Is it Fall already?!

Maybe it's time to breathe some life into this old blog of mine with some content!

Occasionally, I google myself to see where my photos are being used on the internet. Many of my photos are available through Flickr using several Creative Commons licenses. My first post about "Where My Flickr Photos Are Being Used on the Internet" aka WMFPABUOTI debuted on Tumblr but I am fairly active there already, and post music videos and songs from my favorite bands regularly.

No, I don't have an audience but haha, I figure when I'm 80 I can laugh and reminisce about the music I enjoyed in my younger days with Tumblr as my record - if it's still around then.

Anyway, I haven't used Blogger in ages and have always wanted to keep it going somehow. So, I think I will continue WMFAPABUOTI here, on blogger instead. After a little searching earlier today,  I spotted my photo of gourds and squashes for a list of 2018 Fall Festivals in Oregon.

Decorative Gourd Season is apparently already upon us so I think the event guide post is appropriate.

From ilovehalloween.com - where it's "All Halloween. All The Time."

The Chicago Theatre

As seen from the State Street 'L' platform.

A New York City moment

Eric and I visited New York City for the first time this past spring and we hope to visit again. We took a sightseeing boat tour around Manhattan and this would be the closest we got to Lady Liberty. Maybe for our next visit, we'll give her a proper visit. Until then...

The New Colossus - Emma Lazarus (1883)

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, 

With conquering limbs astride from land to land; 

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall strand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

MOTHER OF EXILES. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she

With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor, 

Your huddled masses wearing to breathe free, 

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Revisiting London

Some of my favorite photos from our week-long visit to London this past spring.  

Some assembly required

I miss making stuff. I need to set aside some time to finish a few knitting projects. 

I hope to cook and bake more, especially as the weather gets cooler.

I also want to make more time for random/useless art projects.

Going underground (within Zones 1- 6)

 

I'm pretty sure The Jam's Going Underground isn't about riding the London subway. But I couldn't help humming it in my head when I was traveling... UNDERGROUND! After many years of dreaming about going, I finally made it to London.

Eric and I celebrated our wedding anniversary a little early this year, during Spring Break. It's a milestone year for us so we wanted to go big and to also make use of our passports before they expired. We used tons of credit card points, stayed in a posh and completely lovely boutique hotel a block away from the British Museum, and froze our butts off in what would be England's coldest March in 50 years. 

Days began with a really yummy breakfast buffet at the hotel. There were pastries, cereals, smoked fish, cheeses, toast, bagels, fruit, and the full English breakfast. And if that didn't float your boat, you could order from their a la carte menu. I skipped the beans and the smoked fish and cheeses, but ate pretty much everything else. We never ate lunch as we were too full from breakfast, but we did have tea once. Clotted cream is MAGIC.

After breakfast, we walked and walked and took transit and walked some more. We spent an entire day at the British Museum and still didn't see everything. There's just NO way. If I lived there, I'd be a member even though it's free. Thank you, Transit for London, for putting your Legible London maps everywhere we needed one, which was well, everywhere.

When we finished our walking and gawking, we made our way to dinner. Afterward, we returned to the hotel to rest, download photos from the cameras, recharge batteries, and watch some BBC. Eric always fell asleep before I did, Kindle in his hands, propped up in bed. I stayed up late planning the next day's excursions and mapping our transit and walking routes. Around midnight, the infomercials would start and in between, sometimes this video would come on TV. That was my cue to sleep. I tried not to plan too much and at times, I could have planned and timed things better, but overall, we had a great time letting London unfold before us. While we had plenty of opportunities to take a ton of photos, I knew I was restraining myself. I wanted to just *be* there, to be present, not just going around documenting things. But hehe, of course we ended up with over 1800 shots, some are here and here. 

Just when I started getting used to things- the weather, the accents, even the sidewalks- our travel card was expiring and our trip was ending. I hope we can return when the weather's warmer or when we have the appropriate clothing. I will definitely make another pilgrimage to Kew Gardens, and explore other neighborhoods, shops, and parks we either breezed through or didn't get to visit at all. And tea! More cream teas!

Cor-NEE-lius!

Ok, so I'm still laughing at this great California Lottery commercial. 

I don't play the lottery much these days. I used to buy an occasional quick pick when the jackpots grew beyond $100 million dollars. I can't even remember the last time I bought a scratcher. 

COR-NEE-LIUS! 

If anything, it makes me want to get a dog just to call it Cornelius. Which is weird, because I think I'd like a female dog. Hm. Oh well. 

I do daydream about some of the things I would do or how I would spend my money if I ever won a super huge jackpot. 

• Give away a bunch to my family
• Give away a bunch of it to my favorite charities and non-profits
• Quit my job
• Spa more
• Get haircuts more frequently
• Travel more
• Sleep more

Once upon a time...

I graduated from high school twenty years ago. Looking back at my senior year scrapbook, I found some funny notes my friends left on the autograph pages,  from the time I didn't have a telephone. These days, many kids, even the less privileged ones, have mobile phones. For a while there, I didn't have a house phone. And my friends knew it. They were an understanding bunch and my buddies with cars often showed up at my house to invite me out, the old-fashioned way, by knocking on the door. My mom didn't always let me out, but I was always glad my friends came by anyway.

 

San Francisco Giants win the 2010 World Series

San Francisco City Hall dressed in orange light, 10/20/2010.

With the football season so much shorter, I'm more likely to tune into a Niners game than a baseball or basketball game. And I'm not a hockey fan either.

But I'll always be a San Francisco fan.

Congratulations, San Francisco Giants! Your die-hard fans are waiting to celebrate your victory with you. And thank you for giving me another reason to love being a San Franciscan. See you guys in five months.

Nothing's gonna change my world

Nudibranch at night
(A from-the-car-shot of Sam's Chowder House signage, Half Moon Bay, CA)

Images of broken light which
dance before me like a million eyes
That call me on and on across the universe
Thoughts meander like a
restless wind inside a letter box
they tumble blindly as
they make their way across the universe
- excerpted from the song Across The Universe,
lyrics written by John Lennon

I've started 3 blog notes and I can't seem to develop any of them. Then Across The Universe came up on Eric's playlist and the above verse struck a chord. He's playing DJ while we both wander through the Web this evening.

Images of broken light dance before me like a million eyes

I am wandering aimlessly across the Internet - jumping from blog to blog, looking up unfamiliar terms and following interesting links only to forget how or why I got there in the first place. Entertaining, mind-numbing, awe-inspiring, repulsing. I leave electronic footprints with every link I follow - someone/something out there is looking back or documenting my virtual journey.

Thoughts meander like a restless wind inside a letter box

So many ideas going around my head:

• something one of my interns said about Section 8 and public housing: "You make it sound like only poor people live in the projects." Yes, she said that to me.
  
• digging up old love letters to be possibly published anonymously on a friend's blog
  
• taking photos of the layoff letter I received earlier in the month
  
• listening to music at work (to drown out)
  
• another work group in the clinic argue and cuss during their staff meeting
• office walls should not be so thin
  
• what it means to be a pedestrian on the Internet superhighway, with the proper shoes, of course
  
• dyeing Easter eggs

It's 11:51PM and writing about thinking about writing about these things is about as far as I'm going to get tonight.

Pet peeve

I hate seeing temporary stitches on coats and jackets still holding the vents and flaps closed. They just bug. 

I noticed a cute little swingy gray coat on this young woman who was waiting for her Golden Gate Transit bus while I was waiting for my MUNI #5 after work. Her bus arrived and as she walked up the stairs into the bus, I noticed that the little flap on the back of the coat was still closed with that temporary stitch. Everything else about her seemed put together, but why did she not cut that stuff loose? The cute, flirtatious effect obvious from the front was undone but the awkward bunching in the back. Terrible.

I don't see these kinds of things very often, but when I do, I just want to run up with scissors and cut those stitches open. Other things I can't stand along the same lines are wool labels on scarves and wool labels still stitched onto the sleeves, near the wrist, of wool coats. UGH.

Don't be lazy, people. Cut those stitches, and wear your clothes, coats and scarves as they were meant to be worn.

Into the Wild - the movie?

I forgot how I read about this, but I saw on imdb.com that the book Into the Wild has been made into a movie, with a screening at the Mill Valley Film Festival. I was excited at the chance to see it, but I hadn't learned about till now and I don't have the time or money ($150!) to attend the screening on 9/13.

I don't read much in terms of books. Magazines, cookbooks, myspace profiles, no problem! That crap, I can read forever. Books, and I'm not sure why, not so much. But Into the Wild is one book I actually own, having read it many years ago. I don't remember what exactly attracted me to the story but I do remember being upset through most of my reading, with Chris McCandless, so young, full of potential, and very privileged. At the time, I was at crossroads, struggling to get through college and start my life, thinking wow, what a waste.

Or was it? Bits and pieces of his story, written by Jon Krakauer, still stay with me to this day and that's why I was a little excited to know that the movie version was coming soon to a theater near me. I think I need to dig it out of the closet again and/or see the movie to revisit my feelings about Chris' experience and what he was really trying to discover out there in the wild. I get the feeling I'll be more sympathetic this second time around.

Wake up now so you can go to sleep

My mom always says the television watches my dad, not the other way around.

My sister and I spent the night at my parents' house this past Friday. Guests usually sleep in the living room. My dad fell asleep on the couch and we had to wake him up so we could go to bed when the movie was over. It didn't matter that we were all howling through "Blades of Glory" and plain ole chit-chatting. I think the noise lulls him to sleep. He was awake for the beginning of the movie, but he gradually fell asleep.

He's been doing this for quite some time. I was still in high school and he'd come home around 11PM from his second job. I'd be doing homework (procrastinating) and we'd watch some TV together - Twilight Zone, news, Benny Hill, whatever, and talk about what was on or I would listen to him talk about stories he had related to what was on - and he'd eventually fall asleep. He'd sense things were done when the program was finished or when I'd start wrapping things up with my papers and he'd wake up.

On Friday however, a little nudging of his arm wasn't enough going to be enough. When we realized this was going to take a little more effort than normal, I blurted out, "Daddy, wake up now so you can go to sleep." We were laughing so hard, I think that really got his attention. So he said his goodnights and made his way up to the bedroom.

Pig Milk

It's an odd topic, but a familiar one. I haven't thought about this in ages!

I was about to post a photo on flickr of crab for sale at Fisherman's Wharf. I wanted to verify the sex of the crab. They appeared to be all male, as they should be, but I'm always getting the description of the male and female abdomens confused so I just had to make sure.
In my search for crabbing issues and processes, I ended up at iheartbacon.com. I noticed a link off to the side titled Pig Milk, and clicked on it.

Eric & I had been wondering about pig milk (and cheese!) for quite some time before we ended up sharing our thoughts with some friends a few years ago. Pigs can get big, but not big like cows, and they have have a lot more teets. So it's harder to milk them and the yield just doesn't seem to be worth the work is what we all came up with but we never really got confirmation. The link at iheartbacon offered up some answers along similar lines.

But we'd gotten a different answer about 2 years ago from a friend of a friend. He sent us the translation, as the original answer was in French. Apparently, man has only milked and produced milk by-products from herbivorous animals, including yaks, water buffalo, camels, horses, goats, sheep and of course, cows. The pig is omnivorous, as are most people.
Could you imagine human milk or cheese for sale?

Anyway, we've since lost the original email and have forgotten the reasoning behind the 'omnivore factor'. I think it may stem from old dietary laws? But I can't be sure. Eric just searched his old emails and did not find it. Perhaps, we'll have to send a follow-up email to our friend to refresh our memories.

New music round-up

I was sorry to hear Lily Allen cancelled many of her tour dates in the US. I had the fabulous opportunity to see her at The Fillmore (my first time at The Fillmore!) a few weeks back with my sister, brother-in-law and Eric. She put on a great show and her band kicked butt. She was drinking on stage, and smoking too, but I thought that was just part of her 'rude girl' schtick. The highlight of the evening for me was her cover of Keane's Everybody's Changing. I love Keane, I like that song and she took it into an unexpected direction, up-tempo and cutesy-sweet. I'd like to see it become a single. Other tunes I like from her album include Ldn, Alfie & Cheryl Tweedy.

the bird and the bee was the opening act and they were great! So refined and polished. I'd never heard of them, although, their song Again and Again sounded really familiar. I would have bought their CD that night but they ran out of stuff to sell, I think from their previous show in Sacramento. I ended up getting it down in Santa Barbara while on vacation. They did a cover of Do You Know The Way to San Jose and that was cute. While I really dig the whole CD, the track that's gotten the most plays so far is Birds and the Bees. It's simply dreamy.

The Slip was in town this past Friday and Saturday, playing at The Independent. (I hadn't been there since it was the Justice League and my sister remembers it as a Club Q, a lesbian club. Apparently my brother was a cage dancer there too. Who knew?!) Anyways, I had to see them perform Even Rats. I instantly loved the song when I first heard it on Guitar Hero. I can't play it well beyond the easy level but it just kicks ass. I'm not sure why, but I find it... pretty. So my sister, my brother-in-law, Eric and I walked on over after dinner on Friday.

The opening act, Holy F*ck, was wildly cool. I'd never seen or heard anything like that and I mean that in a good way. I've already incorporated some of their tracks to my workout playlist, they're so high energy - they played with such intensity, definitely something to be experienced live. I don't know any of the titles of their songs from their performance. It's like they were just performing as background music, not because they were an act to be watched. But you had to watch. The drummer was an animal (again, in a good way), the guitarist was going to rip his arms off the way he was playing and the two guys messing around with their pedals and knobs and who knows what else, they seemed so engrossed in what they were doing, like they were in a trance.

OK, back to The Slip. Unfortunately, we're not the spring chickens we once were, so we didn't stick around for their second set. We were all yawning, not because the show was sucking or anything, we were just tired. Thank goodness they played Even Rats early on. I also really like If One Of Us Should Fall and Children of December. Too bad we couldn't come back Saturday night to see the second set!

Bad junk mail titles, pt. 2

They seem to be getting worse.

I'm also getting more Las Vegas/casino/gambling subject lines, telling me I've won something or can win something and I can also get a variety of medication (aside from those that can help my non-existent penis get bigger) for deep discounts.

There's also a smattering of loan offers and religious garble that go straight into the junk folder. But the number of penis-related titles still outnumber the others. Here's the latest batch:

It will be so big she gags on it
Feel better about yourself
Boost your johnson
Biggest cock on the block
My wife says I'm huge
Have control over your manhood
Stronger longer hard ons
Penetrate her deeper
Does it hang long?
No more faking
Turbocock
Improve endurance in the bedroom
It will be so big she gags on it
Supercharge your dick
Stop your ED
Expand..Lengthen..Enlarge
How do you feel about your manhood?
Disappointed with your sexual health?
Have you ever felt small?
Be as big as you can be
9 inches in your pants
Can you hit her g-spot?
Does your dick resemble a shrimp?
Is your dick like a scared turtle?
Feed your dick
Fatten up your trousersnake
SuperDick
Fix your bedroom problems with us
Have the biggest dick at the bar
Take your dick to the next level
Get a visit from the big dick fairy
Your ex said you had a small dick
She'll hurt so good with MegaDik
Make your manhood strong
Give her a reason to stick around
Let the big dick fairy bless you

"Said I love you, but I lied"

My new cube mate Andrew has XM satellite radio streaming through his computer at work. It's pretty cool. Hardly any commercials, just XM commercials. He usually has it on the easy- listening station for the 'over 30's' and for the most part the tunes are familiar and helps me humming along with my work. Andrew likes to sing along and he's funny that way. His sometimes goofy attitude reminds me of my brother Joe.

I never really liked Michael Bolton, just never really liked that sound or his voice and I'm jealous that his long mane was prettier than mine. I'm still not a fan or anything but after listening to "Said I love you, but I lied" all the way through for the first time (and then googling for the lyrics) it's not at all the song I thought it was. I assumed it was some kind of harsh break-up song.

Take for example the chorus:

Said I loved you but I lied
cause this is more than love I feel inside
Said I loved you but I was wrong
cause love could never ever feel so strong
Said I loved you but I lied

The lyrics are actually really sweet. But the melody and voice still suck.

On another note:

Prince at the SuperBowl XLI's halftime show was awesome. I can't say I'm the biggest fan but with my new found appreciation of guitar players, I really liked what he did with "The Best Of Me" by the Foo Fighters. I recognized that he started that groove with "All Along the Watchtower" but it wasn't obvious that he'd switched over to the Foo Fighters song until the chorus (Outside of the songs that get lots of airplay, I'm not very familiar with Foo Fighters music). I was in awe.

I haven't been this excited about Prince since the 5th grade, when my brother, cousin and I were staging a Prince vigil at my house the night he played the Cow Palace in 1985. He played a couple of shows, but we were all too young to go - I was 10, my cousin Jennifer, 11 & my brother Paolo, 12. Instead, we played my sister's Prince albums and watched Purple Rain all night.

I spoke with enthusiasm for this performance at a "Quarterly Director's Coffee" get-together this morning. Though one co-worker called the guitar-playing 'noise,' I was not affected. And for those who opted out, they're now planning to find it on YouTube and see His Purple-Highness for themselves. Maybe I'll do that too... like, right now!

Bad junk mail titles

Junk mail subject titles directed at those who feel they aren't substantial enough.

I do get other junk mail, but these are some of the standouts that are fairly coherent compared to the "9hoodia h';iph'pidf'hkd lidhst[-45uihn'fsgp9sr 7[ihrt;oriwfhndf" kind that also flood my junk mail box.

I'm sure everyone gets these... don't you?!

Hows your little man
Demand more from your dick
Add inches to your package
Thicken up your manhood
Gain Up To 3+ Full Inches In Length
Increase Your Penis Size 3
Biggest dick in town
Greatly improve your stamina
Want to be a hero in a bed?
Hang fat
Pencil dick?
Six months and you'll be a changed man
Please your partner
Make your manhood extra large
Get more chicks
Enlargement patch
Stop being a small guy
Women are unhappy with small dicks
Big gains on your manhood
Enlarge your johnson
Be a big man where it counts
Ashamed of your size
Keep it strong and firm
Make your manhood massive
Every man should read this
Increase your girth
Expand and enlarge
Are you big where it counts
Gain length and width on your dick
Large and in charge
Bigger manhood in months
Turn her on with a larger manhood

I think this one's the best though:
Beef up your tubesteak

TUBESTEAK!?!

Why does Tim Allen make movies?

I think I'm going to ask Mick LaSalle. Not because I think he'll know but he might have a funny answer. So I emailed:

"Why does Tim Allen make movies? Out of fairness, I haven't seen any of them. I've only seen about 2 episodes of Home Improvement. He was great as Buzz Lightyear and I hear Galaxy Quest is funny.
But I just don't get why anyone would see, say, Jungle 2 Jungle or The Santa Clause.
If I were to rent one of his movies, what should I start with?"

I can't believe there's a Santa Clause Part 3 movie coming out. I didn't even know there was a Part 2! I just don't get the appeal and the trailers for his movies are just lost on me.

Fall music collection

New (to me) music of the moment - Zero 7 & the vocal stylings of Jose Gonzalez. Zero 7 just played the Fillmore and were also on Jay Leno and I totally shrugged off the performances. I'm not really sure why, but I didn't really pay attention to when they were going to be on because I just started listening to them.

Eric downloaded some songs he thought I might like and well, I do like them! I've also been listening to Keane's new album and after listening to the up-tempo songs over and over again, I've finally found the beauty of the slower songs like "Atlantic" and "A Bad Dream," along with one of their older songs, "Bedshaped."

So, now I'm learning about Zero 7 and that lead to more songs from Jose Gonzalez as well as other vocalists Zero 7 has collaborated with. I'm stuck on Jose. His website has a nice sampling of songs. I thought I could listen to "Today" over and over again, but the flavor of the month just might be "Heartbeats". His voice is dreamy and the music is so clean, not fussy and just easy to enjoy.

This time of year, when school starts, when the days are getting shorter and the weather begins to turn cooler, is when I want to listen to stuff like this. An old staple is Amplified Heart from Everything But the Girl, but this season, I'll be adding Jose Gonzalez, with or without Zero 7, to my 'fall collection'. To keep me from becoming completely pensive and melancholic, I've been interspersing some Gnarls Barkley and Paul Weller/Jam songs to my current playlist. I could have gone in for the overkill by adding some Cristina Branco but I think that would just bring me to tears, partly because of the nature of Fado, but mostly because, I don't understand Portuguese, so it gets frustrating to feel sad about a song and not know why.