Adieu 2008

The final day of 2008, sighs outside my door. A grey fog that whispers "stay inside today" "do your work over the internet". I consent although New Years Eve in San Francisco calls later in the day.

...Good bye to things we should let go. Hello good fortune, hello new complications, hello new jobs and new people, hello new attitudes and new opportunities...
...and most likely hello more winter fog!

I must say as grey and dismal as it seems, I am still grateful that it is not snow and that the temperature remains above freezing. I love living by the bay.

Christmas Slugs

This year it struck me that in our house there are hardly any photos of Christmas since Kelly and I stopped being adorable little kids. The reason is good though. On Christmas we have a rigorous schedule to keep up with. The family opens stockings, followed by breakfast, presents, brunch, an afternoon snack, then we generally take time to enjoy new books and toys, soon after that we commence lounging, followed promptly by a late afternoon linner (it's like brunch, but on the other side of afternoon), and then a much needed rest.... Basically the whole family stays inside in pajamas the whole day... it's pretty awesome. So here's the One Christmas photo from 2008;

The Shortest Day

And so the Shortest Day came and the year died
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.
They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen;
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive.
And when the new year's sunshine blazed awake
They shouted, revelling.
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
Echoing behind us - listen!
All the long echoes, sing the same delight,
This Shortest Day,
As promise wakens in the sleeping land:
They carol, feast, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends,
And hope for peace.
And now so do we, here, now,
This year and every year.
--Susan Cooper
Happy Solstice Everybody!  

Tour Guide

Flash back to a couple of weeks ago, you may recall Andrew (the AngryAussie) who I showed around my city... well here is the other video he made with me there.

I don't think it fully conveys the kitch overload that the Rainforest Cafe has... yes, this is my random life. Love it.

Shaking Packages

One of my favorite pastimes from Christmas drives my mother crazy.  I love shaking packages.  I love trying to figure out what is inside the box.  The actual gift is only half as great as the what-ifs beforehand.  

   There are certain techniques that have been developed through the years.  You do have to take into consideration what was on your wish list, things you need (or that others think you need), and things that the gift giver probably secretly wants for themselves.  With that in mind you then consider the weight of the package and its dimensions.  Sometimes a very large package with little weight is either a small gift in disguise or possibly a bulky gift that has little weight, like a down comforter.  You also have to beware of weighted packages that try to throw you off the trail... I think I begin to give away too many tricks here... 

Now small packages are usually jewelry or gift cards, they're pretty easy.  I suppose in a different income bracket small packages could contain car keys, but really that's just not going to happen for most of us. 

Books are generally easy as well, they're a rectangular or square package with three sides that dip in and one that is solid... generally books look like books... the fun with books is guessing witch one is inside.

The medium size packages are the most challenging.  Sometimes you can feel out the shape of the object, which is great "um... scissors?  an umbrella?  an oddly shaped game?".  Soft packages are usually socks, frequently given by someone who really wanted socks but didn't ask for them... heavy medium size packages are difficult, there is a whole cadre of procedure that goes on with those involving sound, smell, weight, and wish analysis... yet again trade secrets.  

Now that I don't have the opportunity to spend much time with my family in advance of Christmas I'm afraid package shaking needs to be crammed into one or two days of possibility, which is a bit disappointing.  Right now I'm nearing completion with gift creation...so here I am sending my family an electronic package shake...so family if you don't want any clues you should stop right now...

Kelly; (I know this is super easy)

Dad; 

Mom;

Shaggy;

Adam:

John:(no it's not a girl in ripped jeans)

Tag of the day

SF Grafitti

This old ad along with fresh grafitti caught my eye while walking along Columbus street

a rant about rain.

Why is it when weather happens everybody looses their mind? In Cincinnati every year it would snow and panic would ensue as though it had never snowed before "ahh run in circles, haul out the massive amounts of salt, where is the ice scraper? Do we have an ice scraper? It's the end of the world!!!"

Here in Berkeley it rained today and everybody lost their freakin mind!
It rains here, all the time, all winter, every year. Somehow today everyone seemed to forget to use their eyeballs and pay attention to everyone else around them.

I had one vehicle stop in the middle of a three lane street, no notice, no emergency lights, nothing... just to let their passengers out in the middle of the road while ten feet from a green light, making all of us behind him stop and wait for the next cycle. About two blocks later I was following a different vehicle, we turned right on a green light and (I am not exaggerating) within ten feet of the corner that car stopped, stranding me in the crosswalk with pedestrians walking around me (illegally I might add) and another car behind me holding up cars behind him. I had to load my car in the rain about thirty feet from the door because three (THREE!) cars decided to park in the "5min at all times" zone directly in front of my theater... (in wet shoes but that is of corse my own stupidity...) So I got my car loaded with a full trunk plus backseat worth of costumes and I drove to the end of the street where there is a crosswalk and a stop sign, but instead of using the crosswalk pedestrians were just meandering a good distance into the road, laughing and stopping wherever. I was getting a bit peeved at this point and reflexively yelled "Use the %$^%*$ Crosswalk!" a woman looked up and with great astonishment realized that there were cars in front of her.

Now why is it that because it's a Little wet, everybody decides that the rules do not apply to their special ass?
GRRR!

New Links!

Dear blog-reader you should take a look at my link bar to the right.  I've added to my blog list "Angry 365 days a year" and to my Websites to see "Philosophy Games!".  Both are very much worth checking out.  Enjoy!

bah!

...15 days to go and I'm not really feeling very Christmas'y.
Christmas ads irritate me with the perpetual "buy buy BUY some love" Santa this, Santa that..., Christmas music irritates me because it's mostly cheaply produced crap that you'd never listen to at any other time of the year but from November 1 to January 1 soulless corporate robots insist on piping it through every store they own. Christmas decorations irritate me because 80% of them are just so cheap and tacky and what's worse is that they mostly end up in the trash contributing to global warming, pollution and land-fill crisis... I'm not saying ALL decorations are tacky, but all I need to prove my point is to have you step five feet into any craft store this month and you'll see it. Oh and let's not start on Christmas movies. Now there are some good ones, but every year there are some b-list celebrities staring in a pointless Christmas drama that the lifetime network will pick up and play residuals of for years to come... yet again things that you'd never haul out of the closet if it weren't Christmas...
Anyways, despite my Grinchitude I am going to try and be "merry" or whatever... here's my Christmas greeting for the day today;

ooh pretty

This sparkely display caught my eye on the way home tonight. I loaded these pictures in full resolution so that you can enlarge them and see what the store sells...

If you need a hint, the store name is GDill

The picture doesn't give justice as to how pretty the display actually is. Makes me want some for Christmas decor... if only it wasn't quite so awkward.

a massage parlor...

I walk past this building every day when I work at the costume shop on Post street. It just makes me giggle because it's so obviously the kind of place that specializes in "happy endings". The windows are all covered up with red velvet curtains, and the ones at the side of the building feature white marble statues of naked women... you may notice on the door you have to ring before they'll let you in... wink wink nudge nudge ( I could be wrong of course)

Ogden Nash and writer's block

I've been haulted in my tracks. In the desire to make a more insighful and interesting blog, I've stopped all together. Perhaps it's not quite the right tack to take. I need to post things that interest me while still avoiding a laundry list of the day... for now I leave you with wet dogs... enormously interesting and amusing (to dog people)... let's get this brain in gear soon!


The Dog

The truth I do not stretch or shove
When I state that the dog is full of love.
I've also found, by actual test,
A wet dog is the lovingest.

Ogden Nash

Look ma, I'm on the internet...

I did write about showing Andrew about in the post just before this one... usually he posts a lot of rants of social commentary that I find hilarious, if you youTube just look up "AngryAussie" and you'll find him. I thought he was lots of fun in person.

You discover treasures...

This is the fortune I got in my cookie during last week's trip to Idyllwild. Usually I think it's true... however this week I found myself being a tour guide in my own city and found I was learning again. One reason I love travel is because everything is a discovery. Every building and fire escape and every odd local custom can be a new inspiration. It is easy to find treasures in other people's cities. However at home it's easy to be accustomed to treasures staring you right in the face. The fire escapes are just fire escapes and the local food is just what it always is... I love San Francisco but even in a place this diverse and interesting it is possible to get used to it. This week I met up with a new friend I met on YouTube (yea, sounds a little weird but the internet isn't a big creepy void anymore) and showed him around the city. My new friend Andrew* travels like I do, looking for anything new and eating it up (sometimes literally). Through his eyes I saw beautiful buildings that I could only describe as "well I'm pretty sure that's a church" since I'd never paid that much attention to it, I ate at a scary themed restaurant, I saw fire trucks and odd American snacks like Hostess Fruit pies (which I gather are a fictional fantasy seen in comic book ads in Australia) and I discovered how lovely and rare cream pies (like the key lime) are to the rest of the world. I try to be open to all of the little treasures hidden in plain sight, but it is nice to get a little help every now and again.
*warning if you click on the link there's a lot of cussing so if you've got kiddies, you should watch it later.

November respit

Disclaimer; I solemly swear to try and stop with the half-assed blogs... must actually put interesting things up on the internet... must be insightful... after this one;

This I took a break (as most of you know)... I've been working solidly since May with few days off in the midst. It had been making me rather amazingly cranky. So last week I ran away.
I went to Catalina with my best friend;


I caught up with some friends from high school.
I had lunch with Sarah and Rosie, where I met many of Sarah's new family members (as in new since 2001) and Lisa (who I may have met before or perhaps only online. It all gets blurry...) I failed to document "When blogs collide" in a room of ten people (four of them under the age of six) seven of us were bloggers... and I don't think any of us took a photo.
although I got this one in the coffee shop later...

I pestered my sister.

Had early Thanksgiving with my family

played some pinball... swung on some ropes...

I took a hike on the Ernie Maxwell trail and all in all had a lovely week away from responsability

Catalina

...just some quick pics;

This is CNN?

I just had a moment that needed to be shared... here's the image capture from CNN;

The #2 top story is "Joan Baez is happy". This is a headline for The Onion. Either Joan Baez' publicist bought a little screen time or Joan Baez has been so immeasurably miserable for Years that "Joan Baez is happy" beats Obama's plan for fixing the economy... Congratulations Ms.Baez I had no idea.

Election Day 2008

The day began with a knot in the pit of my stomach...

Berkeley was so covered in political posters it's shockingly festive and a big waste of paper.

I actually voted early but kept my sticker to avoid hearing everyone ask "did you vote?" "are you gonna vote?" "go vote" "vote no on this" "vote yes on that"
Dude! I did already... Ya Vote...


There is a movie theater in Oakland that always has Super-Liberal messages printed on the marquee this is what it said on election day;
I worked backstage for as long as I could, I kept returning to the computer as results came in, one state for Obama, one for McCain, electoral vote counts, hit refresh.... Obama's doing ok but I still think the Republicans own this country... finally I find that I am too much of a nervous wreak to stay any longer and head over to the election party in Oakland.  As I finally found parking John McCain began to speak on the radio... to give his... wha? 

I sat in my car rapt.  

Finally I managed to tear myself away from the radio with the thought that oh my G*d we just won... I entered my friend's house where I knew all of two people but it didn't matter.  I hugged every last stranger in the place...
A toast; To an intelligent president!  To Diplomacy! To Hope!




After dancing the electric slide in the street, we headed down to Lake Meritt, where the crowds of jubilant people were gathering. There was a lot of honking and shouting "OBAMA!"


The feeling was utter euphoria. There is No Way that the Presidency is going to live up to the hopes we all had glimmers of on election night... but after the disillusionment we've been having over Bush, racisim, the economy, our international relations, Iraq... this night was a warm relief.

The President of the United States of America

"This victory alone is not the change we seek, it is only the chance we need to make that change, and that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were. It can't happen without you; without a new spirit of service a new spirit of sacrafice, so let us summon a new spirit... of patriotisim, of responsability, where each of us resolves to pitch in, and work harder and look after not only ourselves but each other" --president elect Barack Obama


Senator Barack Obama does not agree with all of my ideals, and he is not perfect... but he has been my candidate since March, and he is My President. I will take the good with the bad in the term to come. This feeling of having an intelligent, inspiring, diplomatic and thoughtful man win the office I wanted him to win is like nothing else. I feel so blessed today and hope that my President proves to be as good as his word.

Bowie knows my pain...

art matters

Sometimes it's easy to think that art doesn't matter. Although it's what drives me on and what I seek all around me. Although without art our lives would be lived in plain boxes with blank walls listening to talk radio. Without art there are no picture books for children, and nothing but non-fiction books for adults, there is no reaching for that which can only be reached through imagination. Without art we live lives with text-book context. No video games, no quilts, no painting... it's everywhere and somehow even I sometimes think it's not 'useful'...

 but then I see something like this;

and I think again.

(it says "a revolution without art is like wanting to change the system with money, power, violence and greed")

How Berkeley Can You Be?

Berkeley has an annual "How Berkeley Can You Be?" Parade. If it wasn't always on a day that I'm prepping for tech (and clogging up my means of hauling heavy costumes and whatnot in and out of my theater downtown ) I might enjoy it better... the other week I walked through the post-parade festival on my way to the dank dark dungeon that is my costume shop. There were people in crazy costumes, others holding out petitions to sign, belly dancers... Berkeley really is a big mish mosh of eccentricities, which I like, except that when they all pile together it's just irritating and creepy.

As it is I  just figure the parade is an excuse to get a second use out of Burning Man costumes. I didn't get a picture because they were too fast, but I did love the giant cupcake bike... and this snail was impressive.
There were a lot of art cars on display
and other people taking pictures of the art cars; this guy looks too normal to be from around here.
I suppose the furry bunny slipper bikes were pretty cool too...

at least my city has a whimsical sense of civic pride.  Ok that's it; now back to being a curmudgeon.