Shellac = shiny fun things

Our midterm for my Landscape Drawing and Painting class is to make a weird proscenium and memory chamber for two soon-to-become threatened species: Apis mellifera (common honeybee) and Quercus agrifolia (Coast Live Oak). It is a strange project but it is very doable because there are only a few guidelines we must follow. Above all it should be interesting to look at. I think I succeeded.

Look inside the boxes:





Required parts were two matchboxes and one cigar box as the base for the assignment's elements. I didn't want to bother with procuring a real cigar box, so I made one using museum board that I found in a drawer. The matchboxes were easier to come by.

I used a lot of shellac-varnish on my box. Everything is eerily shiny and decoupage-y looking. It would probably go up in flames if one of those matches was lit. I am exhausted from all this craft making. I shall now sleep.

Happy Birthday, Janine

Today is Janine's birthday. Here's to you!

I sent her a card from this cheeky site I just found. Some of these are pretty damn hilarious.

Another gratuituous link...

Click here for Swedish people. I shall be enjoying this performance very soon.

Otter boy

A Monday with Philippe:

Going too far

I found this item on one of my classmate's desks this morning. I believe in haute cuisine and all that junk, but I think this case of fusion has overstepped some delicate boundaries.

The kicker is that this particular person has in the past claimed to be a vegetarian.

Board

This is my board that I will present in 20 minutes for LA 111: Plants in Design. Just posting an entry here while it plots.

D-day is Thurs. 11am

All evening I have been (re)designing the Wurster Light Court. Non-Wursterites will not be familiar with this space. It happens to be an interior courtyard of our monster building which is home to the College of Environmental Design. On the UCB campus.

The design is for my Plants in Design course, so most of the intervention has to do with (you guessed it) plants. So far I like my plant palette. There are many ferns and clumpy grass thingies. Oh, I plan to better articulate this information when Thursday morning rolls around.

We were only given 10 days to do this project (the first 7 days of which I was completely focused on studio and not thinking about plants in the very LEAST). So that gives me less than three days to complete a 10 day long project. Sounds like a typical situation for most misbegotten souls here at Wurster Hall. In between now and Thursday's presentation, I have exactly 8 hours of classroom time and two additional projects to turn in.

I plan to be here until 2:30am. I have class at 8am today, so I need to get at least 3 hours of sleep. I must be well rested, for tomorrow I will be watercoloring this enormous Light Court design.

So that means I must sign off immediately and return to my plant mode.

Hasta luego, Jean Paul

Jean Paul's last week in Berkeley is nearing its end. Last night marked his farewell party on Grove Street. Things began around 9:30, when JP and his crew (Pete, Ingrid) were the first to arrive. It was nearly 11:30 before a critical mass was established. Many, many people were in attendance; some people we met off the street even dropped in (I warned them not to steal anything). Particular highlights:

1. Michael Gougherty head-butting our dining room door and cracking it.
2. Drinking from the tequila bottle at 3:10am.
3. Realizing, for the second time in a calendar year, that crumbly chocolate cake is not a good party food if you have beige carpet.
4. Waiting for a cat fight to break out between roommate's love interests
5. Watching a guy that brought a bucket of chicken to our party consume nearly every piece of it.
6. Drop in visit from the neighbor at 2:50am.

There are certainly more highlights to be added, but my brain is slow tonight. I've been looking at numbers too long on a spreadsheet.

Corn maze = Good time autumn fun

My friend Andrew has proposed his annual escapade down to Fremont to the autumn corn maize (maze). Each year, he gathers together a group of people to carpool all the way down there to participate in the old-fashioned Halloween pre-gaming.

Seeing that this year there will be no official Halloween party in the Castro, I see the corn maze as a potential alternative venue for the crowds of San Franciscans looking to rabble rouse a bit amongst tall vegetation. With a little planning, beers and flasks can be smuggled in and enjoyment to be had. There are, however, no bathrooms at the corn maze (as far as I can recall) so drink with knowledge of that constraint. Otherwise, you will be wandering into adjacent corn fields to relieve yourself, and you know what can happen out there!


Bird's-eye view of the Fremont Corn Maze

One of the fun things I remember about the Fremont corn maze was the interaction between strangers. It is inevitable that within the group you arrive at the corn maze with someone is likely to go missing among the networks of winding paths and dead ends. If such an event occurs, you could try calling your friends on the cell. However, that route isn't terribly effective given that it's hard to give directions in a place such as this ("take a right at the big group of corn husks" doesn't quite cut it) and given the fact that cellular reception not as reliable as in the city. It is best to ask for some help: "Excuse me, but did you recently pass by a bunch of loud drunk people? One person would have smelled of bourbon. You did? Where were they headed?" Someone might even escort you to them and offer you a swig from their group flask. Good things come from asking for help in the corn maze. Really.

Oh, that reminds me of one important hint: don't wear any shoes that you would care about if they got submerged in mud/manure. I speak from experience. Same applies to your pants.

Consider visiting a local corn maze this autumn.

In other Halloween pre-gaming news, Jean Paul's going away party is this Friday, the 19th, right here on Grove Street. I am trying to figure out where my pad of colored construction paper is. I would like to decorate this place properly...in the spirit of the season.


Think this concept, but much better....

No-zones of victory

Stop the presses!!!! Something amazing has happened in DC! The end of a wholly corrupt system, resulting in millions of pilfered dollars going into the pockets of DC's cab drivers, is about to happen.

Status check:

I think I've posted this image before. I was browsing through my photos of Donnell Garden for my drawing assignment, and I came across this one. It's a favorite. It's just so damn optimistic!

In rainbows

The new Radiohead downloadable name-your-price is really quite good. I prefer a few tracks over others, but usually I end up liking the ones I don't listen to at first the most.

Super easy download, too. I paid 5 pounds sterling, about $11 US. Sure, the really dedicated fans might pay more, but I am a graduate student. I feel like their system sets it up so those like me are able to benefit from others' subsidy.

It's nice to have new Radiohead tunes to listen to. I've listened to The Eraser too much, frankly, since last summer.

Found: skull of varmint

I was in Rodeo this afternoon for some studio work. I walked along Rodeo Creek Trail until it terminated near Hwy. 4. At the top of the ridge is a railway line. I decided to do a little Stand By Me and walk along the tracks so I could get a better view over the creek from above.

On the tracks I found a severed raccoon head. It had enough fur and skin on it for me to identify it. No signs of the body around. Ouch. I will post pictures asap.


The head.


The view of the creek I wanted to get from the tracks.


View of coal products plant on other side of tracks.


Turkeys on the prowl.

Happy 250th!!!! Plus, ants.

This entry is this blog's 250th official entry!!!! Hurray!!! Thank you for your readership and support.

Now that the excitement of that milestone has come and past, I move on to the next issue of concern (IOC). That concern is focused on a small bandit group of ants currently housing themselves in the wall next to the washing machine. This location also shares a wall with guess who's bedroom.

The ants were first discovered when I went into the bathroom. My first duty when I enter the apt. bathroom is to sweep the floor. My roommates are hairy and this is something I do anywhere from 1-3 times per day. While sweeping, I picked up one ant. Odd, I thought, because ants are never present at 3110 Grove St.

I opened the door of the bathroom and noticed a mass of ant activity around the base of the washing machine. Blast, I thought, they must have come in from the rain yesterday. Ants do that, I guess.

I would not let these little bastards prevail, so I armed myself with a spray bottle full of my secret anti-ant formula: 50% bleach, 50% water. This solution can knock out ants in a matter of seconds, plus it helps clean the surrounding environs. So much for Raid.

Status: The solution has worked. There are currently about 30 dead ants on the floor, some of them still wiggling their poor, chemically-attacked legs in vain. They will soon die. I've sprayed the whole area in there with Anti-Ant and I hope that from the remaining survivors they will send a scout to the nest to report undesirable ant living conditions in apt. 3C.

Drawing experiment #6

Click here for larger detail.

Stuck

Hmmmm....so it started raining really damn hard here in Berkeley around 11:00pm. I am determined to wait out the storm before I leave Wurster. This crap has GOT to stop sometime. That said, the idea of riding my bicycle home in this is less appealing than staying here all night.

It's not such a downer, I guess, since the first year grad students are pulling an all nighter to finish their Blake Garden installations and presentation materials before 9am tomorrow. I feel bad for them. All I am doing is inking a drawing about bugs in a belfry. They have to produce life-size installations, 30 scale models, and plan and section drawings for the review. I remember doing that and it was a shit load of work.

Life is better as a second year.

Update from the Wilson Center

I've been unsuccessful in getting a hold of George Seay, my old boss at the Wilson Center. Aside from catching up, I was hoping to get some insider tidbits about Haleh's homecoming. She had been in Iranian prison since May. Recently released several weeks ago, she is now back at work in DC. I am sure the sound of those noisy gold wrist bangles she always wears is a welcome sound in the Center's hallways.

Link to October 2007 issue of Centerpoint is here.

A whole mess of new skivvies

I am set for Fall 2007. Undergarmetwise that is. In the mail today I received a shipment of many pairs of new underwear and 3 new bras. They aren't anything particularly new...the same styles and sizes from years past. Still, I would argue there's something that puts zing into your day by tossing out the old and stepping into the new. Wadda bang!

I've had to order these things over the web for the last few years. I could probably never find the time to actually physically go bra and underwear shopping. Seems like a waste of time if you know what you want. I'd rather spend my weekend in good company, listening to music in the park, or even having a productive Sunday night at Wurster Hall. Who would have guessed?

Speaking of productivity, time to begin drawing...

I can't be your boyfriend

Below is a link to another great single off the new Jens Lekman (Yans Lake-man) album to be released this week. I got it a few days early!

A Postcard to Nina

Aside from Jens, the weekend was pretty action packed. Friday entailed field trip excursions to the Musee Mechanique, drinking with classmates and professor at Vesuvio's, freaking out about Blue Angel jets weaving about SF's skyscrapers, and bussing ourselves west to see the opening acts of the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival out in Golden Gate Park. We saw quick bits of John (Cougar) Mellenkamp and Neko Case, but failed to stay (due to the cold setting in) to see Jeff Tweedy. The day was made complete with an injera meal unit enjoyed with Jason. Fast service, lightening fast. In that respect, that place is entirely NOT authentic in the Ethiopian sense. Here is a link to probably the most authentic Ethiopian restaurant in the continental United States. It takes anywhere up to 3 hours to have a meal here. There is a good chance you will also get something delivered to your table that you did not order. And you will pay for it.

Sunday I returned to Golden Gate Park to see HBRSB, one of my favorite your bluegrass bands. They've seen a lot of the world since I first saw them in early 2005. Way to go. There were TONS of people there, making it really hard to even hear anything at the central Banjo Stage. Christina and I left there to find the Star Stage, far removed from the major event foot traffic. We still managed to see some great acts before leaving at 4:00 PM.

Since that time, I have been at Wurster Hall mulling over parcel maps of Rodeo, CA.

This is the week of field trips. Tomorrow studio heads out to Rodeo, again, to visit the headwaters of Rodeo Creek at Fernandez Ranch. Tuesday, for Plants in Design, we head out to Emeryville to the Chiron corporate campus. Chiron was one of the big anchors that started to redevelop around the train tracks many years ago, effectively reshaping the city form.

Is it me.....

....or is that not the greatest picture of Jerry Boone in the Oregonian? At least his coverage of my stepdad isn't so bad....yet.

Socratic habitat

This is an actual school assignment. I still have to watercolor it.

Also, the best thing on the Interweb today:

Collision

About 12 feet from my apartment building this morning I had a bike collision with a pedestrian. I don't know if this is a coincidence or not, but today was also the first day I remembered to wear my helmet. Turns out I didn't need it to survive this wreck - my victim would have benefited more from having it having taken a spill on the sidewalk. Anyway, the poor girl (14 years old) was certainly more calm than I was post-impact.

Nothing like almost maiming someone in public to start off your day!

Two favorites

=

Click below to hear a song from the much-hyped Jens Lekman album Night Falls Over Kortedala, to be released Oct. 9:

The Opposite of Hallelujah

He is playing at Bimbo's Friday Nov. 9. I'm excited for this Swede.

Pilgrim journey

No, I am not journeying to Mecca. I am only going home for Thanksgiving. But I thought it warranted a posting since I haven't done this for give or take a decade.

I really do not recall a time I've gone home for Thanksgiving in my 20s. I've been in school all that time, or living across the country, so venturing to Portland for what is essentially a drawn out meal never happened. It was always "too expensive", "too crowded" or "too annoying". But this year changes everything. I am showing up for my turkey leg. And I will not take kindly to being assigned to the kiddy table.

Goin' to the Village

This upcoming Monday I am going to the heartland.....Davis, that is. Davis, CA is where my professor Rob Thayer lives. He lives in the famed Davis Village Homes. Completed in 1975, Village Homes was "designed to encourage both the development of a sense of community and the conservation of energy and natural resources." Most of the people that live there ride bikes as their main form of transportation and probably have admirable carbon footprints. Some even do not own cell phones, much like my professor.

Rob invited anyone in our class up to Davis on Monday during class time to come tour Village Homes. We can even stay after for dinner. One of the groups in our studio is the "Renewable Energy" group. They are charged with proposing ideas about energy conservation and alternative production to the Town of Rodeo. Hopefully they can find some design concepts we encounter and find a useful application for them in Rodeo. That is the hope.

I am along for the ride in the true sense of the word. I am in the Rodeo Creek Watershed Restoration group, so this stuff probably won't help our group too much. However, since I got to UCB, I've wanted to visit Village Homes simply because it is a well-known and successful example of environmentally mindful residential development.

We are allowed only to come if we ride our bikes and take Amtrak to Davis. From the Davis train station, we ride to Village Homes on two wheels, helmets and all.

Fifteen

My efforts to retrieve my misplaced favorite corduroy jacket are once again spoiled. I left it at a friend's house a few weeks ago. Shame, too, since it is beginning to get cool in the mornings and evenings (and I come home LATE, by the way).

I've been in the city a few times since losing it and I always phone the people that live there but none of them have ever been home to open the door. I asked Brendan about tomorrow night and he said it was likely everyone would be at the big Critical Mass. Apparently, it is the 15th birthday (or anniversary) of the monthly tradition that effectively ties up traffic at rush hour and induces utilization of public transit out of the city center. After a rough spring, the close-knit membership alliance has managed to stay out of the press.



I've only done CM once. It was Halloween 2005, I believe. Good time. I wore this amazing blond mermaid wig. (BTW, wigs will overheat one in a snap. If you wear one, dress light.) I kind of want to go again, should be a nice ride. Hopefully no old people in minivans will be assaulted and/or berated in public intersections by militant bike ninjas.

Field trip to Contra Costa County

My studio course, LA 201, Ecological Factors in Urban Landscape Design, took a trip to the bowels of Contra Costa County on Sunday. For almost 11 hours we toiled out there looking for any threads of environmental hope for this place. Anyway, below are some images of what we found:


Into the culvert we go....


Land slump


That's the way they do it in Pinole.


For some reason, my camera turns all skies pink lately...This is a channelized Rodeo Creek. Beautiful!


Great old building in Rodeo's downtown. Too bad its structural integrity is about zero based on the posted sign on the front window. I love the arcade entrance.


The coal fire plant in Rodeo off Hwy. 4.


What you see a lot of in Rodeo: powerlines on almost every hill landscape there is

To be Mayor...

The Oregonian carried a short story on my stepfather's annoucement to run for Mayor of Beaverton, OR. So far, I guess, the media coverage seems better than worse.

Good luck to him. The bid is for NEXT fall's election. All in time. Plenty of time for some skeletons to fall out of the closet, though.

It's a weekend. Really.

Well, kind of. It's going to be kind of a weekend. 'Kind of' for two reasons. One, I have nothing (big) due on Monday, so it feels like I have free time. Two, I have to go on some kinda hellish field trip all day on Sunday, from 7am to 6pm, up in Contra Costa County. We are going up there to look at about a gazillion things for our Ecological Analysis Planning and Design Studio.

So it is, therefore, kind of a weekend. I look forward to Friday night and Saturday as long as I get in before 12am. While Sunday is spoken for, the other two days got potential.

A major episode of 12 year old boy humor happened in my Plants in Design class. You wouldn't have guessed, but it did. While my professor was lecturing us with a powerpoint presentation on English Landscape Gardens, a slide flipped up with a map of Stourhead. Stourhead is one of those kinds of estates that are featured in all of the Jane Austen novels. Anyway, the map caught my attention because it included the location of an inn with a name that I cannot believe has not been changed or altered in modern times. See for yourself.

Also, in other news, my stepfather Bruce is announcing to the City of Beaverton tomorrow that he is running for mayor. This could get interesting. Hmm, I make an early prediction that the new Dalrymple-family Porsches are not going to impress local voters.

Let's go to Yosemite

From my drawing class:

My parents like cars or something

Since I left Portland this summer, my mother and stepfather have dabbled in conspicuous consumption to an extent that leaves me more than a bit queasy. There is little explanation to it other than the fact that my stepdad Bruce is an extremely easy sell for anything with four wheels. This past weekend, my mother and he decided to purchase two (yes, two) more (yes, more) Porsches. They already had one Porsche before last weekend, which I complained about at every opportunity, plus a Jeep Cherokee and a Mustang convertible.



I do think that buying two Porsches for two people, when those two people already have three cars between them, is a pretty idiotic idea. According to them, it would seem that one must have more than one or two choices of vehicles to be happy in this world.

I begin to wonder if we are related at all.

Sincerely,

Miss E
(proud owner of an 18 year old VW)

P.S. Five dollars says I won't be allowed to drive my mother's Porsche the next time I visit. Lame-o.

On the earphone

Jens Lekman, Oh You're So Silent Jens Lekman

Post Veteran's Day Music

The Walkmen have announced fall tour dates...

Tues, Nov 13, The Independent

WALK, don't run.

For the wrist challenged

Stephen Colbert has come up with a very keen promotion, advertising and public awareness vehicle: The Wriststrong Bracelet. The idea was hatched as a result of him breaking his wrist this summer.



Having just broken my own wrist this winter, I feel happy someone is taking the time to spread awareness for the wrist challenged.

Philippe's Inner Place Holder....Read strip below

Just



Keep



Scrolling




Down



Until




You



Can



*See*



The



Entire



Achewood



Cartoon!



Whoops



It



Will



Take



A



Few



More



Lines.

Philippe's Inner Machinations

Finally, a flow chart of my favorite otter. After I post another entry, you should be able to read the whole thing. Or I can do a placeholder....Let's see....

Give me a drop.

I think I suffer from persistent dehydration. Problem is, I don't really suffer from the typical symptoms of thirst that compel one to consistently rehydrate. The only time I must have water is when I exercise and after. I've gone entire days at school (typical 830am to 1230am) having consumed nothing liquid except 8 ounces of coffee. I get home and don't even feel that parched, but I do feel pretty terrible.

A couple summers ago, I went to a very nice place to have a full massage. Afterward, the masseuse woman told me she could tell I wasn't hydrated enough because of the way my skin felt - like she could lift it off my back and it would just "stay". So gross.

I need some kind of timer to remind me to sip water in class all day. Something like a low frequency vibration or electrical shock. I would do well in the desert...or at a behavior modification clinic. Ready and willing.

In other news, I will try to post thumbnails of my work from my drawing class this term. We just did a fun one on California landscapes and signage.

Also, in court today UCB failed to evict the tree sitters from the coast live oak grove that abuts our building. I guess they will be here for a while longer.

Ghosting Copenhagen

Today I learned a new term in urban historical research and mapmaking. "Ghosting."

Ghosting, as Herr Bosselmann verbosely described, is the exercise of overlaying new maps on top of old, examining each one through the other, looking to see the process of urban transformation over time, looking to see which historical forms have remained, looking to see which have not. And understanding precisely "why".

In sum, looking to the past to understand the present; taking it one step further to predict the patterns of our urban future.



It is quite a fascinating topic, for sure. That said, Herr Bosselmann is a little impatient with my current pace of taking his simplified chicken-scratch maps and turning them into a multi-layered smorgasborg of urban know-how. Thus is the reality of the student-professor digital divide.

Things I was told today:

"It is your job to outsmart the computer's laziness."
"Ghosting is going to teach this computer a thing or two."
"Yes, the reason that block disappeared so long ago is due to the tannery."
"We must not forget the moats, Rachel. We certainly must not."

Six years old...

Six years ago tonight I was at a PJ Harvey show with my boyfriend of the time, I'll call him Darren. The tickets, if I recall correctly, had been an early birthday present I'd received weeks before. The show was at the 9:30 Club, a nice venue near the U Street corridor on Washington, DC. PJ's most recent album was Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea. A notable album for sure.

Despite the promise of a fulfilling evening ahead of me, I do remember I would have much preferred not to go. In fact, since way before I got these blasted tickets I'd been not too psyched about a number of things and been rather depressed.

Returning from the show that night around midnight on September 11, very frustrated and melancholy, I made a promise to myself. The promise was that the next day, as soon as I could, at the very first opportunity, I would sever all ties with Darren and start to be a happy person again. As I tucked myself into bed that evening, I made a plan to email him with the news before he'd even had his damn coffee. It would be harsh, but it was entirely overdue and I'd lost all patience at that point anyway.

Eight hours later and I am at work (Correction: our work, Darren and I were at the same organization). I believe I was writing down some points that I planned to include in the email. I remember I'd gotten there pretty early that morning, right around 8:15 am so no one was really around. My coworker Karen was already at work with me. She had gotten into the habit of getting to the Center early at the start of the week so she could go home to Alexandria, VA before 4pm. Karen was nearly 8 months pregnant at the time. I continued to draft my email, happiness ever increasing, until my friend Charlie chimed in over AIM to tell me to immediately go find a television.

And the rest is history.



I left the Wilson Center at 10:45 with Karen. I had a solid plan to walk north for nearly two miles to my apartment in Adams Morgan on Belmont Road, NW. Later, she could find a way for her husband to pick her up. It didn't matter, really. According to Karen, we just needed to get out of our office and out of downtown which was less than 1/3 mile from the White House.

Am I a heartless wench because I didn't check on Darren before I left work with her that day? Perhaps I am. No, I am. But considering the circumstances going on in the world at the very moment, I could have cared less. I still am glad I made the call to guide a very pregnant woman a couple miles to a safe place on Sept. 11. With every anniversary of 9/11, Karen, without fail, emails me to say thank you again and includes photos of her awesome kiddos. My efforts that day have been a gift that continues giving.



Later that night, even despite the fact that Darren grew up in New York City, and was really devastated by the terrible events of the day, I kept my promise to myself. I kind of hate myself for being so self-serving and cold, but it really had to be done. The idea of not breaking up with him and having to console him over the tragedy for a number of indeterminable weeks was simply too much. In retrospect, he probably appreciated it. At least, that's how I spin it.

Here's to being six.

So not on top of things

Apparently last night I missed a Kings of Leon show. I had no idea they were in town. I guess it isn't the end of the world, it was at the Warfield. I've heard from a friend they are good in concert, although I haven't heard their new album is up to snuff.

To add insult to injury, tonight I missed both Magnolia Electric Co. and Okkervil River play live shows at nice venues in SF. What IS my life coming to? One week back at school and I am practically a hermit. Aye!

So in light of this music-related oversight, I will try to be a little more proactive. Here are some upcoming shows that have caught my eye:

Oct 19 The Fiery Furnaces The Independent
Oct 29 Broken Social Scene The Fillmore
Nov 9 Jens Lekman Bimbo's 365 Club
Nov 23-25 The Decemberists "The Long and Short" Concerts, The Fillmore
Dec 19 Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks Great American Music Hall

Other than music, it's also been a contemplative week. Got a job with Herr Bosselmann. Sehr interessant.

Burning Man, seesaws, blueberry martinis

Saturday in the Nevada desert at 10pm the wooden effigy symbolizing the community-powered event called "Burning Man" was ignited and consumed by flames (for the second time that week). The same Saturday, many miles west of Nevada, in the sleepy college town of Palo Alto, an event also took place in the same spirit.

That event was in all respects a private party, at a private residence, where we drank beer, snacks, and drinks purchased from capitalistic grocery outlets. So I suppose, on the surface, the party lacked a lot of what the real Burning Man is about. However, at the same time there existed promising and convincing signs: there were people dressed in strange fur and horns, there was a geodesic dome tent swathered in many yards of hot pink fabric, and don't forget the hookah. Anyone with even the slightest amount of imagination could fathom its relation to the desert party some 279 miles east of us.

A highlight for the Palo Alto partygoers was the adult-scaled teeter totter (or see-saw) in the backyard. I've never seen such a large and dangerous looking teeter totter before. A couple people challenged each other to a knock off and it was very amusing to watch and participate.

Delicious drinks fabricated using Trader Joe's Blueberry juice rounded out the evening that had included some light, recreational drug use. I was very pleased, although the martinis would have been even more out of this world with a fresh mint and blueberry garnish.

The evening did not end with our burning down of any kind of human shaped wooden doll. Earlier in the evening, someone entertained the idea of fashioning a miniature one out of loose popsicle sticks, but that idea barely made it past the shelter of our geodesic dome.

Sundaze

Am listening:

St. Vincent, Marry Me


Okkervil River, The Stage Names

Will be listening:

Animal Collective, Strawberry Jam

Shows to goes:

1. Animal Collective, Sept 17, Fillmore
2. Treasure Island Music Festival, Treasure Island, Sept 15 & 16 (go Sunday)
3. The Clientele, with Peter Bjorn and John, Sept 18, Warfield



Random photoscapes: Angel Island, Quercus agrifolia grove.

Friday night office work

It's Friday night. The Bay Bridge is closed and there is no school this Monday. There is a big football game tomorrow. All signals point to going out, enjoying oneself, and taking it easy. My roommates took off to go camping tonight. Everyone is feeling the vibe.

Everyone 'cept me, that is.

Tonight I spent one hour running. I came home and spent another 2-3 hours filing all my paperwork that has accumulated in piles since late May. But it's DONE. All that crap is filed (well, my receipts aren't filed, but they are organized in a folder). I consider it an evening well spent. After all, before I did all this all that junk occupied a very large spot on my bed. Night after night, I would sleep next to flyaway papers and invoices, bill stubs, carbon copy receipts, and bank statements. But now the bed is clear. Sleep time no longer must be confined to an area 5 feet long by 30 inches wide. I could even have a sleepover. It's rather amazing.

Tomorrow there are many things to do. Seeing that there is a football game, I may want to avoid campus. Let's see what can be done.

I've been enjoying the radio coverage of the Larry Craig fiasco. What a douchebag.

Public service

Today I must report at 8:30 am to the Rene Davidson Courthouse in Oakland, CA. Lord, I just performed jury service last August.

In other news, a DCRP alum, TC, recently made the news in The Brooklyn Daily Eagle.

List of to-dos

This week many amazing things were accomplished. This week is a record breaking one in terms of the rubber hitting the road:

Car-related:
1. Car emissions tested. Car passed with flying colors.
2. Car registration renewed.
3. Berkeley annual parking pass procured.
4. New bumper sticker affixed.

Activity-related:
1. Ascended the summit of Mt. Livermore (that's on Angel Island)(Sat)

2. Walked-ran Strawberry Canyon Fire Trail (Fri)
3. Climbed Claremont Canyon Hill. (Wed)

Residence-related:
1. Carpets steam cleaned in dining, hallway, living room and my room.
2. Fridge and freezer cleaned and disinfected.
3. Shower curtain replaced.
4. Diseased and gross geraniums disposed of and replaced with California natives that require little water (update: only one of these new plants is dying since being repotted). My balcony will hopefully be an urban jungle by next summer.
5. New pictures hung in the apartment.

Financial-things:
1. Called student loan hotline to confirm a few things....and got the help I needed.
2. Paid part of my fees.

Other:
1. Cute next-door dog, Lilly:

Adieu. Farewell.

I will miss Portland. The last couple months living here have been awesome. Most of all I will miss my sister. We had family portraits taken yesterday.

Thirty

Gasworks Park by Richard Haig


Pipes are fun.


I sneaked in the fenced area to get this one...


Seattle skyline


Golden Retrievers at Marymoor Park

Best years to come

I am turning 30 tomorrow. Aye! What has the world come to? How did I start grad school at 26 (the young, vibrant mid-twenties) reach 30, and still find myself in essentially the same place as I was in 2004? It is really a mystery. (Drugs were not involved)

Last year I thought I would be celebrating this milestone in Spain. Lack of planning and buy-in from the potential financier of this journey (Mom) resulted in a downsizing of those plans. In early June we had thought Vancouver, BC would be a nice destination, and a decent compromise: still out of the US, supposed to be beautiful, etc. Again, lack of early planning made even those dreams fizzle by early July. Since then we have decided to still venture north, but our final destination is now Seattle, just a 3 hour drive from Stumptown.

These plans seemed solid and unbreakable (good hotel, good dinner reservation, good weather forecast, general excitement within the travel group) until Wednesday when I read in the paper that we are to expect many delays up the I-5 freeway. Apparently WDOT decided to close half of the lanes going through Seattle on my birthday weekend. Go figure.

We have a strategy though...forgo I-5 and head west to Bainbridge Island 50 miles south of Seattle. We will take the sunset ferry from the island to Seattle's Pier 52, thereby going around the bottleneck and delivering us only 4 blocks from our hotel accomodations. Yes, water travel can still trump car travel in times of construction.

So far, turning 30 has involved deflated expectations and logistical strategizing. And I am not even running for office. However, I remain positive. These are, afterall, supposed to be your most remarkable and productive years.

Update: The Fox is getting new spark plugs this weekend and perhaps a replacement to the fuse that lights up the AC and heat controls inside the car.

Fun with the Chipper

Have you ever come home to the ear-wrenching buzz of a wood chipper? My brother rented one last night. I couldn't help but think about that scene in Fargo.

Multnomah Falls, Oregon landmark




Hood River, Oregon. John Kerry came to windsurf here on the Columbia River during the '04 campaign.

Coolest thing all summer

This morning in the park around 6:00am near my home I witnessed a physical battle between these two animals:


Common urban crow. See also, nuisance.


Some exotic falcon or hawk, species unknown.

When I arrived in the park after a run around the neighborhood, I noticed a particularly rowdy mob of crows. Usually, after the weekend picnics and barbecues that happen here, the crows are really obnoxious, jumping around each other, tearing garbage out of the bins, and basically making me want to kill them. This morning they were especially annoying. There must have been twenty of them fighting over a McDonald's 1/4 Pounder with Cheese wrapper. I found an old tennis ball under a tree and decided the moment was ripe for crow harassment. I kicked it at them and then proceeded to charge the moxley bunch, running full speed through them. They got all in an uproar and swooped around, screaming and flapping around like idiots. I continued to chase them around and picked up the trash they'd dragged out into 38th Street (a Dairy Queen bag with fries in it). At that point, I decided I'd had enough of them and started walking back through the park toward my house.

I noticed a non-crow bird in the park on the way past the play equipment. I stopped and decided to watch it for a minute. Non-crows are very unusual in Wilshire Park. Crows here seem to have taken over habitat of all native birds - no warblers, finches, or sparrows. You MIGHT see a robin once in a while but it is rare. In fact, you rarely see anything flying around this area of town that isn't a crow. It's really sad. So when I realized that this non-crow was actually a hawk, I was mesmerized. I looked at it for a while and was wondering what the hawk thought about all these bastard crows. It saw me, but it's attention was elsewhere. I assumed it was eyeing the 3-4 fat little squirrels running around nearby. But I was wrong.

Just like me, that hawk had its heart set on a little crow harassment! It let out one of those cool piercing hawk calls, and then swooped down and attacked a passing crow in mid-air. The crows went crazy. They didn't go after the hawk though, they just went back to their garbage.



I was so proud of the hawk. Maybe it saw me bothering them and got inspired, I don't know. For the next 5 minutes I watched that hawk dive-bomb those crows with a snarling vengeance. It was pissed. It kept letting out these great hawk calls everytime it attacked.

I left the park feeling upbeat but a little worried about the hawk, given that it was outnumbered easily 1:50 out there.

I am not sure exactly what kind of hawk it was, but it kind of looked like something called a Cooper's Hawk.

Sold

I usually sell about one item per year on Ebay. This year it was my sister's Blackberry 8703e device. That thing was snatched up in no less than one hour into the auction. I wonder if I priced it too low? Anyway, $175 has been transferred into my Paypal account and all I gots to do is wrap up the sucker and mail it off. The guy who bought it is named Hussein and he lives in Philadelphia. The ad cost me less than $4 to post, but I had a credit with Ebay.

Today is an exceptionally beautiful Friday. It is about 85F and sunny outside. By 6pm, temperatures will have dropped to a comfortable 77F. My sister and I are planning to bar hop on bikes. I am supposed to meet her at Thatch. From there we go to Vendetta. I am still brainstorming for the final destination.

Death on Grove Street

A woman died in some terrible shooting only about 2-3 blocks from my house in Berkeley. Here's the coverage in the Chronicle. I haven't ever had a tangle with danger although the area has its share of corner liquor stores and questionable street activity. During the busy part of the year, I walk home from campus at 2-3am more often than I should allow myself.

Berry laden

My sister offered to give me her old blackberry (she bought it 7 mo. ago) in exchange for the phone I currently have (standard issue Verizon phone). Seems like a good deal on my end, but I am concerned about the monthly carriage fee. I will have to talk to the Verizon people (ech).

Currently I fork over about $50 including tax for my basic program. I would do the Blackberry if it cost no more than $20 more a month. Something tells me it would be more...

Doings

Bought:
Peter Bjorn and John, Writer's Block
Spoon, Gagagagaga

Consumed:
Everett Street Bistro

Died:
Tammy Faye Messner

Viewed:
Once