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.

   

the floor is made of lava

toothpastefordinner.com

How Babies Are Made 10/30/08 is a blog post by Natalie Dee that has significantly influenced my life. Hopefully the link gets you there. If not, I believe I have provided enough information for you to find it.

How Babies Are Made has cured me of my "baby wanting" for the time being. This is good, because the idea of babies seems very appealing when compared with the drudgery of my graduate program-- however, the Hell written about in How Babies Are Made is significantly worse than grad school.

In other news, Tino has requested that I post some pics of the pups. Previously, I have refrained from posting any photos of my dogs because it could be incriminating evidence of my true identity. But now, I say: Bah! I am taking the risk.

The first photo is of Herman; I have titled it: The Floor Is Made of Lava, because he is walking from the chair to the couch as a kid would if they were playing the game.

The next photo is of Diego. He is our little Red Headed Step Child.

And finally, we have them both together on the couch in Together On The Couch.


Training Success: A Review, Days 1-5

The book says that we are supposed to do 2 training sessions a day of 20 repetitions of click and treat for 3 days. That didn't quite happen. I do think that my dogs get the idea of their current training sessions now, though. Here is a review of our progress:

Wed (day 1): 1 session PM
Thurs (day 2): 2 total sessions: AM and PM
Friday (3): 1 session AM
Saturday (4): 1 session AM
Sunday (5, today): 1 session AM

Today I actually have time to do more sessions with them but I am going to try to move on at this point. So far we have had 6 sessions which is the same number we would have had in 3 days of twice a day.

In Chicken Liver news, I have decided to trash the remaining livers. The livers have a grainy texture that fragments in my fingers as I try to feed them to Diego. On top of that they smell horrible. Chicken Livers have been the bane of my training existence.

I am also looking forward to moving on to the next training exercise because Diego has a problem of being over-zealous about food so that he scrapes my fingers with his teeth every time I try to put a treat in his mouth. I have cut up longer strips of centimeter cheese to help with this, but the box game that comes next will solve the teeth scrape problem.

Herman the Foodie

Training Success: Day 2

I think I read on a dog training web site that the handler should vary the food rewards so the dog is expecting the unexpected. Will it be chicken or cheese? Hot dog or steak?

In this light, I purchased something new: Chicken Livers. They were actually recommended in the same line of the book as hot dogs. This was my first experience with chicken livers, and you can take my word for it: Chicken Livers Are Fowl! Um, I mean FOUL! Nasty as hell. But the book said dogs like them, so I took them out with me in a baggie.

I take Herman out training first, and click and stick a piece of chicken liver in his mouth.
Herman spits it out.
I try again.
He spits it out again.

At this point I determine that Herman does not enjoy the chicken livers. Luckily I also had some centimeter cheese with me, and he likes that. So we used the cheese and did the click training.

Diego on the other hand LOVES chicken livers. (Although I cannot differentiate his love for chicken livers from his love for any other food.)