A is for Amaranth

Amaranth, a “golden seed” that was apparently very popular in times past (way past), is double delicious! I understand that it’s making a comeback as people start avoiding trans-fats and hydrogenated-this and partially hydrogenated-that. In my quest to do just that, and eat more “whole” foods, I came across a recipe for Apple-Walnut Amaranth. I bought some in bulk from Whole Foods, and after mixing one cup of the golden seeds with three cups of plain soy milk, one diced, cored apple and a dash of cinnamon, and boiling and then simmering (covered) for half an hour, I can’t keep my hands off the pot! It’s delicious, kind of like cream of wheat in texture, but better and way more delicious. I would HIGHLY recommend amaranth to anyone looking for something to add to their kitchen repertoire. Amaranth is amazing!

Indulging my desires to eat and complain in one fell swoop!

Don't yell at me for last time. Try this.

More whining

I know you’re sick of hearing me whine about not having a job, but that’s all I got going right now.

Currently: I am paying $20/hour to work (yes, that’s the reverse of how it’s supposed to be). I go to the law school, the one to which I pay ever-increasing tuition plus $20/hour for my job at EPA, in order to search for jobs. However, lately the internet rarely works at the law school that is causing my debt to balloon, so I can’t even use the career development website or use other online resources in my job search. Might I point out that everything is on the internet these days, which is why I take the time to come to the school for my job search—so that I can use the magical World Wide Web. Which is so much less magical when it only contains the page “Problem loading page.” I can’t even check my damned email, and I would be screaming at the top of my lungs were I not in the library with someone working at the table behind me.

Note: I’m writing this in a Word document, because I can’t get online. No email, no blogging, and no productivity. I might cry, because it’s costing me a fortune to do nothing. No income = big financial problems (for very obvious reasons).

Impending Weekend

I've been bad about posting because all I do is stress about not having a job (and trying to find one, which I spend many hours doing). As it turns out, there is nothing interesting in the NYT for me to add either, which doesn't help matters.
BUT, it's Friday, and I'm having a cocktail party tomorrow! I know you're dying to know, so I'll reprint my menu here:

• Portable caprese salad
• Rumaki
• Warm goat cheese on toasted baguette with bread crumbs and olive oil
• Bruschetta, with my homemade tapenade
• Little pizza bianca
• Cosmopolitans

See, now I bet you wish you could come. It's going to be Loki's coming out party...
I got a kitten two weeks ago, so that makes things vveeerrryy interesting around the house. His name is Loki, and he is a charmer/total terror (or, perhaps, "contriver of all fraud?").

'Tis not the best photo of the li'l guy, but the rest are being held hostage on my camera (until I get around to uploading them, I'm VERY lazy about this). Lucy's not nuts about him, although she has started doing this thing where she pins him down while he cries and licks him, and I think it's some kind of mothering-type activity (I hope). Otherwise, they wrestle, or fight, if you're not as optimistic as I am about their relationship.
That's about all the news I have. I have to get home and tend to my raging kitten and his less-than-thrilled-about-the-baby fellow cat. Aren't you so jealous of my life? Unemployed with cats?

Some fun math

An idea of my monthly expenses:
Rent: $1100 (for both me and Rex)
Car Insurance: $80
Energy Bill: $75
Gas: ...
Food: ...

My monthly income (combined, with Rex's): $0

Someone please tell me: how does this work?

Yes, I have student loans. No, they do not cover the cost of living. Plus it's summer, where they are particularly paltry (read: gone by July 1).

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I need a job! The thing is, employers expect law students to work for free, which presents a problem that would have been nice to know about before going to law school: you have to be wealthy to attend, otherwise you will be poorer than before you began. I thought I would go to law school to make more money than my pitiful post-college job paid, but it turns out that I am making less. A lot less. So much for that bright idea.

Separation of Church and State, anyone?

I am strongly opposed to any shift away from the separation of church and state as it was intended. Which is to say, I think that the separation should remain (nay, be more so) clearly demarcated with no blurring of the lines. Giving federal funds to faith based groups is, to me, an evangelical right-wing conservative action, one that I think other liberals like myself abhorred when Bush proposed more of it. Luckily, he proposed such action but it never really took root--it was one of those things designed to appease his evangelical constituents but lacking any cognizable result. Unfortunately, Obama announced that he supports this program and intends to expand what Bush started. While Mr. Obama assures the American people that there will be checks on the system to ensure that the line between church and state doesn't become too blurred, I think that this is a truly awful stance. I thought that Obama was nominated to be the Democratic nominee. So why is he proposing that our federal government utilize religious groups to perform the work that would otherwise be performed by state run agencies? It is not just the addition of religious programs, it is giving the money that could otherwise go to existing state programs, to religious ones. If we didn't have state run programs, and it would be too onerous to create them, I might understand. But shifting activity from government to churches when we clearly have the programs in which this activity could be improved? That I have a problem with. A BIG problem.

I want to be www.paris.paris

Icann, the Internet gods, decided to add more suffixes for web addresses (to expand on the familiar .com and .org). Paris, France is the home of Icann, and they want to add .paris to the system. If they add a .paris web address, I vote that I should get to have the web address www.paris.paris. Wouldn't that be awesome? My computer even just turned that address into a link automatically--like it was meant to be.

If I can't see it, it's not there.

EPA decided to classify GHGs as a pollutant, pursuant to Massachusetts v. EPA, the April 2007 case that required the EPA to determine whether or not they are. This is, of course, the only logical decision. If you don't think that GHGs are a pollutant (defined as "endangering the public health or welfare), then you are a moron and surely voted for Bush. Twice. Well, it would be a giant leap in the right direction for EPA to make this decision, except that the Bush Administration refused to open the email containing the decision. In refusing to do so, it has de facto refused to accept the ruling, and so it doesn't matter. This is really how it works? If I don't read the email, it didn't happen? So now EPA will go back and write another memo that doesn't come to a conclusion as to whether or not GHGs are pollutants for purposes of the Clean Air Act; it will just review some science and say the evidence is incomplete (along the lines of, we're not sure about climate change/global warming, the science is inconclusive). Stevens is gonna be so pissed.

I'm tenacious!

I was just called a tenacious researcher, AND got an extension on the deadline for this horrifically in-depth research project. Yay!

Update: I just deleted the document with ALL of my tenacious work from today. Almost 4 hours worth of research. Because I am on a secure network and it didn't just go to my recycle bin, it may be irretrievable. Feeling less tenacious as I wait for IT to call me back...

Tidbits from Monday night television

I have to admit to watching too much television. It's still far less than the average American, but for someone who watched little or none for about 10 years...well, American television is pitiful in any amount (for the most part). There were, however, a few choice morsels:

"You pretty much told me my penis would shrink if I didn’t eat organic food."

"That’s not bickering, that’s being a good friend!" [From Bones]

And from Fox News: (Yes, I watched some Fox News. I haven't sprouted horns. Yet.)

Stunted growth—usually used to refer to a failure to grow to full height. On Fox News? It means being killed. “A 21-month-old who’s growth was stunted when he was killed.” Well yes, growth does tend to cease at death.