Category Archives: goodness

badness, goodness, life

Progress

I don’t often post my political views since I know what they are, and this is meant to be a journal of sorts to help me remember my life as it is today.  I guess I just assume I’ll always feel the way I do about important issues.  Then again, I used to be anti-death penalty.  So I suppose things change.

New York legalized same-sex marriage recently, and people are pretty excited about it.  California must be next.  We’re so close.  The opposition seems hateful, afraid, and for the most part, incapable of logically explaining why they believe the gay community shouldn’t be able to marry.

supporters brought umbrellas to shield the couples waiting in line at city hall from protesters with "god hates fags" signs

Then again, there are stories like these where Jerry Sanders, the conservative Republican mayor of San Diego, held a press conference to explain his about-face on the issue of same-sex marriage, and broke down in front of reporters as he talked about gay family and coworkers from whom he could no longer withhold the privilege of marriage.

The day after the election that put Obama into office, the second headline on the front page predicted Proposition 8 to pass.  Devastated and incredulous, I read the headline through the plastic door of a newspaper stand on the sidewalk, and wept openly.  Later that day, while sitting at my desk at Real Estate Job, I got a text from a number I didn’t recognize asking me (and others) to meet at Santa Monica Blvd. and San Vicente to protest.  By 9pm, we had blocked off traffic along Santa Monica, and began marching east.

that traffic wasn't going anywhere

I walked alone in the crowd, chatting with random protesters and snapping photos.  I overheard two lesbians in front of me releasing their frustration: “It’s all the straight people who voted against us.  I bet there aren’t even any straight people here.”  I had to speak up: “I’m straight!” I yelled.  A small radius of people around me let out a cheer as the two women turned to see who had shouted with a mixture of bemusement and shock.  They hugged me and thanked me, but could not forgive the straight community for butting into their personal lives.  I couldn’t really blame them.  They were right.

At some point during the protest, the police asked us to stay out of the street.  Most of us listened, a couple were arrested (and loudly supported) as they shouted “Gay, straight, black, white, marriage is a civil right!”  I was so impressed by the police.  They were very patient, and gentle with the people they arrested.  They clearly just wanted us to get our protest done without any problems or violence.

This story posted yesterday on BBC News about two women who got married in New York is just fantastic.  Yeah, I cried a little.  They’re just so happy.

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goodness, life

Tea, Earl Grey, hot

I find it hard to believe that I’ve never written about how much I love tea.

I love tea.

blue flowers are apparently delicious

I love the civility of it, watching it steep, smelling the leaves, going to tea shops and perusing each glass jar (or giant tin) for the perfect herbal blend (I have yet to find a decaffeinated tea I really enjoy).  But I know very little about tea, so let’s get briefly Wiki-educated:

All tea is made from the same plant, and according to the method used to process the leaves, can be used to make Black, Green, Yellow, White, Oolong, or something called “post-fermented tea,” which sounds gross.  Different water temperatures are ideal for brewing each type of tea.  In the United States, most tea is consumed cold, as iced tea, while in Asian/Middle Eastern countries, hot tea is consumed daily in almost all households, and offered to guests as they first enter.  I wish we did that here.  Thus ends the lesson.

Moroccan tea cups look something like this

I found a delicious Earl Grey with blue flowers from a tea shop on Melrose called T Salon that has since closed.  I still struggle with spelling gray with an ‘a’.  I have Tazo Earl Grey just about every morning at Office Job.

I have vivid memories of drinking piping hot, super sweet tea at the Moroccan restaurant in Paris with my family in 1997, along with a dessert of sweet, ground-up meat wrapped in filo pastry with powdered sugar and a bit of chocolate drizzled on top (the kids all knew it was pigeon and ate it anyway).  That was my first experience of Moroccan tea.  Now, every year for my birthday we go to Tagine, a small Moroccan place where we always have some hot, sweet tea.

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goodness, life

Mushy heart-shaped mush

what a fucking mess

Boyfriend is never far from my thoughts these days.  He pops into my head at random parts of the day.  I was wondering why I’m so hungry today after finishing lunch, and suddenly I’m thinking about how much I love him.  This has been happening a lot recently.

We’ve chatted a few times about how happy we are together, and how we hope to stay together forever.  At first he thought I was talking about getting married soon, like this year.  I’m not trying to get married right now, and as soon as I said so, we were  on the same page again.  As long as we’re happy, we’ll be together.

All the same, I’m trying to hold back from telling him too much about how often he sporatically pops into my thoughts (I mentioned it to him last night, and he seemed pleased).  Still, I don’t want to freak him out by being all, “OMG UR MY WIDDLE POOPOO, I WUV U THIIIIIIIIISH MUUUUUCH” all the time.

Not that I would.  Just sayin’.

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goodness, life

New Atheist role models

so true

A great article about the social and biological roots of religion was published in the LA Times a couple days ago.  I’m always surprised and delighted to find people working at major companies (like the LA Times) who are willing to have their (very unpopular) opinions against religion published.  I find it soothing.  J. Anderson Thomson and Clare Aukofer, you’ve made it onto my list of respected people.

My favorite part of the article:

“We can be better as a species if we recognize religion as a man-made construct. We owe it to ourselves to at least consider the real roots of religious belief, so we can deal with life as it is, taking advantage of perhaps our mind’s greatest adaptation: our ability to use reason.”

And that really sums it up; an Atheist chooses reason over blind faith, not for the sake of cold cynicism, but for a love of logic.

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goodness, life

UPS adventure!

I love having random adventures.  Discovering amazing little pockets of Los Angeles that I knew nothing about doesn’t happen every day; I know this city pretty well.  So I get pretty excited when I encounter something unexpected, which usually results in an…

ADVENTURE!  YAAAAY!

Why is it always the case that I have adventures like this when I’m forced to go pick up a package?  This time it was a UPS facility northeast of downtown that couldn’t seem to properly deliver a box of soap from Bigelowe & Co. (for Boyfriend) that I had bought a month prior (and had already been stolen off my doorstep once).

When I got there, I discovered while waiting in the lobby these neat little rolly things they use to roll packages around with ease.

i played with them when noone was looking

On my drive there, I passed this weird little sign that said “Apothecary Fairy,” which is apparently a skin-care company that sells lotions, soaps, rubs, candles and other stinky crap to scare men out of your bathroom.

semi-legible = edgy!

I decided to pull over on my way back to investigate.  I’m so glad I did, because I discovered The Brewery, which is an ART COLONY, which I put in caps to try to keep myself from laughing when I say it or read it (to no avail).  An ART COLONY (teehee!) is (as far as I can tell) like an ant colony, but instead of ants working endlessly on unique, but in the end pointless creations, it’s people (zing!).  And they live in this area of Los Angeles I’ve never seen before.  And I’m kinda jealous, because it looks awesome.

pfft, obviously

There’s a really neat balance of metal and organic sitting around, enjoying a kind of harmony.

"oh, is there ivy taking over the building? I didn't notice; I was so busy CREATING."

Having said that, everything looks very intentionally abandoned, which I kinda hate because then it’s fake, and loses it’s mystery.  It’s like steampunk threw up all over everyone’s front lawn, then sat and rusted for a while.

seriously... what is that doing there.

But happening upon an area like this by chance was still super fun.  There was a little cafe, and this miniature grassy park area!

surely, the small stone bench at the other end was littered with cigarette butts

And a tiny rocket car!  I really wanted to ask someone about this, but I figured I was already potentially trespassing on private property just by being there, so drawing attention to the fact that I (an ordinary outsider) was taking dozens of photos of their shit was not on the menu.

i could have escaped in it! p-chow! zoom!

And a Caterpillar!  Like everything else on the property, I wondered how it had ended up there, but somehow this one totally fascinated me.  Who had driven in last?  What did they haul around?  Did it still work?  It had to weigh a ton, how would they move it?

curiouser and curiouser

And this old car! This one looks totally intentionally placed, and didn’t exactly charm the pants off me.  Old cars are just so fun to look at though, I couldn’t resist.

i like to think the palm tree and car struck up an unlikely friendship

Next to the car was a Mexican man who asked me for the time.  I said, “A las una,” then, “Puedo tomar un foto del coche?”  Hooray!  I speak the Spanish!  Watchless Mexican did not give two shits that I had mastered Spanish I, and went back to shining these pieces of copper, seemingly for an art project.

i resisted the urge to TOUCH ALL OF THEM

Near the copper-shining-Mexican was a giant piece of what can only be described as a huge piece of totally unnecessary metal machinery.  I chuckled aloud as I wondered how many people had accidentally backed up into it as they parked in one of the few official parking lots I could find.

railroad machinery?

I realized as soon as I set eyes on it that the Brewery smoke stack is a landmark I’ve seen before, though I can’t recall where.  I had suddenly found familiar ground in a wasteland of intentionally derelict buildings and pieces of Americana.

ironically, there were no brewerys nearby...

It topped off this really neat, giant building which may have honestly been a steel refinery at some point, and has actually been abandoned, as interior photos clearly showed.

free tetanus shot with every lease signing!

I found an official entrance to the compound (which distinctly said “PRIVATE PROPERTY”), and right outside, down the block was an Aikido dojo.

it too looked semi-abandoned

I threw on my hazard lights, jumped out to grab an inevitably poorly-written brochure, and drove toward a busy street, thinking my thoroughly satisfying adventure had drawn to a close.  But no!  If you had told me that the last photo I would take that day was of a giant, half-finished carousel horse surrounded by shipping crates, I would have said, “You’re crazy, Sam I Am.”

and it looked just pissed, btw

I drove a little, stopped to wander around and take some photos, then jumped back in the car to find the next out of place, rusty thing.  I was a little late to get pho with my dad in Silverlake at Pho Cafe, but it was worth it, and then I got to see my dad.

What a great adventure!

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badness, goodness

Sweet disaster

om nom nom

I saw the last Harry Potter film at the Howard Hughes Center last night with about a dozen friends, and I just couldn’t get into it because of all the fucking high schoolers who couldn’t shut up to save their lives.  And I don’t say that lightly; Diminutive Roommate looked like she was about to kill someone.  So frustrating, and just super ghetto.  We don’t all need to know what you think of every fucking line of dialog, kids.  Shut.  Up.

But before that a few of us got ice cream at Ben & Jerry’s, and the lady made this little creation for one of my pals.  I had to take a photo and give her some kudos; good for her for being a little creative and making an otherwise boring and thankless job kinda fun.

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goodness, martial arts, work

Good traffic

Today was supposed to be day two of Carmageddon, the weekend when the 405 closed from the 10 to the 101 for construction.  Traffic was supposed to be ridiculous, but it was… not.

I did my second freelance job in Palos Verdes today, so I was worried that I’d have to bike 15 miles down there and be all tired and gross when it came time to teach the class.  It sounds like I’m going to book another one, too.  I’m not making huge money, but getting paid five-to-ten times more per hour than I usually do is pretty sweet.

"405 FREEWAY OPEN / THANK YOU LOS ANGELES"

On the drive home I saw this really nice message on a freeway sign:

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goodness

Japan wins… AGAIN

WTF, Japan?!  How are you still doing that?  In the US, one in ten adults is obese.  That’s ten times more per capita than Japan.  What are they doing over there?  I thought most of them worked ridiculous hours in boring office cubicles, and that there was no room to run around because they have so little land per capita.

If I ate any more ramen, rice, miso and sashimi meat, I think I would just become east Asian.  Which would be AWESOME, btw.

wow. depressing, Africa. and wtf, Afganistan?

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goodness, life

Spooky love

I wish this guy were my uncle

I used to really dislike Penny Arcade.  Probably because the ex-boyfriend (let’s call him Nebraska McBaldyFat) who introduced it to me worshiped it so damn much.  He got just about every joke, and when he didn’t, he’d laugh anyway, then look it up so he could be one of the cool kids.

I have since come around to enjoy the illustration style when I don’t understand the point of their comics, like this one which I fell in love with the moment I saw the final frame.

Halloween is my favorite holiday, way more than Xmas or even my own birthday.  I’m anti-slutty costume and I don’t eat the candy, but just love having permission to act like a weirdo for a whole day/night along with everyone else; it’s like we all really are friends.  Everyone’s smiling and having a great time.  It’s one nation-wide party.  Mostly, I dress like a dog and bark at passers-by.  It’s pretty fantastic.

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