So I have myself a profile over on Facebook. Because I've indicated in my profile that I'm single, a lot of the targeted advertising I see is for various dating sites. Two facts about myself, indicated in my FB profile, in addition to the fact I'm single, are 1) I'm over 40 and 2) I'm a Christian. So those two factors tend to be reflected in what kind of dating site ads get pushed at me.

That said, I have to say that some of these sites don't seem to put much thought into appropriately matching up the photos with the kind of ad. Take a look at a couple ads I've seen recently:

The "Over 40 Singles" Ad:


I would be ecstatic if I could meet an over-40, single woman who looked like that. But the woman pictured in this "Over 40" ad appears to actually be somewhere between the ages of 14 and 16. Good job, ad-pusher!

The "Christian Singles" Ad:


This one speaks for itself. While the young woman in the photo is certainly appealing, I strongly suspect that the manner of dress is not what somebody who is specifically searching out a Christian mate is going to be expecting.

Update! I found another stupid one!



Sheesh.

Geez, once again I haven't posted in a very long time. Probably because I've been too busy adventuring in Azeroth as I play the game World of Warcraft. So I'll post a couple shots of my main character, a level 80 human paladin named Eilyssana. Here she is showing off her shiny new Titansteel Destroyer mace and her Brilliant Titansteel Helm.

So now that I'm calling myself "Chef", I figured I'd better make like a chef and buy my own knives! I went to Macy's and looked over their selection of knives. I was specifically looking for a roast slicing knife like this, but they didn't have one. But while I was there I picked up an 8" chef's knife (second from right) and a 4" paring knife (far right). Both of these are J.A. Henckels knives. They were marked at $80 for the chef's knife and $45 for the paring knife, but when I got them to the register it turned out they were on sale and I got both for under $80. Then I headed over to Bed Bath & Beyond to see if they had a roast slicing knife. They didn't have one either, but I spotted a Cuisinart carving knife and fork set (the two on the left) for $15. None of these knives are "top of the line", but they'll do for now.



While I'm at it, how about a pic of some of my "big knives"?

Three years ago I had a good full-time job as a breakfast cook, and then the owner of the restaurant decided to stop serving breakfast. Breakfast had never been profitable for the place, but the bar did so much business at night that overall the owner could justify keeping breakfast going. Unfortunately the bar business dropped off, and so he did away with breakfast.

However, it worked out that another restaurant needed a breakfast cook, and I took the job. I was happy because the pay was better and the schedule was better. Unfortunately, I quickly discovered that my new boss was probably the most incompetent restaurant owner/manager I'd ever worked for and that situation quickly degenerated to the point where after five weeks I simply walked away without giving notice - something I'd never done in my previous 22+ years in the business. Fortunately my previous employer was willing to confirm that I was laid off (which I was, essentially) and so I was able to collect unemployment benefits.

After a couple months of struggling along on UI checks, one of the last companies I applied to — a fancy restaurant at the top of a fancy hotel — told me they didn't need any cooks but they had a dishwashing position available. I was extremely reluctant to take a dishwashing job after 22+ years as a cook, but I ended up accepting the job purely because the company offered medical/dental insurance, a 401k, and paid vacations - things I'd never gotten anywhere else.

A month later I transferred from the hotel restaurant to the city convention center next door (the hotel has the contract to provide the catering staff for the convention center events) and took over as the full-time dishwasher there. I've been doing that for two and a half years now, washing up after events feeding as many as 1,000 people. It's definitely been the most physically demanding job I've ever had! And, surprisingly, I really enjoy it.

However, as of November 1, I am now officially a banquet chef! My actual on-the-job training will begin next Wednesday, Nov. 5.

What's happened is that one of the current chefs, Tim, has accepted an "offer [he] can't refuse" elsewhere, and I was offered the position he's vacating. Things have come together really well leading up to this. Since I've been the dishwasher, I've been handling all the big events by myself, where in the past they would bring over extra dishwashers from the hotel restaurant to help out. It was my own choice to do it alone. I had come up with a very methodical and efficient system that allowed me to perform the job faster and better than my predecessors, and after the first two times helpers were provided I discovered that having helpers actually slowed me down. The problem was that (and I'm not trying to be mean) the people who most commonly work as dishwashers are those who lack the skills and often the mental capacity to do more complex jobs. So I ended up with a helper who couldn't quickly grasp what I needed him to do, and in some cases just couldn't seem to remember the simplest things for more than 30 minutes at a time. (It also didn't help when I'd already been there for 13 hours when the guy arrived to help, and 90 minutes later he's saying, "Well, I'm ready to go home!") Unfortunately, in a situation where the dirty dishes from a banquet for 500 people are piling up, there isn't time to patiently train somebody. So I told my boss, "Please, no more helpers. I can do it alone."

And, for 2-1/2 years I did it alone, and did it well enough to win two Employee of the Month awards (Oct. 2006 & Sept. 2008). But it eventually took a physical toll on me — I developed what I assume are repetitive-stress injuries to my elbows, particularly my left elbow, and my already-bad knees have gotten worse. Even though I wear knee braces to work, once my shifts go past about 12 hours I can hardly walk. So I broke down a few months ago and asked the boss for somebody to help on the long shifts.

As luck would have it, a young man (18-19 years old) on the serving staff expressed an interest in helping with the dishes. We're a union shop, and he's a fairly recent hire, so he's given lower priority than more senior servers when hours are assigned for banquets. So his willingness to help with the dishes was a way for him to pick up a few more hours. He started helping me out last week, and much to my relief, he turned out to be a quick study and able to take (and remember) instructions. He also seems to have a good work ethic. The timing worked out perfectly, because he started training with me just a few days before the chef position became available, and after working with him this week through a convention group of 600+ people, I'm confident he's ready to take over my old position.

So Chef Tim is going to a job that is better for him, I'm getting a promotion (with a substantial pay raise), and the kid, Austin, while not exactly getting a promotion is going to get more hours of work (and thus more pay) than he would have gotten any time soon as a server.

Now I just hope I'm up to the challenge - this is going to be a very different style of cooking from what I've done in the past!




Also, I just picked up this awesome space heater at Costco. The element is wrapped around a ceramic cone in the center, and the big parabolic dish focuses and reflects a beam of heat right where I want it. The best thing, though, is that it's completely silent - no fan. My bedroom has a built-in wall heater with a fan, but when it comes on it sounds like somebody firing up a bulldozer right next to my head, so I've had to turn it off when I go to bed if I don't want to get woken up by the racket several times each night.

I'm sick of my old party, the Republicans, and I won't vote for a Democrat for President. I'm voting for Bob Barr this year.

In my previous post I quoted a brainless comment that I found posted on YouTube. Sadly, a large proportion of the comments on that site are equally bad. I noted that YouTube has added a new feature: when you type a comment you can click a button before you post, and your comment will be read back to you, aloud. I think this is there so that people can hear just how stupid their comment sounds, and perhaps consider rephrasing or not posting it at all. I enjoyed this XKCD comic on the topic:



I actually saw this comic a couple weeks before I noticed the new YouTube feature. I don't know which actually came first ...

So somebody pointed me in the direction of this music video (embedding disabled by request) for a cover version of the song "Mickey!", performed by a young lady going by the name Lolly. Reading through the comments, I found this brilliant piece of writing:


Um ... are they teaching math in school these days? The original version of the song was performed by Toni Basil in 1982, not in the "60s or was it the 50s". Here's the original:


I remember watching this video when I was 16 and thinking, "Wow, she's hot!" It wasn't until much later that I found out that Toni Basil was *gasp* older than my mom! Now, 26 years later, I'm three years older than Toni was in that video, and I can still watch it and say, "Wow, she's hot!"

While I'm here I may as well share 'Weird Al' Yankovic's version of the song:

Oh, and since the last time I updated this thing back in April '08, I've added another bass to my collection. It's a Fender Classic Series 1960s Jazz Bass. It's a new bass, but built to the specifications that were common to Jazz Basses built in the 1960s, and with the finish aged to look old.

Click for bigger pics!

Hmmm. I really ought to update this thing more often.

Let's see ...

I just won my second Employee of the Month award.

I'm bald again.

Would you believe I weigh 200 pounds?! It's mostly muscle, though. Last time I weighed this much was about 15 years ago when I was still guzzling a half-case of beer every day. At that time, I had to wear pants with a 36-inch waist. Now, having been a bicyclist/walker for most of the last 15 years, I think I've got a lot more muscle mass than I did back then (muscle weighs more per cubic centimeter than fat), as evidenced by the fact that I fit comfortably into 34-inch pants.

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