Introducing Project GFS1

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Remember last entry, when I said that I already had something to replace the now-depleted bag of fortune cookies that my friend Linda gave me? I've been meaning to write about this for a couple of weeks now, and I finally got my butt in gear today.

This little project actually started February 3 -- Chinese New Year. When I went to Jefferson Mall, I also made a swing by the nearby GFS. Now, if you're unfamiliar with Gordon Food Service, I've occasionally described it as a great place to go if you're planning a party. Need to buy ketchup, chocolate syrup, soy sauce, or barbecue sauce by the gallon? GFS is the place to go. Planning a room party at your favorite sf convention, and need to feed a few hundred of your closest friends (some of whom you have just met for the first time)? You can find what you need at GFS. Trust me.

In a couple of previous visits to GFS, I noticed that they carried fortune cookies -- in bulk. More than likely, this is what your local Chinese restaurant buys when they get fortune cookies. After one visit, I thought that this might be an interesting source of material for this blog. If I haven't been in the mood for Chinese for a while, I can still write an entry. All I have to do is pull out a fortune cookie, and voila, instant entry.

As you probably have already guessed, I purchased a whole bunch of fortune cookies that day. "A whole bunch" in this case was a bag containing 160 fortune cookies. This bag should last me quite a while. Even if I didn't use any other source material for this blog, I could have enough entries for most of the year. (And I do plan to have using other sources. sooner or later, I'm going to have a craving for Chinese.)

As I said, it's about time I started using these cookies for the reason I bought them. Here is the first of many, many fortunes from that bag:

"You should be able to undertake and complete anything."

Hmmmm, kind of appropriate for a first entry, now that I think about it.

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Open The Cookie

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Welcome to The Janus Files, Volume 2.

I started Volume 1 about four years ago on Xanga. Last year, in what can only be described as a shining example of the fine line between genius and insanity, I opened a mirror site on LiveJournal (call it Volume 1A, I guess), and over the course of some four months, copied all of the existing entries from Xanga to the new site on LiveJournal. Now, new entries are posted to both sites more or less simultaneously. You can find Volume 1 of The Janus Files here:

http://janusfiles.xanga.com
http://janusfiles.livejournal.com

This is not another mirror site. This will not be another mirror site. I’m not that masochistic. There will have to be a very good reason for me to create another mirror site, and copy those entries again.

Instead, I’m going to use this site for something different. I’m going to indulge in, for lack of a better term, fortune cookie philosophy.

I like eating at Chinese restaurants. I particularly like getting the fortune cookie at the end of the meal. I have a tendency to hold on to the fortunes, and I have no idea how many I have scattered throughout my condo.

That’s where this site comes in. Whenever I eat at a Chinese restaurant, I’m going to post the fortune from my fortune cookie here. And when I run across some of the other fortunes I have at home, I’ll be posting them here as well.

Open the cookie -- read the fortune.

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