Palintology

Ah, Keith Olberman - liberal muckraking at it's best. Sarah Palin, you never cease to amaze.

revenge of the nerds

Bill Gates responds . . . finally



VERSUS

i was right all along

Ever since the Republican National Convention I've been saying that Sarah Palin looks a hell of a lot like Tina Fey from SNL.

See for yourself:

in search of nice people

Remember that bumper sticker that read "Mean People Suck"? I think I might have had that sticker on my first car back when I plastered the damn thing with stickers I bought on Haight Street.

Anyways, I was thrilled to learn that there are human beings behaving humanly online of all places. And why not? Most office people spend the most time online. I calculate roughly 6 of the nine hours I'm at work. (Although, now that I'm in charge of online advertising it's more like nine out of nine hours.)

So, as you can imagine, I manage to take some time off and surf the 'net while I'm at it. You know, the usual - IMing friends in New York, checking to see how many friend requests I have from old high school classmates on Facebook, and choosing what song I'd like on the Myspace profile. And of course, I have to get my daily dirt on Sarah Palin and update my blog or plan a getaway.

Sometimes, however, I need some advice on important and significant questions like: "Where should I eat for lunch?" Thank Jebus for forums like Yelp.com. (Yes, I'm a member there too.) It's always interesting to see how many people reply to a post. It's almost like doing an online social experiment.

I was craving some spicy soup today. Blame it on the change of weather. (Saturday was 100 degrees and Tuesday was 50 degrees). So asked of my fellow Yelpers, what soup would they recommend in my area that was soothing enough for the scratchy throat I was suffering from.

It just goes to show that I have more online friends, as Myspace and Facebook will show, because I got at least 40 responses within fifteen minutes of my original response. I got everything from types of soups, to restaurants to recipes. I even got a nasty response from someone who answered "warm jizz". How is one supposed to respond to that? "No thanks, semen gives me indigestion this early in the day."

But aside from that remark, I got a warm fuzzy feeling from my online experience. Although he probably already had a warm fuzzy feeling when he suggested that entree. In the end I settled for a health store version of instant freeze dried soup. (Ahh, organic potato leeks!)

polar bear hater

By now anyone who reads my blog, or has know me since infancy knows my obsession and respect for the all powerful and majestic polar bear. I heart and respect Ewan McGreggor - not only for his awesome acting skills, but also because he dared to explore the bears in a documentary.

Sarah Palin, on the other hand, is on my shit list because she and the State of Alaska are sueing the U.S. Department of the Interior for adding the polar bears to the endangered species list. Well, fuck . . . I'm sure that if global warming weren't responsible for their demise, she can always arrange to hunt them from a helicopter, or something.

I like Alaska and feel honored at being one of the few people I know to have actually ventured to that gorgeous state. They have the tallest mountain in the country, awesome natural light shows and summer days where sunlight lasts way past midnight. I just don't understand how a place filled with so much natural wonder and beauty can be run by a small handful of ignorant white trash assholes. How is that fair?

I've spent eight years trying not to read or inform myself of anything political. Usually because I figure I can't change anything, so why bother. (Thank you George W. Bush for single-handedley unempowering my generation!) There's no use in having my blood boil over something that's inevitable. But this woman enrages me! I don't consider myself a feminist. Never have. Never will.

But this woman is so anti-feminist that I wouldn't be surprised if she revoked our right to vote. Anti equal pay for equal work and against a woman's right to choose she goes against everything my gender has fought for these last 80 years.

And my blood wouldn't be boiling right now if I wasn't getting harrassed with right-winged propaganda from the only member of my family who is obsessed with Palin and who actually voted for "The Shrub". (And yes, this is why I'm sending your calls to voicemail!) And the main reason I'm doing my research on this woman as well.

I work for an uber-liberal alternative newsweekly. What in anyone's right mind would have them believe I am anything but a liberal democrat? I'm not going to change my stance.

democracy . . . going once, going twice . . . SOLD!

I'm not really looking forward to this election. I'm normally a glass full kind of girl, but at this point there have been so many greedy people using my cup to get endless free refills that I've become apathetic. And excuse me for being a pessimist, but I'm part of the generation who has lost faith in her country.

And I can tell you the exact date it all went down. Ok, I don't remember the exact date, but it was the second that Al Gore conceded the presidency to "The Shrub" as my leftist commi-lib uncle refers to him. I don't care if the chads were pregnant, hanging or constipated - I lost my naivete and all the pride I ever had for singing the Star Spangled Banner and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance every morning since grade school. (Yes, we did sing every morning in elementary school).

That said, I'm a little concerned that history will repeat itself and that again my vote will not count. Oh, I'll still vote, mind you. I just won't be thrilled about it. I'm already bitter that Hillary didn't win the primaries.

I have nothing against Obama. But now the Democrats look like sexists, especially since the Republicans have a female VP candidate. It just goes to show that Republicans have a ridiculous double standard when it comes to women in power. If she's a smart liberal woman like Hillary, she's seen as a power-hungry man-hating bitch. But if she's against a woman's right to choose and hunts moose, it doesn't matter if her teenage daughter is pregnant because she's a conservative who believes abstinence should be taught in schools. (A lotta good that did her daughter!)

Anyways, that's my two cents. And if I add it up with a bunch of other people's I might be able to buy my own democracy, or at least that book I saw on at a used book store in Oakland a while back.

Ahh, Food Porn

I've been going through another one of my existential crises lately. This time it revolves mostly around the fact that I'm not someone who is meant to be chained to a desk for 9 hours a day. Just because I am good at Excel doesn't mean I enjoy compiling spreadsheets all day. And unlike my fellow coworkers who doodle on their note pads and yawn during sales meetings, IMing all day with friends who have more exciting lives in NYC is not going to make me a happier person.

So, what exactly does a girl who can't help rolling her eyes at management and sigh way too loud: "Oh, Gaaaaaaawd!" in the middle of a meeting then shrug it off as stretch do?

She get knives.

Now, I'm not rich. Obviously. But I try to make do with my budget. So, I headed to Target last weekend and purchased some decent knives. Now, they're not Top-Iron Chef quality. But they've been doing the trick so far.

This of course has gotten me even more interested in cuisine. I'm totally proud to say that I now cook and prepare all my meals at home. That's right: breakfast, lunch and dinner. I'm saving roughly 50 bucks a week, if not more. And I feel so much healthier.

It's my own version of Slow Food.

And speaking of which. I was privileged enough - or, quick enough - to grab a pair of tickets to the opening night of Slow Food Nation at Fort Mason. This is an all weekend event, but I only got tickets for the first night which was mostly for the hot shots of the trade and media. (Yes, there are some fabulous perks to my job that do make those mundane meetings worthwhile.)

A whole pavilion dedicated to all of my favorites: beer, wine, spirits, breads, olive oil, ice cream, tea, coffee, chocolate, honey, jams, fish, salumi. Total and utter food porn, as my future boss Tony Bourdain would say. This is hedonism to the tenth degree in foodie world.

So, for an event of this magnitude the extra ticket had to go to someone worthy. I chose my old Oakland roommate, culinary student, and connoisseur of all things gastronomic, J-Man. There's nothing better than having a fellow foodie who can lead the way to the good stuff.

We started with raspberry beer, made our way to the tandoori naan, then on to the fish. I have to hand it to Yoshi's for creating something that looked like, and had the texture of udon noodles out of squid. Then it was on to the cheeses, the wines, and olive oils. Some were sampled with bread and others were just sipped in cups. That's just hard-core. I did finally get to try Absinthe from Paris among other cocktails.

Now, I consider being a slow food foodie akin to being a Free Mason. I was actually five feet away from Alice Waters. Talk about wow factor. She's responsible, not only for the Gourmet Ghetto in Berkeley with Chez Panisse, but also for championing local and sustainable food as a way of life.

I have yet to dine at Chez Panisse, but everyone knows that the Alice Waters' disciples who end up opening restaurants are the most successful. You work for her, you're pretty much set for life. The East Bay inside joke among foodies is that even if her janitor were to open up a cafe it would someday earn a Michelin star. (Who knows if that's true, Chez Panisse only has one.)

But of course the best thing about being a VIP at any event is the goodie bag. A girl could get used to being pampered like that. Now that gets me off.




Yeah, I totally tried these pickles . . . the salmon roll was bomb. Pickles not to my tasting.