Food

This is for the Americans who've banned Vegemite because only cereals and breads may contain folate in the US (Vegemite is owned by Kraft that evil US conglomerate who poisoned hundreds of kids 10 years ago with Salmonella peanut butter so it's only fair). Of course, they are still selling Vegemite in the US because only a few people know about the no folate in other foods law yet. Unfortunately some of the importers know about it, so it's only upsetting Australians so far who've tried to send Vegemite to friends marooned in the US and been sideswiped by overzealous Regulation readers.
Article here: US Denies Vegemite Import Ban


But don't worry because Marmite is much better. Just look what a girl in England has done with it:


The US aren't letting nice healthy folates violate their food chain but they are handing out awards for deep fried coke balls (coke has balls?!):

Deep fried Coke the new fast food craze
Saturday Oct 28 09:00 AEST
A new fast food is making its debut at US fairs - fried Coke.

Abel Gonzales, 36, a computer analyst from Dallas, triedabout 15 different varieties before coming up with his perfect recipe -a batter mix made with Coca-Cola syrup, a drizzle of strawberry syrup, and some strawberries.

Balls of the batter are then deep-fried, ending up likeping-pong ball sized doughnuts which are then served in a cup, topped with Coca-Cola syrup, whipped cream, cinnamon sugar and a cherry on the top.

"It tastes great," said Sue Gooding, a spokeswoman for the State Fair of Texas where Gonzales' fried Coke made its debut. "It was a huge success."


Gonzales ran two stands at the State Fair of Texas and sold up to 35,000 fried Cokes over 24 days for $4.50 each and won a prize for coming up with "most creative" new fair food.


Hey look! A NEW way to eat fat, flour, corn syrup and sugar and no actual REAL food. What a WONDERFUL invention!

Do you remember the book Good Omens, and the four horsemen of the apocolypse? Famine's new plan was to make everyone obese and yet starved of nutrients so they would eventually all die without realising how nutrient starved they were.

I don't think Gonzales invented deep fried coke balls at all... I think Famine did. And I think he came up with the idea to ban Vegemite.

Better than the real thing?

58 million copies of The Sims have been sold making it the most popular computer game ever. Who would've thought a game based on real life, a game that involves housework, and employment, would be the number one game in the world?

My friend's sons who are in their 20s and flatting with friends, have a virtual flat on The Sims with themselves as characters and they spend time "flatting" virtually. Wot???

When I was flatting it was always, who's turn is it to cook and is there anything on TV tonight worth walking down to the pub to watch? We didn't OWN a TV between us. We did have an old atari that we could play Pong on IF we had a TV to connect it to. (If you don't understand that last sentence please leave this page now).

Our flat was on Marine Parade at Mt Maunganui tho. We had a white beach with rolling waves at our doorstep. We had cars cruising nightly outside our front verandah full of scantily clad 20 somethings... we only needed a TV in winter... and a warm pub with a nice fire (once Mt Manganui emptied of the summer crowds) was a much better place to watch it. I remember that we used to sit out on the verandah discussing our strategies for surviving a Tsunami (Mt Maunganui is a peninsula sticking out into the sea with a little dormant volcano on the end) or how to achieve world peace and end poverty... at least until someone stopped by with a better topic. BUT I'm sidetracking. My point is, that when I was flatting, I don't think I would've virtual "flatted". I suppose since Pong was the greatest invention of the computing world at that time, I would've been pretty impressed by The Sims but if we couldn't even afford a TV to play Pong, we certainly didn't have the money to play The Sims.

Now that people do have the money, the TVs, the computers, why do they choose The Sims? Is it that life is simpler and more controllable in The Sims? Does it fill some need for order? I suppose it is fairly compulsive: you want to get ahead, to achieve the game's purposes... but aren't the game's purposes the same as real life's purposes? By spending time playing The Sim's aren't you giving yourself less time to achieve those relationships, educational degrees, job interviews that will help you achieve in real life? Or is it just so much easier to dump a boyfriend, change career paths, keep in touch with your parents on The Sims and therefore... more rewarding?

Yipes!

Blogger is really working strangely. Slow, with porn warnings. And yet... no porn.

Well, I did it, the yipesy thing for all writers. A five day a week job. I had to give up my highly creative job of teaching children at the Art Centre and at the local primary school but with no uni degree, I was at the height of my professional capacity there and working one or two days a week during term time was just not bringing in the lovelies needed to put two smarter-than-me-already little boys through high school and uni and keep me in the manner to which I dream of becoming accustom... actually, I still don't earn enough for that. I may never earn that much.

I considered studying something but everything I wanted to study required a uni degree first. I wish I had one... I can't even say I missed the boat because there wasn't a boat heading that way from my last highschool. I certainly didn't have the knowledge, money or confidence to get myself to uni and my parents didn't have any of that either. It was an impossibility on many levels. I don't want to study anyway... I want to make money, now.

Hotel MacDibble Inmates: 5

Projects of the Week: Tiling fireplace behind stove (yeah... I know... I need half a day to myself)

Critiqued this week: The Carpet Fitter Nidhi Chandra, The Egyptian Ring Jayden Bell, The Lamp of Doom Ramon, The Baby Who Got Haunted Samantha Fragias, The Springfield Murders Kahli Garret (these are all children)

Reading this week: The Best of Australian SF & F 1

Writing this week: Girly Chomp (a children's science fiction story about hitchhiking the galaxy)

The Beast of Moogill - My Webpage - Mentor of Moogill

I'm Groggy

According to the Hangometer I'm groggy. Which is a bit frightening on a Tuesday but not completely unexpected.

I've been touch typing things all week but when I check what I've written there seem to be a lot of words that rhyme with the word I thought I wrote. I look like I have that problem where the sufferer sticks odd words into the middle of a sentence for no reason.

If you touch type, you'll know that your hands pick up their own pattern memory for often-typed words. For instance, I will attempt to type "Good" my hands know: right index finger, left ring finger, ...and then they go into auto mode as my brain moves onto the next word... left index finger, left ring finger, right long finger, so I'll end up with "Could" which is bad because, of course, that's conditional tense type talk and if my hands really are programmed to type that word it means I'm a rubbish writer and my life is over...

AND it means that since I got the first letter wrong that instead of going into auto mode after starting the word, my hands went into auto mode before starting the word and it makes me wonder if I started typing the word even before I thought of it?

Because, reading back... that's entirely possible.

Or... I good just be groggy... on a Tuesday (which I suspect is from running around after 15 kids all day and lack of sleep and not due to a hangover at all).

Check your hangover status with the handy dandy Hangometer.