Shopping for cars is dumb, especially if you have a vehicle that will already get you from point A to point B. And what does it matter if you have to park out back because you’re embarassed of what you drive because work in an industry where image is everything?

So I’ve come up with a great solution.

A few of the coolest people in the world purchased a motorcycle for me as a wedding present, and when then weather turns, I’m going to start using it as my daily driver.

It’s a 1972 Honda CL 350, and all it looks just like this:

Sure, a motorcycle that’s almost 40 years old may not be the most practical way to get around, but it sure is cool.

And that’s my past year in a nutshell.

I’m not going to go to deep into it now, but just know life has been good to me over the past 10 months.

As for going granola, tomorrow’s a new day with another chance to get back on track.

Check back soon for the juicy deets.

Yes, I know most of you probably think tofu is disgusting, heck, I used to think it was to most disgusting thing in the world – and then I discovered what you can do with it, which, if you don’t know already, is pretty much everything: You can put it in salads or make it into a burger, there’s tacos, tofu tempura – I’m just going to stop there because the list could go on forever. The best part about tofu, in my opinion, is that you can make it taste and look almost anything you want (I recently saw an episode of Future Food where tofu was made to look like sea food – it was intense).

Week one of Tofu Thursday introduced me to tempura tofu nuggets. When everything was said and done, they looked similar to this:

As for their taste, they tasted exactly like you would expect: tofu coated in tempura batter and fried. To be honest, I wasn’t too thrilled about it, and I’ve decided to modify the original recipe to something a little more flavorful.

It goes like this:

1. Marinade the tofu in teriyaki or sweet and sour sauce for about eight hours in the refrigerator.
2. Freeze the tofu for about 24 hours.
3. Follow the original recipe, but be sure to keep the tofu as cold as possible right up to the moment you toss it in your oil.

I found my first experience working with tofu a pleasurable one, and I am already scouring the Internet for a great recipe for the next installment of Tofu Thursday. If you have any suggestions for a good one, please post it in the comments section.

For those who don’t know what “granola” is, Urban Dictionary defines it as:
–
Granola:
An adjective used to describe people who are environmentally aware (flower child, tree-hugger), open-minded, left-winged, socially aware and active, queer or queer-positive, anti-oppressive/discriminatory (racial, sexual, gender, class, age, etc.) with an organic and natural emphasis on living, who will usually refrain from consuming or using anything containing animals and animal by-products (for health and/or environmental reasons), as well as limit consumption of what he or she does consume, as granola people are usually concerned about wasting resources. Usually buy only fair-trade goods and refrain from buying from large corporations, as most exploit the environment as well as their workers, which goes against granola core values. The choice of not removing body hair (see amazon) and drug use are not characteristics that define granola people, and people, regardless of granola status, may or may not partake in said activities. This definition is sometimes confused with hippy.

And used in conversation:
Jack: My best friend is vegan and only buys produce that is organically grown from local farmers. Her and her feminist, vegan boyfriend are both in Greenpeace and advocate for queer rights. She waxes her legs but she’s still granola.
Jill: So that means she’s not a dyke? And she grows her own reefer?
Jack: Just because she’s granola, doesn’t mean she does drugs. Also, granola status has nothing to do with sexual preference.
Jill: Well maybe she’ll know where to buy hemp and how to tie-dye?
Jack: She’s granola, not a hippy. Some granola people are hippy and vice-versa, but they’re not the same thing.
–

OK. Now that everybody is on the same page, let’s get down to business.

I’ve decided to go granola for a few reasons, but I’m going to only focus on one today: Feeling healthier in my own body.

The biggest proponent of my former less healthy lifestyle was the massive amount of fast food I would consume on a weekly basis, which, if I added up, probably accounted for 25 to 40 percent of my weekly calorie intake.

And my body didn’t feel good about.

And now, four months in, even though I let the occasional Taco Bell item slip through and was so intrigued by KFC’s Double Down that I had to try it, my body is much happier, my skin is better and I’ve gone down three notches on my belt.

#ftw.

In place of the fast food, I’ve stocked my refrigerator, cabinets and freezer with homemade soups, anything and everything organic or locally grown, and I’m now purchasing all of my fresh produce at the Ypsilanti Food Co-op and Whole Foods.

Sure, you may be thinking that only hippies shop at co-ops and Whole Foods and avoid them for that reason, but let me, someone who is not a hippie, be the first to tell you: You’re wrong. I shop at co-ops and Whole Foods because they provide the highest quality, freshest items you can get in my neck of the woods – and the best part is most prepared foods contain only a handful of different ingredients, and I can pronounce most of them. If Meijer or Kroger’s produce was as good as the co-ops or Whole Foods, I’d shop there too – but it isn’t, so I don’t.

I’d love to continue explaining why I’ve extensively improved my eating habits and why you should too, but, seeing how this is a blog and most of you are starting to lose interest at this point, I’ll leave you with this awesome, full-color chart that is guaranteed to re-grab your attention and let you decide for yourself.

Via: Online Schools

–
Stromski

Post Script: Come back soon for “Going Granola: Part 2.” I’s going to be about corn or the chemicals we put in and/or on our body. Please take a second to post your thoughts in the comment section.

These lists, while fun to read, rarely (if ever) include one of the most-loved activities that college students participate in: Sex. Hot, nasty, unprotected sex*.

And that’s terribly sad.

So, for your enjoyment, here’s a list of the 10 most extreme places to make whoopee on Eastern’s campus. Some places are riskier than others, but a mini skirt and elastic waistband pants allow for easy access and even easier cover up.

1. The balcony off Room 300 in the Student Center: This location provides a fantastic view of University Park, and the safety railing lining the edge makes a great handhold.

2. Benches by the flagpoles near, or the bridge over the pond: When you decide to romp around in this spot, be sure to hide behind the rock or else there’s a good chance you could get caught on camera…

3. Private study rooms in Halle Library: Is there really any better way to spend a study break?

4. Student organization office: The small windows looking into each office help satisfy the exhibitionist in us all, without making it too obvious what’s going on behind closed doors.

5. Club pool at Rec/IM: Sex in a pool is already hot; why not take it to the next level by doing it in a secluded corner of one when there’s other people in splashing around. Pool orgy, anyone?

6. Mark Jefferson mall: Even though the University has already broke ground for the new science complex, there’s no reason you shouldn’t break some ground yourself.

7. MLK Jr. plaza: Let MLK in on your dreams and fantasies by turning them into reality right in front of him. Or at least his bust.

8. The roof of Sherzer observatory: As soon as the weather and skies allow, grab your favorite bottle of wine and a blanket and sneak up to Sherzer’s roof for after hours and have a go at it in the most romantic spot on Eastern’s campus.

9. Between stacks of books in the library: For when the private study rooms aren’t exciting enough.

10. The Board Room in Welch Hall: This one’s for seniors only. After four-plus years of being screwed over by crappy professors, instructors and administrators (you know who you are) and the ever-increasing cost of tuition, there is no better place to stick it to the man than in the very room the University’s major decisions are put into action.

–

Stromski

Post Script: If you have any suggestions of other great places to hook up on campus, visit this article at emyouthemagazine.com and add it in the comments section.

*But wear a jimmy hat, seriously; they’re good for you. Unless you want a VD or a baby. But then again, a baby would have its upsides, like free money from the government. So, on second thought…

]]> http://jstromsk.wordpress.com/2010/04/07/ten-places-to-screw-at-emu/feed/ 0 mfstromski Student Center Balcony University Pond 2 Halle Library Student Org Offices Rec:IM Mark Jefferson Mall MLK Plaza Sherzer Library Shelves Welch Hall http://jstromsk.wordpress.com/2010/03/24/student-celebration-was-a-bust/ http://jstromsk.wordpress.com/2010/03/24/student-celebration-was-a-bust/#comments Wed, 24 Mar 2010 07:17:22 +0000 mfstromski http://jstromsk.wordpress.com/?p=312 ]]> For those of you who were not able to attend the Student Celebration in the ballroom yesterday, I wish I would have been right there next to you, wherever you were.

The idea behind the celebration was sound, I’ll give it that, but I’ve got beef with one of the students who performed and the administrators who let it happen. And yes, I’ve voiced my concerns to the proper authorities.

I feel so strongly about what happened that I’m going to share my e-mail with the world, or at least the 14 people who will visit this post.

I must warn you, it’s of a religious nature, so I apologize in advance if anything I wrote offends you, that was not my goal.

Here it is:

As a student leader who has served this campus for over four years, I would like to inform the administrators of Eastern Michigan University that I feel the religious lyrics in one of the songs performed by a student were highly inappropriate for an event like the Student Celebration held on March 23.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not against any form of religion and understand that it can be a very rewarding experience for those who chose to follow the teachings of or acknowledge the existence of an omniscient being, prophet, thetans, Flying Spaghetti Monsters, Midi-chlorians, what have you, but I have made the decision that religion, in any form, is not for me. By making that decision, and because of how I feel about religion, I feel that it would be inappropriate of me to force my beliefs upon anyone, namely people of a religious nature. Likewise, I expect to be treated the same way from those who do choose to follow a religion.

For example: If an extremist damns me for all eternity because I don’t believe in his or her god or tries to force religion on me, and only when that happens, do I feel it’s necessary to express my beliefs.

Today, that singer forced her beliefs upon me, and the University let it happen. I would understand the religious nature of the lyrics if I had attended an event that focused on religion, but I didn’t. I attended a celebration that was supposed to honor students and their work – and instead of feeling honored, I felt violated.

Instead of making a scene, I chose to instead leave the reception, flabbergasted that the University allowed something like this to happen.

It would mean the world to me if from now on the University was able to prevent an incident like this from happening again or, at the very least, include some sort of disclaimer informing the audience members of the sort of content they may be subject to.

With warm regards,

–
Joseph Stromski II

I’d love to read how others feel about this topic. Feel free to start a discussion in the comment section.

Having been a fan of Detroit’s own The White Stripes for the better part of a decade, you can image how stoked I was when I was able to finally get my hands on a live album. And then I found out it came with a DVD featuring footage from the same tour.

I was happier than a pig in mud.

As soon has I had the opportunity, I put the CD in to my fiancé’s car (she has a much, much better sound system than I do in my vehicle) and played the disc the only way there is to play The White Stripes: as loud as possible with the windows rolled all the way down.

It didn’t take long for me to rediscover everything I love about The White Stripes, who haven’t recorded anything new in almost three years. The music of Under Great White Northern Lights, which was recorded over the course of the band’s tour of Canada in 2007, is everything Jack and Meg have always provided and nothing more.

It’s raw.

It’s loud.

It’s dirty.

It’s makes you want to take a shower and smoke a cigarette.

After giving the disc a solid, straight-through listening, I did, however, start to pick up on everything that doesn’t make this live recording as fun to listen to as I hoped it would be. In the true style that is The White Stripes, this album is poorly recorded and a majority of Jack’s vocals are nearly impossible to understand.

And then I watched the DVD.

I’d like to be able to use my extensive vocabulary to properly review the DVD in detail, but the first thing that comes to mind is this: It’s fucking fantastic.

Directed by Emmett Malloy, who’s famous for working on just about every music video made ever, Under Great White Northern Lights has seamlessly blended together Jack and Meg’s country-wide tour of Canada, during which they played in every providence, whether it be in a major stage show, a nursery center, a bowling alley, from the back of a boat, on a public bus or one of a dozen other free, small-venue side shows, with short interviews that discuss the history of the band, its love for Canada and the importance of playing shows in small towns and cities.

The best party of the DVD is that the footage captured is just as raw and dirty as the music it features, but, because there is a visual side to everything, you understand why the music sounds the way it does: Jack and Meg just play dirty music, and that’s much easier to grasp when you see how much they get into it.

In the end, the CD portion of Under Great White Northern Lights is best enjoyed by true fans of The White Stripes, fans who appreciate Jack and Meg for who they are and don’t expect anything different from them. The DVD, however, is perhaps the best music DVD to ever be released; it offers an intimate look at The White Stripes you can’t get anywhere else and features some of the best live performances you’ll ever get out of a band.

CD Tower Rating: 3 out of 5 Towers
DVD Tower Rating: 5 out of 5 Towers

–

Stromski

Post Script: Enjoy this preview of the movie:

And right until I finished my first week in college, they were right. High school was a great time, but college … college is so much better: There are no parents enforcing curfews or assigning chores, you can eat whatever you want and the opportunities to drink underage without mommy and daddy finding out are around every corner.

After four and a half fantastic years in college, however, I was ready to graduate and move in to the real world.

But just as thousands of graduates in the state have done before me, I entered the real world without a career lined up, and even though I’ve only been here a short time, it didn’t take long for me to find that the real world is a very scary place. There’s no going to class, so you’re bored all of the time. There’s no meal plan, so you need to feed yourself. You’re kicked off your parents’ health insurance, so you have to be extra careful when driving, working out or using a chef’s knife. Worse, there’s no more student loan refund money to help keep you afloat. In short, the real world sucks balls.

As of late, I’ve found myself continuing to work two part-time jobs, looking for a third and struggling to make ends meet that I didn’t know existed six months ago. I’ve had to cut back on everything possible, and I refuse to turn my heat above 68 degrees for fear of my DTE bill skyrocketing, and just about a week ago, I had a friend tell me that my face looks thinner – and it’s not because I’m working out, it’s because I barely have enough money to feed myself. And because of it – the stress of finding a job, not having any expendable money, not eating properly, being cold when I sleep at night – I have entered a dark place and fear that I’ll have a very difficult time getting out of it.

Now, I know you’re probably thinking: “Poor Stromski, he doesn’t know what a hard time is. Now those Haitians or the animals Sarah McLachlan sings about, they know about hard times.” But I’m not looking for a pity party, you don’t have to feel bad for me, that’s not my goal; my goal is to prevent as many of you as possible from ending up in my situation, and to do that I need to stress how important it is that all of you underclassmen need to start searching for a career now, soon-to-be-alumni need to start looking six months ago, and everybody should prepare themselves to leave the state.

Looking back, I finally understand what my high school teachers meant when they said, “High school is the best time of your life. You need to cherish it.” I’m just frustrated that it took me almost six years to figure it out – it’s not high school that was so great, but how simple life was.
I miss those days.

The Bottom Line: Start looking for a career now, don’t be afraid to leave the state, and enjoy the simple things in life.

Ever since that earthquake rocked Haiti, it seems to be the only thing in the world that matters. It’s trending on Google, Anderson Cooper and his disaster relief efforts are featured on numerous nightly broadcasts, and it has spent quite a bit of time on Twitter’s Trending Topic list.

The great thing about all the coverage Haiti is receiving is that it has created the desire for Americans to donate millions of dollars to various relief organizations, which are aiding the thousands of Haitians who were victims of last month’s quake.

But the reality is that disasters like this really highlight the American people’s inability to realize what’s happening in their own country: Be it underfunded educational institutions, impoverished families or the ever-climbing unemployment rate, there are millions of Americans suffering everyday, and very rarely is there a major, nationwide movement to do something about it, like a text message campaign endorsed by thousands of individuals, the government, several major media companies and celebrities

Not to defend the behavior of Americans and their lack of ability to recognize the severe needs of people living in their own backyard, but in this country, most people seem to be living in an alternate reality. American citizens have been brainwashed in to thinking that if you work hard enough, make enough sacrifices and make smart decisions, anyone can succeed in this country: This is the land of opportunity, after all.

The fact that people can’t make a go of it here, or sometimes can’t provide for themselves, needs to be chalked up to their own inadequacies or laziness. People need to tell themselves it must be the fault of the individual for his or her lack of success, otherwise they may have to address the fact health care is so ridiculously expensive that it bankrupts small businesses; work conditions are appalling for many Americans, regardless of attempted government regulation; post-secondary education is unattainable for the average person without accumulating a large amount of personal debt; and that many of the social programs that helped carry the country through some of its most difficult times have been eroded with horror stories of abuse.

It’s sad that people have convinced themselves that social programs don’t work. They look at anecdotal evidence or even urban myths to not encourage their elected representatives to properly fund social services. Instead of working to correct the system to help reduce abuse and increase the amount of assistance that can reach Americans down on their luck – society has convinced itself that this is the perfect opportunity to cut back on taxes.

You have to live in an alternate reality to be able to sleep at night. If the majority of American’s opened their eyes, they’d realize there are people in this country living in third-world conditions. We still have large inner-city and rural populations graduating high school illiterate and lacking basic math skills and average American families losing their houses because they have overwhelming medical debt, all while we fight two wars thousands of miles away.

If people paid attention they would be outraged, but they are clearly not. Instead, it is much easier to send a text massage and donate $10 to an aid service of choice, hoping their money does something to help a country stricken by natural disaster and go to sleep at night, feeling like they helped save the world.

It just isn’t the average American to blame, either. The U.S. government has bred an undereducated society and placed corrupt, big-business infiltrated, inadequate regulatory agencies to watch over its flock. Meanwhile, the press and other independent regulatory agencies have been asleep at the wheel while court cases, executive orders and legislation have slowly whittled away the rights of the American people.

Whenever you want to find the reason for most American’s ridiculous behavior, all you need to do is follow the money. It is far more beneficial to the current social, business and government structure to have people focused on a country other than their own. It costs everyone less money, including the tax payers, and that gets politicians reelected and CEOs bigger bonuses. And isn’t that what it all boils down to?

The Bottom Line: America has problems, too. And it’s sad that society creates people who are too blind to recognize them. Maybe people would finally do something about it if an unemployment meteor crashed into Detroit or Hurricane Hunger ravaged the south coast, but it shouldn’t take a natural disaster for people to want to help.