Today, IT BEGINS!

And by "it", I mean my latest monstrous idea in the kitchen. I consider myself experienced with spices, and frequently order my food as spicy as possible when I get takeout, so take this into account when I say:

I'm a little afraid of what I've decided to do.

After doing a Google search and realizing that marinating ground beef is a thing and not just a crazy idea of mine, I decided to finally kill my taste buds. Or, at the very least, make a super-spicy burger that will beat the little bastards into submission. Those that survive will worship this burger as their god, and consider the fallen ones to be that god's sacrifices. I'm planning on calling it "Barlow's Five-Alarm Fire Burger" until I come up with something better.

It's also going to be being recorded, so there's that. I'll share the recipe then, once I know if it's a tasty - albeit fiery - treat, or an unholy abomination that needs never walk the face of this planet again. I have a feeling my colon will think the latter, regardless of how it turns out.

Workworkworkworkwork

Here's today's LAME POST OF LAMENESS. Today was filled with cooking, sleep, a little internet time, and more sleep.

Oh, and some minor freakouts with electronics at my house. But all is well, and tomorrow's post is already put together (and better)! For now, I'm working and shouldn't be using my phone. See ya!

I had a job interview today

Overall? Feeling "eh" about it. The good thing is that I have a full-time job, and this was more along the veins of "If I get it, great, I'll have more money coming in and can quit working for the unnamed convenience store". We'll see within the next week, but it was nice to have a reason to wear a shirt and tie again. Not really work attire for my current job.

Also, I FAILED yesterday. I had a post scheduled to go up, and when I realized that it didn't, it was already today. So, that makes three videos that I owe, and I already know what they'll be - one of them will be cooking!

Finally, since my time before the bus gets here is limited, I've been mentioned on TANcast again. I sent in a joke for their 'Angelo Bowers Memorial TANlaughs' segment, and they all enjoyed it. You can go listen to the episode to hear it, and maybe you'll laugh too, as long as you're a terrible, soulless person (like me). The reason I bring it up is that I sent it from my primary email address (justin@justin-barlow.com), which Andy described as me having a "Justin-flavored domain name". From now on, I think I'm going to use "Justin Flavored" as the cooking segment name. What do you think?

Anyway, things to do, videos to make/edit, and OH YEAH I'VE BEEN AWAKE SINCE 7PM YESTERDAY. I'll sleep eventually. Definitely before work tomorrow night... maybe.

THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE HAS STARTED!

... Maybe.

Okay, that might have been slightly too dramatic a title, but I decided to hold off a post I'd thought about in favor of relating the events of this morning. Events that may, or may not, turn out to be the herald of the undead hordes.

Meet Dee. We'll just call her Dee for now, because her real name starts with a D, and I haven't yet gotten her permission to use her name on here. You see, Dee is a manager at one of the three stores that my boss owns. Because she was working on the books today, it was her job to be up and at Top Foods bright and early to pick up fresh doughnuts for out doughnut case at the store.

When she got to the store and was counting them, she looked at me and said "So do you want to hear about my horrifying Top Foods experience today?" Of course I agreed, and she related to me the story that may or may not mean that brain-hungry flesh-eaters are out to get us....

It seems that she was innocently waiting outside part of the building to get the doughnuts, and heard what can only be described from her imitation as a long, low, zombie-like groan coming from the dumpster. One of the Top Foods employees had forgotten to lock up the dumpster, and while it might have been just some homeless person or tweaker (or both) who was too out of it to verbalize anything beyond that -- well, let's just say I'm sharpening my blades when I go home.

Disclaimer: I don't actually believe that this is the sign of a zombie apocalypse, nor that there will be one. I just like to have fun, and this was a much better blog post in my head than it turned out to be. #FAIL

Resume: SENT

I wouldn't say that I'm miserable at my current job - I'm okay with it most of the time - but I don't exactly look forward to going to it.

If you didn't know where I work, I won't name names. But it's a store in a nationwide chain of 24-hour convenience stores with a numeric name and a bad reputation of having a clientele made up solely of drug addicts and shady folks. I wouldn't completely agree on the rep, but on graveyard shift (which I work), I certainly get my share of shady folks.

But I used to work at a hotel. Other than the boss who made the experience a living hell, I liked it. So, when I saw a job in the newspaper at a hotel, asking for a year or more front desk experience (I have over three years), I decided to call about it. Talked with the dude, who seemed thrilled to have someone with experience calling - and from a rival hotel, no less - and sent in my resume tonight. I'm hoping for good things, and that if he gets in touch with my current employer, that it doesn't have any negative impact on me like a lessened schedule or anything. Working for minimum wage, I can't really afford that sort of cut.

Also, I made delicious sweet and sour steak with rice. Marinated the steak for a full day. Loooove. :D Apologies for the bad picture quality. It's from my cell phone.

I was kind of boring...

Today was kind of a slacker day. As I type this, I'm about 22 hours into my day, so I'm about to crash. Just didn't want to owe 3 videos. :p

I was a little productive, though. Confirmed the interested artist for Project: SAMSON, took care of laundry necessities, fixed the fact that I wasn't getting notification emails for comments, and did everything shy of buying a frame for the exploding TARDIS poster that I recently got. Depending on prices, I'll probably do that soon, but maybe not until next payday. I've got rent to pay half of tomorrow.

So, there's that. I was lazy, as I said. You can find much better posts elsewhere today, but I'm still happy that you're reading along here.

The "222 curse"

Or, Why I'll be staying home today.

For years now, my friend Tony - he'll have a page up soon - and I have noticed a theme: 222. A lot of times that we see that number or hear it, two things happen. One of them is good, and one is bad. The first instance involved the unfortunate closing of one of our favorite restaurants in the town he used to live in, but I can't remember what the bad thing was that time.

It's never been huge, drastic things, but things that we probably wouldn't even think about if we hadn't noticed the pattern. Now, it could be said that we look for something good and something bad, both of which stand above the rest.

So, I'll go back to finishing Tin Man, and writing and doing housework while listening to old TANcast episodes. Not that I believe in curses, but, y'know... just in case. :p

I peed in a cup today

And let me tell you, it's not always as easy as it should be. For one thing, you can't wash your hands until after they check the results, which is just gross. Plus, performing on command? Not pleasant, when you've already peed within the last hour or so. I guess what matters is that I passed the drug test - as I knew I would.

Now, I've slept all day (about ten hours), and am watching Tin Man with my ankle wrapped. Almost broke that leg in a bike accident a decade-ish ago, and never got it properly fixed, so occasionally it comes back to say "Hiiiiii!". Like, say, after eight days of working mostly 10-hour shifts.

Tomorrow, I'm cooking. It shall be wonderful, and there might be some video of it.

I probably look like I'm working hard

Which would be because I am. I'm getting to work about half an hour early tonight, which means one thing: working on Project: SAMSON.

I think this is the first time mentioning the name publicly, so here's the gist -- I'm scripting a comic book project, designed to be a six-issue limited series. it's about the military, superpowers, and muuuuurder. All in all, I've enjoyed coming up with it.

Until lately, I've kind of been slacking on it, but I've been working more on it, and tonight is some serious crunch time. Which works perfectly for me, as I have the next three (or more, I don't know until the schedule's out) days off from my wage-slaving.

So, I'll see ya when I unbury my head! :D

This is getting a little awkward...

In the last month, I've seen look-alikes of FOUR of my online friends. One of them, I could've sworn was one of my New Jersey friends, and others were close doppelgangers, but not perfect.

Side note: My mother and I were arguing about the word doppelganger the other day. She'd never heard it and thought that it was "fucking dumb". I told her it's because she's not a sci fi fan, and that it's not "gay" like she said. I've given up on trying to stop her use of "gay" as an insult towards something, because there's no hope for her. Trust me, listen to her swear some time. You'll give up hope for her too.

This one's a short one again, because I'm working under a time-crunch. I have a whole eight minutes before I have to get ready for work, or I'd have researched some of the topics presented to me by my awesome Twitter friends. Like Matt's suggestion of a very unjust prison sentence, or Nikki's suggestion of a recent Virginia law that might also have a bullshittery rating high enough for me to have a brainsplosion on here.

Anyway, time for me to get ready. I'm going to work on some posts for the topics suggested. :D

Now I owe TWO videos

But the good news is, one of them is already mostly edited together. Sorry, bit of a family problem this last day or so. More details tomorrow, but tonight is BUSY. Just barely getting today's in before midnight.

Oh damn!

This is what happens when I decide that "Oh, I can post when I wake u--" *already snoring* sounds like a good idea. I end up already clocked into work and realizing that I hadn't blogged yet. Please, facepalm for me.

Anyway, I've got the video that I owe you recorded, and will be attempting to make time to post it tomorrow. Just depends on if I can get to work early enough.

It's getting busy, so I've unfortunately got to wrap this up. See you tomorrow, with the post I planned for today! I've got lots of good shit coming up for you! Even a recipe or two!

CURSES! Foiled again!

No real plan today, like yesterday. Just a short, doing-it-before-bed (giggity), stream of consciousness post.

I decided last night that I really like Nightwish's most recent album, "Imaginaerum". It's got a lot of different styles musically, and a great sound overall. That probably puts me in a bad spot with any of the hardcore "Nightwish sucks with Tarja" crowd, but oh well. It's good music, and I'm actually a little interested in seeing the movie of the same name, that will (heavily?) feature the music from the album.

Also, I've got posts coming up, in other places! I've got a post in the works for Grays Harbor Down that's connected to yesterday's marriage equality post, and the other one, I'll share when it's posted.

Lastly, I really wish they'd stop pushing back the release date for the final Wheel Of Time book. Late 2012 is the last straw! It was supposed to be late 2011, and then early 2012! Sure, I'll still buy it if it gets pushed back again... but I won't be happy about it.

Anyway, sleep time. It's getting hard to keep my eyes open, and if I keep making typos, I'm bound to miss one before posting. Argh.

"Gay marriage becomes legal: 'This is a very proud moment'"

So says the headline of today's Seattle times, so say we all. Congratulations, Washington state lawmakers, on finally taking a step towards treating everyone equally.

I've said it for a long time, gays aren't some weird thing, they're people. The only thing that separates gay people from straight people is who they want to fuck (or fall in love with, but, you know... whatever. Let me tell it my way). Gay and lesbian people are not some abomination unto your deity of choice, they're human beings. I went to school with a few people who came out later in life, and seem to be no worse for the wear.

I'm happy to see that Washington lawmakers voted to make it legal, although if opponents of the bill can get enough signatures by June 6th, in which case the law would be put on hold until the November elections. To me, that's both good and bad. It's bad because I think it's possible -- 120,577 signatures in three months? Definitely possible -- but it's potentially good because it could lead to HUGE voter turnout in favor, because I'm of the hope that the majority of Washingtonians are rational enough and compassionate enough to vote yes.

If the law is upheld, I'd be happy to offer my services as an ordained (non-demoninational) minister to perform any wedding ceremonies, for any homosexual partners looking for someone who won't discriminate against them. We'll see how things go over the next few months!

So, with one less legal issue as of yesterday, may all of you out there continue to love whomever you want to, in whatever way you want to. And to those of you who are single, give me your number... Er, I mean, don't let being single get you down. It can be pretty fun.

Besides, I love all of you readers, anyway. Happy Valentine's Day, everyone.

I'm just going to stop saying that I'm feeling better. Every time I do, I go to sleep and wake up feeling like shit again. Right now, I'm waiting for the bus to work and busting out a quick blog so I don't owe TWO videos.

Speaking of videos, I definitely won't be able to do #KROD this month - for the uninitiated, that's Karaoke Ring of Death. Feeling like this, I'm actually going to sound worse than the horribleness that I inflicted on people last month.

Anyway, I'm going to hop on the bus and hope I can avoid a whole lot of coughing at work. Cough drops, here I come!

85%

I don't feel great, but I feel a little better. We'll call it 85% recovered.

As long as I remember, I've typically recovered pretty quickly from illness. Last night was all nausea and a general drain on my will to live (okay, maybe that's a bit exaggerated), today's been a nose that can't decide between stuffed up or runny and an annoyingly persistent cough.

My advice from yesterday still stands though: don't take care of someone with a contagious sickness unless you've got a hazmat suit. Because fuck this shit. I've been up since 4am, when I woke up coughing my lungs out. And I'm not the only sick person around here. Boss tried to call me in, last-minute, because a coworker is sick. I need to get my ass out of this area.

Sorry that vlog's a bit late. This whole "taking care of someone, then taking care of your own damn self" shit kinda got in the way. Soon, though!

Right now, I'm going to take some Nyquil and try and find a way to turn off this faucet that someone put where my nose should be.

Blech.

I feel like shit, which is probably payback for something I did. So, sorry, but this is about what you get for today.

Next time someone with pneumonia asks you to help take care of them, tell them to take care of themselves. Or wear a hazmat suit. Your call.

STOP. Nerdy time

Time for the polar opposite to yesterday's sports talk: COMIC BOOKS.

I've been a nerd for a lot longer than I've been interested in any sports, but I only started reading comics a few years ago, when Nathan visited the States and got me interested in Green Lantern. Now I read a bunch of titles, and want to mention a few that have been REALLY interesting lately.

X-FACTOR

That is a cyborg Captain America punching Iron Man in the face, while Jamie Madrox watches. How can that not appeal to a comic book fan?!

Peter David's doing some great writing for this series, and it's fun getting to see these alternate universes that Madrox (AKA "Multiple Man") is shifting around between. And with the characters in the main Marvel-verse, we get to see a couple members of the old school X-Factor back in the game: Havok and Polaris!

ANIMAL MAN

As far as I'm concerned, this is the stand-out of the DC "new 52". It's my favorite DC title, and hopefully one that keeps selling and doesn't get cancelled.

Currently, writer Jeff Lemire has the title on a collision course with Scott Snyder's SWAMP THING run, as Buddy Baker (the superhero Animal Man) and Alec Holland (formerly, and soon to be again, Swamp Thing) both clash against the third force of life. Buddy and his daughter are connected to "the Red", through animal life. Alec is connected to "the Green", the plant life. The third force is "the Rot", which is threatening to overtake them both.

CHEW

This one is another that I talk about all the time. It's one of the few comics I've fallen in love with that has nothing to do with superheroes whatsoever.

In a world where the Avian Flu cost the lives of millions, chicken has been outlawed. As a result, the USDA and FDA have become two of the highest branches of law enforcement. Enter Tony Chu, a detective with the strange ability to receive psychic flashes from any and all foods he eats or drinks... except beets.

---

I'm trying to think of good shit to write about, I really am. Also, going to go home and make that video that I owe you guys. So, I'll go do that, since my laptop battery is about to die. See ya!

NHL/NBA arena in Seattle?

YES!

If you've been reading for a while, you might know that I'm a hockey fan. Vancouver Canucks are the closest that I have to a local team - and they're awesome - so, go Canucks! Occasionally, as that link shows, I'm a slightly annoyed fan, but it comes with the territory.

There's been talk for a while now (I first heard about it during the Stanley Cup finals) about an investor or group of investors wanting to bring the NHL to Seattle, as we haven't had a real hockey team since the early part of the last century. Now, according to an article in the Seattle times recently, talks are moving forward on a joint NBA/NHL arena!!!!

I am kind of interested in basketball, and would love to see the Seattle Sonics back. And as far as hockey teams... well, the Phoenix Coyotes are league-owned, and I think they just need a city to love them. We could do that, right, Washington people?

I HAVE FAILED YOU!

I got off work about twenty minutes ago, and I was waiting for my laptop to charge, I realized something -- I forgot to blog yesterday! I hesitate to make excuses, but I think my brain forgot about it in the small rage-splosion that I had on Twitter last night. While it's not a world-ending problem, it DOES mean that I have to put a video up. Fffffuuuuuuu-

Cool. Alright. I can do this. But not today, because I'm still at work and can't make a video, sitting here in the back office. What I CAN do is make a video tomorrow, when I get off work, and put it up tomorrow afternoon or evening. Soon as I get done with tonight's shift, I have four days off!

For now, I think I'll link you to some of my favorite blogs, and hopefully you'll enjoy them as much as (if not more than) you enjoy mine!

Kelly Hogaboom | Life in HQX
http://kelly.hogaboom.org
This one is the only local blog I have in this short list of links, and it's from someone who is full of awesome. So full, in fact, that her and her similarly-awesome husband managed to spawn two of the most well-spoken and thoughtful kids that I've had the pleasure of hanging out with. They're a great family, and that's primarily what the blog is about - along with Kelly's sewing and craftwork, sobriety, and other musings about the area in which she and I both live. Go. READ.

Death Boy
http://deathboycomic.co.ik
It's not technically a blog, but it is a great webcomic written by my friend Ian Austin, and drawn by another friend, Dan Butcher. It's irreverent, occasionally topical, and even if you can't get into Ian's writing (and, really, how could you not?), it's worth checking out for Dan's fantastic art. I look forward to the day when both of them can work in comics professionally!

Diary of a Dying Girl
http://diaryofadyinggirl.wordpress.com
Jorah's already got more readers than I did during any of my really busy months doing Random Ramblings, but if you haven't read her blog until now, then enjoy it. Without shredding her respectable anonymity, she writes about her life, and her writing is so involved that you really do begin to care about how the story goes. She's the blogger that I wish I could be as good as.

TANcast
http://www.tancast.com
It's a podcast, but they do occasionally have blog posts. And considering that it's three random guys talking about random shit (and sometimes TANfights!), it's a lot more awesome than I can make it sound. Tim, Andy, and Noah make me laugh every week, and even without knowing them, they kind of give off the same feel that I get when hanging out with people I know, so it's even more funny to hear them rip on each other.

The Tsaritsa Sez
http://www.thetsaritsasez.com
She's a hip-hop musician, blogging fiend! Alexandra's pretty great, and very socially conscious and intelligent, so it's a pleasure to read her blog when she posts. The only ones that I don't care for are the style/fashion posts, but that's just me being an uncool, fashionless nerd. :P


So, that's the list of blogs that I'm going with this time. I would put more, but my head is killing me and both my battery time and the time before my bus is almost up. Enjoy the links, and I'll be back tomorrow with the post I'd planned for yesterday! (And a vlog, some time tomorrow or the next day!)

Time to suck all the fun out of this blog!

It's three days in to my "blog every day for a year" online journal attempt, and now it's time to go for a serious topic and suck every bit of whimsy out of this blog -- for just a day. :D

This one, I call "Is Misogyny Too Strong A Word?"


At work, I see a lot of comments that are, at best, semi-misogynistic. I don't know that the men that say them hate women, as the word misogyny would imply, but they seem... well, I'll let the comments they say speak for them, and you can judge.

• ME: "Do you need a bag, sir?"
  CUSTOMER: "Nah, I've got one at home." *chuckling at his wife's expense*
  
  (sometimes they say "in the car", or "she just walked out the door", and this is by far one of the most common things I hear)

That's the only one that I can remember verbatim, but another theme is to have them griping about how irritating women are, and all sorts of other things that I just have to grin and bear for the sake of my job.

So, is it too strong a word? Or does it fit just right?

(the fun will be back tomorrow... hopefully. :D)

Sometimes, I'm pretty awesome

Know what a great way to wake up is? A damn good breakfast.

Know what a damn good breakfast is? One of my BREAKFAST BURRITOS!

I made these a few days ago, and since the package of steak I used turned out to be a LOT when I diced it up, I used up the rest of the tortillas. Filled them with steak, scrambled eggs, hash browns, and some cheddar jack cheese, folded them up, and then tossed them back in the resealable bag that the soft tortillas came in and froze them. Reheat, maybe pan-fry a little bit to make it golden-brown and crispy, top it with salsa, and proceed to OM NOM NOM.

Now that I've started doing that, I think I'm going to use the "cook a lot, freeze, reheat one at a time" method more often. It lets me control what goes in the foods I'm eating, and is a handy way to preserve leftovers for a little while. Plus, who doesn't love a good burrito, amirite?

I would give a recipe, but there wasn't really a whole lot to it. I'd bought a pack of "beef tips for stew" because it was a way to get a good price on steak that I was going to dice up anyway. The hash browns were pre-packaged, and I scrambled up about seven or eight eggs to go with it all. You can probably make it healthier by making your own hash browns rather than buying them pre-made, which I'm thinking about.

What are some other good burritos that I could try and make? I'm definitely buying more steak and tortillas on payday, but I'm thinking about barbecue beef (or chicken), maybe some sort of red pepper chicken, and all sorts of other varieties. I like the idea of burritos as a good thing to start with.

OH! And I bought a slow cooker! But we can talk about that whenever I actually use it. Probably within the next week or so. :)

A Moment of Clarity

A few days ago, I tweeted about one of my Day Zero Project tasks - keeping a journal for a year. I decided to threaten myself, to ensure that I stayed on task with it. If I miss a day, I have to vlog!

Okay, so it's not a huge threat, but dammit, I'm NOT a fan of vlogging unless I've had large amounts of beer. Today, I decided to change things a little... instead of writing in a journal every day for a year, I'm going to BLOG every day for a year, with the same threat if I fuck up. Considering that I'm regularly broke and don't do a whole lot of fun things with my lack of moneys, I can't promise it'll be fun.

In fact, it might be painful.

You've been warned.