well I thought about the army... got a job at CFA

Why I still love Chick-fil-a even though they're anti-gay.

Chick-fil-a started in Atlanta, and is a significant part of the Atlanta culture.

Locations of CFAs in ATL:

Gays are also a significant part of the Atlanta culture.

Personally, I think people should be able to partner with whoever they want.  I think non-traditional marriages are necessary.  I even think that if 2 friends want to have a non-sexual but committed relationship, then they, too, should be able to make a legal commitment and get all of the rights and benefits of a traditional marriage partnership.

On top of this, I love Chick-fil-a.  There is a CFA near our apartment, and J and I go there often- at least once a week- but maybe more.  It is run by this older looking (48-55? yo) Indian guy with a comb-over, who is very nice.  There is a younger Indian guy (27 yo?) who might be his son who is also a manager there. These 2 high-school-looking Indian girls work there.  Then there are the black guys.  There is an american black guy who looks about 30, he is a little overweight, has glasses, and is really nice.  Then there is this other one- he looks African-black, and is older- 50ish? he helps us out, too.  They know us at that CFA.  And I love them.

CFA is run well- there are fresh flowers on the tables, and they give you free refills on soft drinks.  They have nutrition facts available, and they just got these new desserts!  The chocolate chip cookie sundae is the BEST!  The dining room is always clean.  People seem happy to work there.  And- they are closed on Sunday.  I bet this is good for business because it creates a yearning in your heart for chicken strips when you drive by on a Sunday and know you cannot have them.  Additionally, it gives their employees a day of rest- which is necessary and forgotten by most of America.

When I meet people for the first time, and the topic of "time not spent working" comes up, the topic of what you do for fun or pleasure, many people say they like to eat out, cook, or something around food.  They like expensive snooty restaurants.  And for me, food is a problem.  I try to not focus on it, and I hate going to restaurants where there is a wait-staff.  But I love CFA.  Why?

I realized that I do like to eat out at certain places, and there are similarities in the places I like to go.

Characteristics of places I like to eat:

1) Order at the front and go sit down.  No wait-staff.

I don't like talking to people trying to earn my money.  I want to just chill with J and eat my food.

2) Diversity of people eating at the place.

I like to go eat because I consider it to be a "show." A reality-life show where people don't know that they are the stars.  I like my CFA, because there are a wide range of customers.  We used to have the gay couples there, and the families with kids, and the old retired couples, and the high school girls, and the college kids.  People can wear interesting outfits to CFA (bright colors, overly-sexy, or Cinderella costumes).  Some restaurants are the Yuppie Restaurants (YR).  Yes, they might have good food, and there are some YR in Atlanta that are order at counter and then chill, but since people-watching is a primary reason for me to enter into society, a low diversity patron group such as All-Yuppies, or All-Atlanta-Blacks makes my dining experience poor and less interesting.

3) Relaxed atmosphere.

Part of this comes from not-being-waited-on.  Another part comes from the fact that I know I probably will not destroy anything in this place unintentionally.  AND- this is major- I can order ANYTHING or NOTHING and it is OK.  I can go at dinner time and just get an ice cream cone.  No problem.

4) Low Staff Turn-Over and Non-White or Diverse Staff.

Finally, I like going somewhere where I can see someone familiar for 5 minutes and then be left alone.  That is about my speed.  So I like seeing the same person at the counter.  I know our meeting will be short and pleasant.  And- since I go to the same places a lot- they remember me, too.  Non-White or Diverse Staff.  I don't even know why I like this, but it might be an indicator of interestingness of the place.

BONUS: ONLY FOR CFA

5) Ben Folds worked there and sang about it in Army.

Is it interesting that the Army and CFA are two anti-gay establishments?

Coming back to the Gay controversy.  Did you know Marriott is run by Mormons?

I am still happy to go to CFA even though the leader's views are different from mine.

Why?

Because I don't care about his opinions.

I don't care how he spends his money.

He runs a great company- a company that distinguishes itself from all other fast food chains.

So he gets money- he earned it honestly, as far as I can tell.

I don't care about what most people believe.

I want to understand what motivates individuals, in general.

But unless they are directly influencing my life because of that belief, than I do not care.

I bet I would feel differently if I was gay- because maybe I would think he was influencing my life. 

But I am not gay.

I think it is OK for people to make their own choices about how to spend their money and about what they want to believe in.  I think it is OK if people think differently from me.

I think this CFA uproar is more about people trying to pick a fight with CFA, than anything else.

Let it go, and find the pleasure in a Saturday morning chicken biscuit.

   

50 shades of embarrassment

I have not read any of the books.  I hear the writing style is poor.

My favorite part of the 50 shades of grey phenomenon is that sometimes I am lucky enough to watch strangers buy the book.  The first time I was in an airport in line to check out, at one of those books and snacks stores, and the middle aged (mid 50s) white guy in front of me was getting a newspaper and 50 shades of grey.  He presented his items to the cashier with the newspaper wrapped around the book.  She opened the newspaper, and scanned each item.  Then he re-wrapped the book in the paper.

The second time, I was at a grocery store with my husband.
There was a black woman (early 40s) with her hair in dreads and a pony-tail standing in front of us.  She was wearing workout clothes.  She had the book* on the moving conveyor belt covered mostly by a magazine.  You could see handcuffs on the cover.

J and I walked out with our groceries and he said to me, "I don't know why she was so embarrassed about that book.  Its OK black woman, you can read your books about slavery."

J thought it was about African-american historical-slavery.  :)

Embarrassment is interesting to watch.  Especially when people are embarrassed about something that I don't place a value judgement on, like sexuality.

*maybe it is a different book in the series than the 1st one?

Art Alexakis fails at Summerland 2012

On Friday night J and I went to Chastain Park to see the Summerland 2012 Tour: Marcy Playground, Lit, Gin Blossoms, Sugar Ray, and Everclear.  We went for me.  My musical history goes something like this:

5th grade: Ace of Base

8th or 9th grade: Blink 182, Lit, and Matchbox 20

10th or 11th grade: Everclear serves as one of the gateway bands to music that I become no longer ashamed of admitting I listen to.

I wanted to go see Summerland because I wanted to see Everclear.  But it was only going to be Art Alesakis  from everclear- no matter- I will see fake-everclear- and even if it is like a cover band of everclear I will enjoy it.

Highlights/ (bullet points?) of the evening:

1) not huge crowds like before Radiohead

2) Chastain Park has HORSES!!!!  Amazing.  I want to go back and secretly visit them.

3) Marcy Playground is enjoyable.

4) Lit is fun. FUN FUN.  They are good performers.  High Energy.  I liked their new songs.

5) Gin Blossoms- kind of lame.  very lame? 

6) Sugar Ray is funny.  This guy is a performer.  This other blogger called Mark McGrath a douche, which yes, I can see that, but Mark seems to play the doucheness up in a full-character-douche-roll* which I can appreciate the beauty of - from the sidelines of not buying into it.  they started with "Wipe Out" which reminded me that I should look up indie bands doing Surf Rock- because I like it.

7) Everclear.  Everclear was HORRIBLE.  Or really it was just Art Alexakis.  If you have ever seen someone do a really wretched job at karaoke, then you had the experience that I had watching Art. 

Symptoms of Bad Karaoke (Or how Art fucked up):

#1- You do not sing all of the words in the song.

Singing 50% of the words is OK if you are driving in your car - rocking out to the band on the radio.

Singing all of the words takes a considerably larger amount of focus and energy, and it is why being a front-man is hard work.

#2- Something sounds wrong.

The volume of vocals to volume of music is off.  The tune is off.  ?? I don't know but we just shook our heads and said "this sounds horrible."  This is also when most of the people walked out of the amphitheater- during Art's 2nd song.

#3- You sing too fast or too slow.

Art sang "Wonderful" too fast- and it did not appear to be on purpose.

Maybe there were more reasons why Art sucked- but we left by then...

Seeing Art was disappointing.

The other interesting bit was that it seemed like the guys in his band and in all of the other bands KNEW Art was failing.  They came out and tried to help him sing.  The gin blossoms guy basically had to sing ALL of Art's new song- with Art as backup.  Then the Lit guy came out to help.  It was embarrassingly bad.

At first I thought he just got fucked-up before the show so he could not perform as well high as he thought he was performing.  Then I did some reading- and this guy is 50.  J said it reminded him of seeing Old-Ozzy.  What if you do a huge amount of drugs during a crucial stage of brain development (say age 8-14) and then you suffer the normal brain atrophy that occurs with aging - and you are fucked and unable to communicate or self-monitor.  

Maybe that is what we were watching.  It certainly wasn't Everclear.

*douche-role would be the character role, yes, but Douche-Roll could be the new offering next to the spring roll at tin drum.  Can you see a rice-paper wrapped Mark McGrath?


UPDATE 7/17/12:
I did some additional searching and some people are saying that Art has performed this way since 2003, and his voice is shot because of vocal surgeries.  Although he does have this problem of singing into the microphone.  How do you explain that?

"his voice seemed to be the only real problem." But that would be a big problem if what you are contributing to the song is your voice.

inside joke

Wacom Tablet Reloaded

You're drunk and acting tough.

I'm a quitter. By Natalie Dee.

I quit blogging. and more importantly - I quit grad school.

It was really more of a damage control thing than anything else... But I can get into that later.

the important thing - is that I am now a scientist for a Fortune 500 company making consumer products - which is where I always wanted to end up - and i have arrived.

My life is infinitely better than it was in graduate school. I am amazed at this - at the fact that your environment can influence you that much. I had always been of the mindset that who I am internally has more influence on me than my surroundings... but I guess I can see that both matter to some extent.

I also have a new belief in Luck. In graduate school I was unlucky and unsuccessful. I also think that the professors that I worked for are dumb. Now, I find myself in a new situation, still working out new technology, but I am already wildly successful. It has got to be luck that I have ended up here - and that the senior scientist that I am working with is smart. Smarter than most of the professors I knew in graduate school.

And although I have been away from blogging on the internet, I have still been on the internet.

This video by Alain De Botton (scroll to the end of the post) resonated with me.

Leaving my program with out a Ph.D. was hard for my identity. So much of who I was- was wrapped up in getting a PhD and staying in graduate school at all costs.

It was easy for me to physically leave - because I have this gift of seeing the truth of situations - and I knew I was being forced out.

And the most important thing I learned in graduate school is that a Ph.D. doesn't mean anything. Lazy idiots can have them, hard working idiots can have them, etc. It doesn't even distinguish if you can think or not.

My manager said to me about me "she acts like she has a PhD" meaning I can think, and come up with new technologies, and design experiments, etc. I just don't have the stamp.

(And for the record, yes I did leave with a Masters, but it is still quitting in my eyes.)

Hello again, blogging world.

paging all penguins

Hey Ladies and Gentleman!

Greetings from the brink. Shit's been hectic the past couple months. I'm assuming we all can relate what with the lack of activity over the past four months or so.
I finally finished my teacher certification program and am eagerly awaiting the arrival of one, shining, glorious piece of paper. The certification itself. The crowning glory. The cherry atop the heap of steaming crap that my life has been since beginning the ordeal of getting it. Any day now.
So, things have really changed in ole Skuh's world and will only serve to change more. (This is awesomely promising and hopeful.) At the end of my student teaching experience -- which was bananas, what with four months of twelve hour work days -- I moved out of the loggin, cause shit got real, I guess you could say. There was strife with the family who owns the property, so I decided to get the hell out of dodge so as to free up some space for them and resentment for me. Which means that I am back living where the west begins with the parentals. BUT. And this is a BIG BUT (heheh) I will very shortly be picking up and moving out to Chattanooga, Tennessee to see what that corner of the (not so) south has to offer. Which means, among other things, that I'll be within visiting-Fermi range. And in the midst of some most excellent hiking trails and other outdoorsy activities that white people (like me) so love to do. I've got a job lined up with the Sylvan out that way, which should make for an easier transition. I've been fretting about finding other employment once there, but have decided forthwith to cut that shit out. I'm smart, capable and qualified to lots of things and I KNOW that I will find a substantial source of income once I'm there. I'll be living with my brother and his *swoon* AMAZING puppy dawg, in his impossibly cute neighborhood. His house is nestled on this block that seriously could be out of the textbook of American dreams . . . lots of trees, which make for dappled sunlight, and neighbors who bake cookies n shit for each other during the holidays. Oh, and the hills! How I love the hills, hills, hills. They are just what my exercise-deprived body, mind and spirit have been aching for!
Yes, dear penguins, Skuh is moving out and on. But Chattanooga, I foresee, shan't be the last stop. Nope, not at all. I have a feeling that I am about to set off to see the world. To embark on an epic journey that will last for years and years and take me to all locations imaginable. I've been applying for teaching assistantships in Europe and I'll keep you posted as to who wins in the fight: my application to teach in Germany or my application to teach in Austria. If it's a tie, the victor shall probably be Germany. If it's a wash, then I'll apply for some other program, like JET, or *fingers crossed* maybe I'll get offered a sweet job from my old language school in Germersheim and then I'll start my graduate studies. The possibilities are endless, and I'm just so pleased that I can say that about my life. It's a blessing which I fully acknowledge and hereby choose this venue to shout from the rooftops that I am a grateful lady! Twenty-ten be lookn HOTT ;)
Those are my headlines, mistresses. What are yours??