Seth’s World View

Not a joke, shockingly: the NY State Gov’t has a bill in progress to outlaw the use of salt during food preparation at a restaurant.

Lest you think I’m kidding or somehow misreading things, here’s the actual and complete text of the bill, including the justification behind it.

PROHIBITION ON SALT; RESTAURANTS. 1. NO OWNER OR OPERATOR OF A RESTAURANT IN THIS STATE SHALL USE SALT IN ANY FORM IN THE PREPARATION OF ANY FOOD FOR CONSUMPTION BY CUSTOMERS OF SUCH RESTAURANT, INCLUDING FOOD PREPARED TO BE CONSUMED ON THE PREMISES OF SUCH RESTAURANT OR OFF OF SUCH PREMISES.

Section 2 of the bill goes on to lay out the penalty (not more than $1000 per use of salt).

The justification is as follows:

JUSTIFICATION: This legislation will give customers the option to add salt after the meal has been prepared for them. In this way, consumers have more control over the amount of sodium they intake, and are given the option to exercise healthier diets and healthier lifestyles.

Basically, they want to make people healthy by way of having them eat food that tastes lousy.  Salting your meal after it’s been cooked isn’t going to do a whole lot for the taste.  I really wonder if Markey (who wrote this bill as well as another one that bans Vespas in the State of NY) has ever actually cooked anything for herself.

Originally published at Pants on a Cat. Please leave any comments there.

I just got back from my meeting to discuss last weekend’s MRI results.

First, the good news: minus the bone fragments all over the place, my ankle hard structures are actually fine. No polio-victim brace necessary.

Now the bad news: Of the 5 or so tendons that hold the ankle together, three are damaged and one’s more or less gone. That’s going to be… unpleasant and time-consuming. 6 weeks off the foot post-surgery, another 6 weeks of getting range-of-motion back…

With a wedding coming up, that’s going to be massively inconvenient for my life. That particular surgery may just have to wait for a year.

Originally published at Pants on a Cat. Please leave any comments there.

“Earth’s crammed with heaven
and every common bush afire with God;
but only he who sees, takes off his shoes –
the rest sit round it… unaware."

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning

One week into the engagement and the planning engine has been thrown into gear.  We’re looking at late August/early September, but that’s going to depend both on venue availability and people availability.

Certain people (and I will refrain from naming names) would be advised that telling us that some dates would actually be a major problem for them is a perfectly fine thing to do.  I’d really rather not have anybody’s potential job-loss hanging over my head because of the date we picked.  Honestly, that would be a much bigger issue for us than having to move the wedding a few weeks one way or another.

Aaaaanyway – We have an appointment to see our first potential venue, Lia’s (probably) found her dress and I got on the ball with getting the ring insured today and got a dedicated bank account set up for wedding-related expenses (being engaged to an accountant is exciting!).

Originally published at Pants on a Cat. Please leave any comments there.

You’d think that would be obvious to everyone, but you’d be wrong.

A campus gun ban will do absolutely nothing to prevent any sort of school shooting unless the campus PD plans to frisk everybody as they cross the campus border.  I’m really disappointed with people who don’t seem to grasp the whole “criminals, by definition, are people who don’t obey the law” idea.  Sure – now you can charge somebody who’s just shot up a classroom with an extra “you can’t have a gun on campus” charge, but that’s really kind of pointless as far as the Big Picture goes.

Originally published at Pants on a Cat. Please leave any comments there.

I’m engaged.

Yes I am.

As of Saturday 11:30p.

Update: Story below the break.

Read the rest of this entry »

Originally published at Pants on a Cat. Please leave any comments there.

I will not eat more than two cookies a day I will not eat more than two cookies a day, I will not I will not I will not! Bad Girl Scouts bad! You should have told me that you do not take checks. Terrible terrible terrible. *sigh* At least it's only once a year right? Overpriced, wee little cookies are happy in my belly.

…of the great reversal.

“But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.” Matthew 19:30

Do you feel it? There is a coming, a coming of a great reversal. At this coming the least will be the greatest and the greatest the least. At this coming the meek will inherit the earth and the proud the grave. At this coming the downtrodden will be exalted and the arrogant humbled.

There is a great reversal coming. The earth is moaning. Injustice is mounting. Power is consolidating. Deception is proliferating.

There is a great reversal coming. Empire is rising. Powers are oppressing. War is unceasing.

There is a great reversal coming. Kingdoms falling. Righteousness ruling. Peace prospering. The King returning.

For now we wait. We patiently endure. We let not the evil of our day discourage us. We continue to love. We continue to serve. We continue to bless. We continue to hope.

Our King will come. And when he does all things will be made right. Order will reside. Truth will return. Justice restored. Judgment realized.

And with it… shalom… peace… prosperity… harmony… and unity…. Forever.

Are you ready? Are you prepared for the coming?

Bad news: I crashed my car in Estes Park last weekend
Good news: Nobody was hurt, no other cars were involved.

Bad news: I had to limp a very broken car home down a canyon.  In the snow.  With a donut-spare up front.  And a badly hurt control arm.
Good news: I survived, got the car into the shop before they closed and a couple fingers of bourbon finally got my butt unpuckered a few hours later.

Bad news: I hurt it pretty badly – $1300 in new parts plus another $400 in labor.
Good news: …which is only about $600 in used parts.

Bad news: …which still means I have to drop $1000 on it.
Good news: …but because I didn’t listen to Dave Ramsey, I still have a credit card with about $450 worth of rewards that I can use to pay for car repairs, so it’s gonna cost me about half of what it really costs.

Ultimately, I do not recommend for anyone to try driving a car with a bent control arm, damaged steering knuckle and a donut spare on snow-covered black ice down a mountain canyon with perilous lack of guard rails in a snow-storm.  This is really not a recipe for success.  Your traction control system will refuse to function, your ABS system will be confused, you will probably die.  Do not do this.

Originally published at Pants on a Cat. Please leave any comments there.

This is a really cool program for brainstorming - Mindmeister - super useful!