CharmingGeek.net Funness

After something like a year, maybe more than that, I’m finally done with Les Miserables. And you might notice it’s not moving to my recommended list.
There were lots of good parts. But in a book that size, there were also lots of really bad parts. That’s why it took so long for me to read it. For about nine months there I just fell into a section of the book that didn’t hold my interest for more than about a paragraph.
It doesn’t have a happy ending, either. I like happy endings.

I got some nice chicken breasts at Food Lion yesterday. They’re yummy and they were an MVP buy. So I cooked one up on the George Foreman yesterday and made some rice and squash to go with it. Well, that was pretty yummy.
But today when I wanted some lunch and all I have is chicken breasts, I thought I’d do something different. There’s a show on TLC — or, no I guess it’s on the Food Network — called Food 911, where they go into somebody’s house and make delicious meals with basically whatever they have lying around. Of course these people always happen to have several kinds of fresh meat, a variety of wines and gourmet cheeses lying around. I should host that show.
Well, scanning the area for useful ingredients, I proceeded in such a manner:
From this tasty chicken breast I first discarded the marbling of fat along some of the edges. I then sliced it open, butterflied if you will so I could access the interior of this cut. Along the inside of the chicken breast, now spread open upon my wooden cutting board, I scattered some fresh oregano along with grated parmesan and mozzarella cheeses which were in the refrigerator. I added to the mixture lemon juice, coarse ground black pepper, and a blend of italian seasoning. Then folding the chicken back over so that the toppings became a stuffing as it were, I seasoned the outside with a mixture of the same italian seasoning and more pepper. This parmesan-stuffed chicken, flavored and put back together I laid on the now hot George Foreman grill and closed the lid. Following, I put my leftover rice and squash in the nuker for a brief. Thence in a period of time that Rachael Ray would be unable to beat, I found myself dining on this delicious meal.
Such was my morning.

Is it okay that I just had my entire RDA of fat in one meal?
Well, maybe not my entire RDA. Some of it congealed on the plate…

One of the interesting things about not having a job to go to on a daily basis is that I run out of clean underwear and have to wash about three times as often as I do for anything else.

I ran (most of) a lousy 5 miles tonight. My body is really starting to protest. I did get two whistles from passing cars, though. They were probably both guys, but I’ll take what I can get. I need a job to entertain me.
The light in my room burned out. So I’m sitting in the dark eating garden rotini and nacho cheese.
I think that’s all for tonight. Bye.

In case you’re ever tempted, oatmeal and peanut butter is a bad idea.

I managed my first 2-a-day today. Usually I’m just not motivated enough to get into my little shorts and lace up my shoes and find myself all disgusting and sweaty twice a day.
So I got in about 5 miles this morning and 7 tonight. And it’s confirmed. Running in the morning is a pain.

Well, I’ve been looking up some info. I have been forming opinions. I might as well write it down.
The Economy
I’m unemployed. I am unemployed on W’s watch. I’d like to have a job. Yet I still think he should be re-elected. Why? Well, I’m a computer/math guy. Let’s look at the facts.
Okay, well first let me tell you what these facts are going to tell you. A national economy is a big animal. It takes a while to make it move, and a lot of what a president gets is what he inherits. So we’re going to look back a little bit. We’re going to look at trends.
First, we know the stock market is a great indicator of where the economy is going. Well, the Fact-Index gave me some great information on where that’s been going for the past few years. There’s a lot to be gleaned here, but here are some highlights.
The Dow Jones peaked on January 14, 2000 (11,723.00). The Nasdaq peaked on March 10, 2000 (5,048.62), on Clinton’s watch.
“As of September 24 [2002] the Dow Jones Industrial Average had lost 27% of the value it had at the inauguration of George W. Bush, a total loss of 5 trillion dollars. …. It should be noted that the Dow Jones had already lost 9% of its value from its peak when Bush took office, and the Nasdaq had lost 44% of its value from its peak before Bush took office.” (emphasis added)
Did you see that? Before Bush took office, the Nasdaq was at nearly half it’s peak value. Still there’s a deficit. You should check out the rest of the info at this site. It’s more than I’ll talk about.
So back to the deficit in the markets. Well, that’s still 2002. The Dow closed Friday at 10,282.83. That is only 12% below the peak in 2000. Okay, that’s not great, but it’s improvement. The Nasdaq has seen a similar recovery. I can’t find the exact numbers, so I’m leaving it at that.
Second, for as long as the Department of Labor has been keeping statistics, there has been an economic downturn followed by an economic boom about every 8 years. We just came out of a boom. This is the downturn. But now it’s turning back upward.
Kerry likes to point out that 3 million jobs have been lost under Bush’s term. He fails to point out that those numbers are as of last June. In the past 12 months, over 1 million jobs have been created. It brings it to 2 million lost jobs. I know that’s still a big number, but those were for the vast part in the first year of the term. Remember 2001? We were already riding a downturn in the stock market when we suffered a terrorist attack that took more American lives than the Vietnam War. Nasty nasty year.
Check out this fly Excel graph I made with data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. There are some important dates included there so you can see the unemployment trend along with key events affecting the economy.
So what am I saying in the end? The economy right now is pretty lousy. But I don’t think it can be blamed entirely on the current President. I’m optimistic about the direction the last 12 months of that unemployment chart and the stock market charts are going.

I’m at Martha’s.

On the subject of Iraqi freedom, we hear a lot on the news about what’s going on and how the people feel about it. Everybody here in the West seems to have their opinion. Either that Iraqi’s love the Coalition Forces for freeing them or they want the Americans oppressors to leave. Whatever your opinion, you can’t deny the fact that in the last 18 months, Iraqis have been given the oportunity to let the world know what they honestly think. Here’s a sampling of the situation from the source.

A Family in Baghdad: Actually mostly maintained by the mother of an Iraqi family (These pages have a fairly angry tone).
Okay, this family does a lot of blogging. You can follow the links to find another family blog site and each of the three son’s sites.
Baghdad Burning: “Girl Blog from Iraq”
Kurdo’s World: Bogging from the north of Iraq.
Iraq The Model: An Iraqi doctor’s postings (very optimistic).
Sun of Iraq: Not recently updated, not very clear English, but seems pretty honest.
Baghdad Update: This is actually from an American living and working in the “Green Zone.” Thought I’d throw it in.
Healing Iraq: aily news and comments on the situation in post Saddam Iraq by an Iraqi dentist.
Road of a Nation: Nice site by an Iraqi professional. I’ve questions about his English, though.

I’m going to my cookout. I plan to scour more of these later.