after getting a new sister-in-law in las vegas, this morning i signed a lease on my new apartment. i have someone lined up to help me move on sunday. i told wayne, who again congratulated me. i then set out on preparing for the new place.
i changed my address with the post office. i set up a pg&e account for myself. apparently, if i call it an electric bill, nobody has the first clue what i'm talking about.... so, i will conform. i changed my address with the ca dmv. i re-registered to vote. i changed my billing address for t-mobile. i am working on changing my mailing address for my paystubs through my job, i am going to change my address at the bank after work. i also paid my deposit and my first month's rent.
after this, i just need to set up an internet connection, move-in and get some things so i can organize my place. not necessarily in that order. anyone have any comments on wireless vs. cable modem and what company i should use for these things? or any other addresses that i should change?
current music: Charles Mingus - Better Git It in Your Soul (I like this one)
Monday, April 30, 2007
Thursday, April 26, 2007
From Today's Chronicle
Tenderloin mourns an original
Legless panhandler known as 'Skateboard,' killed by mail truck, lived life on the edge
C.W. Nevius
Thursday, April 26, 2007
The requiem for "Skateboard" Holmes began Tuesday night on the cracked sidewalk on Taylor Street. Residents of the Tenderloin community turned out in fits and starts, leaving doorways and tiny hotel rooms to pay their respects.
Few of them would have been able to tell you that the legless, homeless man who rolled the streets on his battered skateboard was named Monty Holmes. Nor that he grew up in Oakland and lost his legs in an accident on the train tracks when he was 6 years old.
But they knew that something needed to be done to mark the passing of the 48-year-old panhandler. Flowers appeared, some of them with potting soil still clinging to their roots after being pulled from planter boxes. There were bottles of brandy (empty), religious candles and trinkets.
Behind the memorial, a concrete wall quickly filled with pencil scratchings and scrawlings from black markers.
"Bless you Skateboard," one of them said. "The man with the biggest heart in the street."
Skateboard's wife, Linda Thomas, stood Wednesday on the sidewalk in front of the wall. A world-weary woman with a nasty scar across her nose, she'd been at the corner of Third and Townsend streets Tuesday afternoon when the driver of a mail truck failed to see Skateboard in the crosswalk and ran over him.
"Skateboard is gone!" Thomas wailed. "I ain't never forget this day."
To be honest, it was not entirely unexpected that Skateboard was hit by a truck. He didn't cast much of a profile way down there on his board, and even his friends admit that he had a tendency to zip heedlessly into traffic.
Ahmed Ali, owner of the Tenderloin Market and Liquor Store, which was Skateboard's first stop on most mornings after waking up on the sidewalk, said, "He almost got hit a bunch of times."
And then, well, let's just say Skateboard had some other demons. As Joseph Kim, who runs the Liquor and More store on Third and Townsend, said, "Skateboard was drunk all the time."
So if you are looking to muster a lot of sympathy, this is an uphill battle. Skateboard was a reckless, homeless drinker who, after any number of close calls, finally got run over. Frankly, he was probably living on borrowed time. So it goes.
We walk past street characters such as Skateboard every day in San Francisco. The city's kind of famous for them. Sometimes they are chattering to unseen companions. And sometimes, like Skateboard, they panhandle areas with lots of pedestrians such as AT&T Park or the hotels.
Of course, we all know the drill in dealing with street people -- eyes straight ahead, keep walking and ignore them if they try to talk to you.
This is no surprise to those who sleep on the street. They've seen the looks. Up on Eddy, around the corner from Skateboard's memorial, I met a guy who would identify himself only as Mathias. He was sitting on the sidewalk, leaning up against a chain-link fence when I asked him if he knew Skateboard.
"He was part of the furniture," Mathias said. "He was one of us. We're furniture. We live here, on the street, in one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in San Francisco."
But it is also easy to forget that in this small, street-hardened community, there are social conventions. Skateboard may have been a public nuisance at times, cooking his meals on a burner and skillet on the sidewalk, but that doesn't mean his neighbors don't feel the loss.
"I've known him for years," Cary Fisher said. "He was a very gentle man."
I told Fisher and Mathias that I'd heard more than one version of Skateboard's temperament. I'd heard that he was very nice, but also that when he and Thomas were drinking, he could be a rough drunk.
"Naw," said Mathias. "We're rough drunks. He was mellow."
It wasn't the life many of us might have chosen -- and probably not the one he had in mind in his earlier years -- but in his own way, Skateboard was maintaining his lifestyle. Ali said Skateboard was a fixture at Giants and 49ers games.
Skateboard made bundles at baseball games, Kim added, when cheerful fans could always spare a buck or two for the guy on the skateboard with no legs.
He sometimes rolled into Kim's store with a stack of ones, looking to buy a bottle of Jack Daniel's.
"He was a good guy," Kim said. "No trouble at all."
In fact, it is entirely possible that Skateboard was on his way to the store Tuesday when he was killed. Kim didn't see the accident, but rushed out as soon as it happened.
"I was glad that he didn't have any pain," he said. "And I hope he goes to heaven."
Legless panhandler known as 'Skateboard,' killed by mail truck, lived life on the edge
C.W. Nevius
Thursday, April 26, 2007
The requiem for "Skateboard" Holmes began Tuesday night on the cracked sidewalk on Taylor Street. Residents of the Tenderloin community turned out in fits and starts, leaving doorways and tiny hotel rooms to pay their respects.
Few of them would have been able to tell you that the legless, homeless man who rolled the streets on his battered skateboard was named Monty Holmes. Nor that he grew up in Oakland and lost his legs in an accident on the train tracks when he was 6 years old.
But they knew that something needed to be done to mark the passing of the 48-year-old panhandler. Flowers appeared, some of them with potting soil still clinging to their roots after being pulled from planter boxes. There were bottles of brandy (empty), religious candles and trinkets.
Behind the memorial, a concrete wall quickly filled with pencil scratchings and scrawlings from black markers.
"Bless you Skateboard," one of them said. "The man with the biggest heart in the street."
Skateboard's wife, Linda Thomas, stood Wednesday on the sidewalk in front of the wall. A world-weary woman with a nasty scar across her nose, she'd been at the corner of Third and Townsend streets Tuesday afternoon when the driver of a mail truck failed to see Skateboard in the crosswalk and ran over him.
"Skateboard is gone!" Thomas wailed. "I ain't never forget this day."
To be honest, it was not entirely unexpected that Skateboard was hit by a truck. He didn't cast much of a profile way down there on his board, and even his friends admit that he had a tendency to zip heedlessly into traffic.
Ahmed Ali, owner of the Tenderloin Market and Liquor Store, which was Skateboard's first stop on most mornings after waking up on the sidewalk, said, "He almost got hit a bunch of times."
And then, well, let's just say Skateboard had some other demons. As Joseph Kim, who runs the Liquor and More store on Third and Townsend, said, "Skateboard was drunk all the time."
So if you are looking to muster a lot of sympathy, this is an uphill battle. Skateboard was a reckless, homeless drinker who, after any number of close calls, finally got run over. Frankly, he was probably living on borrowed time. So it goes.
We walk past street characters such as Skateboard every day in San Francisco. The city's kind of famous for them. Sometimes they are chattering to unseen companions. And sometimes, like Skateboard, they panhandle areas with lots of pedestrians such as AT&T Park or the hotels.
Of course, we all know the drill in dealing with street people -- eyes straight ahead, keep walking and ignore them if they try to talk to you.
This is no surprise to those who sleep on the street. They've seen the looks. Up on Eddy, around the corner from Skateboard's memorial, I met a guy who would identify himself only as Mathias. He was sitting on the sidewalk, leaning up against a chain-link fence when I asked him if he knew Skateboard.
"He was part of the furniture," Mathias said. "He was one of us. We're furniture. We live here, on the street, in one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in San Francisco."
But it is also easy to forget that in this small, street-hardened community, there are social conventions. Skateboard may have been a public nuisance at times, cooking his meals on a burner and skillet on the sidewalk, but that doesn't mean his neighbors don't feel the loss.
"I've known him for years," Cary Fisher said. "He was a very gentle man."
I told Fisher and Mathias that I'd heard more than one version of Skateboard's temperament. I'd heard that he was very nice, but also that when he and Thomas were drinking, he could be a rough drunk.
"Naw," said Mathias. "We're rough drunks. He was mellow."
It wasn't the life many of us might have chosen -- and probably not the one he had in mind in his earlier years -- but in his own way, Skateboard was maintaining his lifestyle. Ali said Skateboard was a fixture at Giants and 49ers games.
Skateboard made bundles at baseball games, Kim added, when cheerful fans could always spare a buck or two for the guy on the skateboard with no legs.
He sometimes rolled into Kim's store with a stack of ones, looking to buy a bottle of Jack Daniel's.
"He was a good guy," Kim said. "No trouble at all."
In fact, it is entirely possible that Skateboard was on his way to the store Tuesday when he was killed. Kim didn't see the accident, but rushed out as soon as it happened.
"I was glad that he didn't have any pain," he said. "And I hope he goes to heaven."
New Life
Life seems to be starting anew. I am moving and will likely be completely moved in about 2-3 weeks. I have just finished a translation job for a law firm for $150 from English-German. My brother is getting married in 2 days. Crazy. Goodbye Muni transit. No longer will I be a slave to your horrible service. I'm gonna walk! Everyday to work.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
gunshots
Oh, and there were gunshots outside of my window followed by sirens on Friday night. The story:
ABC News
"The shooting was reported at 9 p.m. at the intersection of Divisadero Street and Golden Gate Avenue (my intersection), in the Alamo Square neighborhood. One victim was found suffering a gunshot to his right arm.
The victim was walking along the street when suspects, described only as two black men, drove up in a car. The victim began to run and one of the suspects got out of the vehicle and shot at the victim, striking his arm. The victim was transported to a local hospital in stable condition.
Police are continuing to search for suspects in the shooting."
ABC News
"The shooting was reported at 9 p.m. at the intersection of Divisadero Street and Golden Gate Avenue (my intersection), in the Alamo Square neighborhood. One victim was found suffering a gunshot to his right arm.
The victim was walking along the street when suspects, described only as two black men, drove up in a car. The victim began to run and one of the suspects got out of the vehicle and shot at the victim, striking his arm. The victim was transported to a local hospital in stable condition.
Police are continuing to search for suspects in the shooting."
Moving
Although it is not official yet, I am moving to a new neighborhood. I am waiting to hear on one place, and if it does not work out, I will keep working til I find a place in the neighborhood. There are a lot of vacancies, so it'll work, it just may take some time.
The neighborhood is sandwiched between other interesting neighborhoods and is only developing its own identity now. It is east of the Polk Gulch/Village (the old gay center of SF, now a mixture of transvestites and rich people. It is north of the Tenderloin, the notorious skid row of San Francisco. I work in this general area and regularly see people smoking crack on the street. It's a very high crime area, but it's also mostly drug-related crime. Lots of cheap food and dive bars. Open crack-smoking on the street abounds. It is west of the Theater District/Union Square. This is the true center of the city, where the tourists flock, the cable cars run, the expensive massive stores are and the best theater scene in the west is based. It is south of Nob Hill, the old-money center, where the Big Four, including Leland Stanford built their mansions after finishing the railroads to the city. I am looking for places closer to the de facto Nob Hill area than the Tenderloin and about halfway inbetween the Polk Gulch and Union Square. The place I am currently in the running for is due north of the Indian/Pakistani center of the Tenderloin, that some like to call the Tandoori-loin. People are quite imaginative.
So, the names of the area are plentiful. Some people will call it Polk Gulch, Theater District, Nob Hill or the Tenderloin. The city designates it officially as Nob Hill. Real estate developers call it Lower Nob Hill. Young people mockingly call it Tenderloin Heights, because it's on a hill, and many neighborhoods are called Heights (Dolores Heights, Pacific Heights, Presidio Heights). Nobody takes this name seriously. The most fun name, and a very common name for it, is the TenderNob. Haha. Somebody online quipped, "I thought a Tendernob is what I get after running 10k with no underwear." Sorry for the dirty joke. I like Lower Nob Hill or the TenderNob. Some people call it "The Nob", or even the "Trendyloin" (although the last more refers to the Tenderloin proper).
The district looks like my impression of New York more than of San Francisco. All buildings are 5 stories and above. It's full of cafes and bars and restaurants and hotels, but it is also fairly quiet. It's not as hectic as many other places. However, there is nowhere else in the city that I could afford, where I could walk to the Tenderloin or the Polk Gulch for cheap food, to Union Square for big city life, to Chinatown for cheap teas and food, North Beach for Cafes, all in 10 minutes. Work is less than 10 minutes away.
Lastly, I leave some impressions from the internet:
"I've lived in this area of San Francisco since 1991, in two different apartments, during two different sub-lives. It's definitely a district of its own, yet it has not yet been recognised as such on any map. Perhaps someday it shall be.
Like the Lower Haight, the TenderNob has become a district unto itself, in many senses. It is the Tenderloin and Nob Hill districts smushed together as if by a force which has blended the two very opposite neighbourhoods to the point where this blended region extends for blocks and blocks into both of the combined districts."
"Ah the TenderNob, great rent prices, and relatively safe. I get propositioned for crack, or tranny hookers from time to time, but never have I felt in danger. There's good food around, it's close to the heart of the city, and I don't have far to bike to get to school. Also, I hear the cool kids affix Tender to all of their favorite things in the area e.g. "Hey, let's go get some TenderCoffee." I don't know if that actually happens, but it should."
"I love living here. We have the best cross-section of people, i.e. prostitutes and yuppies, food, cool low key bars, and some cool South-North hills. I have one beef - I wish we were more accessible to the upper market area and the haight. Other than that we have the nicer hipsters (compared to the mission), the late night urban feel of NY, and the best locale for tourists to do what they came here for."
The neighborhood is sandwiched between other interesting neighborhoods and is only developing its own identity now. It is east of the Polk Gulch/Village (the old gay center of SF, now a mixture of transvestites and rich people. It is north of the Tenderloin, the notorious skid row of San Francisco. I work in this general area and regularly see people smoking crack on the street. It's a very high crime area, but it's also mostly drug-related crime. Lots of cheap food and dive bars. Open crack-smoking on the street abounds. It is west of the Theater District/Union Square. This is the true center of the city, where the tourists flock, the cable cars run, the expensive massive stores are and the best theater scene in the west is based. It is south of Nob Hill, the old-money center, where the Big Four, including Leland Stanford built their mansions after finishing the railroads to the city. I am looking for places closer to the de facto Nob Hill area than the Tenderloin and about halfway inbetween the Polk Gulch and Union Square. The place I am currently in the running for is due north of the Indian/Pakistani center of the Tenderloin, that some like to call the Tandoori-loin. People are quite imaginative.
So, the names of the area are plentiful. Some people will call it Polk Gulch, Theater District, Nob Hill or the Tenderloin. The city designates it officially as Nob Hill. Real estate developers call it Lower Nob Hill. Young people mockingly call it Tenderloin Heights, because it's on a hill, and many neighborhoods are called Heights (Dolores Heights, Pacific Heights, Presidio Heights). Nobody takes this name seriously. The most fun name, and a very common name for it, is the TenderNob. Haha. Somebody online quipped, "I thought a Tendernob is what I get after running 10k with no underwear." Sorry for the dirty joke. I like Lower Nob Hill or the TenderNob. Some people call it "The Nob", or even the "Trendyloin" (although the last more refers to the Tenderloin proper).
The district looks like my impression of New York more than of San Francisco. All buildings are 5 stories and above. It's full of cafes and bars and restaurants and hotels, but it is also fairly quiet. It's not as hectic as many other places. However, there is nowhere else in the city that I could afford, where I could walk to the Tenderloin or the Polk Gulch for cheap food, to Union Square for big city life, to Chinatown for cheap teas and food, North Beach for Cafes, all in 10 minutes. Work is less than 10 minutes away.
Lastly, I leave some impressions from the internet:
"I've lived in this area of San Francisco since 1991, in two different apartments, during two different sub-lives. It's definitely a district of its own, yet it has not yet been recognised as such on any map. Perhaps someday it shall be.
Like the Lower Haight, the TenderNob has become a district unto itself, in many senses. It is the Tenderloin and Nob Hill districts smushed together as if by a force which has blended the two very opposite neighbourhoods to the point where this blended region extends for blocks and blocks into both of the combined districts."
"Ah the TenderNob, great rent prices, and relatively safe. I get propositioned for crack, or tranny hookers from time to time, but never have I felt in danger. There's good food around, it's close to the heart of the city, and I don't have far to bike to get to school. Also, I hear the cool kids affix Tender to all of their favorite things in the area e.g. "Hey, let's go get some TenderCoffee." I don't know if that actually happens, but it should."
"I love living here. We have the best cross-section of people, i.e. prostitutes and yuppies, food, cool low key bars, and some cool South-North hills. I have one beef - I wish we were more accessible to the upper market area and the haight. Other than that we have the nicer hipsters (compared to the mission), the late night urban feel of NY, and the best locale for tourists to do what they came here for."
Friday, April 20, 2007
VaTech, Jazz, Prasant Radhakrishnan and Karlheinz Stockhausen
I tell you, I'm really getting sick of hearing about VA Tech. Our flag at work is at half mast. Why? Because the president pretends to care (he probably really does care) about the victims.
CNN wrote yesterday that all 32 victims' lives were "extraordinary". It seems to me that the most extraordinary was the shooter. He was a mass-murderer. That's pretty odd.
The seeming obsession of the American media (yes, the rest of the world cared deeply only until about Wednesday) with this case seems right out of the NRA's playbook. The laws are the way they want them. So, every attempt to discuss the cause of this action as it relates to gun-control is referred to as someone "polticizing" the situation "too soon". This effectively blocks any resultant changes to the law. Yes, lets arm the students. Fools.
On a very different note, I've been listening to a lot of jazz from all eras, but mostly from the 50s and 60s. I haven't quite been able to stomach fusion yet, but I am trying. And bebop and before just seem rather tame and boring. I've gotten into later John Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders, Albert Ayler, Ornette Coleman. Basically, the free-jazz and "spiritual" jazz that likely sounds like noise to most people. The most amazing change in jazz seemed to come in 1959, with four major albums: "Kind of Blue" by Miles Davis, "Time Out" by Dave Brubeck, "Mingus Ah Um" by Charles Mingus and "The Shape of Jazz to Come" by Ornette Coleman. That seems to be when I get on. I think I get off when jazz starts sounding like prog rock, and I am certainly not getting back on with Wynton Marsalis, who seems to think that good jazz ended at 1960. Boo.
So, in my quest for jazz in San Francisco, I was reading about Yoshi's SF, a new San Francisco version of the famous Oakland jazz club that I went to one time in my senior year. It was being discussed in a general article of San Francisco jazz clubs. This led me to the Red Poppy Art House in the Mission (or at least their internet site), where the featured group is called VidyA, a carnatic (a style of Indian classical music) jazz group. Their leader is saxophonist Prasant Radhakrishnan. I did a double-take. He sat next to me in band class at Sunrise Middle School! We used to walk home together and talk about the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Crazy. So, I downloaded some clips and listened to them and they are very good, not boring unemotional crap either. I emailed him and we are gonna meet up sometime soon!
My quest for good music has consistently brought me to a modern German classical composer named Karlheinz Stockhausen, from Nordrhein-Westfalen (North Rhein-Westphalia). Anybody know about him? I've never actually heard him, but I really feel I should. I'll leave you with a list of the artists that claim him as an influence, so that you can see why I'm interested. Although their styles may seem disparate, they are some of my favorites. Usually very quirky, but very interesting and often droning.
Miles Davis,
Charles Mingus,
Herbie Hancock,
Yusef Lateef (someone I'm interested in, but have never heard),
Frank Zappa,
The Beatles (he's also one of the many heads on Sgt. Pepper's),
Jefferson Airplane,
Grateful Dead,
Pink Floyd,
Can (a 60's-70's German "krautrock" group with connections to Kraftwerk that sounds more like a droning Led Zeppelin or Black Mountain, a Canadian group that I saw open for Coldplay)
Kraftwerk,
Bjork,
Sonic Youth,
Igor Stravinsky,
Jerzy Kosinski (a Polish author that Agnieszka says makes her wanna throw up, he's so good),
Thomas Pynchon (also never read, but I know his style well)
Does that list seem interesting to any of you?
Current music - Can - Halleluhwah
CNN wrote yesterday that all 32 victims' lives were "extraordinary". It seems to me that the most extraordinary was the shooter. He was a mass-murderer. That's pretty odd.
The seeming obsession of the American media (yes, the rest of the world cared deeply only until about Wednesday) with this case seems right out of the NRA's playbook. The laws are the way they want them. So, every attempt to discuss the cause of this action as it relates to gun-control is referred to as someone "polticizing" the situation "too soon". This effectively blocks any resultant changes to the law. Yes, lets arm the students. Fools.
On a very different note, I've been listening to a lot of jazz from all eras, but mostly from the 50s and 60s. I haven't quite been able to stomach fusion yet, but I am trying. And bebop and before just seem rather tame and boring. I've gotten into later John Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders, Albert Ayler, Ornette Coleman. Basically, the free-jazz and "spiritual" jazz that likely sounds like noise to most people. The most amazing change in jazz seemed to come in 1959, with four major albums: "Kind of Blue" by Miles Davis, "Time Out" by Dave Brubeck, "Mingus Ah Um" by Charles Mingus and "The Shape of Jazz to Come" by Ornette Coleman. That seems to be when I get on. I think I get off when jazz starts sounding like prog rock, and I am certainly not getting back on with Wynton Marsalis, who seems to think that good jazz ended at 1960. Boo.
So, in my quest for jazz in San Francisco, I was reading about Yoshi's SF, a new San Francisco version of the famous Oakland jazz club that I went to one time in my senior year. It was being discussed in a general article of San Francisco jazz clubs. This led me to the Red Poppy Art House in the Mission (or at least their internet site), where the featured group is called VidyA, a carnatic (a style of Indian classical music) jazz group. Their leader is saxophonist Prasant Radhakrishnan. I did a double-take. He sat next to me in band class at Sunrise Middle School! We used to walk home together and talk about the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Crazy. So, I downloaded some clips and listened to them and they are very good, not boring unemotional crap either. I emailed him and we are gonna meet up sometime soon!
My quest for good music has consistently brought me to a modern German classical composer named Karlheinz Stockhausen, from Nordrhein-Westfalen (North Rhein-Westphalia). Anybody know about him? I've never actually heard him, but I really feel I should. I'll leave you with a list of the artists that claim him as an influence, so that you can see why I'm interested. Although their styles may seem disparate, they are some of my favorites. Usually very quirky, but very interesting and often droning.
Miles Davis,
Charles Mingus,
Herbie Hancock,
Yusef Lateef (someone I'm interested in, but have never heard),
Frank Zappa,
The Beatles (he's also one of the many heads on Sgt. Pepper's),
Jefferson Airplane,
Grateful Dead,
Pink Floyd,
Can (a 60's-70's German "krautrock" group with connections to Kraftwerk that sounds more like a droning Led Zeppelin or Black Mountain, a Canadian group that I saw open for Coldplay)
Kraftwerk,
Bjork,
Sonic Youth,
Igor Stravinsky,
Jerzy Kosinski (a Polish author that Agnieszka says makes her wanna throw up, he's so good),
Thomas Pynchon (also never read, but I know his style well)
Does that list seem interesting to any of you?
Current music - Can - Halleluhwah
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
SF/shooting woes
The bottom line on the Virginia Tech situation is that the shooter was a loner with no prior crime connections. He walked into a gun store and bought himself a killing machine. The idiotic/ignorant argument that gun control laws would only take guns away from law-abiding citizens is thereby debunked. Laws might have stopped the man, who it appears had a history of mental illness, from being able to procure the gun so easily. People BECOME criminals. They're not born that way. He certainly became one. The Virginia gun lobby (and that of everywhere else) has a massive amount of blood on its hands. Too bad nothing will change. Our president is an insensitive foolish jerk. Dana Perino's statement that the president still supports gun ownership rights came just minutes after all these people were shot. I think this was done so that people would attack his statements as callous and "too soon" (the two dumbest words in the English language), which of course simultaneously pulled the carpet out from under the feet of those who would advocate ending the endless killing spree that results from our to-say-the-least antiquated gun laws. @#$% him. The NRA will continue to murder our people.
On a slightly happier note, our transit system is crumbling. What a brouhaha (hi mom). The new T-Third St. line is "a disaster" according to all the richies that live in SoMa, but it's certainly not the first thing that has gone wrong. Everyday, I have to wrestle my way onto a bus that's late. It's gotten much worse over the 8 months I've lived in SF. People are just fed up. People curse at the driver, scream, bang on the windows, the drivers get angry. On Sunday, around 30 people boarded the 38-Geary inbound at each stop. I've never been on such a crowded vehicle, despite the fact that it's two lengths of a normal bus and it was Sunday! Oh well, at least they got the T-Third St. line going so they can move the rest of the African-Americans over to Oakland and prepare their historic neighborhood for a possible new football stadium and chic housing. Yay! Too bad the most traveled transit corridor in the western US (Geary from Ocean Beach to the Transbay terminal via Union Square) is still a crappy overcrowded bus that can't fit all of its passengers on a Sunday afternoon. Oh well, in this age of concern over carbon emissions, it sure is nice to see a major US city pushing people back into their cars, which they can all afford because all the poor are being driven out of the city. Three cheers for SF!
Which brings me to my last point. Should I really pay $850-$1100/month for a studio, just to stay here? If I moved to Oakland or Berkeley, it'd probably be $750-$1000. I've built my life here over the past 8 months. I have a steady job here. I plan to stay in the area and apply for college. Should I move to Berkeley or Oakland and take BART everyday? That's probably not much cheaper cuz BART is so expensive. Am I being held hostage? Oh well. If I stay in the city, my goal is to live close enough to work that I won't buy a bus pass, and I'll walk everywhere. That'd be even better for the world. I would really like some advice on this one.
Current music - OAR (Of a Revolution) - some song, I'm not sure what
On a slightly happier note, our transit system is crumbling. What a brouhaha (hi mom). The new T-Third St. line is "a disaster" according to all the richies that live in SoMa, but it's certainly not the first thing that has gone wrong. Everyday, I have to wrestle my way onto a bus that's late. It's gotten much worse over the 8 months I've lived in SF. People are just fed up. People curse at the driver, scream, bang on the windows, the drivers get angry. On Sunday, around 30 people boarded the 38-Geary inbound at each stop. I've never been on such a crowded vehicle, despite the fact that it's two lengths of a normal bus and it was Sunday! Oh well, at least they got the T-Third St. line going so they can move the rest of the African-Americans over to Oakland and prepare their historic neighborhood for a possible new football stadium and chic housing. Yay! Too bad the most traveled transit corridor in the western US (Geary from Ocean Beach to the Transbay terminal via Union Square) is still a crappy overcrowded bus that can't fit all of its passengers on a Sunday afternoon. Oh well, in this age of concern over carbon emissions, it sure is nice to see a major US city pushing people back into their cars, which they can all afford because all the poor are being driven out of the city. Three cheers for SF!
Which brings me to my last point. Should I really pay $850-$1100/month for a studio, just to stay here? If I moved to Oakland or Berkeley, it'd probably be $750-$1000. I've built my life here over the past 8 months. I have a steady job here. I plan to stay in the area and apply for college. Should I move to Berkeley or Oakland and take BART everyday? That's probably not much cheaper cuz BART is so expensive. Am I being held hostage? Oh well. If I stay in the city, my goal is to live close enough to work that I won't buy a bus pass, and I'll walk everywhere. That'd be even better for the world. I would really like some advice on this one.
Current music - OAR (Of a Revolution) - some song, I'm not sure what
Friday, April 13, 2007
Vonnegut
“Hello, babies. Welcome to earth. It’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It’s round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you have about a hundred years here. There’s only one rule that I know of–
God damn it, babies, you’ve got to be kind. “ -God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater
"Many people need desperately to receive this message: 'I feel and think much as you do, care about many of the things you care about, although most people don't care about them. You are not alone.'" -Timequake
"We're terrible animals. I think that the Earth's immune system is trying to get rid of us, as well it should." - from The Daily Show, 2004
If God were alive today, he would have to be an atheist, because the excrement has hit the air-conditioning big time, big time. - Unsourced
"Perhaps, when we remember wars, we should take off our clothes and paint ourselves blue and go on all fours all day long and grunt like pigs. That would surely be more appropriate than noble oratory and shows of flags and well-oiled guns. " - Cat's Cradle
Requiem:
The crucified planet Earth,
should it find a voice
and a sense of irony,
might now well say
of our abuse of it,
"Forgive them, Father,
They know not what they do."
The irony would be
that we know what
we are doing.
When the last living thing
has died on account of us,
how poetical it would be
if Earth could say,
in a voice floating up
perhaps
from the floor
of the Grand Canyon,
"It is done."
People did not like it here.
-A Man without a Country
You realize, of course, that everything I say is horseshit. -Unsourced
So it goes
God damn it, babies, you’ve got to be kind. “ -God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater
"Many people need desperately to receive this message: 'I feel and think much as you do, care about many of the things you care about, although most people don't care about them. You are not alone.'" -Timequake
"We're terrible animals. I think that the Earth's immune system is trying to get rid of us, as well it should." - from The Daily Show, 2004
If God were alive today, he would have to be an atheist, because the excrement has hit the air-conditioning big time, big time. - Unsourced
"Perhaps, when we remember wars, we should take off our clothes and paint ourselves blue and go on all fours all day long and grunt like pigs. That would surely be more appropriate than noble oratory and shows of flags and well-oiled guns. " - Cat's Cradle
Requiem:
The crucified planet Earth,
should it find a voice
and a sense of irony,
might now well say
of our abuse of it,
"Forgive them, Father,
They know not what they do."
The irony would be
that we know what
we are doing.
When the last living thing
has died on account of us,
how poetical it would be
if Earth could say,
in a voice floating up
perhaps
from the floor
of the Grand Canyon,
"It is done."
People did not like it here.
-A Man without a Country
You realize, of course, that everything I say is horseshit. -Unsourced
So it goes
On Vonnegut
This statement was on NewYorkTimes.com today as one of hundreds. It seems fitting and could have been written by me if you change one digit and a few historical details:
Breakfast of Champions was read by me in the mid 80’s. I was a depressed, disaffected teenager, Reagan, and his administration’s Iran-Contra scandal were in full bloom. The book gave me a wake-up call that others could see the cynical beauty that I perceived around me in the world. My teenage intellect perceived the first 20 pages as some sort of eccentric adult joke that I wasn’t in on, then suddenly I got it, and read (and re-read) the rest with growing equal levels of intimidation and admiration. I then became a rabid Vonnegut fan, and I am so sad now, to see that beautiful intellectual light having finally burned out. At least his literature will forever live on.
— Posted by Aaron Morris
Breakfast of Champions was read by me in the mid 80’s. I was a depressed, disaffected teenager, Reagan, and his administration’s Iran-Contra scandal were in full bloom. The book gave me a wake-up call that others could see the cynical beauty that I perceived around me in the world. My teenage intellect perceived the first 20 pages as some sort of eccentric adult joke that I wasn’t in on, then suddenly I got it, and read (and re-read) the rest with growing equal levels of intimidation and admiration. I then became a rabid Vonnegut fan, and I am so sad now, to see that beautiful intellectual light having finally burned out. At least his literature will forever live on.
— Posted by Aaron Morris
Cheers to the Future
So, I've decided a lot of things recently.
I think (I'm not yet sure) that I am going to, in the next few months, bite the bullet and move into a studio apartment for around 1,000 a month. Sounds ridiculous, but if I was a little more careful with money I could still save some of my paycheck every month.
Hopefully, I will accomplish this by July. I will then settle in, buy reliable wireless, and settle into studying for the GREs. I plan to apply to grad school in German departments around the country. If I want to study central and eastern european political science/history or even socio-linguistics, all will be possible under the umbrella of a German degree. I'm not gonna do a master's and then a doctorate in a separate program. If I do this, I'm in it for the long haul. Berkeley will definitely be a place for me to apply to.
I've run out of options. I'm probably going to be an old miser no matter what I do, but if I'm up to my elbows in books and I get to spend time in Germany, hopefully Berlin, again while I'm doing it, that's the way to go.
Let's see if I've got the discipline. If I work all this out, I may just stay at this job until I start my studies again in August/September of 2008, or if everything else is working out, I may find a slightly more stimulating job.
Cheers to the future.
Current music: Charles Mingus - Better Git It in Your Soul
I think (I'm not yet sure) that I am going to, in the next few months, bite the bullet and move into a studio apartment for around 1,000 a month. Sounds ridiculous, but if I was a little more careful with money I could still save some of my paycheck every month.
Hopefully, I will accomplish this by July. I will then settle in, buy reliable wireless, and settle into studying for the GREs. I plan to apply to grad school in German departments around the country. If I want to study central and eastern european political science/history or even socio-linguistics, all will be possible under the umbrella of a German degree. I'm not gonna do a master's and then a doctorate in a separate program. If I do this, I'm in it for the long haul. Berkeley will definitely be a place for me to apply to.
I've run out of options. I'm probably going to be an old miser no matter what I do, but if I'm up to my elbows in books and I get to spend time in Germany, hopefully Berlin, again while I'm doing it, that's the way to go.
Let's see if I've got the discipline. If I work all this out, I may just stay at this job until I start my studies again in August/September of 2008, or if everything else is working out, I may find a slightly more stimulating job.
Cheers to the future.
Current music: Charles Mingus - Better Git It in Your Soul
Thursday, April 12, 2007
My opinion on Imus
If I say a word and an East-German punk with a mohawk says the same word, they don't mean the same thing. Example: If I call someone a fascist, I mean that he is a leaning-towards-fascist official in a non-fascist government. If he says the word, he is being complicit in his government's propaganda.
Therefore, Don Imus calling (mostly) black women "nappy-headed hos" is not the same as a hip-hop artist saying it. Don Imus does not get to call people that. However, Don Imus is 2 people, an individual and a character on his talk-show that likes to make outlandish statements. His character spoke those words, obviously a joke of some sort, using language that he obviously doesn't use in everyday life, to make a jab.
I believe he was wronged, but I also believe it's too complex for me to figure out. What I do know is that he was fired by MSNBC for the sake of their ratings and not for any high ideals. CBS's subsequent firing can only be seen as a necessary and inevitable firing..... meaning, if they hadn't done it they would've looked bad.
I think he should stay, but I'm not sure I could win a debate about it with someone who strongly disagreed with me.
Therefore, Don Imus calling (mostly) black women "nappy-headed hos" is not the same as a hip-hop artist saying it. Don Imus does not get to call people that. However, Don Imus is 2 people, an individual and a character on his talk-show that likes to make outlandish statements. His character spoke those words, obviously a joke of some sort, using language that he obviously doesn't use in everyday life, to make a jab.
I believe he was wronged, but I also believe it's too complex for me to figure out. What I do know is that he was fired by MSNBC for the sake of their ratings and not for any high ideals. CBS's subsequent firing can only be seen as a necessary and inevitable firing..... meaning, if they hadn't done it they would've looked bad.
I think he should stay, but I'm not sure I could win a debate about it with someone who strongly disagreed with me.
Another American Hero
Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007). You will be missed.
Current Music: Ornette Coleman - Lonely Woman
Current Music: Ornette Coleman - Lonely Woman
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Computer, Rain, New Favorite Book, Missile Shield
I bought a Sony Vaio. It had an issue with the screen's connection to the motherboard, so I got a new one yesterday. I just went in, found the most nervous person working there and demanded a new one. They gave it to me with no problems.
It's great.
It rained here this morning, a welcome change for me.
I'm reading a book right now that is just amazing. After 15 pages, I can see that I'm absolutely going to love it. "The Dharma Bums" by Jack Kerouac. What better setting than San Francisco, Berkeley and the Sierra Nevadas?
For people who think Angela Merkel and her CDU are a good thing, the party has decided to support the crackpot scheme of the US to build a missile shield in Poland/Czech Republic as a deterrant against Iran. They figure that will be the best way to build trust and show the West's unending and unblemished support of the Muslim people. Welcome to Cold War part 2, only this part is not quite so cold....
Current music: Great Society - Love You Girl
It's great.
It rained here this morning, a welcome change for me.
I'm reading a book right now that is just amazing. After 15 pages, I can see that I'm absolutely going to love it. "The Dharma Bums" by Jack Kerouac. What better setting than San Francisco, Berkeley and the Sierra Nevadas?
For people who think Angela Merkel and her CDU are a good thing, the party has decided to support the crackpot scheme of the US to build a missile shield in Poland/Czech Republic as a deterrant against Iran. They figure that will be the best way to build trust and show the West's unending and unblemished support of the Muslim people. Welcome to Cold War part 2, only this part is not quite so cold....
Current music: Great Society - Love You Girl
Friday, April 06, 2007
Shootings and Computers
So, apparently the shootings in the Western Addition are being caused by two rival gangs. When I walk to work, I walk between the two gangs' areas. I think it's fine, as long as I'm not out late. Apparently all the victims other than one 13 yr. old girl have been multiple felons with an average of 11 arrests between them. That seriously makes me feel a lot safer.
http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/eCS/Store/en/-/USD/SY_DisplayProductInformation-Start?ProductSKU=VGNFE880E/H
This is the laptop I want to buy from Sony.
http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/wo/StoreReentry.wo?family=MacBook
This is the laptop I want to buy from Apple. The middle white one with an extra 40 GB of disk space added.
http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/eCS/Store/en/-/USD/SY_DisplayProductInformation-Start?ProductSKU=VGNFE880E/H
This is the laptop I want to buy from Sony.
http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/wo/StoreReentry.wo?family=MacBook
This is the laptop I want to buy from Apple. The middle white one with an extra 40 GB of disk space added.
Thursday, April 05, 2007
A shotgun?!
So, my co-workers and I leisurely walked over to Mason and Eddy, about 6 blocks east of my work building to enjoy some Indian food. We had discussed eating at "the vegetarian place" or at "gyro king", one of which is at Market and Larkin, 4 blocks south of my work. The other is 1 block from there, also 4 blocks from my work.
After finishing our food and walking the 6 blocks back past people openly smoking their crackpipes, we entered the building past security. A policeman came running up and told the security guard, "Watch out. Someone was just shot by a man with a shotgun at Market and Larkin. The shooter, a 6-foot black male, is running up Larkin in this direction, shotgun in hand."
We would have been on that corner, or walking back along that street, had we chosen differently.
Holy shit. A shotgun?!
After finishing our food and walking the 6 blocks back past people openly smoking their crackpipes, we entered the building past security. A policeman came running up and told the security guard, "Watch out. Someone was just shot by a man with a shotgun at Market and Larkin. The shooter, a 6-foot black male, is running up Larkin in this direction, shotgun in hand."
We would have been on that corner, or walking back along that street, had we chosen differently.
Holy shit. A shotgun?!
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
Los Angeles
Well, everything in Los Angeles was fine. Downtown looks like a large version of Oakland's downtown. Poor and empty, but interesting. Also, here is the second largest city in the United States, one of the biggest urban areas in the world, and the businesses downtown are all in spanish. I found that to be kind of cool. Their Little Tokyo and Chinatown look like San Francisco's little brother.
When we were in Santa Monica, we saw this awful black cloud, and we were worried that our weekend was going to be ruined. It turned out that it was a cloud of smoke from a fire that two teenagers lit in the Hollywood Hills.
Hollywood was a lot of fun. We rode the subway from Hollywood and Highland to Hollywood and Vine. The cars looked just like the New York Subway that I've seen from movies. Our hotel in Hollywood was fine. The shopping area of Beverly Hills (Rodeo Dr., etc.) looked a little more like Disneyland than I thought it would.
Santa Monica was a lot dumpier than I thought it would be. Only the beach seemed nice. I liked Hermosa Beach a lot better. Santa Monica was a huge tourist trap.
West LA (around Westwood) was beautiful. Rich, but beautiful. The Sunset Strip was cool. I could live there. Actually, I could never afford it....
The drive home was horrible, because everyone was so impatient and dangerous and it was busy almost the whole way back to San Francisco.
Pat and Suzanne were a lot of fun. We went to Hermosa Beach for dinner. With Talia, we went to a really good Indian restaurant. Actually amazingly good. I think I'll have Indian for lunch actually. Yum.
All in all, Los Angeles was a lot of fun. It's hard to tell about a city just by visiting, but I think I could see myself living there. But, I'm only thinking in terms of transportation. I'd have to live and work on or near subway lines (which is getting better and better), but that would probably never happen.... San Francisco seems like a little village compared to LA. When we got back it was 10 o'clock and the city seemed empty.
Saturday, I'm going to a passover seder in San Jose. Exciting!
When we were in Santa Monica, we saw this awful black cloud, and we were worried that our weekend was going to be ruined. It turned out that it was a cloud of smoke from a fire that two teenagers lit in the Hollywood Hills.
Hollywood was a lot of fun. We rode the subway from Hollywood and Highland to Hollywood and Vine. The cars looked just like the New York Subway that I've seen from movies. Our hotel in Hollywood was fine. The shopping area of Beverly Hills (Rodeo Dr., etc.) looked a little more like Disneyland than I thought it would.
Santa Monica was a lot dumpier than I thought it would be. Only the beach seemed nice. I liked Hermosa Beach a lot better. Santa Monica was a huge tourist trap.
West LA (around Westwood) was beautiful. Rich, but beautiful. The Sunset Strip was cool. I could live there. Actually, I could never afford it....
The drive home was horrible, because everyone was so impatient and dangerous and it was busy almost the whole way back to San Francisco.
Pat and Suzanne were a lot of fun. We went to Hermosa Beach for dinner. With Talia, we went to a really good Indian restaurant. Actually amazingly good. I think I'll have Indian for lunch actually. Yum.
All in all, Los Angeles was a lot of fun. It's hard to tell about a city just by visiting, but I think I could see myself living there. But, I'm only thinking in terms of transportation. I'd have to live and work on or near subway lines (which is getting better and better), but that would probably never happen.... San Francisco seems like a little village compared to LA. When we got back it was 10 o'clock and the city seemed empty.
Saturday, I'm going to a passover seder in San Jose. Exciting!
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