Flunk Craig

It is now Thursday. The biodiesel is still at Bateman Street.

What is the world coming to?

Biodiesel status

It is 11:15 p.m. on Monday. Five gallons of once-used peanut oil are STILL on my stoop. I would have guessed that even homeless people would have swiped it by now. It remains undisturbed and untouched on Bateman Street.

For the first time in what seems like forever, I have doubt that Craigslist can deliver. Could it be? Was my wording of the post too vague? It must be something.

I really wonder because a couple years ago I put a free ad out there for someone to haul away 100 odd pounds of trimmed aloe plant from my driveway. Said aloe was gone in less than 10 hours and I really thought I was gonna have to haul that crap to the dump myself. I would have guessed in these times where gas prices are nearing $3.50 that people would be pouncing on an offer of five free gallons of pure aceite de cacahuate. Especially here, in CA, where everyone seems to be refitting their cars with the biofuel engines.

Guess my expectations are askew.

Craigslist activity

This being near the end of July, there is a wave of relocation activity in many of America's college towns and adjacent urban centers. Year-long leases generally come due in August, so you must decide whether to renew or get-out. Obviously, many people choose the latter, therefore creating the conditions for new tenants to take their places.

Sadly, this flux of activity for movers, U-Haul franchises, tape purveyors, dolly-lenders, painters, carpeters, etc. is a signal that summer's end is approaching. Bummer!

While some move to prepare for the upcoming academic year, others, recently graduated, move to celebrate the end of their period of student serfdom. My roommate, C., is part of the recently-graduated contingent. She is moving into San Francisco to share a new apartment with someone named Carrie in a neighborhood near Polk Street.

I am moving in-town within Berkeley in order to reduce my housing expenses. While I have also recently graduated from my master's program, I am also newly matriculated into a new program. Therefore, my serfdom continues for a matter of three more years. Yes, three more years, people! Feel my pain. Or, rather, anticipate the string of blog entries over the next few years from yours truly complaining about the lack of sleep, funds, and spare time. Either way, you win and I lose.

I will return to the POINT of this entry, which is that ALL THIS MOVING MUMBO JUMBO MAKES US ALL THANKFUL FOR CRAIGSLIST AND THE CONVENIENCE IT PROVIDES US IN OBTAINING MOVING BOXES AND GETTING RID OF RUBBISH AT THE LAST MINUTE.


Craigslist founder Craig Newmark. What a dude!

Yesterday, Craig helped me requisition no less than 40 boxes. I also posted a "free" ad myself this evening. It appears as follows:

Free biodiesel (berkeley)
Reply to: sale-182778852@craigslist.org
Date: 2006-07-16, 6:46PM PDT

Five gallons of strained peanut oil, used once to fry a turkey, available immediately to the first person that wants it.

It is on our stoop for the taking.

3027 Bateman Street. Cross street is Woolsey.

The ad was posted around 7 PM and now it is 10:38 PM. The oil remains on our stoop. I wonder for how long. Biodiesel is a hot item here in Berkeley.

Ten years after writing those geeks off....

Think back a decade plus readers. We were still in good old high school, conforming to our respective clique, and getting drunk at football games on Friday nights. My life revolved around these mind numbing activities, I admit, and I was kind of close minded and snobby. I wasn't ever so popular to have any real impact on the social milleau that WAS Beaverton High School, but I certainly did not make an effort to make friends with members or perceived members of groups far outside my comfort zone.

Let us review some of the main high school social clicks:

Sports people
Stoners
Drinkers
Theater geeks
Goths
Band people
Cheerleaders
Straight-arrows (non-religious)
Nerds
Rich kids with new cars and zero personality
Trench coat clad
Mormons
Asians
Shut-ins
Drop-outs
People who accelled in what most considered weird things, like archery or 4-H

These labels, while certainly limiting, do function to organize the ratty teenagers that attend our public schools in the past and even today. Labels in high school are de facto realities of life. We all know it, so why fight it?

I will fast forward to the POINT of this article, being that labels can be overcome once we leave high school and anyone is capable of achieving their dreams.

I sound like I could give some kind of bad, shoddy graduation speech right now...

Last night I attended a music performance of the Everyone Orchestra at the Independent in the grand city of San Francisco. I don't normally go to these kinds of shows, but my roommate C. happens to be a devoted fan of the lead musician, Steve Kimock (formerly of the Grateful Dead). The Everyone Orchestra is a unique concept in that it features a gaggle of established and up and coming musicians that agree to work together for a short period of time and play gigs that feature their wide and impressive improvisational talents.

So the show last night featured Steve, other musicians and one Asher Fulero.

Asher Fulero went to my high school. I think he graduated with us. A few weeks ago when looking at the lineup, I immediately recognized his name. Anyway, from my shady recollection, in high school Asher used to belong to the trench coat and band contingent. He was kind of not involved in mainstream high school activities, and was therefore snubbed by most of us middle-ground schmucks.

As it happens, Asher is now some kind of pimped out and rocking keyboardist these days, and last night he was playing with the legendary guitarist Steve Kimock and the Everyone Orchestra! We showed up to the show and there he was, getting funky on his Nord keyboard/synthesizer unit, impressing the crowd with his melodies and even singing a bit.

I am excited about my little tally of strange people from high school going gold. So far we have:

1. Ari Shapiro, high school theater nerd, currently a correspondent for NPR
2. Asher Fulero, high school band and trench coat kid, current a keyboard pimp

This list is to be continued...

Footballed

It's a beautiful afternoon in Portland, Oregon. I am sitting at home, fighting the sleepies, and wishing that the Comcast high speed internet installer guy would hurry the fuck up and get out of the guest room so I can take a nap. I had no idea up until NOW that Comcast even scheduled appointments on Sunday. I think that practice should stop immediately - if not for the sake of the poor Comcast guy, whose weekends are now nonexistent, but for the sake of poor souls like *me*, who are hung over on a Sunday and cannot nap in the guest room because someone is drilling a hole into the side of the wall.

I am weary and tired after nearly 3 days of wedding activities in which I played a bridesmaid.

I also just got scolded by my step dad because I announced that Italy and France were in a shoot out period for the World Cup title game. (I guess they "were" in a shoot out...Italy just won a few seconds ago). While we were out at the post-wedding brunch, the final game was on and I assumed he had watched the game like all other NORMAL people. This wasn't the case, apparently. He was taping the game, to be watched later on sometime.

This man would probably find it completely within reason to wait 2-3 days to watch the final game at his convenience but would yell at anyone for talking about it in public where he can overhear who won or who scored the goals. This includes hearing the game's winner being announced on the radio. I've heard him scold the radio announcer before and seriously get mad for the simple act of listening.

In this wired and media-centered day and age we live in, it is quite ridiculous and silly to assume you can *avoid* hearing news. I think it is even more ridiculous to get mad at people when they casually and without harm in mind announce that teams are in a shoot out, too. I understand that it IS the world cup, and this is important, but he is not a soccer or football fan in the first place anyway. It's just the hype of the media and the fact that David Beckham might flash us his abs in the course of a match that Americans are readily watching soccer this summer.



Plus, everyone likes to watch the French get beat on international television.

Mall rats

Weekday trips to the mall reveal a certain detestable segment of suburban society. These people should be avoided and/or one should avoid trips to the mall on a Thursday afternoon.

I am no snob but I must draw the line somewhere. This afternoon, on an errand to find something to wear to a simple event tomorrow, I encountered WAY too many career professional mallists at Washington Square. Yes, mallists. Mallists are also known in San Francisco and Marina chicks. Or anyone living in Walnut Creek. The definition is flexible and generally refers to the kinds of people you would sidestep to avoid and hope to Jesus you never have the bad luck of standing in line next to. Especially if they are making a return.

The first mallists were in the TBD department of Nordstrom. TBD, for most people, means "To Be Determined." The acronym is in the same family as TBA (To Be Announced), etc. Very simple. The TBD department is located in a very conspicuous part of the ground floor. There is a reason for this. It is the section where the younger, financially-endowed people shop in. The clothes are cute and it is also where the expensive jeans are. I surmise the reason it is located in this part of the store is because it looks GOOD for the store to have all its other shoppers be able to see these attractive people buying somewhat expensive and very trendy clothing. It makes the store look hip and that is what is important in retail.

I shop there because they sometimes have cute tops and jacket thingies. I can't really fit in the jeans because my body works hard to retain its Russian roots and I tend to have difficulty finding things that fit my lower half. I dont really have the money to shop there, but on occaision it is okay and doable.

I encountered a mallist there being helped by a TBD worker. They were in a very serious discussion and it went something like this (forgive me if I get the brand names wrong, I don't pay too close attention to that but I need to include them here):

Mallist: "So I definitely wouldn't describe myself as a Citizens person - which make their clothes for very tall people. I guess I have been known for my AG's, Seven's and sometimes I will even wear Paige. It is just so hard, you know, to choose between all of them for once. I am just sick of being in between all these brands. I just don't know."

TBD Saleswoman: "Yes, it is very difficult. Why, these Citizens I have been wearing just don't feel right. I mean, they look damn good, but I don't feel like a Citizen girl. You know?"

Mallist: "Completely!. Oh, it is nice to know I am not the only person feeling this way."

TBD Saleswoman: "Indeed. Well, what do you think about the colors of these? They are so reminding me of that run of Sevens that came out in Spring '05. Wow, that was a hot season!"

Mallist: "Oh, right. But I wouldn't want anyone to think they are from '05. What else have you got?"

It went on an on ad nauseum. All I could think about was escaping, but not before I tried on a cute Ben Sherman top. Which, of course, I ended up not getting. Instead, I went to boring JCrew and found some things on sale.

Success of this outfit? TBD, of course.

It all happens at the fair!

This Sunday I attended the Marin County Fair in San Rafael, CA. I haven't gone to a county fair in some time (10-12 years?), a period of time that clouds the fact that most of my childhood summers featured a journey to the Washington County Fair in Hillsboro, Oregon. It turns out things have not changed too much in terms of fairgoing over the last decade. There is still a long annoying line to get your tickets. There are still senior citizens at the gates who tear your entrance ticket in half and tell you something about having a great time today. There still are a lot of creepy carnival employees and trashy bean stuffed animals. The funnel cake still reigns supreme, although now I guess there are more options in terms of toppings (soft serve, caramel sauce, and apple pie filling). They also serve cappuccino at some of the food trailers. That astounded me almost as much as the price tags for these food items - $8.75 for a smoked turkey leg; $3.75 for a roasted ear of corn, corn dog, or french fries. Burgers start at $4.75. Funnel cakes are $5 and your choice of fillings are $1 a pop. Surprisingly, 16oz. of microbrew served to you by a senior was just $5.

During our visit to the fair today, my companions Adam and Christon and I wanted to accomplish a few things. First, we would kill some time visiting the petting zoo. Second, we would attend the sheepdog trials at the main pasture area from noon to one. Next, we would go eat some fair fare. After lunch, we planned to go to the exhibition hall and perhaps attend the guacamole preparation contest. In between all these events we anticipated on making light of the carnival and county fair culture.

No, we didn't forget the rides portion of the fair - we walked through there for about 30 minutes after lunch observing the activities of the booth jockeys and dads that readilly won their sons and daughters inflatable AK-47s decorated by the pattern of our Stars and Stripes and donning a proud "USA" label.



The rides looked prety tempting: They had the Zipper, the Fun House, something that functioned like the Viking Ship, and much more. Sadly, my campaign to get us all to ride on the Gravitron was voted down by our stomachs which had just moments earlier consumed a rather greasy and gut-busting funnel cake.


Here is a picture of two of the entrants of the Marin Co. Fair Guacamole Contest. We were rooting for the neat gentleman to the right, who we surmised may have been ex-military. We called him the Admiral.


Here is Adam and Christon at the petting zoo making friends with a brown goat. This petting zoo was awesome - it had potbelly pigs, llamas, a kangaroo, fawns, goats, sheep, chickens, and some other beasts I can't remember. It did not have a hedgehog, which kind of disappointed me.


This was a snoozing potbelly pig.

Un-bowling

About every two years I get invited along to go bowling somewhere. Usually, I give in (without much fuss) and try to have a little fun down at the alley. However, because I pretty much stink at the sport, it is hard to do. This is especially the case when the people you bowl with claim they aren't very good bowlers - then, just as soon begin to each get three strikes in a row, including the person you are dating.

After my fourth gutter ball (follwed by a fifth, sixth, and so on...), I realized that it may also be the choice of rental equipment that was holding me down. I was using the same bowling ball that the three men I was with were using. The lightest ball we could find, an eight pound pink marbled, had a thumb hole I could barely get my pinky in. I actually bowled with it for the first frame and the thing managed to pull my thumb out of the joint momentarilly as it left my palms. Giving up the pink, I had to settle for an 11-pound green pea thing for several more frames. Shameful frames at that.

My sixth frame complete, I went to go look at the ball racks for something in the middleground and settled for a 10 pounder. As I brought it back, the boys began eyeing it and ended up using is a great deal also during the last half of the match. Therefore, I still think I was bowling with a ball slightly too heavy for me. But that probably can't completely explain my 30 point game.

The bowling alley we went to was very nice, it was called Sea Bowl. Located in Pacifica, CA, Sea Bowl offers well lit lanes, video scoring screens, a nice enclosed bar area, and decent requisite bowling alley food. We settled for two pitchers of MGD and one order of garlic curly fries. I would have tried the hot dog, but I am now vegan until sometime this summer I finally feel cleansed and healthy.

Sea Bowl is expensive. It is $25 and hour plus shoe rental, which sets each person back about $12 not including beer or food.

Not a drop of milk, not a yolk, and no meat either

Hello people.

It's me, reporting from day six of a diet which approaches as close to vegan as a first timer might dare. Despite my strict adherance, I've not dropped any weight (my body is a superior survivor...i could maintain weight for a long time probably given just 500 cal a day).

I started this diet upon returning back from the US last Saturday. In Thailand, I was eating all kinds of meats and meat-products. I did not eat any cheese, though, and very little sugar. Therefore, coming home and starting the diet hasn't been so hard seeing that I've been without a lot of foods for more than a month anyway. In fact, it's been pretty easy.

For sanity's sake, I am allowed red wine and some dark chocolate. We all must find someway to enjoy ourselves, right?

Back for SE Asia Summer Music Picks:

June 19, David Jacobs-Strain, Biscuits & Blues, SF
June 22-25, Built to Spill, Slim's, SF
June 25-27, Neko Case, Bimbo's, SF
July 1, Band of Horses, The Independent, SF
July 15, The Devil Makes Three, GAMH, SF
July 20, Camera Obscura, GAMH, SF

Photos of the journey

Greeting from Gate C7 at the Taipei Airport. Free wireless here and my three hour layover prompt me to update this page.

Here is a selection of photos from the Thailand trip. Most of them are from the fieldwork portion of the trip, which lasted from May 28-June 6. We stayed on the island of Ko Lanta Yai in Krabi Province.

I am not going to meticulously order these, so if the picture I provide is a little jumbled, I apologize. The field work we did was extremely interesting and I got to meet a lot of people, poke around their homes, go underneath their hotels, and ask people questions about their toilets. All in all, it was super fun.


This is the Reclining Buddha at Wat Po. It is the largest reclining Buddha is Thailand.


This is the Village Headman. He met him at the recycling facility and he then invited us to his house so we could look at the village well that is in his backyard.


These are your two main beer choices in Thailand, Chang and Sing-ha.


No, this isn't a Thai military officer. It's just a hired hand from the village to look important outside a new resort compound. It was too bad they had no idea all the photos we were taking were for the purpose of documenting unsustainable design. Ha ha ha...


We talked to people at the Elephant Trekking place. The elephants looked bored.


Powerlines sure do make that beach look darn purty!


Emperor Hirohito from Japan showed up on campus one day (two people to the right of the first white pagoda thingy). There were many dignitaries in Bangkok last week for the King's celebration commemorating 60 years on the throne of Thailand.


Here are five of the ten Thai students whose we really depended on to understand anything on the trip.

Pet finder

Puppies under the bungalows

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.