MMMMMMM. Breakfast. Sorry if these make you hungry.

Gross. I'm talking about the coffee, not the girls.

Is it just me, or does it kind of look like Niamh is strutting down a walkway instead of a sidewalk.

Dear San Fran, why does it look like we are in Alaska instead of California?

After this picture, Katherine was surrounded by Asians and pushed off.

It was windy.

Vogue

Just to make Joe anticipate his trip to L.A. even more.

My toilet tasted it more. Apparently tons of grease doesn't agree with me. This will not stop me from eating the deliciousness though.

Arriving home

Pacific!:  Taking a cue from Pan's Labyrinth?  Longtime childhood friends from Gothenburg, Sweden, Daniel and Björn lost and found each other a few years ago, decided to rent a studio together and make electronic pop for a living.  Oh yeah, they toured with Justice for a while.

Think:  Beach Boys + PBJ + Royskopp

Latest album:  Reveries

Pacific! - Sunset Boulevard

[audio http://www.greatweatherforairstrikes.com/assets/sound/pacific_boulevard.mp3]

Pacific! - Number One

[audio http://turnthatshitoff.com/2008/mp3/snt12/01%20Track%2001.mp3]

Best "every frame can be my silkscreen T-shirt" video:

[vodpod id=ExternalVideo.640927&w=425&h=350&fv=m%3D15385026%26type%3Dvideo%26a%3D0]

__________________________________________

PAS/CAL:  This Detroit-based band has been scattering their EPs around for years, and lucky attendees of their concerts described them as "all dressed up in deceptively catchy and meticulously arranged tunes with hooks that would make Johnny Marr jealous and turn Serge Gainsbourg’s head."  A perfect recipe for unabashed twee under the cloudy skies of summer in San Francisco.

Think: Of Montreal + The Zombies + Final Fantasy

Latest Album:  I Was Raised on Mark, Matthew, Luke, & Laura

PAS/CAL - Summer is Almost Here

[audio http://www.romanticair.com/PASCAL-Summer_Is_Almost_Here.mp3]

PAS/CAL - You Were Too Old for Me

[audio http://www.dailyrindblog.com/audio/pascal_youweretoooldforme.mp3]

Why pay at all when you're at Payless?

Reply to: comm-768719876@craigslist.org
Date: 2008-07-24, 3:57PM PDT

646-781-9469 for more information.

• Location: San Francisco
• it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

PostingID: 768719876

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/com/768719876.html

I desperately need advice...but I feel like everyone is making judgments. People often consider what the best options for THEM would be, but I wish I could somehow lay the facts out for someone so they see EXACTLY everything I see, and then they could help me.

I'm spending a couple of days making some serious progress on Secret Plan 174 (the 100-year-old telescope), and also finishing the wiring diagrams for SP161.

When you want to get some work done in the city, there are plenty of good places downtown. If you haven't got time to walk, the Market Street Railway has a whole fleet of restored streetcars from various cities. As 10-minute commutes go, they're pretty cool.

One of my favorite desks is the window table on the third floor of the Virgin building. It's usually not crowded, the staff is friendly, the grilled sandwiches are good.

...and when you're not in the mood for a quiet place, you can park in several different spots abound Yerba Buena Gardens, just a few blocks away.

Don't come here to get work done on Friday night.

With some time to Focus, progress on the telescope is good. It's being written to run for a very long time, on just about any operating system. Here's an early version of the control screen (the red-on-black is so that astronomers can read it without messing up their night vision):

One of these numbers is wrong.

Yep, the calculation for sidereal time isn't correct yet. I have to come clean about that, because there are math and science experts reading this. (You know who you are.) If that number is even slightly wrong, the telescope won't work. My current cheeseball placeholder equation is "SIDEREAL = UT - 11.3".

At night, my muse and I get a very tasty dinner from Tao Cafe. The price of dinner includes a promise that I'll bring the owner some plums from our tree.

The 2-year-old cat isn't just playing with her stuffed fish. She's kicking the stuffing out of it like a crazed puppy. We'll need a new fish for sure.

The 18-year-old cat is keeping safely out of the way, but his plan falls apart when she comes leaping down the hall and knocks the bag over. Sigh.

Random assertion: The predators who enjoyed hunting are the ones who survived.

Steganographic data: 1848/6.8

Some of the street-food inspired events, news and restaurants that seem worth checking out...

Slow on the Go: Alice Waters is bringing her Slow Food Nation to Fort Mason and the Civic Center in San Francisco. With events over Labor Day weekend that promote sustainable, fresh, and organic street food, the $45+ tix don't seem too expensive.

The New York Times has reviewed sweet mobile treats in its $25-and-under dining section and a few weeks ago wrote a round-up of fried milk street foods around the globe.

In San Francisco, Kasa Indian Eatery opened to rave reviews, introducing Bay Area foodies to kati rolls—an Indian burrito-like street food staple. Further north in Portland, Andy Rickter is the chef at Pok Pok which serves Thai street food and won the 2007 Portland Restaurant of the Year. Great blog post about Andy at the rambling spoon.

In NYC, Tuck Shop sells authentic Aussie street food—meat pies—in midtown and Macondo, named after Gabriel García Márquez's fictional town in One Hundred Years of Solitude, recently opened downtown serving up-scale Latin American street food. Check out this Times article to create one of Macondo's cocktails. If it's Venezuelan street food you're craving however, East Village staple Caracas still impresses. And I'm pretty much willing to sell my soul for the recipe of their spicy sauce...

Al Jazeera has a program exploring street food around the world and if you don't have access to that channel, check out the shows online. And of course with the Travel Channel's No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain, there's no lack of street food programming.

If you're in Jackson Heights, Jim Leff has created a Google map of obscure street food.

And if none of these street eats are nearby, enjoy Thomas Swick's ode to street food.

Road to Roubaix Teaser Trailer

Jake will be going with me tonight.  Been riding him around more lately.  I love my cross bike, it's an all around kinda bike.  It's also good to be intimate with Jake if I plan to race cross this fall.

Written by Trippe

This 22 year old artist just wrapped up a solo show @Park Life here in San Francisco, and it got all sorts of people worked up. The work is familiar yet horribly unique and fresh. Check below and you'll see what I mean... Matthew's a recent CCA student who dropped out, keeping himself out of debt and felt that he'd do alright by educating himself instead. We're very excited to introduce you to this SF based artist who's bound to make a name for himself. Say hi to Matthew and enjoy his work and what he has to say. He knows what he's doing.

Tell us a bit about your show at Park Life and how it came to be?

I showed paintings at Brown Bear on Divisadero (RIP) last summer and Jamie Alexander from Park Life bought a couple pieces from that. He's a very genuine guy. He said he wanted to do a show in June, so I quite my job and moved up to Portland for a inexpensive change of scenery and to get away from the distractions of San Francisco. I lived in a basement and painted while it rained almost non stop. I spent alot of time wrestling with the symbolic morality of opera pink during the day and hitting the bars at night. You can still smoke inside the bars there. That was fun!

Describe your process for creating a new piece and what sorts of materials you prefer to use?

I use alot of Winsor Newton and Old Holland watercolor on cold pressed paper. I also use some acrylic ink, and that Holbein acrylic gouache.

What's the deal with all the tigers? I love the piece above... What was going through your mind when you created it?

The tiger attack at the San Francisco zoo was what triggered the tiger paintings. I had never painted a tiger, let alone any animal other than birds until then. Maybe because you don't see any wild animals except birds in the city. But all of a sudden, for a minute, we had a tiger on the loose. It was just kind of a surreal thing to picture, but really, it made perfect sense. Tigers are supposed to be free and wild. They're supposed to kill other animals. I don't blame her. But I felt for the kid and the family of the victim, that was also tragic. Im constantly finding myself unable to conclusively side one way or the other in moral terms with the subjects in my work. But the car, it seemed like an equivalent city-tiger image. They're big and fast and deadly, and occasionally beautiful.

You grew up in SF right? What are some of your favorite spots around town?

Yea, I was born and raised in The City. I love it here. Favorite spots would be El Rio on a Monday night, cheap drinks and a big back area for smoking. Also Kaplans downtown for inexpensive fitted caps and top notch service. Pearls art store is where I go for all my art supplies, and Tu Lan is the spot if you want a pile of delicious MSG vietnamese food for cheap.

What inspired the gang stuff in some of your work?

I did this Jim Jones series which kind of unlocked this ongoing discussion of race not just in my art but my life. The story of Peoples Temple touched something deep in me. I would have been in that congregation singing right along side them. That church was a glimmer of hope in a time of hopelessness, which seems relevant now. Or at least thats what it seemed to be in the beginning. And then to have it end in the most tragic way, it was too much, something kind of snapped in me, but I couldn't figure out what. So I started painting and letting things come out. One of the first things I remember painting was this black boy dead in a field from being poisoned with cyanide laced flavor-aid, and then kind of freaking out. I got really self conscious about what people would think and how they would read the piece , which had never been much of a concern of mine before. And from that reaction I then became indignant that I was made to feel guilty by some invisible force because I was painting a person of color who wasn't holding hands within a racial rainbow singing "everything is ok and we all love eachother", you know? Should I only represent people who look like me in my work? Where's the line between uncensored expression and exploitation? Isn't admitting theres a problem the first step to making things better? As long as I stayed honest to myself, I felt it was my duty to let whatever was going to come out come out. To exclude people of color or to only include them in scenes of comfortable complacency would be a lie not only to myself but the viewer. If things came out in the work that people didn't like, I was ready to talk about it because I knew in my heart I was coming from a place of love and hope, even if there were ugly things that had to be expunged first. Creating a discussion, an honest discourse, was really important to me. Hiding or avoiding things seemed like it would only be destructive.

But so after the Jim Jones series I had opened up this Pandoras box. I was doing alot of free associating. Painting something, then responding to it and adding to the piece. But I tried not to define it before or during the process of creating it. What happened with the bandannas was I became visually obsessed with the paisley flower pattern. So I painted (or rather drew) it in bright red. I like letting the context and the visuals take turns driving a piece while Im creating it. And growing up in The City, you see a bright red bandanna and you think Norteno. So I painted this kid with corn rose I had seen a couple weeks previous from memory. I was also obsessed with covering faces in sweat and tears and saliva. So I added that. And Im looking at it, and see it makes a perfect half heart, just by chance in the way I painted the profile and the placement of the bandanna over his mouth. So, of course, I have to complete the heart, right? So I repainted the image and made them black, a crip and a blood, and for the sake of visuals I made the other face the exact same, with the exact same placement of sweat and tears. And suddenly it was this powerful but mysterious image, like a new symbol. Like a contemporary Romeo and Juliet. But more like Romeo and Romeo.

I painted another bandannas piece after that where race is the only difference between the two people, the bandanna color uniting them. That one I thought turned out weird, but then I was watching this thing about lovers in all female prison, and it made perfect sense. It was a lesbian jailhouse wedding. It wasn't even really about race anymore. It was about sexuality, love and togetherness in confinement.

Day job?

I worked at Pearl's downtown for a year. Before that I was making and selling t-shirts, working odd labor jobs and painting houses.

When are you most creative... - time of day? When are you working on new work?

I like to start new paintings at night. And then finish them in the daytime.

When did you start to really make work? What was your work like in high school?

Ive always drawn, and started painting a little in high school. I was raised on graphic flat paintings, the original Nickelodeon cartoons, sci-fi super hero type creatures and Ed Roth characters and cars. I used to have a deep mistrust of conceptual art, like pooping on canvas or masturbating under stages. It seemed like one big inside joke for anyone who could shell out tuition for art school. Then on the other hand I found painterly paintings of fields or nature or still lives painfully boring. As Ive gotten older, Ive come to appreciate different types of art more and more. But thats what high school me was like. Pissed off, headstrong and kind of a dork.

But I got kind of bored with it. I wanted to keep things interesting for myself and to do that I had to open myself up to new things. So I went to CCA in Oakland as a painting major. I still had this feeling that I should make art that people who had never heard the word "Duchampian" could enjoy, but I also realized that art like other professions needs highly educated specialists, and thats what school was for. But at the same time I was really paying attention to the Mission School artists, so when there was loan complications and I couldn't go to CCA anymore or access their library, I made Mission School my official teachers.

What mainly happened in college was I had a teacher, Franklin Williams, who pretty much broke me down and forced me to build myself back up piece by piece. He knew when to praise and when to ignore and when to single you out for a vicious clowning on. He was like a sparring partner, or a coach. He would say things to me and piss me off so bad that I would work with this sort of vengeful fury, like "Ill show you, motherfucker". But then in these frenzies I would really push myself in uncomfortable directions and create some of my best work. Then I would come back the next week to rub it in his face, like he would be crushed that I had been working so hard, but he would just smile and pat me on the back and move onto the next person. He knew what he was doing. Then when paying for school got complicated the painter David Huffman who also teaches at CCA let me hang around him and would encourage me on when I was really questioning myself and feeling reluctant, like with the beginning of the Jim Jones series.

What was the best thing you did this last year?

Moving away from San Francisco and coming back to San Francisco.

What do you have upcoming? Projects? Trips? Shows? Etc...

Im in New York City until 22 of August apartment sitting, but really I don't know what Im doing right now. Ill be back in San Francisco and I need to find a place to work, a place to show and need to enjoy myself more. If anyone can help me with any of these, Im open to suggestions. Im just gonna keep painting for now. Hit me up on my website www.dumbstersf.com

And Nancy Pelosi.

Bill Clinton, even.

I've heard the man is actually considering running for governor of California. I know California's like Land of the Liberals, but surely there's enough sanity there to prevent this prick from ever getting elected.

I have absolutely no desire to even *visit* San Francisco.

God knows what would happen to me.

Bush Should Strip Sanctuary Cities of Federal Funds
By Michael Reagan, townhall.com
(July 24, 2008)

Three good men are dead thanks largely to San Francisco’s outrageous sanctuary-city policy, which forbids city authorities from notifying federal immigration authorities when they arrest illegal aliens for crimes they commit, and it’s time for President Bush to crack down on all the cities in the United States that follow this absurd policy.

On June 22, Anthony Bologna and his sons Michael and Matthew were shot to death by Edwin Ramos, 21, after a brief traffic incident when Anthony Bologna allegedly briefly blocked Ramos' car from making a left turn, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Ramos, an alleged member of the vicious the Mara Salvatrucha gang, known as MS-13, should never have been around to kill the three men, and wouldn’t have been -- were not for the city’s sanctuary-city policy. Ramos, an illegal immigrant, was found guilty of committing two felonies when he was 17 -- involving a gang-related assault of a Municipal Railway passenger and the attempted robbery of a pregnant woman -- yet was never surrendered by the city’s juvenile justice authorities to federal officials for possible deportation as required by federal law.

Ramos was taken to juvenile hall on charges of assault and participating in a street gang, and was later convicted in juvenile court and put in a shelter. Under federal law, he should have been referred to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) but the Juvenile Probation Department's policy for dealing with offenders stipulated that "probation officers shall not discriminate in any fashion against minors based on their immigration status."

On April 2, 2004, Ramos was released to the custody of his mother, despite the fact that he had already been flagged by federal authorities as an illegal immigrant. He was still considered a ward of the court and was on probation. Just four days later, records show, he committed another crime at 19th and Mission streets, two blocks from the site of the attack on the Muni passenger. He was released after city prosecutors declined to charge him in connection with an arrest in March on suspicion of weapons and gang violations.

There is a dispute revolving around the question of whether ICE was ever notified of the Ramos arrest, but the fact remains that for the last 10 years the city’s juvenile justice authorities have followed a policy of not turning over illegal-immigrant felons to the federal government, basing the practice on San Francisco's sanctuary-city status and state law barring local officials from surrendering them for deportation.

After a storm of protest following the slayings of the Bologna family men, San Francisco’s ultra-liberal Mayor Gavin Newsom belatedly rescinded that policy earlier this month following a report in the Chronicle that the city had flown a number of youths out of the country on its own, in possible violation of federal law, and then housed some in unlocked group homes from which they quickly escaped. His action came too late to save the lives of the Bologna men.

Those are the facts in this shocking case. They illustrate the lethal effects this idiotic and dangerous sanctuary-city policy can have on the safety of innocent Americans.

Sanctuary-city policies defy guidelines from the 9/11 Commission Report, which called on state and local authorities to help federal agencies crack down on illegal immigration. “There is a growing role for state and local law enforcement agencies [for the enforcement of immigration law],” the report stated. “They need more training and work with federal agencies so that they can cooperate more effectively with those federal authorities in identifying terrorist suspects.”

Instead, a host of cities across the United States classify themselves as havens for illegal aliens, despite the fact that such policies result in creating safe havens for illegal aliens who are criminals and potential terrorists. They allow criminal aliens to avoid deportation because they prevent local police from reporting them to ICE.

President Bush should issue an executive order denying any federal funds to those cities which either officially or unofficially provide sanctuaries enabling illegal aliens who commit crimes to escape deportation. They need to learn there is a price to be paid for exposing their citizens to criminal activities by aliens here illegally.

Located in the liminal space of lofts and light industry between Potrero Hill and the Mission, and across the street from Project Artaud, Coffee Bar caters to a mix of trendy young entrepreneurs and artists, with the odd defector from Ritural Roasters rolling up on their single speed to add some color and authenticity.

Almost everything about this place is excellent.  The coffee is always good to superb.  The espresso drinks are all double-strength, but the baristas are all well-trained and the coffee is never bitter or burnt.  For those in need of a serious fix, the Clover coffee is always awesome.

But great coffee is not that uncommon in the Bay Area.  What is uncommon is a cafe that is light and airy, with large tables and reasonably comfortable seats, and not too noisy.  Coffee Bar is all of that, and also features some really choice architecture / design.  I am particularly fond of the way the split level space has been managed, with the wrap around bench flowing into the rack above the bar area.  The mix of blond wood, black and white, brushed metal and glass is a bit of a cliche at this point, but cliches generally become cliches because they are so often true - and in this case, this truth is, it looks nice.  Scandinavian and light industry chic.

Above the bar this is a large photograph triptych of the bus yard that is located nearby.  The photograph was taken by a local artist from the roof of the building in which Coffee Bar is located and that kind of touch is carried through to all aspects of Coffee Bar - which is why it works, why it looks good, and why the coffee is excellent.

Quibbles: the owner/managers seem to have taken a "Charlie's Angels" approach to some of the staffing - hiring counterstaff who are more notable for their comeliness (in a very run-of-mill mode) than their competence.  But that's a pretty minor quibble, and I like a pretty face as much as the next gender-unspecified, polymorphous perverse San Franciscan.  More serious, perhaps, given the presence of Mac PowerBooks on almost every table midday, is the relatively slow WiFi.  Compared to the blistering downloads possible at, say, the Haight's Coffee to the People (the subject of a future review), speeds at Coffee Bar are positively anemic.

This would be my first choice for a "dress to impress" cafe meeting, and is also great for dates.  And during the middle of the day it has to be one of the most congenial places in the Bay Area to write blogs such as this.

Our oldest son lives in San Francisco. Visiting him was the only excuse I needed to combine a family visit with the 2008 RWA National Conference. This was one National I would not, could not, miss.

Although the conference officially starts next week, like many others my husband and I flew in early. From summer thunderstorms in Newark to the cool blue skies over San Francisco, we flew non-stop for close to six hours. On board I read Madeline Hunter’s SECRETS OF SURRENDER, a great start for any RWA Conference. (BTW, this is one you absolutely must read! Whew!)

We were greeted at the airport by our sandaled, red-bearded son. A happy reunion. He settled us into his apartment in the Civic Center/Hayes region of the city then went into work. Two aging boomers on our own in San Francisco. Delightful!

We started the afternoon by strolling through the neighborhood around his apartment, looking for lunch. Didn't have to look far. We passed restaurants on every block, eclectic and colorful.

We chose Flipper’s Gourmet Hamburgers, and ate outside on the fenced garden patio. Gourmet barbecue burger, a delicious chicken crepe, both with green garden salad. Fresh, tasty, and superb as only San Francisco food can be!

A park across the street from Flipper's seemed to typify the relaxed beauty of this city. I've learned that it rests on the site an old two-decker highway. Artwork is rotated. The current sculpture near the far end is a monkey or ape, enjoying the park with his human companions. (Click on the pictures then wait for a larger view.)

San Francisco's temperature today is in the low 60’s but sunny with brilliant skies. The ten-day weather forecast calls for temps in the mid 60’s, sunny to mostly sunny.

Word to the wise if you are coming to National – bay breezes can be chilly. Bring a jacket!

Check back tomorrow evening for more.

Amazon.com may actually be getting a boost from high gasoline prices as more shoppers make purchases online, Variety reports. Revenue was up 41% in the second quarter, fueled in part by sales of books, music and movies, which were up 31%. ClipSyndicate/Bloomberg (7/23) , The New York Times (7/24) , The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) (7/24) , Variety (7/23)

Facebook is setting out to broaden the appeal of its outside applications by giving programmers access to tools for translating into 20 different languages. The social network also is trying to make it easier for its users to move their personal profiles and favorite apps to other sites. (Iwantmedia 7/24, http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080724/ap_on_hi_te/facebook_programmers 7/24)

Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, gestures while delivering the keynote address during the annual Facebook f8 developer conference in San Francisco, Wednesday, July 23, 2008.

Comscore has just released the latest data on Facebook growth patterns, which clearly show that Facebook’s recent push to expand abroad has paid off. The site has seen extremely high growth rates across Latin America, The Middle East, and the Asia Pacific. Europe, which accounts for a much larger user base, continues to grow at a steady clip as well. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/07/23/facebook-growth-explodes-globally-levels-off-in-the-us 7/23)

MySpace’s upcoming music joint venture with 3 of the 4 major labels, first announced in April, will launch in September (EMI is still a holdout, but from what we hear they may be ready to fold soon). Chris DeWolfe, CEO of MySpace, mentioned that date and gave other details about the joint venture in an interview today with Adam Lashinsky at the Fortune Brainstorm conference in Half Moon Bay, CA. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/07/23/myspaces-dewolfe-says-new-music-joint-venture-to-launch-in-september 7/23)

After years of ceding the upper hand in online travel to booking sites like Kayak and Orbitz, American Airlines is about to fight back. According to the CEO of a competing travel site, American Airlines is about to pull its airline listings out of Kayak and is considering doing the same with Orbitz. If it does so, other airlines such as Continental and Northwest may follow suit. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/07/23/trouble-in-online-travel-american-airlines-ditches-kayak-maybe-orbitz-too 7/23)

Warner Bros. is going after the Web sites that posted pirated copies of the hit new Batman film "The Dark Knight." A spokesman for the Time Warner studio says it is taking action: "We actively search for these sites and services and have them taken down." (Iwantmedia 7/24, http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-9997233-93.html 7/23)

NBC Universal, Fox News Network and Fox Television Stations are filing a lawsuit against Redlasso, alleging the Web site is improperly making available video clips of their copyrighted programming. Redlasso allows users to create embeddable clips of video and audio footage. (Iwantmedia 7/24, http://www.observer.com/2008/media/fox-news-fox-television-stations-group-nbc-universal-filing-joint-copyright-suit-against 7/23)

Google VP Marissa Mayer says Google News might not make money on its own, but it drives $100 million worth of search. Google News is free and has no advertisements, but it funnels readers to the main Google search engine, where people do searches that produce ads, she says. (Iwantmedia 7/24, http://bigtech.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2008/07/22/whats-google-news-worth-100-million 7/22)

Time Warner's AOL is integrating technology from its newly acquired Goowy Media to help advertisers pitch their products and services at social-networking sites. Install a photo program to show off pictures of your dog on Facebook, and you might find you're really spreading an ad. (Iwantmedia 7/24, http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080723/tec_techbit_aol_widgets.html 7/23)

"Saturday Night Live" cast member Seth Meyers is directing and starring in "The Line," an original comedy Web series to debut on Sony's Crackle.com. Sony is integrating three real-life film releases from its Columbia Pictures studio into the webisodes. (Iwantmedia 7/24, http://www.upi.com/Entertainment_News/2008/07/23/Seth_Meyers_stars_in_new_Web_series/UPI-52871216857991 7/23)

This morning at that OSCON conference David Recordon of Six Apart will announce on stage the formation of the Open Web Foundation. The new foundation is about providing a home for the development and ratification of web-related standards efforts. The foundation will be focused on developing the technical specifications of protocols used for communication and inter-operability between applications on the web. The foundation will also set out the legal terms and best practices for the use and transport of both private and public data, and the usage of web services. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/07/24/open-web-foundation-officially-launches 7/24)

Comcast, the country's biggest cable TV provider, will begin offering next month advanced telephony services such as visual voice mail, caller ID on TV and universal address book. With 5.15 million phone subscribers, Philadelphia-based Comcast now ranks as the fourth-largest phone company in the U.S. CNNMoney.com/Associated Press (7/23)

Oh yeah, i'm mad pissed because i thought I had 4 days off. Well the other cashier girl threw a sickie, so I have 2 work her shifts meaning I only have Monday and Tuesday off - and then it's like a straight 8 day shift. And Monday I'm going to mAnchester!!

some photos from Flicker:

1. What was I doing 10 years ago?

Finishing up my teenage years.

2. Five things on today's 'To Do' list:

• Rinse and put away herbs & produce purchased at the farmers' market this afternoon.
• Cook dinner
• Finish writing post scheduled for publication
• Weekly recycle/garbage segregation
• Catch up on emails

3. I'm addicted to:

• Tetley Tea, with milk and honey (seriously, I would drink this by the half hour if I could).

4. Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

• Complete my collection of books and set up that dream library
• Travel
• Learn several new skills
• Travel

5. Places I have lived in:

Chennai, Dar-es-Salaam, Manchester, Kodaikanal, Paris, Tatsuno, San Francisco.

(And here's another little non-food-blogging tidbit):

I am afraid I won't be tagging anyone else (this is a first for me, after all, so hopefully people understand) but thank you for giving me the chance to play, and here's to more such exchanges!

Cheers, Usha!

]]> http://darcyarts.wordpress.com/?p=441 Thu, 24 Jul 2008 21:47:17 +0000 darcyarts http://darcyarts.wordpress.com/?p=441  This is me in San Francisco, 1979, after Frank and I had returned from our "honeymoon" period in Santa Barbara.

 I decided we should go back to S.F. after a monstrous thunderstorm caused a flood of rain water to pour through the central light fixture in our ceiling. Our cozy little room on the Pacific Coast Highway was flooded out.

The landlord said we could stay in another room down the hall. It had just been repainted and freshened up after the former tenant, an elderly male, died there of Cancer.

We stayed there a few nights but it wasn't the sunny corner spot our room had been. I couldn't handle it. Hey, I'm very sensitive to spiritual detritus.

Besides, I had grown restless and used the torrential downpour as an excuse to beat it. It seems I have always used psychic or physical disasters as a reason to change venues.

There is quite the spiritual patina in San Francisco. I can always feel layers and layers of lives lived in those old buildings. It was like I was constanly picking up on this low level hum. 

I asked Frank to pose in front of the poster of Jim Morrison we had in our room. You can tell he's a little perturbed.

This time in San Francisco Frank and I joined a fresh communal living experience. We moved into an old Victorian home on Waller Street not far from Market Street. One of Frank's best friends, Steven Durkee, lived there and had told Frank about the extra room while we were still in S.B.

Steven was smart, sweet, funny, brutally honest and possessed of an old soul.  We got along famously, probably because of our shared moon in Scorpio placement.

This is Steven's boyfriend, David Brunson. He spent alot of his time in Mexico but had come up be with Steven for a spell. Here is Frank with our big-daddy host, John.

Frank has on his lovely faded gaberdine jacket. I think we found this in a thrift store in Santa Barbara, a great old shop on the west end of State Street. You'd never find one there now. I'm sure store front rent is far too expensive these days.

I'm not sure what John is writing but it looks like a big, hairy reminder of something like a cardinal rule.

I think you can see my bra hanging from the hook on the closet door behind John, scarves too, and a pair of black gloves. Hmmm. Our little corner of the house overlooked Waller Street.

 Our wordly goods were few. The better to quickly change venues. Money was scarce though I soon got a job as a file clerk in an insurance agency downtown.

The best part of that gig was getting there. I looked forward to the trip down Market Street each morning in a green bullet-shaped car. Out at Third Street and up to Grant to the Cafe Trieste and a very stimulating cafe latte.

"Ciao, Bella! Cafe latte?," asked the lovely barista.

"Yes," said I, double thrilled to be greeted so warmly and to have become a regular.

Sometimes the juke box would be blaring a sentimental Italian song about "Mama" even though it was 7:15 a.m. People sat at the mismatched tables, dressed casually. They were reading the newspaper or engaging in conversation, enjoy the atmosphere and the best coffee in town. It was as close as I've ever been to Europe.

The bad part was leaving by 7:45 to make my walk to Montgomery Street and the insurance agency. This was my first encounter with mind-numbing boredom. After a few months I realized people who do this kind of work for a living could resort to very bizarre fantasies and behavior just to cut the stagnant mind space. It was awful. Getting up early also meant I couldn't hang out late with the boys or get into much trouble Monday through Friday.

It was Thanksgiving soon after our arrival.

Left to right, there is John's young boyfriend, Mark. John at the head of the table. Kevin, Bruce and Steven's shiny head of hair.

 John was a pretty good cook. We had the full feast including a big turkey. The dining room  was in the back of the house. We ate by candlelight.

Bruce, sitting in the chair in the kitchen, was a very bright boy. He had a degree in biology which he earned by the time he was 19. He was a provider of psychotropic substances like mushrooms and other herbal remedies. He rode a motorcycle and was into leather.

This is Rick, I think. I'm having trouble recalling, but he made very special brownies which he is showing off in this picture, also taken in the kitchen. The sign partially obscured by his head says "Baby Meat."

There was a lot going on with this many people occupying two floors. It was a very nice house.  John lived in the upstairs room.

There was an odd little diner across Market Street that always made me feel as if I had stepped into a time warp. It looked like a place that could have been in Montana or Wyoming.

They had great breakfasts and cool little jukeboxes at each seat. One of the hipster wait-people managed to get really interesting music. I always liked hearing "Warm Leatherette" by the Normal. It just sounded so good and it was such a weird juxtaposition in that little wood-paneled hunter's cafe. In San Francisco the hunters were just a different breed.

WARM LEATHERETTE

See the breaking glass
In the underpass
See the breaking glass
In the underpass

Warm leatherette

Hear the crushing steel
Feel the steering wheel
Hear the crushing steel
Feel the steering wheel

Warm leatherette

Warm leatherette

Warm leatherette
Melts on your burning flesh
You can see your reflection
In the luminescent dash

Warm leatherette

A tear of petrol
Is in your eye
The hand brake
Penetrates your thigh
Quick -- Let's make love
Before you die

On warm leatherette
Warm leatherette

Warm leatherette
Warm leatherette
Warm leatherette

Join the car crash set

 A view, shot in the early morning, from the bathroom window. Hot.

Shipyards to Sheratons in Gdansk: is it a coincidence that I designed the Sheraton hotel chain's first web site at my first real job? I no longer think so.

"Poster Boy": Artist, Vandal, Maker of Funny Things: is this the next Banksy?

Fading Fast: Painted Wall Signs Are Disappearing, But Is Restoration the Answer?: on preserving [or not] ghost signs in the Bay Area.

Great Lakes Urban Exchange: GLUE is an information clearinghouse "founded to promote the power, aid in the positive transformation, and address the shared challenges of similarly-storied older industrial cities situated in the Great Lakes watershed."

A Locally Grown Diet With Fuss but No Muss: chronicling the emerging "lazy locavore" movement.

Missed Connections: maps of Craigslist's Missed Connections; lots of Missed Connections in stores across the country; what does that say about people's social outlets?

She says new owner sacked her after 21 years on the job
Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

 An autistic woman who had worked at the McDonald's in downtown Berkeley for 21 years showed up at her job in March, after a change in ownership, and was told that she and two other disabled workers were no longer needed, she says.

"I was devastated ... then I was really just angry," Lisa Craib said after filing a discrimination complaint Tuesday with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. After she was fired, the complaint said, the fast-food restaurant at Shattuck and University avenues posted a sign: "Help Wanted - Equal Opportunity Employer."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/22/BA8F11TF49.DTL

I just received my entry packet this week for the Oklahoma Senior Games. I’m excited about competing this year because this is a qualifying year and this is the second year that the Oklahoma Senior Olympics have been in Oklahoma City instead of Tulsa. I didn’t attend last year, so I’ve never competed in OKC.

The 2008 Oklahoma Senior State Olympics in Oklahoma City will serve as the qualifying site for the 2009 National Senior Olympics to be held August 1-15, 2009 in Palo Alto (San Francisco), California. I have my heart set on making it to Nationals.

I’ve been going through the entry packet and contemplating what events I will compete in this year. Most likely it will be the high jump, long jump, triple jump, weight lifting, run track, and run the 5K road race. I would like to run the 10K also, but it’s being held on Monday and I don’t think I want to stay in OKC that long.

Weightlifting and the 5k Run are on Friday and the track and field events are held on Saturday, so I guess I’ll pass on running the 10K.

That’s enough about the Senior Olympics. Tomorrow I’ll blog about the Beijing Olympics.

FYI: The fastest 100-yard dash recorded by a human is about 9 seconds.

We'll be there. Will you?

Seriously though, San Franpsycho is teaming up with IRATION for probably the best time EVER. So, put on your party hats, lace up your dancing shoes, and strap on your fanny packs. It's gonna get weird.

Chawl.

So shoe shopping done and clothes ironed I braved the public transit system and rode the bus (somewhere) and spend an hour and half talking the new principal through his outdated computer systems, that amazingly still work. I can't say I've ever seen a G3 Macintosh outside of a computer history museum, but I saw a school computer lab with over fifty of them, networked together. Agonizingly slow but astonishingly working. The job would be teaching computer skills to K-8 graders part time, and part time providing tech support and band-aids to the computer system. It pays decently, which is all I can ask for at this point.

Ate squash soup and cabbage and chicken legs while catching up on Wipeout, crashed out after a sugar coma of Beardpapa eclairs. Lights out, but only after finishing my current book reading obsession, and losing in online Tetris to Elli (who is gifted in Ms. Pacman and Tetris skillz).

In 2001 Liza and I found out she has a condition called Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome. This meant we would probably have some trouble having kids. That was fine. We weren't married yet but were glad we were able to go into it with eyes wide open. We also knew that we wanted to adopt. So, we knew it would all work out somehow. We would be parents regardless.

Fast forward a bit... we'd been trying or not NOT trying for about four years. Things weren't working out, much like we expected. So, we went to see a fertility specialist and to try IUI to see if that would work. This procedure and everything it takes to get ready for it can be pretty costly, especially if your insurance doesn't cover it (and ours didn't, which isn't necessarily unusual). And... long story short... it didn't work out.

That was in March. We took April off to re-coop and then took May off because I was so super busy getting ready for camp and Liza was trying to wrap school up. Then we started trying to decide what to do next.

Liza really wanted to try IUI again. She desperately wanted to be a biological mother. I wanted to go ahead with adoption. The biological part wasn't that important to me and I couldn't see spending that amount of money again with no guarantee (not to mention that we didn't have that money to spend; we had already exhausted all of our financial resources). So, we were at a bit of an impasse... However, I eventually relented, and we planned to call Liza's fertility doctor and move forward trying that route again. But, we held off for a little bit because I still had a bit of traveling to get done with a three week stretch where I was going to be in South Africa and then Liza would join me to go to Daytona Beach and then San Francisco.

While in San Fran, Liza was really, really sick, just nauseus, like, all the time. So, we knew something wasn't right. However, whenever Liza call's her doctor with these type of issues, one of the first questions they always ask is, "have you taken a pregnancy test?" So, she has to take one, and it's always negative, and she get's really upset. But we knew before we called that she needed to take one. She usually keeps one or two generic brand ones on hand. So, the day after we got back from San Fran, before she drove to Jackson to pick up our dog, she took one.

Now, we have to pause here to explain to those of you who don't know about pregnancy tests how they work (this isn't true for all of them, but is for the one's we used). When you take one, there are two little circles. The one to the right has a vertical line in it if you used the test correctly. The one to the left will then either have a horizontal negative symbol. if you're not pregnant, or a positive symbol if you are.

Following is what we were used to seeing:

Here's what we wanted to see:

Here's what we saw:

Well, actually I hadn't seen it yet. I was at work. But Liza called me on her way to Jackson on the verge of freaking out. She explained it to me, and I tried to calm her down and just told her that she should take another one since the one she had taken had obviously messed up. I was thinking that somehow that left circle got turned around so that it was still a negative symbol, but turned on its side.

However, that night we were talking on the phone, and I went to the trash and fished the test out. When I looked at it I saw a very faint horizontal line in that left circle. That meant a positive symbol, which meant we were pregnant. So, I was kinda freakin'. Totally.

Well, the next day Liza drove back, but decided to go on to our house. She called and asked if I would pick up a pregnancy test on the way home. So, I did. And I bought name brand. And I bought two different kinds. One that used the symbols as I've explained and another that was digital and would just say "Pregnant" or "Not Pregnant."

I came home and sat them on the coffee table, and Liza and I just sat around talking for awhile. She had just gotten out of the shower. So, she decided to take one of the tests while she dried her hair. We decided on the digital one, and she went off to the back. While she was back there I just kept praying, "Abba, please, please, please, by your grace and power, in the name of Jesus, please make her be pregnant.”  I heard her flush the toilet and then heard her start drying her hair.  Then I heard her turn the hair dryer off, and I listened but didn't hear anything else.  Then she walked around the corner, white as a ghost, and looking on the verge of tears, which wasn't unusual following a negative pregnancy test.  But then she showed it to me and this is what I saw:

I started yelling, "I KNEW IT!"  Liza's knees buckled and she just collapsed in front of me and started crying. We hugged and cried and screamed and everything.  I grabbed my video camera and started filming her and then got my other camera and started taking tons of pictures like the one above.  I also made her take another pregnancy test just to be sure.

The next day Liza called her doctor but he couldn't see us until today.  So, there's been a week of waiting and wondering and trying not to spill the beans to anyone until we knew a bit more.  And now we do.

Baby Kinsley is somewhere around nine weeks along and is due on February 25th.  He or she is about the size of a grape and has little arm buds and eyelids and a tiny little heart that is beating like crazy.

We've been ridiculous already.  We went and bought some books (What to Expect When You're Expecting and The Expectant Father).  We've spent time going and looking at all kinds of baby stuff.  I've even made a three-page-long list of names I like for a boy or a girl.  Liza went through the list with me and narrowed it down a lot.  So, we'll see how that goes.

The best thing is that the only one here who deserves any credit for what's happened is God.  He truly made this happen, and I can't praise him enough for it.

A funny thing that's happened is how humbling this has been.  Here's why: throughout this journey for us there have been a lot of people trying to encourage us by telling us about Hannah, the mother of Samuel, from the Bible and So-and-So.  Who's So-and-So?  So-and-So is someone who was having trouble getting pregnant but finally did once they tried fertility and it didn't work or started adoption or finally quit worrying about it or...  You get the idea.  This, while nice, was also a bit frustrating for us because there's no guarantee that that does happen or that it would happen for us.  It obviously wasn't.

Well, guess what?  Now we're So-and-So.  Who would've thought?

And now you're caught up.  We're glad to have you along with us.

Thanks.

I find most job opportunities online. Sometimes not knowing exactly who I am applying to. Seems so impersonal. But even if it wasn't, could I potentially go to all the open opportunities and shake the hands of managers? No!

And with that are the ones who already work in a facility who tell there friends and family members of such job opening, giving them a upper hand. Well that is not the only set back, but one of many.

No matter the set backs, I will step forward.

One pastry, three coffees, and fifty pages later, Elli and I headed home for a dinner of tofu and peanut sauce.

Watched Wipeout, battled it out in online Tetris (I lost big time), and read a few more pages. Crashed out and went to sleep after watching another episode of Hopkins.

Woke up sometime later to the most annoying girl in the world talking (not my wife) somewhere outside.  The closeness of the buildings makes a great sound funnel, and it would appear that there was a party that we weren't invited to, but seemed to be everywhere all around us.  Without a jet pack and a bucket of water balloons, we could only shut the windows and wait for her to fall hoarse, sometime in the wee hours of the morning.