Blog Master G

On Saturday Enoch had a rooftop party at his pad on Treasure Island. We watched the Blue Angels and drank some beer and champagne. It was a gorgeous day and we had the best view in the house. We had tons of fun watching the fighter jets and shooting the shit.

I was telling everyone about this guy Tony Pierce and how he makes these really cool photo essays. I was saying how he challenged others to do them and that I wanted to do one, too. Sure, Jen and I have lots of photos and even some albums with funny captions — similar to photo essays — but never before have I done a photo essay ala Tony Pierce.

It’s my first shot at one of these, so it’s not as good as those that Tony does, but what the crap? It’s a start. So here it is: Blue Angels party photo essay.

It used to just trickle in on occasion, but lately, the comment spam I’ve been getting on my blog is coming in more and more frequently. There must be some movement among spammers who are targetting bloggers. And it’s pissing me off. Not that it takes much time, but whenever I get comment spam, I have to go into MT, delete the comment, then rebuild all files to wipe it out of every archive type for whatever post it was left on.

There’s the same kind of spam you get in your email — viagra, porno, buy this, buy that — and sometimes it’s even disguised in some stupid, non-sensical way, like the one that was just left on this entry:

The guy is a former marketing fast executive from Laycos, where electric scooter he was one of the prime movers cheap in creating the corn chips over home theater 30 years ago by combining regional giftologies corn brands into one national ionic breeze brand. relocated to Pierce christmas County 18 years ago from New birthday

And no, I obviously have not included the links that were embedded in the post to help this asshole promote his gift business. But I’m happy to publish the email address here (if it’s even real) to return the favor and open up this address to spambots: giftshop@yahoo.com. Karma’s a bitch, eh, giftshop?

When I got the news last week that my position at work was being eliminated, I was at first pissed off about it. The anger was quickly replaced, however, by a renewed feeling of liberation. I’ve spent the past week both excited and scared by what the future may bring.

As I wrote in the Your Space section of my Vassar application so many years ago in 1994 (could it be that that was nearly 10 years ago?), a blank slate excites and terrifies me; it represents infinite possibilities. As a lifelong writer, I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with writing, as I do with most other things about which I am passionate. I view this life change in much the same way. As a human, I am a creature of habit. I’m used to sitting at a desk 40 hours a week and earning a regular paycheck. But I’m sick of that. I want to break away from the status quo and feed this burning passion I was born with that tells me to venture out there and take risks in this world. We only live once and this life is ours to make it what we will.

During the past eight days of liberation, I’ve had a number of thoughts and ideas about what’s next. Perhaps it’s another job at Autodesk (not likely); maybe it’s expanding my consulting business by putting more time and energy into it; it could be another technology job here in San Francisco; perhaps it’s something entirely new in an entirely new place like Vermont. What if this is the time to move away from the comfort zone? To pursue that burning desire to create something that is my own and something that is good? I feel this powerful energy that’s somehow drawing me to someplace like Burlington to feed this inner-craving to get away from office life.

It’s stressful to think about all the details that come with such a major life change and possibly a big cross-country move. It’s hard not to get caught up in all the little details of not having a steady income beyond January — paying for food, car, shelter, health coverage — but I think it’s important to look beyond the minute and at the bigger picture of life.

Glenn put it best today when he wrote to me and Jen: “If you want to go, then go — enjoy the momentous rush of free will. You own your lives, and you have the financial freedom to do what you want — so just decide what you want and then work on details from there.”

Today while driving home across the Golden Gate Bridge I had a “momentous rush of free will” and inspiration: That one of our (Jen’s) ideas — to open a bed and breakfast in Vermont — makes perfect sense. It seems to be the union of many of our life goals: Run our own business; secure financial independence; own real estate; spend time together; leave cubicle life behind.

The details of anything can always be figured out, but sometimes the hardest part of life is setting a goal, figuring out what our dreams are, and making what we can only imagine real.

“Because nothing is as perfect as you can imagine it.”
– Chuck Palahnuik
Choke

Though unrelated, this photo (thanks, dad) goes incredibly well with Bill Maher’s excellent commentary today about California’s new governor and Roy Horn’s being attacked this week. For the record, I agree with Maher on all points.

And now, Gray Davis’ new job…

(Photo courtesy of strangecosmos.com.)

Apparently entertainment and government are no longer different. California voters yesterday voted to recall Gray Davis 55% to 45% and Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected by a landslide to replace him. The giant headline in this morning’s Chronicle is Schwarzenegger Leads Voter Revolt, followed by a number of other stories. Fair enough. Unfortunate, yes, but the voters have spoken.

I’m just glad the Chron opted against using the front page that Phil Bronstein held in front of the camera on CNN last night: Nothing but a giant photo of Arnold’s head, taking up the entire page. They instead chose a more tasteful photo of Maria Shriver and Arnold celebrating.

I guess I’m not too surprised that Arnold won. I was maintaining a shred of hope that the recall would be shot down. It’s just sad that people would rather have an action hero for a governor than someone who’s knowledgeable about government. And that he could replace a governor who committed no crime is pretty shocking. California’s budget deficit was not the fault of Davis, nor was it any secret. Yet he was chastized for it.

So I ask again: Why is Bush not held to the same accountability for the federal deficit, which is now larger than it’s ever been? He took it from a record surplus, too. And, of course, many of the problems in California stem from Bush’s friends at Enron, who may, in fact, have contributed to the recall effort.

I suppose I must admit that as a kid, I was a big admirer of Arnold, so in a different time and in a different place in my life, I would probably be ecstatic that the people chose him to run this great state. Knowing what I do now, however, I’m not thrilled.

All we can do now is hope for the best. The optimist in me would like to believe that Arnold will do a good job running the state. Who knows? Maybe he’ll figure out a way to fix the deficit; the people in this overwhelmingly Democratic state seem to think so.

Of course, the really good news in yesterday’s election is that Propositions 53 and 54 were both defeated.

I discovered this morning that my server was having some problems with sending and receiving email. If you tried emailing me this morning between 7:45am and 9:15am Pacific Time and the message was bounced back to you, please resend the message, since I probably did not receive it.

End of transmission.

Following in the footsteps of Howard Dean and Kicking Ass, the blog of the Democratic National Committee, the Bush-Cheney camp now has an official blog. Ha! It’s basically a continuous press release machine in disguise. And, as Kicking Ass points out, all posts are hidden behind the clever name “GeorgeWBush.com,” so there’s zero sense of personality that pretty much makes a blog a blog. Oh wait… no personality? …Bush-Cheney blog. I guess that does make sense.

There’s also no ability to leave comments, so there’s no community. And I know why: The administration doesn’t care what the American people — or any members of the United Nations, for that matter — think; it does what it wants, so why should anyone be surprised that the official campaign blog makes no effort to solicit input? Contrast this to both Dean and Kicking Ass blogs.

[ via Kicking Ass ]

If you entered my site last night or today through its top level, you were greeted by my Defend Democracy – VOTE NO RECALL page. It’s not often that I’ll redirect the top-level of my site to something completely different, but that’s how strongly I feel about this recall election.

Jen and I were the 19th and 20th voters casting our ballots at our (Starsucks) polling place first thing this morning. If you’re a California resident, please vote today. Your polling place may not be the same as it normally is, so find your placing place here.

If you haven’t already, be sure to check out this eye-opening piece about Schwarzenegger’s connection to Kenneth Lay of Enron infamy and the apparent sabatoge of the governorship and the subsequent plotting of the recall from Arnie’s friends in very high places: “Now, thirty-four pages of internal Enron memoranda have just come through this reporter’s fax machine tell all about the tryst between Maria’s husband and the corporate con men. It turns out that Schwarzenegger knowingly joined the hush-hush encounter as part of a campaign to sabotage a Davis-Bustamante plan to make Enron and other power pirates then ravaging California pay back the $9 billion in illicit profits they carried off.”

(Thanks to both Uncle Michael and Joe V. for passing this along.)

Today’s vote is about more than recalling a perfectly competent governor; it’s about defending democracy as we know it, and staving off big-money corporate back-room deals.

Friday night Ben and Jess came to town and we hit Milano Pizzeria on 9th Ave. for some pizza and cheap beer (Foster’s Friday). With full bellies, we headed to Yancy’s on Irving for some intense games of Ms. Pac-Man, followed by a couple rounds of that touchscreen game wherein you compare two photos of naked women and point to the spots that contain differences.

Saturday morning I drove down to Redwood City to have brunch with my mom. We ate at this delicious (and popular) place called Stacks’ Restaurant. I had the feta omelette. It was good to spend some time with my mom.

Saturday afternoon Jen and I hit the 25th Anniversary celebration of San Francisco’s number one tourist destination, Pier 39. We met up with Megan, Lawnie, and Kelly for grub at the newest tourist trap, Hard Rock Cafe (mmm..microwaved food and flat beer!), then strolled up and down the pier for a while before hitting a bar on Northpoint. Despite being in touristville, we had a really good time, and ended the night by watching the celebratory fireworks over the pier. Megan and I almost opted for some Irish Car Bombs, but were too full after the Hard Rock. Next time…

Sunday was hot. That morning we joined John and Chris for a brunch party at their place before strolling down the hill to the Castro Street Fair. We met up with Jeanine, Tiffany, and company and strolled around the Castro. Later we joined Tim and Justin for some margaritas at Moby Dick’s.

Finally, our busy weekend came to an end last night in Sausalito for a Vassar Club get together at the beautiful home of Charles and Carmel, who treated us to a huge and delicous seafood meal spread across newspaper-covered picnic tables in the yard. It’s always great socializing with other Vassar alums. It seems that no matter what year an alum graduated, we’re all the same — our politics, our views of life, our shared Vassar experience. It’s not often that politics (the California recall) is the center of a dinner discussion and everyone pretty much agrees.

Vote NO on the recall October 7.

Aside from the horrible precedent it would set if the recall passes, here’s the number one reason why we need to prevent this from happening: the air we breathe.

Ben has a great piece today about just this topic, and he’s inspired me to write about it, too.

This is an issue that’s close to my heart (and lungs) for reasons beyond the fact that we all breathe the same air and we only have one Earth to protect or destroy (and these days, we’re destroying it). My wife has pretty bad asthma. She’s had it her whole life. It’s hard enough for her to breathe when the air is good and clean. Why should self-centered people like he who’s a front-runner for the governorship in California who choose to buy Hummers be allowed to pollute the air for the rest of us? (Though Arnold is now saying he’s pro-alternative fuels, he won’t give up his Hummer. Rather, he’s going to spend lots of money converting it to a hydrogen-powered vehicle. Huh? OK. Really.) I have asthma, too, though not as bad as Jen’s.

What will it take for people to care about the environment? Unless it’s impacting their wallets, it seems like too many people don’t really care about the immediate and long-term impacts of their decisions.

As a sidenote, Camejo said yesterday that for those of us who want to vote for him, but fear a Republican running the state, it’s OK to vote Bustamante. Camejo said he understands and is just excited that the polls are showing him with 5% of the vote, and that he was actually allowed in the debates this year — a first for the Green party.

With Huffington out of the race and running a “no on the recall” campaign, that leaves Camejo and Bustamante. I’m still undecided between the two, especially in light of Camejo’s comments yesterday.