my sandbox

A recent blog post from Travis, wherein he recounts a conversation we had via email:

Kelly: In other news, sadly, it’s a “long wait” on Netflix for Rome season 2 disc 1.

TJIC: Not for me, @#$% !! UPS delivered it to me at 8am today, and I am *** SO *** watching it tonight. Nyah!

Kelly: I’m on vacation for a week and a half

TJIC: This whole capitalist vs. hippy lifestyle war has both its winning (Rome, season 2), and losing (vacation) battles. Damn you!

I would just like to note that I returned from vacation to find Rome Season 2 Disc 1 awaiting me in my mailbox. Double damn me!

Later on Friday of last week we headed out to Inverness to meet up with some friends and have a picnic. Our friend Lisa chose the spot, which Victor and I hadn’t been to before; a bench atop Mt. Vision in the Point Reyes National Seashore.

Our buddy Bob and his buddy Eric from Montana joined us. We had cheese and crackers and bread and chips and salsa and olives and wine and beer. Here’s some pics that Victor took.

Last weekend Victor and I were up in the North Bay, so we did what everyone does when they head up that direction: we went to an RV show. This was in the middle of the day on a Friday, the first day of the show, so we kind of had the place all to ourselves, except for the salespeople (who were all very nice, and who, reasonably, pretty much left us alone once they saw that we weren’t serious buyers (this assessment probably took them about .7 seconds)).

At first we were looking at the little RVs, cause feasibly, someday, we might want to set ourselves up with something like that. But eventually we migrated over to the big ol’ land yachts, cause, you know, how can you not?

We had a little photo shoot, with Victor demonstrating the various features of some of the rigs that we looked at. Maybe if we go to enough of these things we could make a calendar.

We have lots of lovely, big, reflective picture windows where I work. Which is nice, from a pleasant-work-environment standpoint. Unfortunately, one window in particular is situated in such a way that it reflects an inviting vista of trees and sky, and consequently it’s not uncommon for birds to crash headlong into the window and either die or be stunned.

This happened to a juvenile sharp-shinned hawk last week. It’s a beautiful bird: it was really a shame. It’s now in our freezer. I’m planning on donating it to the California Academy of Sciences, as they have a collection of bird skins, but before we froze it we took a few pictures.

I always thought that driving the Bookmobile would be a fun job, but this is way better.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/6929404.stm

We used to have an Albertson’s directly across the street from our apartment complex.  About a week ago, this Albertson’s had a power outage (the only one on the block).  This past weekend, Victor and I went there to try to buy some meat and they didn’t have any.  Meat.  At all.  The meat case was empty.

Monday morning, the Albertson’s sign was taken down and a Lucky sign was put up.

The Albertson’s was never a very nice store.  The floors were always kind of dirty, and it never smelled quite right.  But, the brand-conscious part of my brain still perceives the Lucky as being a step down from the Albertson’s.  The store may in fact improve by virtue of being a Lucky, but it will still be tainted by its low-rent branding, at least in my mind.

It continually surprises me, the low quality of grocery stores here in California.  Back east, or at least in the southern New England and mid Atlantic states, any suburb or faux-suburb greater than 30,000 in size sports a huge, glittering mega supermarket that has everything you could ever want.  Aesthetically appealing?  Not necessarily.  But clean, at least, and fully stocked with an array of both domestic and foreign foodstuffs to dazzle the eye and palate, with firm and fresh produce, and ham hocks available from the meat department, should you need such a thing.  I thought that California would be replete with these types of establishments as well, being, you know, California, but such is not the case.  At least, not around the Bay Area:  I have in fact encountered a supermarket like this in Sacramento.

I think it might have to do with the fact that the yuppies all shop at Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s here, or at the cute little individually owned boutique gourmet grocery stores.  Don’t get me wrong, I shop at Trader Joe’s too, but when I need, for example, meat, I’m going to go to a normal supermarket.  I’m not going to go to Whole Foods and pay $19/lb for meat from some grass-fed, diaper-wearing cow that only drank lattes till it was 6 months old.  But apparently the power of the yuppie dollar is not with me on this, so there isn’t demand for, for instance, regular supermarkets that have meat departments with a decent selection of different cuts, or produce that isn’t wilted and brown.  I suppose I will just struggle along with my Lucky, and hope for the best.

Sometimes you read things that interest you because they introduce you to things you’ve never thought about before.

Sometimes you read things that interest you because, though they discuss topics you thought about before, they announce a finding, result, or opinion that runs contrary to your expectations and may cause you to tweak your worldview.

Sometimes you read things that are interest you simply because they help to confirm your previously held general impressions of “how things are,” like this finding from the Pew Research Center:

Most Americans (62%) disagree with the idea that success is mostly determined by forces outside a person’s control, but 34% agree with this sentiment; in 2003, the public dismissed the idea that success is largely outside of one’s control by a slightly wider margin (67%-30%). Stark racial differences exist on this question as blacks continue to feel less empowered than whites. About half of African Americans (48%) say success in life is largely determined by forces outside of one’s control, compared with 31% of whites. A decade ago, the racial differences in views of personal empowerment were much narrower. Fewer than four-in-ten African Americans (38%) and 31% of whites said that success was mostly the result of outside forces. But since then, higher percentages of blacks have agreed with this statement. In 2002, 49% said that success was largely determined by outside forces; that number fell to 43% in 2003, and rose to 48% in the current survey.

Interesting that the gap in outlooks between black and white folks narrows during the mid-late 90s or so, and is wider during the 2000s and the late 80s/early 90s.  I wonder if this fluctuation has to do with black people being actually financially better off during the late 90s boomtime, or if it has to do with the fact that there was a Democrat in the White House.