Job Discussion Forums

[dorum]

Meat pies with onion gravy and mash, apparently....

That was posted on behalf of somebody else!!

[yaramaz]

...well, during the long dark endless winters of cental anatolia I had unquenchable longings for the following: food that isn't Turkish (o sushi! o pad thai! o thali! o dumplings! o sourdough and multigrain bread with peanut butter! I miss you so!), ease of fluent and witty conversation, english language books and magazines (not $25 Marie Claires from tourist shops in faraway Istanbul), libraries, snowplows and street-salters (our streets had 10 cm of lethal, rough ice covering it for about 4 months), non-Nescafe coffee with cream not creamer, television that wasn't CNN or BBC or CNBCe...

However, now that I am back on Canada's west coast for a month to see friends and family, I'm finding that I haven't rushed out to get any of these things. In 3 weeks, I've yet to even go to Timmy's for his Bits, nor have I been able to wrap my head around the inanity of Norte Americano television programming--- what's with all the twits in reality dating programs?? Hell, if they want a date, just go to any city turkey and shout aloud, 'I'm foreign and I will sleep with you without a thought to marriage or commitment' (for women) or 'I am foreign and rich and will love you forever in our beautiful mansion with a maid and walk-in closet' (for men). I have, however, gone a bit overboard with my new stovetop espresso whoosh contraption- will take it back to Turkey along with a few kilos of lavazza. No more nescafe this winter, please. Will also cart back some curry pastes, nori sheets and wasabi and pickled ginger, and maybe a small secret stash of Kraft Dinner (my secret shame). These items do take on an iconic, sterling quality when you are stuck in a blizzardy freezing dark city with no way to get them easily.

[khmerhit]

YES INDEED, television in north america has hit rock bottom. They rearely even broadacast those crappy made for tv movies (which were sometimes good) any more. Dont make em any more. If there is any quality it has moved to the digital private channels. the market changed completely when i was away and when i got back my jaw dropped at the crappiness of it.

i miss lancashire hotpot: never had it, but how i miss it.

[Capergirl]

[Wolf]

I gave up on TV two years ago. I rented Japanese animation to practice the language, and watch the occasional movie. Full stop.

In the PRC televsion is not used as an entertainment medium. It's kind of like those propoganda screens from a George Orwell book. There are economy shows. "Historical" (yeah, right) dramas that could easily interchange sets, costumes, actors, characters, directors, and scripts with one another. It's 500 copies of the same bad show. And then there are culture shows devoid of spirit. My TV must get lonely at times, cuz I sure don't keep it company.

Last year a co worker (American) gave me a tape with stuff from "back home."

The commercials were an insult to my general humanity.

The shows had such bad writing that I wondered if they chose bad fanfics - the worst available - from the internet rather than bother writing an interesting/intriuging plot with characters worth paying attention to.

[Steiner]

[isabel]

I am with those who miss ovens. Sometimes I miss cooking certain kinds of food- baked potatoes, roast lamb (or yeah, I really miss lamb, I ate it everyday on my vacation in Australia last month) an occasional pie, cake, ohhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Sometimes, at the end of a really bad day, I also could use a place to put my head- preferable one with gas.

[thelmadatter]

Twizzlers!

Real pizza - I used to kvetch about the pizza situation when I lived in Arizona (being from the New York City area, Im a bit snobbish - if you cant fold it and have grease running down your arm, it aint pizza). Now I look forward to a short trip I have to run to AZ just so I can eat some half-decent pizza.

I completely lost any desire to try pizza in Mexico when they told me that there is no tomato sauce on it -- one puts ketchup on top instead!

[khmerhit]

One thing I don't miss is Vietnamese crab soup.

I had some for lunch one day and at it ended up SPLASHED on the floor of my 5 o'clock class. You should have seen the looks on my students' faces!!

[chinasyndrome]

More than anything else I miss clear night skies that are bursting with stars. In my current neck of the woods the sky is usually so clouded over (okay, polluted) that the most stars I've seen during one night is 3.

[scot47]

TV has become so awful that only the brain-damaged watch it. That seems to be about 90% of the population.

I think it was better when we only had one or two channels. I now have access to 200 and it is all CR**. Give me a book any day.

[khmerhit]

Here is a good book for you, Scot. This is from "TV TV THe online Experience":



Road Rules: Pacific Islands, pt 1.
Posted on 5-27-2003

(Hello people who have come to my site looking for naked pictures of Marybeth. She's hot, eh? Well. I don't have any. I have, however, written a book about reality television called TV! TV! If you love reality TV, you will love my book. Click here for more information)

So I babysat for Neal Pollack last night, and in true babysitter form, spent the entire time glued to the television. (OK, I raided the fridge for booze first, but after that...)

And lucky me, last night I caught the season premiere of Road Rules: Pacific Islands. And oh what a season its going to be.

This season, MTV is doing something I've never seen before. They may have done it before, but perhaps I wasn't paying as much attention before. Anyways. It seems that they're showing an awful lot more of the upcoming episodes as little reverse-flashbacks. They introduce a cast member, they show a 10 second highlight reel of their upcoming failures, fights, and dramas.

I don't know how I feel about this. I like knowing that there will be fights and crying and disaster ahead, but I don't want to actually see it yet. I want it to come as a faux-surprise.

Anyways.

So this season, we've got: Dave, standard cute boy. Cara, standard cute girl. Every show has got to have one each. Then we've got Christena the black cowgirl. It couldn't be more obvious that they're setting her up for the "You don't understand me" person. There's Marybeth, the Playboy model from Texas who will, I'm sure, be naked. And slutty. And will get all three of the boys to cry. With desire.

So far, I'm unenthused.

Ah, but then we have Abram and Donell. Abram is a blond haired, blue eyed young lad. On the surface, he seems to be a bit of a player, maybe a bit of a dweeb when it comes to women. But I suspect that deep down, he is secretly a Nazi. I can see a glint of racism, sexism and facism in his eyes. Which makes it all that much better that the last cast member is Donell, a big fat black dude with a loud mouth.

Oh yes. Yes yes yes.

In one of the little flashforwards, we see Abram, shirtless and sweaty, screaming "*beep* YOUUUUUUU" at Donell and then chasing him across the room. Oh baby! I only hope that the Road Rules directors have dropped the rule where the cast members can't beat each other up. It was all very disappointing a few seasons ago when they tossed the woman off for punching her. I mean, the drama was good, but if she had remained on the show, she could have done more punching.

On TV! TV!, the cast members are actually encouraged to take our their frustrations in a physical way. Because I am a genius. More punching = better TV.
Link Me

http://tvtv.benbrown.com/.

[Cobra]

1. Mommy
2. Teddy Bear
3. Blanket

[j-ang]

... NPR!! But that's on the internet.
... basic medications (ibuprofen) in packages bigger than 10 tablets.
... regular Cheerios and Quaker Oats.

[ls650]

I miss seeing stars at night - though last night the smog was thin enough that I could actually see Mars.