it's not just about having good hair: November 2008

Thursday, November 27, 2008

No Pilgrims, just Mexican

Jonny and I have a mutual tradition of ignoring what 99% of America is up to during "holidays". Black Friday is a great time to sit on the sidewalk and laugh at the plebes rushing to Wallyworld. Who on earth held a gun to their head and told them they must buy presents as an expression of their love? What a dumb rule. Buying presents is the easy part. Being genuinely loving and supportive on days not recognized by Hallmark? Hard.

Today we decided to uphold one great American tradition: ripping off other cultures' holidays. Instead of stuffing some poor fowl, we made a mole dinner. From scratch. So tasty! Below are pictures of the tortilla-making adventure including our homemade tortilla press: two cutting boards and a Lodge cast iron skillet. With this rate of ingenuity we will take over the world by next Tuesday.

We had Mohnish over to enjoy our version of Giving Thanks (the posed pic is for you, Mom).

James came over a bit later and introduced me to the best combo ever: Heinz ketchup + Wavy Lay's.

Monday, November 24, 2008

My record is broken

Same stuff, I know, I know. But I find it important to constantly acknowledge the GOOD that came out of industrialized farming and the loads of other niceties we possess because of the industrial and agricultural "revolutions" of the past 150 years. Pretty easy to cast stones and propose blind solutions that pay no respect to what has come before us and that so many innovations came from the best intentions. I think it helps us meet in the middle to do so.
Thanks, Rancho Cappuccino:
"This is no chicken-little scenario. Agribusiness is not destroying the human habitat (although it probably could, given time). We need to give due credit to the architects of the first “green revolution.” The benefits of agricultural productivity are real. We have fed a lot more people than would have been possible without technology. But a lot of people believe that the world would be a better place if we re-focused agricultural priorities on local food, environmental preservation and healthy farmers.
Agriculture’s green revolution underlines in a powerful way this basic biological fact: We live at the expense of other creatures. Every living thing does. We can, through symbiotic relationships or good husbandry, cooperate with other creatures to increase biological productivity overall, but at the end of the day if we disappeared, other living things would take advantage of the resources we no longer consumed.
And because I am alive — because you are alive — a lot of other creatures never get the chance to live. "

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Bike Prom 2008

awesome party. great dj. free beer.

that's el gato and ian making out in a rickshaw

i did a stint behind the bar.

god bless happy rickshaw.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

The Peahen

the peahen is pretty much the coolest cat on the eastern seaboard. fitting, since the ayers introduced us. the peahen's wisdom surpasses 3 darden mbas + 1 m.d. at johns hopkins +a year in the peace corps + an online ordination. especially late on saturday night after cocktails at bang! the peahen is never referred to without the article "the". he is always "the peahen".

"Anything that comes from an indigenous population is usually assimilated by hippies." -the peahen

examples include: smelling badly, having no money, looking like you are starving, begging for money, free tibet stickers, quinoa, clogs, petitions, westfalias
photo cred of: friend-of-the-peahen

look out, ladies. the peahen is the sassiest professor in the r.va.

meow

Narcolepsy IS genetic

Last night Lizzie B., Gato, and I watched the premiere of Twilight. Screaming 'tweens abounded.
Sadly, I fell asleep toward the end.
Damnit!

It seems I've inherited my sister's affliction. She has a habit of falling asleep if left alone for more than 5 minutes. On a couch, in a car, in a movie, near or far...(thanks, Dr. Seuss)
I attribute it to her ability to work 25 hours a day. We Lozano women have a ridiculous capacity for immense workloads. My mother, despite being her own boss for the past 35 years, works herself to death on a daily basis, often citing the amorphous reasoning of "I have so much to do..."
Coming by it honestly: still not an excuse for being ridiculously exhausted and snippy.
Poor Gato.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Blatant advertisement

For Excedrin.

I had a headache 10 minutes ago.

I popped two Excedrin.

The headache is gone.

I love living in the 21st century.

My parents, on the other hand, belong to a strange cult that doesn't believe in painkillers. They might have some Advil that expired in 1995, but that's about it.

Rub some dirt on it.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Garrett Hardin was pretty much the man

The words of this sage man continue to impress. I am sure you can argue against a lot of what he says, but on what grounds? His works point out that many become defensive of his teachings because of their taboos on religion, reproduction, socialism, Marxism, and free enterprise.

To those inclined to hate business school students, I caution you. There is some incredible work being done in the halls of our schools to address the crises confronting us today. We owe a lot to Professor Robert Landel, an influential advisor to industry. Systems thinking makes all the sense in the world to me, and I talked about it a bit in last week's Wall Street Journal.
Why am I going to work for a company that many could argue feeds the very evils of which Hardin speaks? Because I believe that the solution lies in part within business and enterprise. Change on a mass scale can radiate from operational change. I choose to believe that.
Simple solution? Probably not.
Easy solution? Doubtful.
A solution? Definitely.

"The necessity to take the industrial world of growth to its next stage of evolution is not a disaster, it is an opportunity. How to seize the opportunity, how to bring into being a sustainable world that is not only functional but desirable is a question about leadership and ethics and vision and courage. Those are properties not of technologies, markets, governments, corporations, or computer models, but of the human heart and soul."
–Donella Meadows et al., Beyond the Limits (1992)

OMG!

don't try this at home. or in america.
someone will get sued.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Sometimes

I think advertising agencies aren't in it for the right reasons:

Army National Guard "Warrior" Aug 08 Gateway Video @ Yahoo! Video

Because if anything makes you want to join the National Guard it's the logical combination of Kid Rock and Jr.

Seriously...

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Here is your tall decaf screw the earth latte

I try. I really do.
Every time I go to Starbucks, I bring in my mug. I am rather militant about Jonny doing the same. He hates my nagging but I know Mamma Terra appreciates it in the end.
We were cruising home on Sunday from a weekend racing in New Jersey. Let me clarify: Jonny raced. I cheered then cheered him up as best I could when he broke his hand on Saturday.
Sunday was spent at the goose-poop riot that is HPCX, put on by the fantastic Rutgers Cycling Team. They even raked the freakin leaves off the course. Now THAT'S hospitality.
On our way home, after giving half our life savings to the NJ Turnpike, we hit up a "tourist center" in search of warm liquid treats. Jonny brought in his mug and I mine.
We queued right up, ordered our drinks, and watched as the barrista took Jonny's mug and filled with coffee. She then took my mug (okay, I bet she hated me anyway, since it said "Darden"), placed it inside a paper latte cup, then wrote my name on the cup.
I was served my latte not only in my mug, but inside of a paper cup inside of my mug.
I was speechless.
I turned around, walked away, and muttered "I'm trying to save the damn planet and you give me a latte in a paper cup INSIDE my mug?"
I think the guy behind me in line was amused, anyway.
Forget how I'm doing my part to screw the planet by driving a car, breathing, eating food grown outside of my yard, utilizing Starbucks' energy-sucking coffee-making process, etc. Let's shelve that for a moment.
How on earth is one of the most environmentally-responsible (?) companies in America allowing its employees ("partners") to serve customers ("guests") like that? Clearly this is a failure of a system. The poor girl at the autoplatz had no idea what to do with a personal mug. She needed to identify my drink. She used the traditional method to do so (writing on the cup). She didn't think that she was negating any benefit I was hoping to achieve.
Some Starbucks' have little stickies that go on your personal mug that identify your drink. Obviously this is as rare here as people who walk with purpose (don't remind me how much I hate the mouth-breathing masses who stroll around autoplatze aimlessly while I'm trying to find the bathroom and stand directly in my way. "Should I get this nut mix, Mabel?" "No. I like the one with the crunchy little sticks" "Where is that?" "I don't know, hold on..." walking directly into me in her lumbering mission to find the sesame sticks. I trip and give her an evil look. She focuses on the extremely vital task of helping her just-as-clueless spouse locate the correct assortment of crunchy and fatty snacks to pad their already-ample midsections before waddle out to their gas-guzzling Suburban and see more of the lovely New Jersey countryside via Turnpike.).

All scathing observations aside, I am writing to Starbucks not to berate the barrista, but to point out the gap in their communication in hopes they will prioritize it somewhere above changing the toilet paper roll in store #295766 in Wenatchee.
Because the earth isn't getting any healthier.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Some pretty good career advice

From a Darden alum. Director of global marketing for a really big "fun" company. Great, engaging guy.
"1. Take charge of your career and network creatively
2. Listen to your heart but increase your odds by following the money. A difficult economy teaches patience.
Position yourself in the short term to be flexible; to be ready to move to where you really want to be in 3 years. Follow the money: if you can eat it, drink it, smoke it, take it to feel better, or clean with it…there’s a good job in it!"

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Mandy ? Lozano got all serious

Today I was reminiscing to nobody in particular (because the house is empty) and realized that I've become so SERIOUS in recent blog posts.

Whiskey

Tango

Foxtrot

I'm making mental note to loosen things up to remind people that MBAs have not only hearts, but souls and funny bones (and assloads of debt)!

Promise.

Either that, or I shouldn't think I am responsible for convincing anybody of the existence of anything, be it sense of humor or yeti.

Here's a little story: I wasn't given a middle name. Nor was I given a proper first name, but that is a story my parents debate.

I am middle-name-less in hopes that I would take my husband's when I got married and "Lozano" would slide into the place left vacant on my birth certificate for decades and the source of much explanation when asked for my middle name only to reply "I don't have one". It was met with surprise second only to that registered on the faces of sadly ignorant human resource representatives of American companies when hiring people of Latin descent. "Which last name is it? Lopez or Garcia? Both?! So you're Maria Guadalupe Lopez Garcia? That isn't possible! You're either Maria Guadalupe Lopez or Maria Guadalupe Garcia. This is Amerikuh! Besides, what kind of name is 'Guadalupe', anyway? Isn't that a town or cockroach on that Latino cartoon from the 70s?"

I digress...

In the spirit of the candidate I hope will win this election, I've finally bequeathed a middle name on myself:

Mandy Hussein Lozano it is.

Get out and vote!

Sarah Lozano...Palin

My sister is way better looking than the VP-hopeful.

Speaking of how much I loathe fearmongering...I just finished Three Cups of Tea. I encourage ANYONE who thinks about peace to read it. Please.

Three Cups of Tea

I'm sure most of the literate world discovered this book years ago, and I am simply behind the curve. Darden does that to you.

I first heard about Three Cups of Tea from my father. He and my mother are voracious readers, and we spend hours upon hours talking about the books we discover. Not having a TV (ever) will do that for you. My parents are the ones who taught me about Michael Pollan years ago, and I remember spending one Christmas Day curled up on our purple couch tearing through The Botany of Desire and vowing to never eat a potato again. Oh, the irony.

I remember my dad talking about Mortensen's book this summer, proclaiming: "I read this book, kid, and in the end I thought to myself 'if only the rest of the world could think this way.'." Wow. If my father in his numerous decades on his earth thought that highly of a book and its premise, I should skedaddle out and get it!

Lizzie loaned it to me last night, and I am already halfway through it. One quote keeps coming back to remind me of why I do what I do:

"It may seem absurd to believe that a 'primitive' culture in the Himalaya has anything to teach our industrialized society. But our search for a future that works keeps spiraling back to an ancient connection between ourselves and the earth, an interconnectedness that ancient cultures have never abandoned." - Helena Norberg-Hodge

To my Darden schoolwork, waiting to be completed on this 70-degree Sunday I say: "Buzz off, you will wait until I finish my Tea."

(photos copyright of Jamie McGuiness from project-himalaya website)

it's not just about having good hair