What food(s) did you hate as a child, but enjoy as an adult?

I have always been characterized as a picky eater. And I think I still am. However, I have discovered a few things that I disliked as a child but thoroughly enjoy now.

The biggest one that I can’t believe I never even tried, was stuffing. Every Thanksgiving and Christmas I would stay as far away from it as I could, and refused to even try it. Why? Mostly because it looked disgusting. Something about soggy bread and celery stuffed inside a turkey just didn’t strike my fancy. Then, several months ago (years ago?) Mae made some Chicken Helper with stuffing, and I loved it. It smelled good, so I tried it, and now I eat as much as I can stand do at holiday gatherings.

Another thing I never ate as a child was Chinese food. I remember going to North China by the Maplewood Mall and ordering a cheeseburger while the rest of my family got Chinese food. I choose to blame my distaste on chow mein. It, much like stuffing, is not particularly eye pleasing, and also has celery in it. I do find it strange that I clearly remember eating handfuls of chow mein noodles as a child, but never chow mein. And I don’t eat chow mein noodles now. I find it strange how I didn’t like Chinese food, but most of the dishes are very basic. Like my absolute favorite, beef and broccoli over white rice. I also enjoy most varieties of chicken, and chicken fried rice. I have, however always enjoyed wontons. They work nicely in place of french fries.

And there are some things that I enjoyed as a child, and will continue to enjoy for the rest of my life. Like cheese sandwiches.

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I Got 99 Problems…

But A Breach Ain’t One.

No, seriously though. When was the last time I made a blog post? I would wager it was some time in June. Too many pages of “Daily Tweets” to sift through. Does this mean I’m not posting Daily Tweet digests anymore? Absolutely not. Deal with it.

I did discover today, however, that someone tried (unsuccessfully) to hijack my Wordpress installation, and I have since upgraded to the latest version. It seems all they did was change the formatting for my permlinks. I searched the posts table in my database for anything fishy, and didn’t find anything. No new administrator accounts, but I did change my password just to be sure. So if you haven’t updated your Wordpess install lately, I would suggest it. Not like they could make it any easier for you.

I installed the hard drive in my LaCinema last night after work. It shipped driveless, and I’ve been watching stuff via the USB host on the front from a flash drive. It is now packing a 1TB SATA drive, along with nearly 250 hours of video. May transfer some music on there too to see how it plays back and see what it displays on the screen.

I am not even going to attempt an update on life, because there have been literally hundreds of tweets to take the place of that. But I will try to update more. No matter how many times I say that, it never seems to work.

To all of you on the Livejournal, I apologize for not reading my Friends List for several months. I hope you are all doing well, feel free to comment and let me know how you’re doing. You might even be able to trick me into reading your updates again. LJ folk, or anyone really, feel free to prompt with with a topic to write about. It would be a great way to get Blog Block going again.

Also of note, it’s officially 2010, and baseball season is now only 3 months away. Which also means that Target Field will be opening in just under 100 days, and outdoor baseball will return to Minnesota.

Filed under: life — Tags: , , , , , , , —

Blog Block: What is a type of food or dish that people think you are strange for eating?

Many moons ago, a new concept was created. This concept was called Blog Block. It was sort of a collaboration between myself, Kayla and Cass to give not just ourselves, but the world a reason to blog. Basically, a topic would be posted and then everyone would write their replies on their blogs, and link back to the original post containing the idea so that others could read their post. However, it was only done a total of one times. So, here’s the new plan. Someone (anyone!) writes a blog on some random topic. If someone else reads the blog (let’s hope so..) they can reply in comments with their thoughts (obviously), and also link to their post on their blog for the same topic. Make sense? Good.

ANYWAYS, I was sitting here at 2:30 in the morning with some serious hunger issues and decided to dig around the fridge for something to eat. My options were quite limited, but I was able to create what has surely got to be one of the finest meals available anywhere: a cheese sandwich. That’s right, I said a cheese sandwich. Let me lay it out for you. Basically, you’ve got your bread (wheat, if you know what’s good for you.), a healthy serving of Miracle Whip (on both pieces of bread, of course), and two Kraft Singles (American, of course.). Simple spread your Miracle Whip on both pieces of bread, place two slices of gourmet Kraft cheese in the middle, and that’s it. Enjoy what is sure to be the best meal you’ll eat all day.

Cheese SandwichNow, on to the matter at hand. This edition of Blog Block was initiated because I made myself a tasty cheese sandwich and while I was compiling all of the components for this masterpiece, I thought to myself: “Hmmm, I remember when I was a little kid and I ate cheese sandwiches for lunch almost every day at school. Everyone else had their PB&J, Ham, Turkey, soup, leftover somethingorother, and I was just happy as could be chowing away on my cheese sandwich.” Which was true, I ate cheese sandwiches pretty much every day of my childhood, and for a short (a month or two) period of time it was the only thing I would eat. Needless to say it is definitely not a treat I have the opportunity to enjoy in this day and age. I still get the most awful looks when someone sees me stuffing my face with one of these puppies and they ask what is easily the most annoying question ever when you’re eating: “Whatcha got there, pal?” First, we’re probably not pals, so back off. Second, it’s my food, not yours, so back off some more. And then once I’ve relaxed a little and swallowed the mouthful of cheese, Miracle Whip and bread I simply reply: “a cheese sandwich.” I then have to go on and on explaining everything you just read to them, only to have them come back with: “That doesn’t sound too tasty..” And I refer them to reason number two why they started it by asking the most annoying question ever. So the next time you get that late night hunger (or any time hunger really) try a delicious cheese sandwich. Just make sure you’re alone when you eat it.

Now to extend to you, the reader, what is a food or dish that people think you’re strange for eating? Write about it on your blog and post a link here in a comment. Share this post with your friends and make them participate too. It’s fun.. sort of.

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What Made Me Start My Own Blog?

This post is a part of Blog Block, which is a new series co-developed by myself and Cass, and presented by Kayla and the Surpass Hosting Blog.

This edition asks: What made you want to start your own blog?

I have been creating websites for about 8 years, but I didn’t really get into blogging until very recently. A lot of people (including myself) don’t really consider an online journal to be the same as a blog, so that is why I say it was only recently that I started “blogging”. I have used Livejournal since early 2003, and I used a site called OpenDiary before that. But those were journals, which focused primarily on the happenings in my life, which is why I didn’t really consider it to be a blog.

Recently, more and more of my posts pertain to other things in the world, in addition to updates about me and my life. I think that mixing the two will allow me to reach a wider audience and share some of my knowledge with people who might stumble upon my site or one of my posts. When I first started writing in my Livejournal, it was mostly directed to a few close friends, as most others wouldn’t really understand a whole lot of the details. I’ve learned that keeping posts more vague and avoiding such detail helps cater the post to everyone, and allows them to understand it a little better.

A few people who have responded to this week’s topic have stated that they often find themselves unsatisfied with their blog’s content and delete it after a few weeks or months. I did clean out my Livejournal once about a year after I started it, which was mostly due to nonsensical posts and large gaps between them. Since then, I have had periods of time where I will write daily, sometimes numerous times a day, or I will go several months without posting anything. Now that I am mixing more blog style content into my journal, it allows me to post things to share with my readers without the need for a potentially time consuming update about my (generally boring) life.

If you would like to respond to this week’s topic, all you need to do is write your reason for why you started your own blog and post a link to your entry on the Surpass Blog.

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