Journals : 2002 : October
2 October 2002 | Link this
Extremely depressing hometown news. I've been going to this store since I was a kid, and it was ancient even then. The place lasted for 104 years but couldn't quite survive the "revitalization" of South Elm Street. So where am I supposed to go for a hand-mixed Cherry Coke now?
Speaking of soda (or pop, or fizzies, or dranks), check this out...
8 October 2002 | Link this
I state for the record that I am not one of those fanatical "English-only" nuts. I do believe that immigrants who come to the US need to learn and begin using English as quickly as possible, for the sake of their own advancement. I also believe that we Americans tend to be rather a sloppy bunch when it comes to learning other languages, to our continuing detriment...
That said, something about this editorial just annoys the shit out of me. The idea that state governments in what is -- by custom, if not by law -- an English-speaking nation should be required to accommodate the alphabets of other languages in government-issued documents bothers me. Just as I would not expect a speeding ticket issued in Barcelona to be worded in English, I wouldn't expect a driver's license issued in the US to use a non-English alphabet...
"Those little marks aren't decorations. They're part of the Spanish language," he states. I agree. But we speak English here. Like it or not, that's the way it is. If we start adding accent and stress marks, should we then start producing driver's licenses which use Cyrillic or Hebrew characters? Maybe Japanese too? Software compatibility issues aside, it's just plain ludicrous...
"But it's her name," he whines, as if one accent mark were the only measure of the poor child's identity. Reminds me of kids in school who whine that a certain standard of dress "stifles their individuality", to whom I respond that, if that's all the individuality you can muster, you don't have enough of it to be concerned with anyway...
People have been misspelling my Welsh surname all my life. PG&E misspells it every month on my power bill. And the government persists in calling me "James" even though I prefer to use my middle name. It's been surprisingly easy learning to cope...
8 October 2002 Later | Link this
Three days late for the actual anniversary: my thoughts on ten years in San Francisco. It's not everything I wanted it to be, but I decided just to go ahead and post the damned thing...
8 October 2002 Even Later | Link this
More problems with outgoing mail tonight, which are (I think) finally fixed once and for all. Yes, I've been sending email so infrequently of late that it sometimes takes me a day or two to realize there's a problem. And no, I don't promise it will get better soon...
9 October 2002 | Link this
Today's baffling bit of email from a Planet SOMA visitor:
i am looking for a motel that has accomodations for a couple. i am requesting that the hotel room be furnished with a large round waterbed(preferably w/satin sheets)and mirored walls and everything that it entalis.
About the only response I could come up with was "How nice for you. Hope you have a lovely time". Really, how am I supposed to answer something like this?
Hint du jour: if you ever need to go to the emergency room in San Francisco, try St. Francis Hospital on Hyde Street. I took my boss there today and, to my amazement, found that I was the ONLY person in the waiting room. I've never seen such an eerily calm hospital in my life...
Chafe du jour: why were there no coasters or stickers in the new Mac we got at work yesterday like their were in the one that showed up at Mark's office?
10 October 2002 | Link this
The fog is back, all is well with the world, and there's a distinct possibility I'll be at the Big Fresno Fair this weekend. If I could just manage dinner at the K&W tonight, I'd be quite content right now, thanks...
11 October 2002 | Link this
I finally got around to downloading and installing Mozilla 1.1, and I have to admit that it really doesn't suck. After the nightmare which ensued when I tried installing Netscape 6 a long while back, I was a little scared of anything vaguely related, but Mozilla actually has some nice features, best of which is the pop-up blocker (which has apparently been disabled in the Netscape 7 version), and it (unlike Netscape 6) didn't completely destroy all my preferences upon installation. I'm not sure if I'd ever use it as an everyday browser, but it'll be nice to have around...
My suggestion to those 27 or 28 of you who are still (for whatever masochistic reasons) using Netscape 4.x, is that you finally let it die. I find it baffling that a browser so bad has lasted so long on so many people's hard drives...
Enough of this. It's off to the Tonga Room for Jamie's birthday tonight and to Fresno for the fair tomorrow...
14 October 2002 | Link this
Great time this weekend in Fresno at the fair, but don't expect to hear about it for a few more days. It's suddenly become a very busy week at work. Visualize me playing with REALLY large Excel spreadsheets and pretending I know how to do budgeting and forecasting. It's kind of amuzing, actually, and it does sort of stimulate my inner geek...
16 October 2002 | Link this
One of the things I hate about cohabitation: seeing a tantalizing package from Amazon at the front door and realizing it's not for me and I really shouldn't open it...
I may have to buy myself something tonight. It's been that kind of week...
17 October 2002 | Link this
Happy birthday to Mom...
Thirteen years ago tonight, I'd just been to dinner with my parents and we came home and watched San Francisco shake and bake on the news from the safety of Greensboro. I'd prefer not to have a more intimate earthquake view this evening, thanks...
I shudder to think what might happen if another major quake were to hit SF today. The live/work lofts in my neighborhood would all be reduced to little piles of corrugated cardboard and glue (which might not be such a bad thing), but we'd never be able to rebuild any lost freeways because there'd be too many arguments over which method we'd use to make them more appealing to homeless people (who might want to wander across them at random or live under them) than to evil, disgusting motorists (who'd just be driving on them, after all)...
While the Bay Bridge -- sill unrepaired after the 1989 quake -- would be history, the Transamerica Pyramid would, alas, still be standing...
Ah San Francisco, where the newspaper has taken to predicting "areas of morning fog, then mostly sunny" on Thursday and Saturday, and "mostly sunny, after areas of morning fog" on Friday and Sunday. For the sake of variety, I assume...
18 October 2002 | Link this
New essay over at Planet SOMA, should you be interested...
18 October 2002 Later | Link this
I've written before about how so many people using the web are completely deficient when it comes to the concept of context. You know: the sort of people who type the term "cheap Disneyland motel" into a search engine, find a page which happens to include all three words, no matter how randomly, and then -- without bothering to read the page they've found, which happens to be, say, an architecture critique -- click that "contact" button and email the author asking where they can find the best deals on a motel near Disneyland. In other words, clueless idiots...
But this one takes the cake. Several University of Texas students a few years back managed to click onto one of my journal pages when they were still at Planet SOMA and determine that my site was about some drug called "soma" and my experiences using it:
This web site is the journal of a man that explores the effects of "Soma" and other such drugs. His experiences and the mindless state of mind that is the result of the drugs that he is taking are documented as well as his thoughts on whether or not it is a good thing. Explanation: This is useful because in contrast to the previous web site, he totally thinks that Hedonism & drugs in general are a good thing.
Just what website were they reading? How could anyone read anything I've written at this site -- particularly this page (the one they linked to) -- and determine that I'm some drug-crazed hedonist itching to tell the world about it? I haven't even smoked pot in about 17 years, and I avoid users like the plague. What gives?
Some might call it "libelous". Which is what I did when I emailed several key persons at the University of Texas this morning. No response yet...
18 October 2002 Even Later | Link this
Got a response from the University of Texas. They pulled the page and sent me a semi-apologetic letter which mentions "free speech" and the fact that students sometimes state "strong opinions" on "controversial topics"...
What fucking opinion? What fucking topic? They flat-out lied and said that I use a drug called "soma" and that my site is all about my experiences while using it. That's not a statement of opinion. It's a blatant fabrication. And in many academic environments, it could get them expelled...
I'm always amazed at how many otherwise educated individuals haven't the faintest notion what free speech means...
That said, I'll mention again that there's a (completely unrelated) new rant over at Planet SOMA today...
21 October 2002 | Link this
Random thoughts for a Monday afternoon:
-
Some days I love the internet: a reader has actually found -- an offered to send me -- an authentic "hogs are beautiful" poster. He sent me a picture, and it's the genuine article, the very same print which used to grace every barbecue joint from one end of North Carolina to the other. And oddly enough, it was unearthed in Iowa of all places...
-
So did anyone else watch the hours-long "Richmond, Virgina gas station skycam" this morning (on every network) and wonder how long it would take Fox News to establish that the owner of the van was -- in addition to being the one and only sniper -- the same individual who masterminded the World Trade Center bombings, Jimmy Hoffa's murder, and possibly the Crimean War?
- Just how will Patty and Selma react to this?
- Going out on a limb: after buying "Saturday Night Fever" on DVD this weekend, I feel compelled to remind you all that -- once you get past John Travolta's hair and the soundtrack -- it's a really good movie...
Maybe more later, or maybe not. I've got a pound of ground beef, a can of Manwich, and a bag of buns. The evening is full of possibilities...
24 October 2002 | Link this
Working on some site changes and restructuring. More later...
25 October 2002 | Link this
Anniversary weekend. A year ago today, I was off the Fresno for what turned out to be a rather fateful weekend. By a year ago tomorrow, I was already hooked. And you know what? I still am. I do love my boy, especially now that I get to wake up next to him every morning...
If you're feeling nostalgic, you can read about that weekend here...
29 October 2002 | Link this
Tip of the hat to Chuck's list of things he doesn't care about this morning. I'll follow with my list of things I'm very weary of:
-
Trying to "understand" and "be tolerant of" terrorists, ghetto kids who kill each other (and innocent bystanders), and homeless people who have "no choice" but to steal and to shit on the streets. Having a "hard life" or a "grievance" is no excuse for making other people miserable.
- The notion that any violence committed against innocent Americans without warning is probably justified by our warmongering imperialism (or whatever), but that any organized retaliation BY Americans is barbaric. Why are we always the ones who are wrong?
- The idea that popular opinion is any more sufficient justification for engaging (or not engaging) in a war than it is for denying civil rights or for giving Constitutional protection to a red, white, and blue piece of cloth.
For what it matters, I have not completely formed my own opinion about any impending military action. I am not convinced that attacking Iraq is the most prudent course of action at present, both for economic and political reasons, but I'm also not convinced that it's an inherently immoral thing...
I can say, though, that most of the arguments expressed in the local paper haven't swayed me one way or the other. And I can also state with some assurance that trite, simplistic slogans like "no war for oil" are of little more persuasive value to anyone with an IQ above 65 than those "kill 'em all, let God sort 'em out" T-shirts you used to see during the Gulf War..
Unrelated: note the new navigation bar above, which will now take you to the Road Trips and Rants sections, both of which used to be housed at Planet SOMA. This is something I've been planning for a long time, and I'm now reducing Planet SOMA to a site largely concerned with San Francisco and the South of Market Area. There will be some new content over there too, but this is where the "action" will be, particularly after my liberation from the Bay Area...
31 October 2002 | Link this
Aside from the fact that it's not particularly funny, the main reason I can't watch "Everybody Loves Raymond" is that whenever I do, I can't help but visualize the father as Frankenstein's monster singing "Puttin' on the Ritz"...
Yes, that would be my one and only concession to Halloween, aside from the Simpsons episode I'm watching right now and all the candy I ate at work today...
Unrelated: so Bill Simon had no control over this one either, huh? He can't keep up with ads run in his name, and he doesn't know which campaign questionaires he's signed. Heck, he can't even manage a campaign and he wants to run the whole state?
Quoth Molly Ivins:
...even in proud Texas we have to admit that this year's palm for nose-holding voting must go to California. Not to overstate, two of the most titanically unattractive candidates in the history of time -- Gray Davis and Bill Simon -- are vying for the governorship. How we got from the Lincoln-Douglas debates to this -- or what we ever did to deserve it -- is unclear. The debate between Davis and Simon raised the always-timely question: Is God punishing us?
I wish I could vote for somebody (anybody) next week...