Strikingly Brilliant.

I so admire Rachel Maddow's ability to find and deliver unvarnished truth about the healthcare debate. It seems in the joy of Barack Obama getting elected, I've taken too much of a honeymoon. Time to engage again in the national debate.

DRAT! Video was removed from YouTube.

Allow me to then recommend Rachel as a purveyor of perspective and truth. She's good at what she does.

Seperate and nowhere near equal.

During segregation, there was an excuse for the treatment given to African Americans. That excuse was that all things were equal. Buses were buses no matter where you sat, water fountains were water fountains and an education was an education.

This is obviously wrong. Equal is only equal when everything is equal.

It's time to stop treating any United States citizen differently simply because they are gay. If they wish the right to marry, they should marry. Why should we keep them from a 50% divorce rate?

The perfection of a bike

Bikes are perfect. If you need proof, notice that the essential design hasn't changed much since the addition of the chain. Two wheels, a triangle in the middle, another in the back, a chain and some gears to make it go.

Of course the materials have changed drastically. Steel is still available and has become quite fashionable with city bikes. Aluminum is a lightweight option and carbon has created the stiffest and most efficient frame. But outside of lighter, faster, stronger, the frame and design are timeless.

I think the design being so simple and so perfect, it creates a connection with the rider. Riding a road bike has become almost addictive. The speed that your legs can push you. The feeling of conquering a hill, beyond the obvious quad wrenching burn, and watching the miles add up.

Or of course it's just the endorphin rush and I need my fix.

Hitting the restart button.

If I'm going to be at all serious about posting to this blog then there's no time like the present. I've been lackluster at best and I realized that while a blog is not even a poor substitute for a good phone call or quick-witted email chain with a friend, it is important. Why? Because if nothing else, my parents still read this.

So, let's get going.

My man Nathan visited this past weekend. One of my favorite things about our friendship is that every time we see each other, it's as if no time has passed. We fall right back into our rhythm of conversation and enjoying each others company. It's good to have a friend such as this. I highly recommend picking one up if you have the means. So choice. (Bonus points to all who got the Ferris Bueller reference.)

We spent a great deal of time on bikes. For his first serious bike ride ever, Nate did spectacularly. I did everything I could to remember my first serious ride and be sure he had fun. We rode across the Golden Gate Bridge, down through Sausalito and back. The back part of course including the giant hill we had enjoyed racing down earlier. The grand total mileage: just under 27. I bitched and moaned the first time I did 18. Nate didn't say a word until we had dropped his back back at the shop. I was quite impressed. As I always am with him.

We also spent a great deal of time making a rather spectacular steak dinner. Nate put together a rather awesome grapefruit and apple sushi that I made a balsamic reduction for. My roommate Keith also covered sautéed broccoli in a decadent amount of cheese sauce, Steph put together a most excellent cheese plate and salad and Jess was quick with the wine glasses and the bacon crumbles for baked potatoes. Eating all this was not hard.

So, I also post this as an open invitation to any friend who might still be reading this blog. Please come visit. If you want to earn your dinner, we certainly can with a stunning ride. If you'd rather earn your dinner by eating other dinners, that's good as well.

What has fear done to us?

The recently released torture memos have made one thing very clear: Fear is the terrorists' greatest weapon. A bomb can't change our values. A plane flying into a building didn't change what we hold most dear. Instead, the threat of it happening again changed our values. Even the mere thought of it happening again makes our threat levels yo-yo between frightening and terrifying. All as a plan to keep the populous in fear. To keep us wanting to be saved. To keep us looking to our government for solutions.

See compromise happened. Our nation compromised those truths that we hold self-evident. We compromised our belief that all men are created equal. That all have the right to fair trail and the law. We compromised our belief that we don't torture. We compromised our right to privacy and habeus corpus.

Thus terror won. Thus, the terrorists forced us to look to those who are ignoring our constitution for our salvation. Thus they forced us to reckon with the idea that our constitution isn't all we'd believed. That was then. In the here and now, it's time to reclaim our morals. Our dignity. Our belief in the human spirit.

The reason? Because we proved ourselves to be right. We created the greatest nation on the planet. And we created it by doing the right thing, not by compromising our beliefs. We created a democracy that is possibly one of the best social experiments the world has known.

We must return to that. We must believe again. If we don't believe, if we don't be who we are, that's when terror wins. When we stop being us. When we stop being Reagan's shining light on the hill. When we stop being American.

And if you still believe torture is worth it. If you still believe that in special cases, in those moments where we must find the dirty bomb, torture is worth it, then read the following article. Those who know how to get information, and actually got the information we needed, don't believe torture works.

Torture does tear things down. It tears us down. It tears down our democracy.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/195089/page/1

Presented without preface or comment:

The Most Important Network in News? Comedy Central.

Last night, John Stewart and the Daily show finally made sense of the utterly confounding economic situation and stripped bare for all to see how complicit the media and Wall Street have been in the entire meltdown.

If you haven't seen this interview with Jim Cramer, please watch. Stewart just got my nomination for a Pulitzer.

http://blog.indecisionforever.com/2009/03/13/jon-stewart-and-jim-cramer-the-extended-daily-show-interview/

Snowboarding - Attempt #2.

Much, much, much, much better. Steph and I went back to Tahoe with some friends and went boarding again. I have to say, once you can start to turn, snowboarding is one incredible time.

I may never be quite as death-defying as my younger cousin Eric who seems bound and determined to master any sport where his feet are on a stick of wood, but I am having a good time. And in the end, what else matters?

There is also something about turning on a snowboard and getting it just right that is more satisfying than skiing. There's a rhythm to it that just isn't as much a part of skiing. The shift in weight, the kick and hold of the turn.

You're also more connected to the mountain. This is good and this is bad. If you get to a flat part, you're screwed. Take off your board and walk. This is also the beautiful part, you are entirely dependent on the mountain for speed. For providing the inertia that makes going where you want possible. It's a dependence that automatically makes you pay more attention and engage the mountain in a different way. This connection is what surfers must feel with waves. With skis, if you don't like where you end up, skate until you do. Now the reverse is also true. Ski boots limit you to walking to the toilet. Snowboard boots limit you to walking where ever you damn well please.

I'm sticking with the board.

George Bush and I finally agree on something

Believe it or not, it's true. George Bush actually gave a lot of money to fight AIDS in Africa. It's one of the only things I give him credit for.

I'm also doing something to fight this terrible disease. Getting my skinny self on an even skinnier seat and biking 545 miles from San Francisco to Los Angeles. There's only one slight problem. I've got to raise $3,000 for the opportunity to punish myself like this.

This is rather daunting.

If you've got a spare fiver or thousand, click over to my fund raising page and do what you can. I truly appreciate it.

http://www.tofighthiv.org/goto/eamon

SF Profile #8: Queen of the Ten Dollar Bill

So today, while waiting for a friend to come by and pick me and Steph up on our way to brunch, I was treated to quite the spectacle.

While standing on the corner of Jones and O'Farrell, I see two cops go into a little shop. Soon after they come out with a woman in tow. She's screaming to high heaven about getting justice and how she wants to see the cops computer to look up her ten dollar bill.

An older black gent comes out of the shop and begins to regale us with the story. Turns out, she was trying to spend a fake $10 bill. I caught a glimpse of it when the cop held it up and I have to say, I was fooled.

Apparently she was too. By reality. She insisted that the cops show her their computer where they could track the bill and see who had given it to her. She knows, without any doubt apparently, that they are tracking her and know where she got the bill from so she can go and get justice. After the cops asked her a few more questions, it turns out most likely she got the bill from the local Jack in the Box. Seriously.

The gent then proceeds to inform us of how some of his "friends" can make a damn fine fake bill. How you starch the paper, how you press the fake paper between starched bills and then iron them so they all look new. And on, and on, and on.

I was quite thankful that 1. the cops didn't overhear our conversation and that 2. our friend Jay pulled up shortly thereafter to whisk away to brunch. I had some very authentic corned beef hash.

Apparently, I am the church type.

Church has never been that comfortable for me. I like the idea of community. I like the idea God's love without condition. I like the idea of celebrating life and our ability to live it. To me, that's not church. So many churches seem to try and draw lines between people. We're right, they're sinners. Our word is the only word, God told me so.

As a result, I haven't done a lot of church.

That may be changing. I think I've found a place that I can feel good about. A place that reads the Bible but also reads the Hebrew Bible. A place that is open to all sacred texts and what they have to teach us. A place that puts love and acceptance ahead of divide and conquer.

It's a church called Glide and they definitely take a different approach. All are welcome regardless of belief, sexuality or situation. They have a 60 million dollar budget that almost all of goes to feeding those in need, providing shelter for those who have none and job help in times that certainly need it.

Oh and these folks know how to sing. Loud. Not to mention preach. With fire. And in ways that you know in your heart is right but ways that aren't always easy to hear.

Next time I might even need one of the tissues they hand out throughout the service.

1 out of 2 wrists agree, snowboarding not fun.

Spent the days after New Year's on the slopes trying to do something I should have done when I was young and still made out of rubber: learning to snowboard. Those who snowboard say that learning takes three days. On day one, you get comfortable standing on the board and falling on your head. On day two, your sort of figure out where your edges are and start to turn. Usually one side is easier than the other. On day three, you link a couple turns together and you begin to understand why skiers become snowboarders and snowboarders don't really become skiers. Basically, when you're not being whipped onto your face, it's awesome.

Things heard on day 1:

1. To me while we're sitting on the lift: "Sweetie, did you know your nose is bleeding?" No, no I didn't.

2. From high above on the lift: "Ooooooooohhhhhh." You know you've wrecked good when you're upside down, on your helmet and you hear that.

I also managed to invent new four letter words when I landed on my right wrist several times. My first purchase off the mountain that night was a set of wrist guards. These were the only reason I made it through day 2 and 3.

All those complaints aside, I do own my board and boots so I guess I'm stuck with the awesome.

Ya Voté

I voted yesterday. Went down to the San Francisco City Hall and cast my ballot. Or ballots I should say as there were 4 of them. Propositions, declarations, local elections national elections. All done yesterday. I had to do some pretty hefty studying to make sure I got them all right.

I could see how some might think that San Francisco is over the top liberal. There were propositions on there to have the city encourage the end of ROTC. I voted against that one. Military service is an honorable act selflessness and if that's the path one chooses, so be it.

Another proposition stated that it was San Francisco's official position that the only funding made available to the troops should be for their deployment out of Iraq. Personally, I think they should be able to buy boots and have lunch so while I agree with the larger idea of making a graceful and honorable exit from Iraq, that one was simply too broad in its scope for me to get behind. Another effectively legalized prostitution. Nope, couldn't get behind that one.

But there were also good propositions on there like more funding for hospital programs and earthquake proofing for clinics. Both good ideas.

Anyway, I guess I'm now officially one of those far left San Francisco liberals who gets vilified on Fox News every night for the viewers in "real America." They just can't stand a part of the country that has universal healthcare, one of the most successful homeless veterans programs around and generally speaking one of the strongest economic regions in the world. Those are apparently all terrible things. If you believe that, here's something else you should believe: the world is flat.

Go Vote. Make your voice heard. Otherwise, you give up your right to complain for four years.

Good information

Yes I'm biased but you already knew that.

Here's a video from the Obama campaign on voters rights and making sure you are able to cast your ballot on Tuesday if you haven't already.



Go Vote!

Don't Vote.

Worst. Words. Ever.




maps.google.com/vote

Grrrr...moving.

I hoped I would be so lucky in SF that my only move would be from corporate housing to the fabulous apartment I had found in the Lower Haight.

Sadly, while I am the luckiest man in the world, I'm not that lucky.

Trav, my old roommate, and his girlfriend Celeste have decided to nest. Now that I have moved out, they are quite comfortably nesting in a three bedroom, one and a half bath palace. Good for them.

It also turns out to be good for me. I have found a rather fabulous two bedroom place at much lower than market rate in a rather spectacular part of town.

What makes my new castle so castle-y? Well to start, my bathroom looks like it was transplanted from the Emerald City. Being surrounded by green when you make yellow is quite a thing.

Additionally there's Bob. Bob is our landlord and he grew up in the apartment we're renting. He seems fabulous in that old man who's full of good stories kind of way. He's fair, he redid the floors to tear up the old carpeting and get back to the quite stunning hardwood floors and he likes me. He told me so when I came to look at the place. Apart from the obvious signs of senility, anybody who's willing to put up with me is obviously a patient saint.

So, I'm settling in. Well to my room at least. We have no furniture in any other part of the house. But boxes are being unpacked. 250+ movies are being sorted into their genres. New habits are being made. All in all, I can't complain. My address still contains the words San Francisco.

Get registered, go vote!

As told by a Jelly Donut:



BTW, I do think he's qualified. Now that Palin lady....

Strong

Someone finally takes the race issue head on. And when he takes it on, he smashes it.

Nearly 800 points.

Today the market got a knife in the gut. To most of us this is relevant to our 401(k) funds. But the truth is, the market's reaction is a much bigger indicator of a much, much bigger problem: Credit is about to become more scarce than a jackalope.

Credit is the grease on which the economy's engine functions. Without it, any economic engine quickly grinds to a halt.

A figure to keep in mind: 700 billion. That is the amount of cash that is in circulation at any given moment. That is the size the U.S. economy will plummet toward if the credit markets do not get liquid. To give you an idea, the U.S. economy is currently estimated to be 13.84 trillion. 700 billion is not a very big percentage of that. This is an oversimplification but, the point is valid. Unless someone with enough resources (i.e. the Treasury, the only group with enough resources) injects some liquidity into the credit market, we are in a world of hurt.

Without credit, we move fast toward becoming a cash economy. We simply can't do that. Imagine living out the next 3 or so years on the money in your savings account.

So, for a bit more reading, I offer up this economists take: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/9/29/143536/436/784/614495

She's a bit condescending and drops the f-bomb more than I'd like but I guess desperate times call for desperate language.

Burning Man 2008

I wish I could tell you how awesome Burning Man is. I wish there was a way to show you all the incredible things I saw. Sadly, I realized on day two, Burning Man is not something that can be described. Pictures are woefully inadequate at capturing the scene. There's really only one thing to say: You should go.

It's not for everyone. Actually, it's not for most people. But if you've got a creative appreciating bone in your body, the spectacle and opportunity to do be totally yourself, is certainly worth the trip.

At one point, I was asked, "Why do you do what you do?" The picture below was my answer.

2 New Wheels

Her name is Skratch Mofro. She's an Aluminum beastie who's tight frame can go lot faster than I ever can.

It was fun the other day when one of my co-workers rode his rather diminutive BMX bike into work and we figured out at half the size, his bike was at least twice as heavy.

La la la la la, I see your lips moving but I can't hear you

http://www.comedycentral.com/videos/index.jhtml?videoId=174783

Wow. Just wow.

San Francisco Profile #7: My man Ace

So yesterday was the going away picnic for my friend Alan Ezyaguirre. He's a friend I met through the roomie and he's off to Merry Ole England in a couple days. I'm bummed.

My parents have always said that I surround myself with good people. Generally they are correct or perhaps it's just the "good" are the only friends I introduce them to. Well, sadly, they won't have a chance to meet Ace. Padres are visiting next weekend. Ace leaves a few days before.

He's quite the genius. Does marketing for Apple. To give you an idea of the level, he's in meetings with Steve on the regular. Even got kicked out of one by him. Like the party loyalist he is, he never dishes me any good dirt on what fancy new gadget I'm sure to buy or what isn't. Won't even confirm the juicy rumors I find myself on the web.

To further his party loyalists tendencies, he wears the Apple uniform religiously. All black. All the time. Even his bike is black. His car is black. It's ridiculous.

He has a natural penchant for throwing out of control parties. And for some unknown reason, women thoroughly enjoy having their picture taken by him. Often in less than innocent poses and without any urging from Ace. It's quite funny but kudos to him.

He's also the first friend I feel I've made that is moving away. So I wish him luck even though he won't need it.

San Francisco Profile #6: Me

A year older, not much wiser but with a couple more wrinkles, Me seems to have a permanent smile attached to his face. He's oddly given up couch sitting for a new addiction to road biking. Still has the same fascination for DVDs but finds much less time to watch them as there's always a new restaurant to explore or outside activity to inflame Me's allergies.

Me particularly enjoys days spent up at Infineon raceway. This past year has seen classic cars, drag racers and daredevil motorcycles. All of which proved money isn't a bad thing.

Me enjoys his job immensely and works for people who are far nicer than they should be. And even if they weren't nice, there's still a fire pole in the office making damn near anything bearable.

Me has also upped his political activism in the past year. Volunteering to register people to vote. Me still struggles with pure advocacy and trying to convince someone to vote in a certain direction, but convincing people to vote can't be a bad thing.

Me's life is good. He is want for nothing. Actually, Me often finds that the wealth of good people and good times that surround him a bit overwhelming. Perhaps Me will eventually get used to the near-unbearable amount of goodness. But if Me is smart, he'll never forget how blessed he is.

Too Far

Some statements just go too far. Here's an example:

http://www.nypost.com/seven/05232008/news/nationalnews/why_hill_wont_drop_out__bobby_kennedy_wa_112232.htm