road trip - days 9 thru 11

the day didn't start until late on friday. micah, sara and i ventured up to washington park in the afternoon. it was gray and rainy, but it didn't stop us from taking a bunch of photos and being completely weird. here's a photo of our new fake band that we started that day. you can call us 'funkmaster e and the mossy trunks'. we're kinda awesome.

tree and lightpole in the park...

then we went downtown and looked around at reading frenzy and then went around the corner and got lost in powell's city of books. well, not really lost, but that would still have been fun. i bought a book by tolstoy, one by salinger, and one by bill bryson. nice mix.
by that time we were hungry, so we went back to sara's house to have dinner. then alissa came over and we made gingerbread and drank tea and watched 'once' and a few episodes of flight of the conchords.

we woke up a little earlier on saturday and drove up to alissa's house and then went for lunch at monsoon thai. mmmmmm. here's a photo of their fantastically lime green bathroom...

it's in the mississippi neighborhood, which is apparently becoming kinda hip. they had a ton of cool shops. coffee at fresh pot, and then little botique stores called hovel and porch light.
next we made our way to a zine shop called grass hut. here's part of their current installation wall.

next we hung out at the wild oats for a while. we wanted to get gelato at staccato gelato, but they were closed for the holidays. boooo. we were just waiting for our movie to start. so we walked over to the laurelhurst to see the darjeeling limited. so good. see it. then we went back to alissa's house and ate mint chocolate chip ice cream and popcorn and watched flight of the conchords. seriously. those guys never get old.

this morning we left the house at noon and went over to cup and saucer and had breakfast. probably the best breakfast i've ever had. spinach and havarti omlette with hash browns and a scone. heaven on a plate. then we went over to SCRAP and got some fun junk. i got a box of 100 zippers, a slide carousel and a bunch of computer wire for 7 bucks. then we walked down the street to a letterpress shop called lark press. they have the old letterpresses there in the shop and it was cool to see them working. i bought a couple cards just because they were so beautiful. then we went next door to pix patisserie and had a ghetto cake. don't let the name deceive you. so good.

then we drove across town to the bins. it was crowded and full of so much crap. but we found a few gems. i got a small old suitcase and some fabric. micah even found a polariod camera that she's been looking for.
now we're hanging out at alissa's house and she's making gyoza for dinner. it smells delightful. now she's making weird noises and micah is taking pictures of her. i love my friends.

tomorrow morning we will be leaving bright and early to drive straight through to salinas. it should be a long day, but then we get to spend almost an entire day with the risingers. yay!

road trip - days 7&8

boxing day was an eventful day.

started with coffee and the internet at the bauhaus...

next was pizza at pagliacci
a browse through a used bookstore
a stroll through pike's place public market
a bag of cheese at beecher's

fish & chips at ivar's

a browse through 'ye olde curiosity shop' & sylvester the creeepy mummy

pictures along the waterfront...

a stroll through the REI mothership
dinner at dad watson's
the McMenamins beer sampler (wow)
coffee & cheesecake at caffe ladro
pictures of the seattle skyline from queen anne...

ended with french fries and ice cream at dick's.

it was just a long day of endless food. so good.

this morning we woke up way too late, had breakfast at patty's eggnest (excellent french toast) and had a four hour white-knuckle drive back to portland. it rained buckets the entire way, but we made it in one piece. now we're getting ready to meet alissa and go see 'across the universe' at kennedy school. can't beat a $3 movie and a pint of beer.

road trip - days 4-6

my access to the internet has been sporadic, so i will attempt to sum up the past few days in as few words as possible...

sleep
moe's southwestern grill
target
portland saturday market
rain
organic soap
rain
hot chocolate
rain
chicken & angel hair pasta
flight of the conchords
cranberry martinis
sleep
3 hour drive up the I-5
sarah & michael
charlie's
guinness
fish & chips
twilight exit
pinball
sleep
christmas!
rain
the hurricane
'happy tuesday'
eggs & bacon
space needle
rain
sculpture garden
rain
snow
AMC theaters
Juno (excellent, by the way)
rain
top ramen
friends
apples to apples
laughter
rain
sleep

that brings us to this morning.
micah, sarah and i are sitting at the bauhaus internet cafe, drinking coffee and gettting our online fix. today will most likely involve pike's place (don't worry tim, i won't forget your cheese), the downtown library, and whatever else strikes our fancy. maybe even another movie...

road trip - days 1-3

i had been planning on posting yesterday, but my connection was crappy. so i'm just going to have to do a mega-post that covers the past three days.

so let me bring you up to speed...

thursday morning we got up bright and early, picked up heather, and got the rental car. and then proceeded to try and figure out how to cram all of us and our luggage into the car without breaking something...or someone. we finally figured it out and hit the road for the pacific coast highway at about 10 am. we decided to make it a leisurely drive and made a few photo stops...

the drive up the PCH is pretty twisty-turny, but we finally made it to Salinas and the Risingers, who graciously opened up their home to us. we had a yummy dinner, fun conversation, and a good night's sleep. it was hard to leave their house the next morning. actually, i think it ended up being afternoon.
then we ventured across town so that micah could see the house where Steinbeck was born...

then we took our time and drove up to san francisco. we didn't really have anything in mind to do while we were there, so we just walked around and took photos and watched people. we stayed at a hostel near union square, so there were plenty of people to watch...

i wish i could say we had a good night's sleep in san francisco, but what can you expect from a hostel for $30 a night?
then bright and early, we set off for destinations farther north. we made a quick stop at the marin headlands for a photo-op...

...and then spent the next 10 hours driving to Portland. it was a journey complete with snow flurries and freezing rain. good times. but we made it here safely and sara even had dinner waiting for us! we're now sitting all cozy in her living room, clicking away at our computers. i'm excited to be back in p-town visiting friends. i love this city.

it is officially christmas break

today was the last day of work until january 3rd. most people would spend this time shopping, going to parties, and spending time with family. but not for micah and me. tomorrow morning, bright and early, we begin our 'pacific northwest roatrip extraveganza 2007'. (yes, i realize that the title is long. deal with it.)
we are making stops in salinas, san francisco, portland and seattle. we will be spending our time sightseeing, visiting friends, doing lots of nothing and taking lots and lots of photos.
and being very, very cold. yay for the cold! and the rain!
i am so excited to be on the road, going to places that are different from riverside, and taking the time to be with people that i rarely get to see.
it should be good times.

(just pray we don't get washed off the road or snowed under.)

anybody up for a marathon?

pinch me

i am so excited right now, i think my stomach is about to climb out of my throat. what you are looking at is the view from the apartment alissa and i will be staying at from may 12th to 25th of next year. and yes, that is the eiffel tower sticking out of the top of that roof. it may not be the most romantic view in the world, but i'm excited to have found a little apartment to call home right smack in the middle of the city of lights. i've been planning this trip for over a year now, and i almost can't believe it's really going to happen. i have the apartment booked and my plane ticket purchased. in a little over 5 months, i get to live in Paris for 2 weeks!!!!! (ok, time to calm down now...)

but seriously...WOOOOHOOOO!!!!!

god grew tired of us

i know that i frequently write about the various documentaries that i've seen, and then say that you all need to see them. well, this time i mean it. i just finished watching god grew tired of us, and believe that everyone needs to see it, if you haven't already.

a little historical background....the current civil war in sudan began in 1987, which created an entire generation of thousands of orphaned 'lost boys' who have been living in refugee camps first in ethiopia and now in kenya for the past 20 years. the US has allowed some of them to emmigrate to america, and this documentary followed 3 of them for several years.

seeing our culture through the eyes of these young men who had never previously seen electricity or running water or pre-packaged food made me feel ungrateful.
seeing these young men appreciating things as simple as having a minimum-wage job and a kitchen full of food made me feel unapreciative.
seeing these young men completely confused about how we celebrate christmas, when 'isn't christmas about celebrating the birth of jesus christ?' made me feel trivial.
seeing these young men scrape by to get an education so they could go back to sudan and help those people they had left behind made me feel superficial.

it breaks my heart to see any of God's children living in such a horrible situation, and gives me a glimpse into how His heart breaks. it also frustrates me to know that i am not in any position to do anything to help. the american way is to just throw money at a problem, but i want to go and do. someday i will. someday.

of montreal

last night micah and i ventured out to the glass house in pomona to see one of the awesomest bands ever. of montreal is a unique mix of indie rock, pop, glam, and performance art. we saw them in february at the beginning of their tour, and the show had been completely overhauled in that time. first of all, both of the opening bands were actuall good this time. MGMT were really good, but their creativity seemed to be dependent upon some controlled substances. the next band was grand buffet, who were a white man rap duo from pittsburgh. i can't really explain what it was that made them so entertaining, but trust me, they are.

(it takes a real man to rock this outfit. you go, kevin)

of montreal's show already included large screens with graphics and videos, props and several costume changes. but now they've pulled out all the stops and constructed this huge multi-level stage with light panels and also have two guys dressed in costumes to periodically help act out small scenes that generally included a man in a white suit with a tiger head having a battle with a guy in a black body suit and sparkly silver mask. my thought was, how do you write that job description? 'yeah, we need a guy to run our light/video setup, oh, and also periodically dress up in a black body suit and have a fake sword fight with kevin.'
(by the way, all photos were taken by micah. i suck at taking concert photos.)

(slightly crappy picture of the stage)

(bryan decided to be glam rockstar angel)

of montreal always put on a great show, and it was totally worth the lack of sleep. but it did remind me that i might be getting too old for going to shows. i can handle the noise and the crowds, but i start feeling like an old lady when the kids around me start getting high and the only thing i want to do is go find security and get them busted.

this is going to be a long week, because tomorrow night micah and i voyage out to the wiltern to see rob bell explain why the gods aren't angry. it should be awesome.

flight of the conchords

alissa brought these guys to my attention a while ago, but i heard an interview with them on NPR this afternoon and it reminded me how funny they are. so i thought i'd share.
makes me wish i had HBO.

service

anyone familiar with my place of employment knows that every year we send out teams of students to do service projects all over the world. well, this year i applied to lead one of those teams, and i was chosen!

this spring i will be leading a team of college students to work with habitat for humanity mexico to help with their '40 houses in 40 days' lent project just outside mexico city. i am SO excited. i love what HFH does for families and have always wanted to participate in a home build. and i have recently had a deep desire to see the heart of mexico and learn what mexican culture is really like, and not just the immigrant stereotype that is so hard to escape here in southern california.

i'm trying not to think about all the responsibility involved in being the leader of a group of college students. i know i can do it, but it still kinda freaks me out.

but seriously....SO excited.

aidan

i know that there are quite a few people out there who would make very passionate cases for their own children, but i would have to say that, hands down, my nephew is the cutest kid on the planet. granted, the 'terrible twos' behavior has already started (even though his birthday isn't until december 23rd) and my sister likens him to a gremlin. he's just so cute and cuddly, but when he's in a bad mood, things get ugly fast.
he doesn't seem to have any fear and will gladly climb on, jump off of, or slide down anything in his path. he's super-independent and wants to do everything himself and make sure he helps us with everything. and he's super-smart. he already has a huge vocabulary, and we estimate that he learns about 5 new words a day. he is fascinated by anything with an engine and can correctly identify boats, motorcycles, trucks, tractors, dumptrucks, fire engines, airplanes, and cars. only things sound more like 'chuck' and 'duchuck'. but we get the idea. last weekend we were all amazed to realize that he knows all of our names. his sister abigail is 'dabadow', and my name is 'ezah'. he loves the fact that he can say 'ezah!', and that i will respond to him. so he just says it over and over for no reason. it will get annoying soon, but for now i think it's cute.

my grandmother

i'd like you to meet my grandmother, born Billie Maxine Fitzjohn on october 19th, 1927. this was her high school senior picture. i get my dark hair from her.
i am leaving on thursday morning with my mother, sister, niece and nephew to visit my grandmother and celebrate her 80th birthday. which means i get to spend the weekend in missouri.
i've always had a difficult time with knowing what to think or feel about my grandmother. she's the only grandparent i've ever known, and i don't even really know her. she has always had a neverending supply of love, time and energy for the people she ministered to in africa, but never seemed to be able to do the same for her own family. even when she came home from the mission field, she settled down far away from her own children. i've always wished i had the grandmother who taught me how to bake and sew and knit and told stories and did all the 'grandma' type things. and i sort of resent that she wasn't that grandma. and then i feel bad about myself for resenting her.
and then she sends me books by pat robertson. and it reminds me that she doesn't know me at all.
sometimes i wonder if it would have been easier to have never had any grandparents, rather than to have to daily mourn the loss of someone who is still alive.

update

i've had a number of people comment to me both via the internet and in person about my last post, so i feel like i should post an update.

like i said before, i believe that everyone has an inner critic. i believe that said critic is not biological, but comes from years of environmental conditioning. (i am not including those who have genuine biologically induced psychological problems.) my inner critic comes from a lifetime of conditioning from two parents (whom i love and respect immensely) who both came from highly dysfunctional, even sometimes abusive childhoods, and somehow came out the other end mostly normal, but with their own baggage. which includes a tendency to be highly critical of themselves and those around them. i have spent the past decade of my life working very hard on my various shortcomings and believe that i have made a lot of progress. but when you are 31 and still living with those people who are the external source of those critical voices, progress becomes much more difficult. i think i just got to the point where the persistence of the critical voices, combined with the fact that i have no resources to move away from my parents just became overwhelming.

so here's the update.

even though i know i shouldn't be, i am always astounded by the fact that God has his own way of reaching out and showing each and every one of us - individually - how much he loves and cares for us. within just a few days, i read a blog by aaron ivey, a person i've never met or spoken to, that seemed to be written just for me. and i just finished listening to a podcast of a sermon called 'both sides of the cup' by rob bell, in which his benediction prayer spoke to my heart.

needless to say, the inner critic is still there and still saying the same things, and i am still as frustrated as ever that i am stuck in my current situation. but i have been given some gentle reminders that God is bigger than my problems, and that he loves me just the way i am.

voices

i have this voice in my head.
not one of those scary, have to take lithium kinds of voices. a voice that’s always been there and that i inherited from my mother, and she from hers. call it a twisted legacy of sorts.
i know that a lot of people have an inner critic, but i believe that mine is exponentially more critical than most. it is also exceedingly insistent and oppressively loud.
this voice tells me that i am unoriginal, unintelligent, and that people don’t really like me – they just sort of humor me and put up with me and then say mean things about me when i’m not around.
this voice tells me that i will never have a meaningful relationship because why would a man ever love me when every other woman out there has so much more to offer.
this voice tells me that i’m going to be mediocre or outright fail at everything i try, so i usually just end up giving up before i even start.
this voice is why i don’t make much artwork anymore. in fact i haven’t really made much of anything in the past two years.
the conversation goes something like this:

me: wow, i have this great idea for a new series.

voice: you know, someone probably already did that.

me: so what, it will still be mine.

voice: yeah, but yours will never be as good.

me: uh, well, you’re probably right, but my friends like what i make.

voice: they’re just saying that so they don’t hurt your feelings. besides, it’s what the art world thinks, and they will never like your work. you should just give up now.

the conversation is pretty much the same for everything. just enter a new subject.
i’m tired of this voice.
it needs to go away.

worst movie ever

you all know by now that i love old movies. can't get enough of them.
you should also know that since i started watching mystery science theater 3000 (probably about 14 years ago now), i've been on a search for the worst movie ever made. for a long time, that distinction has been held - in my mind - by 'hercules against the moon men'. delightfuly horrible in the most painful way. the mst3k boys eloquently summed it up as 'deep hurting'.
the real winner of this distinguished title is probably widely known to any self-respecting movie buff, but i must admit that until today i was not aware of the wonderfully horrible world of mr. edward wood jr and the movie 'plan 9 from outer space'.
oh.
my.
word.
bad writing. even worse acting. laughable special effects. and a long-winded speech at the end about how men are stupid and are going to use these new technologies that they don't really understand to eventually destroy the universe.
it was so bad, i highly recommend it.
you'll laugh. you'll cry. you'll want those 90 minutes of your life back. and you won't regret it.

photograms

photograms are oh-so-much fun. here's a small sampling of what i created in class yesterday. i posted all of them on my flickr page.

millions of peaches

so what do you do when someone gives you a huge bag of beautiful fresh peaches?
why, go completely overboard and make not just a pie but cobbler as well.
i think we're going to need some help with this...

humancalendar

this is probably one of the coolest websites i have ever seen.


here's a photo of today's calendar. i am in awe of this guy's vision and planning to pull something like this off every day.
click on the photo and check it out.

here's a special treat...

so i go online this afternoon to check my bank account balance (i'll leave out which bank for their sake) and see a funny little check card transaction that i certainly did not make. (do i really need any video professor products? um, no.) since it is still a pending transaction, i think, 'great, i'll call customer service before it posts, get them to cancel it and be done with it.'
apparently, the world does not work that way.
i call and after going through innumerable menus i finally got a human being on the line. i told her about my funny little charge, and she told me that because it had not yet posted, there was nothing they could do about it.
what!?!
i have to have a fraudulent charge actually debit my account before i can do anything about it!?!
WHAT!?!?!?
she said 'wait until it posts and see if the transaction has a phone number and call the vendor and see if you can get credited. if that doesn't work, call us back and we'll sort it out.'
last time i checked, identity theft and fraudulent charges were a huge problem and are costing people billions of dollars. and that's the best they can do. what is the point of me being so careful with my finances and credit if when i find something fishy going on, nobody can do anything about it until the damage is done?
needless to say, i'm pretty upset about this.
just thought i'd share.

costumes

i was having dinner with the catlings on tuesday night and we started talking about halloween. a little early, i know, but that family has already printed their christmas cards.

i was remembering how much time we spent decorating their fabulous house and mentioned that we should start earlier this year. hilary then said something about not being sure she wanted to have a party this year. i know she will, it's just a matter of wearing her down. so then bill gets into the conversation and starts throwing out costume ideas. first he says we should all come as our favorite artists. i shoot that one down because i already did that last year. and it's a bit predictable coming from a group of artist. then he says we should all come as our favorite bible character and how they died. now THAT is a great idea. although i'm not so sure how you would dress up as someone who had been stoned. i think i would dress up as jezebel. it's hard to beat a halloween costume where dogs are feasting on your entrails.

so....any other good costume ideas?

the gods aren't angry

i just bought two tickets to see rob bell at the wiltern on november 13th.

there don't seem to be many tickets left, so if you want to go you better get them soon.

or you could beg to go with me.
although begging isn't exactly an attractive trait....

envy

ever been jealous of a cat?

yeah, me too.

music

last night i bought icky thump off of itunes.

WOW.

i think i've listened to it 3 or 4 times already.

one word......genius.

proud to be an american?

i was at disneyland with my family a couple weeks ago and saw someone wearing this shirt.
while my bro-in-law thought it was funny, it actually made me kind of angry.
why do americans have to have this attitude?

i love yard sales

this morning we held the 'life group yard sale extraordinaire' to try and raise some extra funds to offset dan and alyssa's expenses for the international adoption of the beautiful sofia, while also trying to get rid of some excess junk. i wasn't able to stay for the whole thing, but i would say it was a success on both counts. and also quite a bit of fun. while my heart's desire is to be as minimal as possible and to stop my frustrating cycles of accumulation, i was irresistibly attracted to the random box full of medical and chemistry supplies. while i wasn't able to beat the yard sale vultures to the clamps and scalpels and various beakers, i was able to scoop up these great little bottles. you can never have enough cool little glass bottles.
uh, unless you're trying to have less stuff.
crap.



well, i still like them.

deathly hallows

i just finished reading the first 5 chapters of harry potter and the deathly hallows and am already completely emotionally exhausted. all of the previous harry potter volumes have taken me on a roller-coaster ride of joy and tears, and this one looks like it is going to beat them all.

i just had to take a break and calm down a bit. but i hope to finish it by monday.

and don't worry, i won't spoil it for any slow readers out there.
that would just be mean.

following sean

ever since netflix made it so darn easy to find them, i've been watching a nearly endless stream of documentaries. some good, some terrible, and every once in a while, some are splendid. i watched one of the splendid ones this weekend. it was called following sean. rather than butcher the plotline, i shall quote the synopsis from the website.

Filmmaker Ralph Arlyck first met Sean while living as a graduate student in San Francisco's Haight Ashbury neighborhood at the height of the 1960s.
The city was awash with the trappings of America's cultural revolution-the San Francisco State University campus flooded with cops in riot gear, the Haight filled with drifters and idealists, and, on the third floor of Arlyck's building, a come-one-come-all crashpad apartment. It was from this top floor commune that the precocious 4-year-old Sean would occasionally wander downstairs to visit and talk-and one day Arlyck turned on his camera.
Sean's casual commentary on everything from smoking pot to living with speed freaks was delivered in simple sincerity throughout the soon-to-be famous 15-minute film. This First Child of the notorious decade may have shaken the audience with his simple sentence- "Sure, I smoke pot"-but it was his barefoot impishness which would encapsulate the hope that lay in front of the nation: a promise of infinite possibility.
Thirty years, three generations, and a lifetime later, Arlyck has returned to San Francisco in search of who the adult Sean might have become. And what he finds, to his surprise, tells him as much about his own east-coast migration as it does about the Californian life he left behind-that the choices we're handed and the choices we make are, very often, quite odd bedfellows.

it was beautiful and thought-provoking and a wonderful, subtle study in sociology. i was not expecting for it to be a reminder that even when others seem so different, we all actually have so much in common.

two magazines you've probably never heard of, but need to go out and find immediately

i know i rarely give my opinion on a subject such as this, but i was really wowed.

here's the story...

yesterday i had some time to kill and some barnes and noble gift cards burning a hole in my wallet. so i went to the mall and headed straight for the magazine section. alissa has been telling me for months about craft magazine and how much i would love it. so i decided it was time to check it out, because she's almost always right about these things. and she was once again right. every page is interesting and well designed and well written and captivating. at least to a crafter like me. i highly recommend it now, too.

but while i was there i took a look around the art and design section and ran across how magazine. it was kind of hanging around in the back and looked a little beat up, but i picked it up and opened it and was amazed at what was inside. now, i'm not a graphic designer, but this thing is still amazing. the design of the magazine itself is awe inspiring and almost makes me wish i were a graphic designer. each page is a treat for the eyes and i can't wait to turn the page and see what comes next. besides being visually engaging, it seems to actually have a lot of useful information, as well.

ok, that's my opinion.

do with it as you will.

life

this morning i woke up and the first thing that popped into my head was...

lather

rinse

repeat

thus is my life.

produce

yesterday morning my mom and i left the house bright and early to sample riverside's brand new saturday morning farmer's market. i was excited because the only one in town for as long as i can remember has been on friday mornings. it seems that only people without jobs were worthy of farm fresh produce until now.

i thought it was a smashing success and wanted to buy a little bit of everything. but i just bought a bunch of strawberries for making jam. micah and i made jam today. it was mostly successful. i'll let you try some and decide for yourself.

done

yesterday my friend dan was kind enough to help me move the last few things out of my storage unit. so today i was able to go in and sign all the paperwork and officially be done with the beast that is public storage.

i'm just thinking about all the money i'm going to save...
this sounds to me like a reason to have a party.

roadtrip

micah and i drove to san francisco for the weekend.

we drove up on friday, spent saturday at the oyster and beer festival, and drove home today.
the main reason we went was to see flogging molly. they played at the festival, and it was their last show for a very long time.

and they were totally worth the drive.

in order to save money, we stayed at a hostel which turned out to be in one of the worst neighborhoods in town. but it was great, because we met a lot of fun, random people.

friday night, we met paul, who was restoring this ford truck and was kind enough to let us check it out and take photos.

saturday morning we met earston, who told us we needed to see the rooftop garden at the YMCA, which turned out to be wonderful. and it had a spectacular view.

we spent saturday afternoon at the oyster and beer festival at fort mason and met lots of incredibly drunk people, and even a larger-than-life-size pint of guinness.

and of course we took the time to see some of the sights.

i think that we did a lot in a day, but at the same time we took our time and enjoyed ourselves.

and it sure was nice to get out of riverside for the weekend.

words

i was just thinking today that there sure are a lot of fun words.
but they're all fun for different reasons.
some have interesting meanings and make you sound super-intelligent, like misogynistic.
some are fun because they have sounds in them that sound like other words that are nothing like the original word, like condiments.
but then there are the fun words that people rarely have use for and probably don't even know the meaning for, but are oh-so-much fun to say. i have lots of favorite words that fall into this last category, but the reigning word for the moment is phytoplankton. i will probably never have a reason to seriously use this word in a conversation, but that is just a tragedy, because i love how it sounds when i say it.
phytoplankton
love it.

news?

yet another example of why i despise and actively avoid the fox news network...
i was just at wanda's, getting some coffee. while i was waiting, i glanced up at the television to see if anything interesting is happening today. now, these televisions are religiously tuned to the fox news network 24/7, so the glance is just to see if there is something going on in the world for which i need to make sure i catch the story on either NPR or the nightly world news on ABC. this afternoon, the lovely fox network was covering a car chase in the LA area. already i'm slightly annoyed, because the last time i checked, car chases are not news, they are sensationalism. what really provoked my ire was the blurb they were showing under the video stream which informed the audience that 'the suspect is heavily tattooed'.

what the crap!?!

what does that have to do with anything, except to play into the already heavily entrenched prejudice and racism prevalent in the right-wing, ultra-conservative fox news audience? if they're anything like my grandmother, they believe that everything that comes out of pat robertson's mouth is uncontroverted gospel, which is therefore also attributed to the network as a whole.

i am so sick of 'news' networks and programs using a medium which should be educating the populace in all information so as to enable them to make their own educated opinions and decisions to instead indoctrinate the populace into their own biased opinion. these opinions are not based on any true introspection or thought, but on the fact that some talking head in a flashy suit who supposedly subscribes to the same 'religion' told them that this was the best and most 'christian' way to think.

while i'm on a news rant, i'm also disgusted by the network news programs who pawn car chases and reports on paris hilton and anna nicole smith's baby off on us as 'news' when important events around the world are completely ignored. where is the news about france's elections and the fact that they have fallen to 50% unemployment and the 17th economy in europe and are on the verge of imploding? where is the news about the genocide in sudan? where is the news about everything that is going right in iraq instead of only what is going wrong? where is the news about how vladimir putin is slowly but surely eroding away at the democracy in russia and setting himself up to be another russian dictator? a majority of the american public get their news solely from these networks and are being spoon-fed exactly what they need to be placated into a false sense of global security and superiority. and then armed with these half-truths they turn around and demand certain actions from our government which might serve america well, but will ultimately harm our global community.

i'm coming to the realization that i need to use my voice to change this travesty instead of just using it to yell at the television.

anybody else with me?

san diego

heather treated me to a weekend in san diego. we went with no plans, and it was splendid. the hotel we stayed at is in the gaslamp district and was the hotel wyatt earp stayed at when he was in san diego.
on saturday we decided to go to the zoo, and it was a gorgeous day. this was the view of the city from the skyway at the zoo.

it seems that if you point a camera at heather and i, we are incapable of making normal faces. this was our attempt at 'scared face'.

aren't meerkats enormously entertaining? these guys live in the children's section of the zoo, and they kept us hanging around for about 20 minutes with their schenanigans.

and finally, i came across the 'star wars cookbook' at urban outfitters. i was tempted to buy it until i realized that the key to star wars cooking was adding an action figure to your recipe. just add the princess leia action figure, and those boring old cinnamon rolls become 'princess leia hair rolls'.
so who would win in a light saber duel, obi-wan or a chicken kebab? that's a hard one.

russian wisdom

i moved most of my stuff out of my storage unit this weekend.
*applause and congratulations here*
i only have a few big things to move, once i figure out how to do it. (anyone with a large vehicle willing to donate about a half hour of your time will be greatly appreciated.)
so today i was sorting into keep, give away, throw away, and sell on ebay piles and i came across my old chalkboard.

slightly ironic, don't you think?

garden

this weekend i planted an herb garden. i've been buying fresh herbs at the grocery store for various recipes and realized that it was getting really expensive. so this weekend i went out and bought parsley, thyme, peppermint, spearmint, basil, oregano, dill and cilantro plants. i spent less than half of what it cost me to buy bunches of herbs at the store. i'm all excited for them to get bigger so i can go out and clip some and bring them in and cook with them.
now the trick is to not let the snails eat them first.

music

don't be afraid to bask in my unparalelled coolness, but i'm seriously considering learning how to play the.....accordion.

that's right folks, you heard correctly, the accordion. i am newly enamored with irish folk music and would love to learn an instrument that i could play such folk music on. i just can't decide between the ubiquitous keyboard-style or the traditional two-row diatonic B/C scale button-style accordion. many factors must be considered, not the least of which is cost. i think the cheapest button-style i've found so far is $500.

i think my mother will have a heart attack when i tell her, because when she was a child she was forced to learn the accordion and hated every minute of it. maybe she could give me some pointers.

and if i get any snide 'polka' comments, i will throw said accordion at you.

seasons

i can't decide which season is most becoming of my hometown.
when asked, i generally say that my favorite month is november, because fall is such a wonderful time of year. plants start getting ready for the impending cold, sometimes in spectacular fashion. the sun moves to a different position in the sky, casting a different light and making everything look a little mysterious. even the air takes on a delightfully different smell. the oppressive heat of summer gives way to a briskness in the air. i'm getting all nostalgic.
well, that's what fall is SUPPOSED to be like, but it never really delivers here in riverside.
but then there is spring. grass gets greener. daffodils and tulips give an early shot of color to the landscape. wildflowers make everything look more cheerful. plants and trees of all kinds come out of winter dormancy and put on the new year's clothes. but hands down, the best part of spring in riverside is when the orange groves are in bloom. there are still enough orange trees around here to make the wait for spring worthwhile. all the citrus trees are blanketed in little white flowers that give off the most delightful scent that hangs in the air and becomes thick by dusk. it compels me drive around with my windows rolled all the way down and makes me wish i had a porch swing so i could linger outside on warm evenings.
i think spring would win out over fall if it weren't for my allergies.
stupid hayfever.

drought

i have just been relieved of a 24 hour media-technology drought.
the fine folks at charter communication, who provide us with cable and high-speed internet, apparently had some kind of malfunction and we were without both services since some time yesterday morning. i have never before realized exactly how much i have come to depend on the fact that cable and internet are always there at my whim.
i already know that i would have no problem living without either of those luxuries, but it would have been a lot easier to deal with if i had known it was coming. at least i've gotten a lot of reading done.
so i can now resume watching the various television shows and surfing the various internet sights which seem to suck my time into some undisclosed vortex.
should i be happy about this?

irish fair

today micah and i went to the los angeles irish fair and music festival.
it was good times.

irish food, irish music, irish dancing, irish people...

they even went so far as to dye the water in the fountains green.

there were some awesome bands who were obviously proud of being irish...and even made some good music.

good times, good times.
i'm definitely going again next year.

exercise

yesterday i was out jogging through my neighborhood (that's right folks, i said i was jogging. i solved my shin splint problem and decided to start it up again. i walk more than i jog, but a person's gotta start somewhere.) so like i was saying...i was jogging through my neighborhood and saw a lady pull partway up the driveway of the house which was unfortunate enough to host the neighborhood mailbox in their front yard. she got out and fetched her mail and got back into her car and backed out. my first reaction to seeing this was 'wow, that's kinda rude'. but then i kept watching and saw her proceed to pull her car into the garage of the house NEXT DOOR to the house with the mailboxes.
wow
and people wonder why they have weight and health problems.
i'm still a bit speechless.

festival

micah just brought to my attention that there is an irish festival going on this weekend at the la fairgrounds. the first thing that comes to mind is 'why haven't i heard of this before?' the next thing that comes to mind is 'why have i never heard of this before?' i mean, really. i'm not being a very good irish person. so i guess i'm going to go get my irish on this weekend. awesome.

peer pressure

by popular demand (maybe 2 people), i've decided to bring the old blogger account out of retirement. i will now be dual-posting my thoughts and ramblings both here and on myspace so as not to leave anyone out.
enjoy.