baby

posted from my JESUSPHONE!!!

Vroom!

We are going to Lodi Cycle Bowl this weekend to watch Clay race.

You want to go to Cycle Bowl?

You have always wanted to go to Cycle Bowl, but never got around to it?

Me too!

Let's all go to Cycle Bowl!!!!!



Weeeeeeee!

(srsly, interested in going? give me a holler. It's an Saturday afternoon/evening thing)

internet comments

ZOMG!
The internets, they are teh funny.

Avast!

I'm surrounded by pirates today!
Oh noes!

Bernanke, you have failed!

"It is not the responsibility of the Federal Reserve -- nor would it be appropriate -- to protect lenders and investors from the consequences of their financial decisions,"

That was what Bernanke said on August 31st of this year.

Today is the day the Fed sent a notice to specuvestors that it's OK to abuse credit and housing bubbles.

A jubilant Wall Street barreled higher Wednesday after the Federal Reserve cut its benchmark interest rate a larger-than-expected half a percentage point. The Dow Jones industrial average was up more than 200 points shortly after the Fed announced its move.

Although some investors hoped for a large rate cut, most were betting on a smaller quarter percentage cut in the federal funds rate. The Fed responded to the spreading impact of credit market problems on the rest of the economy, saying, "the tightening of credit conditions has the potential to intensify the housing (market) correction and to restrain economic growth more generally."

The Fed cut the benchmark rate to 4.75 percent after keeping it unchanged for more than a year.

Of course, even Greenspan is admitting that the problem was caused by keeping rates too low, too long. so why drop now? Easy!

"Privatize Profits, Socialize Losses"

On the upside, were all these speculators offering to share their funny money with me? I don't remember it. Now? they want government bailouts, they want the FHA to insure worse loans (and by "FHA" they mean me) they want lower interest rates (which? historically are already way low), they want HELP! Help with their foreclosures. Why? Propping up inflated asset prices is only hurting the economy and American families.

Is it good for America that young families can no longer afford to live somewhere without working several jobs? Is it good for America that our workforce is completely tied down by overpriced houses, unable to relocate to respond to changes in the workforce or their lives, too busy working to improve their skills, too worried about their mortgages to take on new careers or entrepreneurship? Is it so great that people in the Bay Area can't have children because they can't afford the home they are in, let alone a larger one? WHY does everyone think that housing prices going up is such a great thing? a 20% increase in your house price? HOLY CRAP! 20% inflation ought to be alarming, not pleasing!


So? If I lose $1000 in Las Vegas, will you bail me out too?
Because, really? If you do? I'm just going to keep going back to Vegas.

Moral hazard in finance

Financial bail-outs of lending institutions by governments, central banks or other institutions can encourage risky lending in the future, if those that take the risks come to believe that they will not have to carry the full burden of losses. Lending institutions need to take risks by making loans, and usually the most risky loans have the potential for making the highest return. A moral hazard arises if lending institutions believe that they can make risky loans that will pay handsomely if the investment turns out well but they will not have to fully pay for losses if the investment turns out badly. Taxpayers, depositors, other creditors have often had to shoulder at least part of the burden of risky financial decisions made by lending institutions.

If I win, I keep the money! If I lose, ummmm, someone else softens the financial blow, so I sort of win. I like those odds!

Bartender? I'll have a Googletini!

well, gentle readers, now it is official: I work for Google.

today.

There is NO WAY that I could have gotten a job at Google. We've all heard the stories about the hoops you have to jump through, and the creative criteria.

Six months ago, I was at a job I hated in a dead-end industry. I made a choice to jump ship, take a completely new direction, and, AND?????

more importantly?

found a friend who believed in me and helped me make the jump. A few friends, actually.

found a boss who was willing to take a gamble

somehow, found a company I love, with coworkers I'm totally inspired by.

Today, we are being eaten by Google. Here's a new chapter in the adventure. I hope to hang on as long as I can, and convince these people that I can be trained, despite my lack of experience with the matter at hand, and that I will be worth it.

Six months ago, to now, is a complete 360. I have so much to be thankful for. Today it's Clay, who helped me immensely with a small effort and gamble.

From now on, I DEMAND that all software upgrades be launched with a campaign like this. Even *I* want to upgrade to DOS 5 after watching this! It has a graphical shell!!!!! ZOMG!!!!!
And dancing elephants.

feedme!!!

I've added buttons on the right that I think will let you add this blog to a feed reader. Why? Because I don't read things that don't go into a reader any more. I read a lot of feeds. I use google, but mostly because it's convenient. I have no idea if it is better. It works for me, and I do really like the gears bit, where I can download my feeds and read them offline (thought they are usually missing pictures and videos, etc)

I do not know if I did these buttons correctly, though, so let me know if they are borked.

Last night I was reminded of why I will never own a Windows machine. I could forgive bad design if it was just aesthetic; it would be hard to compete with Apple on that front. But bad functional design as well? Nearly catastrophic? No thanks!

I had the nicest time this weekend just being at home. It seems so long since I've just had the time to putter around the house doing some cleaning, sewing, stuff like that. I really missed it. Being at home is good for me; I have so many hobbies left undone. I might even finish a small project instead of leaving it half done for several years.

I cleaned out a bunch of old clothes and made a Goodwill drop-off run with Paul's help. There's some other stuff I still need to unload, but it's harder. Some things are so tied to your image of yourself, or the memory of how hard they were to make or get... I'm trying to find homes for some things, which might make getting rid of them easier.

Unamerican!

Birffday

A few weeks back (I am totally behind) I had a birthday! And, since I had not had birthday party goodness for a few years, I demanded a little party. It was also Amy's birthday, so we combined festivities and had a get-together at the Park Chalet. Park Chalet is pretty good, and it was a nice warm day, perfect to enjoy the indoor-outdoor park setting. Park Chalet is at the end of Golden Gate Park, near the windmill.



After nearly losing our table due to lateness, the waitress finally took pity on me and seated our half-party. By this time, I was a few beers in. I then drank some more. Beer! I even had the little taster menu, which was darn cute. The food was good, the company was grand, and, oh, did I mention BEER?











Things get a little blurry in the middle, but afterwards, Jennifer and Paul and I walked out to the beach. There were a lot of bonfires, and the weather was reasonably good. Then we hiked up to the Cliff House and down to the Sutro Baths side. That area has changed quite a bit in the past few years. We woke a hobo up in the cave, and then found that some park authority had "closed" off the opening of the cave on the other side. This is where you access what I deemed my favorite spot in all of San Francisco when I was in college. An excellent judge of my own inebriation, I hopped the new fence but did not attempt the climb to my old spot. Next time.

Fluffy Cat

Last night we came home to Berkeley (from the Salt Lake City trip that I will post about later)
to find Squeeky had not been taken away as planned. We walked into the yard to find Squeeky sitting in the middle of the yard mewing, and two metal food bowls on the bricks, for the two nice downstairs kitties.

This perturbed me for many reasons, including that I knew the owner of these two cats wasn't home and hadn't been for days, indeed, had moved out, telling us that the cats would be picked up last Friday to go to her dad's house.

Cat and two bowls were there, but we had a bad feeling about the little cat, since she was nowhere to be found. Last time she came back from the dad's house, she had lost three or four of the few pounds she ever had (at most ten? to start?) and came back with bones sticking out. She'd lost so much weight, she was eating birdseed to feed herself.

Paul and I are the ones most frequently at the house, and as such, we take it upon ourselves to shower the two downstairs cats with love and, when we can, extra food. But the last trip to the dad's house had taken most of Flluffy's weight away.

A telephone call confirmed our fears. Fluffy had been put to sleep. Something about dehydration and a possible urinary tract infection, and possible kidney damage from said dehydration. As much as we loved the little cat, serious neglect from the proper caretakers had hurt her, and she was either too far gone, or deemed not worth the effort.

R.I.P. little kitty. I'm sorry you landed where you did.

Fluffy cat had grown her personality tenfold since I met her. first a shy, skittish ball of fur who was frightened by the sound of her drool hitting the couch, she gradually gained self-confidence finally to the point of slapping and ambushing the other two, much larger cats in the yard. Once, after she'd spent a few days ambushing Fang repeatedly (and she was too small to hurt them, but kept trying), I pulled a cat claw out of her head while petting her in the garage. She turned into a little scrapper! I declared her a bully; Paul called it "sassy," and was charmed by it. Paul was her favorite, and she'd follow him around the yard, "ack"ing. She rarely could squeak out a real "meow," usually just choking out an "ack... gaaak" instead. She was a beautiful soft little kitty, who we will miss. I can't help but feel we failed her.

Countrywide

Anyone else out there who's a housing bubble and crash junkie like myself?

You've probably been following the Countrywide situation... and OMG, and honest-to-goodness run on a bank!

Meanwhile, customers crowded into branches of Countrywide Bank today to withdraw as much as $500,000 at a time because of concerns about the financial problems of the mortgage lender that owns the bank.

Everyone said this couldn't happen, right?
So now the billion dollar question is:
Is Countrywide too big to fail? Will this jackass get a government bailout?

it's ok, real estate always goes up. Just keeping buying, folks!

In the "damn, I didn't think he'd be one of the ones to get taken down" news, Craig Hightower died today in Oakland.

OAKLAND - A man was killed Tuesday morning near Chinatown when the motorcycle he was riding was brushed by a SUV causing it to hit a parked car and eject him into a retaining wall, police said.

OK, and seriously, "brushed by a SUV!??!?!!??!!" Cars do not "brush" motorcycles. How a writer and editor allowed this to be printed?!?!? Correction: the SUV driver hit the motorcycle. That kind of bullshit writing makes me really angry.


Craig wasn't a friend of mine, just one of those staples in the Bay Are motorcycling community, in the vein of solid riders you just assume will be riding around into their 90's.

Motorcyclists die all the time (so do car drivers, McDonald's eaters, and skiers, for that matter) and I see a hell of a lot of bad riders out there. I expect it when they go down, and I vacillate between callous and frustrated by their actions and attitudes and impact it has on the rest of us. But there are a lot of riders who I consider to be in it for the long run, more skills, less stupidity, just better, right? When I consider the weight of "motorcycles are dangerous...." comments, I simply group myself with the better riders, the ones who will be going into our old age on our bikes. Some are my friends, others just people I know about. I feel secure(ish) in knowing that there's a sub-set of motorcyclists that the public doesn't consider, and that being a part of that sub-set makes me safer.

But it's not necessarily the case.

There are still hurried SUV drivers trying to "brush" even the good ones. There are moments our minds drift. There are moments when a driver comes up with some maneuver so completely beyond any bizarre or stupid thing we've seen before (and we have seen a lot of bizarre and stupid driver tricks)

And then you're done, extinguished, and in conversations with people who don't know the difference, tossed back into the group of failed squids, as yet another example of why motorcycling is necessarily deadly.

linky goodness

Tinfoil Hats


A very funny video about Microsoft Paint. Why DOES this stuff suck so much?



ZOMG! Zombies! Ants! Fungus! This is REALLY interesting, cool and spooooky.

If only I could get a loan to buy more tulips

The Fed is leaving rates where they are today!

Am I worried about the credit crunch and recession? Yes.
Do I recognize that sometimes we have to take our medicine even though it's unpleasant? yes.
Do I feel bad for all the speculators ("homeowners") who will be stretched to or past their limits? Not really.

Rates were too low, too long. We put off reality for a long time with easy funny money. But now it's time to take the medicine. There has been a lot of bad news in the mortgage sector this past week, and credit is tightening everywhere. It may be painful, but it's far past time for this.

Fasten your seatbelts! Tulips do NOT always go up.

Doped up on Dramamine

Saturday night I worked at New Wave City and got in about 2 am. Which meant that I had gotten about 4 hours of sleep when the alarm went off at 6:30 am. No matter! There were BIRDIES and WHALES to go visit! And they would have no lateness.

We got to Fort Mason to meet our boat at about 7:30. I had already taken my Dramamine Less Drowsy an hour before takeoff time, and so at 8 am, we were on our way! With about 40 other people. One of whom was some Marina chicklet (she had not fully grown into a Marina chick, as she was not wearing heels or carrying a large purse) and her boyfriend. She complained about her hair and the ten pounds of makeup she had dutifully applied getting mess up as we made our way out through the bay and into the ocean.

I had worn my entire riding get-up, sans helmet, which, as it turned out, was a very fortunate outfit. Standing on deck gets you really, really wet. And it's cold too, but mostly, wet. Seawater, which is super salty and tastes icky. We stood on the deck most of the time, as sitting inside is more for people who wish to get seasick, which I did not.

We first made our way up along the coast of Marin, never getting close enough that I would have the misfortune of meeting any Marin people. We did come upon some harbor seals in a cove, balancing their fat carefully on tiny rocks. Puppies!

Out at a bouy, we found a bunch of sea lions playing in the water. The picture doesn't do it justice. They were jumping up out of the water over and over, and when they traveled as a pack, they were jumping and propelling themselves they way we imagine dolphins doing, only with less finesse and showiness.

We quickly left the sea lions when someone spotted a whale nearby. And as we chased that whale (not really chased, just trying to get closer), and everyone got to the front right of the boat, I was left on the left side of the boat, and something weird was in the water near our path. At first thought? Dead body. No, wait, too much surface area. Not a whale, too ridgey. Then, holy CRAP! The biggest damn turtle I have ever seen! It's unfortunate that I did not have the camera at this point, because I had a very, very clear shot of this thing. I have never seen a turlte in the wild before, and certainly not on e like this. It must have been about 10 feet long? And was floating near the top of the water nearly directly by where I was standing. Beautiful!

Once the captain saw what we had found, he kind of lost his shit and got on the horn to tell all of the other boats, which all stopped whatever they were doing to rush over to see the Leatherback. Leatherbacks are very rare to sight, and very, very endangered. They will most likely be extinct within the next decade or so. To bad, they are cute. And could probably be saved with some party hat fashion, to warn fishers to get them out of their nets.

After all the other boats had come to see the turtle, and it had become less easy to see anyway, we went back on our way, stopping here and there to see whales. The rest of the people on the boat were starting to get seasick as we headed out to the Farallones, so I thought maybe I'd better take a second dose of Dramomine Less drowsy to make sure I did not get sick. Big mistake! That stuff mess you up! Two days later, and a whole lot of extra sleep hours, and I am just feeling normal again.

The shape of the Faralonnes through the fog emerged slowly around the same time the smell emerged. Nature is stinky, and noisy. As we pulled close to them, the noise of the sea lions and gulls is nearly deafening. The islands are covered, literally, with birds; Cormorants hop up the rock face, murrs are hanging out on the beach, gulls are flying around picking stuff out of the water and carrying it up to the top of the rock (I guess they are nesting up there?)

As we floated away from the Faralonnes, we found the water teeming with jelllyfish. I had also never seen jellyfish in the wild, and to see so many was, frankly, a little much. Somebody should eat them! Like the Leatherback, but unfortunately, he was nowhere near there.

Coming back to the bay was a long trip, and everyone was basically passing out. Trying to keep my eyes open on the way, Paul and I sat in the front of the boat by ourselves and got to see several more whales. Each time we saw some whales, people would rush to the front of the boat and then we couldn't see anymore, nor could I sleep. Bummer. This must be when I got sunburned as well. Fortunately, I was wearing a hat to keep the sun off of my scalp.

Eventually, we came back to the bay, where the water got choppy again, and we saw some porpoises. The porpoises were not all that exciting, because you could barely see them in the water. They were not feeling like putting on a performance for us, apparently.

We got back to dock around 3:30 I think (I was so out of it by this point, I just wanted to nap, and could not be bothered by any more whales) and then headed back to Berkeley, where we took a nap, hobbled to dinner, then returned to bed. We were in bed by 8pm! Monday morning I had to be at work early, but still managed a good 9.5 hours of sleep. Unfortunately, no amount of sleep would cut through the thick cloud of Dramamine, and I was drowsy all day Monday as well.

We went whale watching with sfbaywhalewatching.com and I highly recommend them. they seem to really like what they are doing (there is a lot of cool info and pictures at their website) and they allowed a good deal of flexibility in going to see what we wanted, when we wanted. Good times!

Never Trust a Robot

Paul and I had dinner with his mom last night for Birthday Dinner II.

We ate a ton and polished off a bottle of champagne (mainly Paul's mom and myself)

Paul's mom drilled him about his job. I do this too sometimes, because I worry that Paul isn't all that engaged in his job. I want to him to enjoy work and be challenged! Little did I know how dangerous his robot job could be!


Tonight is Birthday Dinner III.

I'm enjoying relaxing a bit while I'm not in class. I think my two Fall classes start in about a week, so then it's back to a somewhat crazy schedule. For now? Long walks around the City, whale watching, and sitting in the hammock with the cats.

Paul's Birthday, and OMG- Stuffed!

Last night was Paul's birthday, so we went to Indigo for dinner, where we opted for the wine dinner (after 8pm, they'll pour as much wine as you like off of a list of like 12 wines, with a prix fix menu) My food was tasty, but it was too much to eat, so most of the dessert course went uneaten.

Fine, after Google food all day, I'm not all that hungry.
There is a ton of food here now, but I mostly avoid the crap. After the initial few days of wonder, I've toned it down quite a bit. Today is like this so far:
8:30 coffee and oatmeal (organic, maple nut)
10:30 about 1/2 cup of nuts (organic, mostly cashews, but with almonds, walnuts, and those big nuts I don't know the name of)
12:30 LUNCH! snap peas (with some teriyaki sauce), salad, and some really tasty fruit (organic: strawberries, kiwi, cantaloupe)


Really, the worst thing is probably the nuts. I shouldn't eat so many. But it could be worse. I mean, just look at what they are tempting us with in the snackroom:








OK, so this is just one of the snack fest areas. There's actually a bigger one upstairs. And every day there is something new. Like yesterday they added an espresso machine. And new cookies. I am declining all of this though. I do appreciate the veggie food though, and the fruit is awesome!


Anywhooo, we enjoyed Paul's birthday dinner and had presents. Paul is impossible to buy things for. What did he get? A new camera? Well, OK, so I'm the one who mostly uses the camera, but whatever. So there's finally a decent camera. Mine sucked and Paul's old one broke last week. So, yay. What else? We are going to look for birds on a whalewatching cruise this Sunday, out by the Farallone Islands. Cool! I don't know why birds go out to watch whales, but I'm not going to argue. Birdies!!!

Weekend, with birdies!

Saturday we went to Boulder Creek for a surprise birthday party. There were babies and mojitos with no liquor and some very noisy Bong brothers.

Sunday afternoon, we decided to go for a little walk that turned into a 12 or 13 mile hike. We started with beer (of course) and hiked out toward the Presidio. This took us through some fancy-pants neighborhoods, where the only really good way to piss off your 7 million dollar neighbors is by posting a giant robot out front next to their chateau. Bonus if your giant robot appears anatomically "correct."















Paul stopped to pop some flowers, and then found a house he liked.




























Heading down the Lyon Street steps, we found some great views of the bay and Alcatraz. I found a house with nifty glass and stuff.





At the Presidio, we played on the wartoys and then wandered around a bit looking for lunch. Instead, we found parrots. Laughing at us. No pigikeets these! These were big and green and had a different call than the ones in Berkeley or at the Embarcadero. They were too shy to photograph.





















Out by the water, we found a little marsh that had been reclaimed and set aside for birdies. There were a ton of seabirdies that we hadn't seen before. They were rather noisy, and enjoyed divebombing the pond. Fishing? Or just screwing around?




























We finally got out to Fort Point just as they were closing. We just got to run in to the main interior area as they were telling us to get out. Bummer. But we caught some nice touristy photos at the Fort Point parking lot.



































Then Paul climbed down to the rocks to make the starfishes famous. He apparently forgot that we were close enough to the ocean to get waves, and got splashed a whole bunch.




























On the way back from the Fort, we found this friendly bird of prey. He wanted to play with us, but was too shy to ask. Oh well. Better luck next time, birdie!






The hike home was a bit of a death march, but we did make it back around 7:30, in time to return to Berkeley to visit cats and clean up the birdfeeder (catfeeder?)

Wednesday is Paul's birthday. He is teh bestest.