Darn right, I'm mysterious!

I know more about an island 1/3 around the world than I do my own home

I've been on an island in Thailand for the last week studying its potential to improve its tourism sector to be more sustainable. This place has a ton of work to do. In the last few days I have done the following:

Visited the local landfill
Asked pressing questions about infrastructure provision to local community leaders
Watched how rubber is processed from a rubber tree forest
Visited a "green" bungalow development
Tried (but didn't) to enter an "anything but green" 5-star deluxe resort to do undercover work and ask the staff about maltreatment
Saw baby monkeys in the national forest
Got stung by migrating jelly fish in the Andaman Sea
Had a Thai massage at the Wat Po Thai Traditional Massage School in Bangkok
Ate a lot of Thai food
Ran into the former Mayor of Krabi City at a roadside foodstall (met him last year, he's an insanely rich developer who owns tons of beach property and his younger brother is the current Mayor)
Visited the Sea Gypsy villages of Koh Lanta
Had a meeting with the Governor of the Province

This list is only partially complete. I left out a lot of stuff. I will try to post some pictures very soon.

Good night.

Graduation, packing, non-B2B fun

Saturday morning (7am): Rachel retrieves her 1989 VW Fox from the tow lot at Brannan and 7th Streets. Yes, my car was towed. I had parked in the Richmond district and apparently was blocking a driveway by 15 inches or something. That night, I returned to my friend Adam's house around 1:00 am and my car was not in the place I'd left it 5 hours before. Luckilly, it was only towed, not stolen.

Cost: $215 to get it out of the impound lot and a $75 ticket from DPS. It is my first ever parking ticket in SF. At least I did it in style and got the full service tow treatment.

Saturday afternoon: Rachel and many others in the two year Master of City Planning program graduate! Brock Winstead delivers magnificent and cheeky student address. We all loved it. This blog writer did a good job in her responsibility to thank our staff, I even got a few laughs. Parent unit enjoyed ceremony, which ended with a nice reception with a variety of cheese cubes and toothpicks, overly frosted brownies, cut up fruit, and Martinelli's. We all left hungry, but probably thankfully, as all of us had dinner reservations elsewhere in two hours where we are served more than snacks and tidbits.

Sunday morning: Wake up to drippy rain, although sky looks promising. I can the idea to take my parents to do Bay to Breakers (dumb to miss it again this year) because I have a hacking couch and congestion. Of course, the weather continued to improve and the race would probably have been a ton of fun. I will have to make due with the collection of photos on the race site and from stories of my brave friends who wanted to drink starting at 8am on the streets of SF.

Sunday afternoon: Begin fiddling with my ipod that was recently replaced thanks to the Apple Care Insurance program. Damn thing was broken for months, and then Apple offers to allow people like me to buy insurance to extend factory warranty. Dumb idea, Apple. I just got my ipod replaced on your dollar.

Sunday evening: Go to target to procure items for month long trip to Bangkok and the rural south of Thailand. Yes, I know that they have everything I could ever want in Bangkok for much cheaper. Yes, I know that lugging this stuff across the Pacific and South China Sea is probably stupid. But I like MY stuff. And I will have it this way. Including my mini hairdryer that can switch to 220v.

I also looked at an apartment I may live in next year. It is almost to terrible to think about, but I may have to leave Bateman Street. Seeing as I am likely to rarely be home next year (7-8 hours a day to sleep, shower) throwing down the $780 + utils at the place I am currently in seems rather insane. I need to cut expenses. My friend Pedro has a cheap apartment with a room opening up. The only snaggle is that I won't be able to meet Garret, his roommate, before I leave for Bangkok. So I truly hope Garret doesn't find someone he prefers while I am gone. I think Pedro has the upper hand. This place has a washer/dryer and it is across the street from the Ashby BART station. There is also a place for me to park my car off the street. Plus, Pedro is a nice person and I think it would work out pretty well.

Time to go pack. The next time I write, it may be from the developing world.

Peace.

Time at home spent doing not much is grand

Since Friday, May 12, at 6:45 p.m. I have "officially" been done with grad school. Sure, I had a few loose ends to tie up (which are done...as of today). But overall, for the last week I've had some time off. Well-deserved time off.

The end of my city planning grad school career came with momentous build up. I'd been up since Wednesday straight working on my board for our final design review for studio. Basically, from Wed morning until Friday afternoon, staight, with only two shower breaks and a couple trips to the local salad joint, I worked in studio doing a variety of coloring, scanning, plotting, more coloring and shading, and formatting. It turned out pretty good, visually. My presentation didn't have enough "meat" to really mean much (I had only shady estimates of housing units and parking spaces my proposal would create....that didn't please the panel of reviewers all too much). However, I was pleased. My board looked very good: very colorful, cheerful, and interesting.

Sunday, Monday and Tuesday I attempted to do work (those loose ends), but only until yesterday did I get my shit together. I sent off the final deliverable today at 9:50 a.m. I do hope my client doensn't attempt to reach me after this transaction.

On the bad side, I caught a sniffle. It is one of those itchy, runny nose things where you sneeze a lot and are uncomfortable, but otherwise you are fine. I hope I get over it before I have to get on that long flight to Taipai on Monday night.

In other news, my ipod replacement scheme is currently in the works. I just got word that Apple has received my unit and is being analyzed by the repair division. I do hope they get something to me by Saturday, Monday at the latest. I really need my ipod for Thailand.

Links to new Walkmen singles - A 100 Miles Off

Brandy Alexander.

Don't Get Me Down(Come on Over Here).

Gotta kick this habit...right after this post...

...I am the biggest procrastinator. It is going to KILL me. I've got to find a way to attain more focus when I need to be working on something.

Perhaps it is just because I am tired. Perhaps it is just because I don't really LOVE the project I am working on (no, it's actually not that...). Perhaps it is because I have writer's block. Perhaps it is because I have been working weekends for the last two years. Perhaps it is because I have been a socially and physically deprived human being for way too long.

All these things contribute to my inability to get my work done. I just spent an hour on ebay looking at messenger bags that I don't need. Then I began looking at pictures of Eva Longoria on MSN.com. I also looked at the IMBD site for the Golden Girls series. You do no even want to hear about the wasted time I've spent on Craigslist. I started out in Missed Connections and then ended up in housing for rent. I sent an email to someone about an ad for a room in a house. All the above occured while I am supposed to be writing this rather large, significant term paper. All the while, I've been distracted even more by my itunes and the logistics of finding a decent and worthwhile show to see at one of 8 music venues in San Franciso for next Tuesday evening.

I have web-induced ADD/ADHD. I am self-diagnosing. I should go to Web MD to see if such a condition exists.

How are you battling your web-facilitiated mental and health conditions?

Sleeping all day

What a damn waste of a day!

With time being a rare commodity these days, I just wasted all my valuable time coupons. I got up at 8, proceeded to go back to sleep, tried to get up, checked email, got coffee, came home and napped again, and then took a shower. It is now 1:00 pm. I have to be at school in 2:10 in order to fill out a class evaluation form for a colloquium series I rarely attend on Thursdays. Usually I am in Oakland in boring meetings all day. But if I don't get to school and fill out the eval form, there is a risk I won't get credit for the class. Although, I think that is not true because the evaluation forms are ananymous. Maybe I shall stay here. It is all very negotiable.

But today I slept. I also trimmed my bangs.

I hate days where from the get go I am struggling to get my shit together.

Graduation countdown: 16 days

Coon audacity

Yes, this is another raccoon posting. Procyon lotor has once again tested the Bateman Street boundaries.

About 2 min ago I am sitting at the table, debating about how to begin this project that is due tomorrow, and I heard a suspect shuffling sound on the front porch. The motion detector light was not activated despite the fact there was clearly something less than 3 feet from me. Whatever it was, it was moving around the cat food bowl with mighty vigor.

I opened the front door with great exclamation and the lone clever coon jumps off the deck and turns around in the driveway. He looked at me. I looked at him. He sized me up. I sized up him. It was strange because usually these things travel in coon posses. Appparently, this one has been abanoned by its fellow coon brothers and sisters. (Poor thing)

Now in the driveway, the damn beast proceeds to get on its hindquarters and begins to approach (walking upright!) the edge of the deck, looking hopeful I will put the bowl of food back on the porch. It even attempted to shimmy up the porch side. I leered at the damn thing, it made a noise, and galloped into the street.

That said, the food contents have been removed from the porch and I am wondering when and if this species knows how to operate a door knob.

Eating and drinking strange chemical things

Over the last few days my diet has take a south turn to what many people would be ashmamed about. I find it slightly amusing.

Last night I drank 32 ounces of Diet Peach Tea Snapple and ate Frosted Mini Wheats from an oversized economy cereal bag. Tonight, I guzzled something called "Vault Zero". It functions to deliver a high dose of caffeine to my system. Caffeine is needed: I've slept about 4 hours in the last two days. I had a meeting to go over edits with my Master's project client today at 3:30 pm and I literally fell asleep at my chair while he was babbling something to me about "demand-driven workforce strategies." I could actually feel my eyes closing and my balance shifting, but I could not resist the pull to rest.

I also bought a chocolate bar from downstairs. Vault Zero and Hershey's! I also have an old fashioned box of Cracker Jacks with me. I am very healthy.

I am listening to Destroyer. I need their albums.

Late night sloat-tunes

It is 3:46 a.m. and this music is my only companion here at Wurster Hall tonight. It's kind of...hmmmm....very cool.

Anything upbeat sounding is cool at this point.

My PR is less than 24 hours to its happy little grave!

I just drank 32 oz of diet Snapple....and other tales from Wurster Hall

We're officially in high gear, ladies and gentlemen.

I am VERY behind in a lot of work. Projects that should be nearing 70% completion are at a dismal 15-20%. However, my master's project is in a better state. It's at about 93%. In fact, even if I don't squeeze out those last 7 percents, it will (must) get turned in this Friday. For I shall host a party for all my classmates to mark the date we have all (mostly) finished this major stepping stone. It shall be grand. Right now, I am taking a mental inventory of leftovers we STILL have from our last party in December...which was a ton of fun, I might add, but left us with a whole lot of remnant Yellowtail!

Tomorrow I shall also get my haircut.

Multi-tasking and procrastinating. These two activities shall generally characterize the pace of my life for the next several weeks. There will be little sleep, much snack food, overload of caffeine, and social life repression.

Kid fun in Sherwood, Oregon

This is the city of mud I played in a lot as a kid.

What I will be doing M-F next Fall

My new status as a graduate student of landscape architecture will prove to be challenging when I begin the three year master track program next fall. Here is what I am slated to do:

M-W 9am-1pm LA 101 Fundamentals of Landscape Design Studio (yes, that is 4 hours of class twice a week)

M-W 6:30-9:30pm LA 134A Drawing Workshop (yes, that is another 3 hours of class on the same day as the 4 hour studio!)

T-Th 11-12:30pm LA 111 Plants in Design (we must learn about the leafy greens)

T-Th 12:30-2pm LA 170 History and Literature of Landscape Architecture

On top of this I was considering applying for a GSI position in City Planning which would be M-W 2-3pm and Friday 9-10am and 2-3pm. Four hours of teaching and sitting in an Intro to City Planning class in exchange for my fees (about $3700 a term). Is it worth it? It remains to be determined...I am really strapped for money, though.

This is why I am so busy I have no time to go out, exercise, wash my clothes, or go on dates, do any yard work, or keep in touch with family. This is why life as a graduate student generally is equal parts joy and indescribable pain.

They know more from the television box

I was back in Portland this weekend for a bridal shower. After the shower festivities were completed, I headed to my brother's house where there was a birthday party for my little nephew, Everett. Everett is six. This I didn't know for sure before I looked at the cake and read the "Happy 6th Birthday, Everett" message. Don't think I am a bad aunt, because I am not. It is just hard to keep track of how old they are because they are much larger than normal children. Everett could be a seven or eight year old. His brother Alex is only 14 and he is about 6'2. The daughter Emily is actually of normal child size, I think, at 9 years old.

Over dinner, which consisted of BBQ hamburgers and chicken, I sat around the table with my mother, stepfather, brother, and two of my uncles on my dad's side. I was tired so I wasn't in the mood to lead the table talk, so I just decided to observe my family unit to see where they'd go conversationally.

The talk turned toward television, of which I have absolutely no clue about. I am familiar with the names of some of today's popular shows, and perhaps even about their concepts, but I have not watched a television show regularly since late '04. I have no idea who is on television nowadays and I have an shadier idea of what networks feature what programs.

People were going around the table admitting their television weakness. My brother sheepishly admitted to loving American Idol and that he feels it is ok since he is also a musician. This set the table off. Apparently, everyone there is a big fan of American Idol. All these people are 55+ excluding my brother, who is 37.

Soon a debate began to form, my mother citing an objection to one contestant she considered to be a rapper, although I am sure his identity is actually more nuanced than she afforded him. My stepfather then chimed in making a comment about one fo the female contestants and provided some illustrative aspects about her visual appearance over the last several weeks. He apparently approves of her physically but feels her range is limited. My brother then began to advocate on behalf of someone named Katharine McPhee. The name caught my ear because I am a fan of the writer John McPhee, but I soon surmised they are probably unrelated.

All this is kind of boring but here I am writing about it. The question remains: Do I have an objection about my mother, uncles, stepdad and brother being dedicated fans of AI? Should I have suggested they tune into something like Frontline instead? Don't my parents realize that this show is unlikely to turn out anyone who will really CHANGE or have an IMPACT on music today? After all, all of these contestants are vying to become a mainstream musical breakthrough. The last I looked, Kelly Clarkson was playing at some place in Reno and then a couple back to backs in Fresno. It might be me, but I don't consider these places where many musical breakthroughs happen at all, if ever.

It's a *Full House* of *Growing Pains*

I was listening to the radio or surfing the internet the other day and something prompted me to find out what Kirk Cameron is up to lately. I knew he'd become a Jesus freak over the past five or so years, but suddenly I wanted to know MORE. With the grand Oracle, otherwise known as the Internet, I am able to quench my thirst for knowledge with a few clacks of the keyboard:

"Kirk Camereon" "evangelical"

There were my search terms.

This is what I found: Please enter via The Way of the Master

I'd recommend following the "I am a Christian" prompts, even if you aren't one. I mean, unles God is really watching, then you can lie here. It would be cool if the web site actually had the ability to detect liars or imposters, and you'd be sent directly to virtual hell.

Then my curiousity shifted to another member of the Cameron household: Candance Cameron, otherwise known as D.J. Tanner from ABC's Full House. It appears as though Candace is doing her own Internet-based work for the man (men?) upstairs. However, I am suspicious because the site also functions as her marketing platform for her tawdry acting career. I give it to Candace, though, she looks pretty good and very fit!

Next on my list of "where are they now" was another Full House alum, Jodie Sweetin, also known as the precocious Stephanie Tanner. (Anyone recall the phrase, "Oh, that is so RUDE!"???) It appears as though Jodie was once on the road to uprightness, marrying a police officer at age 20 (don't you love it?). However, her path took a dark turn and she became addicted to meth. It looks like Jodie is pulling through though. I actually HIGHLY recommend the little video link from her appearance on Good Morning America. I was really surprised at how adult, with-it, and well-spoken Stephanie Tanner is. She is rather adorable, too.

See? Meth addicts can amount to something in America...they just need a second chance.

I didn't bother looking up what happened to Uncle Joey or Uncle _____ (I forget his name).

Bob Sagat, who played the all-knowing Danny Tanner, is pretty effin' cool! That guy is twisted if you've ever seen him do stand-up comedy. And it looks like he is also attracting a church of his very own, though I am not surprised.

Shows I must sacrifice...for the Thais

Due to travel abroad, I must be absent at these, but highly recommend the following:

May 25: Beck, The Fillmore, SF
June 7: Josh Ritter, Great American Music Hall, SF
June 12,13: The Walkmen, Great American
Music Hall, SF
June 12,13: The Mountain Goats, Bottom of the Hill, SF

Makeup shows I JUST might be able to catch:

June 19: The Walkmen, La Zona Rosa, AUSTIN, TEXAS (requires flight but it's in the planning stage already!!! Watch out Hamilton Leithauser... here we come!!)
June 21-24: Built to Spill, Slim's, SF
June 25: Neko Case, Bimbos, SF

Thursday's revelations

Two things I learned today:

1. One should avoid riding the bus across town from Berkeley to Oakland during mid afternoon if at all possible, esp. if you are in a hurry. During these precise hours, between 1pm and 3:30pm, a masssive influx of the maimed, aged, blind, smelly, mobility challenged, nursing mothers with enormous strollers, people in wheelchairs, and generally testy people flock to our cities' buses in a free for all.

Don't think I am picking on the marginalized. I'm not. I've been a bus rider all my damn life, in some pretty tough places at that. I know what kinds of messed up stuff happens on the bus. I simply hypothesize that during said peak hours, there are more marginalized on the bus then at any other time.

The resulting delays are beyond simple tally counts. The accompanying smell is even more discouraging.

I board at 2:14 pm.

At 2:18 pm the bus stops to pick up a man with a walker at 51st and Broadway in Oakland. The hydraulic lift lowered and delivered him to the main cabin of the bus (taking at least 2 minutes, but who's counting). A woman sitting there with her enormous stroller and baby unit also happened to be in this main cabin area. As soon as he was free from the lift, the man in the walker immediately began to scold her for taking up seating designated for people such as himself (see above, or old, testy, mobility challenged, etc.). The mother fooolishly decided to ignore him. With the speed of a threatened sloth, he rolled up to her and begins to push the stroller to the side with his walker's wheel set, nudging it between two seats. Then all hell broke loose - with the old man ranting something about seniors' rights.

At this point, everyone on the bus is wondering if the mother is going to bust grandpa on his ass. Luckilly, fate intervened. Bus pulls over, driver enters cabin, rightfully annoyed, and proceeds to forcefully direct the old timer into an empty seat (which was right in front of him, of course.) Old timer murmurs something about "no respect for seniors", etc. We shake our heads.

2. The second thing I learned today is that I am engaging in activities of late I always said I would not do. For example, instead of correctly dicing up and skinning an avocado, I am beginning to just cut it in half and eat it out of the shell (salted) with a spoon (that sounds gross...). It must be out of laziness. The other things I am doing are ignoring my bills until two days before they are due, turning in late rough drafts, and letting other people pick up my slack in studio.

All these things make me feel like altogether a bad person, but I like to think of it as a temporary digression.

3. Lastly, I am not managing my money very well.

Try as I might...

In my continual endeavor to attempt to eat as healthy as possible given the less than ideal lifestyle that I currently lead as a grad student-workslave-bureaucrat/designer in training, I have gotten on the fiber kick. I have no less that three varieties of 100% Fiber cereal in my house. See below:



Here you can see Kellog's All Bran (best when on top of something with substance, like yogurt), Fiber One (the champ of all fiber varieties, and approved by the American Diabetes Association!), and a fiber knock off from TJ's. Missing is the Bran Buds, a new variety by the makers of All Bran. That is delicious.

You will also see below these cereal boxes a Cadbury Fruit & Nut chocolate bar. It is my roommate's, actually. I just broke off a small piece from it (after finishing my cereal, of course!). You see, despite the fact that I am in virtual fiber abundance, that does not immediately translate to always eating healthy. Some days I pair my fiber intake with chocolate, other days wine, and even other days, a cookie.

Toilet turf

This posting could be classified as a rant, so beware.

I spend a great deal of my time on the 4th floor working at my studio desk space in Wurster Hall. It's a nice set up. This studio space has desks for 15 of my classmates and on the other side of the room is a smaller area where the MUD (Master of Urban Design) students work. There are about 6 of those people. Approximately 10 faculty members have offices on this floor. There are another 15 PhD students that also have offices here.

We all share a single bathroom that is located in the hallway. It is a single unit, i.e. no mens and women's room.

That's one toilet for up to 30-45 people, depending on who shows up for the day.

Well, over the last 3 months or so, there have been many instances when I am working here late at night and so are one or two other people in the MUD unit. I've noticed a strange pattern when one of these people uses the bathroom. I go in there 30 min later and the place is a mess. Not just a soppy mess, but a hairy mess as well. And from the looks of the evidence left on the toilet, I have my suspect narrowed down to a specific individual. I don't mean to get all CSI on you all, but it's rather obvious. Even for a city planner in training such as myself.

What irks me and astounds me is that there is absolutely NO way this marking of the toilet can be done without at least some effort. Because every time this individual uses the bathroom, there is evidence left behind. EVERY DAMN TIME. It is quite strange. What would lead someone to take up such a abberant hobby? The guy seems perfectly normal, but all he does in the bathroom is sick and rather twisted.

For heaven's sake, it warranted a long blog entry. It REALLY is THAT BAD.

I wonder if anyone else in the class has come across his hairy offerings? I'd ask my classmates, but just the idea of bringing up such a topic makes me shudder.

Pithy apples - yech

Pithy apples have got to be the worst. Especially the ones where there appears to be no outward evidence of defect from the outside of the apple. You take a big ol' bite into it and BLECH.

Today's culprit was a 3.5" Braeburn I purchased at a coffee cart. Should have known better...