do not want.

so, on a jaunt last week through a local supermarket's "organic and natural" aisle, i found this, which looked rather fascinating. i have, in my time, developed a taste for the more elaborate asian renditions of ramen (which are nothing much like your 10 for $1 Top Ramen specials). so i purchased it.

i have just dumped half of it in the trash. you will notice a reference on that webpage to "delicious Pad Thai" sauce. i did not notice any pad thai sauce. what the package did contain was soy sauce. acidic soy sauce, which is apparently meant to evoke "lime and tamarind" (as it says on the packaging) although they're being smart and saving money, because probably most of the people who patronize the supermarkets in this area wouldn't know what a tamarind was if it came home and announced it had gotten their daughter pregnant.

at least it was on sale.

spontaneity.

this is where i was this morning. yesterday afternoon, we spontaneously decided to go down to the shore. luckily, last night was my aunt and uncle's last night in their rental in barnegat light, so we stayed the night. this morning, they showed us the house they're building down there, and then we spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon on the beach.

i don't get to the beach as much as i would like anymore, and i don't think we've ever done anything this spontaneous. surprisingly, it worked out pretty well.

photo was taken with my phone, as we forgot the camera in the rush to pack after work and get down there as fast as possible. for some reason, it has a blue cast. not sure why.

is it so much to ask?

all i want is a job with one of two characteristics:

1. i don't have to keep track of my time

or

2. there's actually enough work to keep me busy for an 8-hour log.

i admit it: i'm over-educated and over-trained, intellectually, academically, and functionally. i work quickly and efficiently. i know my way around a computer. i learn fast. and i spend a lot of my time bored out of my fucking mind.

i'm stuck in this limbo stage... i only have an undergraduate degree, and i'm headed into a field where you need at least one grad degree, 2 are better.

but still. i can't imagine no one else has ever been in this position before. is it really so much to ask to be able to actually do the things i enjoy and that i'm good at? apparently.

fail.

this was supposed to be a citronella candle. i lit it last night while we sat on our patio and watched fireworks. i have, in fact, had positive experiences in the past with the insect-repelling properties of citronella, and so i had hopes for this.

unfortunately, it has also been scented with other things, i assume to mask the scent of citronella, which can be rather pungent. the problem with this idea is that it also masks the smell of citronella to the very insects it is supposed to repel. i'm not sure what that was before it flew into the candle and burned to a crisp last night, but if a bug got that fucking close to the flame, it's obviously not all that abhorrent to them. i've heard of "like a moth to flame" before, but never seen it in action.

damn. now i have to go buy another candle.

national holidays.

yeah, so i'm a couple days late. what can i say, vacation makes me miss deadlines.

it has been spectacularily grey and humid the past couple days. makes for a very sleepy, slow holiday. zzz...

not that summer holidays aren't for relaxing in the first place. what's that? patriotism? yeah, sure. i have the feeling that the "my x (country, spouse, wow guild), right or wrong" sentiment doesn't have much in the way of legs in this new century.

but hey, i'll take the couple days off from work.