eponymous's New Writeups

March 18, 2007 (log)

2007-03-18T23:33:19Z

Where did I go?
Out the door.
Moved, changed jobs, lost my hi-speed internet. Had to attend to my meat life.
Why am I back?
Short answer: I'm not. I just popped in for the sake of nostalgia, for a more innocent time when all my friends were online.

All my friends were online.
I'm still a social isolate. I work in a peculiar area of politics now, raising money for Democrats from individuals who answer their phone. In the last three years I've gone from the voice on the phone, to fetching coffee for the people doing the calling, to assisting a supervisor, to running a team of 100 kids, to, now, coordinating a predictive dialer for a crew ranging from 75 to 138 (and growing) in three locations, putting in 50-60 hour weeks.

It's Real Life.

E2, in order to get out of it what I used to, requires a time commitment that I no longer have. You get what you give.

…

nose (thing)

2003-09-25T01:45:08Z

In the world of wine, there is "what it smells like" and then, there is the nose. Oenophiles use nose as a noun to describe the total olfactory experience of a wine.

Nose is more than taking a sniff of your wine. I'll walk you through it, with this glass of 2001 Fetzer Echo Ridge Gewurtztraminer. Nose is pouring the wine carefully, swirl it very gently, just enough to waft the odor off the surface. Inhale. Don't snuffle at it, breathe it in. Fill your lungs through your nasal passages and your mouth. Taste the air. Smell the sun on the grapes, the faint tang of alcohol, the wind blowing off the ocean, the hints of pineapple and cloves?

Feel the aroma blossom in your mind. The scent receptors are the most intimately connected to the brain, the most evocative and primal sense. Most of taste is really in the nose, not the mouth. Want proof? Cut a slice of potato and a slice of apple, plug your nose completely (or wait for a nasty head…

Gewürztraminer (thing)

2003-09-24T21:39:46Z

Gewürztraminer is a superior white wine. Yellowish in color, it's sweet without being cloying. It has a spicy nose (the word means something similar to "spice wine") and a spicy, fruity flavor, with a distinct aftertaste. Pineapple, apricot, cloves, pear, and citrus are frequently cited -- my favorite Gewurtzes have strong pear, citrus, and clove scents and flavors.

Although imported Gewurtzes are prized, in the U.S. several winemakers have well-respected domestic lines. As with any wine, avoid the cheaper varieties -- I bought a bottle of Sutter Home and decided that I would have been wiser to spend my four bucks on Fresca and Lavoris.

Although you can spend as much as you want to, a bottle in the eleven dollar range is your best bet for after dinner. Turning Leaf's offering is quite reasonable and tasty, as are Kendall-Jackson,Columbia Crest, and Fetzer. Gewurtz is a dessert wine, and its fruit flavors go well with fresh fruit or a compote. (Yes, it's also said it goes…

Prosenoder's Cup 2003 (idea)

2003-09-21T00:38:05Z

Lunar Sovereign

I catch the coin spinning lazily in the air, slap it to my wrist. Mare Tranquillatus shines up in iridium and aluminum.

"Tails."

We take giant leaps, toes touching the corridor floor. You are more nimble than I, your Martian ancestry making you more coordinated in one-quarter G than I. Everything seems a shade too heavy. The architects of this project had good reasons, of course, but that doesn't mean I have to like it.

Winning the coin toss means we'll watch the launch from the planetside lounge. You were hoping to have your eyes on our destination.

We settle into our couches and play a last game of go, snapping stones down with the sharpness and authority of words in a lover's quarrel. You decimate me, encircle me, erase my liberties.

The lids close gently. Through the transparent plastic I see the ruined Earth below. As the needle descends and fills me with ice, I wonder what I will see when I awaken.

I hold the coin to…

I Love Butter (thing)

2003-09-02T23:27:25Z

Butter. Who doesn't love butter?

When I was a little girl I use to pick
A handful of dandelions and then I'd stick
Them under my chin and face the sun
To see if I liked butter
And Momma would take out her fresh warm bread
She sliced it up, called us in and said
Go easy on the jelly but you can spread
Lots of nice fresh butter

Oh, I'm in heaven when I can eat butter
Pure, sweet cream butter
Butter in the morning on my toast and jam
Butter in the evenings on potatoes and yams
I can eat anything, yes, I can
If it's all smothered in butter

Now, a good farmer knows when you buy a cow
You look at her different than you do a sow
You want good legs and you want a good udder
And you ask, "how much butter?'
'Cause a good cow gives milk with lots of cream
And reality turns into a dream
When you beat it or shake it or churn it till you udder
Ah, it's turned to butter

Now everyone you meet is on a health kick

…

August 25, 2003 (person)

2003-08-25T23:49:38Z

This past weekend's vacation produced a moral dilemma along with a couple day's worth of R&R.

I'm a vegetarian and have been for years. I'm willing to wear leather because no one kills a cow just for the skin, and theoretically it's possible that my boots and jacket are from a milker who died of old age. Cheap weaselling cop-out? Sure, if you wish. I prefer human imperfection and consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds. Part of the ethical credo that I subscribe to is not to knock other people's lifestyle choices that don't directly affect me, so I don't run around telling people not to eat meat. I do tell people I like to beware of hamburger and to get it, if possible, from a small family farm, or buy a known cut of meat and grind it themselves.

So, the dilemma. Several years ago, I took up fishing. I use a cane pole or a stick with a string tied on, and I use artificail bait. (Berkely makes an amazing line of artificial bait, including waxworms,…