It is too bad that pit bull owners are in such denial about the dangers their dogs present. At the very least all should be spayed and neutured but no, they think they (the owners) are being picked on. Well, yes, in a sense they are as they should not even have one of those dangerous creatures around in the first place.

And another area where new laws are needed is in the area of security breaches regarding personal information which is disappearing into the wrong hands. David Lazarus' article in this morning's SF Chronicle points this out but of course, the financial institutions are fighting this tooth and nail. Corporate America certainly has its fingers and hands firmly entrenched into the pockets of Congress.

Wow, I guess I can be glad that I am not frm Australia. This posting on one of their Embassy's websites paints a bleak and dangerous picture. If one had never been in Thailand then they might be scared off from ever visiting if this report is the only one they had to go on. I can understand their concern but it is somewhat exaggerated in this travel advice to their citizens.

This is scary information which might give some people nightmares. I don't know what the root URL refers to as it is password protected but you can access the page about the American Taliban here.

Swimtime

Full moon over San Francisco.

Invasion of the U.S. is planned. HA HA HA

This type of story about hate is a good example of why this country is going to the dogs very quickly. This also makes me glad that I am not 20 something as the next fifty years are going to be sheer hell, that is, if the country and/or the world survives that long. Yeah, I know young people will say that old people have been saying that for years but those sentiments come from people who know nothing about history, social mores, etc. This sort of thing makes me want to leave the country for good. If I were younger I probably would but at 67 it is not that easy especially since I now have some health issues to deal with.

What the hell is going on here? Why are there suddenly so many breaches of security when it comes to personal information being lost or stolen from banks or other companies entrusted with credit card records. Is there some sort of conspiracy here or are American businesses just inept? I would like to see some severe penalties imposed by new laws but of course the financial institutions involved will spend millions in Congress to defeat such action. You know, the best government money can buy.

Here is another nail in the coffin of film based photography. On a personal note I have just upgraded with the Canon G6 for my workhorse and the new Pentax Optio WP for a small pocketable camera and one which can go underwater for a limited depth and time. As for photographic papers, it looks life there will be little if any b&w papers manufactured in the future. We live in a colorful world however there will probably always be a niche for fine art works in black & white but it seems like those prints will be produced very differently than they have been in the past. Technology changes fast these days so I wonder how long my current equipment will be supported by their respective manufacturers.

I like the election laws in Italy, at least in regard to referendums. There, a quorum of 50 percent plus one is needed for a valid election. While I do not agree with the results (no quorum so the strict fertility law was NOT dismantled) at least they realize that a low turnout is not representative of voter opinion. Here in California you can have a 25% turnout and a ballot proposition can win as long as it gains 51% of the vote cast. I have never felt that was right but you can't get the numbskulls in this state to make the necessary changes. Then to make matters worse here you have the people who cannot accept ballot decisions who frequently fight to hold another election to overturn the previous election. Or you get a judge who throws out the proposition on some technicality. It is so ridiculous and meaningless to even hold elections in this state. Now our idiotic governor wants to hold a special election in November costing millions of dollars because he can't work with the legislature to get the job done. That is not surprising however as he has spent more time out of the state than in it so he has very little contact with that body of law makers. Now he wants to take the easy way out. I would hope that he uses the money from his out of state fundraisers to reimburse the state for this unnecessary election but I doubt that he would consider that.

Aarrrrgggghhhhh! How can I mess up so badly? On a day trip to Sacramento primarily to photograph some light extensions, I seriously overexposed what would have been the best shots of the day. I did not knowingly make any changes to the camera settings but these shots were so badly overexposed that even PhotoShop could not help. Everything before and after was fine. What the devil went wrong on these half dozen or so shots at the Sunrise Station of the RT light rail system????? As one who has been involved with photography over much of my life, I am seriously embarrassed by this snafu. And no, I won't post one so all can see. You will have to guess.

There is some good news coming out of Sacramento as Arnie has decided not to cut the transporation budget this year. You can read the article from "RebuildCA.org" by clicking here.

BUSH LIFTS BAN ON VIGILANTISM

You can read the story here.

HA HA HA!

Construction projects continued (from whenever): Cody's Bookstore of Telegraph Avenue Berkeley fame is opening its first San Francisco branch and work is now going on in the site formerly occupied by Planet Hollywood. That is, downstairs from Virgin Megastore at Market and Stockton Streets. Also, work on removing that tacky 50s facade from the old San Francisco Call-Bulletin building at Market and Kearny has begun already revealing an ornate archway in the Market Street entrance.

Our San Francisco Giants need a shot in the arm, or something, as they are being beaten by one of the worst teams in baseball this season, the Kansas City Royals. Next up tomorrow night is the Cleveland Indians who are little better. Could that shot in the arm be the return of Barry Bonds? Could be but several injured players must get well and return to the line-up as well. The rainy, drizzly, foggy evening at SBC Park sort of summed it all up last night. Even the cessation of the drizzle later in the game did not help.

According to channel 4, KRON-TV, the Muni has seen fit to re-route the subway portion of their 3rd Street light rail project under Fourth Street instead of jogging over to Third Street, a decision which had always puzzled me. The Fourth Street route is natural as they are building a new bridge to get across the channel on Fourth Street and this will make it easier to connect the new Market Street Station with the existing facilities there and then continue under Stockton Street to Chinatown. The Third Street route would have necessitated a tight left turn at Market/Geary/Kearny and then a tight right turn at Geary and Stockton neither of which would have been easy to do considering the number of buildings that they will have to tunnel under in the process. The Fourth Street route will be less costly. Target date for the new subway is sometime in 2011 or 2012 I think. This will be an interesting project. I hope I am still around to see it through to completion. I was not living in the area during the original BART construction but this relative short stretch of subway will be much more complex when you consider that it has to go under that BART subway and will be farily deep in the gound as it goes under the eastern edge of Nob Hill to Stockton and Clay Streets. I just wish the Muni would correct their webpage which features information about that project. It is too big to be displayed on my monitor anyway and has no horizontal scroll bar so I cannot see the dates for each segment of the project. You can check it out here. Perhaps you will have better luck in viewing the last column, the one with the anticipated completiong dates.

Also in the news today is this item about an early and fast delivery in Thailand.

This story gives new meaning to the term post mortem however it sounds reasonable to me. All accounts tend to point towards severe dehydration and none seem in point towards massive loss of blood despite the spear stuck in his side.

I can't believe it. After months of repeatedly digging up my street and patching (but not repaving), they are finally repaving albeit one lane at a time so as not to disrupt traffic too much. I can only hope that the water main project that started a year ago and which was supposed to take six months but took longer, is finally complete. I worry that in this city, digging up streets by the various utilities is a game. Perhaps they and the companies that eventually repave the streets are in on this together. "We dig - you pave". Even many streets or sections of streets not dug up recently are in really bad shape. When I worked in the Embarcadero Center I used to hate to cross Drumm Street from EC3 to EC4 because the street was so bumpy and uneven it made it difficult to walk that short distance.

Other news from the Lower Nob Hill and Polk Street regions: The new bar where the old Mayes Oyster House use to be seems to be nearing completion. Today they started removing the scaffolding. The outside was painted last week and if those are its final colors, it sure is colorful. I am told that it will be O'Reilly's Irish Bar. Is this what the street needs? Oh well, that is balanced somewhat by the construction of the new building for the First Congregational Church/United Church of Christ about a block away where Freed, Teller, & Freed as well as the Polk Rendezvous Club used to be. They are have been pouring a lot of concrete for the foundation but nothing else of note is visible so far. The church has moved its office across the street into the old Leland Hotel Building (now a Senior Center) pending the demolition of the structure now housing their office space. I wonder what they will do about the sanctuary space during the transition. Also, across the street, the last of the storefronts in the Leland Building has been leased to S.N.O.B. That is right, that is Sonoma Napa or Beyond Retail Wine Store and Tasting Bar. It is not open yet however.

Apparently the old Polk Rendezvous bar is still looking for a new home in the area. They have been denied a couple of available spaces in the area due to the nature of some of their clientele and I have it from a reliable source, that they don't want to clean up their act.

Downtown the Bloomingdale project is coming right along and is slated for an opening sometime in late 2006. I still don't think it is a good idea to add more movie screens so close to those already in the Metreon Center one half block away which is already struggling with vacancies. The Metreon has about 14 screens I believe plus the IMAX and Bloomie's will have about 6. Great, you can see movies A,B,C, etc. at Bloomie's or Metreon, whichever you prefer but will such an arrangement really help their respective bottom lines? Of course, Sony is not a good landlord. They raised the rent on Discovery Channel Store some outrageous amount which they could not afford and when the store tried to negotiate cutting their square footage in half in exchange for cutting the new rent in half, Sony said no deal, take it or leave it. So they left it. Now that space has sat empty for about two years and Sony is collecting NO rent on the space. Ha! Serves the greedy bastards right.

A similar situation exists in my neighborhood where there was an award winning Vietnamese restaurant on California Street near the Lumiere Theater which had its rent doubled. It could not afford it so it closed. That space has been empty and not collecting rent from anyone for over three years now. You would think that building owners would like to collect some sort of rent as opposed to none at all. It doesn't really make sense to me.

Oh well, c'est la guerre.

Maybe it is not too late but sometimes I have my doubts about the ability of the human race to save this planet. I won't be around to see the end but now I can more appreciate the frustrations of the younger generations who see little or no hope.

Yesterday was a beautiful day in San Francisco, warm and sunny, so what do I do? I go to the movies. Not just any movie but the latest Star Wars. What a mistake that was. I give it two thumbs down. It was dark, oppressive, ponderous, heavy, and left me depressed upon leaving the theater. I felt like I had been assaulted by all the characters in the movie and I could not wait to get home as a result. I should have taken a long walk. It would have been far more enjoyable.

When I started going to the gym in February, one goal was to lose some extra pounds around the middle and to tone up. Well, my weight has dropped dramatically and apparently not all around the middle as there is still some fat there. I have gone from 145 to 124 and each day the scale records continuing weight loss. I have even started to eat more. Part of the program involved a complete change in diet, which I have done, and it has worked but too well. I really can't afford to lose weight all over. I need to tone up and get some definition but so far my body has apparently not added any muscle tone. In addition to eating more I have increased the amount of weight that I work out with where possible but so far the only thing I can show for it is a continued loss of pounds. Yikes! What is going on?

825 and counting. That is the number of people killed in Iraq since the new Shiite-led government was announced April 28th. When will this stop? Not soon I am afraid.

I have thought for some time now that the York family has made a mess of the 49ers but little did I realize how bad things were until Videogate came along. Now, more than ever, they should sell the team and leave town. The following letter to the editor is one of my favorites of several this morning and probably says it better than I could.

"This incident should cause all San Franciscans to question whether our city should continue to provide public resources to an organization that not-so-secretly disdains the community it claims to be a part of. The 49ers of old won Super Bowls, didn't demand public money to build stadium-mall complexes and generally treated San Francisco and its residents with respect. Why should the people of this great city put up with anything less?"

Yes, where is Eddie deBartolo when you need him?

Even the Giants could use some help as they sink lower and lower in the NL-West. They have a good team but there are too many injured players and they are in a tough divisision. I wonder if Bonds will get healthy enough to play anytime this year. They sure could use his bat at the very least.

I am tired of hearing about "Deep Throat". Makes me think of Linda Lovelace everytime I hear that term. Yuck!

Article in the SF Chronicle this morning about the progress at the Bloomingdale's project. I am anxious to see the finished product but I still think that the nine screen cinema will only makes things worse because of the 16 screen cinema only 1/2 block away at the Metreon. There are not enough movies to go around already unless someone makes a committment to start showing foreign movies and special interest movies and can you just imagine what some religious conservatives would say about that especially if one of those were a gay movie here in the midst of a family oriented shopping center?

Well, at least there is a here here? San Francisco must have the most vibrant central business district outside of New York City. It is quite the opposite down in San Jose which is so quiet and sleepy even though the population of that city is greater. I can't even find a Walgreens or Rite Aid in downtown San Jose. There is no there there. No botique shops, nothing. Until and unless they get stores into that city, it will always remain quiet. One hotel, one cinema, and one or two other venues do not make it. They need something to keep people in the downtown area and bring them back.