September 2004 Archives

I guess I can't help myself. On the eve of the 1st debate of the 2004 election, I feel compelled to look at the transcripts of the 2000 debates. There are so many things that George W Bush said that are at odds with how he and his administration has proceeded. Here's one of them:

MODERATOR: Should the people of the world look at the United States, Governor, and say, should they fear us, should they welcome our involvement, should they see us as a friend, everybody in the world? How would you project us around the world, as president?

BUSH: Well, I think they ought to look at us as a country that understands freedom where it doesn't matter who you are or how you're raised or where you're from, that you can succeed. I don't think they'll look at us with envy. It really depends upon how our nation conducts itself in foreign policy. If we're an arrogant nation, they'll resent us. If we're a humble nation, but strong, they'll welcome us. And it's -- our nation stands alone right now in the world in terms of power, and that's why we have to be humble. And yet project strength in a way that promotes freedom. So I don't think they ought to look at us in any way other than what we are. We're a freedom-loving nation and if we're an arrogant nation they'll view us that way, but if we're a humble nation they'll respect us.

There are a lot of questions about these three upcoming debates, like since the candidates can't address each other and rebuttal times are limited, are they in fact debates, or just another chance to make stump speeches. Hopefully Jim Lehrer will ignore the 32 pages of rules that the Commission on Presidential Debates arranged and the candidates agreed to and we can have a real debate on the issues. What could the consequences be? The American people deserve a real debate.

The other question that keeps pooping, at least me, is the nature of "winning a debate." It's been said again and again that neither John Kerry nor George W. Bush has lost a debate. But what does that mean? If it means each candidate never lost an election following a debate, which it seems to mean when the talking heads say it, then I guess they are right. But since elections are far more complicated animals, it's very a simple minded definition.

I think by any measure, Al Gore killed Bush in their 3 debates. Gore understood what he was talking about, had a grasp of the issues, understood his plan and his opponents. He was dominant. And if the popular vote is anything to judge by, he won the debates.

I don't know why there hasn't been much emphasis in the press about this, but if you look at what W said in the debates and contrast them to his record in office, on defense, on judicial appointments, on taxes and on and on, he suffers heavily in the balance. Here's one sharp example from the first debate in 2000.

MODERATOR: New question. How would you go about as president deciding when it was in the national interest to use U.S. force, generally?

BUSH: Well, if it's in our vital national interest, and that means whether our territory is threatened or people could be harmed, whether or not the alliances are -- our defense alliances are threatened, whether or not our friends in the Middle East are threatened. That would be a time to seriously consider the use of force. Secondly, whether or not the mission was clear. Whether or not it was a clear understanding as to what the mission would be. Thirdly, whether or not we were prepared and trained to win. Whether or not our forces were of high morale and high standing and well-equipped. And finally, whether or not there was an exit strategy. I would take the use of force very seriously. I would be guarded in my approach. I don't think we can be all things to all people in the world. I think we've got to be very careful when we commit our troops. The vice president and I have a disagreement about the use of troops. He believes in nation building. I would be very careful about using our troops as nation builders. I believe the role of the military is to fight and win war and therefore prevent war from happening in the first place. So I would take my responsibility seriously. And it starts with making sure we rebuild our military power. Morale in today's military is too low. We're having trouble meeting recruiting goals. We met the goals this year, but in the previous years we have not met recruiting goals. Some of our troops are not well-equipped. I believe we're overextended in too many places. And therefore I want to rebuild the military power. It starts with a billion dollar pay raise for the men and women who wear the uniform. A billion dollars more than the president recently signed into law. It's to make sure our troops are well-housed and well-equipped. Bonus plans to keep some of our high-skilled folks in the services and a commander in chief that sets the mission to fight and win war and prevent war from happening in the first place.

Last night, as I was driving to the gym, I was listening to Billy Collins, America's former Poet Laureate, on City Arts & Lectures reading and talking about his poems.

The genius of Collins is that he takes every day ideas, events and problems and transforms them through the prism of his remarkable wit and insightful use of the English language into essential kernals of truth.

I'm really fond of this poem below, ironically so, because I often forget it's title. Oh yes, Billy Collins, there's that one poem of his that I really like, but, what is it again? Oh, right. I only remembered when I heard him recite it last night. Then again, I have a notorious deficient memory.

Forgetfulness

The name of the author is the first to go followed obediently by the title, the plot, the heartbreaking conclusion, the entire novel which suddenly becomes one you have never read, never even heard of, as if, one by one, the memories you used to harbor decided to retire to the southern hemisphere of the brain, to a little fishing village where there are no phones.

Long ago you kissed the nine Muses goodbye and watched the quadratic equation pack its bag, and even now as you memorize the order of the planets, something else is slipping away, a state flower perhaps, the address of an uncle, the capital of Paraguay.

Whatever it is you are struggling to remember it is not poised on the tip of your tongue, not even lurking in some obscure corner of your spleen. It has floated away down a dark mythological river whose name begins with an L as far as you can recall, well on your own way to oblivion where you will join those who have even forgotten how to swim and how to ride a bicycle.

No wonder you rise in the middle of the night to look up the date of a famous battle in a book on war. No wonder the moon in the window seems to have drifted out of a love poem that you used to know by heart.

--Billy Collins

Presidential Knockout

It just gets worse and worse for CBS, 60 Minutes and Dan Rather. It's hard to believe this but it seems that CBS bumped a well-reported story on forged documents regarding the uranium from Niger that helped lead the US to war to Iraq in favor of the rehashed story about Bush's National Guard service, a story that, get this, relied on forged documents. [SIGH]

Read the whole report here:

The Story That Didn’t Run

CBS's rush to report its apparently felonious story has not only undermined the network's credibility, and made questionable any attack on Bush or his administration, but has cost the American people the possibility of hearing information about how we were led into war. How many stories now are going to be shelved because of the journalistic quicksand that CBS fell into?

...I imagine it's a lot like an NPR pledge break that never ends. KQED, the Bay Area affiliate, is finally ending its fall pledge fortnight (seems like an eternity) today and not a moment too soon. I'm a member and all, but I really can't stand these monotoned doo-gooders prattle on and on about utter nonsense while I'm missing All Things Considered. There's got to be a better way to do this. I'm losing my fucking mind.

What better way to find out that you couldn't place San Marino on a map of Europe if you life depended on it than checking out the flash geography quizzes from Sheppard Software. There are tons of quizzes so it should (or could) keep you enthralled for days on end. Really, it could. Ok, so maybe it will divert you for a few minutes. (oh, and if you're playing at work, you'll want to turn down that volume).

Black Gay Republicans Break with Log Cabin Republicans, Endorse Bush

As they say in Samoa, e moi which means either, are you serious? or you've got to be shitting me. Black and gay and republican? How large of a group could that possibly be?

In the article, Don Sneed further qualifies the group as "young black gay republicans". Even if they are a large group (which they are not) or had some resources (which they don't) how many of them live outside of Noe Valley, West Hollywood, Chelsea or any other place in a state that has a snowflake's chance in hell of voting red?

I'm not black. I'm not gay. And I'm not a republican but I have the sense to know that a vote for George W. Bush is not, as the ALBRC would have you beleive, "a vote for economic, social and political self-upliftment," unless I've been living in a parallel bizarro universe while, back in reality, the republicans have become the party that cares about people.

TT cuts through the BS like a hot knife through, well, BS. You can check out his blog at www.thismodernworld.com. You have to take a look at this entry about the current president's rugby adventures at Yale.

Did you happen to catch the PBS documentary Extreme Oil? The 3 part piece investigates the extreme lengths the oil industry has to go find ever more elusive sources of petroleum. It's frightening. If ever you wanted politicians to take up the flag of alternative fuels, now is the time.

Last night I saw Episode Two, called "The Oil Curse", which detailed, amongst other things, how Texaco's drilling for oil in the Amazon region of Ecuador has polluted the countryside, destroyed the lives and livelihood of indigenous people and raised cancer rates to absurd levels.

The people of Ecuador are fighting back with a multli-billion law suit that will, thanks to a recent ruling in the US courts, be enforceable in the United States. Who knows whether or not they will win. The case has already been delayed for 10 years by (now) Chevron Texaco’s legal team.

According to the documentary, the case has already affected the way major oil companies do business. Hopefully a favorable ruling will move them even further in the direction of environmental protection. However any decision in the case could be years off, not to mention the possibility of appeals.

Episode Three, "The Wilderness" is about drilling in Alaska and Canada and should prove to be equally depressing.

It's one of the big mysteries of my life. I did it. I don't know how, but I did it.

If you're not lucky enough to live near a Trader Joe's or have never heard of TJ's, well, I pity you.

(I had spicy salmon rolls for lunch. yum!)

Just down the street from where I'm sitting at Chiron in Emeryville is the corporate offices of Pixar. Yes, that Pixar. Monsters, Inc. Finding Nemo. Infinity and Beyond. and Steve Jobs.

There's a interesting article in one of the local papers about how a small group of citizens in Emeryville is strong-arming the animation studio that wants to triple the size of its corporate campus.

It's sort of a reversal of fortune for Pixar which has been used to running roughshod over local authorities. So what's the beef of these local citizens? Well, apparently Emeryville has created so many jobs by being "business-friendly" that they haven't been able to keep on the housing front (this despite Emeryville creating more affordable housing than its neighboring cities).

Just when you thought people had nothing more to complain about, they complain about having too many jobs. Power to the people, baby!

I went to IKEA over the weekend for the time in a few years (Jennifer was looking for a TV stand. There's one in Emeryville right near where I am working. The last time I was there I almost got into a fight in the parking lot over a spot. It's a long story that I don't want to get into, but suffice it to say that the IKEA is very popular.

They've built a new parking structure to handle the crowds, but the inside of the massive store is a still a scrum of people looking for quality Scando-design at bargain basement prices. And that's the problem, at least from where I'm standing.

IKEA stuff looks great, from a distant. But the closer you get, the facade of quality falls away. Their hole showroom reminds me of a Hollywood set that looks great on camera, but up close looks like it fall over in a rain storm and if you go through a door, there's nothing but air. It's all style and no substance.

A chest of drawers might look nice, but when you open any of the drawers, it feels rickety, like the thing is going to fall apart. And these floors models are put together by trained IKEA folks. What happens when you take your box home and assemble your new desk or cabinet in your living? I'm sure you know.

I saw some nice things that I might go back to get some day like a colander or a goose down comforter, only things that require no assembly or engineering. The only thing I left with was a bottle of Swedish mustard.

Two times in one year. Pretty impressive, Britney. It has be some sort of a record. It had to have least tied the record. No one could marry 3 times in a year, could they?

I wonder what odds the bookmakers are giving in Vegas that their wedded bliss will last the year. I think the over/under has to be 6 months, with the under being a fairly heavy favorite.

(Thank god, republicans are keeping marriage safe).

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It's Friday and a time for a good laugh courtesy of the guy who hired me back at Electronic Arts. Ok, so this might not make you laugh out loud (then again, maybe it will), but it will surely put a smile on your face.

http://www.stimulus.com/home/format.mov

(thanks, Mark)

I just got this email from someone claiming to be from eBay:

Dear eBay Customer,

You have received this email, because we have indicate that someone
had used your eBay account more than fifteen times today from different hostnames:

ool-43500aa7.dyn.optonline.net
061238117002.ctinets.com
r50h4.dixie-net.com
bgp477700bgs.summit01.nj.comcast.net
ip67-153-93-156.z93-153-67.customer.algx.net

In this way we have only to think that your account password is stolen.
We have delete your payment information (Card on File) for your security reasons.

Please follow the link below and login to our system to change your password.

http://signin.ebay.com/ws2/eBayISAPI.dll?SignIn&ssPageName=h:h:sin:US

If you think that is a normal for your account, please disregard this message.

Regards,
Kathrine Smith,
eBay Inc.

Could this true? Sure, why not. Stranger things have happened to my account. The email address is from eBay. The link seems to be from eBay. Yet, I sense scam. Maybe it's the "We have delete your payment information (Card on File) for your security reasons." The message and grammar are both disturning. eBay would never send an email like that, would they?

Curious, I clicked on the link. It asks me to login. I do. Then there's a page that asks for, amongst other things, a credit card number and my social security number. I don't remember giving eBay my SSN, but I signed up a long time ago. I closed the window. Opened eBay.com. and changed my password immediately. It's insane that I have to do this every few weeks, but I have to because my virtual identity is at risk because of problems with eBay security.

Then I decided to call eBay (Phone: (408) 376-7400). They don't have anyone by that name listed. The email is a "spoof". You just have to shake your head.

On the day that President Bush, by virtue of not insisting that the House act on the Assault Weapons Ban, is letting the bill lapse because of his allegiance to the NRA, I get this email from my former housemate in Vail about our landlord Jeff who lived with us:

hey remember when I said I was staying at the trailor...yeah...oops...i am moving out tomorrow. I have reciently discovered that jeff has been going into my room and searching through my stuff on a regular basis. I also made the mistake of telling him that my knee was sore the other day. He proceeded to mix up some tiger balm and demand to rub my knee. so an hour and a half later I am offering him a dollar to get the hell out of my room. He threatened to jump on me, pin me down, and force me to let him rub my knee. I told him that if he did I would file assault charges against him. so he bared his teeth and started growling at me. freaked me out a little bit. so the next night he starts yelling at me. then he tells me that he has been a father figure to me and that on monday he is going to buy an m-18 assault rifle with a grenade launcher to fight the bad guys and any terrorists who try to terrorize the trailor park. oh yeah and now he used to be a runner for the mafia and was shot 9 times...and he has reciently signed up to be in the national guard. okay..that is only a fraction of the entire story but you get the idea...he has become completely dilusional and I am a little affraid for my own safety. You are really missing out not being here...and soon I will be missing out too.

that came the day after KC sent me this email:

still living in the trailor. jeff is crazier than ever. but i have a vacation comming up so it will give me a chance to get out of here. I got drunk and yelled at him twice...I think I questioned the statute of limitations regarding bragging rights...and I probably told him to get humble and shut up for once in his life...it is all a little hazy...either way...I accidently have a lease...oops...so i guess i am stuck here until april...oh and get this...he is trying to raise my rent. he told me that he could rent my room for $600.00 to somebody else...and i wonder on what planet that would ever happen. Your room has been empty since you left except for one guy who moved out after 3 wks. I think that things around here are about to reach critical mass so who knows what might happen. p.s. jeff is wasted and screaming at his wasted friend and I am hiding in my room...wish you were here.

I didn't write much about Jeff in the month or so that I lived in the trailer park near Beaver Creek. I don't know why. It wasn't for lack of material. I moved in there because it was the only option for me. KC, a chef at one of the high class joints in Vail Village, lives there because he's cheap and he because he thrives on Jeff's special brand of weirdness.

There's a story on the wire today about Schwarzenegger signing a bill barring necrophilia. That's not a problem. Those fuckers are sick and need to be put away. It's the inspiration for the original bill that is really sick and twisted.

Ok. So it's not really free, but it's not a scam either. You have to jump through some hoops, give up some personal information and sign up for some free trial (which you can then cancel at no charge), but you DO get a free 20GB iPod. It's worth a little hassle, don't you think?

If you don't believe me, you can read all about it Wired Magazine's article, Making Free IPods Pay Off

Just to go www.FreeiPods.com and sign up.

I registered with an email address that I never use so I don't get spammed and I signed up for the Ancestry.com 14 day trial period which I'll be cancelling next week, thank you very much.

I can't remember much of what I learned in college. The eight years seems like a blur from a distant lifetime. But something I will never forget is the concept of "opportunity cost". For those of you who didn't take macroeconomics, it goes like this. Say you spend 200 bucks on cat toys. Then that's 200 bucks you can't spend on your car insurance or food, for example. Therefore the opportunity cost of the cat toys is the insurance or the food. It's a pretty simple concept.

Today my good friends Rutger and Marielle are having their wedding reception in Amsterdam. We met almost exactly three years ago in a mini bus going from Bangkok to Siem Reap in northern Cambodia. They had quit their jobs as DHL managers in Holland and were on a year long trip around the world. I had been laid off from Electronic Arts just before my scheduled vacation to South East Asia. We hit it off immediately. We hung out together in Siem Reap, Phnom Penh and Sianoukville. Then I had to go home. When I came back to South East Asia in Apirl, this time Indonesia, we crossed paths again in Bali where Rutger and Marielle had rented a small house. When they came the States, we spent a few days in and around San Francisco. Since then, Rutger and Marielle have moved back to Holland and I went into the Peace Corps, but we've stayed in touch by email.

I supposed to go Amsterdam for the wedding. I was really psyched to go. On top of that, I was going to housesit their place while they went on their honeymoon. But the opportunity cost of taking a job that started last week was canceling my trip. Like I said, opportunity costs suck, but I really needed to get to work.

While I'm not there in person, I'm definitely all there in spirit. Not that you need it, but best of luck, Rutger and Marielle. You guys were made for each other.

My sister Marni and her husband Paris just bought a house in Richmond (north of Berkeley for those of you not familiar with the Bay Area) and are going to vacate the 1 bedroom apartment near the Civic Center in San Francisco. Paris has been living there for years (more than 10, I think) and paying rent way, way below market. I'm sure everyone is thrilled. Marni and Paris to move into a larger place to raise their newborn son who is on the way and the landlords who have been renting the place at a huge discount to the market forever.

This week I found out from Marni that if I want to, I can rent the place for $1100 a month. That's far more than she and Paris were paying, but far less than market in the city, which its astronomical rental prices even after the dotcom bust and 9/11 drove heaps of unemployed workers back from whenst they came.

Now, $1100 is still a lot of money. I could probably rent a comparable place over here in the East Bay for $900 or less. But I have always wanted to live in the city. The commute to Emeryville might be a pain if the bridge backs up, but I'm willing to live with that. Plus I can always take BART.

My main consideration, as always these days is the cats. Living in the city, they will not be able to go outside and will be housebound for however long I decide to live there. They have been doing reasonably well in house arrest in Walnut Creek, but I know both would prefer to be able to run around the neighborhood.

Marni and Paris won't be moving out until the middle of next month so I have some time to look around and make the right decision. I'm kind of hoping that I find a perfect place on this side of the bay and the decision is made for me.

My male cat Mak(elani) has been acting funny lately. More funny than usual, anyway. In the morning, he's more plaintive than typical, following me around as soon as I wake and crying at me more incessantly than normal. He's also been going in and out of the litter box excessively. I wouldn't even know about the litter box except that Mak hasn't quite figured out what to do when he's finished his business in the box. Instead of burying his waste, he scratches around at everything in site but the litter. He's always done this, just not 10 times a day.

The crying doesn't worry me so much as this litter box business. If he has an infection or worse, some kind of kidney crystal or stone, that's bad news. Today I got worried enough to take him down to the Vet. Now, Mak is a nervous cat at the best of times. In the car, inside of the pet taxi, with his sister Fil, who's a rock, he freaked. He was going crazy all the way on the short ride to the vet's office. Inside, he calmed down a little, but there were dogs in the office and really didn't enjoy that. It was all I could to keep him calm.

We waited inside the exam room for the vet. I let him walk around so he could get comfortable. He tried to jump up on the desk, but lost his footing and fell spectacularly, and very uncatlike back the floor. The vet came in, asked me a bunch of questions, weighed him, took some notes and came back with an estimate for a urinalysis and and urine culture, plus some other things that ran to 342 bucks. That's 3-4-2. Not to cure him, mind you, just to find out what might be wrong.

I was dumbfounded. I hadn't spent that much on my own health in the past years. Granted I had really good insurance with the Peace Corps and Electronic Arts, while Mak is one of many Americans without coverage (ok, so he's not American. Fine). I didn't know what to do.

On the one hand I want nothing more than the best of health for my cats. On the other hand, that's a shit load of money just for some tests that I would probably hesitate to have run on myself. I thought about it for a long time. He wasn't crying. I probed around his nether regions. Nothing. There hasn't been any blood in the litter box. That would have worried me. I guessed (hoped) it was just an infection, paid for the antibiotics and left, feeling a little guilty, but knowing that if drugs don't work, or if Mak exhibits any further problems, I can always take him back to the vet when I am more financially stable than I am at the moment.

Be strong, Makkie!

Well, it's finally happened. I've put down my camera and taken up the web producing thing again. Yes, a real job. A good thing to announce on Labor Day, right?

I'm going to be working at Chiron in Emeryville. My main project will be first to update and then to redesign the site for Chiron's Blood Testing Division, eBloodBank. The person who previously did this job has been out on leave for 10 months so there's lots of catching up to do. I'll be busy for long time, which I'm thrilled about.

It all happened at warp speed. Last week, on Wednesday, I went into Adecco Technical Staffing in Concord on a whim. The recruiter, Mark, looked at my resume and said, hmm, we have a place at Chiron that might be perfect. I thought it might be perfect too since one of my best friends happens to work there. I filled out all their paperwork and left the office 45 minutes later with the promise of an interview on the horizon. On Thursday, Mark called to ask if I could interview on Friday. On Friday, I went into Chiron at 1pm to meet with my potential supervisor. It must have gone well because by three o'clock I not only had the job, but the pay rate had been bumped up a few bucks. I start on Wednesday.

Next step, finding an a place to live.

After one abortive attempt to replace the broken glass in the Subie (SafeLite Auto Glass called me yesterday as I was on the way to the appointment to let me know that they didn't have the glass in stock), my car is now secured and looking good instead of like a deadbeat, cardboard modified piece of crap.

The crazy thing is the total to replace the window was $274 and change. That means with my $250 deductible my insurance company will only have to pay out slightly more than 24 bucks. If they even hint at raising my rates I will flay them.