Antisocial Media

Whoa...Sitting here knitting and listening to the hip-hop, I just caught Talib Kweli reference Octavia Butler and her incredible book Parable of the Sower. I'm sure it will change, but at the moment it feels like the older I get, the more I understand, like there is hidden knowledge that ties the entire universe together. Of course, the search for that type of knowledge was what drove Smeagol under the Misty Mountains, what twisted him into Gollum. I think I'm up too late.

Pardon my French, but what the fuck? Joe posted on my mysterious boom entry below with this link to the most recent local article in regards to boom: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20060427-9999-1n27boom.html Personally, I bet you could catch some hella big marlin out there in Whiskey 291. Or get shot to death and turned into chum. Tax dollars at work indeed. I just came from seeing Dave Chappelle's Block Party (Dir. Michel Gondry) at The Parkway Theater with Zsolt and Julia. If you're looking for a movie that's like the total Bizzaro-World mirror image of sub-sonic-boom-producing-US-military-black-ops-classified-top-secret-bullshit, go see this film. Dave Chappelle drives around southern Ohio inviting people to a concert in Brooklyn featuring all the extra-progressive hip-hop heads you care to name. Then he has lunch at HaHa motherfuckin' Pizza. I wish to God I still had that t-shirt. That was the best t-shirt of my life. The whole experience made ...

and it's a VW Jetta commercial. Theoretically the province of hot sorority chicks and gay guys (thanks, Joe and Derek), this commercial deepened my appreciation for the humble Jetta. I was watching an inning of the Giants/Mets game before walking to school for work, and it played during a pitching change. Or the inning break, whichever. I love the way it plays with expectations and complacency. A good reminder about the reality of driving.

So I mentioned about the play-by-play going silent when Bob or Jim weren't speaking. I think it must be some kind of bandwidth-saving situation (Do I sound like I know what I'm talking about yet?), where the broadcast of the audio cuts out based on the volume level picked up by the microphone. I'm guessing this because last inning, during a bases-loaded situation, the audio stopped cutting out during the pauses. I think the ambient noise in the stadium increased due to excitement, and also probably drunkenness, and so I was treated to the full auditory experience. Bliss! This seems like the kind of thing my Dad thinks about.

Boingboing.net has picked up on the San Diego mysterious boom issue . Validation! I'm telling you, mysterious booms, huge chunks of sky-ice, the guy in the fedora across the cafe carrying three turned-on flashlights and talking to himself... Are you ready for the end times? Look to the East! Get Jesus-ed up! Or, you know, don't. By the Way, our friend Amy has moved from near campus to just up Telegraph from us! She and Josh are moved from a two-bedroom apartment to one room in a house of six. Sounds familiar. Or, vis my typo, familial. At any rate, their new digs are right by Oakland's Bushrod Park, site of the famed ice fall of a few weeks ago! We tromped around the park looking for the crater last Saturday, to no avail. It's a pretty big park, mostly a huge overgrown field. We found a few small depressions that could have been craters, but more likely were just small depressions.

I am taking a little bit of a slow morning today. I had two presentations yesterday, and I feel like I've been running on full burners the past days preparing for them. So today, I'm sitting anti-socially at the Temescal Cafe on Telegraph Ave., knitting and listening to Jim Powell and Bob Uecker calling the Braves vs. the Brewers via the computer-internet. It's turning into a beautiful day outside, but I am very happy at the moment to be sittin' and knittin' and rootin' (and a little tootin', but don't tell the other patrons). I can't listen to baseball games without thinking about my family, whether it's Brewers' games as a kid with Mom and Dad and Aunt Julie, or talking about the Indians with Cousins Andy and Marty, or watching the Twinkies with Grandma Karlson... The very definition of bittersweet. Sometimes California feels very very far away, and listening to the familiar voice of Bob Uecker, describing a perfect spring day at the P...

Walking home from the BART station tonight, I saw a police helicopter circling over my neighborhood, spotlight fixed on the center of its rotation. It reminded me of a certain type of toy airplane I remember from my aviation-crazed youth, the kind of motor-powered plane that didn't do anything but "fly" in a big circle around your small hand, holding the line attached to the plane. The helicopter was tethered to the earth by the visible beam of its searchlight, fixed on a spot about a block from my house. I could hear it for almost an hour after I got home, spinning that same circle, as I sat in the living room with Barb and Leon. Tonight after washing dishes and before diving into schoolwork in the library, I sat on the back steps of the PSR lawn, looking out over the bay towards the Golden Gate, as the sun set over Mt. Tamalpais. A guy sitting on the balustrade across the stairs from me took a break from spinning the wheels on his skateboard to tell me, in a thick ...

Spring has Sprung! Check out This Great Cartoon over at Alec's website, alec-longstreth.com . Extra bonus points for use of the classic "foont" sound-effect! Thanks Alec!

What a glorious day! At long last, a warm sunny day. Not quite 70 degrees, a little breezy, occasional small clouds, and all the sweet clean smells of spring. Trees starting to leaf out, making pools of shade on the sidewalks and roads, lots of people out and about, walking and riding bikes...Hallelujah! Everyone was already out of the house by the time I was up and off on my run--and I thought I'd gotten up early. I went on a long run, up into the Oakland Hills a little, up and down footpaths, feeling (guiltily) pleased with myself that I finally know the terrain enough to explore a little and end up where I figured I would. It was great to have the house to myself all day. I put RJD2's Ghostwriter on the downstairs stereo, and blasted it...Douglas Adams (the science fiction author, not the Professor of Art and Religion at PSR) described drinking a Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster (an invented cocktail that features prominently in his novels) as like having your brains smash...

Are these signs of the Apocalypse? Check out this article from BoingBoing : What In the Hell, Guys? It's been cloudy and raining here since February, with no signs of letting up. On the plus side, the occasional sunny day (there have been ...three? Three and a half?) really stands out. Sarah and I spent a gorgeous Sunday two and a half weeks ago sitting by the bay down at the Berkeley Marina (okay, it's a reclaimed garbage dump, but it's genuinely beautiful) reading, flying our kite, playing catch, and watching the boats out in bay, with Alcatraz, Angel Island, and the Golden Gate framing the afternoon sun. Really a great day. Today the sky is a flat, headachey gray, and the world feels hungover from being drowned in rain all yesterday. I am listening to Beth Orton's Central Reservation (Thanks Josh!) and doing some computer work I've been meaning to do for, oh, the last three years? All those Word files don't just organize themselves, ya know. I don...

I got a call from Joseph tonight about what he (and his classroom full of children) thought was an earthquake: Loud "BRRMMRMMRMMRMMMM"-type noise, shaking, about four seconds long, you know, earthquake. Turns out that it was mysterious "boom" of unknown origin. No plane crash, no missile attack, no seismic event...just a boom that shook the entire county. Weird. Maybe Dick Cheney has moved his undisclosed location to SD? Or it was somehow related to Barry Bonds (in town to play the Padres: rained out)? My guess is the airborne explosion of a largish meteor. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Plus, I was out of town at the time. In Oakland like a mug.

Congratulations to Paul and Ali! Paul casually let slip that he and Ali have officially engaged each other! They got their ring back from Burnie's Rock Shop on Wednesday, and that was that! OOf--three exclamation points in a row...I gotta slow down. In other happy news, David and Michana, my great friend Alex's folks, have engaged as well after a 19 year courtship. Here's the photo Dad sent me of the article from the paper (easier than clipping it out and mailing it, he says; what kind of crazy world-of-the-future is this?!?): I'm very happy for both of these couples, and nice to see Al get a little pub, too.

I'm not scared of earthquakes, just interested. And secretly excited. Also, what's the Cleveland Steamer again?

I ran into this item over at BoingBoing , and I died. From laughter. I've sent my spirit, my anima, back to earth to post a link to this, that my friends and colleagues may also perish from hilarity and join me in the Land of Wind and Ghosts. So we can start a volleyball team. Okay, this is from Rahoi.com , from his post of March 2nd (May I Take Your Order) . A hideously translated menu couldn't be that funny, could it? Exhibit A: http://www.rahoi.com/2006/03/may-i-take-your-order.php Exhibit B: http://www.rahoi.com/2006/03/may-i-take-your-order.php I'm not trying to say I've never created hilariously bad translations with internet language dictionaries. Quite the opposite. I am, however, trying to say that things are damn funny.

Last night was a hard night. Actually, the whole day was kind of the pits, which is why we went hiking in Muir Woods. I'm a little sick of thinking about it, so here's the short version: the Balazs Committee, which is sort of in charge of Starr King's visiting Transylvanian scholarship program, decided to offer a program next year that would send an American Starr King student to Transylvania for six months to experience the life of a Taransylvanian village minister. Sarah and I applied and felt really really good about our chances. The committee met yesterday morning, and we couldn't take the tension of waiting around to hear the news so we went for a ten mile hike. We met with one of the selection committee members last night, and got the bad news: they awarded the internship to a third-year student at school. A big bummer, but it could be worse! And there may very well be a next year.

Muir Woods is where, on May 19, 1945, leaders from all around the world met to sign the charter that created The United Nations! This (in my opinion) incredible salient and significant bit of triviana is totally absent from the website I linked to below, and appears only scantingly in the official US Parks Services website . Go figure. Sign of the times, or accurate reflection of the UN's political significance? I leave it to you, gentle reader, to determine the truth.

Don't mind if I do! Sarah and took the day for a hike in beautiful Muir Woods National Monument , just a bit south of her old San Rafael stomping grounds. I don't have any Wednesday classes, and we both needed to blow off some steam. Seriously. We started in the old growth at the trailhead--really crowded for a Wednesday. We had to park in the overflow lot, and I've heard it's incredibly zooey on the weekends. For what it's worth. We were feeling saucy, so we hiked to the end of the paved main loop, and crossed a bridge over the river to the Ben Johnson trail. It was a gorgeous, slightly hazy day, but we still got a lot of sun (so cloudy and rainy the last few days--really lucky to get nice weather when we could enjoy it). When we started out, it was chilly enough for longsleeves, and we could see our breath. Steam rose off the trail and the trunks of the trees at the occasional patch of sunshine. Every cranny and gully seemed to have a stream running thro...

mattbors.com Thank you, Garrick! And expecially thank you Matt Bors , for this awesome comic!

And that earthquake last hour was weak! We didn't even feel it up here! Weak earthquakes are worse than no earthquakes at all!

Welcome to my blog. Of course, you won't see this unless you hit reload...