for its intended purpose?

No, thank goodness.

14. Somewhere in California you've never been and would like to go?

It's a tie between San Diego and San Luis Obispo.

15. At this point in your life would you rather start a new career or a new relationship?

career

16. Do you have a “go to” person?

Nope...I'm pretty self-reliant.

17. Are you where you want to be in life?

Location wise, not so much. Other than that, I'm okay.

18. Over the years, what about you do you think has changed the most?

I don't trust people nearly as much. Sometimes that's a good thing though.

19. Looking back at high school were they the best years of your life?

It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.

20. Are there times you still feel like a kid?

Every day!

21. Where was the hang out spot when you were a teenager?

As a younger teenager, it was the rollerskating hall. Later on it was different people's houses.

22. Who do you think impacted your life the most?

I like to call him Jackass.

23. Was there a teacher or authority figure that stood out for you?

Not really.

24. Do you tell stories that start with “when I was your age”?

No way. I ain't that old!

25. What is the scariest thing that has happened to you as an adult?

Probably the time that I was working at a gas station and had a situation where I needed the cops and our panic button was broken.

26. What advice would you give to someone about to get married?

Don't do it! ha ha In all honesty, I probably wouldn't say anything. Just because marriage doesn't appeal to me, doesn't mean that it isn't right for someone else. As I said in question #11, I have many thoughts about this topic.

27. What advice would you give someone starting their first job?

Keep to yourself, while staying friendly, and do your best.

28. If you could go back and change one thing you did, what would it be?

Nothing. There are times that I wonder what would have happened if I had done things differently but the past is the past and whatever you did, gave the outcome you have today and there are always lessons to be learned.

29. If you could go back and change one thing someone else did, what would it be?

Nothing. See answer for above. Even though there are a lot of things that people have done that hurt me, I've learned things from that.

Vegetarians are screwed.

In my previous post, I told you that Twinkies are not vegetarian friendly due to the beef fat that's added. Bleh. There are so many products that you would think are safe for vegetarians but they aren't. One item is McDonald's french fries. This may be one you have heard of before. There was a law suit against McDonald's in 2001 brought on by vegetarians and people of the Hindu faith because of the fact that McDonald's fries contain a beef by-product and the public was not told. People who practice the Hindu faith consider cows sacred and someone had said that eating a cow was like eating their mother.

Prior to 1990, McDonald's cooked their fries in 93% beef tallow (fat) and 7% cottonseed oil for flavor. They switched to cooking their fries in 100% vegetable oil due to society concern over cholesterol. They omitted the fact that when the fries are initially prepared, a beef extract is being added to maintain their beefy flavor. In their disclosures, they put "natural flavoring" as one of the ingredients in their fries. By "natural flavoring", they meant beef fat.

Here was one of McDonald's responses to inquiries about their french fries:

The company uses a miniscule amount of beef flavoring as an ingredient in the raw product and it is not required by law to list it as an ingredient. Instead beef flavoring falls under the term "natural flavors".

According to the FDA, that is perfectly within the guidelines. I'm not going to get started on the FDA but let's just say I trust them as far as I can throw them...and they're a big organization.

So what do the french fry ingredients say now?

Potatoes, vegetable oil (canola oil, hydrogenated soybean oil, natural beef flavor [wheat and milk derivitaves]*), citric acid (preservative), dextrose, sodium acid pyrophosphate (maintain color), salt. Prepared in vegetable oil (may contain one of the following: canola oil, corn oil, soybean oil, hydrogenated soybean oil with TBHQ and citric acid to preserve freshness), dimethylpolysiloxane added as an anti-foaming agent. *Contains: Wheat and milk (Natural beef flavor contains hydrolyzed wheat and hydrolyzed milk as starting ingredients).

The crap that we eat is horrifying. Most of what we taste are chemicals made in a lab. One more thing I want to mention. TBHQ in the ingredients above stands for tert-Butylhydroquinone. Consume enough of it and you'll get stomach tumors, cancer and it can damage your DNA. Read that last sentence again. You know what else alters our DNA? Radiation. So eat enough fries and maybe you'll grow another arm? It's Chernobyl on a smaller scale.


Final note: McDonald's does not use beef products in their french fries in India due to the amount of people that practice the Hindu faith. They also do not use beef products in predominately Muslim areas such as Africa, the Middle East and southeast Asia.

Project: Album Cover

My new buddy, Eve, over at For The Love of Goth nominated me to do a fun little project, which was to build an album cover. The cover I made is shown above and yes, Mpwayungu was my Wikipedia article. Apparently it's an area in Tanzania so this project was fun and educational!

If any of my followers or lurkers would like to do this project, here are the instructions:

1) Go to Wikipedia and hit the random link on the left sidebar, under the navigation heading. The first article you get is the name of your band.

2) Go to the website on The Quotations Page. The last four or five words of the very last quote on the page is the title of your album.

3) Go to Flicker's Randomizer feature. The third picture, no matter what it is, is your album cover.

4) Use Photoshop or another photo editing software to create your album cover.

5) Post your album cover on your blog, along with this text. Be sure to nominate at least 5 friends (by leaving comments on their blogs with a link to your post), and tag me by leaving a comment so that I can see what you've created.

Religulous was not ridiculous but was hilarious.

Look! It's Bill Maher and Jesus in the holy land!

I was home sick today and decided to take advantage of my On Demand movie selection via cable. It costs the same as renting a movie at Blockbuster and I don't have to leave my house. Love it! The first movie I "rented" was Religulous, which was hilarious! Granted, if you have belief in a god, you may not find this very funny. Bill Maher isn't confrontational at all and freely admits that he doesn't know if there is a god or not. He doesn't try to sway anyone's beliefs either. All he does is ask questions. He's trying to get people to really think about what they believe, which I fully support. Don't believe in a religion just because your parents did!

So what made this movie so funny? The responses that he got to his questions. It's the people trying to support their faith yet contradicting themselves along the way, which I guess makes sense because the Bible contradicts itself too. I can't quote the movie word for word but the funniest part to me was when Bill was talking with a guy who believes in god and Jesus but doesn't believe in Santa Claus. Right, because there's no way that one guy can delivery gifts via chimneys one night a year but there is a god that keeps track of every single second and person in the world and is making everything happen. It does sound funny, doesn't it? So talking snakes, virgin births, and someone living in a big fish for three days is true? Sorry, I'm not buying it but I might buy the DVD. : )

Stay tuned for a post about the next movie I "rented".

Have you ever wanted to know...

What really happens when you die? Warning: This article does get a bit graphic. It is very informative though so please do read it and skip over the parts that may bother you. I thought this was a great article that gave a lot of information you don't normally get to hear about. Enjoy!

PS: The pic on the right is one that I took in the cemetery referenced in this post.

Freedom of religion means any religion.

A friend of mine sent me an article the other day about a new religion course being taught in schools in Quebec. I'll wait while you read the article here. This is ridiculous. Why are these parents so appalled? Is it because their child might learn something new that makes more sense to them than the religion they were brought up with? Or are they thinking this may lead to their children questioning aspects of their faith that they (the parents) can't answer? Let's not forget that questioning aspects of a religion can mean that you're doubtful of what you've been following and may make you fall out of grace with others around you that are following that faith because questioning just isn't allowed. Whew, that was a long sentence. If these parents are so strong in their faith and feel their children are too, then they shouldn't be worried. It's just information that the child may not have known before. It doesn't mean that the school is trying to sway anyone. Technically, it's comparable to teaching an Irish student about Spanish history. It happens all the time and no one pitches a fit. But with anything religious, you gotta' tiptoe around it. Yeesh!