I finally got my zune today, a week after it was released.  that was kind of bs by  amazon.  oh, and another thing - USPS tracking sucks.  it gives barely any information of where your package is, and it isn’t very timely.  I got the package at lunch, and the site still hasn’t updated yet.  this is what it reads:

November 20, 2006
—
RICHMOND CA US
Departure Scan

November 15, 2006
—
US
Carrier notified to pick up package

I know this is hard to read in this format, but basically I have only these two pieces of information, which tells me nothing.  And what is this ‘carrier notified to pick up package’ on the 15th.  then it was picked up on the 20th?  i can see the conversation:

amazon:  yeah, we have a package for you to pick up

USPS:  ok, we’ll come over, when’s a good time for you.

amazon:  how about next week sometime, this poor bastard only got the super saver shipping.  why dont we just let it sit here for five days.

That is lame.  what pisses me off more, and this is really my bad, is that i could have got amazons prime 2 day shipping for a $8 one month trial.  this amazon prime would really come in handy now that it is xmas, but i refuse to get it now since i waited a week for the zune.

anyway, so far it looks awesome, but i’m at work so i can’t set it up fully or load songs or anything.  One thing is that you need a upgrade to get the wireless capabilites turned on - that is kind of lame.

hmm, what else.  I made this pepper vodka last week.  I saw it on an episode of good eats with alton brown.  basically you get pepper, crush it a bit, put in in the bottle, and shake it every day for a week.  after a week you strain out the pepper corns and you have your pepper vodka. 

It really tastes quite good. I mean, very spicy.  I’ve been using it for bloody marys and, man, its good.  it really enhances the flavor of even the most basic, thin, off the shelf mix.

It doesn’t look so great i know.  it looks just like dirty water, but it tastes fine.  one note, alton brown crushed the pepper with a mortar pestle, but i didn’t have one so i used the coffee grinder.  this was a bit too powerful, in retrospect I should have put the pepper in a bag and used the meat tenderizer.  you want the pepper to break apart - in other words, crack the shell, but you don’t necessarily want it in dust form.  i figured that out when the dust didn’t strain out and you have a lot of pepper particles in your vodka.  still good, but a little rough going down.  alton brown gave a pretty detailed explaination of why this technique works, complete with big styrofoam pepper corn.  basically when you crush the pepper and put it in alcohol, it reacts with the alcohol and infuses it, or whatever.  anyway, it works.  try it.

I got these frozen yaki onigiris at mitsuwa last week.  i know how this sounds, frozen rice, no bueno right?  well, it was not bad, really.  the rice does come out kind of mushy.  it’s not like a real yaki omusubi where it’s all nice and burnt and crispy.  but the flavor is good, and pretty well distributed throughout the rice ball.  they also come in this little plastic tray thing, and what you do is rip out a single omusubi with the tray below and put it in the microwave.  it’s really convenient - a pretty good snack, although it costs $5 for 6 omusubis, so really you’re paying about $5 for a cup or two of rice.  that’s not a good deal.

Oh, one more thing.  I was trying this recipe from rachel ray for this soup.  it requires the use of kale, which is this leafy green that is kind of peppery, apparently.  anyway, i go to wholefoods and get my organic kale.  But, when i go home and look at the kale, it is absolutely infested.  see, the kale leaves have lots of ridges, and all these spiders or mites or whatever had housed up in my kale and embedded themselves in these little ridges.  plus, the kale leaf has kind of a natural water repelling property, so i couldn’t even wash these guys out.  it was waaaay lame.

that’s the thing i don’t like organics.  i mean, i’m ok with taking in a little pesticides if it means my veggies don’t have bugs in it.  i’m really getting pretty sick of this hippy shit all over.  organic everything - sometimes is just not practical.  Ultimately, i paid more for a piece of organic kale that i was unable to use because of these f’ing bugs.  plus, i like my meats with a little hormone and antibiotics - is that actually bad?  has anyone researched the long term effects of non-organic foods?  i mean, hormones make the meat more tender - what’s wrong with that?  antibiotics make meat cheaper - again, what’s wrong with that?

I think this whole organics craze is just a new way to make more money off of rich american consumers.  you create a problem, i.e. pesticides, hormones, antibiotics, etc., and then create an expensive solution to the problem, i.e. organics. 

Do your chickens really taste better because they were allowed to run in a field?  think so?  then you are a sucker.  because i’ve seen these free range chicken farms and its not like chickens are running around the hills like the sound of music.  they are in a big warehouse with a small door on one end that leads to a little open area.  it is their choice to run around.  and they don’t have this ability their whole lives - only for a couple weeks out of their life.  most likely, your free range chicken was in an enclosed warehouse just like a non-free range chicken.  all these farmers are doing is meeting the definition for organic or free range as cheaply as possible, then selling your more expensive food.

And that’s OK.  actually, I think that is a brilliant marketing strategy that leverages the ignorant assumptions of american consumers.  I mean, has anyone ever seen any warnings about non-organics?  like, say on cigarette boxes?  no, because there’s no proof that non-organics are worse for your, or that the pesticides are present in levels that will affect your life span or anything. 

it just sounds better to say that it is organic, and if it costs a farmer $0.50 more per pound to farm an organic vegetable that can sell for $1 more per pound, then it’s not only in his best interest to grow organics, but it’s also in his best interest to make you want organics.  i actually think the organic people are the same ones who sell all these ab excersizers.  the same asshole with that eletrocuting belt on is probably on his way to wholefoods right now.

and really, that is fine.  i don’t care.  i mean, i got to whole foods and i buy their overpriced shit.  all i want though, is not to have bugs in my kale.  hear that?  i want the motherfucking bugs of the motherfucking kale.  i mean, fifty years ago you people would have been hug upside down with a fork up your…oh, wait, that’s a different rant.

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