“Teach Both”
Misc
Steak Fingers
Steak Fingers
Take “finger” sized (or more accurately bite sized) pieces of steak. Tenderize the heck out of them. Dip them in a salt/pepper based batter and deep fry. Totally bad for you but tasty.
It seems that as a kid I ate them all the time, at least I remember seeing them often. But I’ve literally eaten these twice in the past twenty years. Once was about 1999 or so, visiting Union Oregon and a little diner called Gravy Dave’s. Passing through last weekend, they were so busy that I couldn’t afford the delay in my travels so I missed out on seeing if they even still had them.
But on the way back, I accidently found some in Wells, Nevada at the 4 Way Casino and Cafe. It was one of two (non-fast food/C-store junk food) places open. Being chosen as my place of dining was merely happenstance as it was based on it’s relative distance to the road I wished to travel, and the fact that it was not attached to one of the two brothels in town.
Fortunately (or perhaps more unfortunately for my poor non-beef eating wife) recipes, including the purported original version, are on line! The nice thing about this is that they can be prepared and frozen for quick dinners down the road.
So I see a future full of breaded, deep friend steaks!
Taking a Trip to Texas
Taking a Trip to Texas
As of Friday, April 9th, 2010 I shall be on the road to Langtry Texas for a family reunion of sorts. I’m not 100% sure of the family connection of most people attending will be, but I’m very much looking forward to the trip itself.
I’ve been on two long trips like this before, once from Portland through BC to Edmonton Calgary then back down around through Yellowstone and then to Vegas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and home up I-5. The other trip was a straight shot from Fort Wayne Indiana to Portland.
This trip will be from Portland, east along I-84 all the way to Twin Falls, Idaho. I’ll head south towards to Salt Lake City, Utah and then cut south east through the mountains and Colorado. I’ll hit Albuquerque, New Mexico (being 100% sure to take that left turn,) then stop in Roswell New Mexico for a bit of UFO Tourism. Afterwards I’m taking another detour to San Antonio, Texas to visit the Alamo and “world famous” River Walk and most likely some famous Texas Barbecue. And hopefully at the end of a week, end up in Del Rio, Texas which is the nearest city of size near Langtry.
The return trip will head west to Phoenix, Arizona. At that point we’ll see how the weather is. I’ll either head north to Las Vegas from there, or go further west and pick of Los Angeles and travel the I-5 corridor again if there is too much snow around the Lake Tahoe area.
To keep costs down, the vehicle of choice is a 1984 Class A Winnebago. I just took it on a 100 mile short trip to get a feel for driving it, it’s got a new CB radio with access to the NOAA weather channels, and road maps of everywhere I need to be.
I’ll be camping at Truck Stops and Walmarts, or if desperate, actual real campgrounds.
Other points of interest I’m hoping to see are the ghost town of Lime Oregon, historic Union Oregon (I stayed in the restored hotel about ten years ago and enjoyed it a lot,) and if I’m not running too far behind, Arches National Park in Utah. Plus whatever other sites I might happen to see along the way. Hopefully I’ll be able to get lots of pictures and be able to upload them.
I’ll have my computer, and my list of RSS job feeds so I can keep job searching when I stop. In the off chance I do get a job interview and have to be back soon, I’ll be able to park the motor home, fly home to go to the interview then go back and continue my travels. Since I haven’t had an actual face to face interview in over two months, despite sending out at least a dozen resumes a week, I don’t see that being a problem though.
Overall, I’m excited about this adventure. I’ll really looking forward to it and hope to have a great time despite the roughly 4500 miles in two weeks I’ll be driving all together.
Measure 66 & 67
Measure 66 & 67
I simply can not imagine how raising the total annual corporate taxes on businesses in Oregon from $10/year to $150/year is going to lead to lost jobs. Only at the very, very, very bottom end of the spectrum is this going to cause problems for a business. And honestly, if they’re this close to the financial line anyways, they need to be out of business totally, or simply run better.
I can see where taxes on families that make more the $250,000 a year, or single people that make more then $125,000 a year might be more controversial. But I really can’t imagine why. My wife and I don’t even come near the $125,000 a year together, yet I’m willing to step up with higher taxes if need be. The additional taxes are negligible in the grand scheme of things.
What is REALLY ticking me off is the commercials on the radio right now, essentially blaming the current tax short fall on OVERSPENDING in the Oregon Congress. This is despite the fact that Congress was facing a Four billion dollar short fall, managed to pull that down to two billions, found eight hundred million in a rainy day fund and are only expecting to get another seven hundred to eight hundred million out of these taxes which STILL leaves them short.
But people don’t seem to realize that things are already cut hard. No matter what jobs are going to be lost, but not raising these taxes is going to mean more jobs are going to be cut at the level of Fire Departments, Police Departments, Civil Workers at the State and County levels. Oh and School Teachers, especially those at the Community College level.
So think about that before voting NO.
The Inexactness of the English Language
The Inexactness of the English Language
The English Language is a strange beast. First you have the fact that one word can have multiple meanings. Or one object can be defined by many words that have extremely different origins. But not to be outdone, three different words with separate meaning and spellings can be pronounced the same. Then the English language absorbs new words at an outrageous and prodigious rate. With fanciful tales of twenty-thousand new words added per a year even in this modern day, it is a wonder that anyone can speak, read or write English even moderately fluently.
Yet three hundred to four hundred million people speak it as their first language. Actual numbers of writers is more dubious. Secondary speakers are estimated to be any where between two hundred million and almost one and half billion more.
The single most wonderful thing about the English language though is that it can be both very exacting, and very vague. Words can can be mixed and changed to bring new ideas to life.
Swift used the language to spear his detractors metaphorically.
“A man should never be ashamed to own that he has been in the wrong, which is but saying… that he is wiser today than yesterday.”
Mark Twain forced an entire generation to come to terms with their own racism and frivolities.
“I have no color prejudices nor cast prejudces nor creed prejudices. All I care to know is that a man is a human being, and that is enough for me; he can’t be any worse”
Emerson laid forth the simple truth.
“A man is a god in ruins. When men are innocent, life shall be longer, and shall pass into the immortal, as gently as we awake from dreams. “
Shakespeare observed, reported, coined, and extrapolated human existence.
“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.”
Japanese and Greek are naturally resistent to new words. German embraces new words, but instead invents them out of seemingly thin air. Russian takes the English words and gives it an accent, maybe changing a few letters around. Chinese doesn’t even attempt to disguise it’s borrowing of the English word.
Yet only English embraces all these thoughts and massages it into a cohesive language. It adds another twist by taking a fairly dirty common word and by mere popular use gives it an entirely new meaning. A native speaker may not know even a tenth of the words in the English Lexicon, yet communication is effortless on spoken level.
For example:
“I’d rather have roses on my table than diamonds ’round my neck.” – Emma Goldman
“One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon-instead of enjoying the roses blooming outside our windows today.” – Dale Carnegie
“The first man to compare the cheeks of a young woman to a rose was obviously a poet; the first to repeat it was possibly an idiot.” – Salvador Dali
“A life with love will have some thorns, but a life without love will have no roses” – Unknown
“Some people are always grumbling because roses have thorns. I am thankful that thorns have roses.” – Alphonse Kerr
A mere five quotes about a flower. Yet each one quickly becomes profound in ways that you may never thought before. Such is the English Language. Even words strung together incoherently may have meaning far beyond their original intent.