Versatility in Foods

Certain foods are extremely versatile in the way that you can make them different every time you make them. Using the same basic ingredients, you can create a multitude of flavourful variations!

A basic cookie recipe is pretty standard across the board. You can add oatmeal or peanut-butter to mix it up a bit, but it doesn't stop there; You can add chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, smarties, various nuts, raisins, other dried fruit, candy bar pieces, coconut; if it's in your pantry you can put it in your cookie! Once you've found a good base, it doesn't matter what you add to it, it's only going to make it taste better!

Same thing goes for muffins. Literally any fruit you have in the house, especially if it's getting too ripe, can be put in a muffin. Any sort of chocolate, or nut or dried fruit can be mixed in! Just got to have to good base.

Smoothies are another one of my favourite things to make simply because you don't need a lot to make them. Fruit, milk/juice, yogurt blend done. How simple is that? The only thing you have to be conscious of is if your smoothie is citrus based or not. Oranges and milk don't go good together. And if you don't have yogurt, you can use tofu, and I always add flax to my smoothies! I've never made a bad flavoured smoothie before.

Finally, salads. Seriously, salads are awesome. You can put so much awesome stuff in a salad. Start with a base of mixed greens, add any chopped vegetable you like. I like to add berries and apples to my salad. Throw in some croutons, pumpkin seeds, nuts, or dried fruit, add whatever flavour dressing you desire and away you go. Done. How easy was that? Some people put some egg or chicken or ham in their salads. Personally, that's not my cup of tea, but hey, that's why salads are versatile!

The list really goes on.
Soups.
Sandwiches.
Pizza.
Pasta dishes.

Once you get really good at it, you start to come up with crazy recipes all from your imagination. I invent a lot of my own recipes. I've combined chicken with peanut-butter, chicken with raspberries, pineapple with rice and cheddar... I accidentally sprinkled cinnamon on my ground beef once and that turned out pretty good too!

You get this sixth sense for flavours and you start craving weird things. I do anyway. When I get knocked up, I'm going to be the most insane chef in the kitchen!

But then there are some foods that you like to eat prepared the same way every time and you avoid improvising ingredients at all costs. For me, that would be stir-frys. I use the same sauce and the same vegetables with rice in my stir-fry every single time I make it and if I don't have all the ingredients I want, I will not make it or even substitute for a similar ingredient. It's just not the same.

I super love food right now.

Things I Could Be Doing

I could be
- exercising at the gym
- exercising at home
- reading my book for my Creative Writing course
- writing a story for my Creative Writing course
- reading the book Carly lent me MONTHS ago that I still haven't picked up
- washing dishes
- doing laundry
- sweeping

Instead I'm doing nothing. Literally. Sitting. Watching TV. Playing the same boring computer games. I switched it up a little today and played some X-Box

I'll probably watch the season finale of Jon and Kate Plus 8 in half an hour.

Dave made me dinner. I might eat that in a bit too.

I seriously need to do something different with my life.

Today David went to work. He came home and made dinner then went to band practice. He actually told me to start thinking about doing some other activities besides TV and computer. Coming from David... I think I have a problem.

Sad Face

It's official. I am depressed. I am destined to live a life of poverty and isolation because I cannot afford to go out with my friends because I have no job.

I'm not going to get an interview at CBC. I don't know that for sure, but I handed in my application nearly two weeks ago and haven't heard a single thing. I tried snooping around the office, asking coworkers if they knew who else applied and that sort of thing.

Actually a funny thing happened yesterday. A guy from Global came up to me and asked where I've been because he hasn't seen me around the city. Then he asked about the position at CBC and if I'm a candidate. I told him I applied, but understood that there were others above me who I thought had a better chance at getting it than I did. He shrugged and said, you never know!

It's true. You do never know. CBC is pretty slow moving. It's possible that they haven't even gotten through all the applications yet, or there's other pressing things that need to get done first. I don't know. I don't want to give myself false hope.

I've definitely started to give up hope.

Seasons Greetings everyone. Enjoy your holiday envelops I'll be sending filled with cheer, good wishes, and air.

Mini-Melt Down

I had a mini-melt down today while working for Advanis.
I had talked to numerous assholes throughout my shift and the last straw was when I called a man and asked to speak to whoever and he told me he was in the bathroom taking a shit. I understood right away that he was trying to be jerk but it's my job to ask for a call back time so I asked if there was a better time to call back. He said, "'yeah after you finish wiping his ass!" I didn't know what to say, so I said, very funny sir and ended the call. Then I burst into tears and cried for five minutes.

I wish I could have told him to fuck off and die, but I could potentially lose my job if I said that. Unfortunately I still need the income I get from Advanis to pay the bills.

I know I shouldn't let these fuckers get to me, but it really wears you down. You start to feel annoyed and then bad about yourself because everyone's rude to you and you can't even defend yourself.

Sometimes I just laugh it off. Everyone's so serious all the time; it's funny that they let something so trivial like a market researcher calling them bother them to the point where their blood pressure rises. Other times, like today, it becomes too much, especially when I started my shift in a bad mood.

I had to repeat out loud over and over again: Don't take it personally. They hate your job, they don't hate you, like a mantra to make myself feel better.

I can't wait to quit this stupid job.

American Assholes

Int> Hello. My name is Chelsea, I’m calling from Advanis, a Market Research company. May I speak with MELVIN?

Resp> (Wife) Just a minute... (to husband: I don't know who it is or what they want.)
Resp> (Respondent) You're calling on a Saturday, this better be good.

Int> Hello, MELVIN. We’d like to invite you to complete an online survey about tractors. For completing the online survey you will receive $20 cash. May I ask you a few questions now to see if you qualify for the online survey?

Resp> (yelling) Now how the hell did you get this number? We are on the do not call list! (crazed yelling about telemarketers)

Int> (interrupting) Actually, we're not trying to sell you anything, so that list doesn't apply to us. Market research companies don't have to follow the same laws that telemarketers do.

Resp> Well, to me they're the same thing!

Int> According to the law we're not.

Resp> (more crazed yelling and some semblance of a goodbye. Respondent doesn't hang up the phone properly.)
Resp> (wife) What did she want?
Resp> (still audibly upset) I don't know who it was was or what they hell she wanted (muttering)

End Call.

Maybe if you weren't fucking SCREAMING AT ME ASSHOLE and LISTENED you'd know what the hell is going on! This guy seriously brought tears to my eyes. Yes, I'm calling you on a Saturday, but yelling at me only makes you look like an uneducated hick (which I'm sure you probably are anyhow.)

When someone calls you either from a telemarketing company OR a market research company and you don't want to talk to us:
DON'T
-yell
-say the respondent's not there
-hang up the phone

Because we HAVE to call you back if we don't speak with the person we're looking for and we're going to CONTINUE calling you back and until we get what what we want, or else you tell us never to call again or to take your number off our list.

Maybe try being polite. Say nicely that you're not interested and to take your number off our list.

I'm just doing my fucking job and it's already shitty so you don't have to make it even worse for me.

Debt

I am obsessed with debt and money management and budgeting right now.

Since my earlier post when I was complaining that I spend money on unnecessary items willy-nilly, I've really turned my life around. I looked back at my bank statements for the past 6 months and calculated my average income. It varies month to month, but I average about $2000 a month.

I created a new Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and started listing all of my expenses I have to pay each month. I started with my fixed expenses, like rent and minimum debt payments. Then I started listing all my variable necessary expenses, ie: groceries, utilities, car, laundry...

Then I went online and found this pie chart (took me like 5 searches to find it) that showed what percentage of your income you should be spending on each category. Take a look:



After studying this pie chart, I took my average income, did the math to figure out what each percentage was in dollar amounts and started plugging in some numbers into my Excel spreadsheet.

My personal pie chart looks a little different than this one does. Since I only use about 8% of my income on transportation, the left over 7% went over to the debt category. My "Housing" and "Other Living Expenses" were also a lower percentage so I took the extra and moved it over to savings and to debt.

I now spend 24% of my income on paying off debt and save 15% of my income in a savings account.

Everything is budgeted perfectly and I even have a few hundred dollars to spend on entertainment and dining-out each month.

I called to check to see how much was left owing on my Canada Student Loan: $2696.53
On November 28, 2008, I owed $6547.24
Holy shit right? I'm doing good! They're giving me like 4 yeras to pay this off. I'll have it paid off way before then!!!

Plus I have the thousand some odd dollars left to pay on my credit card. If I keep up with my budget, I should be debt free in 16 months on less. Any extra income I make goes straight to my debt.

And then I shall be free! Oh what a glorious day it will be!
But once the debt is paid off, that means the money I've been putting to debt will now be put to saving for a down payment for a house. The debt cycle never ends.

Job

I received an interesting phone call yesterday and I'm still trying to decipher exactly what it means. A job opening for a camera operator became available at CBC in Winnipeg. Since we're doing that new late night 15 minute news thing we need an extra camera.

I wasn't going to apply at first. They want you to have at least 3 years experience and blah blah blah. Then I received an email yesterday from the boss of my boss telling me and one other casual employee that out of respect to CBC's casual employees, there is a job offer that we are eligible to apply for.

I'm thinking to myself, okay well I should at least apply for the job. I know I probably won't get it since the other casual employee has way more experience and has been with CBC way longer than I have, but applying makes me look like I'm interested in continuing to be employed with CBC (which I am!)

So I started filling out the application online. I spruced up my resume. Then I wrote a killer cover letter. This cover letter was honestly the best cover letter I have ever written!!!

Writing a cover letter for a position that you're applying for internally is awesome! There's so many great examples that you can use to prove how skillful and wonderful of an employee you are. I really focused on my soft skills, you know, the interpersonal stuff and saved my technical skill for last in the cover letter.

As I was doing all this I received a phone call from my boss's boss, (the same person who emailed me.) She asked if I was going to apply for the job and I said that I right in the middle of doing so. She said "good" and we ended our phone conversation.

I submitted my application. But then I got to thinking... why would she personally call me at home after already emailing me about it to confirm that I was applying for the job? Do I honestly have a shot at scoring an interview? I had applied for the exact same job except nearly a year ago and I didn't even get an interview because she said I wasn't experience enough.

Now I'm getting calls at home making sure from the head boss herself that I'm applying!

I fully understand that I am at the very bottom of the CBC technical food chain. There are many people above me who work casually that I think would be hired before me. On the flip side, I think I'm the only casual employee who does not do freelance work on the side.

Freelance is where the money is at apparently.

I don't know anything about renting gear and I don't have any contacts. I don't think my camera skills are good enough to do corporate stuff and I never want to shoot a wedding. That would be hell. I'm good at doing news. News is very forgiving of any mistakes I might make.

If I get a full time job at CBC I will be very surprised and also very happy! This could be my ticket.

Characters & Viewpoint

I'm currently reading a book called Characters & Viewpoint by Orson Scott Card.

It's part of my Creative Writing course I'm taking from Stratford Career Institute.

The book is very interesting and I found it to be very useful for my purposes. I feel good about myself when I read things that I already knew about fiction writing. I feel really inspired when I learn more about fiction writing that I wasn't fully aware of.

I didn't crack open this book and go, oh wow I never knew so much about writing. It's more like, I started reading and realized, oh that's how you use that technique properly!

It makes me want to practice writing in different styles than what I'm used to just because now I know how to do it properly.

But I constantly feel like, what should I write about? I'll think of a million things, and none of them really feel good enough. Some of them don't feel like they could be developed into something usable so I discard them.

That sounds dumb because I am the writer. I am playing God with my stories. I have complete control over everything that happens, done to every last detail. Nothing is left to chance. If I don't like where a story is headed I can introduce a new element, or I can change everything completely.

As a writer though, I find that I like to envision something from start to finish. I know how it starts and I know how it ends. It's just filling the middle. I find it hard to do that. How do I logically get from point A to point B while still maintaining my readers' interest and curiosity?

I have much to learn still.

Or maybe I'm trying to think too large-scale in terms of what I'm ready to write.

I don't know. I'll just keep trying I guess.