jobs
Interview this Friday. Still trying to decide if I'm going to call in sick or ask for the day off when I go in tomorrow. If I get it, I'll do the superficial NYC life for a few years, if not, I will seriously consider some red cross / habitat work as I've now got a list of volunteer gigs with them sitting in front of me. At any rate I need some sort of life reboot.

pasta
Saturday evening's food:

Chop one yellow onion and 8 cloves garlic. Fry in olive oil until the onion carmelizes just a bit. Take 1/2 lb Italian sausage and remove the casings. Add to pan and chop it up while it cooks. Just before the sausage is done cooking, add 1 1/2 cups of heavy cream. Also add mushrooms or some other veggie if desired. Simmer until cream is thickened to desired consistency (I simmered for about 20 minutes to cook the mushrooms). Add parmesan (I used about 1 cup grated) and stir. Add 1 lb of tubular pasta (I used penne). Add basil, pepper, and chilies / red pepper to taste.

partisan trolling
Newsflash: controlling for other variables, selfish pessimists are happier than optimists who give a shit, as that makes life much easier.

upper class welfare
A few weeks ago I came across a thread on the topic of the Minnesota Twins trying to get a new stadium. The owner is willing to put up $200 million of the estimated $600 million cost, with the rest coming from the public. For a number of years now, the legislature has refused to make this happen. The following comment is a far more common response to the situation than I wish it was:

"I don't understand why an owner is expected to simply "gift" hundreds of millions of dollars without a reasonable mechanism in place to get the money, with a reasonable rate of return, back. But to most of Minnesota, that's a "catch", I guess. It just confuses me."

That's right, ladies and gentlemen - it's not the duty of the wealthy to take on the risk of their business practices, it is the common man's duty to shoulder that risk for them. I can't think of a better example of the complete ideological triumph of the wealthy. Or as Ambrose Bierce was quoted in Civ 4:

Corporation, n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility.