Could I be the Happiest Girl in the Twin Cities Today?

I know blogs are all about bitching and ranting about various miseries and/or other curiosities, but today I am ecstatic.

I've been promoted to the jobby-job I've wanted for years! YAY!! Senior Editor!

All the schooling, all the "putting in my dues," all the self doubt, anxiety and poverty finally paid off.

I don't really say prayers or offer sacrifices or anything, but I'm offering up my thanks to any beings or spirits or robots who helped me along the way.

Raise a glass with me!

Are the Eyes the Gate to the Emoticon's Soul???

Here's something that I prolly shouldn't reveal about myself; emoticons amuse me.

Today, if you AIMed me, you'd get monkey emoticons...yesterday, skullz. I'm not saying they're cool. I'm saying, I DIG EM!! I want to be careful about saying that because that doesn't mean I want sheets of emoticon stickers or emoticon t-shirts or any of that crap. I only like them in cyberform.

Earlier I read this about Asian emoticons, and it blew my mind:

"Users from East Asia popularized a style of emoticons that can be understood without turning one's head to the left.

These emoticons are usually found in a format similar to (*_*), where the asterisks indicate the eyes, the central character, usually an underscore, the mouth, and the parentheses, the outline of the face. A large number of different characters can be used to replace the eyes, which usually is where the emoticon derives its emotive aspect (contrasting the Western emoticons' emoting through the mouth). The emphasis on the eyes is reflected in the common usage of emoticons that use only the eyes, e.g. ^^. Characters like hyphens or periods can replace the underscore; the period is often used for a smaller, "cuter" mouth or to represent a nose, e.g. (^.^). Alternatively, the mouth/nose can be left out entirely, e.g. (^^). The parentheses also can often be replaced with braces, e.g. {^_^}. Many times, the parentheses are left out completely, e.g. ^^ or o_O or <.<;; A quotation mark ", apostrophe ', or semicolon ; can be added to the emoticon to imply apprehension or embarrassment, in the same way as the anime sweat drop. Many other characters can be appended to also indicate arms or hands, e.g. <(^_^)> or ⊂( ﾟ ヮﾟ)⊃ or <(--<)" from wikipedia



(click on the image for a better view)

( '_' ) Whoa. That totally just freaked my establishment.

I Was Somewhat in the Dark About Chipotle

Of COURSE I've eaten food purchased at Chipotle.











Of COURSE I've enjoyed said food and appreciated their committment to fresh, natural ingredients, and I've read this on their menu: "Our naturally raised meats are free of antibiotics and added growth hormones, fed a vegetarian diet and humanely raised." I don't eat "meats," but I appreciate the effort. I've also heard IIII rave about Chipotle more than once. So bascially, Chipotle has a favorable reputation with me.

Thing is, I live near about 250 mexican-style restaurants in South Minneapolis, and usually opt for El Norteno if I want a burrito, or I head to some hole in the wall I've never tried. Cuz that's how I roll.

That said, I have enjoyed the vegetarian fajita burrito at Chipotle. FO SHO.

Until this week, I wasn't aware of Chipotle's FOOD WITH INTEGRITY committment, which makes me give Chipotle the ol' doubletake cuz sustainable agriculture activism gets my butter churning.

Naturally raised pork, chicken, and beef are part of their mission to provide natural foods. The hard part is finding enough of it to go 100%, so says Mike Fuller, a marketing consultant with Chipotle: “'We’re really proud to offer naturally raised meats but we can’t get enough of it,'” said Mike Fuller, a marketing consultant with Chipotle. “'We’ve proven there is a demand for this kind of food and funding these research initiatives would make it possible for us to get more of these products locally.'” (quote lifted from the Land Stewardship Project Newsletter)

Fuller testified before the Senate High Ed Finance Committee on the need for more sustainable livestock research at the U of M, along with others, including livestock farmer Paul Sobocinski and Kathy Sheran.

So no, I'm not going to give up the unknown whatnots of the local fair in my neck of the non-woods, despite my uncertantites, but I will give Chipotle a high five and exclaim, "that red chili tomatillo is pretty f-ing good! I'm coming back for more!"