knowitallgirl

flush

We have those automatic toilets and faucets at work, which always make me feel as if I'm either at a movie or the Honolulu Airport. Anyway, since I possess the world's smallest bladder, only made worse by the copious amounts of water I drink each day, I make many visits to these toilets, which results in my becoming quite conditioned to the automation. Even at home I have to keep reminding myself to flush and not just walk away. I've even caught myself with my hands underneath the faucet, waiting momentarily for it to turn on.

As you may have experienced if you've used one yourself, the toilets are often pretty confused about when to flush, the worst being when they flush while you're sitting on one, which happens if you, like me, lean over to take advantage of the sitting position to tie my shoes or something equally ridiculous. Apparently someone at work is so paranoid about this that they've begun draping pieces of toilet paper over the sensors so they don't flush. But then, of course, they forget to remove said paper, so the toilet never flushes, leaving a surprise for the next visitor.

Now that I've typed all that, I'm not sure why I've told you this except it really bugs me, and I had to share. Or perhaps to ask if automatically flushing toilets are truly one of those things we *need* as a society, or if they are perhaps more trouble than they're worth if people work so hard to circumvent them. (Infinite Jest readers, think videophones.)

Anne of Green Gables is under cleaning

In the Japanese Engrish category, this site is so utterly random I cannot possibly describe it, but make sure you click on the outfits to see the photos. The cats must be drugged. Or very, very sad. The time-tested foppish item of a Dalmatian handle! It is spring new work! They are frog transformation goods!

555-GAWD

There's always that moment of disbelief in a film when they use the "555-whatever" phone number where you pause in your head and think, yeah, it's a movie, fake number, sure. Apparently the new Jim Carrey film not only breaks with that tradition, the number they used for God is hounding some poor woman in Florida.

in love with wheels

I'm cool, I'm hip, I got to ride a Segway last night and it was super, super fun. Would like to try it on the street, but they're outlawed in SF. I got to ride it at Macromedia, where they rewarded the Flash team with the toy. Geez, we have no such fun at Yahoo. Poooooor us. I tried to take photos, but the flash on my camera is busted.

what i did on my Hawaiian vacation

Ah yes, on Sunday I returned from ten days of bliss in the Hawaiian islands. Having lived in Honolulu for three years, I've been divided since I left over four years ago between the urge to return annually and get my dose of sun and surf and the desire to see another part of the world for once. But after yapping Deneb's ear off for months about how perfect Hawaii is, it was time to put my vacation days where my mouth was and show him bliss.

We spent the first four days on Oahu staying at my favorite beach, Waimanalo. The beach is always nearly empty and the waves and water are beyond perfect. You'd never know you were on Oahu and only a fifteen minute drive to the madness that is Waikiki. I showed Deneb around my old haunts and did the cool Oahu stuff: hiked Manoa falls, toured the North Shore and Waimea beach, ate at Kua Aina, snorkeled Hanauma Bay, hiked to the Makapu'u lighthouse, and watched the sunset at Kaimana beach.

Next, Kauai, the garden isle, where we split our time between the wet, wet hills of Kapa'a on the north and the drier, sunnier climes of Kalaheo on the south. This is where Deneb really got into the Hawaii thang, as we paddled up the Hanalei river for an afternoon, spent a day lounging on a remote, windswept beach watching kite-boarders, hiked around the Napali coast a tad, hiked all over Waimea canyon, and best of all, went on our first dives off the coast of Ni'ihau. Ni'ihau is a privately owned, undeveloped island 18 miles northwest of Kauai, and the diving/snorkeling out there was amazing, rivaling the experience I had once at Kealakekua on the Big Island. Perfect clarity (100 ft. +), monk seals, spinner and bottlenose dolphins, sea turtles, and even a straggling humpback whale. Oh, and exquisite coral and fish, of course. Soooooooooooo cool. We even had our token celebrity sighting: Pierce Brosnan, who I'll always think of as Remington Steele, at the Lihue airport with wife, kids, and many Louis Vuitton suitcases. (Ok, tangent -- why pay, oh, $5000 for suitcases when they're just going to be battered and scraped and tossed into the same pile as everyone else's? To prove you have so much money you don't care if this happens?)

I've had trouble finishing this post all week as re-entry into the working world has been difficult; last week I felt as if I'd finally achieved Perfect Sleep, awaking in the mornings slowly with this vision that I'd been sleeping on the sea floor all night and I was slowly floating to the water's surface, watching the wide translucent blueness above me, warm and calm. I'm hoping to recreate this feeling tomorrow, Saturday, when I plan to sleep for at least 10 hours to recreate that vacation feeling.

Word to the wise -- if you haven't tried diving before, do it. I didn't try it while I lived in Hawaii because it was expensive and I was poor, but if you can spare the cash give it a try. One of the best experiences I've ever had.

belated

Bad girlfriend! I've been remiss in embarrassing Deneb after his 30th birthday party a few weekends ago. Let it be known that D hates the color pink.

I discovered last night how cool photo stitching can be (do I have to admit I've owned this camera for, oh, over 3 years now?); take a look here and here.

when the condom breaks . . .

I consider myself contraceptive savvy, and I didn't even know as much as this NY Times article told me about the morning-after pill and its growing availability, as well as the fact that it can be effective several days after *exposure.* Read up, my friends, and don't learn the hard way.

Aloha!

So, I was remiss in informing many of you (and posting in this here spot) that I was going on vacation for a glorious week in Hawaii with the 'nebster (you know who you are, and thank you for your concern). Once I get my life back together this week I promise to post some lovely pics as well as provide some highlights in order to do my best to support the Hawaii tourism industry. ;) Now, off to bed to try to convince my body to conform to Pacific Standard Time.

Urgent Action

If you haven't heard about the proposed changes to our media landscape by the FCC, please read up on this now and file a public comment through MoveOn.org. The petition is located at: http://www.moveon.org/stopthefcc/.

Here's a couple of articles to read on the subject, courtesy of our friends at MoveOn:

SHOWDOWN AT THE FCC
Jeffrey Chester and Don Hazen, AlterNet
Despite wide protests and the Clear Channel debacle, the FCC is about to award the nation's biggest media conglomerates a new give-away that will further concentrate media ownership in fewer hands. The impact on the American media landscape could be disastrous. Recent TV coverage of the Iraq war already illustrates that US media companies aren't interested in providing a serious range of analysis and debate. This overview describes what's at stake and offers an introduction to the following articles.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=15796

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THE GATHERING STORM OVER MEDIA OWNERSHIP
Neil Hickey, Columbia Journalism Review
CJR's editor-at-large explains just what is at stake in this fight over media ownership. He provides an in-depth look at the issues, and major players in a battle that is pitting journalists against their bosses, breaking up old alliances, and gathering momentum as the day of reckoning draws near. He traces the snowballing trend of media consolidation and its implications for the future, revealing just how the drive for profit is eroding diversity, local control, and more importantly giving a few mega-corporations a monopoly over the dissemination of news.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=15654

Where’s the Jackpot?

Seymour Hersh in the latest New Yorker quoting a senior Congressional legislative aide on the paucity of weapons of mass destruction [W.M.D.] found in Iraq so far:

“Some are astute enough to recognize that the alleged imminent W.M.D. threat to the U.S. was a pretext. I sometimes have to pinch myself when friends or family ask with incredulity about the lack of W.M.D., and remind myself that the average person has the idea that there are mountains of the stuff over there, ready to be tripped over. The more time elapses, the more people are gong to wonder about this, but I don’t think it will sway U.S. public opinion much. Everyone loves to be on the winning side.”

As much as I’d love, love, love to believe that Bush could lose the next election over this “pretext” when it becomes clear that this so-called threat was either completely fabricated or the result of extremely poor intelligence gathering, the fact remains that in the end the public will be content that we “won” this war and will sit complacently as this administration continues to slash our domestic spending and subsidize the rich in the name of creating jobs while we give Iraq the kind of public spending dollars we so desperately need. (I’m so glad the Iraqis will have access to free medical care while Americans suffer.) After all, no one asked O.J. what he was doing to find the “real killers,” and why to this day he’s still not on that quest (although it’s interesting to see that last week suspected murder Scott Peterson, in a bid to remake his public image, has begun a campaign to find the real killer of his wife Laci).

And even if we are to believe the moral argument behind disposing Saddam, that removing that butcher from office was the net gain of the invasion, concern over Iraqi human rights was never given as the argument for the war, just as concern over the extreme misogyny of the Taliban certainly wasn’t the reason we invaded Afghanistan. As always, the truth lies somewhere between the lines, but actions do speak louder than words – the guarding of the Iraqi oil ministry versus the National Museum after the fighting stopped, or the non-competitive contract awarded to VP Cheney’s former firm Halliburton for oil services. With any luck, there’s enough of us paying attention out there to connect the dots.

saddam & clyde

This is surreal -- a one billion dollar bank robbery by Saddam's son of the Bank of Iraq? They had to cart the money away in three tractor trailers. Even CEOs in this country aren't that brazen (though you know they'd like to be). Wow.

sniffle

Ick. I've been sick the past few days (sadly, through my boy's birthday fun), and yesterday, while chained to the couch, I succumbed to t.v. What mystifies me is how I can be paying something like $80/mo. (split with my roommate) for cable and there's still nothing on worth watching.

And as always when I haven't seen the tube in a while I'm struck at how manipulative commercials are, especially pharmaceuticals. Talk about pushers.

One golden t.v. moment -- Sunday night, while celebrating Deneb's birthday at Toronado in the Haight, at 8pm sharp the bartenders switched the t.v.s over to Fox and the entire bar delighted in the latest Simpsons. Nothing like being in a bar full of drunks in their 20s and 30s enjoying cartoons. Sublime.

buzzzzzz

So, what are you doing tomorrow night? I'm supposed to be going to a Giants game, but maybe if it gets rained out . . .

single payer?

There are so many worthy issues competing for attention these days. I find myself torn between so many things I care about -- war, civil rights, privacy issues, on and on. This past weekend, I decided it was time to put my energy towards one issue that I thought had the best opportunity to help the most people: our dying health care system.

No one should have to make the choice between buying food, paying rent, and paying for health insurance, especially if you're sick and/or unemployed. It's appalling that the wealthiest nation in the world abandons so many of its citizens because of an inability to pay for health care. And no one is immune -- just imagine if you lost your job today, lost your health insurance for even a short time, and then had the bad luck to be hit by a car, landing you in the hospital for weeks. The financial fallout of one incident like that will likely run over $100K. Could you afford that?

There are many proposals getting attention right now in California -- one floated by Blue Shield, some legislative proposals focusing on still tying insurance to employers (so dumb) and single payer (state run health care). My personal goal is to identify a cause in the next few months and volunteer some time to supporting it, especially in light of next year being a major election year (in fact, if you are unhappy with Bush, now is the time to start thinking ahead to what you can do to help unseat him next year). While education is a worthy contender, in my mind health care is fundamental -- it cuts across all race, gender, and class lines. Medical treatment should not be rationed only for the wealthy. It's time to fight.