nosh nook #205 - monday, december 28, 2009

thinking of bringing leftover cookies to the office? don't. (link)
12.28.09 - globe and mail - by wency leung

for coming up on two weeks now, i've been lucky enough to have a nice vacation away from work but come next year, i'm going to have to eventually go back to reality & back to work. it's cool with me though. it's been a fairly eventful & relaxing holiday season & all but this cold weather & time off makes me go a bit semi-salinger after a while & i don't need that. a lot of people are already back at work this week anyhow & in my case, i work in the music industry, so it's not like it's a completely painful job to have to go back to. plus, when i return, there's a good chance that at least one of my remaining co-workers will bring in some sort of holiday treat for me to munch on & ease the pain.

according to the globe and mail's wency leung, if you've been thinking of bringing your leftover holiday snacks back to work with you upon your return, you probably shouldn't or you should at least read her article for tips or think about it first or something. what the article boils down to is that this time of year is a time when a lot of people are looking back on the past year, thinking about their ballooning ass/belly size & making plans for an totally healthy 2010 diet. when you start bringing in your "unwanted boxes of chocolates, unfinished tins of fudge and containers of excess butter tarts" for co-workers, you're "sabotag(ing) their nutrition plans." they hate it when you do that crap. also, please stop changing their computer desktop to a photo of fabio. it's just not topical any more.

wendy leung spoke with "karen brar, who works at a non-profit organization in surrey, b.c." ms brar used to get excited about all the holiday snackery. now she can't stand it & mentioned that "after a little while, you're eating the chocolate for the sake of eating it...and it loses its lustre. by the end of it, it's just like, 'ugh.'" still, if you want to avoid getting fat on your holiday sweets & choose to ignore the guilt of making people fat, leung also spoke with "jacqueline mackinnon, an addiction counsellor in kamloops, b.c.," who provided a few tips on how to unload your sweets. to guarantee that they move, you should put them out in the morning & make sure you do so with the lid off in a high-profile locale. people are suckers for that crap & as long as you can lay off the sweets they're bringing in, you'll actually keep your annual plan for a hot bod intact this year. good luck with that.

#37 - the go-go's were soooo right.

oh man, i am soooo on vacation right now & when i say vacation, i actually mean a non-travel extended period away from the job & the office & its accompanying work & stresses. other than a few stints of unemployment here & there, it's my first vacation since at least 2005, so i've been making a big deal out of it, bringing it up in conversations & emails, referring to it in my facebook status, blogging about it, essentially casting a full net of 21st-century communication designed to ensure that everyone & their mother is aware that i am on vacation.

i suppose the reason i'm so actively promoting this fact is that i've been at my current job for almost two years now & actually still love it & it's our first time apart. in the past, my jobs have been like my relationships--they usually last somewhere between a year-and-a-half to two years & start to go downhill months before they actually end...i get bored...i need change...cuts must be made...& then one day, it's game over.

despite my length of service at this job, i still like it after just short of two years together. during my time there, i've worked my ass off, skipped lunch break after lunch break to get work done, spent hour upon hour working from home & to the enjoyment of the co-workers in my immediate area, have probably done an inordinate amount of audible huffing & sighing at my desk whilst doing so. i still like it regardless of my breathing anomalies.

the fact that it's a music industry job definitely contributes to my satisfaction, since music rules & all. just like before, in all the other industries i've worked in--college athletics, cable tv, fashion retail & newspapers--i went into the job not knowing all that much about the music industry & like with past jobs, i've developed a broad picture of the industry beyond the immediate knowledge i need to do my job. i love learning about how industries work & enjoy having a more-than-working knowledge of how their pieces fit into the grand puzzle. this is why jobs that require unique skill sets & knowledge--electricians, welders, chemists, drug dealers--make me want to be them...to see how they really fit in to the machine.

but for now, i'm on vacation.

#37 - the go-go's were soooo right.

snack: health valley mini chocolate chip cookies
drink: xs blast rootbeer blast energy drink

here is the first good thing about health valley mini chocolate chip cookies: they are tiny & conducive to popping into your mouth one after another after another while your vacation time fritters & wastes away. this is made even more pleasanter by the fact that they have no trans fats. zero. for the laymen, this means that a male human can consume infinite amounts of them with zero consequences to the body. zero. scientists have proven this. female humans are not allowed to eat cookies regardless of their healthful properties. got to think about that figure, gals!

here is the second good thing about health valley mini chocolate chip cookies: they are 70% organic & contain nary a drop of genetically engineered ingredients. this is in stark contrast to the snacks i usually eat--snacks that more often than not probably have some % of post-consumer recycled content amongst the ingredients.

here is the third good thing about health valley mini chocolate chip cookies: they are made in melville, ny, which is a town named after the guy who killed moby dick.

i don't know. i've downed a can of this xs blast rootbeer blast energy drink & i'm not feeling all that more energetic. i guess i feel a little more jittery than usual & a few of my fingers feel a tad more numb than usual, but that could be something else other than the energy drink. regardless, i like the flavor. it's not as chalky or tooth-coating as your average energy drink & it does taste like drinking a root beer dum dum. that's a definite plus. time to update your website, dum dums! the election (& your gimmick) are so passe (like heroin)!

please note that the snack & drink consumed it this blog do tie into a larger theme, but please don't kill yourself trying to figure it out. it'll be my little secret, like ryan seacrest's homosexuality.