Beware of things that go bump in the night

This is weird. There is no one living in the apartment above me now but I still hear footsteps. Are there ghosts up there? To make matters more puzzling, the apartment was stripped of all of its furnishings a little over a week ago and knowing the owner of this building as being one of the richest people in the city but also one of the biggest skinflints around, it is puzzling that they would do such a complete makeover for a new tenant. New carpeting I can see but not new kitchen cabinets, sinks, etc. There is something really weird going on here. Should I be afraid?

What??

What is all this baby talk at Washington Mutual lately in pushing WA MU checking accounts. Why does everyone have to try to abbreviate things in one form or another these day?

What is going on with the Catholic Diocese of Oakland? After the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989 they could not afford to repair their damaged Cathedral of St. Francis de Sales so it was torn down and since then they have been sharing space with St. Elizabeth's in Chinatown. Also, in the seventies they could not afford to repair the old organ in the gallery but in the eighties they could afford to install a brand new one on the left side of the church. (It was sold to another parish following the earthquake.) Now they are building a brand new cathedral (which will have a pipe organ) which is costing them $180,000,000. Where did all this money suddenly come from?

Then we have BART suffering through several recent shutdowns related to computer problems. This only points out the problem of not having the option of full manual control. It is technically possible but the California State Public Utilities Commission has not premitted it so BART has has to rely totally on computer control but for some strange reason they decided to make some computer changes right in the middle of the rush hour yesterday which did not work and that brought the whole system to a grinding halt. Great going guys! &%*#@%$*

San Francisco on Acid? 

Well, I thought I had something else on my mind to post here but apparently it got zapped along the way. Ha!

Oh, I finally remembered. I saw a piece in the newspaper today about Samuel L. Jackson narrating the new movie "Farce of the Penguins", a spoof of "March of the Penguins". If true, this should be interesting to say the least.

Springlike weather was enjoyed by all today including the sea lions as exhibited by this one taking a siesta at Pier 39. 

A spring day on San Francisco Bay. Many people, on land and on the water, found today to be a good one for most everything as another storm approaches the already overly soaked Bay Area. 

BART passengers want to know everything

Why do some BART passengers want to know everything from why the train is slowing down to why they are being evacuated. In the latest problem it was announced that there was a "police emergency" and that the train was being evacuated. That is all that is really needed. That there is a fire, a bomb, a pregnancy, an operator that fell asleep, whatever, is not important or necessary to tell the passengers. Just follow instructions for a safe and quick evacuation. That is all that is needed. Unfortunately last week one or more persons did not follow instructions and disabled a train by opening a door with the emergency release thereby making it impossible for the train operator to reverse direction and back away from what was a relatively minor fire. I do not fear BART but I fear some BART passengers.

New Job - Old Location

Some would say this is weird but after two years of retirement I have gone back to work albeit temporarily. This is a (tax) busy season temporary assignment at my old employer and right back in the Oakland office where I began it all in August 1982. There are a few familiar faces there but the trust tax department is not one that I had much contact with while with the firm. They were always "somewhere else" in another office and we had little contact with their operations. Now I find myself in the middle of it with a scanning project that is very routine but which will provide extra income to help me over a few financial road bumps. On the first day back there was some strong feelings of deja vu. It really seemed so unreal but surprisingly some of the people at the cafe downstairs remembered me as well as the women in the gift shop/newsstand next to it.

The job goes well but it sure reminds me why I really like retirement. I can get up in the morning without too much difficulty but leaving the apartment is another matter. I had gotten used to taking a couple of hours to wake up (mentally), get organized and then go out to do various chores or errands or just enjoy the day somewhere. Now, once again, I have to cram all of that into the 48 hours of the weekend. Well, this assignment will only last through the end of May I think and then it will be adios once again.

On other matters, why do I find Maury Pauvich so irritating? Am I the only one who feels that way? Why does KPIX (5) have to air this idiot's program? Another irritant is young women who have very nasily sounding voices some of whom almost sound like those of six year old kids. Well, not quite, but they sure don't sound like adults. Are there any courses for speech impediments which is what I call this manner of speaking?

Seems to me I had something else on my mind but whatever it was has taken flight for now.

Chicken Cake

I almost forgot. Several people have asked for this recipe so here it is again by popular demand.

CHICKEN CAKE


1 tender chicken
1 banana
1 cherry
2 legs
2 hot nuts
2 breasts


Take one tender chicken in arms and hold tightly. Hold two breasts - one in each hand and mold gently.

Take two legs, slightly spread them - drop in one banana and one cherry. Take nuts in hand and stir gently until banana creams, nuts crack and cherry pops.

Let cool and if cake rises - leave town immediately.

Where am I?

Well, I am still in San Francisco but this week has been one heck of a week. After being registered with several temp employment agencies for a number of months, I suddenly got a call from one that offered me a job right back where I started in August 1982. Well, I took it! I was feeling a little ambivalent about coming out of retirement but I needed to smoothe out some financial road bumps and this was just the ticket but now I know why I like retirement so much. I dislike leaving the apartment so early in the day especially on rainy days. Also, I am once again have to do during the weekends everything I could do at leisure during the week. Well, this is a temporary assigment and I will survive it but I doubt that I would want to do it again.

So now I am thinking ahead to next year as well as various other things. I need a new bed although there is little room in this studio apartment for what I want but a Tempur-Pedic bed would be great. My old mattress is not comfortable at all.

I am also trying to decide about my next vacation journey. I want to return to France but I also want to return to Thailand. Oh what to do, what to do? While I can identify with the culture of France, a nice warm day on a deck chair at Dong Tan beach in Pattaya sounds so much better especially while I am battling the cold weather here in SF.

Just to "hang out" sounds so wonderful to me that I want to take off now. Ha! I really do not understand how some people can say that retirement bores them. Don't they have anything of interest outside of the 9 to 5 routine? Don't they know anything about the rest of the world or are they big fat slobs who watch a zillion hour of friggin American TV every night of the week? It is so sad to see how undeducated Americans are when compared to the rest of the world and how out of shape they are physically. Mental and physical wrecks describe too many Americans these days. So sad...so sad!

Well, I guess I have rambled along far too long here for now so I will wrap this up and say "Good Night and Good Luck". Oops, that was Ed's line. Oh well, hasta la vista Baby. No, that was someone else's line. Oh, what the heck. Bye y'all.

Enough of this cold weather and rain - PLEASE

If it never rains again between now and June 30th, our rainfall figures are way above normal so the lack of rain would be no problem for a number of months. As for the temperatures in the forties and fifties, we have had enough of those, or am I just getting older and finding it more difficult to deal with. It may seem strange in a way as I am originally from colder climates (Boston and Reno) but then was much younger when I lived in those locations and when I did so, I had never been to Southeast Asian and knew nothing about warmer climates. I only have been back from my most recent journey to Thailand for six weeks but find myself desiring to return post haste if this keeps up.

This was a discouraging week with the Oscars. I had only seen Brokeback Mountain and while I personally did not enjoy it that much, I had to admit that it was a good movie in all respects but for Crash to win the Oscar for best movie is an insult. I rented the DVD this week and found it to be a pile of rubbish to put if mildly. Every tired cliche or stereotype of racists and racist events was too much. If I had been an actor in such a movie, I would have been greatly embarrassed by the whole affair. I did not see the other movies nominated for best picture but I am sure that Capote and the others had to be better than Crash.

In relation to the Academy Awards, there was an excellent letter to one of the local newspapers about its members and how they do some things. It read as follows:

"Having been in the entertainment industry and witnessing a friend of mine fill out his Oscar ballot, I can attest to the fact that the process is hardly scientific or evenhanded. He hadn't seen most of the nominated films and had no intention of doing so. As he went from page to page, marking his choices, he made comments such as "Heard this one is pretty good," "I'd never vote for this one," "Why they nominated this I'll never understand," "Hate everything this guy does" and so forth. The academy has about 5,000 members, and I'll bet something like 25 percent -- if that -- actually complete their ballot and send it in.

The process is completely arbitrary and has nothing to do with the worth of the material being judged. People in the industry understand this and take the whole affair with a grain of salt. They realize it's about business and that's the bottom line. Anyone who actually takes his Oscar seriously is desperately in need of counseling.

The Academy Awards are about show and that's why it's called show business. And let's not forget that anyone who has won an Oscar has voted himself, so he knows exactly what the process entails."

Well, next year I will boycott the Academy Awards. As for MC's I have not enjoyed any since the days of Bob Hope and Johnny Carson. The Golden Globe Awards are probably more meaningful now and will look to see what they do next year.

American Idiots

How can the fans of the hit TV show American Idol vote off Gedeon McKinney while retaining Kevin Covais. Gedeon is the far superior singer to begin with and the nerdy Kevin, while having a sweet voice, is not the stuff of an "Idol". What is wrong with America anyway? First the trashy movie Crash wins an Oscar and now people vote for Kevin over Gedeon. It makes no sense whatsoever!

More Spam

Three more Spam messages this morning from "prizedept@061.mailzips.com", "prizedept@178.mx01.net", and "prizedept@mxl9248.dd02.com" which again can be traced to the same company listed below. I think it is about time that OptInRealBig.com LLC and others need to be sued and for the maximum allowable. (See information below.)

Spammer

I would like the various Attorneys-General of the various states to investigate and prosecute spammers who clutter up email boxes with junk. One such outfit has sent at least three such emails to me since 6 PM PT last night. The email addresses are "prizedept@221.mx01.net", "prizedept@13.asp050.com", and "prizedept@103.mailzips.com" and I have traced those email addresses to the following company...

OptinRealBig.com LLC
1333 W. 120th Ave Suite 101
Westminster, CO 80234
Phone: 303-464-8164

These people should be put out of business immediately. Is there anyone out there who can take them to court and do just that?

This is just the tip of iceberg as there are many more such operations around the world but we must start somewhere to get rid of these vermin.

It's old news to me

I do not know why this report on Muni Fair Evasion should be so startling. Anyone who rides the Muni on a regular basis can see how many people get on without paying. This is especially true through some sections on Chinatown and on the Muni Metro above ground. I have never been inspected in this city for proof of payment. That is not the case for me in Sacramento, San Diego, and San Jose. In fact, during my last visit to San Jose, I was required to show proof of payment twice on the same train. Why can't we expect as much from the Muni?

Darkness is Upon Us

The tabloid news(?)paper The Onion is too much. Are they trying to outdo The National Enquirer? One of their latest articles would be the type of thing you might expect from a visitor from a planet which had perpetual light on one side. It is pretty funny.

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They say things happen in threes. Don't know about that however during this past week we have lost three actors of note: Darren McGavin, Don Knotts, and Dennis Weaver. Now I wonder when we wil lose three politicians of note.

Well, I see where the city planning commision has approved the Rincon Towers. These will be two high rise condominiums near the Bay Bridge whose construction technique was called into question by authorities as it provides most of the building's strength from the central core. Hmm...sort of reminds me of two other twin towers that no longer exist.

Camera...camera...whose gotta a camera. Well, people whose hobby is photography probably do and I certainly do having acquired and/or gone through seven generations of digital cameras since 1999 and now contemplating an eighth model. One of these, the first generation Olympus D400-Z is certainly a museum piece bieng capable of only 1.2 megapixels. It still works, I think, but I need to charge up its batteries to be sure. My Canon G6 is an upgrade from the G3. The Sony U60 is a small and strangely shaped underwater camera that uses AAA NiMH batteries which are very difficult to find and the camera will not accept the alkaline version of AAA thereby rendering it nearly useless now. I guess that is another museum piece also. Camera manufacturers need to ditch the NiMH batteries as the Lithium Ion battery packs are much more efficient. My complaint about the rechargeable NiMH batteries is that they give little warning before going dead and unless you have a second set charged up or the camera can operate with two AA alkaline batteries, you might find yourself dead in the water at the wrong time. Having only one battery set though is a bad idea regardless of what type of batteries the camera takes. One should always have a second set charged up and ready to go at a moments notice. Even with my Canon's long lasting lithium-ion battery pack, I failed to take notice of the situation one time and found myself in the midst of the Bronx Zoo with a dying battery on my hands.

Ah, the rains continue but then this is only March. March?? Yikes! Where is the year going? It seems like only yesterday it was Christmas. Ha!

Time to renew my opera and symphony season tickets now. I don't know what the symphony will cost me for 2006/2007 but the opera tickets (per production) will be the same as last year but there are ten productions for the new season instead of nine. $37 per opera in the balcony is not bad considering what some other venues charge and there are cheaper alternatives for the student and senior "rush" tickets. Sports fans sometimes ask about the "expensive" opera tickets not realizing what the tickets on the 50 yard line cost compared to a box seat at the opera, which, it turns out, are similarly priced.

But where am I going with this you may wonder. That is a very good question. Guess I better sign off for now and go collect my thoughts if I can find them. (Now where did I leave them anyway?)