Whatever

I'm all better now. My appetite came back Sunday. I've been off all the meds since Saturday. Had EaselWeaselBeezit from Wednesday to Saturday. Did the same thing as Poly & Easel on Friday. They as well as Mehsha and I dunno, were with me in the other OC. Had good pizza. Matt Damon wasn't there. Slept Saturday. Went to Atlanta on Sunday. Had hospitality after Clarimont's meeting at Jo's Grille on Ashford-Dunnwoody (very tasty) with people that dad's been friends with forever. Working on French right now. Tons of drama going on, but I'm not sharing. There's nothing to say.

Are We Done Here?

Affie finally upgraded me to be an Admin on her blog. I have fixed her sidebar. I blanked out (meaning that the code is still there, but the page is ignoring it) her profile since all it told you is that she and I are the contributors to this blog. I also completed her link list. She did most of the work. She was only missing one vital component.

We now return to our regularly scheduled programming. Thanks for being such a polite audience.

Still Standing In

Right about now I figure Affie is writhing in pain from a little too much sun. She meant to apply sunscreen vigorously, but just couldn't remember to do so. She was so happy to be out of the O.C. that she couldn't be bothered to reapply what was supposed to be waterproof SPF 30. After applying a nice coating of aloe lotion and taking two percocets, our little Affie should begin to feel a little better - lobstery, but better. (Ah, how I do not miss the days of Solarcane applications.)

So I will continue my guest posting job. Think of me as the Joan Rivers to Affie's Johnny Carson. Or if you kiddies need a more current pop culture reference, I'm the Joy Philbin to Affie's Kelly Rippa. As guest host, I would like to continue to discuss the kinds of things that Affie would talk to you about if she were here in person. I will call this next discussion Fun Facts About Rice. (I decided to spare you a simple Bubba-esque listing of all the recipes featuring rice in favor of the more interesting facts I was able to dig up on the subject.)

1. The bran of rice is a good source of Vitamin B and can cure beriberi. What is beriberi? Oddly enough, it is a nervous system ailment found in people whose diet consists mainly of unpolished rice. How's that for circular logic?

2. Boiled rice "greens" can be used as an eye lotion. (I guess that's for dry eyes.)

3. Dried sprouted rice grains gives tone to muscles and expels gas from the stomach and intestines. (Good news, you're going to be muscly. Bad news, you're going to fart a lot.)

4. Rice husks can be compressed into high-quality charcoal briquettes. Fire up the barbie.

5. Rice flour is a good substitute for wheat flour in products like chips, pastas and cereals. This one may actually be a good thing for our Affie.

6. Rice straw is a good medium in which to grow mushrooms. (I have no idea what rice "straw" is nor why you wouldn't just grow your mushrooms in dirt.)

7. RICE WINE! And the lesser known RICE BEER. Hooray beer. Hooray rice.

8. Good news, rice paper. Bad news, rice paper is heavily used in the manufacturing of cigarettes.

9. Rice glue. Rice glue is basically made by dissolving rice in boiling water. Um, isn't that what we do to cook rice? How does it know when we want to eat it and when we want to use it as an adhesive? Can rice read our minds?

And...that's all I got to say about that.

Links:
Extended Uses of Rice
Rice Heritage
USARice FAQs
Rice in Wikipedia

Hello from HnB

Hello, this is your guest poster, Horse N. Buggy. I'll be keeping you entertained while your regular poster, Affable Olive, is off frolicking in the sun. I was hired on a temporary basis to update a link on the side of this here blog. But since our dear Affie can't figure out how to make me an Admin, I'll have to make do with being a simple contributor. I had no intentions of taking advantage of my contributor status, but find that I just can't help myself. (Maybe I shouldn't have watched "Hackers" last night.)

So, what should we talk about? Hmm... Affie likes to talk about hipster music. So perhaps I should present the other side of the coin.

Welcome to Horse N. Buggy's Bourgeois Music Monday.

You should really check out the sounds of a great band...Air Supply. Can you say "couple's skate?" (Shut up. I know I never actually skated during one of those, but I can still say it!) From the smooth sounds of "Lost in Love" to the heart-rending "Here I Am," Air Supply songs will fill you with emotion like no other. Proving that not all men need to sing like Barry White, Air Supply made legions of female fans weak in the knees with songs like "Every Woman in the World." If you don't believe me, buy the Greatest Hits album and tell me you don't get weepy over "Making Love Out of Nothing At All."

Pour forth those Air Supply memories in the comments, ladies...

My Fair Weezer

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!! Oh well, the last album was crap anyways. Stupid Rivers. Bowing to the demands of mainstream music. Shoulda stuck to garage roots...
http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/news/2006-07-13-cuomo_x.htm?csp=27&POE=click-refer

Cousin #1, Take your pick

And for my last post today, cousin #1 suggested that she needed a nickname. Cousin #1 isn't a very exciting name and I think that it's the funny nicknames that help make a blog amusing, along with the stuff that happens. Today, Aunt Beachy (she would rather be there than here) came to visit, aka- Cousin #1's mother. Mehsha and I had already been discussing names for cousin #1 for a little while and she worked off one of my ideas and came up with Cappuchizzy. It combines coffee and part of her middle name, which she goes by. We both agreed that her nickname had to have something to do with coffee or Rainforest Crunch. Well, loandbehold, her mom comes to bring Grandmama T. and so I ask her what cousin #1's father, Uncle Cliffe, called her when she was little. Immediately, she replies Wartney P. June. My immediate thought was that's PERFECT for a blog! I can call her June for short, or P. June. This, I'm going to open up to the readers. I would like for y'all to pick on or the other. Leave your choice in a comment please. *cough*Wartney P. June*cough*...but don't let my opinions influence you.
**I've been informed that it's Wartley, but it's still awesome.**

Stupid things like this should only happen at the beach

If I hadn't been at the meeting, lemme tell ya, I would have whipped out my cell phone and snapped a piccy of this absurd event. Most people ride in the backs of pick-up trucks, right? That's common knowledge. People do it every where, but more commonly at the beach. You're soaked. Grandaddy doesn't want your wet butt on the upholstery. Compromise: you and the thirty other people at the beach with you climb into the truck bed. It happens all the time. Well, this was a similar situation, only it was stupider. We're mid-paragraph in the book and this car comes cruising down the street. That's pretty common. It's a one way street and it's residential in the heart of our little village here, so most people don't fly down Jackson St. This car was different. It was a Ford Taurus, with two girls on the back bumper. They had their knees bent on the bumper and were gripping the trunk hood with their bent elbows. It seemed so obvious that one or the other wasn't going to make it to their destination. One was going to slip right off, if not both. At Dimwitt and Eliza's house, where we have the bookstudy, there are multitudes of windows across the front of the house so this was very distracting. Oh and it was SO stupid. Most of the time, people have idiotic ideas like this at the beach, but I keep forgetting, this is the other O.C. Slightly country where people have to amuse themselves. Just to let you guys know, I'm leaving Saturday for said beach and will be gone for a week. NO HARASSING FOR UPDATES!

Poser Music Wednesday on a Thursday

This post isn't as poser as it parades on to be because it's just one song I'm plugging, not a whole album. I don't know how many of you know Ben Folds Five/Ben Folds, but they/he has always wowed me. "Piano pop" is one of my favorite genres for music, for obvious reasons. Ben Folds is very talented as far as playing the piano and it's so upbeat it's irresistible. I've owned various songs by the band for years, off and on because I'm really good at losing mix CDs. For a while there, it was my hobby because I was leaving them in various computers in different computer labs around the school. I can just imagine the surprise for those teachers to find White Stripes and Dandy Warhol mixes in random computers. On Wednesday, I did my first batch of downloading songs in anticipation for my MP3 player, which I should be able to acquire by late August or early September. In among these songs, I picked out "Landed" by Ben Folds off the Songs for Silverman album. (It comes in edited too.) It's been over a year since I first heard this song, but I'm still in love with it. When I first heard it, I can remember being in my room, doing math homework, and when I heard it...I knew this song was going to be one of my all time favorites. Every time it would come on, I would blast it. 99X only played it for a few months though and I was too shy to call in at five for their requests hour to hear it. Now, it's finally in my possession and it's been on repeat for almost 24 hours. It's not so much the lyrics that got me, but the piano. It's so...yummy! Thing is, it sounds like my favorite James Taylor song, "Fire and Rain" and it also reminds me of the Cheers theme song. Neither of those things are going to stop me from loving it. As far as I'm concerned, they make me love the song more. All you readers take the four and a half minutes to listen to it. If I could play like Ben Folds...well, I wouldn't be taking lessons and I'd be making money playing the piano. He's just great.

Now that I'm on the subject of music, I'd like to share something. I've been listening to a song that I'm actually embarrassed to admit that I like, and I still listen to the self titled N*SYNC album occasionally. Only naturally, this is FAR worse. It's the epitome of pop culture songs, and I like it. I'm not even going to say the name since I just might throw up if I say it out loud, just click this link here. I know, I know...but it reminds me of the Blondie song "Tide is High," and that's the ONLY reason I can think of that would attract me to this heiress' song, since I can't stand her, but I LOVE Blondie. "Heat of Glass" is classic 80s all the way. More specifically, there's a certain remix of the song that I took a shine to at WalMart.com (blows chunks for saying WalMart), so I downloaded it. It's the Luny Tunes remix featuring some Spanish speaking dudes. It's slowed down a little bit and has a more rap--excuse me, "hip-hop" beat to it, and it's not bad at all. Wooh, now that's off my chest lets move on to the next post.

...Chinese food is good take out

With there being over 3,000 languages in the world, I think I have finally reached a decision. I'm going to do Chinese. I may discuss it with EaselWeaselBeezit and see if she wants to join me in this venture since she is among the number of my friends leaving me in the other O.C. all alone next March to go to China. I feel so left out...I'll be lonely then. By that time, I'll be 18, hopefully graduated or very close. Maybe I'll plan my own trip somewhere else to get my mind off the fact that my two best friends (who have the same birthdate and were born in the same hospital, just two years apart--CREEPY!) are in China without me. Thing is though, I'll start this year learning the language, but will not be able to help the congregation for a year probably. Of course, once I get to where I understand, I'll go, but will not be able to switch. My first priority is pioneering, and I'm not switching over until the first year that we work all of our territory here in the other O.C. (I'm sure all of this is making total sense to my school friends. If you have any questions, just e-mail me and I'll be happy to explain.) I'm pretty sure Chinese is what I want to do. All morning I had these Mandarin news casts on. So I didn't understand, but I haven't heard constant Chinese since I was in Chinatown New York City in 2000-and that's been a while. Just wanted to make sure I could stand the sound of it because I know it's going to be an awful lot of hard work and I want to like what I'm doing. After looking at all this Chinese stuff this morning, I'm pretty sure I'll be happy with my choice. Just wanted to let you all know, especially someone who has been harassing me to get motivated since January, but I know it was all for the best. See now, I've picked something that I like better than what I wanted to do originally, and I had wanted to do that for a year and a half.

In other news, I nuked a bagel for breakfast, beans and RICE! for lunch, and I'm sure I'll delight in cooking my dinner in the microwave as well. We're best friends. Hear that you guys? I won't need you next March. The Maytag will keep me company. We'll microwave and I'll gain 10 lbs. while y'all are gone. It'll do wonders with El Nopal leftovers.

Also, I got two more classes today. Mom brought the box to me and I squealed with joy. She said that she had never seen anyone so happy to get school books and I had to remind her that I was the one that looked forward to starting school, not just for the new supplies either. I loved school- just going to high school. I got the Five Novels of Change class that I wanted, and I think all five of those books are on THE LIST!, and I also got Precalculus first semester. I'm not as excited about math naturally, but it looks easier than I thought it was going to be. Thank you Mrs. Keeney! So summer school...yeah. I can't wait to finish.

HTML Illiterate

I've spent all morning trying to link to Horse N. Buggy and The Polyglot blogs, but alas, not being in Lit Mag for over a year now, my HTML skills have faded. It's just so easy to press the little link button. Everyone has seen who won the world cup and though I didn't follow it AT ALL, I kinda wanted France to win. Their colors are prettier. This is gonna be really short because I don't have much to say and tons to do. Whatever happened this weekend has been completly forgotten, not because I wanted to, but because I was so nervous on Saturday that Friday lost it's impact and it took all my energy to keep going on Saturday that I was too exhausted to do anything on Sunday. The few events that I remember are swimming in my head due to lack of sleep. Saturday was just exciting, but slightly humiliating in other ways. I realized that any desire to have a boyfriend was either heightened or smothered at certain points. Seeing how the guys fall all over themselves for Easel really was repulsive. Some guy twice her age came up to me after she was done talking to me on Sunday as I boxwatched and asked how old that sister was that was just talking to me. In the rented house of God, I lied and said 15. Then there were some guys Sunday that were more than nice to me. It was the words of Hickler Stickler (formerly known as Barbie to East Grayson) that really shocked me out of the Circuit #15A mentality. She said, "Though you turn 18 in four or five months, do you really want to be tied to one of these dorks by 2o?" Ah...words of wisdom to keep me in the big city mentality. I need to seriously get away though. The other O.C. is great, but I need to travel- not go see friends, just travel. I'm hungry now so I'm going to eat my Carraba's leftovers from Saturday. And I will take this opportunity to apologize to Poly again for Saturday nite dinner. Oh, and for the rest of the day, I will be trying to decide which language I want to take on. Bring on the different alphabets!

Affie's SECOND Music Wednesday: Locals edition

The power, after flickering 7 times and then going out for a little over an hour, is now on and it's pouring. I wish I had a camera with film or something because Contessa and Meshuggina (that's Marry Me's new nickname- my sister. It fits her well. I'm calling her Mesha for short. The "e" is short, so she's not Meesha, but Mehsha.) are outside, playing with the slip-n-slide in the rain. It's priceless and they are SOAKED!! I kinda wish I was out there with them, but I'd get sick and I can't deal with that this weekend.

Two days in a row! No complaining for a week- from any of you readers!
Now in my efforts to gaurntee you as my most valued reader at least two post a month, I instated reccomendation days, and this is the second one for music. I would call this a milestone because it means I've at least been keeping up with this thing for a month. On to the music. In fashion of last month's, I've picked a solo artist and a band. The special thing about this one is that these two are from Atlanta and from Athens- making them locals and all locals need support. Look at John Mayer, who was an Atlanta for 2 or 3 years and even made it to the locals only stage at Music Midtown (lest we forget) and now look at him. 3 successful albums. Who knows, it could be this post that's the make or break point for these bands...but that's a whole bunch of fluff and stuff. These two are pretty good and I'm tired and don't feel like putting a whole lot of thougt into this. When I opened my CD case this morning, they were on the same page and I thought it would be a neat idea to do a locals edition.

Solo artist: I think everyone that reads, knows my local Atlanta guy. I know that at least if you haven't seen him live, you know who he is. David Berkeley. Now he's kinda cheating as far as being an Atlanta local goes because he was born in New Jersey, but he moved here and lives in Decatur and feels that's where he should be. I feel that way too because when he's in town, there are often plenty of FREE shows to attend. Since he's recording his fourth album in Chicago some where, he's not home right now and thus, we're going without shows for a little while. The only album I'm missing is "The Confluence" and I'm upset about that, but I can draw from "After the Wrecking Ships" and "Live from Fez." Really, I prefer "Live from Fez," since think that he sounds great live and even better live with the full band. On "LfF," he plays half with the full band and the other half is just him and his guitar. It's very peaceful and great for traveling, especially to the Florida panhandle. It works with the May scenery thru south Georgia, which I love- but hate the heat. He's got plenty of talent. When I saw him, which was with Charlotte Martin, it was a plesant suprise. Our group was disappointed in Charlotte because she's so good on the CD, but stinks live. She was far too attached to her Korg. She was actually having trouble with it and she said, "Don't you guys want me to start it back up again?" The crowd yells and screams, but I say no and about 2 or 3 people around look at me like I'm stupid. The Korg brought her way down on my favorites list, but David shot right up there. He played his guitar, sang, and then Will Robertson (who he always is handsome and unavaliable) played bass. It was beautiful. His sound is actually similar to John Mayer's, only his voice is less rough on the edges and his lips don't do that funny thing. He sounds wonderful. I've tried since then to see him 3 times. Both shows that you had to pay for were made 21 and older and then the free show he canceled to go tour the West coast with Guster. He did about 4 shows with them and then came home. I think "LfF" is my favorite, since personally, I think he sounds better live. Most people do not sound better raw, but he's one of the few that do. Kinda like Kelly Clarkson. She was the first American Idol because she sound good without the studio. This fourth David album is what I'm really looking forward to and hopefully, he'll come to Athens to accompany this new CD release. Everyone better be with me.

Band: I don't know much about these guys, since all I did was end up in Wuxtry's one day exploring the Rock bins and decided to try a local flavor. In doing so, I ended up walking out of there having spent the most money I've ever spent in there, carring An Epic At Best. Now, you never know what you might get when you do that. It's not like listening to music clips at WalMart.com and then buying someone you've never heard of. This is taking a complete risk with $9 of your hard earned money (babysitting Contessa isn't exactally hard earned, but it's money I worked for and I'm Jewish) and you don't know what you might get. It was in the rock bin, which encompasses so much, it's not even funny. I could have been walking out of there with death metal and not even knowing it. The album cover with the peaceful bird on a branch that look like they were pieced together from torn paper didn't scream death metal at me, so I figured I was safe enough. Turns out I was more than safe. They sound almost exactally like Ben Folds Five, with a touch of The Format, both of which are up there on my favorites list. They aren't half bad and concidering how many local shows they play, I'll most likely keep up with them and go see a show that they are playing that's not 21 and older. I was impressed for just wandering in and wandering out with it. Some call Ben Folds Five piano pop, so I would have to call these guys that as well. The piano is kinda a fetish for me, since I throughly enjoy it. I was only disappointed in one song of the 9, called "Carolina." Whoever does lead vocals whined far too much, and it wasn't a talented whine like Elvis Costello either. It was so recycled as well. All they did was take some song about missing California and they replaced the state name with Carolina. It's the 2nd song on the album, so I was like, "Oh no, I spend $9 on a piece of crap," but by track 7 I was into it. Tracks 7 thru 9 far out weigh the disappointment of track 2. Those are "wow" tracks. I was most impressed with those three and the flow they exhibited. Track 9 is 10 minutes long exactally and although it repeats itself, it's a song that doesn't get old because it changes sound completly almost 7 times. Those tracks truly make the album something a little different than the other artists that produce music that sound like them.

Enjoy ALL the links. I wanted to make sure everyone got the FULL sound experince of both of these artists. Gotta love the locals.

Save the Drama for yo mama

Well, it's been a week and lemme tell ya...there was drama last Wednesday, but mild. It was funny meeting Jammies' girlfriend. Feather is so nice. She has a great heart and is very sweet to me and Marry Me (who wants to be called Yiddish-a-mamma, but I don't like it). Honestly though, I don't think Jammies has told her everything that she needs to know about his situation, which if there is a missing link in the communication chain, this relationship might not last. It better since Biscuit Hayes and I head up the Let's Get Jammies Down To West Palm At All Costs Foundation. We are doing everything in our power to get him gone. And Feather will let me visit everyonce and a while, and that's all I ask, but I'm so afraid it won't work out. I was talking to Feather's best friend WestPalmKimmi (Marry Me and I actually called her that when we went to the aquarium with them, so we had to kinda explain the whole thing). But WestPalmKimmi and I have so much in common, but she's 26 going on 40, so we have a couple of gaps when communicating, but they are easily closed with some smilies and metaphors. I was talking to her and she said that she had just met Jammies the week before when he went to West Palm to visit before they all came up here and although I really didn't want to say anything about the real Jammies (since he wasn't being himself), but she didn't know and I felt that I could trust her and if necessary, she could protect Feather from anything that she might be getting into. It's been 3 months though and nothing has stopped them yet. Their rafting trip today might prevent something...but I'm not going there. They are great together, but Jammies' problems prove to put some difficulties into the situation. From what I heard today, he was smothering her and not even doing a really good job of treating her as his guest. He better clean up and fast before he loses Feather. If he doesn't fix this and make it work with Feather, Biscuit is planning on putting me in the Protect Me From Jammies Relocation Program, sponsored by the Let's Get Jammies Down To West Palm At All Costs Foundation.

We got a MICROWAVE finally yesterday! That's a big break through for the household that became so dependent upon one right before we moved. Leftovers have been going uneaten because of the lack of an easy way to heat them up. That's why there's only a little bit of Thai left in H'n'B's frige...she has a microwave. Speaking of break throughs, my mom had one this weekend, and I can still hardly believe it. Mom let go big time and let my sister and me DRIVE (well, I drove. She doesn't have a license) about an hour and a half away! Marry Me tried to make a point by asking mom when she got her license and when she got to take a trip of that magnitude. Turns out mom got her license at 15 and didn't do a trip of this magnitude until she was 18. Not a good argument. It's still quite exciting and I can barely believe that I was there. More than that, we were there all weekend basically since we stayed over at Horse n. Buggy's (to whom many thanks are still owed). We were gone from the other O.C. from 3 PM on Saturday to 6 PM on Sunday. I would vote that as the majority of the weekend. We attended the special Saturday edition of GSAM, stayed at H'n'B's and then went to the meeting the next day before leaving that side of town. That also included shopping at Ingles, which makes every GSAM complete. I'm not going into details, but it was quite the weekend. It does mean that going that far away by myself isn't off limits now and Cousin #1 that means I can come visit you now too! The weekend was just crazy. It felt very out of order, but that's what made it so much fun. Tomorrow, tune in for the SECOND Affie's Music Wednesday and just hope that I can decide on something good before tomorrow. Happy now Polyglot? Tag H'n'B! You're the only one left!