Dollars and Euros

Which bills would YOU rather use?

I was at Long's drugs a few weeks ago to pick up some household cleaner and some christmas cards. I go up to the cash register and pay about $9.50 for the stuff (christmas cards are SO overpriced!). I gave the girl a $20 (I am pretty sure I did, at least) and she says "10 dollars, thank you". Being absent minded as usual, I was thinking of something else and didn't pay much attention to her. But then later as I was leaving the store I remember pulling out a $20. Hey! What happened to my change? Too late! No way to prove, that I had given the bigger bill. This is like the 3rd time this has happened to me in about 3 months. It's always when I'm buying something small, like at the post office or the drugstore.

Therefore, I would like to use this opportunity to beg - no PLEAD - for the U.S. treasury to get modern and print some REAL colorized bills! If I was looking at a blue $10 vs. a green $20, I'm sure I would be making less mistakes (and so would the cashier). In fact there is an initiative underway at the U.S. treasury to modernize the bills with some color. However, if you look at them, the new bills still aren't really much different than before. I would say, the Europeans do this better.

In any case, this is the last blog entry for the year. Being in the holiday spirit, I am ignoring my own promise, not to post anymore to this blog for lack of guestbook entries. From now on, I'll just post, when I feel like it. Which is pretty much how I've been doing it.

To all those of you (all 4 or 5 of you) who have read my blog this year, I would like to wish a happy new year 2007.

Kent

Marin Headlands / Muir Woods

I think the last post was kind of personal (because people that read this blog, or are family members, are in it). Well I got some good comments from it, so thanks. But don't expect me to start telling you my night time dreams anytime soon (then you'd really think I'm strange).

Instead, today I'm going to stick to the more or less generic topic "Touristy Things to See and Do Around San Francisco". The occasion this time was the visit of another far away friend - Michal - who lives in my former town of Freiburg, Germany. In addition to bringing his good cheer, Polish traditions, and humor to my apartment (and the business conference he attended, presumably), Michal also brought the (unneeded) excuse for me to take a day off and show someone around.

RANDOM THOUGHTS ARTICULATED WHILE DRIVING ACROSS THE OAKLAND - SAN FRANCISCO BAY BRIDGE
We started our day in San Francisco dealing with Bay Bridge (Oakland to San Francisco) traffic, which if you go back to my postings from February 2006, you will see an example of. I still get frustrated sometimes, sitting in the car watching everybody have to idle, when there are these "FASTTRACK" lanes, which are supposed to let people with radio-sensing devices mounted in their cars "whiz" by without stopping to make change at the bridge toll (the bridge toll is $3 from Oakland, $5 from Marin / via the San Francisco Bridge, by the way). These "FASTTRACK" lanes however, are not visible until you get within about 1000 feet of the toll plaza - far too close, in my opinion. There are also a few lane indicator signs farther back, but these are routinely ignored (there is no penalty for hogging the dedicated lane for fasttrack). However, as I (once again) discovered on Thursday, the REAL problem is the stoplights mounted a few hundred yards beyond the toll plaza. These are for the purpose, I assume, of preventing traffic jams on the Bay Bridge (the lanes narrow from about 8 before the bridge, to 4 on the bridge). So... what can you do? CalTrans would need to dedicate a FASTTRACK lane on the bridge, all the way from Oakland to San Francisco (in my opinion), for this option to really work. (but I bet, they could charge a whole lot more money, and get away with it)

BUFFALOES IN GOLDEN GATE PARK
Thank you for bearing with me through that first part. The first real "sight" Michal and I saw, in San Francisco, were the buffalo in Golden Gate Park. I had seen them only once before. A friend reminded me of them last week, and I took my friend to look at them (figuring, it would be something of a novelty). The thing is, the buffalo were hanging out way in the back of their pen (as you can see), and were basically doing nothing. This is apparently not a new phenomenon, either.


I came to the conclusion that buffalo-watching isn't all it's cracked up to be. By the same token, hunting buffalo with rifles back on the plains the 1800s must have been very, very easy.

GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE
The second major site we saw was Golden Gate bridge. I am first including a picture taken while biking across the bridge (the bike path is always the left side, with a view of the Pacific).


Some interesting factoids: this bridge - an "Art Deco Structure" - was constructed in the 1930s at the cost of $35 million (it was built under budget - now when was the last time you ever heard of THAT before?). It contains 80,000 miles of steel cabling. The principal architect, Joseph Strauss, died 1 year after its construction, from stress-related disease (I think the architect of the London Tower Bridge met a similar fate, if memory serves me right). There were 11 fatalities during its construction (I suppose in the modern era, that would have meant the bridge construction would have cost 10 times more).

Here is a picture from the other side - the "Marin Headlands". This is a place that is kind of hard to get to (in the car), because you can only access it via the southern-bound stretch of Hwy 101. Michal is doing his best Charlie Chaplin pose.



MUIR WOODS
The last place we visited this day was Muir Woods National Monument, in Marin County. It was a fitting end to a very nice day. The trees in this park are indeed some of the biggest I've ever seen. I guess there are trees in California you can drive a car through, but they're further north near Eureka! (just kidding, the exclamation mark after the town name is not real). But, truth be told, it would have been offensive to this eco-minded yuppie blog author, to see cars passing through this forest. Instead, I posed in the burnt out hollow of one of the remaining giants in Muir Woods, a tree that probably has a name, which I didn't bother to read (I was distracted by a group of spanish speaking female tourists behind us).


This tree I am standing under, by the way, is still alive and green!

EVERYTHING I THINK YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT REDWOOD TREES
Hey, this is my blog, right? So, I can use it to selectively tell you what I think is important, right? Factoid number one: a forest similar to this inspired George Lucas' forest scenes in Star Wars III, on Planet Endor. Factoid number two: only 4% of old-growth redwoods still exist - almost all under park protection. Factoid number three: the largest redwoods only grow on the north Pacific coast, where enough moisture is provided by continuous fog for these trees to grow much taller than their cousins further inland (there are redwood trees all over California, but only the coastal variety grow to such heights).

Were you satisfied by your visit? Please tell us how we're doing.

Up North Trip

I spent a couple days in Wisconsin, camera in hand (this is always dangerous)... and now I have some pictures to share. Yeah, yeah, I know the rest of the world could care less. But, like, I'm trying to please the fans, ok? Sooner or later, this site's gonna be so big ...

Anyways, here's Dad. He's working on the patio. It's the day after Thanksgiving, and it's Wisconsin. Yeah, sometimes you don't know anymore that you're up north. Dad asked me to put this on the blog. So, of course, I will oblige


Second, I visited a food pantry downtown. It's on 12th and Vliet. Right there was an overpass, that has a view towards "beautiful" downtown Milwaukee. As you can see, they just finished the long-running highway renovation to the Marquette interchange (which extended all they way up to Vliet Ave., where I am standing).


I am keenly interested, if any of the natives think the interchage construction project was "worth it". I can't really tell the difference, except now the road is smoother.

Lastly, I got to visit the new Schroeder household in Germantown. What a grand place! Here is Steve, at work, with the Mrs. advising.


In case any of you were wondering why Steve isn't gambling so much anymore, it's because he's become Mr. Houseman. Way to go, Steve! It's a whole lot cleaner and better looking than your old apartment.

Finally, Teresa and I posed for a (self-)congratulatory picture, after we - I mean Teresa- finished stringing up the Christmas tree lights.


I had to quit halfway through, after it was determined that I wasn't stringing up the lights dense enough. Well, the final product speaks for itself (check the previous pic and you can see the lights)

So, in that spirit, happy Advent

Favorite Cartoons

I need a quick post, so I can start packin' for Thanksgiving in Wisconsin. So what can I say? How about just showing you 3 readers a couple of my favorite cartoons? I found them last week surfing some blog I can't remember that was full of cartoons. Too bad I don't remember the site (just spent 15 perfectly good minutes searching). That's a perfect summary of my time spent blogging: 3 minutes surfing or searching, for every productive minute spent blogging. It's a wonder I get anything done at all!

In any case, here goes: My favorite cartoon number 4 (This is a Top 4 List, for the purpose of brevity) has to do with, you guessed it, politics.



My favorite cartoon number 3, is about the new process of internet background checks. The caption that accompanied this cartoon read "JOB APPLICANT UNFAIRLY PENALIZED BY UNEXPUNGED ARREST RECORDS ON THE INTERNET". I had to look at it for awhile before I got the joke.



My favorite cartoon number 2, has to do with science class. I guess Pluto is no longer "lonely little Pluto"!



This is actually pretty revolutionary, I think. I was taught in science class "there are 9 planets in our solar system." How many times did I have to memorize that? A bunch. And the order of the planets? It just goes to show, all knowlege is temporary .... so why bother memorizing? (that's what computers are for, anyways, right?). Oh yeah, don't expect me to remember your phone number, either. That takes me a long time now with cell phones and Palm Pilot.

And my favorite cartoon of the year is, again, political and making fun of the right wingers. I just love the caption on this one. Enjoy!

Death Valley

Last weekend I had the pleasure of travelling to Death Valley. It was the perfect antidote to too much thinking about politics, and other depressing topics (even though, now I am less depressed about it, than I was before Tuesday the 7th). On the advice of a friend, I signed up for a trip with Green Tortoise adventure travel to see the famous California desert and national park, almost all the way out to Las Vegas from here. Green Tortoise is a local travel company that is well-known around here for providing low-cost multiple-day (and even multiple week) bus trips up and down the West Coast. They also run a hostel in San Francisco, and in Seattle. Apparently they used to cater to the hippie crowd with reliable and low-cost service. Now they cater to the wish-we-were-hippie crowd, I think. (that includes myself) No dope, no walking around naked, no tree worship. On the plus side, though, it was clean, friendly, and comfortable.

I can't say Death Valley is the most spectacular place I've ever seen. But it is definnitely the most desolate. I read somewhere, that Death Valley shares similarities with the Planet Mars, for being so inhospitable to life. But, after spending the last 4 months or so confined to the boundaries of Oakland and San Francisco (with side trips to Napa Valley and suburban Pleasanton), I was only too glad to experience a totally new natural environment, even if it did not include palm trees or swimming pools.



The weather was sunny, hot and dry all 3 days we were there. I worked on my tan, did a little hiking, went into some mineral hot springs, collected some rocks, and learned some stuff about geology (especially about Borax). I still have the rocks - and even, a little salt. Please don't tell the authorities, since my removing rocks from Death Valley probably consitutes some form of petty crime. The following picture is from the sand dunes. We did a little walking around there. It felt good to take the old shoes off.



We cooked in co-op style - that is, everyone took on a task, and helped prepare meals.



Best was probably at night (it got dark around 6). We would sit around talking and drinking, while the bus drivers Tom and Paul did most of the dinner preparation.

It was a very international crowd. About 6 of us were American, the rest Europeans. Thanks to those of you who are from the trip group, and are reading this. You helped make it a great weekend, for me.



Oh, yeah, make sure you watch my video on YouTube, "Sand Surfing". I added music, to get rid of my own annoying narrative voice. Enjoy

UPDATE: I just saw the online photo album of one of the trip participants, Arnaud. His photos are much more impressive than mine.

Democracy Stinks

You might not believe it, but the San Francisco Chronicle has endorsed Arnold for re-election as governor of California. To me, this is like John Kerry making peace with W. After all, this is the same paper that runs the W.-hating feature columnist Mark Morford! I guess, wonders never do cease.

Apropros politics and elections, I did a little walking these last weeks out east of the Bay Area, to try to help unelect U.S. congressman Richard Pombo (R-Tracy). I don't particularly enjoy ringing people's doorbells on a Saturday afternoon to tell them about a political candidate they should, as responsible citizens, have informed themselves about, and never voted into office in the first place. But, honest to God, there were people I met even in nearby Pleasanton - which I consider to be pretty left-leaning - who had never even heard of Pombo's opponent Jerry McNerney (except maybe through one of the many attack ads currently being run against him).

One person I talked to asked me about McNerney, "is he pro-life or pro-choice"? Like I am going to have a chance of influencing that person's opinion? (Does McNerney get the Catholic pro-choice vote because he's Irish?)

I feel pretty conflicted in this whole thing. On the one hand, there I am doing something I basically don't respect myself for doing (if I were one of the homeowners whose doorbell I was ringing, I would not want to talk to me). On the other hand, my fellow citizens are so NOT informed !!! Like, do you people ever read a major newspaper?

IF I COULD BE GOD

I was talking to my buddy Andy last weekend. I told him, if I could be God, there would be a voter IQ test. As I was explaining above, my fellow Americans are too ignorant to vote (check out the post about the Florida Alzheimer patients in the last election). Hell, I don't pretend to know everything. But what I see, hear and read, is that, voters in this country do not take their responsibility as voters, seriously. They scare me. YOU ALL scare me (unless, you read this blog)

That's why this test is easy. Here are the questions for YOUR VOTER IQ TEST:

"Which country is allied with the U.S. in the Iraq War?"
"Where did we try to bomb Usama Bin Laden to oblivion in 2002?"
"Name 2 candidates that are running for office in your district"
"In which southern state, does the reader also known as 'Crow', live?" (hint: Newt Gingrich comes from there)

Failure to answer 2 of these questions correctly, means you should NOT vote!

I am curious to hear your answers (please see guestbook)

Enemy Combatant

I spent a number of hours this weekend finishing a book I bought not too long ago, called Enemy Combatant. It is written by Moazzam Begg, who is a Pakistani British citizen, active in Islamic charity causes, who got picked up while living in Islamabad, Pakistan with his family back in 2002 and spent almost 3 years in American captivity - 2 in Guantanamo. Though I have read better pieces of literature, this book is one of the most gripping I've read in in a long time. Perhaps I find it so gripping because it is so believable. In the book, Begg describes a system of U.S. incompetence, in terms of human rights denied, statements contradicted, evidence not revealed, interrogations muffled and even, sadly, cruelty meted out rather arbitrarily towards the people we are holding in cages. He also describes how he ran into U.S. soldiers (mostly low-ranking guards and MPs) who were kind to him, and genuinely showed interest in his background and culture (he speaks english, after all). And, what I found most believable (and can myself remember from my days as a reservist in training) is the constant overkill, in terms of shackling prisoners unnecessarily, roughing them up, assigning teams of guards to one unarmed (even unclothed) detainee, and making them uncomfortable as possible (for instance by never shutting off the lights at night, and playing loud music), in the hopes of "breaking them down". The trouble is, only a few of the many people we are holding as "Enemy Combatants", actually knows anything about Al-Quaeda, or terror cells, or whatever else we are accusing them of.

Here is an NPR link with a radio interview with the former prisoner. If you are not interested in whatever else I have been saying, at least listen to this interview - it's on real audio and takes about 3 minutes.

The book's point to me, and excuse me for sermonizing, is that, when the leadership of this country is so utterly incompetent, and disregardful of human rights we once fought for, and now claim to protect, it has a very strong trickle-down effect "in the system", as even the most low-ranking soldier realizes that despite however badly he screws up, disregards human rights, and dehumanizes prisoners, it really doesn't matter ... because he's just following orders, and the chain of command. My condolences to the Men in Orange, who are wrongfully imprisoned in Bagram, Kandahar, Guantanamo and elsewhere.

End the madness- Impeach Bush! I hope the City of Berkeley passes their ballot proposition to do so.

California's Latest Trend

Last weekend I visited Golden Gate Park in San Francisco where the "Hardly Strictly Bluegrass" Festival was going on. It's a big collection of bluegrass and country music stars (Ricky Skaggs, Earl Scruggs, Patty Griffin, The Del McCoury Band, Joan Baez, Emmylou Harris, and many others) that gets together once a year to put on a series of "free" performances in September in San Francisco's biggest city park. I say "free", because actually, a local area bluegrass fan and billionaire, Investment banker Warren Hellman, sponsors the whole thing. And what a grand party it is! Despite the fact that the music is not all that blue-grassy (looking at the artist list above will tell you that much), fans from all over the area (and lots of non-fans as well) converge on the park to enjoy music, companionship, food, beverages, and herbal cigarettes of all kinds. Actually I expected more of the herbs. I was only there for about 3 hrs on Sunday. I heard some band called "Drive By Truckers", booming from mounted speakers, and later, listened to the end of "Del McCoury Band" (much better, it is actual bluegrass music). Finally, Emmylou Harris came on stage to give the send-off. There must have been over 100,000 fans there listening to her (in the back, you couldn't hear much). Overall, it was a good time, and made me feel lucky to be in San Francisco. Especially nice, was riding the MUNI train home afterwards, and not dealing with traffic. San Francisco is one of the few U.S. cities that has an actual functioning tram railway system. I love this investment of local tax dollars.

Wine Country Visit

I haven't updated the old blog for awhile and no one seems to have missed it. BUT ... I would be remiss if I did not at least provide occasional food for thought, or if you live in some small town in Georgia, or in a larger town in Wisconsin, or an even bigger one in Illinois, a glimpse of the good life we lead here in California.



A few weeks ago my old college roomate Jon and his wife Sissel came to visit from Norway. It was one of their wishes to go up to wine country and relive the movie "Sideways" as much as possible. We did try, in a kind of haphazard way, to accomplish this, but other plans kind of got in the way (like, we tried to do other things in the morning and didn't get going with the wine tasting till 2 p.m.) Nevertheless, it was a really nice Sunday afternoon last weekend, from which I have some pictures to share.



In the picture above, Sissel (Jon's wife) and I are sampling some of the red wine at Roshambo in the Russian River. The visit to this place was recommended by a local. I think they figured, since we were young, we would like it here. Of all the wineries I visited, this place did have the most cocktail-bar like atmosphere, thus allowing us to somewhat relive "Sideways" (minus the extracurriculars). Rochambo has the youngest staff of all the 5 places we visited, and has the hippest music floating down from the ceiling. However, it was not the best wine we tasted, and we were on a tight schedule, so we moved on.

The nice thing about tasting wine where it is made (if possible, I recommend actually eating some grapes off the vines) is you appreciate the work that goes into it. Consider that to make this wine we are tasting, they started out with a bunch of grapes, which are basically a sticky, sugary mess of water, skin, pulp, and seed. The non-liquid component needs to be removed from the mixture in the vats to make the wine (and they don't use their feet either). Then, the wine-chef needs to ferment the wine just right, so that the sugar in the wine turns into alcohol, without the flavor being lost and the wine turning sour. Any "wrong" bacteria in the mixture and the whole lot is spoiled. The whole environment needs to be highly controlled.



In fact wine is probably cheaper than it ought to be (I have read that growing grapes doesn't even turn a profit anymore). A good bottle of wine can be found in some of the vineyards for about $20. (my favorite variety is probably the Zinfandel). Most of the wines we tasted were priced between $18 and $30.

I case you are wondering how we made the pictures, we had the pleasure of riding around Napa valley in a convertible, with the top down (it was a Chrysler Sebring). This was a new experience for me. I can definitely see the attraction of convertibles out here in California, where it never rains between May and November.



So, next time one of you 3 readers of this blog comes out here to visit, make sure you rent the convertible, and call me up so we can go back up to Napa!

You Tube?

I did a little trolling of blogspot (you can do it too, just click "next blog" at the top right of this screen). After a few uninteresting examples I came upon one I found somewhat strange but interesting. I noticed it (and some other blogs) contained video samples. The thumbnail screen says "You Tube". What is "You Tube"? I checked w/ my friend google. He sent me to You Tube Central. I guess You Tube is just a service for promoting your own video. Hey I can do that! (but I need equipment first)

So here are 4 "You Tube" videos I'd like to introduce. Apparently none of them are real new.

The first is the video "I'm Not Missing You" by Stacie Orrico.



I am only posting it because I don't watch music videos anymore so I thought, wow, this is what I've been missing these last 4 years since I watched videos (on MTV in Germany). This particular video reminded me of a relationship I used to be in. Except my girlfriend didn't sing, and she wasn't a glamgirl like Statie (but she did play the guitar). Also, this video reminded me of how old I am. When I was the age of the girl in that video, I think I was still washing dishes at Stemmler's Restaurant in Thiensville, and not posting videos on You Tube (or even making them - I think I was playing video games and working most of the time)

The second video is from the You Tube site and is called "Noah takes a photo of himself everyday for 6 years." I guess this particular video has gotten a lot of "i-play" (I just made that word up). I think mostly, from girls who think Noah is cute. Otherwise, what the hell is the point of watching a guy's face for such a long time? (I actually was interested to see if he would age, but got bored after 2 minutes looking at him)

Then there is a pretty good "anti-Noah" video which some fat guy made (excuse my political incorrectness). I liked this video. It made me laugh (but the music was not as nice as Noah's soundtrack). That guy could be more funny if he edited better.

My favorite video I watched tonight though was called "Impression Skills." Whoever that guy is, he is really funny.

So how much time did I just cause you to lose? Just wondering.

Half Dome Rock, The Aftermath

I'm back in Oakland now and glad I made it to Half Dome Rock on Saturday last weekend. It was quite a trek.

Half Dome rock is actually just the "tip of the iceberg", as it were, in terms of being the last, imposing piece of a long, somewhat arduous trek up the mountain. The total elevation gain is about 5,000 feet. However, long sections of the trail are not very steep and easily walkable by anything with reasonable health. The tricky parts are the steep staircase ascending Vernal Falls / Nevada Falls, and the last part - the cable-walk up the rock to the summit.



In the picture above, me and the hiking group podr in front of Vernal Falls, on the way up to Half Dome Rock. Josette is taking the picture. Behind us begins the steep stone staircase that leads up to the top of the falls and beyond. The stone stairs (I don't have any pictures of these) were originally constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps - that great socialist experiment of President Roosevelt - in 1934.

Anyways, to get back to my story. Before we left last week, I looked at some pictures a friend sent to me and began having serious doubts if I was going to make it. Especially the cable-walk near the top had me thinking this might not work out.



In the picture at left, Andy poses in front of the steel cables that are strung up to the top of Half Dome. These cables have been there since 1919, I learned. There were so many people going up and down last Saturday that we had to wait a considerable time at this spot.

However, with gradual uphill walking, combined with egging from some of my friends, all obstacles were overcome. All 5 of us who started the walk finished it on top of the rock. My friends then proceeded to give me grief for expressing doubs. Sometimes you can't win ...


Picture of 3 of us on the summit, looking over Yosemite Valley.

During the walk up and down the mountain, we were surrounded by people of all ages going up the same way. Mainly they were in their 20s and 30s, but we saw plenty of people in their 40s and even older doing the ascent. Overall, though, it was a lot more people than I am used to seeing on any hiking trail. It was almost like going to the amusement park or the zoo in places. This would be my only complaint about the trail. Otherwise it was excellent.

By the way, my left knee is telling me I better not do anymore hikes like that for a long while...

Half Dome Rock

This is the rock I want to climb next weekend with some friends.



Well, actually, we're not going to be "climbing", in the sense that we will be walking, and not scaling, the mountain. There is a well-known trail that goes up the back side...

The climb starts in the valley near Happy Isles Nature Center (4035 ft.) and ends at the top of half dome rock (8836). There is a good description of the trail I found using google on the web.

I have done very little aerobic excercise the last weeks (besides riding my bicycle to work and back), so it will be interesting to see how I and my friends fare.

We want to climb up the whole way on Saturday and then back down. And then we have to find campsites... !

Since this is the most popular trail in the park, and Yosemite is so full of people in the summertime, we could not obtain the needed wilderness permit to camp anywhere near Half Dome. Therefore we will probably have to drive all the way out of the park again to find a spot!

You would think with all the space in Yosemite, finding a place to camp would not be so hard. But, not on a weekend in summertime, apparently!

Well, either way, I'm sure it will be a great experience.

We thought we had problems

This whole Middle Eastern war has me down. I would like to say something clever and funny about the whole mess, but then, there is nothing clever and funny about it. Just sadness, and cruelty. You think you have problems? How about this Lebanese guy in a wheelchair.



Last Friday, I bought a bicycle off of craigslist. Now imagine, how would I ride my fancy bike (even if it is 10 years old, it is still fancy by my standards) in a war zone?

We should feel lucky for roads that are not full of rubble.

On that positive note, I have a poem I'd like to share. It was written by a friend of mine in Milwaukee, John Dubord, who runs a food pantry (Friedens', on Vliet). John is a retired printing executive, Catholic priest, and now, a non-profit director and community activist. Please respond with your comments.

BAGHDAD

He sits, then he stands, hot as
Spit on an angry lip
And doesn’t know how come he rages.

He jettisons his pasts, a pilot
Heading for the crash that comes
At any moment
He jettisons his dreams, and now
The pilot is a Kamikazee.
He casts his planning overboard,
Zips his vest of hand grenades up to his
Chin and enters through the hole.

Outside the hole the dog is dragging by,
Rear legs in the air,
Front legs pawing past the wormholes
In the grass that wipes the ass that
Itches.
The dog surely doesn’t know,
The dog just pulls itself to some
Distraction, satisfaction,
Till the itching goes.

The young man plunges through the hole
And lunges for the trigger,
Just a finger-pull inside his pocket,
Hoping he can focus on the heavenly delights
Until it detonates, he leaves in vapor,
No where angry any more.

It's the End of the World As We Know It ... and here's why

Last week I got a brochure in the mail. Like all brochures, I threw it in the growing pile of my unread mail. Well, yesterday I finally got around to looking at it. The title of the brochure was "What's Next? - Are You Prepared?" I thought this had to do with preparing for the next big earthquake, which is expected to happen sometime soon. So I thought, finally, the local government is being proactive. They are taking steps to ensure everybody knows what to do in case of an earthquake. Of course, I could also be living on a remote desert island, stranded with Claudia Schiffer.

Not to disparage Oakland anymore than it already has been, but this was not a case of good local government. Instead it was yet another example of an obscure religious organization with money which seeks to influence impressionable and uneducated people. This brochure explains all natural calamities and tragic occurences of the past decade or so in terms of the Bible, particularly placing the blame for everything bad on "Satan". Here is an excerpt:

"While appearing to the children of men as a great physician ... he will bring disease and disaster until populous cities are reduced to ruin and desolation. Even now he is at work. In accidents and calamities by sea and by land, in great conflagrations .... in every place and in a thousand forms, is Satan exercising his power."

Satan in Oakland? True, we have some bad crime rates. In fact, I am scared to walk around alone at night in a lot of areas. But, if I were to get mugged, something tells me they're after my wallet, not my soul. The authors of this brochure do not understand the East Bay. Despite tbe presence of some sect-like churches (like my own), this is not what I would call a "god-fearing community". So why do they send us stuff like this? Here are 3 possible answers.

1) People will always look for "the easy answer" to their problems
2) Some churches use #1 to their advantage
3) Paper is too cheap in the Unites States

Solution:
1) multiply the price of paper by, say, 3 times
2) repeal tax-exempt status for all "non traditional" churches that have enough money to send out "free" info-propaganda (i.e. if they're rich enough to send me a brochure, why are my tax dollars supporting them?)

Something tells me the Scientologists are behind this. Then again, there was no picture of the egomaniac L. Ron Hubbard in this brochure.

Next cult please?

Lake Seseganaga (Northwest Ontario)

About a month ago I went on my first ever fishing trip to Canada. It was with some cousins from Minnesota and Ohio to a place in northwestern Ontario called Lake Seseganaga. My cousins have been doing this for about 8 years with their sons and know the lake well (it's a huge lake, with thousands upon thousands of acres of water). The closest town to the area that is listed on the Internet is Sioux Lookout. We passed it on our way in from Minneapolis. Here is a map of the trip route we took.



Note that the lakes up there are accessible only by plane. The geography of the region prevents good roads from being built. So we rode a 1944 prop plane 20 minutes to the lodge and back. It was pretty neat, even though I didn't always feel that safe. But, whenever I got a feeling up being unsafe, I just thought of how many trips this plane had made since 1944, and that this could not be its most dangerous or its last one.



The area up there was formed by glaciers and looks pretty unspoiled - at least, until you see the cleared patches of forest. There are areas of water 10-40 feet deep (in some places down to 100 feet), separated by limestone rocks and cliffs and a mossy type of vegetation and soil.



The fishing at Ses Lodge, as we call it, was pretty good. I would not say this lake has never been fished - we pulled out fish that had hooks and jigs in their mouths from previous encounters - but it certainly has a healthy population of game fish, guaranteeing pretty much anyone with the right tackle a couple of large adult fish every day (or more, depending on skill and conditions). Speaking of skill, we ended up catching 75% of the fish (mainly walleye) on jigs tipped with minnows (the leeches didn't seem to be bringing them in this year). All the rest of the tackle we bought (mainly at Cabela's giant super store near Minneapolis) was not used. However, the Rapala deep tail dancer lure - a balsa wood imitation minnow which dives to the depth of 30 feet - was the one that brought in Roman's trophy northern on the third and last day of fishing.

Speaking of which, the best fish story was no doubt Roman's trip record northern pike. We were trolling around a certain spot that the lodge owner had pointed out as being a good area to catch fish. We were talking about relatives we both know, just passing time, when Roman's rod bent double and he said "this one is a fish" (often when you're trolling you don't know if you have a fish or a snag). Seeing how he was bending the rod so hard to pull the thing out of the water, I got my net ready. The fish seemed very tired. Roman did not lose much on the drag. He was using "spider wire" which no doubt did make a difference in how fast he could reel it into the boat. The fish was pretty exhausted by the time it reached us. When the fish saw the boat, and we saw the fish, we were at first kind of dumbstruck at seeing such a large thing attached to a fishing line (it was after all almost 4 feet long!) The fish then dove once, and not very far away. When it came back to the boat, it paused next to us. I leaned over with the net and "scooped" it into the boat like a bale of hay. It flopped around a bit until we managed to pin it down. Both of us were breathing pretty hard.

The next task, getting the lure hooks out of this large fish's mouth, seemed like it would be tricky. But luckily, this one had not really swallowed the lure too much (also I think it's easier to remove hooks from bigger mouths). I then took the honorary photo of the fish.



Roman put this one back in the water and went about reviving it. It took a long time - like 15 minutes. Long live the great northern!

In the end, we caught a total of 181 fish. For all 6 people, that averaged 30 fish per person (or 10 per day, more or less). With concentration and effort we could have caught more (using the fish finder more, less trolling / more jigging, etc.) But it was not all about the number of fish. We were sometimes trophy-hunting, sometimes trying to catch lunch, and sometimes, sleeping in the boat (Matt). The last day we wanted to fill our limit, esp. for walleyes, which are good eating fish. Here is a picture of that night's catch (I am holding up both my fish and my boat partner's) :



What other animals did we see? Unfortunately, no moose or caribou, which apparently sometimes like to swim across sections of the lake. However, we did see plenty of loons (which are loud at night - makes you think of wolves), a couple deer and a bald eagle. One day, one of the boats threw back a small injured northern, which was on its way to expiring in the water (we tried to avoid this happening but invariably it does, esp. with barbed treble hooks). Anyways, after about 3 minutes, the bald eagle dove from the sky and plucked the 14 inch fish right out of the water. An impressive sight.

Well, those are my fish stories for the summer. I would like to hear some of yours!

World Cup Wrap-up

Dear Sports Fans,

I would like to publicly apologize for belittling the Germany team 3 weeks ago in my last post on this blog. Since then they have proven me quite wrong. Not only did the team play entertaining soccer, as I first gave them credit for, they established themselves as legitimate contenders, which I did not at first believe possible.

Furthermore, after watching several games in which the German team was not involved (several games involving Portugal and Italy), I will give that team further credit for not "flopping" around on the field whenever they wanted to slow down the action. This habit seems to have gotten around like a bad virus and many teams, including the now-world-champion Italian squad, seem to be employing it as legitimate strategy. It was also refreshing to watch the German team play well and not complain to the ref at every call that went against them (well, they did maybe complain a little, like all teams will, but not overly so). Good job to Juergen Klinsmann, their new coach and to the players.



As to today's final match, I watched it at the French Consulate in San Francisco. This is a building right downtown in the Financial Distric (Bush Street, next to the Goethe Institute). I was invited to go along by a friend who may eventually read this blog so I will refrain from too much honesty (because I might want to go again next time there is a soccer game being shown there!) It was quite a patriotic celebration, with seemingly all the French expatriates in the Bay Area turning up (there were about 200 people there - and I'm sure there are many more expatriates, too, I just don't see them). People were whistling and yelling like they were at the real game. I could not however bring myself to join in the chant "Allez les Blues". I object to all patriotic chants and anthems, including our own. And the host consulate, once it finally opened its doors to the impatient crowd on the street, even gave us complimentary snacks and beverages, which I appreciate.

To get to the action on the screen, that is, on the field: the game started out really sloppy, with the French star Henry having to recuperate with smelling salts from a mild collision on the field in the 2nd minute. The Italians were trying to be too much gentlemen, or whatever, I thought, and dilly-dallied in this situation. Then soon after, the French regathered and in one of the first attacks their striker basically flopped down in the box. The ref awarded a penalty kick, which Zidane (the big star, more on that later) converted. I was at first mad that the ref made such a bad call, even though the hosts at the French consulate were ectastic. However, I was glad soon after, when the Italians finally started to play serious soccer to catch up to the French lead. They scored eventually, in about the 20th minute, to make it 1:1, and I thought this would be a good match all the way through. However by about the 30th minute, I was disappointed, with both sides, especially the Italians, simply kicking the ball back and forth with no real threat on goal. The game went into overtime after 90 minutes still tied 1:1. Then in overtime, the French kept trying to press, and the Italians got tired and simply stood around playing defense, which they did very well.

Eventually then, the confrontation happened which I'm sure everyone who gives one iota of a hoot about soccer has read about. Materazzi, the Italian man of the match, started to trash talk to Zidane while patting him on the belly. I believe those soccer players have gotten quite slick at trash talking nice and quiet, like talking to their girlfriends. In any case, Zidane eventually lost his cool and head-butted Materazzi, which though we may never know for sure, I believe he fully deserved. On the udder hand, though, Zidane did himself and his country a diservice by taking his revenge right there on the field. It was like inviting bad karma, I thought, to do that, and the French eventually lost in the dreaded penalty kick.

This made me think of Charles Barkley, the basketball player we Milwaukee fans used to love to hate turned fun-guy basketball TV commentator. I believe it was "Sir Charles" who in a famous quote once said, "I am not a role model". I wonder if Zidane will say anything like this. What a way to go out.

I have this daydream now, which involves Zidane helping coach some school kids, or something nice in a little French town, and then one of the smart-ass kids does an imitation of the Zidane head-butt. I don't think he'll ever live it down.

Overall it was a pretty ugly match, which I did not particularly enjoy watching. However, the operatic drama of it all certainly did entertain me. I'm interested to hear what my 2 readers think!

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung article about the Germany v. Poland soccer match

I took some time off of work today to watch the soccer match between the national teams of Germany v. Poland in the world cup. Germany won the match 1:0. Though I enjoyed watching, and both teams gave a good effort, I was not particularly impressed by either team. I've watched highlights and periods from several games in this world cup, and particularly the teams from Brazil, Croatia and Czech Republic impressed me as "world class". Germany, on the other hand, have a decent team, are young and play entertaining soccer. However, no objective fan would confuse them with real contenders.

Just to give you an idea of the hype surrounding the German team's current success (they won their first two matches so far against mediocre teams, in my opinion), I translated the first part of an article from the well-known paper "Frankfurter Allgemeine", which is sort of like the German version of NY Times.

The original article in German can be read here.

"Great Performance, Great Ecstasy"

"The easy win against Costa Rica had a light aftertaste, the hard-won success against Poland, on the other hand, gives (Germany) a lot of hope for this World Cup. The 1:0 in the 2nd match of the national squad was a first-class soccer game with enormous intensity, a lot of tempo, tactical discipline and countless chances. Since the Confederations Cup in the past summer, the team of trainer Jürgen Klinsmann has not delivered such a convincing performance. And just like a year ago, the team is being greeted by great enthusiasm in the stands and in the whole country.

Because the Polish eleven, who needed a victory at all costs, were a good opponent, this victory is worth even more. Even without the goal by Oliver Neuville in the after-time (91st minute), the national eleven deserves great praise. The opponents from all over the world will have been watching with surprise at their TV screens. Such a presentation by the German side was not expected by anyone...."

You may think, that's great, the Germans are proud of their team. You might even think they're being nationalistic as usual (my experience is Germans are patriotic but tend to hide it usually). And it's true, Germany usually has little reason to cheer for anything ("cheering" kind of goes against the cultural character, you could say). So the soccer team playing well in the world cup in their own country is then a good reason to get excited.

What surprises me, though, is the belief that the people, including friends of mine, over there appear to have, that their team might be a "contender". C'mon - get real! The German soccer team, as much as they are fun to watch, is ranked 19th in the world. Even if you gave them a few spots for playing at home, they certainly aren't in the top 10. This tournament will be over early in the 2nd round for the host country. I just hope they can deal with the dissapointment!

Big City Adventures, Part 1

A new series in adventure writing. The intrepid traveler never stops exploring.

We start with a bike trip to South Milwaukee.

Conditions:
2 days before Memorial Day 2006. 88 degrees, hot, muggy. Air conditioning weather. Boy do I not miss that, living off the Pacific Ocean.

Pre Departure:
The adventure team meets at their embarking point: Mabbet Ave. Milwaukee. Objective: explore Lake Michigan coastline. Map and navigate new, unexplored territory. Dangers: treacherous potholes, manhole covers, flying Frisbees.

Phase 1
The adventure team gets on their bikes. Mechanical problems surface on mile 1. Kent's bike is about 3 sizes too small. Knees banging elbows. Decision was made to continue despite this difficulty.


First landmark are the condominiums north of South Shore Park. Not known if inhabited. Many rollerbladers and strollers in the area, though.

Phase 2
The adventure team continues. Mechanical problems negligible. Yury showing signs of impatience at having to constantly stop to make observations. We see a bird with a cool red mark on its chest. I quickly document it for the trip journal.


It is vitally important that I photograph all wildlife while exploring new territory.

We approach our destination: south shore park.

This looks like virgin unexplored territory ... if you don't count the lawnmower in the background.

Phase 3
We bushwack our way south through the park. Have to detour and dodge large trees and barbecue grills. Finding a peaceful spot, we stop for water, only to be surprised by a foreign observer.

He pretends to read his book while he spies on us!

Safe Return ... or Not
It's been a long day, and the adventurers are exhausted. The heat saps our last energy as we stumble back to the embarking point.

This has been an exhilarating experience. The adventure continues.

Air Pollution Workshop

This week it's time to reflect what being a Tree-hugger can mean.

Last weekend was the "big event" I had been helping plan for about 6 months on behalf of the Sierra Club. We called it the "West Oakland Air Pollution Workshop." The idea was to focus some community attention on the issue of air pollution, which in Oakland, has not been getting as much attention as I felt it deserved. Basically I felt the club was ignoring the issue, so I promoted this event and got "tasked" to organize it. And what do you get for volunteering? A lot of work!

Needless to say, I was happy when it was over on Saturday. The participants included some local regulatory bigshots. For instance, the director of an agency called the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, or BAAQMD for short. He came and spoke with all the folks in the room, including one community activist type who came to the event, it seemed, for the sole purpose of venting steam at the director. It may have been a legitimate gripe - I'm still not sure. Better not to dig too deep there ...

The rest of the speakers either conducted short presentations (the first two speakers) or participated in panel discussions. The presentations on air pollution focused on topics such as why it's bad to live close to a major road in the bay area, or, where are all the toxics sites in West Oakland (and why you wouldn't want to bring up small children there). It was very informative. Actually, sometimes I get the feeling it's not a good idea to pay too much attention to these presentations or statistics. After all, we are all living with a certain amount of pollution, so why trouble the mind or make oneself feel bad for living where one lives? If you think about it, though, if no one is scaring the public and the regulatory directors, then little motivation for action exists ... right?

A small success in this event is it gave the Sierra Club a little PR.
The club is regarded in environmental circles as somewhat stodgy and "white" (due to the fact, perhaps, that a lot of the club's activity centers around legal action). We were trying to counter this image. Never mind that all the people who came from the club, with one exception (my co-organizer Margaret) fit this description. The main thing was, to sponsor the event, to plan it, and just do it.


One of the presenters at the beginning, Azibuike Akaba / Cal EPA, explains the dynamics of toxicity in West Oakland (shown on map). Note the empty seats. Too bad we couldn't get more people to show up. If you want to have a hard sales job, try motivating the public to spend 4 hours on a May Saturday listening to people - even good speakers like Azibuike here - talk about air pollution!


I moderated two panel discussions featuring local activists or regulators. It was challening trying to manage a discussion where everyone had a lot to say...

On a side note, I am reading a really good book with environmental themes at the moment. It is called Garbage Land, by Elizabeth Royte. Discusses the "trail of trash" that we are leaving as a society as we move from the recycling-friendly 90s into an era where we have become the world's leading trash exporter. Pick up a copy at your local bookstore. You will not be disappointed!

Can you afford to retire? on PBS Frontline

I saw an excellent documentary tonight on PBS' Frontline titled "Can you afford to retire?" It started by examining the case of United Airlines in the post-9/11 recession. United was deep in debt and declared bankruptcy. Using its bankruptcy status as leverage, it was able to extract more than $3 billion in concessions from employees in their pay, benefits, and retirement. Plus, it slashed retirement checks to currently retired workers by 1/3. The most shocking thing to me was, that the bankruptcy agreement which the lawyers prepared for United guarantees that all the creditors (meaning the big banks) got paid back all their money, plus interest, plus fees. The laywers, of course, got theirs. It was estimated that "professional fees" for guiding United through retirement (i.e. payments to lawyers) was $400 million. So, the final equation ... banks make billions, lawyers millions, workers get shafted. Sounds pretty much like Reaganomics to me.

The show then went on to examine the current model of retirement in place at many companies. It seems most Americans, IF they are lucky to have any retirement benefits at all, are relying on their 401K plan (where the company contributes some sort of dollar for dollar amount) for their retirement. Company-sponsored "retirement plans" are history. My company, the HMO Kaiser Permanente, has some sort of retirement plan. I guess I should feel lucky that I qualify. What I found interesting on Frontline was the analysis of data from current holders of 401Ks age 55-65. The top wage earners manage their money better. So, they are getting 20-30% annual returns in their funds. The "bottom" wage earners, those in the $35-$50 K annual salary range, manage their money worse. They are making like 5% a year. So, the rich get richer. What a great system.

All I can say is, if you read this blog, and you vote Republican, then watch Frontline every week (here it shows Tuesday nights at 10 p.m. usually). Then tell me in a year if you are still a Republican voter. And I hope you manage your money well.

Press Corps Dinner

You may have heard the talking heads talking about the press corps dinner last weekend in which an impersonator (his name is Steve Bridges I found out) got up on the podium alongside President Bush, and gave a "dual speech" with the President, followed by Steven Colbert making fun of everybody, especially the president. Someone I know forwarded me the link to the video of the dinner (on google video). I watched about 1 hour of it - far too much - and didn't like Colbert, but thought the Pres' was actually funny. Go figure. Usually I just cringe every time that man opens his mouth.

The most interesting segments I thought were actually at the beginning, when they showed footage from previous press corps dinners going all the way back to JFK. Seems like all the presidents could be funny, at one moment or the other. Clinton's crack about Jay Leno was pretty good. I also thought Lyndon Johnson was funny. Well I guess even a blind squirrel finds an acorn once in a while....

World Cup Soccer schedule

The soccer world cup is right around the corner and no one seems to be noticing. This year, we even have a good team (ranked #4 in the world). But all the people talk about around here is the 49ers NFL draft!

Well, I for one, am glad the public will be getting so see some of the world cup games on ABC, as well as other tournament games on cable (ESPN and ESPN2). Since the games are all between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., I will do my best to ignore all internet sports results and instead watch the taped matches when I get home. For the official schedule go here. Fortunately, I won't have to watch FC Bayern München once again beat everybody, since they're not even in the tournament. (some of their players are, though) My early picks to win it all: Argentia, Brazil (as always), England, Czech Republic, Italy, and maybe, just maybe, the home team Germany will squeak into the finals again ...

Redcross filmfest

Tonight I had some time to surf again. I had an email in my inbox from RedCross.com and decided to check them out. They are doing a short filmfest and are asking the public to evaluate the films. It's worth a look if you are in the mood for some quick entertainment and like creative filmmaking. The first two short films - from Atlanta and L.A. - really stood out. The rest of them were, well, so-so - at least in my opinion. I think the characters really make a movie. The "Donut or Donate" movie is absolutely hilarious and had me laughing out loud at my computer.

In other news, I seem to have finally found a group I can play basketball here in Oakland with, without having to join an expensive gym. They meet Thurday nights in Rockridge and generally are around my age (late 20s to late 30s). Most of them kick my butt in hoops, but I can play some good "D" when I am motivated. Long arms and legs help. It does cost $10 a night, so I am playing it week-to-week for the time being.

Lots going on in local politics. There is the local mayoral election in June, which is turning into a 3-way horse race between 3 candidates who pretty much span the ethnic and gender spectrum here. We have the hispanic patriarch (Ignacio De La Fuente), the dark horse she-candidate (Nancy Nadel) and an african-american 60s-era political star, Ron Dellums (he served many years in Washington as a congressman). It looks at the moment like Dellums has a slight advantage. I saw them debate a couple weeks past and was impressed with Nancy Nadel.

Interesting that in Oakland, aging "stars" like Dellums and Jerry Brown (our current mayor) can so easily get elected mayor - and would want the job!

Last night, I was the M.C. at our speech club's panel discussion on impromptu speaking. This was not an especially difficult assignment, since the panelists did most of the talking. I got to try my cooking skills, though, which was the main organizational challenge for me. I am proud to say, the "quick and easy crostini" black olive toasties came out well and were quite the hit. You can read the recipe exclusively here, on Kent's blog.

Lastly, someone who occasionally reads this blog asked to see more Hawaii pictures. For you, my highly unloyal readership, I am posting a few more shots from Oahu. Hey, would someone fill up my guestbook please! I was actually debating shutting this blog down, but Godfather Jerry has convinced me to keep the thing going a little while longer.


On my day travelling alone, I visited the famous Hanauma Bay state park, which is kind of a snorkeler's paradise.


I took a swim in some muddy water near a waterfall with my cousin's girls. Here Sally is running away from me. That's JUST my experience lately with women!


Even following a garbage truck, you feel like you're in paradise, with all the lush green vegetation surrounding you.

- End -

Sun, finally

Today we finally got some lasting sunshine. Actually, the nice weather started yesterday. Just in time for the workweek. Of course, had I still been living in Germany, I would have had a 4 day Easter weekend and could have started working on my California tan yesterday. Oh, well. Funny, how in this society, where more people observe religious holidays, fewer people actually get vacation to observe them.

With the turn in the weather, my bike rides to work and back have become noticeably more pleasant. Before, that is, during the last 2-3 months, I had to don or carry some sort of protective clothing whenever I left the house. This was to either avoid the rain falling out of the sky, or the dirt my bike tires kick up from below. Sometime during winter, I did manage to put on fenders on the bike (though I screwed that up pretty badly), and that does help.

Regarding my bike ride to work: I live almost exactly 2 miles from my office, so getting to work on a bicycle is not that tiresome. In fact, in the morning, I actually am faster on my bike than people who start around my house in a car are getting downtown (I've measured). It's due to a) the fact I live on a hill, and my entire ride to work is mostly going downhill and b) contruction projects around Lake Merrit, where they're building a big new catholic church, which limits the numbers of lanes cars can travel on. I like to pedal right next to the orange pylons, on the "illegal" side, where the cars can't go. This lets me slide past the downtown Oakland traffic jam (which is pretty tame compared to what people fact on the local highways and bridges). I enjoy this little "cat and mouse" game I play with regular commuters. Of course, they may be rooting for me to go faster. Who knows. Maybe they enjoy sitting in their car in the morning, listening to the radio and drinking coffee.


1) The intersection of Harrison St. and Bayo Vista Ave., one block from my house. From here, almost the whole way is down-hill.


2) Harrison St. / Grand Ave. You can see the cars ahead stalled next to the contruction site where they're building the catholic cathedral. To the right you can see the orange rubber pylons. I know they're rubber, because sometimes I run into those on my bike. I can usually get between those pylons and the construction equipment. The construction guys usually give me space. So far, none of them has spoken to me.


3) Harrson St. / 20th St. The tall building in the background is my office building. I work there on the 7th floor (1800 Harrison).

If parking were free at my job, I too would be sorely tempted to do the environmentally bad thing and drive to work. However, I have to pay for parking (I think currently it's about $8 a day), so the choice is easy. I've become a dedicated bike commuter. With those savings, I can drink 2 glasses of beer a day at my local bar, the Kerry House on Piedmont Ave.