December 30, 2002
Ah, snowflakes. I'm in Boston
Ah, snowflakes. I'm in Boston (well, Newton, technically) and and everything is covered with the white stuff. It's cold but not as brutally freezing as it felt last year when I was here for the holidays. I'm ringing in the New Year with Friends Of Deneb [FODs] and enjoying his family's hospitality in a big old rambling East Coast home, which to me means no stucco. So far I've spent most of my time indoors, but bravely brought my jogging gear just in case I can motivate myself for a 30 degree morning run. Which I think I could tolerate, except there's this stuff on the ground called ICE and it appears to be a enemy to my wimpy California shoes. We'll see if it happens before I leave on Thursday. Anyway, happy 2003 to you all tomorrow, I plan to stay disconnected for a few more days, since this is my vay-cay.
December 25, 2002
Happy Xmas! Merry Consumer Holiday!
Happy Xmas! Merry Consumer Holiday! Can you say yay to The Simpson's Second Season on DVD? Heh. Also, Brain Candy. Go Amazon wish list! Now, off to a mass orgy of cooking, including carrot-ginger soup, pumpkin won-tons, potatoes gratin, penne-broccoli pie. Yay hyphenated vegetarian feast!
December 22, 2002
Sleeeeeeeeep. The next few days
Sleeeeeeeeep. The next few days are all about sleep. Already slept eleven hours last night. Yum.
I'm back in the old hood, Riverslime, which feels like absolutely nothing to me anymore. All my good friends are gone, nothing much to do . . . just sleep and relax. Which is fine, but it's clear to me that once my Mom finally leaves here, which should be in the next few years, I'll never come back. If it weren't for my family I'd say goodbye to Southern California forever. Not only is it dead to me, the past two times I've come home it's been raining. What good is L.A. if you can't even count on perfect sunshine? ;)
December 18, 2002
It's odd, but the newest
It's odd, but the newest pattern in my life (before it was random people every week asking me directions, which has diminshed since I've started commuting) is that I keep losing these glasses (see below, with my good buddy Juan). I've lost them in mdc's car, at a store in SOMA (they found them and called me the next day), and on the Yahoo! Caltrain shuttle (where I noticed them this morning, dangling from the driver's rear view mirror, awaiting my arrival). I've gotten better about not losing my expensive sunglasses -- I've left them in some pretty stupid places (though I've had two boyfriends who have lost theirs by wearing them in the ocean -- go figure) over the years. Despite the fact that I love this pair so much, they keep trying to escape me, and yet always return, always running to the edge of cliff and yet never making the jump. Good, I'd miss 'em.
I'm sorry to note the
I'm sorry to note the passing of my dear uncle, Jack Peabody, who I will dearly miss. A rough and tumble sort of guy. His aged, blurry Navy tattoos adorning his forearms will forever inspire me not to tattoo myself, seeing as even when I was a kid they had already degenerated into blue smears. My Dad's favorite story of Jack was the time we all went camping when I was young and Jack made a breakfast of a dozen eggs and nearly an entire side of bacon, just for him. A great, great man. I will miss his jokes.
December 13, 2002
So, I was actually upset
So, I was actually upset briefly about all this Trent Lott crap, thinking he should resign and so forth, until I stopped for second and thought more about it. Keep the bastard! The GOP needs all the morons it can possibly get! Go ahead, keep proving that you're all a bunch of racists! I say more of that! More proof the Republican party leadership is completely clueless. Heh.
December 10, 2002
Tom Tomorrow is god. That's
Tom Tomorrow is god. That's all for now. Except screw the poor! Save the wealthy! And Crazyknee has some good bday shots.
December 08, 2002
Last night I celebrated by
Last night I celebrated by 30th birthday with good friends, and despite not finding a monster truck rally we had a great time. Sushi in the Castro followed by a ride on the F Market (from the beginning of the line in the Castro to the end at Fisherman's Wharf) and a visit to the Ripley's Believe It Or Not museum. I hadn't been there since I was seven, and it remains a bizarre mix of goofy crap and some fun stuff, like the shadow wall (see below). Thank you to Deneb, Frank, Jeremy, Leanne, Lisa, Molly, Mark, and Wendy for an awesome time!
The shadow wall. So cool. Seventh grade all over again.
Trippy moving tunnel, great for the not-so-sober.
Wendy, Leanne, Leanne's finger, Molly, Frank . . .
Heller, King, and Meketa, appropriately jollified.
Happy, happy . . . .
. . . joy, joy!
December 04, 2002
Yeahhhhhhhhh. Never underestimate the power
Yeahhhhhhhhh. Never underestimate the power of comix. Damn, David Rees is good, and he'll be in SF this Thursday at Modern Times. Check it.
December 02, 2002
Ok, so maybe sometimes global
Ok, so maybe sometimes global politics get me down (see below). I like to bury my head in the sand just like everyone else, and bliss out, taking delight in the little things in life. Like this. Triumph of the human spirit! Go Jethro! Everyone needs a scam in this world!
And here's a little commentary about my current day job. ;)
December 01, 2002
I was catching up on
I was catching up on my New Yorker reading this morning over a delicious breakfast of pears and cottage cheese when I stumbled upon an article entitled "Our New Best Friend -- Who needs Saudi Arabia when you've got Sao Tome?" in the October 7, 2002 issue (yeah, I'm behind). I hesitated, being a typical dumb American who often has to force herself to take interest in world affairs, but then dived on in, only to find myself completely riveted by the story. Quick summary: small and impoverished West African island nation, whose principal export has been to date Marilyn Monroe stamps, finds itself sitting upon huge oil reserves. To summarize an unnamed State Department official in the story, "We import fifty per cent of our oil. Supplier number one is Canada, two is Saudi Arabia, three is Venezuela, four is Mexico, and five is Nigeria. Folks have finally figured out that we don't need to rely on the Middle East for oil. African oil is less sticky than the stuff you get in the Middle East, and much of it is in deep water far offshore, so the natives don't notice it being taken, whereas in the Middle East it's pumped out of the ground under the noses of Wahhabi fundamentalists. Then you have Sao Tome, which is basically the only stable democracy in West Africa. It's perfect."
Furthermore, according to Jon Anderson, the author: "In Angola and elsewhere in Africa, the oil companies operate with little or no oversight, and they pay huge "signature bonuses," sometimes amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars, to their host governments in return for oil concessions. These payments usually end up in the private bank accounts of whatever privileged class is running the country." Something about that struck me -- I mean, I suppose it's obvious, but at the same time the link between multinational oil companies, the global elite, political repression, and American foreign policy never seemed quite as clear to me as it did in that moment. It's like the stories I've heard locally about Larry Ellison of Oracle and his damn mansion that he's perpetually building in Woodside, where he's making all of these changes that violate the local building codes, but when the City threatened him he was reputed to tell them that if he didn't get what he wanted, he'd just keep them tied up in court until the next century. Absolute wealth corrupts absolutely. And Iraq apparently has the second largest oil reserves in the world behind Saudi Arabia. Oil men are running this nation. Who knew the politics of energy would dominate the first part of this century?