WHAT ARE YOU THINKING ABOUT RIGHT NOW?

Aren't pot stickers supposed to be soft? I've never had ones that weren't soft.

I think I ate potstickers during an everyday cocktail evening in Dubai.
They were pretty bad.

Om nom nom... I cooked my potstickers differently this time, and they were a delicious success! Om nom!

They're basically chinese dumplings... some meat, veggies and spices wrapped up in a thin slice of dough. You can dip them in soy sauce, chili sauce, plum sauce, basically any kinda sauce.

Those look so good right now... a Chinese friend of mine invited me and a bunch of people over once and we made something like 200 of them with different meats and spices, and afterwards we ate like kings.

You can freeze them too and reheat them later, they stay good for a while.

... I don't want to know what that is.

Anyway, this TOTALLY MADE MY DAY! What is it? A bottle of Vaati Shampoo!

Mr Detective why do you have avatars of little japanese children?

By popular request.

(LockeZ asked me about this)

So like awhile back I had this thing, where I was touring the country. I tend to travel ummmm whenever I've just had a really nasty breakup, and this girl was still hung up on her bf in Alaska so I was like screw this I'm touring the country and getting outta here alot. So anyway, I settle in Arizona, spent about three months there not getting a job, and had to move again. My sis, showed me this website called WWOOF, which pays travel stipends (sometimes) for organic farming work. So the first place I went was called Morning Star Ranch (that should have been a tip off, in Christianity the morning star is governed by Jesus and..., so yea). So, yea, these guys were a cult called Twelve Tribes. So, yea, I spent two days with them and as a result hate control freaks.

Uhhh, let's see, they live in little communal tents, male singles, female singles, and married. I think they're Seventh Day Adventist offshoot, meaning big into health food, and Jewish Sabbath. The place is in the middle of nowhere Valley Center, CA, near a farm stand across a scary winding mountain. Might as well be called Happy Happy Valley. On the bright side, I got some experience milking cattle and feeding livestock, and got to eat Passover meal. But yea, I had to leave after those two days.

I'm a Episcopal with alot of heavy Taoism nature mojo going on, the area was beautiful and serene, but felt weird to me. I believe in land soul, as in the surroundings of a place can actually tell what it's trying to hide (I decided not to go to one college in favor of another because all trees were cut identically, suggesting conformity). But we'll get to that.

So initially, we have these very very welcoming people, just like initially very beautiful countryside. But then when you look closely the streams were clogged at the edge with lots and lots of seaweed, and the stream was dammed up too with cement (things are contained here). Okay, I dunno how many of you are churchgoers, that's really fine either way. But churches have these community announcements where they donate to whatever local stuff, to help the world around them. The only thing outside this place was their market, which was mainly to make money and followers. Everything, from the money to the followers were trapped here (sure you could leave through the gate, but most of the followers had been emotionally manipulated into giving up their belongings so they had nowhere else to go).

Understanding this, I met some people, one which was the follower of one of the younger converts, another who was some kind of artist, and a girl (I was hot on the girl, before finding she was taken. So much for my reason to stay). The girl told me about her wedding "pre-enactment." (In other words, the cult tells you how your wedding is gonna be. Seriously? Are you an idiot?) The artist threw perfectly good stuff away, and gave up on his art because the "elders decided it was unholy (yea it was lewd, but wait for it...) because the elders decide how people can use their gifts, and sorry, his wasn't art we've decided." Then we had this father who had deep doubts about the cult (well, that or he was a plant). Oh yea, and some other guy started crying and forcibly baptized himself because "oh noes, I'm unclean." So some time later this skeptic either becomes brainwashed or whatever, and declares he wants to be a new convert. What happened next?

Cults basically prey on the lonely, rejected by their parents/friends, who want to belong. I am lonely, but if I don't belong I don't belong, I know my family loves me, and I really don't care to belong to anywhere that robs me of (1) my free will (2) my ability to create, and (3) my stuff. They do this by trying to cut you off even further and make you emotionally dependent, manipulating you the whole way. And think, I'd have been okay with this, if only that hawt girl was available. I wasn't dumb enough to stay for anything else.

(SUSPENSE!!!) So back on track, what did I do when this guy declared his undying love to his cult? Yea, I waited until some kid opened the door to get something (what, and you don't believe in miracles?) and quietly slipped out before it closed again. And packed up my stuff. Along comes this loudmouth type who tells me this sob story about how he was messed up and kept coming back like five times to this place (another plant?) but by then I was ignoring him. Yes, alot of people probably do have nowhere to go, but you're some kind of idiot if you let some group re-brainwash you not once but after making it out. I kept packing. Then along comes one of the elders, and tries all kinds of psychological tricks on me. So, finally I told him I want to see my family again (they had some misused Bible quote about leaving your family behind, it's about making a personal commitment, not about being forced to leave your family), and so I had a bunch of fake tears (I do love my family, that's real enough, but I was trying to have an out, and an appeal to emotion seemed the safest one). So then he says "Your family are not one of us. They are damned and heading for the second death." I gave him this "I will seriously kill you if you say another word" glare and continued packing. He shut right up, I got in my car, drove off the mountain, called my parents for directions for the nearest campground (they were freaking out, having heard incomplete information, so I had to tell them later "I am at a campground. I drove away. Do not worry"), and stayed half the night in a used tent that smelled of sweat or pee or something before just putting blankets in my car and sleeping there. I got my next WWOOF job and went there.

Not that I felt much better after, the next guys were fundamentalist types. But at least they let me pick what church I went to.