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The Weekend

So Mark‘s in Fresno for the weekend, and I have the whole house to myself. I have a wild weekend planned, let me tell you. I’ve already popped out to the Safeway and picked up the frozen pizza and diet grapefruit soda…

Of course — being the hermit/loner type that I still am, regardless of what you may have been lead to believe — I’d be lying if I said I didn’t like having the house all to myself once in a while, but I do already miss the little bugger, and I’ll miss him even more tonight when the bed is several degrees chillier…

That said, I’ll probably spend the weekend watching movies (there’s a big pile), hitting the thrift stores (now that my car has a new battery), catching up on email (yeah, right…), and downloading census data (because I’m a freak and that’s what I do for fun sometimes, OK?). Plus, there’s a visiting friend from Greensboro who will probably need some showing around…

I may even post those long-promised LA pictures, but don’t hold your breath…

Randomly Monday

I’ve been having a lot of vaguely odd dreams featuring members of my family lately. Not disturbing, mind you, but just odd. For example, in one, I drove to the mall with my aunt and ran into my parents there. Shortly afterward, the mall turned into an airport and my aunt turned into my cousin (no Southern inbreeding jokes, please) and we were running from one end of said airport to the other looking for an emergency exit…

Yeah. So anyway, I know that all this has to do with guilt over the fact that I haven’t been home in almost two years. Thus, I’m starting to plan a quick trip — maybe four or five days tops — since I can’t manage more for a number of reasons right now…

Other random thoughts for a Monday afternoon:

  • Why does a city as large as San Francisco have such a miserable excuse for a newspaper? I’m not expecting the LA Times here, but you’d think a city of almost 800,000 people could manage an effort on something that takes almost as long to read as the Mercury News. San Jose isn’t all THAT much bigger a city.
  • Yes, I sometimes like gently reminding San Francisco that is neither the biggest nor (I’d argue) the most dominant city in the Bay Area anymore.
  • I dunno about this; the world has already seen my tweeter once.
  • Why no. No I didn’t post those pictures of LA this weekend. Nor answer any email. Nor will I probably end up doing so tonight.

Idiots of the Week

I worked with the public for many years and frankly, I’ve always been amazed with just how stupid some people can be. I mean really, gut-wrenchingly, pitifully stupid. Like, for example the woman who emailed me today from the supermarket site, telling me she needed her employment information so she could get food stamps. Apparently, she thought my supermarket history site was the official site for whatever store she used to work for, and she mailed me her name, her social security number, and a world of other personal information…

I get stuff like this every week (job applications, complaints about bad service at some store in Pocatello, whatever) from people who just can’t be bothered to read one line which might tell them that they’re contacting the wrong person. And these disclaimers are in very large letters at the top and bottom of EVERY PAGE, not to mention an ever bigger one on the contact page…

I wrote back, politely even, stating that I couldn’t help her and suggesting she might want to be a bit more careful about who she provided with such sensitive information. All the while, I was thinking that her utter cluelessness and lack of any discernible attention span (reading comprehension? sense of context?) might have a lot to do with why she’s applying for food stamps right now. I was nice, however, and didn’t share this opinion with her because I figured she had enough trouble already…

More “idiot of the week” awards:

  • To the management of Crossgates Mall in Albany: Yes, I realize that you have every right to eject people from your private property for wearing T-shirts you don’t like. I myself have the right to run around downtown San Francisco yelling that the sky is falling. The difference is that I’m not stupid enough to EXERCISE this right just because I have it. Rather, I choose to exercise JUDGMENT and to avoid doing things which will get me loads of bad press and make me look like a cartoon villain…
  • To the detractors who believe the above is a free speech issue: It just ain’t so. Mall management has every right to limit free speech on private property, and they can continue to do so until they drive off every last shopper and tenant in the place…
  • To Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio): George Orwell would be intrigued by your stand in favor of revisionist cuisine. The rest of the country, however, is laughing hysterically at your bumbling cry for attention. Isn’t it usually liberals who are acuused of this kind of foolishness?
  • To Steve Comstock of Santa Cruz, arrested for trashing downtown San Francisco after the last “peace” protest, who said “When you feel strongly about something, you don’t just continue to live your life the way you always do.” So you do what, then? Run around like a pouting three-year-old, breaking things because you didn’t get your way? Grow up. You couldn’t create a rational argument that water is wet if your life depended on it…

I Protest

I’ve been filled with a rather seething rage for the past week or so and haven’t really had the time nor the attention span to write about it. I’m not thrilled about this war thing, which should be rather obvious. No sane person gets all gushy and excited about the prospect of war; it’s a dirty — if sometimes necessary — business. But my opinion on the war is irrelevant; my beef is with the protesters who are hell-bent on taking San Francisco hostage by deciding that their “right” to “free speech” supercedes the rights of thousands of others to live their lives and support their families…

And I’m outraged that very few local commentators seem to recognize the precedent we’re setting by allowing this to happen. Sure, there are plenty of tepid condemnations (“While I understand their frustration, I don’t wholeheartedly endorse their actions, even though I sympathize with them.”) and occasional outbursts by overgrown frat boys who have no more understanding of law and order than the protesters they condemn, but disturbingly few powerful voices in San Francisco have had the courage to point out that the terrorist acts committed here last week are unaccpetable, period. I don’t give a good goddamn about whatever “good intentions” the protesters (and their wimpy defenders) may think they have. It bothers me greatly that Willie Brown seems to be the most sensible politician in town this week…

The day before the protests last week, I wrote this rant, and I’m just getting around to posting it today. I still think it holds up pretty well. If you don’t want the long version, a synopsis would include the following:

  • Current protest theory seems to center around inconveniencing as many people as possible. This strategy is doomed to backfire.
  • Anti-war protesters (specifically “civil disobedients”) in San Francisco seem to believe that their right to break the law supercedes the rights of others not to.
  • Facets of the peace movement are pushing an entire “bill of goods”, most of which has nothing to do with the current situation in Iraq.
  • Those who use tactics involving force, violence, or destruction of property are terrorists and should be treated as such. Period.

On the lighter side, the DVD releases of “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” and the first season of “Futurama” (released yesterday) are quite wonderful and are highly recommended. A sense of humor is a good thing…

Idiots du Jour

This morning, I received an emailed form letter from some idiot taking me to task for supporting the protests in San Francisco and “giving comfort to the enemy” or some such claptrap. It was pretty much the last thing I expected since I made a pretty loud statement AGAINST the protesters earlier this week. It’s proof, I guess, that there are lunkheads on all sides of this issue…

I ain’t leaving the house today, what with Hypocritical Mess being joined by Bikes Not Bombs (I’ve decided to join forces with the guy next door who fixes timepieces and start a group called “Clocks Not Clichés”), the Giants season-opener, and a whole lot of ill-timed construction starting all at once…

Anyone interested in starting a “help David and Mark escape San Francisco” fund?

Snow in the Sierra

Going up into the Sierra for the weekend to watch it snow and stuff. Lest anyone get the wrong idea here, though, the closest we’ll be getting to “roughing it” is the fact that we’ll have a VCR but no DVD player…

I do not camp…

OK, Maybe No Snow…

Home again. We didn’t actually see any snow, but there was lots of rain. So we played Monopoly and watched movies and cooked out (there’s something wonderfully unwholesome about cooking out when it’s 25 degrees and pouring down rain outside) and it was a good weekend all in all…

Unrelated (I think): why have I been starving all day?

Updates

I’ve disappeared for so long this time that people are starting to ask if I’m alive or dead. Since convincing them otherwise would require actually answering email (something I seem wholly incapable of doing lately), I’ve decided it’s time to set the record straight here. Today, I feel somewhere in between…

No, don’t worry. There’s nothing wrong. I’ve just been horribly busy this week, commuting to San Mateo by day and working on a major site redesign for a client by night. Both should be done this week — just in time for me to go on jury duty. Woo hoo…

By the way, penis anyone?

By way of updates:

  • Had a brief stop by Berkeley last weekend to hit the assorted used media stores. It’s good to visit Berkeley once in a while; it makes San Francisco seem so — how shall I say it — rational and sensible by comparison. Which ain’t easy. By the way, is there any truth to that rumor that Berkeley is considering setting aside 20% of its street parking for cars which are valued at less than $3500? No, of course not, but you believed it for a second, didn’t you?
  • On Sunday, we watched some of the dismantling of the Central Freeway overpass crossing Market Street. I may drive up and see if it’s completely gone this afternoon. My computer and I need some quality time apart…
  • Self-indulgence dilemma of the week: deciding whether to unwind with a selection from the new Family Guy box set or the recently-acquired New York box set…
  • Mark’s been visiting the parents all weekend, but I have no naughty little secrets to share; I spent the entire weekend curled up with Dreamweaver and ImageReady, and my biggest extravagances were dinner at IHOP with Jamie last night and a trip to Target, where I bought one two-dollar bag of cookies…
  • Things I hate this month: the IRS, the Superior Court of San Francisco, and the Department of Parking and Traffic…
  • Entertaining website of the week: The History of San Francisco Bay Area Freeway Development…
  • The newest beta of Safari is addressing most of my concerns nicely. Of course, all you Windoze sufferers can’t use it. Too bad…

I’ll try to make the updates a little more frequent soon. Or at least a little more entertaining…

Randomly Wednesday

Random thoughts for a Wednesday afternoon:

  • I’ve finally visited my first Ikea store. My expectations weren’t all that high, and said expectations were definitely met. All in all, I’d just as soon go to Target…
  • Vague plans afoot for a quick trip to North Carolina with Mark on the last weekend in June. I’ll keep you posted…
  • Twenty years ago this week, “True” by Spandau Ballet was number one on the UK charts. I didn’t like the song any more then than I do now, but I sure do feel old…
  • Be very wary of eggplant curry when your stomach is in certain frames of mind. Enough said…