Attainable Aspirations

A quick trip to our freakingly huge local Longs Drug store reminded me of an episode back when our girl was 3:

Izzy: (Pointing at a nursery fountain, having just downed a Top Dog) "Can I have a coin? I want to go make a wish."
Me: "That's not really a wishing well, but OK. Here's a penny."

Me: "So what did you just wish for?"
Izzy: "Ice cream."

Hi-Res Street View

I've noticed that the upgraded Google Street View cameras (or the images being served, at least) are sporting a much higher resolution. So very cool. In the image below, click on the arrow to "drive" towards the toll booths to see the difference.

View Larger Map
And, for extra "wow," click on the full-screen button on the upper right.

Oakland Tech students robbed at gunpoint. In class.

Oh, and AC Transit needs some "No Food, No Drinks, No Guns" signage. How frustrating.

Two men in their early 20s entered a classroom at Oakland Technical High School shortly after 8 a.m. Tuesday and robbed three students at gunpoint, according to police .... The robbers had taken an AC Transit bus to the North Oakland high school that morning, reportedly harassing some of the students on the way.

This logo is rather unfortunate

Two versions of the logo seen on their site. Transition in progress following an awkward meeting, no doubt.

For sale: 2007 Mazdaspeed 3

Sometimes I've been known to actually *sell* cars. Especially if they're not mine. (And thus, not affecting the car count.)

It's a 2007 Mazdaspeed 3: An extraordinarily fun bundle of joy, and it's also a darned practical 5-door hatch. Definitely on my short list for The Only Car You'll Ever Need. If I had more space, I'd definitely be doing some splainin' to Lucy right about now.

Previously owned by these internet titans. Such provenance! Definitely a better deal than Sergey's old Prius that turned up on eBay.

Asking $16.5K. Craigslist ad here. Mention this post for special discounts and lease financing terms. :-)

For Sale: 2007 Mazdaspeed 3

Nia Sykes Out of Oakland

You madam, are an idiot. Protest anywhere you like, but please riot in your own little room.

Protesters smashed the storefronts of McDonald's as well as stores called Creative African Braids and Oakland Yoon's Pharmacy. Cars along 14th Street were smashed, and some were set ablaze.

A woman walked out of Creative African Braids holding a baby in her arms.

"This is our business," she shouted. "This is our shop. This is what you call a protest?"

Nia Sykes, 24, of San Francisco, a protester who was with the group, said, "I feel like the night is going great. I feel like Oakland should make some noise. This is how we need to fight back.
...
Sykes had little sympathy for the owner of Creative African Braids.

"She should be glad she just lost her business and not her life," Sykes said.

(sfgate.com)

Added 1/9/2008: SF Chronicle has published Nia Sykes' response to the article, which has since been syndicated worldwide.

"I do not advocate violence"

Editor - Regarding "Protests over BART shooting turn violent" (Jan. 8): I was dismayed to see that I was quoted grossly out of context. I spoke to the reporter for several minutes and they used only portions from the interview to make it seem as if I was condoning violence, which is not at all the case.

I was a part of the peaceful rally that began at 3 p.m. at the Fruitvale BART Station, where Oscar Grant was murdered. I said that the peaceful protest was "great"- not the destruction of property! Some of us continued to downtown Oakland, but I was not a part of the faction of protesters that became violent. I do not advocate violence at all, from police or the protesters, nor did I have any part of it. In fact, when I saw people vandalizing property, I moved to another block, where I was interviewed by the reporter.

I only became aware of the woman whose shop was damaged after the reporter informed me of it. I am sorry that her shop as well as other individuals' and businesses were vandalized.

I am saddened too, that The Chronicle chose to make this article solely about race. The protests were about the execution-style shooting of an unarmed man by the BART police. The protesters who came were of all races: black, white, Asian and Latino.

NIA SYKES
San Francisco

(sfgate.com)

Loving the sushi nazi

I just finished reading "Fish out of water," a glowing cover story review of Sebo sushi restaurant, in San Francisco Magazine. (Yes it's a rather upscale publication in its current incarnation; maybe next time we'll talk about the latest issue of Robb Report.)

Sebo sounds like a nice place, the folks running the place sound cool, and I'd like to eat there sometime. I hope the place does well, and the article (likewise an earlier Vanity Fair -- another refined pub, kinda? -- piece on Tsukiji) is a really interesting, thorough exploration of the sushi-industrial complex.

This part got me a giant-geoduck-clam-sized head slap, though:

Few cuisines are as bound by custom and etiquette as sushi. Plug the word into any search engine, and you’ll come upon dozens of sites listing rules for eating it: Don’t rub your chopsticks together; dip the fish, not the rice, into the soy sauce; put the nigiri into your mouth fish side down and eat it in a single bite. It doesn’t help that chefs at some of the more traditional sushi bars often take a defensive stance against their customers (...) There are plenty of people who relish the intimidation and enjoy the challenge of mastering a purposefully opaque food culture. Me? I’d rather order a pizza.

Gah. Of course it's intimidating. It's, like, foreign. And the sushi chefs have pride.

Take an average Japanese person and imagine how intimidating a formal Western dinner would be to her: Do I sit down from left or right? Can I break the bread with my mouth? Can I pour ketchup on that fish? Is slurping OK? The last I checked, L'atelier de Joel Robuchon in Tokyo does not hold customer hands through these questions.

Actually that's a totally dumb comparison, because an average Japanese person would probably have done lots of how-to research before going into that Michelin 2-star, so it's a nonissue. You just don't hear about gauche Japanese behavior perpetrated upon Western restaurants nowadays, and that speaks volumes about their attitudes about foreign customs and how they embrace them in appropriate situations.

Sushi has been popular in the West Coast for, what, like 30 years now? How is it that we still hear these provincial complaints about how opaque and difficult its surrounding customs are? Why *are* people still rubbing chopsticks together?

I, for one, welcome our ganko overlords. User-friendly is for P.F. Chang. (The article also refers to a recent WSJ coverage on sushi bullies, another fun read.)

Why they won't let me work in Marketing anymore

"Mikasa es su casa"

"Live Longs and prosper"

User-Generated Animation (and Sound Effects!)

For whatever reason Hatena Haiku had attracted a lot of illustrations. I'm really looking forward to all kinds of animators to come out of the woodwork for this new launch!

(Even better with audio.)

Amtrak and Horizon Air merge, sues Obama

Stupid Economy

The restaurant slowdown has claimed one of my local favorites. Local businesses are struggling, and this news to me is a big reminder to support the good ones. I hope the folks at Jojo will reopen in better times.

For Curt Clingman of Jojo, a neighborhood French restaurant in Oakland that just celebrated its ninth year in business, it's the lack of customer traffic that's killing him. When they do come in, diners tend to share a couple of starters instead of buying full meals.

"The depth and length of this economic downturn has been the worst I have ever lived through," said the chef, who owns the bistro with his wife, Mary Jo Thoresen, a pastry chef.

Clingman said that he started feeling the pain early this year, when his usual clientele began to thin out.

"We thought we could weather it," he said. "But things got nothing but worse."

During the next few months Clingman and Thoresen tried to retool the business, eventually scaling down to two dishwashers, two servers and a part-time sous chef.

"Where do you go from here?" he asked. "To persevere was becoming too reckless."

The couple has decided to shutter the place Jan. 1. They have already made a deal to sell most of the restaurant's assets and feel fortunate to have found a buyer.

(via Hunter's fine local economic stimulus plan)

Super Isabella, meet Giulia Super

I wish the DMV would offer registration discounts for interesting cars.

Life, Liberty, and...

On this glorious and beautiful Election Day, I enjoyed certain unalienable rights by adding this:

Yeah, OK, this ain't pursuing happiness, I'm pursuing crazy.

[Trailer Trash]

Every Halloween, I check to see how an errant party photo from a few years back is doing on Yahoo's image search for the query [trailer trash]. Ah yes, here it is, firmly entrenched above the fold.

1987 Called.

They want their stock market crash back.

From Russia with face recognition love

PhotoFunia = Brilliantly fun. Someone please liberate them from the godawful "Pimp Your Myspace Profile" ads.

That lady is mad at me.

(Via bunch of MoveOn users)

Vote No on CA Prop 8

It's easy to confuse which vote means what. A "no" vote means "don't eliminate marriage from anyone." Keep it, uh, straight.

390,000 lbs of CO2!

Whooops. If you see me walking around the house in a down jacket this winter, now you know why. (Per assumptions here.)

Un. Freaking. Believable.

John Williams is going to fire the orchestra and buy a Yamaha Electone.