white people food

It's my mother's birthday this weekend and my sister and I have decided to take her out for dinner (and dad, too). We wanted it to be for something that she wouldn't cook at home and that I can't make, and we thought that roast beef would be a good option. My parents like roast beef; it's not too "foreign" for them. So I spent a good part of last night reading the menus of nice restaurants in town (thank god for PDFs) and getting frustrated. There was a lot of steak but no roast beef to be had.

Discouraged, I posted a query on Chowhound asking for recommendations for roast beef dinner places. I was surprised to see responses today that referenced "prime rib" and then began an MSN conversation with a friend with the words, "I need some info about white people food."

So it turns out that prime rib = roast beef. Who knew? I was confused by a menu that offer prime rib in 8 oz., 10 oz., and 12 oz. servings, thinking that that meant it was steak (a really good cut of steak, obviously).

So yeah, all the confusion that people exhibit over "ethnic" food from foreign countries? I feel that about Canadian/American cuisine.

No, no I do not.

Put away that Facetwiberrier, Mr. MLA

Yet another way that provincial MLAs are no different than university undergrads: they are compelled to text/Facebook/Twitter all time, in this case, during Question Period. And dammit, the Speaker of the House is not going to take it any longer! He's publically chastised members for being on their PDAs during QP.

What kills me about this story are the people speaking against this policy on the record, complaining that the government needs to be in contact with citizens to be effective. But—and this is very important—the ban applies to Question Period only, when MLAs should ostensibly be paying attention. One could argue that Question Period is a waste of time anyway and people might as well be catching up on tweets, but the Speaker can't subscribe to that point of view and must discipline the MLAs. After all, if even the Speaker can't take Question Period seriously, then who can? And really, the constant Twitbookexting is not the actual problem. Instead, it is a sign of how little respect is accorded to Question Period in the first place. So the problem isn't really the technology—it's the fact that no one respects Question Period enough to put the damn phone away.

Oh, yeah, and if this government really wanted to be in touch with Albertans, it wouldn't have kept quiet about environmental charges faced by Suncor regarding dumping sewage in the Athabasca River or passed Bill 18, which will creates strict new regulations about who can see and rent movies, banning unrated movies from video stores, meaning that a lot of foreign film and documentaries won't be legally available for rent. (You know you rents these movies? Me. And I am definitely not under 18.)

This province. GAH.

How to live graduate studently

Or, how living frugally is the new living like a grad student, but less depressing

Giving up cable
Frugal living: saves money, download anyway (or watch content online)
Grad student living: saves money, increases criminal activity (watching restricted online content using workaround, downloading)

Go grocery shopping with a list
Frugal living: reduces impulse buys, helps meal planning
Grad student living: impulse buy consists of $2 bottle of Vitamin water, what meal planning?, list heavy on pasta, frozen food, and reduced-price meat that will be divided and frozen once home

Cut back on eating out
Frugal living: saves money
Grad student living: but not on drinking, right?

Clip coupons
Frugal living: stretches dollar
Grad student living: stretches dollar, exacerbates hoarding mentality, increases preparations for coming apocalypse/unemployment in the real world

Cutting down on driving
Frugal living: saves gas money and insurance costs, saves the environment
Grad student living: saves gas money and insurance costs, saves the environment, walking to and from grocery store a form of exercise, time spent waiting for bus would have been spent surfing internet anyways, time spent waiting for bus optimistically considered time for reading articles/books, riding public transit doubles as research for novel about quirky, depressing urban life, get to use U-pass that you pay for anyway*

* not applicable to all post-secondary institutions