A holes - can't live with them, can't stab them in the face...

Lately, I have been realizing more and more that most people are really dumb; that the average person is a few fries short of a happy meal. And usually, because people are stupid, it makes them jerks. Ass hats run a muck. Sometimes, I think it is a Philly thing or maybe even an American thing, but then I play an online game with people from all over the world (like Halo Speaking of which the beta is over so I can play again and have my TV back!) or watch the BBC World News and I see that it is really the whole effing human race. The majority of people are just imbeciles. And I have noticed that people will turn really mean when they are in a situation that they are unfamiliar with or it becomes apparent that they are inadequate and they feel stupid, mostly because they are stupid, but the mere fact that people found out that they are stupid makes them all defensive and mean.

I see it everywhere. Take my old job. There were quite a few people who were hacks and had no clue what they were doing and everyone knew it, but they worked really really hard to pretend like they were good at their jobs and new what they were doing typically by belittling everyone they could. I mean, every time I or anyone else would know something that they didn't, they would pretend like it was their idea all along and that they were testing us. True story. Quite a few times my old boss would tell me to do something, I would tell her that it was impossible or that it was against policy, and she would tell me that she was just testing me. And she wasn't joking either! She actually would try to pull off that she knew it was wrong the whole time and that she was trying to prove that she was smarter by testing me. Unbelievable. That is one of the many reasons why it is my old job and not my current job. I got the eff out of there as soon as I could and now I am so much better off.

I digress. Where was I? Oh yeah people are mean and stupid. Another way people try to pull off that they are not as dumb as they actually are is that they immediately blame you for a mistake they made. Take a woman who works for my landlord, lets call her Mary. Mary told me the wrong place to park when I first moved in and a neighbor of mine had my car towed because I was in his spot. And then Mary tried to tell me that it was my fault that I had parked in the wrong spot. She told me the wrong place to park! She got her left confused with her right and she was reading off an old chart of spots. See what I mean? Dumb da dumb dumb duuuuuuumb.

It amazes me that humans have been in charge of the planet for as long as we have given that so many of us are more stupid than a bag of rocks. Maybe that's why Stephen Hawking is convinced that the human race is destined to destroy itself far before the sun collapses or alien life finds us.

Philly sports AKA an excuse to throw batteries at Santa

In response to the Philly sports post by my biffle Beckles I think it is only appropriate that I write one too. I guess my take on the Philly sports phenomenon.

I didn't grow up in Philly, I grew up in the Boston area. Not even in Massachusetts, but the area so I was a Red Sox/Celtics/Bruins/Patriots fan. It was not until i moved to PA for college that any of these teams started to win, but even by then I was being turned. The Philies/76ers/Flyers/Eagles were starting to turn me. Philly fans are wild and their enthusiasm is infectious. Then the Phillies won the World Series and it was all over. Philly sports franchises had me and were not letting me go. Did I run into the streets and start rioting with my fellow Philadelphians? no. I can proudly say that I did not. I watched the game and cheered, but I did not take to the streets causing mayhem and destruction. But when the Flyers beat the Bruins I was cheering on Philly instead of Boston. Again, didn't really celebrate or even go anywhere to watch. Okay I didn't even watch it, but I heard it, looked at the website and got excited. What can you expect? I am a geek remember. I am not a hard core fan of sports, which I guess is why I could be swayed from team to team, but Philly fever is crazy and it is hard to ignore!

My Weekend or why i hate flying...

So I had to go to my brother's graduation this past weekend. After college I stayed near my college, which was just outside of Philly and conveniently close to 400 miles from my parents. It was a pretty good decision on my part I think. I was able to build a life completely apart from who I was growing up or who my parents are. I was able to get things for myself and truly be independent. However, when I need to travel back home, say for something like my little brother's graduation, there is really no easy way to get there. Sure I could drive for 6 or more hours fighting some of the worst traffic in the country, but oh wait, that's right I don't have a car. So I could either take a bus for 6 hours (I am not a bus kind of girl) or I could take a plane.

The plane ride is easy, don't get me wrong. It is a nice easy flight and cheap if you book early and with a cheap airline like SouthWest, but I hate flying. I really REALLY hate to fly. Firstly, I always get sick. Since I was little I never sleep well the night before a flight, I always get a killer headache/migraine, and I will sometimes even get ear infections. When I have ruined more than one vacation by having to go to the doctor due to severe, flight induced ear infections. Then, of course, there are the passengers on the plane. I swear, as soon as you get on an airplane, you turn into an inconsiderate A hole. An A hole who doesn't put the seat back, even when the flight attendant asks. An A hole who talks really loudly to all the people around them while on a red eye. An A hole who got there late and had to take the middle seat, hogs the arm rest, keeps getting up every 5 minutes, turns the fan on while the cabin is freezing and takes all the overhead storage space. And has a baby. Who cries and poops and is its annoying baby self who will turn into an A hole and fly with me in 20 years and make my life miserable then too. The worst part is that there is no escape for the duration of the flight. you can't even walk around the cabin because of federal regulations! I hate flying!

What was interesting about my time at the airport though was that a lady was sitting near me waiting for the same flight as me and she asked me to watch her bag while she went to the bathroom. Now, I had never met this woman in my life, and I am a huuuuuge rules person, so I told her no and quoted the FFA regulations about leaving bags unattended or with people not a part of your party. Since looked at me blankly and said "you mean I have to drag it around with me?" Yes, ma'am that is what I mean. Maybe next time you will pack lighter! Sheesh!

NPR is the cat’s pajamas! The bees knees! Just good stuff!

In honor (somewhat) of confession Friday over at Modgblog, one of my favorite blogs on the interwebs, I am going to make another geeky confession. I am totally in love with NPR. National. Public. Radio. In case you grew up Amish or live in a bubble, NPR is government funded and viewer sponsored, almost entirely talk, and pretty much bent on educating the masses. It’s like PBS but on the radio and I am a huge sucker for it. I could (and have been known to) listen to it for hours. I subscribe to podcasts, I read some of the online content, I would be a member if I listened to it as much as I used to.

There’s the rub, I used to listen to it every single day for several years. Whenever I was in my car I would list to NPR. NPR in my car – it even rhymes! Most of my friends hated taking trips with me driving because instead of music I would almost always have NPR on and be listening to whichever show was on at the time. But, when I moved into the big city, all of that changed. The trade off for the city life was that I started taking public transportation and I sold my car. To my brother. In California. That’s a whole other story that I will get in to another time. Just trust me, I will never see that car again.

Of course, it makes total sense. Living in a city with the awesome public transportation system that Philly has there is no reason to be clogging up the streets with another car that I would hardly ever use. I would be paying for really high insurance, being my age and living in a city know for bad drivers, having to worry about parking, the dreaded and evil PPA, not to mention gas and all the maintenance costs of a car. I now just have to pay for a SEPTA pass or tokens and I am good to go. I pay for an occasional bus ticket to NYC or plane ride to further places, and it the long run I save a lot of money. For the times I need a car I have PhillyCarShare, which is an awesome service that I can rent a car at any time for a few hours at minimal cost and maximum convenience. But, with all of these pluses, one of the biggest minuses is that I do not get to spend my quality time listening to all my friends on NPR.

I remember in college I would listen to Car Talk on Sundays on my way to play rehearsal (something else I will tell you about in another post). I would listen to “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me!” and laugh with Paula Poundstone and/or Mo Rocca on my way to that mall on Saturdays or The NPR new programs on my way to work in the morning. That is one of the only things I miss about living in the places I used to live. I try to listen to my favorites while cooking dinner at home, but I can barely hear it over the sounds of cooking and I can’t really pay attention or I burn things.

Maybe as a treat to myself I will start putting aside time to listen to these great programs. It is so nice to listen to that stuff, and I’m always learning new things when I do, which is always a plus in my book!

Beta Beta Beta: Worse than a sorority and less exclusive.

As you may or may not know the Halo 3: Reach beta came out today. That means that over 3 million boys aged 12 – 40+ either stayed home from school or work, or rushed right home and downloaded the beta for the final installment of the Halo series. It was quite amusing to see so many grown men giddy with excitement over this game, that’s not even really out yet. It’s just a beta, that means that there are limited things you can do, there are lots of bugs in it, and it is not actually finished yet, but still all these guys went wild over it! What’s kind of interesting to see is that the game companies, Bungie partnered with Microsoft, actually advertised the beta. That never happens. Sure a game company will release a beta or a demo or a preview and some people get excited and tell their friends and the company makes money off of it, but not like this. One of T’s friends actually worked really hard all of last week to scam his way into getting an early invite code so he could get a chance to play the beta ahead of almost everyone else. He wanted to get the pre-release of the pre-release. That’s like, crazy right? What’s worse is that LOTS OF GUYS WERE LIKE THIS. I mean, they were like 12 year old girls at a Jonas Brother’s concert getting white goo shot at them from cannons and loving every second of it. Or middle aged women waiting in line at a Twilight premiere for a glimpse of their beloved Edward (I will save my Twilight hatred for another post…or 12…I really hate that series…it’s just so…and the books…and the merch…I mean, HAVE YOU SEEN ETSY?!?!...save it Katie, save it…k I’m good now).

My point is that there was a lot of hysteria over a game that’s not actually released today, and it is mostly so that they can sell more games because people love the game before it’s finished. I bet Microsoft wishes people were this excited for their Office 2010 beta that’s been available for a month or so now…yeah I bet there are some very excited accountants. Wooooo excel spreadsheets! Graphs! Yeah…I’m a Mac. I’m waiting for the new iMacs to be released with the new i7 chips…sorry I was geeking out. I went to my happy place after being all upset by Twilight. I’m good now. Where was I? Oh yeah the Beta…

Of course, I’m not going to lie, I do like halo. I like to kill dudes I know and dudes I don’t know. I like to hear little 12 year old boys whine about getting blown up by a sticky grenade or seeing guys get gunned down by a pink player. I only started playing a few weeks ago, but I am pretty good for a beginner and I kick ass at Grifball. I love me some hammer action! Right now all the beta has is the multiplayer function of the game but it showcases some really nice and fun improvements. The controls are different for one thing – a lot of the buttons do different things, which I think totally blows because I just figured out that B punches dudes in the face. B for beat down. How am I going to remember that it is now punching is with the right bumper? Right Bumper is for…yeah I will have to think about that one. Also, now you can pick a super power at the beginning of the match and each time you die. You can have a jet pack (!) or be invisible, or run really fast or be invincible for 5 seconds. Each thing has a downside but the upsides are wicked sweet. Oh, and the weapons are way better now. All the dumb ones are replaced with useful things and the good ones have been beefed up. I will have to say more when I actually get to play because T has been hogging the TV since he got home from work. And the RHONJ is premiering their second table-flipping season tonight! Thank goodness for On Demand.

Is my foodie showing?

So, in my last post I mentioned that I live in a major city, but I purposely did not say which one. I thought that it would be wise to say as little about myself as possible. Then I thought to myself "Self, you live in a city with more than 1.54 million people. There is little to no chance anyone will string together clues enough to figure out who you are. And if they do, that is kind of impressive." Also, there are so many location specific things I want to talk about that it will just be easier to say where I live. So here it is, I live in Philadelphia. I wasn't raised here, so I am not a typical Philly person where I fight about hoagies vs. subs or anything like that (they're subs by the way but shhh don't tell my neighbors), but I do live and work here and I love it.

Anyway, the reason why it is important that you know I live in Philly is because we have our own little things we obsess about. One more resent Philly obsession is FOOD! We are slowly but surely, with the help of Iron Chefs, the Travel Channel, and a dedicated group of restaurateurs and chefs, becoming a food town to rival many a food town. Among our food elite there is one restaurateur who has lead the charge in the name of food and has been attributed with singlehandedly revitalizing the Old City restaurant and nightlife scene. His name, if you haven't already guessed, is Stephen Starr, and I went to one of his restaurants this evening for dinner. I actually went to his newest restaurant, El Rey, a really cool, kitschy, Mexican dive kind of place. Even though a Starr restaurant tends to be a bit overpriced, they all have some really cool calling cards that tell you instantly that they are a Starr restaurant, and El Rey is no different. All Starr restaurants are themed. Not theme in a stupid way like the Rain Forest Cafe (blegh!) or Hard Rock Cafe (gag!) but things that are done really well and tasteful and make the dining experience something special and different. One of his most famous places is called Buddakan and has a giant gold Buddha right in the middle of the dining room. I'll get back to the Starr empire another time, because I want to bring it back to my night.

I went with my boyfriend T, whom I take on most of my restaurant trips, and we went right as service was starting. Actually we got there more than half an hour early and hung around the city for a while until service really started. Then we were seated and the night started as many a night at any restaurant, I ordered a cocktail (a margarita on the rocks, with salt thank you) he ordered a beer and so it began. We got guacamole with homemade tortilla chips to share, which were great and came out about 5 minutes after we ordered them. The we chatted and waited for our meals to come out. While waiting we got to see the restaurant swing into full gear. Since we got there so early, we were actually only the second table there, but it did not take too long for the place to fill up. Then, the best part, we got our food! I got a Mexican Short Rib Sandwich type thing, and T got a "los moles" plate that consisted of chicken, pork, and lamb all in slightly different mole sauces served with tortillas. Mole is a Mexican savory chocolate sauce that is not sweet at all but really tasty. Both were extremely good and while eating them we both agreed we would have to come back to try it again. Always thinking about the next meal, that's us!

So, there we are all enjoying our food, just about finishing and ready to order dessert when I see Stephen Starr himself come out of the kitchen and sit at a table in the back. The man, the myth, the legend was actually in the restaurant, checking up on it at the end of its second week of service. In the iconic words of Rachel Zoe "I litrally died". I had a mini freak out over some of the best churros I had ever eaten. I was a little star struck (and a little drunk) if you couldn't tell. T told me that I should have given him the thumbs up, but I didn't cause I am a scardy cat so we just paid and left.

Well, that was my night. I spent the rest of it watching the new Stephen Hawking show and hanging out. 'Cause that's what I do.

Oh, hi there. I didn't see you come in!

Welcome. If you are here for robots or rocketships, you may be in the wrong place. Here, it's more about the stuff. Heavy on stuff, light on robots/rocketships. But there may be some robots and rocketships...maybe...hey, don't go! we're just getting started! I'm just getting warmed up! It'll get better. Promise.

Well, I guess I should introduce myself. I'm Katie, or K. I'm in my mid twenties and kind of a geek. Okay, more than kind of. I work in IT at a big University in a big city. I like techy things, but I also like other stuff (hence the sciency, nerdy title with the stuff tacked on haphazardly at the end). I am really into food, as most techies tend to be. I like to cook, bake, and of course eat. If you're good I may share some of my legendary recipes with you. Okay, maybe they're not legendary, but eh they're not bad. I'd eat it. Since I live in a major city, I dine out. A LOT. I may talk about that too, but my city is overrun by food bloggers that I would hate to compete. We'll see how it goes. I will write things and you will read them. That's the plan Stan. Maybe you'll like them, maybe you'll comment, maybe you'll tell your friends.

So again, welcome. Keep your hands and arms inside the car at all times. No eating, drinking, smoking or flash photography. Enjoy the ride.